• Critical-Hits Studios
    • Criminals Card Game
    • Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game
  • Downloads & Tools
    • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
    • Drinking D&D 2010
    • Drinking D&D 2011
    • Fiasco Playset: “Alma Monster”
    • MODOK’s 11 for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
    • Refuge In Audacity RPG
    • Strange New Worlds RPG
  • Guides
    • Gamma World
    • Guide to 4e Accessories
    • Guide to Gaming DVDs
    • Skill Challenges
  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Critical Hits

Everything tabletop gaming since 2005

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Columns
    • Dire Flailings
    • Dungeonomics
    • Musings of the Chatty DM
    • Pain of Publication
    • The Architect DM
  • Podcasts
    • Critical Hits Podcast
    • Dungeon Master Guys Podcast
  • Roleplaying Games
  • Tabletop Games
  • Game Hacks & Content
  • Video Games
You are here: Home / Archives for 2011

Archives for 2011

Critical Hits Podcast #28: Mike Shea and Matt James on Power Creep

May 10, 2011 by Mike Shea

What is power creep? How does it manifest in 4e? What are some of the egregious examples? How can a DM deal with all those many classes, races, powers, and items out there? These questions and more are discussed by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Matt James of Loremaster.

Filed Under: Critical Hits Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, optimizing, power creep

Proper Villainy: The Crockpot Of The Damned

May 10, 2011 by Vanir

This week we discuss some good practical evil you can do in your own backyard. Proper villains use fear, uncertainty, and doubt to ply their dark craft and cement their power over the helpless. Learn from the dark example of the mac daddy of interstellar villainy, Lord Vader. Dude can make a serious bowl of evil gumbo.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: anniesux, crockpots, darth maul, darth vader, doubt, fear, FUD, proper villainy, sith, uncertainty, vader, waffles

Playing Leverage with Just the FAQs

May 9, 2011 by Logan Bonner

Leverage: the Roleplaying Game does so many things right. It’s quick, collaborative, easy to prep, iconic, and tethered to a great back-and-forth mechanic and play style. But still, every plan has room for improvement.

Filed Under: Game Hacks & Content, Minor Quests, Roleplaying Games, Television Tagged With: game design, leverage, Leverage RPG

Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-05-08

May 8, 2011 by Gato the News Robot

From the Archives:: "Perhaps this is a passable day to die." http://bit.ly/l1AJee #charchive # Please vote for us in the @stuffershack RPG Site of the Year Contest: http://bit.ly/mcQqDH Only takes a quick comment to vote! # RT @DriveThruRPG: 190+ titles available in the Now in print program at DrivethruRPG.com – http://bit.ly/jYJPfs # RT @WyattSalazar: My […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

The Plastic Is Too Damn High: Miniatures Pricing Primer

May 6, 2011 by Dave

Like many of you, I was dismayed at the cancellation of the D&D minis line. Understandably, this raised some questions among the community. “Are minis really that expensive to make?” “Why can’t I just buy a box of assorted monsters?” “Isn’t it stupid to reuse sculpts?” I hope to be able to answer some of these questions, with what limited knowledge I have about the situation.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D minis

Boardgaming Resurgence

May 5, 2011 by Bartoneus

Just over a year ago our group of friends was heavily into the deck building game Dominion. It was relatively new but had been out long enough to have three quick expansions and we really couldn’t get enough of it. Some days we would play game after game for hours on end. As should be expected, we eventually burned out from that pace. Thankfully, over the last two months I have noticed an extreme increase in the amount of board games that my friends and I have been playing and I want to share a few of the stand out games we’ve been enjoying.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Reviews, The Architect DM Tagged With: 7 wonders, Agricola, castle ravenloft, letters from whitechapel, magic the gathering, mtg, power grid, puerto rico, wrath of ashardalon

Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 10

May 3, 2011 by Dungeon Master Guys

Dave talks with Jason Morningstar about Fiasco, we talk about starting up new campaigns, and answer reader email about organization and DM binders.

Filed Under: Dungeon Master Guys Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: DM advice, dm binder, fiasco, new campaigns

Proper Villainy

May 3, 2011 by Vanir

Villains add a great element to a campaign: an opposing force that the players can invest themselves in fighting against. But what exactly makes a good villain? Let’s take a little trip down a road paved with good intentions.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: curly moustaches, darth vader, dick cheney, dm tips, evil, evil bastards, hayden christensen, lord soth, playing evil characters, proper villainy, roleplay, stupid ranger, villain

Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-05-01

May 1, 2011 by Gato the News Robot

From the Archives:: Adventure Prep: The City Adventure http://bit.ly/gGrTwb #charchive # RT @gregbilsland: Haggling with the Blacksmith http://wp.me/pPNTx-9e # WotC's Free RPG Day giveaway will be "Domain of Dread: Histaven," a supplement to the Shadowfell boxed set. http://on.fb.me/eF4k1P # Rituals Index for DDI subscribers (compiled by @ChrisSSims) is up: http://bit.ly/gKv93S # Choose Your Fortunes Wisely: […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

The Architect DM: Traps, Hazards, & Terrain

April 27, 2011 by Bartoneus

Once again I solicited on my twitter account (@Bartoneus) asking what aspects of location design in RPGs people have problems with, and I’d like to thank everyone that responded this afternoon. I will be addressing many of the topics you guys asked about in the future, but for today’s post I chose DigitalDraco’s comment: “I always want to include more interesting terrain effects, hazards & the like but they tend to seem added-on.” This topic immediately struck me as one that I’ve struggled with in the past and one that I believe many other people have had issues with as well.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: advice, architect dm, D&D, DM advice, dnd, dungeon mastering, Dungeons and Dragons, hazards, location design, roleplaying games, Roleplaying Games, terrain effects, traps

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • Mike Shea

    Mike Shea is a writer, dungeon master, video gamer, husband, and son of Robert J. Shea. Mike runs the D&D website Sly Flourish, and wrote the books Dungeon Master Tips, The Lazy Dungeon Master, and Running Epic Tier D&D Games. You can email Mike at mike@mikeshea.net.

    Email: mike@mikeshea.netWeb: http://slyflourish.com

    Follow me:

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Archives

CC License

All articles and comments posted posted on the site (but not the products for sale) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. References to trademarks and copywritten material are included for review and commentary use only and are not intended as any kind of challenge.

Recent Comments

  • fogus: The best things and stuff of 2024 on Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Routinely Itemised: RPGs #145 on Review: The Magus
  • The Chatty DM on Review: The Magus
  • Linnaeus on Review: The Magus
  • 13th Age: Indexing Truths — Critical Hits on The Horizon Conspiracy

Contact The Staff

Critical Hits staff can be reached via the contact information on their individual staff pages and in their articles. If you want to reach our senior staff, email staff @ critical-hits.com. We get sent a lot of email, so we can't promise we'll be able to respond to everything.

Recent Posts

  • Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Review: The Magus
  • Hope in the Dark Heart of Evil is Not a Plan
  • Chatty on Games #1: Dorf Romantik
  • The Infinity Current: Adventure 0

Top Posts & Pages

  • Home
  • The 5x5 Method Compendium
  • Dungeons & Dragons "Monster Manual" Preview: The Bulette!
  • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
  • On Mid-Medieval Economics, Murder Hoboing and 100gp
  • "The Eversink Post Office" - An Unofficial Supplement for Swords of the Serpentine
  • Finally a manual for the rest of them!
  • Dave Chalker AKA Dave The Game
  • How to Compare Birds to Fish
  • The Incense War: a Story of Price Discovery, Mayhem, and Lust

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in