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You are here: Home / Archives for 2011

Archives for 2011

The Architect DM: Campaign Building

August 24, 2011 by Bartoneus

It’s good to be back! The first week of August saw us at GenCon and very happily winning a Gold ENnie award, and then in the weeks after I’ve been catching up on things post-convention and getting back into the swing of things. Lately I’ve been discussing and toying with the concept that the best world building happens through playing a campaign, and so I suggest the world building DMs out there spend less time before play and just jump into things with a published or a bare bones adventure and then let the world build from there. This also opens your game up to the possibilities for players to contribute to the world building which for me has always turned out better than I could imagine.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, architect dm, building, campaign, core expansion campaign, D&D, design, DM advice, dnd, Dungeons and Dragons, gm advice, Mini-campaigns, Roleplaying Games, roleplaying games

One Late Gen Con Report

August 24, 2011 by Dave

Yes, it’s been a few weeks now since the convention ended. Between some post-Gen Con business and a bit of con crud in the house, it’s been difficult to get back to the blog. But at long last, How I Spent My Gen Con.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: gen con, gen con 2011, gencon, gencon 2011

Hints From Dire Heloise

August 23, 2011 by Vanir

This week, I decided to open up the floor to reader questions. I am committed to answering these in the most serious way that I can.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, bacon, dire heloise, plot, race/class cuisine, wotc

Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-08-21

August 21, 2011 by Gato the News Robot

From the archives:: When Horror Meets Awesome: CthulhuTech http://t.co/k67kVBv #charchive # All files to run your own session of DD&D are now available on this page: http://t.co/nq7hVa0 # RT @ChristianLindke: Great news regarding D&D Digital Rights http://t.co/rOx3wWK # RT @gregbilsland: New #DDI Article by @davethegame (Rumble in the Valley) http://t.co/0hO2sef (DDI sub required) # Great […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

A Year at Critical Hits, and GenCon 2011

August 19, 2011 by Shawn Merwin

Gen Con is always tough for me. When I first started attending, I just ran a few games, played a few games, and hit the Exhibit Hall. I didn’t really know anyone, no one knew me, and I could absorb it all without over-extending myself. Now it is getting more complicated. I still know very few people, and very few people still know me, but there are more obligations that go into a convention now.

Filed Under: Columns, Editorial, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: gen con, gen con 2011, gencon, gencon 2011

Game Previews from GenCon 2011

August 17, 2011 by Bartoneus

While at GenCon this year I was floored by the amount of new games that were being previewed and available to purchase at the convention. Checking out these new games is one of the big reasons that I go to GenCon, so today I’d like to talk about some of the games that I got to demo while I was there. This post is titled “previews” because I haven’t had a chance to play any of these games in their entirety, but they all stood out to me either from before I went to the con or while I was walking the exhibit hall.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Featured Tagged With: alderac entertainment group, assault on icecrown citadel, board games, Card Games, catalyst game labs, cryptozoic entertainment, food fight, gears of war, leviathans, miniatures games, ninja, penny arcade, previews, raid deck, walking dead

The Experience

August 16, 2011 by Vanir

In most of the games I play in, we just sort of level up as the campaign progresses. I can buy that. My years of martial arts training tell me that a boot to the head is a very powerful lesson. Combat is a great teacher, assuming one survives. However, the theory always sort of fell apart for me when it came to wizards. Certainly, the wizard would gain a lot of knowledge about what worked and what didn’t after a few battles, but that doesn’t explain why a few weeks into his travels he suddenly knows how to cast a Fireball. Wizards always got screwed anyway.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: combat, equal rights for mages, experience, fighters suck, learning, screwed, sword-chucks, unfair, wizard

DD&D 2011 Wrap-Up

August 15, 2011 by Dave

It’s now been over a week since we ran the 4th annual Drinking Dungeons & Dragons event for folks we know at Gen Con. Our small, single game in a hotel room turned into a room-filling (and food and drink minimum-fulfilling) event with four tables, and including all the attendees of our pre-party and audience, had over 50 gamers talking games and having drinks. The event was talked about the rest of the weekend, and apparently spawned many, many tweets during the game (which I missed due to running and hosting) so I’m happy to call it a success.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: dd&d, DD&D 2011, gen con, gen con 2011, gencon, gencon 2011

Chatty Shorts (and not Chatty’s Shorts, you pervs): Gen Con 2011

August 15, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty takes a few minutes to post updates about Gen Con 2012 and how he used to be cool before he became an insufferable celebrity.

Filed Under: Freelance Writing, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: ennies, Ennies 2012, Gen Con 2012, Margaret Weis Productions, Marvel RPG, MWP

Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-08-14

August 14, 2011 by Gato the News Robot

http://bit.ly/oRWdz0 # From the archives:: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children http://bit.ly/n18JEp #charchive # RT @wwpublishing: Missed #GenCon We posted our flyer and Powerpoint presentation from the convention at @DriveThruRPG: http://j.mp/pUskbF # D&D New Product Seminar post updated with images of the slides of new products and the Dragon minis set: http://bit.ly/obpu6l # RT @mudbunny74: This […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

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About the Author

  • Bartoneus

    Danny works professionally as an architectural designer and serves as managing editor here at CH, which means he shares many of the duties of being an editor but without the fame and recognition. He also writes about RPGs, videogames, movies, and TV. He is married to Sucilaria, and has a personal blog at Incorrect Blitz Input. (Email Danny or follow him on Twitter).

    Email: bartoneus@critical-hits.comWeb: https://critical-hits.com//author/Bartoneus/

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