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You are here: Home / Archives for 2012

Archives for 2012

30 Ranks In Use Trope

May 1, 2012 by Vanir

We’ve all been there. The campaign has slowed to a crawl, morale is low, and players are getting more and more physically violent with every session. Soon, the blood-harvest comes. As a DM, you already know none of this is your fault. However, as the sovereign of your gaming group it is your right, nay, holy duty to return the light of goodness, truth, and the Gygaxian Way to your table. Allow me to assist.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Roleplaying Games, Television Tagged With: animaniacs, cousin oliver, fonzie, happy days, jump the shark, mindy, mork, no seriously pam dawber is unfathomably delicious, pam dawber is so hot, pottsie, potty emergency, scrappy doo, Tropes, tv tropes, tvtropes, wakko warner

Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-04-29

April 29, 2012 by Gato the News Robot

RT @GatorGames: Dice Tower Gaming Award Nominees For 2011 http://t.co/aEh06uls # .@MonteJCook announces departure from Wizards of the Coast/D&D: http://t.co/jrkYYB1t # Confirmation of Monte Cook leaving #dndnext and public playtest to come May 24th http://t.co/e8TImyPp # RT @8Geats22Nordmen: Dungeon! listing on amazon may not have been fake? It is on the Wizards catalog page: http://t.co/ScRfs5Rh […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

Torg: A Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Hack (Primer)

April 27, 2012 by TorgHacker

Back in 1990, West End Games released Torg, a cinematic style multi-genre roleplaying game.  This game featured many innovative mechanics such as the Drama Deck and Possibility Points, but is best known for its background.  Not only did this game allow multiple genres to be treated with the same mechanics, but then smashed them together […]

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Hack, marvel, MarvelRPG, MHR, Torg

Divine Divinity: Dividends Of The Divination Divide

April 25, 2012 by Vanir

D&D’s been around so long that clerics and paladins are a normal part of most fantasy settings. Divine magic in any setting has a great many implications — most of which involve causing players to get into stupid arguments.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: aphrodite, ares, carlton from the fresh prince, catholicism, christianity, deities, deity, divination, divine, eddie van halen, god, gods, hera, jupiter, Mars, venus, wing commander, zealotry, zeus

Group Development Inception

April 17, 2012 by Vanir

“You all meet in a tavern.” We’ve all played in a campaign that started like this. Some DM’s will just ask for names. Other put it as “who are you and why are you here?”, hoping to grease the backstory wheels a bit. This is where you find out who’s really into backstory and roleplaying, who wants to get their axes bloody as soon as possible, who’s just along for the ride, and who wants to pickpocket someone in the first fifteen seconds of the campaign because they rolled a rogue.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: asymptote, clorming, dorming, forming, group development, here's johnny, Norming, padded cell, performing, Player Psychology, psychology, stages of group development, Storming, straitjacket, tuckman, worming

Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-04-15

April 15, 2012 by Gato the News Robot

The Future of D&D Panel from PAX East 2012: http://t.co/oEbhJb9J # RT @Gregtito: Check out the audio of the Design a Dungeon Panel at PAX East 2012 http://t.co/88vHkS94 # RT @loganbonner: The new RPG from @JonathanMTweet and @robheinsoo has been announced! See the @13thAge press release: http://t.co/uczCMoJZ # RT @psychopez: Guys, guys, Tabletop Forge, the […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

The Easily Lost Explorer’s Guide to Dungeon Crawling

April 13, 2012 by Dave

if we all had perfect spacial thinking and effective communication skills, we wouldn’t need a battle grid in combat. The DM could describe the dimensions and shape of a room in the dungeon, as well as relative positions of inhabitants and features. We could just describe how far we’re going, all adjust our mental pictures appropriately, and voila: the entire time to set up a battle would be the time we need to talk about it. Unfortunately, we don’t all have that. Some of us are terrible at it (me) while others of us are really good at it.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3e, 4e, battle grid, combat, D&D, D&D next, dave gets lost easily, gridded combat, scenery, spacial reasoning, theater of the mind

Review: “Deathwatch: The Jericho Reach”

April 12, 2012 by Wyatt Salazar

In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is endless job security (mumble mumble). After taking a hiatus to attempt to slay the foes of my God-Wallet, I’ve returned with Deathwatch: The Jericho Reach.

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 40k, deathwatch, ffg, Warhammer 40k

One Hundred Monkeys, One Hundred Typewriters, One Hundred Wands Of Magic Missile

April 10, 2012 by Vanir

As some of you are no doubt aware, WotC has once again opened the window for article pitches to Dungeon and Dragon. For the first time in my life, I have decided to submit some stuff. As I have been writing about roleplaying games for nearly 5 years now, and with the recent success in this arena of several of my esteemed blog-tribe fresh in my mind, one might think I would be overconfident. One would be crazy wrong.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: bell curve, blogging, Chuck Wendig, courage, Creativity, dragon, dungeon, naked choke, scared, science, statistics, Submission, submitting, Writing

Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-04-08

April 8, 2012 by Gato the News Robot

Blizzard Kidzz http://t.co/k1Z7eANi Zergtochi http://t.co/YmUFCxhb StarCraft: Supply Depot http://t.co/yc9Wty3C April Fools from Blizzard # Rock Band board game, April Fools video from Harmonix: http://t.co/jjneezz8 # Actual Dragon and Dungeon magazine contents for the month posted: http://t.co/LiBiS5AW & http://t.co/z13GGRYA # RT @Nikchick: Check this video for an ambitious new Kickstarter to bring Shadowrun to tablet/PC. This […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

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About the Author

  • Vanir

    Vanir is the sort of man who has openly wondered aloud about his own armor class in front of his own grandmother. Despite this, he has still managed to somehow become both married and a father. By day, he develops web applications. By night, web applications develop him.

    Email: vanir@critical-hits.comWeb: https://critical-hits.com//category/dire-flailings/

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