• 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 2013

Archives for 2013

A Chatty Life: The Prescription

April 24, 2013 by The Chatty DM

As a follow up to my last Tumblr post, I’ve started taking actions to clean up my life hygiene. The various health professionals working on my case have repeatedly told me that the secret to a more stable life as a Type II Bipolar-ite was to have a healthy lifestyle and a toolkit to deal […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Bipolar Disorder, depression, Exercise, Gamification, Motivation, Reward

The Dark Side of the Sports

April 23, 2013 by Vanir

My 5 year old son, Sam, has his very first T-ball practice this week. He’s very excited about it. We were at Wal-Mart, buying baseball gloves, when I realized I was actually far more anxious than happy about this. Sports and I have not had a particularly good relationship over the years. I was very […]

Filed Under: Dire Flailings Tagged With: anxiety, bullies, jocks, karate, kids, Sports

A Campaign About Nothing

April 2, 2013 by Vanir

It’s come to my attention recently that I might not be the best at doing epic storylines. I am, however, a damned wizard at making strange things happen and crashing them against each other to make stranger things happen. And I have a plan.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Freelance Writing, seinfeld, shrinkage

“Get Bit!” and the Tabletop Effect

March 27, 2013 by Dave

Reflections on the story of Get Bit! and how it made the journey onto Tabletop, and what effects it has had on one game designer’s life.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Editorial, Featured Tagged With: geek & sundry, get bit!, tabletop

Dungeon: The Golfening

March 12, 2013 by Vanir

I have a lot of extremely creative and driven friends. I never set out to find them. It’s like I hang out with people I like and then all of a sudden they’re all “hey man, we’re like, working on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying” and then before you know it they go all Kickstarter on you. Some are even given the blessing of the Wheaton. Me, my dreams are smaller. I want to develop a videogame, and I want it to be so fun that everybody wants to play it on the toilet.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Video Games Tagged With: angry birds, box2d, c#, dungeon golf, java, libgdx, opengl, videogame development

Giveaway: 1st Edition AD&D “Unearthed Arcana” Reprint

February 28, 2013 by Bartoneus

Wizards of the Coast is awesome enough to provide us with five copies of the new 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana reprint book to giveaway to our readers! We haven’t really done a giveaway or contest in quite a while, so I’m keeping this nice and simple – all you have to do in order to be entered to win one of the five copies is leave a comment on this post!

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 1e, AD&D, unearthed arcana

Worst. Session. Ever (Part 3)

February 19, 2013 by Vanir

The dust has settled, the Phoenix has risen from the ashes, and now he’s very confused how he’s going to run a D&D session because he is a bird doesn’t know how to communicate either verbally or through writing.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5x5, flexible, inverse 5x5, phoenix, planning, the fuckin D is back, villain, worst session ever

Worst. Session. Ever. (Part 2)

February 12, 2013 by Vanir

Last week, I talked about falling flat while ending a character. I also managed to start a few off on a sour note.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: anxiety, backstory, character, dm tips, forgiveness, pressure

Review: “Midgard Campaign Setting”

February 8, 2013 by TorgHacker

Midgard is a flat world. The world was once ruled by elves who have now almost entirely retreated from the world. It’s covered with ley lines that trained sorcerers and wizards can harness (and in the past have devastated a region by doing so). The dragons are tied to elements and they rule nations. Time flies and status matters. Gods meddle but can be killed and enslaved. Midgard has a history of empires falling and rising.

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: kobold press, midgard, pathfinder, roleplaying games

Review: The Lazy Dungeon Master

February 6, 2013 by Wyatt Salazar

Advice on Game Mastering, beyond the very basics, is often a matter firmly rooted in perspective. We’ve all got our methods, and the people who disagree with them. We all sling around maxims and codify buzzwords that try to illuminate the abstracts that go on when we have fun at the helm of a game. The Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea, AKA Sly Flourish offers a lot of advice that is worth considering in this arena.

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, DM advice, sly flourish, the lazy dm

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • The Chatty DM

    The Chatty DM is the "nom de plume" of gamer geek Philippe-Antoine Menard. He has been a GM for over 40 years. An award-winning RPG blogger, game designer, and scriptwriter at Ubisoft. He squats a corner of Critical Hits he affectionately calls "Musings of the Chatty DM." (Email Phil or follow him on Twitter.)

    Email: chattydm@critical-hits.comWeb: https://critical-hits.com//category/chattydm/

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