• 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 Dave

A Quick D&D 5e Spellcasting Primer

March 12, 2015 by Dave

New to D&D 5e and interested in a spellcasting character? Here’s what you need to know.

Filed Under: Columns, Critical Threats, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e

My 2014 as a Freelance Game Designer

January 23, 2015 by Dave

Dave recaps his 2014 as a freelance game designer in both tabletop and RPG, and learn how too much clicking can seriously derail a plan.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Apocalypse World, conventions, fate, game design, heat, magic the gathering, strange new worlds, timewatch, unpub

Review: “Dungeon Master’s Guide” for “Dungeons & Dragons” 5th Edition

November 28, 2014 by Dave

Does the DMG fill in the gaps? Is it more for new DMs, experienced DMs, or all? What about all the rules modules discussed earlier in development? Find out in this full review.

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e, dmg, Dungeon Master's Guide

10 Things I Dig About the New “Monster Manual” (And 5 I Don’t)

August 28, 2014 by Dave

I was one of the fortunate few to get my grubby mitts on an advance copy of the Monster Manual for Dungeons & Dragons. We’ll have a full review of the book in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I wanted to explore some of the aspects that jumped out at me as we flipped through.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, dndnext, Monster Manual, monsters

Dungeons & Dragons “Monster Manual” Preview: The Bulette!

August 14, 2014 by Dave

Our unofficial mascot here at Critical Hits, since the beginning, has been the powerful combination of an Umber Hulk riding a Bulette.

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e

First Impressions Review: “Player’s Handbook” for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

August 11, 2014 by Dave

The Player’s Handbook – and the D&D 5th edition ruleset as a whole- feels very polished. In fact, I’d go as far to say they focused on taking everything they had from previous editions and worlds, ran with it, refined it again, and so on.

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D next

“Basic Dungeons & Dragons” Rules PDF is Online

July 3, 2014 by Dave

This is a full game of D&D, including 4 races, 4 classes (going all the way from levels 1-20) and everything you need to run them including equipment and spells. There’s also the rules of how the game runs. The only thing it’s really missing to be fully playable are any monsters.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e, D&D next

Stealing From Games (And A Game About Stealing)

June 3, 2014 by Dave

Heat

I see this a lot among game designers of all kinds, both new and experienced: “I really want to use [game mechanism X] but I worry it’ll be too much like [popular game].” I am here to set you free and tell you not to worry about that.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Newest Critical Hits Tagged With: drafting, game design, heat, Kickstarter, lords of waterdeep, love letter, magic the gathering, scoundrels of skullport

“Dungeons & Dragons” New Edition (Formerly “Next”) Gets Release Dates, Cover

May 19, 2014 by Dave

“Dungeons & Dragons”, the new edition, has a release date, just in time for Gen Con, as well as product covers and a few surprises.

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D next, dndnext, gen con, gen con 2014

Project Paradigm: Making Magic

March 12, 2014 by Dave

In a game where everyone uses magic, magic becomes the cornerstone of design. This is one of the big areas that makes Mage: the Ascension different from Sorcerer from a Harry Potter RPG.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: fate, fate core, mage: the ascension, project paradigm

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • Dave

    Dave "The Game" Chalker is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Critical Hits. Since 2005, he has been bringing readers game news and advice, as well as editing nearly everything published here. He is the designer of the Origins Award-winning Get Bit!, a freelance designer and developer, son of a science fiction author, and a Master of Arts. He lives in MD with e and at least three dogs.

    Email: dave@critical-hits.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.
Mastodon

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