Sometimes, there are games that just don’t click at first, for whatever reason. For example, I remember years ago at a convention demoing Give Me The Brain to a group of congoers, which isn’t exactly Advanced Squad Leader in terms of complexity. Yet there was one person I was demoing to that would not get it. […]
Criminals: An Experiment in Card Game Publishing
Around 2006-2007, I was involved with a small startup game company called Robot Martini. We focused at first on making small card games by friends. The whole thing didn’t work out. But we did make some cool games. Flash forward to 2012 when I heard a rumor that the company behind DriveThruRPG was starting their […]
Preview: “Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management”
Engine Publishing, the book publishing arm of our blog rivals/friends at Gnome Stew, has tackled all kinds of subjects before: from NPCs, to plots, to adventure preparation. Their newest book, Odyssey, takes the long view that encompasses aspects of all of these in macro, looking at the campaign as a whole and strategies to deal […]
Interview: Bill “Dungeon Bastard” Cavalier on “The World’s Worst Dungeon Crawl”
Here at Critical Hits, we’ve been following the advice of Bill Cavalier, Adventure Coach AKA “The Dungeon Bastard” for some time now. At first it was because we mistook him for someone else entirely, but we grew to value his advice on WINNING Dungeons & Dragons after years of treating it as a collaborative activity […]
“Get Bit!” and the Tabletop Effect
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.
Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide and Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying
As you might know, Phil and I have been D&D fans for decades. Here on Critical Hits, we’ve spent a lot of time writing about, musing about, and generally playing with D&D and games like it.
Back Catalog D&D PDFs Begin to Resurface on DriveThruRPG
PDF editions for D&D products have begun to reappear on both DriveThruRPG and the new completely branded site D&D Classics.
My Year in Gaming Kickstarters
As 2012 wraps up, I wanted to take a look at the Kickstarters I supported this year, and ultimately focusing on the games, particularly the RPGs, my most-supported category.
2012: A Good Year for Cooperative Gaming
This year has been a great one for new games of all kinds. As I look back at the ones I’ve put the most time into and been most excited about, I was surprised to pick up on a pattern: most of them are cooperative games. While cooperative games are often a mixed bag for me, this year has produced some that I’ve gotten lots of mileage out of. Presented here are five of my very favorites that I encourage you to check out.
Too Many Pillars: Background and Specialties in D&D Next
I was reminded of this when playing the newest version of the playtest packet for D&D Next at Gen Con, and also clicked even more when thinking about themes and how they work in 4e (of which I just had an article posted with new ones, obvious plug) and also how 13th Age tackles it. Here’s my conclusion: I’m not a fan of the Race/Class/Background/Specialty system as implemented in D&D Next.
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