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You are here: Home / Archives for Newest Critical Hits / Columns / Critical Threats

Playtest “D&D Next” Like A Pro

May 23, 2012 by Dave

With the open playtest of the new iteration of D&D coming tomorrow, I wanted to offer some of my advice on playtesting and giving feedback.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D next, Feedback, game design, playtesting

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

Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying: A D&D 4e Hack for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

March 26, 2012 by Dave

This is a hack of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying designed to use a lot of the trappings of Dungeons & Dragons (4th edition), particularly in the classes and races. You will need to be familiar with both games in order to get much out of this.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Game Hacks & Content, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, marvel heroic roleplaying, mhrpg, rules hack

Fighters & Flapjacks

February 16, 2012 by Dave

I’ve been playing RPGs a long time now. I’m quite experienced at playing RPGs and games of all types. This is why I react poorly to statements implying that the D&D fighter should be the class that you give the new player, because they’re so simple. I don’t necessarily want a class that’s overly complicated (and we all know a few of those out there in D&D history) but I do want one that gives me plenty of decisions to make inherent in the class itself. I want to think like a Fighter.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D next

The Road Not Taken: Alternative Directions For A Post 4e D&D

January 16, 2012 by Dave

In the context of a new edition, there are any number of ways that an edition after 4th edition could go, while still building on the foundation of the game.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Game Hacks & Content, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, game design, hacks

30 For 30

December 19, 2011 by Dave

I played 30 games for the occasion of turning 30. Here they all are.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: birthday, blackjack, commander, crappy birthday, dominion, falling, fiasco, games, get bit!, hey waiter!, hit a dude, jenga, la strada!, legend of drizzt, looney labs, loopin' louie, magic the gathering, mamma mia!, no merci, pit, Poker, risk legacy, seven dragons, spot-it!, toc toc woodman, treehouse, win lose or bana

Redesigning the Epic Tier

November 28, 2011 by Dave

Both Sly Flourish and I have talked a lot lately about the issues we’ve run into at epic levels in D&D. While there are certainly rules issues, I believe fixing them all would take up a lot more than single column. However, I do have some ideas on alternate ways to restructure how the campaign […]

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, campaign planning, DM advice, epic, epic tier

The Plastic Is Too Damn High: Miniatures Pricing Primer

May 6, 2011 by Dave

Like many of you, I was dismayed at the cancellation of the D&D minis line. Understandably, this raised some questions among the community. “Are minis really that expensive to make?” “Why can’t I just buy a box of assorted monsters?” “Isn’t it stupid to reuse sculpts?” I hope to be able to answer some of these questions, with what limited knowledge I have about the situation.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D minis

Mage: The Ascension Job

March 17, 2011 by Dave

It’s no secret that I’ve been a bit Leverage RPG crazy for the past few months- in many ways, it’s a system that just flat out “clicked” with me as soon as I played it. One of the outcroppings of that is my desire to hack it into other settings. I’m a huge fan of modern settings, and while Leverage RPG scratches that itch, there’s lots of room for modern games beyond heists and capers. Enter my early ideas about combining it with Mage: The Ascension, to which I (and as I discovered recently, many other gamers) have very fond memories of.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Game Hacks & Content, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: leverage, Leverage RPG, mage: the ascension

The Combat “Out”

February 28, 2011 by Dave

Combat speed in D&D is an oft-debated topic, and while much of the conversation is useful, I have one method that I trumpet above all others to make your combats take less time and work better as a scene in your game, and that’s the combat “out.”

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, combat, combat speed, D&D, outs

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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

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