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Hollywood Halaster’s All-You-Can-Eat Buffet And Love Fortress

June 4, 2013 by Vanir

It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to play D&D (curse you, real life!), but I have managed to consume many fantastic high-budget entertainment products (featuring stunning pieces of intellectual property) in the meantime. As I write for a gaming blog, this usually leads me to considering the various ways I can (and sometimes do) cause […]

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: displacer beasts, game of thrones, Movies, pacing, plot holes, romance, sex, TV

Preview: “Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management”

June 3, 2013 by Dave

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 […]

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: campaign advice, campaign preparation, Campaigns, gm prep, odyssey

Of Tables and Games: What I’m Playing Now

May 12, 2013 by The Chatty DM

Before I start, a little Chatty update: Winter and Spring have been my crazy freelancer months for a  few years now. I’m knee-deep in pushing the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide to layout. Dave and I released the preview version of the Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying game to backers and the response has been both positive and […]

Filed Under: Actual Play, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Campaigns, D&D, Dungeon Reality Show, fhrp, gaming with children, Gaming with Kids, marvel heroic roleplaying

Get Out Of My Dreams, Get Into My TARDIS

May 7, 2013 by Vanir

I recently finished BioShock Infinite. I know an army of people who loved everything about this game, especially the story. I enjoyed it, but the ending left me a little flat. I’m not going to discuss the details here other than to say it got all wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey (well, sort of) and I found myself […]

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television, Video Games

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

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

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

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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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