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

Magic Patents, Trolls, Scabs, and Open Source Spells

May 24, 2016 by multiplexer

Spells have a special problem: they’re information. Spells are knowledge which, when learned, perform a specified effect.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, open source spells, spellcasting, spells, wizards

Corporate Contracts in the Far-Off Future Dystopia

May 9, 2016 by multiplexer

Violence makes things messy and inconvenient. Corporations like things neat and convenient. And bureaucratic.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: economics, gaming, shadowrun

The Game Behind My Serial Novel

May 5, 2016 by The Main Event

Taken on its face, football is a bad game. It takes roughly 3 hours to complete only 11 minutes of actual football. If you were forced to play games with such unfavorable numbers, the equivalent would be an eight player game of Talisman.

Filed Under: Featured, Pain of Publication, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: football, game on, the great game

The Decker and the 10M of Fiber Optic Cable

April 25, 2016 by multiplexer

Algorithms become faster, smarter, and more efficient. Nastier. More aggressive.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: economics, gaming, shadowrun

Shotgunning

April 12, 2016 by Chris Sims

Since that day my first nameless elf died in the gray-ooze cave in The Keep on the Borderlands, I was hooked. I got into roleplaying games over three decades ago because I was interested in the drama.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Video Games Tagged With: D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, freelancing, game design, intellectual property, nerd culture, roleplaying games, Storytelling, transmedia storytelling, world building

Shadowrunners and the Theft of Crypto-Corporate Data

April 5, 2016 by multiplexer

It’s impossible to put a dollar value on the worth of a refrigerated semi carrying the data of an entire corporation. One file is valuable, sure. Maybe a few files are valuable. But an entire truck worth of files…

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: cyberpunk, data, shadowrun

A Plot, So Meta

March 24, 2016 by Chris Sims

Canon serves as a framework for a setting, but after that, strict adherence to and advancement of canon along an official timeline is harmful to the setting and its audience.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Movies, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television Tagged With: canon, Curse of Strahd, D&D, Drizzt, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, forgotten realms, metaplot, roleplaying games, Spellplague, star wars, transmedia storytelling, Tropes, vampires, world building, world of darkness

Bribery and Corruption Most Diviner

March 22, 2016 by multiplexer

For strange reasons mostly associated with the vomiting hellmouth outside town and the theoretical quick riches found therein, the Diviner’s Guild in Drumport kept losing their working Diviners to mis-adventure.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: d&d5e, economics

Resurrection Edition

March 17, 2016 by Chris Sims

I believe fifth edition’s success owes much to a studied return to the roots of the D&D game, along with the calculated inclusion of fan favorites from all editions.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, fifth edition, roleplaying games

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight

March 15, 2016 by multiplexer

That hoard comes out to roughly 588,000 gold, plus the associated weight of all the other interesting stuff sticking out of it. It’s a huge sum of cash. But there’s an issue.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: d&d5e, economics

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About the Author

  • multiplexer

    Emily used to write for pen-and-paper RPGs (Steve Jackson Games, Guardians of Order, White Wolf). She disappeared into the AAA Game Industry for a while to "build an MMO" because "it sounded like fun." Then she wandered out and now writes about applying modern economic principles to very un-modern murder hobo and magic slinging wizard banker infested worlds. During the day she does crazy computer things. She has a husband, a child, and a small orange dog named for Arthur Schopenhauer. She reads history, politics, economics, and philosophy for fun.

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

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