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

The GM: Everyone’s Best Friend

August 20, 2010 by Shawn Merwin

When the GM is everyone’s best friend, no one has to get thrown under the bus.

Filed Under: Editorial, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: adventure design, adventure writing, D&D, forgotten realms, living forgotten realms, organized play

Minions of Differing Flavors

August 19, 2010 by Chris Sims

Just like the epicure needs new and exciting experiences, numerous DMs among us need new ways to mix it up with minions. This is especially true if you feel your minions disappear too quickly to be interesting or seem to be no added challenge. I’m going to attempt to, as an infamous chef might say, help you to kick it up a notch . . . sometimes.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, DM advice, dungeon master, encounter design, minion, monster, monster design

Renaissance of Roleplaying

August 16, 2010 by dixontrimline

I feel like it is possible to establish a renaissance of roleplaying, assuming you even want to, but it couldn’t possibly work through just one devoted person, even if that person is the DM. It would just be too excruciating, too mortifying, and gradually, the intensity of peer pressure would grind the Method actor back into a more acceptable shape. If this is to work, it would have to be through an explicit contract at the table.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: method acting, player advice, roleplaying, rp advice

What I Learned DMing for 10,000 Players

August 13, 2010 by Shawn Merwin

My first blog, in which I reveal how little I know, and probably would tick off E.M. Forster if he wasn’t dead.

Filed Under: Editorial, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3e, 4e

Sunburn is the Least of Your Worries

July 29, 2010 by Chris Sims

At Gen Con this year, I’m running a few D&D game sessions set in Athas. This Dark Sun game, known affectionately as Welcome to Dark Sun, B!#@&s!, is a version of the campaign opener for my Dark Sun playtest campaign that started when I still worked for Wizards. It’s still going strong. I’ve been making pregenerated characters, refining my encounters, and having a good time. I’m showing my work and, well, here it is.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Columns, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Athas, character concepts, characters, D&D, dark sun

Minions Are Spice

July 22, 2010 by Chris Sims

A minion is a tiny onion used for flavor, especially in soups. That’s what my father told me when I was a kid. Even then, though, the D&D game had imparted enough for me to see the lie and the humor. In fact, if analyzed closely, this quip from dear ol’ dad, and my assimilation of it, might explain a lot about me. Talk about analysis paralysis.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Columns, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, DM advice, encounter design, minions, monsters

A DM’s Look at D&D Essentials

July 20, 2010 by Mike Shea

Like many of you, I was very interested to hear more about D&D Essentials. A lot of people whisper the threat of “D&D 4.5” and narrow their eyes as they grab a hold of their wallets for fear that Mike Mearls will pluck it out of their hands. We have a lot of questions rolling around in our heads. As primarily a dungeon master, I have a lot of questions about what this will do to my game. Today we’re going to take a look at what D&D Essentials could mean for us dungeon masters.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, essentials

For Your Ennies Voting Consideration

July 16, 2010 by Dave

Voting opens today, and we’d really like you to vote for us as Best Blog. We were nominated last year too and lost to fine competition, and this year’s competition is easily as fierce. Thus, we’re presenting this post that highlights some of our content over this past year that we believe qualifies us to be Best Blog.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, News, Roleplaying Games

Spicing Up Your Class Features

July 14, 2010 by Bartoneus

There are a lot of mechanics in Dungeons & Dragons that do not have much flavor to them, but when given the right amount can completely change how the game is perceived and played by those at the table. My experiences detailed here all relate to 4th Edition D&D, but the ideas can easily apply to any RPG that’s out there. I first started to realize that something magical could be done with the 4E class features at GenCon last year while playing in a delve run by Jeremy Crawford. I sat next to Jared from Head Injury Theater who picked the WotC pregenerated warden and I picked the pregen druid, but quickly we realized that I’d need a mini to represent my druid’s wild shape form.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games

2010 Ennie Nominations Announced (with Recommendations)

July 10, 2010 by Dave

It’s that time of year again, when the big RPG award nominees of the year are announced, after careful consideration and selection by a panel of judges voted on by the community. The full list of nominees for the year are available on their site. And of course, we’d like to call out our new favorite category…

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, News, Roleplaying Games

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About the Author

  • Shawn Merwin

    Shawn Merwin is a freelance writer/editor and game designer with delusions of adequacy and a penchant for games and stories. He's worked on several organized play campaigns: Living Greyhawk, Xen'drik Expeditions, Living Kalamar, Living Forgotten Realms, and D&D Adventurer's League to name a few. His design work for Wizards of the Coast includes Dungeon Delve, Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress, and Halls of Undermountain, as well as two seasons of the D&D Encounters Program. His most recent project is co-designing and editing the Fate-powered game Part-Time Gods of Fate for Encoded Designs. You can follow Shawn on Twitter.

    Email: shawn.merwin@critical-hits.com

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