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

D&D: Breaking (is) Bad

July 10, 2014 by Shawn Merwin

The game has to be about the story if the hobby as a whole is going to flourish. This means that the ultra-optimizing, breaking the game with its own rules because they are there, intentionally ignoring the spirit of the rules to mangle the game into something it isn’t, has to stop.

Filed Under: Columns, Editorial, Featured, Know Your Roll, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e, RPGs

“Basic Dungeons & Dragons” Rules PDF is Online

July 3, 2014 by Dave

This is a full game of D&D, including 4 races, 4 classes (going all the way from levels 1-20) and everything you need to run them including equipment and spells. There’s also the rules of how the game runs. The only thing it’s really missing to be fully playable are any monsters.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e, D&D next

A D&D Lover’s Guide to Other RPGs: “Dungeon World”

July 2, 2014 by Shawn Merwin

It is no secret that Dungeon World was created as an homage to the earliest versions of D&D. From the six standard ability scores that range from 3-18, to the races and classes of the grand old game, Dungeon World makes no pretense at being anything but a hack of D&D.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Know Your Roll, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, dungeon world

Stealing From Games (And A Game About Stealing)

June 3, 2014 by Dave

Heat

I see this a lot among game designers of all kinds, both new and experienced: “I really want to use [game mechanism X] but I worry it’ll be too much like [popular game].” I am here to set you free and tell you not to worry about that.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Newest Critical Hits Tagged With: drafting, game design, heat, Kickstarter, lords of waterdeep, love letter, magic the gathering, scoundrels of skullport

Chatty’s 13th Age: The Lich King’s Curse and Reactive Bosses

May 27, 2014 by The Chatty DM

What if a character granted the curse of the Lich King could no longer die? And what if a monster had powers that triggered on the players’ rolls or special attacks?

Filed Under: Actual Play, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, 13thAge, chatty's 13th age

“Dungeons & Dragons” New Edition (Formerly “Next”) Gets Release Dates, Cover

May 19, 2014 by Dave

“Dungeons & Dragons”, the new edition, has a release date, just in time for Gen Con, as well as product covers and a few surprises.

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D next, dndnext, gen con, gen con 2014

Project Paradigm: Making Magic

March 12, 2014 by Dave

In a game where everyone uses magic, magic becomes the cornerstone of design. This is one of the big areas that makes Mage: the Ascension different from Sorcerer from a Harry Potter RPG.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: fate, fate core, mage: the ascension, project paradigm

A Life Playing D&D

February 25, 2014 by Mike Shea

It’s quite possible that, when we look at the small things that form together to build a happy life, D&D can be high on the list. This might surprise us. Yet if we think about it, the fact that we get so much joy playing D&D might not be all that surprising at all.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, Dungeons & Dragons

Deathtrap Dungeon World: Moves from the Tomb

February 20, 2014 by Sersa Victory

Last month, I wrote about how you might design and run deathtrap dungeons using the Dungeon World roleplaying game. To aid GMs further, I’ve created several custom moves based on some of the most iconic and infamous traps lurking in the Tomb of Horrors. Use them as they appear in your own adventures, or modify them to create custom moves for traps of your own devising.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: deathtrap dungeon world, dungeon world, tomb of horrors

Project Paradigm: Some Thoughts on a Mage-Inspired Fate Game

February 5, 2014 by Dave

I’ve written before about my love of Mage: the Ascension. I even went and hacked another game system to play it in a way I really enjoyed, and have run it that way multiple times now. I’m not the only one who wanted to bring Mage back with a modern system. Ryan Macklin also wrote up the hack he was playing with. Now we’re joining forces on it.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: fate, fate core, mage: the ascension, project paradigm

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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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