• Critical-Hits Studios
    • Criminals Card Game
    • Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game
  • Downloads & Tools
    • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
    • Drinking D&D 2010
    • Drinking D&D 2011
    • Fiasco Playset: “Alma Monster”
    • MODOK’s 11 for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
    • Refuge In Audacity RPG
    • Strange New Worlds RPG
  • Guides
    • Gamma World
    • Guide to 4e Accessories
    • Guide to Gaming DVDs
    • Skill Challenges
  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Critical Hits

Everything tabletop gaming since 2005

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Columns
    • Dire Flailings
    • Dungeonomics
    • Musings of the Chatty DM
    • Pain of Publication
    • The Architect DM
  • Podcasts
    • Critical Hits Podcast
    • Dungeon Master Guys Podcast
  • Roleplaying Games
  • Tabletop Games
  • Game Hacks & Content
  • Video Games
You are here: Home / Archives for Newest Critical Hits / Featured

Chatty’s “13th Age”: The Story So Far, Part 2

January 10, 2014 by The Chatty DM

In Part 1, I started sharing a summary of my 13th Age campaign. In this post, I’ll catch up to current events and tell you a bit more about my players and table dynamics. If you’ve been reading my recent 13th Age posts, you should know that the next chapter is what inspired me to write the 13th Age hack about dealing with PC vs NPC contests.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, chatty's 13th age

Deathtrap Dungeon World, Part 3: Death and Rewards

January 8, 2014 by Sersa Victory

In this final part of the series, I’ll talk about how to handle death in your Dungeon World delve and how to manage “defy danger or die” effects. I’ll also discuss some strategies for rewarding players and characters that overcome the challenges your deathtrap dungeon presents.

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

Chatty’s “13th Age”: The Story So Far, Part 1

January 6, 2014 by The Chatty DM

Our 13th Age campaign is blossoming into one of the most amazing, highly improvised RPG campaigns I’ve ever played. So much so that I consider it one of the high points of my GMing career. I decided it was a good time to share some of its highlights and show you how we made the 13th Age Dragon Empire our own.

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

Deathtrap Dungeon World, Part 2: Dangers and Hard Moves

January 3, 2014 by Sersa Victory

In this part of the series, I’ll talk about how to create monsters, traps, and puzzles for your deathtrap dungeons in a way that embraces Dungeon World’s mechanics and philosophy. In addition, I’ll explain why hard moves are the most important part of your deathtrap dungeon toolkit, and present a list of 20 hard moves you can use in your game tonight.

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

“13th Age” Musings: Running Non-Combat PC vs. NPC Scenes

December 20, 2013 by The Chatty DM

Specifically for my needs, 13th Age does not have an obvious way to emulate “duel of wits.” I’m aware I could just “roleplay” them or make use of the generic difficulty ratings and “failing forward” concepts. In spite of that, I still felt like something’s missing from my 13th Age GMing toolbox.

Filed Under: Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, Game Hacks & Content, gming advice, hacking

Deathtrap Dungeon World, Part 1: GM Principles

December 10, 2013 by Sersa Victory

In this 3-part article series, I’ll share some of my tips for running deathtrap dungeons using the Dungeon World roleplaying game. By drawing on the lessons of my recent deathtrap dungeon campaign, Black Plume Mountain, and by using my conversion of the Tomb of Horrors as a guide, I hope to give you the tools to design and run exciting, dynamic, and brutal delves.

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

“The 5×5 Method” Dragon Magazine Article

December 4, 2013 by Dave

I have an article in the 2nd to last (for now) issue of Dragon, and it’s a redone version of my most popular article on Critical Hits. It was also my first paid piece in my RPG designer career.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5x5 method, campaign prep, D&D, D&DI, dragon, The 5x5 Method

Review: “Lords of Waterdeep” for iPad & iPhone

November 21, 2013 by Dave

Lords of Waterdeep for iOS brings together two things I already like, so you can probably predict the result. So to say I was excited about these two coming together, announced months ago, would be an understatement. And thankfully, the end result is as good as I’d hoped.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Featured, News, Reviews, Video Games Tagged With: iOS, iPad, iphone, lords of waterdeep, Playdek

“13th Age” Musings: Story Hook-Based Adventure Prepping

November 18, 2013 by The Chatty DM

Last week, I was scrambling to prepare for my bimonthly 13th Age game session. We’d just completed the campaign’s first story arc, one I’d run with tight narrative control (That’s fancy jargon for “railroading”). I wanted the next arc to be more episodic in nature and allow players to chose where to the story would go. I am, however, well aware of the chaos and paralysis that can occur on both sides of the proverbial gaming screen if the GM opens up the world and waits for the players to do something. As I was brainstorming to find a good compromise, I stumbled on an idea.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Adventure Prep, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age

Interview: Rob Heinsoo on “13th Age”

November 7, 2013 by Mike Shea

On November 5th, Mike Shea of SlyFlourish interviewed Rob Heinsoo, one of the lead designers of 13th Age, live on Google Hangouts.

Filed Under: Featured, Interviews, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13 true ways, 13th Age, DM advice, gm advice, icons

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • The Chatty DM

    The Chatty DM is the "nom de plume" of gamer geek Philippe-Antoine Menard. He has been a GM for over 40 years. An award-winning RPG blogger, game designer, and scriptwriter at Ubisoft. He squats a corner of Critical Hits he affectionately calls "Musings of the Chatty DM." (Email Phil or follow him on Twitter.)

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

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Archives

CC License

All articles and comments posted posted on the site (but not the products for sale) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. References to trademarks and copywritten material are included for review and commentary use only and are not intended as any kind of challenge.

Recent Comments

  • fogus: The best things and stuff of 2024 on Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Routinely Itemised: RPGs #145 on Review: The Magus
  • The Chatty DM on Review: The Magus
  • Linnaeus on Review: The Magus
  • 13th Age: Indexing Truths — Critical Hits on The Horizon Conspiracy

Contact The Staff

Critical Hits staff can be reached via the contact information on their individual staff pages and in their articles. If you want to reach our senior staff, email staff @ critical-hits.com. We get sent a lot of email, so we can't promise we'll be able to respond to everything.

Recent Posts

  • Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Review: The Magus
  • Hope in the Dark Heart of Evil is Not a Plan
  • Chatty on Games #1: Dorf Romantik
  • The Infinity Current: Adventure 0

Top Posts & Pages

  • Home
  • The 5x5 Method Compendium
  • Dungeons & Dragons "Monster Manual" Preview: The Bulette!
  • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
  • On Mid-Medieval Economics, Murder Hoboing and 100gp
  • "The Eversink Post Office" - An Unofficial Supplement for Swords of the Serpentine
  • Finally a manual for the rest of them!
  • Dave Chalker AKA Dave The Game
  • How to Compare Birds to Fish
  • The Incense War: a Story of Price Discovery, Mayhem, and Lust

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in