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

The Virtual “We’re behind you” Card: Chris Sims

June 30, 2010 by The Chatty DM

Chris Sims was recently diagnosed with a Skin Cancer condition which, thankfully, turned out to be minor and treatable by facial surgery. This post is a virtual good wish card and we would really appreciate for you to share a few kind words with us and sign it

Filed Under: Featured, Humor Tagged With: Chris Sims, Jared Von Hindman, Virtual Get Well Card

Inq. of the Week: D&D and Magic Items?

June 28, 2010 by Bartoneus

Today I’d like to touch on a topic that is very prominent on my mind lately, the topic of how magic items are handled in Dungeons & Dragons and specifically how they’re designed to be used in 4th Edition. I would imagine there is some good discussion that can be had on this topic, but between Dave and I we pretty well agree on the matter so I’m bringing it up here to hopefully open up to a larger range of opinions and see what we get.

Filed Under: Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games

Review: “Fiasco”

June 25, 2010 by Linnaeus

Fiasco is inspired by a certain type of movie, most strongly associated with the Coen Brothers, where there are several characters that have a plan, plus, possibly, a couple who have strong convictions. These plans and convictions run up against each other over the course of the movie, and a human train wreck results.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: coen brothers, fiasco, indie rpg, jason morningstar

Wizards’ 2011 Spring Catalog Preview

June 24, 2010 by Bartoneus

I started previewing the Wizards of the Coast 2011 spring catalog with the Player’s Option: Heroes of Shadow preview I posted last week, which introduces more content for the shadow power source including the Necromancer and Hexblade classes. Next I’ll be talking about some of the other products listed in the Roleplaying Games section of the catalog.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games

D&D 4e: The New Player’s Option

June 16, 2010 by Bartoneus

I was actually very surprised while looking through the Wizards Spring 2011 catalog when I stumbled across a new book coming out in March, Player’s Option: Heroes of Shadow. There are a lot of aspects to this book that are interesting, for one it is supposedly going to be a 6″x9″ and 320 page book selling for $19.95 in trade paperback format. The description for the book mentions three specific classes that it will support – Assassins, Necromancers, and Hexblades.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, 4th Edition, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, heroes of shadow, new, player's option, preview, shadow power source

Monster Manual 3 Interview with Greg Bilsland

June 7, 2010 by Mike Shea

The Monster Manual 3 is due for release in just a few short days. We had the opportunity to ask Greg Bilsland, Wizards of the Coast’s designer and lead editor for the Monster Manual 3, five questions related to the release of the MM3.

Filed Under: Featured, Interviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, mm3, monster manual 3

Review: “The Perilous Secrets of Wilford Manor”

June 3, 2010 by Linnaeus

The Perilous Secrets of Wilford Manor is a PDF-only adventure from Neuroglyph Games for 1st—3rd level Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition characters. It begins when a well-liked noble asks the PCs to find his son, which the adventure suggests should be an old friend of the PCs, whether they also know each other or not. The trail leads to a small town, then on to an old manor, where they come in contact with an obscure sect, and beyond.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3pp, 4e, adventure, neuroglyph games, third party

Mailbag 7–All By Myself, Part 4

May 31, 2010 by Chris Sims

DMing a solo is at least as rewarding as running encounters with more monsters. It can be even more satisfying, since a solo can and should evoke strong reactions from players as it deals out destruction. But running a solo requires extra care, especially if you’re using the creature as the lone menace in the fight. Make sure your aware of what your solo can and can’t do, then prepare for it.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, DM advice, encounter design, solo monsters

Air War: A Skill Challenge

May 27, 2010 by Dave

I’ve done a few airship skill challenges before, thanks to a motley Dwarven pirate airship. Escape from the giant dragon air skill challenge and oh crap the airship is crashing skill challenge both had been done, so for this one, I envisioned something like the space battles in Star Wars, like the trench run but in a more open space. Thus, I consulted Gamefiend, the mad genius of skill challenges, for his help in designing it. One Skype call later (and then another day of planning later) I came up with the following skill challenge.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, air war, airships, final fantasy, skill challenges, star wars, trench run, we got deathstar (deathstar)

Mailbag 6 – All By Myself, Part 3

May 24, 2010 by Chris Sims

In this installment of the exploration of solos, we have two statistics blocks based on what we’ve been talking about. First is a dragon. In or out of the dungeon, this monster has to leave an impression. Next we have a third-party-refurbished berbalang. This version jettisons all the complexity and confusion of the original. It’s relatively straightforward. Both show why customizing monsters is fun D&D 4e.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, berbalang, copper dragon, D&D, DM advice, monster design, solo monsters

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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/

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