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Monstrous Races in 4E D&D – Githyanki

March 10, 2010 by Bartoneus

In the Dragon article that previewed the githzerai race from the upcoming Player’s Handbook 3, the designers stated that the githyanki were not being developed as a PC race due to their villainous nature and they feel the drow has taken up the available real estate for a villainous race in 4th Edition.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, D&D, dnd 4e, Dungeons and Dragons, githyanki, monster races, monstrous, roleplaying games, Roleplaying Games

Beginner’s Guide To Homebrewing

March 10, 2010 by guest

From humble beginnings at the age of eight, I have been building ‘adventure’ games for my family and friends non-stop. My first game system didn’t go down so well as I spent most of my time trying to convince my older brother and parents to spend their weekends sitting at the table to hear me rant on and on about imaginary monsters and villains that they had no concept of. Since then I’ve continued relentlessly in the homebrew department to the point where I am running weekly games for two groups of six players. Below I’m going to share with you some of the basic tips I have picked up over the years.

Filed Under: Flavour Feast, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Guide, homebrew, homebrew week, Tips, Tricks

Classless 4e

March 9, 2010 by mattjames

Though the game is made up of classes- which are intrinsic to the design of the system- you can try something new with your next campaign by getting rid of them altogether. Some sub-systems in 4th Edition will have to stay, such as those for purposes of multi-classing and the feats and powers associated with them. But for the most part, you can choose to just simply get rid of all classes.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, classless, homebrew, homebrew week, variant

The Passion Of The Jesus Phone

March 9, 2010 by Vanir

In which Apple’s capricious and callous handling of their app store finally makes one programmer hulk out and smash. I’m the ever-lovin brown-eyed Vanir-thing. My skin is comprised not of rocks, but of Chicken McNuggets.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Editorial, Video Games Tagged With: adobe air, android, app store, droid, flash, game development, iphone, jesus phone, starving programmers

Inq. of the Week: RPG System Showdown?

March 8, 2010 by Bartoneus

Today I’d like to touch on a subject that we’ve never directly asked before, as far as I can remember, and that subject is specifically which RPGs you are gathering around the table to play. Back in October I asked about genres and settings for RPGs, with Fantasy coming out in a massive lead with Sci-fi in second, then Modern and Horror close behind.

Filed Under: Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games, roleplaying games, system

Gears of Ruin: The Phantom Rails, Part 2

March 8, 2010 by The Chatty DM

As the party schemed, hidden behind a pile of Warclank (i.e clockwork mechas) spare parts near the gigantic pile of humanoid corpses, the ghouls and blasphemes continued their Dance Macabre, the ghouls trying to snatch pieces of relatively fresh “meat” from the pile while the reconstructed undead kept them at bay with beams of death-laced energies.

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Gears of Ruin, Tropes

Critical Bits for the week ending 2010-03-07

March 7, 2010 by Gato the News Robot

RT @mattstaggs: http://is.gd/9tRM8 via @AVClubChicago – D&D 101: Why now is the time to start role-playing # March #dnd Rules Updates: http://is.gd/9xuES # Quick overview of some of the updates, ongoing thread on ENWorld: http://is.gd/9xEsL # RT @fray: Kickstarter – Game Design: P20 Modern Roleplaying Game: http://kck.st/bDQFrdPathfinder compatible Patron project now starting. # RT @Wizards_DnD: […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

Talmanthian Plateau

March 5, 2010 by guest

Just before the frigid north of a large continent lies an immense mountain plateau. The plateau is commonly known as Angel’s Table to those who live below the sheer cliffs that make it all but inaccessible. Atop the cliffs, a scenic landscape of rolling plains and small forests cover the immense majestic plateau. The creatures and tribes of this unique and exotic landscape call it Talmanthian.

Filed Under: Flavour Feast, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: adventure, Elves, Human, Locale, Location, Merfolk, Roleplaying Games, Uqwauy

D&D Tips from Mass Effect 2

March 5, 2010 by Mike Shea

Today we’re going to take a look how the action RPG Mass Effect 2 can make our games better as well. I will warn that, while I don’t plan on any direct spoilers in this review (omg, I can’t believe they blew up the Citadel!) I might step into the story just a little bit. If you want to be 100% spoiler free (Woo! You sleep with Miranda) you may want to read this when you’ve finished getting most of your crew killed by giant Aardvarks.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Video Games Tagged With: 4e, dragon age, mass effect, mass effect 2

Friday Chat: Bits from the Past

March 4, 2010 by The Chatty DM

The most important ingredient in any campaign is a skilled DM who has the time and the energy to carefully design and create his world, and the talent to communicate his setting effectively. The next most important ingredients are willing players who share common goals with the DM. Players interested in hack-and-slash adventures should not be matched a DM interested in careful plot structuring and detailed mystery solving.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Bits from the Past, Friday Chat

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About the Author

  • Bartoneus

    Danny works professionally as an architectural designer and serves as managing editor here at CH, which means he shares many of the duties of being an editor but without the fame and recognition. He also writes about RPGs, videogames, movies, and TV. He is married to Sucilaria, and has a personal blog at Incorrect Blitz Input. (Email Danny or follow him on Twitter).

    Email: bartoneus@critical-hits.comWeb: https://critical-hits.com//author/Bartoneus/

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