• 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

Interview: Matt James, Co-Author of “Monument of the Ancients”

October 6, 2009 by Dave

“Monument of the Ancients“ was published in Dungeon #170 and is an adventure set in the Forgotten Realms for 13th level characters. The capsule description is thus: If myth and legend are to be believed, the antediluvian monument defends a region of Faerûn where the boundary between the world of Toril and the Elemental Chaos […]

Filed Under: Interviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&DI, dungeon, forgotten realms

Inq. of the Week: RPGs in Various Flavors?

October 5, 2009 by Bartoneus

I’ve really enjoyed reading Dave’s posts about his 4th Power project and adapting the 4E D&D system to a modern setting game as well as the comments on those posts, but it’s started me thinking about the genres of RPG that people play and in addition to that the settings we play in as well.

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

City of the Overmind: Rumble in the Vats 3D, Part 1

October 5, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Chatty’s Game. Our heroes arrive in the Overmind’s re-education camp, finding several brainwashed monsters and losing their Warden comrade, who he went chasing after another Shifter.  Once the commotion abated, the party sought out the camp’s Beholder foreman and defeated it, finding a 3rd key part and discovering how the city’s brainwash portals […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 3D terrain, 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Primal/Within

The 4th Power Project: Classes, Part 2 (At-Will Powers)

October 4, 2009 by Dave

So here’s what I think of as the next step, or at least a defining portion of the next step: at-wills. At-will powers accomplish a few important things in the game. They serve as the powers you will use the most, and throughout your entire career adventuring. They are the fall backs when you don’t want to use any of your encounter or dailies (expendable resources) and are more all purpose.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th power, 4th power project, at-will

Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-10-03

October 3, 2009 by Gato the News Robot

i4e iPhone app released (site, iTunes store) Ari Marmell takes on Skill Challenges Using Chessboards for Skill Challenges (via Asmor) D&D camp, circa 1982 Come preview the BRP project, Red Eye of Azathoth! http://bit.ly/TK8kb and http://bit.ly/zkLRd (via KoboldQuarterly) How one guy got his foothold in the game industry. (via Thiefofhearts) DDI compendium search tool: Wizbook […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

Friday Chat: Oh Wait!

October 2, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I can’t write a long post today (rejoice) because I’m about to start work.  However, I wanted to bring a hot 4e subject and wanted to launch a discussion about it over the weekend. My players are sick and tired of me harping on and on about the length of combat in 4e.  Apparently I’m […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, advice, Friday Chat

Critical Hits 4th Blogiversary

October 1, 2009 by Dave

So yeah, we’ve been doing this for roughly 4 years now.

Filed Under: Featured, News

Old School Geekeout: Of Hirelings, Doors and Long Corridors.

September 30, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Last Sunday I invited some of my friends over for an afternoon of Geeking out. This week’s Feature Game was going to be another Swords & Wizardry session, using Math Finch’s Tomb of the Iron God.  Last month we had a real blast with the Quick Start Rules so I was curious to see if […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: old school, Sword and Wizardry

Making Your 5×5 Campaign Plan Into A Grid

September 30, 2009 by guest

Maybe it’s the gamer in me but when I first read the post title “The 5×5 Method” I immediately visualized a grid. When I read Dave’s post, I got that feeling but it seemed more like a tree than a grid with branches flowing from one another and even sometimes intersecting.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, campaign planning, gm advice, planning, The 5x5 Method

YouTube Tuesday: Auto Tune Cosmos Edition

September 29, 2009 by Dave

By popular request, and in the spirit of some old favorites, there’s this.

Filed Under: Music, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television, YouTube Tuesday Tagged With: carl sagan, music video, stephen hawking

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • Dave

    Dave "The Game" Chalker is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Critical Hits. Since 2005, he has been bringing readers game news and advice, as well as editing nearly everything published here. He is the designer of the Origins Award-winning Get Bit!, a freelance designer and developer, son of a science fiction author, and a Master of Arts. He lives in MD with e and at least three dogs.

    Email: dave@critical-hits.com

    Follow me:

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 © 2026 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in