• 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: 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

Soft Skill Check

October 29, 2013 by Vanir

It comes as little surprise to me, then, that when I look back on all the really good DM’s I’ve ever played with, I see a 10d6 fireball made out of people skills. These people manage to complete the cat-herding ritual that is holding a weekly game night. A lot of them work with their players individually to give each one something personal to enjoy in-game. They manage interpersonal conflicts, both in and out of game. They manage the expectations of their players. And they do it while running a game.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: gm skills, mentoring, people skills, soft skills

Metatopia 2013 Schedule

October 28, 2013 by Dave

Metatopia is a unique convention, added to the roster of Double Exposure conventions. Metatopia covers games of all kinds, from board/card/party games to roleplaying games to live action games. As someone who has interests in all those areas, I’ve been happy to be at Metatopia every time they’ve put the convention on, including this year.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Newest Critical Hits, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: conventions, game design, metatopia, metatopia 2013

The State of D&D, Post-Gen Con 2013

October 2, 2013 by Dave

I feel like this post should start with a Star Wars crawl: “It was a time of great change in Dungeons & Dragons…”

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, News, Roleplaying Games, Video Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, D&D next, dnd, dndnext, gen con, gen con 2013

13th Age Musings: Of Templates, Uniqueness and Adventure Hooks

September 25, 2013 by The Chatty DM

On one hand, I’m excited about creating stories, plots, and themes needed to establish the best possible campaign. I know the game provides me with some solid tools to do just that. On the other hand, I want to fiddle with the very same tools to make them even more useful.

Filed Under: Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, 13thAge, 5x5 method, campaign planning, Freemarket, one unique thing

Visiting The Future Before It Vanishes

September 24, 2013 by Vanir

I have made the drive to Gen Con many times, and it’s about three and a half hours. It’s no grueling cross-country trek, but it has proven boring even with a decent music playlist — especially when I’m driving solo. Having a good audiobook playing made it feel like 15 minutes.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Newest Critical Hits Tagged With: audiobook, book, emotions, ready player one, star wars, thrawn, timothy zahn, vader, wheaton

Review: “13th Age”

September 23, 2013 by Mike Shea

30 Second Summary 13th Age feels like the spiritual successor of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons mixed with the storytelling mechanics of games like Fate and Fiasco. Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet give us a fully refined RPG mixed with a pile of house rules we can drop into any d20 game. While it’s great […]

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, 4e, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Reviews

MODOK’s 11: A Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Event

September 13, 2013 by Dave

This is an event for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, based on the comic mini-series Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK’s 11 by Fred van Lente and Frances Portela. MODOK recruits a gang of D-list villains to steal a powerful prize from a formidable adversary, while the superheroes of the world have their attention drawn elsewhere. It is designed for […]

Filed Under: Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: marvel heroic roleplaying, Marvel RPG, modok

[Review] A Crapton of Awesome Old Electronic Games From My Parents’ Basement

September 10, 2013 by Vanir

After I moved out of the house when I was 20, my parents kept all the stuff from my old room in the closet. I’d periodically take a box or two of it home with me over the years (and the occasional well-deserved “when are you going to take the rest of your stuff”), but […]

Filed Under: Dire Flailings Tagged With: 70s, 80s, arcade, coleco, electronic games, galaxian, merlin, pac man, retro, star wars

Tales From Gen Con 2013

September 6, 2013 by Vanir

Hi-ho, Vanir the blog here. Gen Con has come and gone, and (as usual) I returned full of memories, inspiration, and strange ideas. Here are a few of the highlights of my Gen Con 2013 Experience™: PROTIP Do not start a new job the day after Gen Con. WOW that was dumb. My head was […]

Filed Under: Dire Flailings Tagged With: book signing, cosmic patrol, dangerous games, dread, gen con, gencon, magic the gathering, matt forbeck, mercedes lackey, nascrag, rude people

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • Mike Shea

    Mike Shea is a writer, dungeon master, video gamer, husband, and son of Robert J. Shea. Mike runs the D&D website Sly Flourish, and wrote the books Dungeon Master Tips, The Lazy Dungeon Master, and Running Epic Tier D&D Games. You can email Mike at mike@mikeshea.net.

    Email: mike@mikeshea.netWeb: http://slyflourish.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