• 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 Roleplaying Games

A Wry Look at un-News and the Speed of Gossip

April 7, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I won’t comment much on Wizards’ decision to pull PDF from 3rd party vendors, many others, more apt at ranting or having a better perspective than me, have already done so.   I’ve stopped trying to understand WotC’s business practices and I do like any prudent customer’s does, if it’s a good product, I’ll buy […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

PDFs Want To Be Free

April 7, 2009 by Dave

While I’m a big proponent of open source and creative commons, I’ve understood past efforts to protect intellectual property. Shutting down the power card sites was unfortunate to those of us who found them to be a big aid at the table, but there were many good reasons not to open the door to all sorts of legal challenges later. But shutting down PDF sales with almost no notice and taking them inhouse? It just doesn’t seem to add up. Especially since there’s no alternative in place to buy them.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: drm, pdfs, piracy

DM Chronicles, Session 13: Crunchy Finale, Part 2

April 6, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. Anti-climatic Finale After the Gnoll lieutenant’s infernal challenge, the party surveyed the room for threats.  The room was two-tiered. On the ground floor was a great minotaur idol sitting behind a boiling cauldron from which noxious fumes emerged. A mezzanine was accessible by a short set of stairs.  On the mezzanine […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Tropes

Yay! My adventure was announced!!!

April 6, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Well, the anthology that my adventure will appear in was announced . Goodman Games will be publishing an anthology of D&D 4e side adventures that DMs can insert when the PCs must travel from one point to the next in their adventure. It will be called From Here to There.  The anthology will feature 9 […]

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

DM Chronicles, Session 13: Crunchy Finale, Part 1

April 5, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Chatty’s game: Our heroes faced the second and third test of Baphomet, dodging magical mirrors, exploding skeletons, pools of blood and mechanical minotaurs to recover the relic keys needed to open the complex’s Inner Sanctum.  Only one remains and saving the last two slaves will be within their grasps. Last Friday was to […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign

Pain of Campaigning: XIX Getting My Hands Dirty

April 3, 2009 by The Main Event

Last week I dealt with brainstorming for my military-based high fatality huge party epic campaign. This week, I’m going to elaborate on a few of the underlying concepts for the campaign. What follows are my preliminary rules/fluff for the game, subject to further consideration and reader feedback.

Filed Under: Featured, Pain of Publication, Roleplaying Games

Open Game Table RPG Blog Anthology

April 2, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Yesterday, as I was leaving home to go and have lunch my good friend TheMaze I saw a big envelope in my mailbox. The sender was Jonathan Jacob, author of The Core Mechanic.  My heart jumped!  It was my contributor’s copy of Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs. This absolutely incredible project […]

Filed Under: blogging, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Sex, Love, and the Races of the PHB2

April 1, 2009 by guest

In honor of the release of the totally awesome PHB2 and Spring, I decided to write about sex, love, and the races of the PHB2.

Ever wonder what a gnome finds sexy? Or how goliaths deal with friction from rubbing lithoderms? Maybe I’m the only one who thinks about these things…

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: april fools, geek love, love, PHB2, races, sex

The Dungeon Reality Show: Half-Time Showdown, Part 2

March 31, 2009 by The Chatty DM

First Down, 5 Kobolds to go Okay so after having, for all intents and purposes, killed the game by the time that 8h PM rolled by, I asked all three players if they’d be willing to play the original 2nd scene of the adventure. I’m grateful that they accepted. As I had planned it, had […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Dungeon Reality Show

Inq. of the Week: PHB2 Power Creep

March 31, 2009 by The Main Event

In the heyday of 3.5 I’d browse every new splat book, not for intriguing new play options (many, many sucked), but for the overpowered Prestige Class de jour. After all, who didn’t want to dip into a single level of six prestige classes for awesome abilities? With a few exceptions, the poor original DMG prestige classes were forgotten, unless of course something new came out that made a dog suddenly viable. Now, with the PHB2 out I was curious to see if this newer, more-balanced D&D suffered the same fate as its predecessors: Power Creep.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: balance, PHB2, power creep

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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

  • scrumptiouslya03b6ac5de on The Fractured Authority Gambit: A 13th Age Game
  • 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

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

  • The Fractured Authority Gambit: A 13th Age Game
  • 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

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