• 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

Antagonistic Viziers and Fleeing Pickpockets

May 28, 2010 by dixontrimline

There’s been an awful lot of digital ink spilled on many 4E subjects, but I can’t seem to find anything about skill challenges. Har har. But seriously, I know what you’re thinking: “For crying out loud, not another skill challenge article.” In the words of the poets and philosophers, I feel ya, dawg. Even though […]

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, skill challenges

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)

My RPG DNA: Part 2: The Middle Years, GURPS

May 26, 2010 by The Chatty DM

As I grew older, I grew progressively dissatisfied with playing AD&D only. As new RPGs emulating different genres came out, I wanted to experiment them with my friends. However, we soon observed that having to learn a whole new set of rules whenever we felt like switching genres was a significant barrier to entry.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: AD&D, gurps

Mysteries Of The Unknown, Volume XVI: Unhappy Fanboys

May 25, 2010 by Vanir

Like many of you, I spent my Sunday evening in front of my TV, looking for some closure after six years of Lost. Like many of you, I had my theories as to what in the hell was going on, and I’d heard from several sources that the end of this great show wouldn’t disappoint. It was enough for some, but I say we were owed more.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television Tagged With: D&D, damn you j j abrams, death by stoning, Dungeons and Dragons, emotion-destroying koreans, hurley, hurley is the man, jin, john locke, kate, lack, Lost, sawyer, smokey, sun

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

The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 2

May 20, 2010 by Dungeon Master Guys

The second episode of The Dungeon Master Guys podcast is here! We ran into some technical difficulties which lead to the episode being hosted by Chatty DM and Dave the Game, with Newbie DM contributing a segment and being consigned to the editing dungeon. However, we all learned a lot about podcasting, and the next episode should be even better.

Filed Under: Dungeon Master Guys Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, amber diceless, combat length, dm tips, effective narration, gm tips, open design, wolfgang baur

The Downside of Awesome

May 17, 2010 by The Chatty DM

I’ve recently discovered a pattern common to the gaming sessions where I’m not entirely satisfied with the way things went. I realized that it’s partly because encounters reach a state of complexity such that players become confused about the best way to navigate through them. The goal becomes fuzzy or the options are either too numerous or too complex mechanically to be used in full.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, Player Psychology, rule of cool

Mailbag 5 – All By Myself, Part 2

May 17, 2010 by Chris Sims

It ain’t easy DMing, and solo monsters heap some responsibility on your shoulders. You might think that one monster on the field is an easier management task. Sometimes you’re right. But good management starts well before and proceeds throughout an engagement.

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

Contest: Twitterquest!

May 14, 2010 by Bartoneus

Here’s how to enter Twitterquest: Submit your best adventure pitch to us in 127 characters or fewer via Twitter, Facebook, or a comment here on this post. Please only one entry per person per venue/site, so you yourself can submit three unique ideas – one on Facebook, one on Twitter, and one in a comment here.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games

Gears of Ruin: Sabotage! Part 2

May 13, 2010 by The Chatty DM

Amazingly, the Gnome Airship was still intact when the PCs own ship set in formation near it (along the Melorian’s living airship, and the Warforged chaos-propelled aerolith). Viscount Daven Sakran was joyously awaiting for them, all smiles and virginal innocence under the malvolent look of our semi-railroaded Goliath Warden.

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Clockwork D&D, Gears of Ruin, Tropes

« Previous Page
Next Page »

About the Author

  • dixontrimline

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