• 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 4e

Inquisition: Do You Like Essentials?

September 13, 2010 by Bartoneus

We haven’t done an Inquisition of the Week in a while, and though we don’t plan on doing them every week I will simply call this an Inquisition as we will be doing one every now and then. Today I’d like to ask all of you about the Essentials line of products for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition that are releasing this month, starting with the Red Box that is already out and continuing for the next few months with the limited run of products.

Filed Under: Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, essentials

Critical Hits Podcast #22: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 1)

September 7, 2010 by Dave

As part of my ongoing campaign, I was able to inflict, I mean, run the 4e conversion of the Tomb of Horrors (from the DM Rewards program) for my regular group as part of a flashback to a previous group of heroes. The further they got in the adventure, the more information revealed for when their regular characters would tackle the older version of the classic dungeon.

Filed Under: Critical Hits Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Actual Play, tomb of horrors

Minions on the Table

September 2, 2010 by Chris Sims

Monsters can lose a battle before it begins if they have bad tactical positions. This is even truer with minions. Even if we assume, narratively, that your minions have no way to know they’re little competition for the characters, the creatures have a reason to seize tactical advantages.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, borderlands, D&D, DM advice, dungeon master, encounter design, minion, monster, monster design

The New D&D Starter Red Box: A Chatty and Nico Review

August 24, 2010 by The Chatty DM

The first product of the D&D Essentials product line, while likely to be the target of hordes of people who will complain that it is not what it could never be… is what I wished I opened in 1986.

It is an introduction to the D&D game that goes directly to the heart of things.

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Cook, d&d 4e, D&D essentials, Dungeons & Dragons, essentials, Mentzer, playing with children, playing with kids, red box, starter set

Minions of Differing Flavors

August 19, 2010 by Chris Sims

Just like the epicure needs new and exciting experiences, numerous DMs among us need new ways to mix it up with minions. This is especially true if you feel your minions disappear too quickly to be interesting or seem to be no added challenge. I’m going to attempt to, as an infamous chef might say, help you to kick it up a notch . . . sometimes.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, DM advice, dungeon master, encounter design, minion, monster, monster design

What I Learned DMing for 10,000 Players

August 13, 2010 by Shawn Merwin

My first blog, in which I reveal how little I know, and probably would tick off E.M. Forster if he wasn’t dead.

Filed Under: Editorial, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3e, 4e

Gen Con 2010: Drinking Dungeons & Dragons

August 11, 2010 by Dave

Now years ago, it started as a joke: making a drinking game out of 4e Dungeons & Dragons. After that, it became an annual tradition at Gen Con for some of our closest blogger friends those first two years, run by ChattyDM. I offered to step in and spear-head the DD&D game, if he would collaborate with me and run a second table. An accord was struck and the planning began: a Drinking Dungeons & Dragons event for Gen Con to top all the previous.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, dd&d, gen con, gen con 2010

Gen Con 2010: D&D New Products Seminar

August 7, 2010 by Dave

Gen Con is one of two places to get all the big news in D&D for the next year (their own D&D XP convention being the other.) Like last year, we live-tweeted the announcements as they came in, but here’s a basic write-up of the seminar all in one place. We’ll also have photos of the different products later when we have access to a better internet connection.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, gencon, gencon2010

Dark Sun Heats Up

July 30, 2010 by Bartoneus

We are fortunate enough to have received copies of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting and the Dark Sun Creature Catalog today, and as usual we’d love to share anything and everything that we can with you guys! Earlier today I offered to answer questions via twitter (@Bartoneus) and here are some of the questions I was asked and the answers I provided (names were removed for privacy and simplicity)

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, 4th Edition, campaign setting, creature catalog, D&D, dark sun, darksun, Dungeons and Dragons, preview, q&a, question and answer

The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 4

July 29, 2010 by Dungeon Master Guys

In our pre-Gen Con episode 4, Newbie talks about railroading, Chatty DM gives some tips on how to keep players focused at the table, and Dave the Game outlines how to run a flashback adventure.

Filed Under: Dungeon Master Guys Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM advice, dm tips

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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/

    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 © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in