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You are here: Home / Archives for D&D

Storytelling and Pacing: Why a D&D Movie is Doomed and Could Still Be Awesome

August 11, 2015 by Shawn Merwin

While other companies made their big announcements and rolled out their newest projects at Gen Con last week, the biggest news in RPGs broke on the Monday following Gen Con: a settlement was reached in the proceedings to sort out who had the rights to a D&D-based movie.

Filed Under: Columns, Know Your Roll, Movies, Newest Critical Hits, News, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: D&D, D&D movie

Murder Hobos and Empire

August 10, 2015 by multiplexer

Nothing lasts forever unless it exists in a hermetically sealed box. But the Elves are smart and they stack the deck. These particular Elves (good and shining all) built their Empire like so.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, Dwarves, economics, Elves, gaming, History

The Lost Shrine of the Trickster God: GMing at Conventions

July 28, 2015 by The Chatty DM

There’s something about running games for complete strangers at conventions that morphs a seemingly mundane tabletop RPG session into an unpredictable and riveting experience worth writing stories about.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: convention tips, D&D, DMing Advice

The Great Sigil Trading House, or, “Elysium Wool Is Soooo Hot Right Now”

May 10, 2015 by multiplexer

Don’t, they point out, ship goods across downtown Sigil. Don’t be the tiny bison guy. Use the gate towns. That’s what they’re for – so to speak. Build up big warehouse networks, find goods on Planes, and move in bulk. Bulk is where the big money is at.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, economics, gaming, planescape, sigil

Breaking: “Dragon+” Magazine App Comes to the iOS Store

April 30, 2015 by Dave

After months of speculation following the launch of D&D 5e and the cessation of the digital versions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines as part of the D&D Insider program in 4th edition, the new version of Dragon has seemingly emerged: on the iOS app store.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, app, D&D, D&D 5, dragon

The Index Card Method Codex, Part 2

April 22, 2015 by The Chatty DM

A stack is a great inspiration tool when you’re looking for what happens next, especially when you run a no-prep style game. When you’re thinking about what comes next in play, just pick up your stack and go through it. You might find something that inspires a whole scene, especially if you keep up-to-date notes.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, D&D, dungeon world, GM, GMing, gming advice, Gming tools

The Index Card Method Codex, Part 1

April 20, 2015 by The Chatty DM

I’ve been using index cards as a GMing tool a lot this last year. In July, I posted about using them to create adventures in your downtime. I’ve since found new uses for them and brought everything together in this post.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Campaign Logs, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, D&D, dungeon world, GM, GMing, gming advice, Gming tools

Review: WotC’s “D&D Gaming Enhancer”

April 1, 2015 by Vanir

“D&D Gaming Enhancer”, as the product is labeled, is a viscous green liquid designed to “make gaming better.” Wizards of the Coast has opted to ship one gallon of the substance to every owner of the Player’s Handbook.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: april fools, D&D

Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #7: Asking Loaded Questions

March 31, 2015 by The Chatty DM

As I mused on the session during the ensuing weekend, I realized that I might have rediscovered some of the best dirty GMing tricks I’d read in small-press RPGs like Dread. Asking loaded question can indeed steer a player’s action.

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Leading questions, Zen and the Art of DMing

A Quick D&D 5e Spellcasting Primer

March 12, 2015 by Dave

New to D&D 5e and interested in a spellcasting character? Here’s what you need to know.

Filed Under: Columns, Critical Threats, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, D&D 5e

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About the Author

  • Shawn Merwin

    Shawn Merwin is a freelance writer/editor and game designer with delusions of adequacy and a penchant for games and stories. He's worked on several organized play campaigns: Living Greyhawk, Xen'drik Expeditions, Living Kalamar, Living Forgotten Realms, and D&D Adventurer's League to name a few. His design work for Wizards of the Coast includes Dungeon Delve, Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress, and Halls of Undermountain, as well as two seasons of the D&D Encounters Program. His most recent project is co-designing and editing the Fate-powered game Part-Time Gods of Fate for Encoded Designs. You can follow Shawn on Twitter.

    Email: shawn.merwin@critical-hits.com

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