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You are here: Home / Archives for forgotten realms

A Plot, So Meta

March 24, 2016 by Chris Sims

Canon serves as a framework for a setting, but after that, strict adherence to and advancement of canon along an official timeline is harmful to the setting and its audience.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Movies, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television Tagged With: canon, Curse of Strahd, D&D, Drizzt, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, forgotten realms, metaplot, roleplaying games, Spellplague, star wars, transmedia storytelling, Tropes, vampires, world building, world of darkness

What I Did on My Summer Con Season Vacation

September 5, 2014 by Shawn Merwin

This summer was extra-special. Although I have been exercising my RPG muscles, both personally and professionally, in different directions, there is no ignoring the launch of the new edition. And for someone so steeped in Organized Play, the launch of a new D&D campaign at the start of a new edition of the game is a critical hit.

Filed Under: Columns, Editorial, Know Your Roll, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, Adventurer's League, D&D, D&D 5e, D&D next, Expeditions, forgotten realms, Tyranny of Dragons

“Neverwinter Campaign Setting” Icons for “13th Age”

August 8, 2013 by Dave

I’ve played (and run) a few more sessions of 13th Age since I wrote my first preview, as the rules became more solid and filled out from those first playtests. I was initially more guarded, but since then, my opinion of 13th Age has only gone up. The actual books are making their way into […]

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Game Hacks & Content, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, 13thAge, 4e, D&D, forgotten realms, Neverwinter

Gen Con 2012: D&D Keynote and More

August 22, 2012 by Dave

D&D is in a transitional period, and that showed quite a bit at Gen Con. No longer in one big room at the Sagamore, D&D events were spread out across different rooms in the convention center, with the booth in the exhibit hall focusing mainly on showing off the new MMO expansion, the Lolth statue, and selling branded merchandise. Organized Play such as Living Forgotten Realms and Ashes of Athas kept the torching going for D&D 4e, while other rooms were dedicated to demoing Next. Let’s start with the current offerings from D&D and move forward from there.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, d&d 4e, D&D next, drow, forgotten realms, gen con, Gen Con 2012, Menzoberranzan

Musings on Continuity

April 4, 2012 by mattjames

Sometimes, in any fantasy world where you have invested a large amount of your imagination, you start to append your real-world experiences to those of the characters being portrayed. For example, in the Star Wars universe, characters such as Luke are relatable, in that most people understand the story of “the everyman.” He is compelling because of the extraordinary destiny that lies ahead in his life.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: continuity, dnd, forgotten realms, lucasarts, star wars, starwars, Storytelling

The Smallest Kid in the Sandbox

December 5, 2011 by Shawn Merwin

Designing content in a shared-world setting is fraught with dangers. Disgruntled fans are armed with all manner of weaponry, but none as dreadful as the ‘canon.’

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, campaign design, forgotten realms, lfr, living forgotten realms

Review: D&D Daggerdale

May 25, 2011 by Dave

D&D Daggerdale is the newest D&D video game release from Atari, available for download on PC, Playstation Network, and Xbox Live. We played the Xbox version, using review copies provided from the publisher. A “hack and slash” style game (in the same genre as Diablo, World of Warcraft, and to a lesser extent older D&D games like Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate), the game is touted as the first game to use the D&D 4e ruleset (though the connection is loose, as we’ll discuss) and set in the Forgotten Realms.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games, Video Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D daggerdale, daggerdale, diablo, forgotten realms, hack and slash

The GM: Everyone’s Best Friend

August 20, 2010 by Shawn Merwin

When the GM is everyone’s best friend, no one has to get thrown under the bus.

Filed Under: Editorial, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: adventure design, adventure writing, D&D, forgotten realms, living forgotten realms, organized play

Interview: Matt James, Co-Author of “Monument of the Ancients”

October 6, 2009 by Dave

“Monument of the Ancients“ was published in Dungeon #170 and is an adventure set in the Forgotten Realms for 13th level characters. The capsule description is thus: If myth and legend are to be believed, the antediluvian monument defends a region of Faerûn where the boundary between the world of Toril and the Elemental Chaos […]

Filed Under: Interviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&DI, dungeon, forgotten realms

This s**t is EPIC!

September 23, 2008 by Dave

The Dragon magazine update for today (hurry, grab them as they come out before you have to pay or pirate!) is all about epic destinies for Forgotten Realms. It includes 3 new epic desitines: Elf High Mage, Harper of Legend, and Mythic Sovereign. Elf High Mage starts to become one with magic itself, granting all […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, dragon, faerun, forgotten realms

About the Author

  • Chris Sims

    Chris Sims has played roleplaying games for 35 years, and he has helped produce games for more than a decade. Before he set up his freelance shop in the wilds of Austria, he was an editor, developer, and designer at Wizards of the Coast. There, he worked on Duel Masters, Dungeons & Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering. Ask him something via email that might receive a response in a post, and follow his tweets.

    Email: chris@critical-hits.com

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