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You are here: Home / Archives for origins 2009

Origins 2009: Monte Cook “Designing A Better Dungeon”

July 5, 2009 by Dave

Dungeons are often maligned as an old fashioned way to do a D&D adventure. Monte loves dungeons, and thinks they are a great way to tell an adventure. In 3e DMG, dungeons are cool because if you step back from them and look at them in the abstract, they’re just adventure flowcharts.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games Tagged With: dungeon a day, dungeon design, monte cook, origins, origins 2009

Origins 2009: Exhibit Hall in Words, Pictures, and Sounds

July 2, 2009 by Dave

One of the biggest draws of any big game convention is the exhibit hall, and Origins is no exception. This year saw a return to using the entirety of the exhibit hall for booths. There’s always plenty for gamers to spend their hard earned cash on, and this year saw a number of new releases, as well as some hidden gems recommended to me by other show-goers that may have been around previously.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Hits Podcast, Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: origins, origins 2009

Origins 2009: D&D 4e Villains Seminar

July 1, 2009 by Dave

At Origins 2009, Rodney Thompson and Robert Schwab hosted a seminar (courtesy of the RPGA) about designing villains for your 4e game. The seminar described the process of doing the villain design, from role in the campaign to touching on some of the mechanics you might use. Here’s my notes from the session.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, origins, origins 2009, villains

Origins 2009: Ultimate Dungeon Delve

June 30, 2009 by Dave

A few weeks back, I spotted on Twitter a new D&D event that would be held at Origins. It was the Ultimate Dungeon Delve, a timed test of our ability to get through 6 combat encounters with a 6th level team of 5 adventurers that we bring to the table. I immediately recruited Krog the spreadsheet barbarian and Geek’s Dream Girl to help me put together a team.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, dungeon delve, origins, origins 2009

Origins 2009: Monte Cook “Being A Better Game Master”

June 26, 2009 by Dave

When asked to sum up the essence of being a game master, Monte often responds with something smart-alek like “everything I know could fill up a book… and so I did and WotC published it.”

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: being a better GM, gm advice, monte cook, origins 2009, seminar

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    Dave "The Game" Chalker is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Critical Hits. Since 2005, he has been bringing readers game news and advice, as well as editing nearly everything published here. He is the designer of the Origins Award-winning Get Bit!, a freelance designer and developer, son of a science fiction author, and a Master of Arts. He lives in MD with e and at least three dogs.

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