• 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

Inq. of the Week: Roleplaying with Minis?

April 13, 2009 by Bartoneus

As I mulled over some topics on boardgames, my mind was still wandering back to the D&D game I ran on Saturday, so today we have a topic that spans between D&D and boardgames!

Filed Under: Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, D&D, Inquisition of the Week, miniatures, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

Preview: Ranged Warlord

March 27, 2009 by Bartoneus

When preview material for the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons first started to come out, what excited me the most was probably the addition of the Warlord class. The Races & Monsters preview book described the class alongside pictures of armored warriors covered in weapons (both melee and ranged). When 4e was finally released the Warlord class was extremely interesting but it completely lacked that “Weapons Master” feel…

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Comics, Featured, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: 4th Edition, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, martial power, ranged warlord, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

Open Game Table: Anthology

March 11, 2009 by Bartoneus

Our friend Jonathan over at The Core Mechanic has announced the release date for his first Open Game Table project, The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs. This anthology is a great collection of RPG blog posts, chosen by members of the community, that represent some of the best in roleplaying game information on the internet.

Filed Under: Critical Bits, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: anthology, open game table, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

Inq. of the Week: Campaigning?

February 3, 2009 by Bartoneus

For this week what has been on my mind is how my D&D campaign is going to progress into the future, both Dave and I are running games right now and our players have just reached mid-heroic tier, which means there are many new possibilities opening up to them and us as DMs.

Filed Under: Comics, Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: campaign, D&D, dnd, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

Mages Gone Wild

January 26, 2009 by Dave

Let us take a short trip back in time, to an earlier era of D&D. It was the age of AD&D 2nd Edition, the edition that my group and I really cut our teeth on. The first character I brought to the table was an Elven Psionicist named Spock (The Complete Psionics Handbook being the […]

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, classes, D&D, dnd, Dungeons and Dragons, PHB2, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games, sorcerer, wild mage

Four Concepts Adrift in D&D

January 21, 2009 by The Main Event

With the impending release of the PHB2, and the general notion of what will be included, it occurred to me that even with these classes there seem to be some fairly reasonable character concepts that just don’t seem to mesh well with D&D. This article will identify those concepts, identify where I perceive the shortcoming in bringing the concept to fruition, and take a stab at how to solve this problem.

Filed Under: Comics, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, classes, concepts, D&D, dnd4e, Dungeons and Dragons, pcs, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

Inq. of the Week: PHB2 Classes?

January 19, 2009 by Bartoneus

Our previous Inquisition focused on a topic near and dear to many RPG players, and can even make or break a person’s whole opinion of a system depending on how it works, systems for magic. I have to say that I’m not surprised to see my personal favorite system, Free Form Magic, come in first place with 27% of the votes.

Filed Under: Comics, Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, class roles, classes, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, magic, PHB2, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

The Rule of C4

January 8, 2009 by Bartoneus

The trigger happy attitude displayed by many characters and parties in D&D is notorious, prone to looting everyone/thing within groping range; a typical group of adventurers in a fantasy tabletop setting isn’t exactly known for leaving places intact when they blow into town. This player/party attitude is brought to the forefront when explosives enter play, but the other thing it does for many players is opens up their tactical and strategic ability. This is why I believe the Rule of C4 should not be quickly or idly dismissed as more of the “Michael Bay” syndrome that many fear happening to their precious D&D campaigns.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, dnd, Dungeons and Dragons, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games, rule of cool

‘The Magic Bullet for Publication’ by Wolfgang Baur

January 6, 2009 by Bartoneus

Kobold Quarterly was kind enough to offer up a chapter from The Kobold Guide to Game Design Volume II: How to Pitch, Playtest, and Publish by Wolfgang Baur, presented by Open Design. I was given the choice between two chapters and decided to leave it to the best decision maker, and rolled a d20. Suprisingly it came up a 20, and so I went with the “high” option which I’m very happy with, titled “The Magic Bullet for Publication”.

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: design, game design, kobold guide to design, kobold quarterly, publication, publishing, Reviews, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games, woflgang baur

When Horror Meets Awesome: CthulhuTech

January 2, 2009 by Bartoneus

One thing that I never really expected to see released as an official product is the melding of the Cthulhu mythos with a futuristic-anime style setting, which is exactly what CthulhuTech presents.

Filed Under: Anime, Featured, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: call of cthulhu, cthulhu, cthulhutech, horror, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games

« 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