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Stealing From Games (And A Game About Stealing)
I see this a lot among game designers of all kinds, both new and experienced: I really want to use [game mechanism X] but I worry it’ll be too much like [popular game] I am here to set you free and...
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A D&D Lover’s Guide to Other RPGs: “Dungeon World”
I grew up on D&D. From my very first Basic box set (the blue box, discarded as trash by some AD&D-playing friends) to the newest release of 5e, D&D will always be my main game. Over the...
View Article“Basic Dungeons & Dragons” Rules PDF is Online
In the same general timeframe as the D&D Starter Set, we have the totally free PDF download of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules, the most complete look at the new edition of D&D that has...
View ArticleD&D: Breaking (is) Bad
For an article I first posted almost exactly two-and-a-half years ago, just a few days after I had learned a new edition of D&D was in the works, I sat myself down and did an honest assessment of...
View ArticleBreaking D&D 2: Electric Bugaloo
The response to my last article D&D: Breaking (is) Bad was astonishing in both volume and depth of thought. I received more emails than ever before from people wanting to talk to me directly about...
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Adventure Creation Hacks: Two Methods
As I grow older, I find it harder to spend quality time prepping my regular RPG sessions. I often default to relying on my experience and my ability to improvise at the table. Most of the time, those...
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First Impressions Review: “Player’s Handbook” for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
I’m going to assume that if you’re here on Critical Hits, you know D&D. As such, I’m not going to go into the history of D&D editions, the open playtesting process, anything about nostalgia,...
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Dungeons & Dragons “Monster Manual” Preview: The Bulette!
Our unofficial mascot here at Critical Hits, since nearly the beginning, has been the powerful combination of an Umber Hulk riding a Bulette. These creatures, not traditionally known for their...
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10 Things I Dig About the New “Monster Manual” (And 5 I Don’t)
I was one of the fortunate few to get my grubby mitts on an advance copy of the Monster Manual for Dungeons & Dragons. We’ll have a full review of the book in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I...
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Target Mapping your Monsters: Worldbuilding via the “Monster Manual”
At GenCon this year, I got a copy of the new Monster Manual. It’s a beautiful book, but one I opened nervously. I’ve never been good at using monster books. The monsters inside look cool, but I have...
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Review: “Monster Manual” for “Dungeons & Dragons” 5th Edition
While we’ve applied great attention to the new Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Player’s Handbook, it falls to the Monster Manual to fill in the other half of the D&D equation. Monsters exist so...
View ArticleUbiDungeon World: The Elven Tower, Part 1
I started running a Dungeon World game at the office. We play for 90 min once a week, during lunch. I don’t feel like writing a 2000 word account putting everything in context, so let’s be gonzo today!...
View ArticleStarting from Scratch: The Great Dungeon
With an opening in our gaming schedule, my weekday game group had to decide its fate. We were caught in the tabletop conundrum of the ages – Magic: The Gathering or RPGs? We thus began some soul...
View ArticleThe Great Dungeon #1 – Dungeoneers
Check out the first installment on how this game came to be. My goals going in to the first adventure of The Great Dungeon were: Player-Driven World Building A unique ‘dungeon’ with a fun twist and...
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Review: “Dungeon Master’s Guide” for “Dungeons & Dragons” 5th Edition
Back when D&D 3e came out in 2000, the Player’s Handbook came out before the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master’s Guide (which is why, thanks to the OGL, there was a 3rd party monster book available...
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The Great Dungeon #2 – Storefronts, Slug Love, and Metamatter
Check out the first installment on how this game came to be. Then, read how the first adventure went. Dramatis Personae Meathead (Pronounced Me-Thea-Ad) – Vulgar Dwarf Fighter Jake – Tiefling...
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My 2014 as a Freelance Game Designer
In 2013, I had what I was thinking of as a rebuilding year. I was fresh off some major projects (that didn’t quite end to my satisfaction) and so I had to figure out just what I wanted to be doing as a...
View ArticleThe Murder Hobo Investment Bubble
The Murder Hobos sit across the table from the Old Man in the darkened, road side Inn. The Old Man proposes a mission to the group: goblins infest the hills outside town. And goblins, as we know, are...
View ArticleAnd Now, a Commercial Break from Big Fantasy God,Inc.
Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain. – Friedrich Schiller In the Before Times when life was good and complex financial instruments unimagined, Gods operated at a small, local...
View ArticleMurder Hobo Insurance and the Guild of Abjuration
In the Beginning, Fire Insurance Albrecht Gerber was not an adventuring Abjuration wizard. He was a portly, balding, sedentary, entrepreneurial wizard with less interest in magic than money. He...
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