Hey, how have you been? Yes, I still haunt this space, especially when my brain desires to share something that tickled its fancy in a way that Twitter isn’t suited to convey. A short while ago, I was looking for a way to break the encroaching creative inertia preying on my brain. I decided to dig into my PDF library of RPGs and look at “The Magus“. I had bought it last year during a Twitter-driven “Sell me an amazing Indie RPG” thread but I hadn’t gotten to reading it yet. All I remembered was that it looked gorgeous. The Magus is an award-winning tabletop solo journaling RPG… Wait Chatty, W ..read more

We’re in the final hours of the Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game Kickstarter, a co-production of us here at Critical-Hits Studios and Greater Than Games. Based on the world of Sentinel Comics (especially the card game Sentinels of the Multiverse), the Sentinel Comics RPG lets you take the role of a hero in the Sentinel Comics world, either an existing hero or one of your own creation. We have been working on the game for over 4 years now, engaging in at least 100 playtests. The first introductory product was the Starter Kit that let players try the system out. Now, the Kickstarter will lead t ..read more

It was a tome of magic for me back then. What does D&D mean to me? My friend Shawn Merwin asked me to write about this question, and record the response for his podcast. I don’t have recording gear (or skills), so I just wrote this piece. He recorded it for his podcast. The question itself brings up all sorts of feelings and memories. It’s an important question, because some might think after being laid off (twice) while working on D&D, I might have negative feelings about it. I don’t. From the heady days of first gaming in 1981 to today, working on three or four different game proje ..read more

Cortex Plus is an imminently hackable system. From the relationships of Smallville, the action of Leverage, and the powersets of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying I often hack Cortex Plus and apply it to a variety of genres, settings, and intellectual property. Having played in a game that began as Pathfinder and switched to MHRP and kept the same setting, I have experience in crafting MHRP to fit unusual circumstances. I have used MHRP as a basis for changing and epic level Pathfinder game into a more story-telling emphasized hack of MHRP. What follows are some of the more interesting applications th ..read more

The 2012 ENnie Award nominations are out, if you haven’t heard. Just as in previous years, here’s my thoughts on some of the nominees, particularly the ones that I’ve read or played. Critical Hits didn’t enter anything this year, but both Chatty DM and I both worked on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying which is up for several awards this year, so we’re very proud of that. And as has been the case for the past 2-3 years, there’s plenty of great games that have come out this past year that are worthy of your attention. Thanks to the ENnie Award website for the list. Best Adventure Dead Rock Seven  ..read more

After reading the Leverage and Smallville RPGs, I was tempted to base my Torg hack on Smallville, but once I had it in my hands, I knew that my hack needed to be based on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. Torg ultimately is a cinematic game. It’s full of action, and while drama certainly can be part of Torg, it’s not inter-PC drama like in Smallville. Leverage ultimately wasn’t a great fit either since there are so many different archetypes in Torg, whereas Leverage features a team that where each person still has skills in all aspects of a con (though with different specialties). Although my Torg ha ..read more

ID: May Parker (secret) Affiliations Solo d8, Buddy d10, Team d6 Distinctions Herald Of Galactus, Little Old Lady, Always Worrying About Poor Peter Power Sets The Power Cosmic Cosmic Blast d12, Godlike Strength d12, Godlike Durability d12, Godlike Speed d12, Superluminal Flight d12, Telepathy d10, Telekinesis d10, Intangibility d10, Transmutation d10, Godlike Durability d12, Godlike Senses d12, Time Travel d10 SFX: Multipower. Use two or more The Power Cosmic powers in a single dice pool at -1 step for each additional power Limit: Galactus’s Whim. Shutdown The Power Cosmic if Galactus wills i ..read more

30 Second Summary D&D 4e is a wonderful refined combat-focused RPG but it scales poorly as levels increase. While many of the elements of 4e scale along a linear path, many powers and effects scale at a much greater rate resulting in large imbalances between PCs and the threats they face at higher levels. This makes it hard for dungeon masters to challenge PCs. The best way to stay ahead of this curve? First, stick to heroic-tier campaigns and second, stick to post-Essentials D&D source material. The Linear Power Curve of 4e Most of the progression of 4e follows a nice straight linear ..read more

The key to my heart is, well, my heart. I need to have an emotional connection to something or I’ll get bored. That’s why it’s really not a surprise to me that the right music in something that’s otherwise mediocre can win me over, and the right music in something really great can push me into being a rabid fan. I had to watch Star Wars: Episode 1 several times before I was sure it was bad. Stupid John Williams. When I was a kid, music in videogames was kind of a new thing. Some games would play a little electronic ditty during intermissions, like the Pac-Man series. (My favorite is the first ..read more

Introduction Full disclosure: I am not a journaling game fan. Except. I blame this story on Dave Chalker, who came home from a game convention and mentioned a journaling game called Hope is Not a Plan by Steve Wright, published by Deus Ex Minima and distributed online by Exalted Funeral. This journaling game is about project managers and projects spiraling out of control to horrific, inescapable conclusions where everyone gets fired and fed to the piranhas. Part of me wanted to run in fear since projects that spun out of control to horrific, inescapable conclusions litter my professional caree ..read more