Critical Hits » Critical Hits Podcast

Steve Townshend on Adventure Design Podcast

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:47:05 +0000

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Steve Townshend, freelance WotC designer and trained actor, discuss the ins and outs of great adventure design in this most recent Critical Hits podcast. Listen in as Steve gives his three top tips for good adventure design, discusses how to draw players into the story, gives ideas on making your players love your NPCs, and discusses improvisation tips for being an active storyteller at your table.

Steve Townshend on Adventure Design (67 minutes, 69 MB)

[Download MP3 Version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Steve’s work:

Critical Hits Podcast #34: The Id DM and the Psychology of D&D

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:00:51 +0000

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Michael Mallen, practicing psychologist and author of the Id DM D&D blog, discuss the psychology of the gaming table. This podcast discusses some of Mallen’s excellent studies into the mind of the players and the dungeon master and statistical studies of the Penny Arcade D&D podcasts.

Psychology of D&D (70 minutes, 69 MB)

[Download MP3 version|Podcast Feed|iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #33: Erik Scott De Bie and Mike Shea on Sandbox Gaming

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:36:33 +0000

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Erik Scott De Bie, author of Gloomwrought, the Neverwinter Campaign Setting, Shadowbane, and more, discuss sandbox gaming, especially how it relates to Dungeons & Dragons. How to run your game in a way that gives plenty of options without driving yourself crazy, top tips for keeping a sandbox campaign running, incorporating character backgrounds into sandbox play, what level of preparation you need for running a sandbox game, the mix of roleplaying vs. combat in a sandbox game, and much more.

Sandbox Gaming (62 minutes, 57 MB)

[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #32: Mike Shea and Dave Chalker on Epic Tier Play

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:30:21 +0000

I’m interviewed by Mike Shea of Slyflourish about the epic tier of play in D&D 4th Edition, as we compare our experiences running and what we like and don’t like about levels 21 to 30 of D&D. We talk about the five biggest tips for running epic games, running an epic level finale session with nine players, designing epic tier encounters, how to tweak the upper levels of an epic tier campaign for more playability, using epic level monsters, designing encounters, and more.

Epic Tier Games (55 minutes, 52MB)

[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Since it’s between 99% and 100% useful, be sure to check out Mike’s “Running Epic Tier D&D Games” book.

Critical Hits Podcast #31: Quinn Murphy and Mike Shea on Skill Challenges

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:06:54 +0000

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish talks to Quinn Murphy of At-Will about skill challenges. Learn the top 3 tips for effective skill challenges. Get the hot button questions answered like when to say or hide the fact that players are in a skill challenge, how do you write up skill challenges, how to add interesting choices into skill challenges, how to engage players in a skill challenge, using skill challenges in combat, and much more.

Be sure to check out the Worldbreakers series and Etherkai, the Nightmare Dragon, both mentioned in the show.

Skill Challenges (63 minutes, 61MB)

[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #30: Chris Sims and Mike Shea on Encounter Design

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:24:12 +0000

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish continues his interview series by talking to Chris Sims (author of many D&D products, as well as the Analysis Paralysis columnist) about designing encounters in D&D 4e. Learn about how a professional adventure writer comes up with his encounters (both for print and for his home game) and listen to two experienced DMs compare notes on effective encounters. Learn about how to handle such tricky situations as three way encounters, adding motivations to encounters to add more depth, and how to “cheat” to be ready for your players.

Encounter Design (63 minutes, 61MB)

[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #29: Randall Walker and Mike Shea on Terrain

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:53:45 +0000

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish interviewed Randall Walker of Initiative or What? (Deadorcs on Twitter) about the use of terrain in your 4e D&D game. Learn how to effectively use terrain to mix up your encounters and hear plenty of ideas on how to take an ordinary monster fight and give it a whole new dimension by shaping the battlefield. Also learn tips about using and making physical terrain in order to give your encounters another dimension.

Additional Reading:

Terrain in 4e (70 minutes, 66 MB)

[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #28: Mike Shea and Matt James on Power Creep

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:41:42 +0000

What is power creep? How does it manifest in 4e? What are some of the consistently problematic examples? How can a DM deal with all those many classes, races, powers, and items out there? These questions and more are discussed by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Matt James of Loremaster.

Further Reading:

Robert Schwalb’s Stuck in the Middle

Power Creep in 4e (67 minutes, 65 MB)

[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #27: The Out

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:10:35 +0000

Mike Shea, guest writer here and head honcho of Sly Flourish, interviewed me once again, this time about “The Out,” a method for shortening combats by defining alternative ways that the battle can end instead of one side or the other being wiped out. We discuss why to use it, how to implement it, planning it, some potential pitfalls to using it, and more.

Pax East 2011: House Rules and Stealing from Other Games in RPGs

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:14:23 +0000

Prior to this year’s PAX East, we pitched three panels about RPGs. One was accepted, with the following description:

Most Game Masters do it. Hacking your favourite RPG is as old as the hobby itself. However, one can often get bogged down with rules that defeat their intent and make the game less fun. Others have so many house rules that players and master alike get confused and lose sense of what game they’re playing. That’s why we invite you to join 3 well-known RPG bloggers from Critical-Hits and At-Will to discuss how to design, test, and organize house rules. They’ll also tell you how to explore other classic and modern RPGs to “borrow” their best ideas into your games and give you tangible examples.

Panelists include: Dave Chalker [Editor-in-Chief, Critical-Hits], Phil Menard [Featured Bloggers, Critical-Hits], Quinn Murphy [Editor-in-Chief, At-Will]

We were happy to have our panel accepted, but it wasn’t until we got there that it sunk in how big this was. While we’ve all done panels before, nothing would prepare us for something of this size. Pax has a much more limited seminar schedule, which means there’s more attention on each panel. People lining up in advance is common, as is getting turned away.

While to our knowledge everyone who wanted to get in did, we still had well over 300 people in the audience. That’s by far the biggest seminar I’ve ever been on, and we even were up against the also excellent Game Design is Mind Control panel.

I am happy to say that I thought the panel went quite well, despite largely being planned during dinner right before the panel (on the plus side, Phil, Quinn, and I invented a game during that same dinner.)

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish recorded the panel and was kind enough to share the recording with me, so I thank him for letting us share the seminar with everyone.. There are always difficulties in recording seminars, especially between audio levels and audience members who don’t have a microphone, but I hope that doesn’t stop you from learning something.

House rules and stealing from other games in RPGs seminar at Pax East 2011 (58 minutes, 28 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

I’d also like to invite everyone, whether you were at the actual panel or just listening to it now, to ask us any questions about the topic, and we’ll do our best to answer. Thanks again to everyone who came out to support us on the panel, and maybe we can do another seminar next year!

Critical Hits Podcast #26: Lessons from the Paragon Tier

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:00:21 +0000

Mike Shea, guest writer here and head honcho of Sly Flourish, interviewed me about the recently completed paragon tier in my campaign. Mike has run a campaign all the way from level 1 to level 30 so he’s experienced with finishing all 3 tiers, and was interested in comparing our two experiences. We talk about top tips for running paragon, issues of plot, world-hopping, combat speed, character effectiveness, the 5×5 method in actual play, and more.

This is an informal chat between two DMs, talking about our games. Hopefully you can take some of our lessons and apply them to your own campaign. For a similar look at heroic tier, be sure to take a look at my wrap-up of those levels. For the paragon finale itself, I discuss it in The 5×5 Dungeon: The Temple of Elemental Evil.

Lessons from the Paragon Tier (50 minutes, 46 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Critical Hits Podcast #25: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 4)

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:50:31 +0000

In part 1, our party ventured into the Tomb. In part 2, the party came across three chests and fought the denizens of those chests. Part 3 involved exploring a long corridor filled with images of all kinds of creatures holding different colored spheres, a three-armed statue, and another mysterious gateway… which teleported them back to the beginning, sans some of their magic items.

We pick up with the party re-exploring the entrance and finding a passageway they missed the first time around, and getting into a combat against a four-armed gargoyle. You’ll also hear my terrible miniature-related secret outed by my players.

Tomb of Horrors Actual Play, Part 4 (45 minutes, 29 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Opening Theme: “Exciting Trailer” by Kevin MacLeod

Critical Hits Podcast #24: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 3)

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:01:15 +0000

WARNING: To those of you who didn’t like some of the extra background noises in the last one (specifically the snacking sounds), there is still some of that here, so skip over this one if it bugged you before.

In part 1, our party ventured into the Tomb. In part 2, the party came across three chests and fought the denizens of those chests. Part 3 picks up after the combat when the cleric had dropped and was starting to bleed out. The party explores a bit more and comes across a hallway filled with glyphs of varying descriptions… and comes across another mysterious portal.

Tomb of Horrors Actual Play, Part 3 (45 minutes, 29 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Opening Theme: “Exciting Trailer” by Kevin MacLeod

Critical Hits Podcast #23: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 2)

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:21:50 +0000

Running the 4e conversion of the Tomb of Horrors (from the DM Rewards program) continues. In part 1, the party ventured into the Tomb and explored the first hallway, encountering pit traps and riddles. At the end of the hallway, they ignore a certain green devil face (with a darkened mouth) to all leap into a portal. We pick up right there afterward.

As one precaution, there’s a bit of combat in this one. If you’re not a fan of 4e combats, you might want to be prepared to skip through some of this.

Tomb of Horrors Actual Play, Part 2 (61 minutes, 29 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Opening Theme: “Exciting Trailer” by Kevin MacLeod

Critical Hits Podcast #22: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 1)

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:56:31 +0000

As part of my ongoing campaign, I was able to inflict, I mean, run the 4e conversion of the Tomb of Horrors (from the DM Rewards program) for my regular group as part of a flashback to a previous group of heroes. The further they got in the adventure, the more information revealed for when their regular characters would tackle the older version of the classic dungeon.

The best part? None of the players had experienced any version of the Tomb of Horrors previously. All the tricks and traps were new to them. Would they defeat the sinister Acererak, or would the classic dungeon consume them?

This recording of our game will be broken up into several chunks (probably around 4), each running from 30 minutes to about an hour. Here is the first part of the session.

Tomb of Horrors Actual Play, Part 1 (35 minutes, 17 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]

Opening Theme: “Exciting Trailer” by Kevin MacLeod

Critical Hits Podcast #21: Red Box Actual Play with Jeremy Crawford

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:00:08 +0000

One part interview, one part actual play, all recorded in the noisy Sagamore ballroom, Jeremy Crawford of Wizards of the Coast ran a short game for a group of the Critical-Hits crew showing off characters made using the new D&D Essentials Red Box. What role is the new Fighter Slayer build? What does halfling blood taste like? Are Wookies really the new PC race? Answers to these questions and much more await within.

Actual Play with Jeremy Crawford (1 hour 45 minutes, 50 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed]

Critical Hits Podcast #20: Interview with Rich Baker and Mike Mearls

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:14:12 +0000

The Friday of Gen Con 2010, Bartoneus and myself sat down with Rich Baker and Mike Mearls of Wizards of the Coast (in the gaming penthouse above their booth) to talk about Dark Sun, Essentials, and beyond. Some of our questions were a bit invalidated by the seminar the next day, but it’s all included for the sake of posterity.

Interview with Rich Baker and Mike Mearls (18 minutes, 9 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed]

Critical Hits Podcast #19: 4e DMing Tips Seminar

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:30:52 +0000

Lead by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish, and joined by Matt James of Loremaster and Dave The Game (myself), the last seminar from synDCon 2010 was about tips for DMs, primarily for 4e D&D but also some help for GMs of all RPGs. The first part focuses on how to plan a game (and the creative process in general) and the last part talks about tips for running at the table, including ways to run initiative and track conditions.

Products mentioned: Masterplan Software, Dark Platypus Action Stands

4e DMing Tips Seminar (50 minutes, 23 MB)

[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed]

Critical Hits Podcast #18: Planning Your Campaign Using the 5×5 Method Seminar

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:06:57 +0000

I gave a talk at synDCon 2010 on how to use the 5×5 Method to plan a campaign arc. I took suggestions from the audience and walked through the process, and by the end, we had the structure to start planning.

This one is a bit more heavily edited, since it was a lot of audience participation and the recorder didn’t pick that up as well. Hopefully it still flows pretty well and you can follow along- be sure that you check out the table below to see the final 5×5 grid.

Planning Your Campaign Using the 5×5 Method Seminar (33 minutes, 14 MB)
[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed]

	Kill Orcus	Purge Genericland from Evil	Bring Back Universal Healing	Collect Magic Dragon Skulls	Find the Artifact
1.	Find Local Cult	Orcish Warband	Discover Necrotic Aura as Source	Find Library	Find the Owner
2.	Confront Doresain	Gnolls	Thrown into Power Struggle	Find Piece A	Chase
3.	Find Abyssal Skiff	Evil Cult	Mingle	B	Chase
4.	Enter the Abyss	Dragon Home	Ally with Church or Nobles	C	Chase
5.	Fight Orcus	Lich Necromancer Vampire	Discover King/Vizier	Gotta Catch ‘Em All	Find It

Video Interview with D&D Creative Manager Chris Perkins

editor@critical-hits.com (Critical-Hits) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:32:14 +0000

Nick interviews D&D Creative Manager Chris Perkins about being a killer DM, running D&D for celebrities, making your NPCs memorable by doing voices, and more.

Special thanks to They’re Using Tools! for their video editing work.

Interview with D&D Creative Manager Chris Perkins (19 minutes, 230 MB video, 14 MB audio)

[Download video iPod version | Download audio-only MP3 version | Podcast Feed]