Chatty's World Tour 2008: Zurich, Basel and Penzberg
A few weeks ago, I made a joke about feeling like a Rock Star right after Gen Con.
It was a quaint joke and I ran with it here and on Twitter for some time. Pretending to be a Rock Star is probably no worse than an evil Overlord.
Well, here’s an occasion to to play with it some more.
Next month, from October 22 to 25, I will be in Switzerland for my Real Job®. I will be meeting with Alex at the Zurich Central train station at 18h00 on the 22nd for a drink/dinner. I’d love to meet any other Zurich based readers, if there are any.
I will be also in Basel on the 23rd and possibly in Penzberg, Germany on the 24th.
Since airfares are a usually lot cheaper when we stay over a Saturday, I could be somewhere between Munich and Zurich on Saturday and fly back on Sunday.
So if anyone in theses cities want to hook up, have a drink and or a meal, or even better, a game on that Saturday night, let me know in the comments or by email at chattydm@chattydm.net.
Rock on!
Epic Laundry Basket: Arrogance vs Cockiness
One of the things that I associate with success is giving the appearance of fearlessness, of being Gung Ho about one’s abilities. It does not have to resonate true inside but it sure needs to be outside if you want to be taken seriously.
When fame does arrive, people start having reasons to hate you. I guess it’s one of the prices to pay.
One of the easy grip haters will have on you is calling you arrogant.
Arrogance implies that you look down on some people and treat them with disdain. Much like haters do.
Cockiness is close to arrogance and can get irritating at times. However, it’s just overprojected self-confidence, not an imposed sense of superiority.
The line between both can be slim sometimes.
In my upcoming career as a RPG writer (or whatever it is I plan to do), I aim to have my 2 feet well set on the side of cockiness, not arrogance.
I firmly believe that the only time you should look down on someone… is when you help them up.
177 words.
Chatty DM Gets Commonly Creative
As a prelude to opening Chatty Studios (don’t click yet, it will only return you here) and launching Project Kobold Love, I obtained a Creative Commons License for the whole content of my blog (See in blog’s footer).
I chose the Attribution-Non Commercial Canadian license.
What does that mean for people not versed in Intellectual Property management (like me)?
It means that while I own the copyright of all the content I wrote on this blog I allow the following:
You are free:
- to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to Remix — to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
- Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work (i.e. Credit me for the work: Philippe-Antoine Menard).
- Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
- For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work.
- Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
- The author’s moral rights are retained in this licence.
In other words, feel free to use my ideas, change them, hack them, publish them on your web site or in freely available PDFs. You are not free to take my posts, cram them in a RPG book/ Website and charge for the content (Ad revenues are an exception) unless you talk to me first and we discuss licensing of my content.
In the wake of this, I also registered www.chattystudios.com and www.chattydm.com, just to be sure that I had those URLs ready when I need them.
Now that this is out of the way, I’ll go work on the introductory post of Project Kobold Love.
Chatty's Vacations
Depending on how long you have been a reader here, you know that the biggest inside joke here is that whenever I say I’ll stop posting for some time (for whatever reason), it’s usually the best sign that I’m on the verge of starting a posting storm. No wonder I wrote 400 posts in one year.
I am however leaving on vacation next Thursday. I’ll be spending 5 days camping with the whole family (away from electricity and Wifi) and then I’ll have one day to prepare my baggage for Gen Con.
Until then, I still have to get ready for the convetion as I have the following to prepare:
- I have to read some Paizo Pathfinder Society material and I’ll DM an adventure a few times.
- I have to get ready to be a DM for the Ascension of the Drow
- I have to finish preping for my Drunken D&D game that I’ll run for my RPG blogger buddies Dave the Game, Bartoneus, Yax, Dante, Stupid Ranger, Vanir and Bob Younce
- We’ll find a way to chronicle all that craziness and letting you know about it.
- We have a few more details to work out for our GM-Fu: Session Prepping seminar on Saturday
- On top of that I’m participating in a RPG blogger panel on Saturday (thankfully no prep).
- I also have to make a 5th level D&D 4e character for Stupid Ranger’s Out of the Box madness on Sunday Morning
- I’ll also play in DNAPhil’s Iron Heroes game.
Damn, I’m already tired just thinking about all that.
So that means that I don’t plan to write anything serious/deep until I leave for camping. As for Gen Con, I’m not going there as a journalist. While I will have my laptop with me, I don’t plan to post about it while I’m there. I might still do it, but it’s not on my to do list.
Contrary to some other better organized bloggers I didn’t write articles in advance to be posted every day I’m gone nor did I seriously think to ask other bloggers to guest post here. (If someone wants to volunteer, email me at chattydm@chattydm.net, I’ll set you up with an account)
So here’s the deal, I invite all bloggers who read this blog to come and drop a comment here whenever they post a new article.
I’ll see you after Gen Con.
We be Chatty Geeks
So 24 hours (and about 80 comments) after publication, a lot has been discussed about yesterday’s post.
I don’t want to spend more time on this. I feel it’s time I put my money where my mouth is and leave discussion about the D&D edition transition behind me and start focusing on the near future (Gen Con!) and the period after that (New Campaign!)
I will however point to other people’s post that linked to it.
Sean K Reynolds mused on letting D&D 4e live on its own merit instead of being compared to the previous edition.
(Yeah, I’ve been having chain-geekouts on my side of the screen these last few weeks with all these industry people I admire dropping in for a quick comment or three…)
Greywulf also took the occasion to revisit his Dungeonmaster’s Creed and how D&D 4e stacks up against it.
Dungeon grrrl linked to the post (warning, some of her LJ avatars are NSFW ) to point to the possibility of having a cordial online discussion about such an emotionally charged subject. She also has a funny post, poking at WotC’s Gleemax issue, right here.
If I missed any (I’m sorry), feel free to inform me and I’ll update this post.
Have a nice evening, I.now.must.sleep.
Clean up in Aisle 4!
Hey all,
Without getting into details (in order not to break my Golden rule of Blogging), the ‘big thing’ I was waiting for didn’t pan out.
I’m done with disappointment and I’m moving on to re-organizing my projects.
One of the things I’ll be doing over the next few days is to re-tag my whole blog to make it easier to navigate with the search box.
Also, I want to say that I’m sorry for the delay in the One Sentence NPC contest, my buddy Johnn Four is on vacation and should chime in soon with the winners from the drawing.
It was also brought to my attention that I might be skirting over the the edge of some provisions of the ‘fair use‘ doctrine with the various uncredited images I use to decorate my posts.Mostly that I don’t add value to the ‘borrowed art’ but rather use it as mere decoration.
It seems I’ve got to think about these things as my blog grows and garner’s more attention.
So while I mull over what to do with that (I’ve made a promise not to take any far reaching decisions prior to Gen Con) I’d like to ask you:
- Do the somewhat random images I find on Google Image add anything to my post?
- Would me stopping doing it lower the enjoyment value of the blog
- Should I stick to Creative Common images (which implies more work on my part to hunt down and credit)
- Should I stick with borrowing images from corporate products (book covers, Released art like Wizards’ galleries and so on)
- Do I keep doing the same thing, but make a little extra effort to site the source of the image (and use only 1st source images in that case).
- Am I over thinking this?
I’m also pondering doing a re-design of my site to make it more user-friendly (Bigger Rss buttons, easier Navigation, slight color shift). Now that I’m starting to get regular revenues from this blog, I intend to re-invest some of it into blog development so to speak.
So while I’m thinking about that and since the design has been around for some time now, I’d like to ask if any of you feel there’s something missing from the blog. In the same vein, I’d like to know if some things are annoying and/or unnecessary on the page.
My goal is to keep this blog casual, friendly and welcoming, and I’m not considering those 3 Columns/Square ads themes we see poping up.
Finally, going back to my initial goals of blogging, I had planned to blog for a year and then tackle National Novel Writing Month in November. Since I’ve developed a strong addiction to blogging, I’ve had this idea of creating another blog on chattydm.net. I’d post my daily NanoWriMo and open them up for comments, and critique”
It would also be a window into how an amateur author goes through the process of writing a first novel. Since I don’t have an aspiration to publish it yet, I wouldn’t mind posting it online.
Does that spark any interest in any of you? (Not that the response would influence my decision of doing it, I’m just curious)
I would need the advice on Copyrights about a few issues such as protecting the manuscript, allowing comments w/o getting accused of plagiarism if I get influenced by them and the implication of a possible publication from blog to paper. I trust I can resolve this before November.
That’s it for now, I’ve a few more Blogging/Guest posting/Review projects on the horizon. As usual, I’m not anywhere near running out of Ideas/material yet.
Speaking of Cleaning up, my nice buddies at ZeStuff are having a Clearance Sale.
Here’s what owner Pierre had to say about that:
We’re currently doing a massive clearance sale on ZeStuff where some of the items offered were ridiculously reduced. There’s definitively something in there for everyone. There’s over 20 models of t-shirts at $7.95, books, board games, card games and geek jewelry.
Additionally, until August first, all orders over $50 will be offered 5$ flat group shipping cost. This can be a huge saving for big orders or orders with heavy stuff.
That gives you a few days to save big.
Yes I get a commission for stuff you buy after clicking the ZeStuff links from here, so in essence you’re helping me support the growth of the blog through improvements and Prizes for contests!
I made it! Musings turns 1 and 400!
Image Credit: Labareda (As a gift to me)
On July 24 2007, I wrote the first post of what was to become the biggest, most incredible project I ever tackled!
Yes, a few weeks behind Stupid Ranger and Dungeonmastering.com, Musings of the Chatty DM turns one today.
What’s more, true to the avatar I created for this endeavor, I managed to post on average more than once a day, for a whopping 400 posts! (Yeah I kinda timed that one, I’m big on symbols)
If we average each post at 700 words each, that’s 280 000 words, which roughly translates in more than 2 Harry Potter Novels!
I set out to prove to myself that I could post quality content on the net, to stop rambling in my gaming buddies inboxes and to become a better DM through introspection and discussion.
What I never expected was that it would make me into a better writer and actually get readers who weren’t in my game group or related to me!
I never, ever believed that I’d last a year, much less garner more than 550 subscribed readers from all over the world. Said subscribers, along with occasional/regular readers, drop for a visit here more than 45 000 times a month!
I also never believed I’d get to cross online path with the cool builders of my hobby, people like Monte Cook, Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and I even got an online visit by Mike Mearls.
Thank you all for making this pet project of mine the addictive bundle of satisfaction it has become.
What’s next for the upcoming year? I’m not sure. My professional life is undergoing an early midlife crisis and I’ve been in a holding pattern for something big for quite some time. The outcome of which will shape what happens here. I’ll keep you all posted, this I promise.
Now what I’d like from you all is gifts! Yay! Oh not money, I hope I never get to that point.
I’d like you to share with me (and the readers) one thing you are particularly fond of, something that made you smile, something you created or something you think others would appreciate.
Post it in the comments please.
For instance, it could be (please indicate if it’s not safe for work (NSFW)) :
- A funny Youtube movie
- A recipe you like
- An insightful Forum post
- Your best Blog post
- Someone else’s best blog post
- A link to a good free E-book
- A link to an awesome song
- It can be a shy hello from someone who never, ever comments
- Anything cool, nice, funny or fun!
It doesn’t have to be about RPGs, it should be a bit geeky, but you’re giving so I’m not complaining.
For those who have never created Hyperlinks here’s a quick formula you can copy and paste:
<a href=”url”>Text to be displayed</a>
Where “url” = the web address (inside quotation marks)
and “Text to be displayed” is a word to replace the link like ‘Best Cookie Recipe”.
Now don’t be surprised if my Anti-Spam eats your comment. It’s to be expected. I’ll manually approve all blocked comments every hour.
I thank you all profusely for being such wonderful readers and commenters.
Here’s to hoping I write a similar post next year!
Musings on Musings of the Chatty DM
Hey there.
I know no one believes me when I say I stop/slow down my posts. I won’t say it anymore. Suffice it to say that I’ve stopped writing posts that take me more than 45 minutes to write since the last 2 weeks (including the Open Letter) as I’m preparing my Gen Con presentation.
Speaking of Gen Con, Ennies nominations should come up today and you’ll all know if I made the cut. Regardless, if I don’t make it I still get to rub shoulders with Nick Logue and kill a room full of Drow PCs… I mean I get to kill Dritzz clones by the boatload, what’s the downside here?
My life is nearing a huge crossroad both personally and professionally. Sticking to my golden rule of blogging, I’m keeping the professional one under wrap for the time being (more on this very soon).
In parallel, I can’t help seeing the stars align for me having a greater involvement in the RPG community. What with a monthly column in Johnn Four’s E-zine and being called on by Mike Mealrs to pitch for a Dragon Magazine article.
Wow? I mean, I really should go for it no? (And you should too! Chase that dream).
Thing is, as DNAPhil reminded me yesterday…
What is the difference between a Game Designer and a Large Pizza? The Pizza feeds a family of four.
I make a very comfortable living doing Quality Management in the Pharma industry and that living may actually become more comfortable very soon. It’s clear to me that regardless of where all this may go in regards to the RPG community, my writing will for the time being, stay in the realm of hobbies.
Actually I need to start planning to return my writing to the realm of hobbies as this blog has grown to levels I never dreamed of reaching and there are too many days where the pull to participate in the blog’s discussions and tweaking the site take over my desire to work.
So what does that mean to you? Not much. Chances are the frequency of posts will be reduced because of new professional opportunities (I can hear the ‘yeah, right!’ from here). Content type will remain similar, maybe less opinions and debates, more tips and stories of my games and my prepping of them.
Style-wise, things will stay the same, I really like the ‘chatting at the register of the Local Gaming store’ analogy that Ish used to describe the atmosphere here. I really want to keep that.
In regards to comments, I think I’ll have to take a page out of Shamus Young’s book and reduce the level of interactive commenting I do here to focus more on my work duties. I’ll drop by during breaks, lunch and back home… Not posting in the morning will also probably help a lot… Yeah I’m not exempt from irony.
All right, all this to say that as I near the 1st anniversary of the blog (July 24), a lot of things are on my life menu and I’ll have to seriously ponder what to order.
Thanks for being there!
Contest Season… and Pimp your site.
No true post tonight.
I’m reading the D&D Game Day adventure (titled Into the Shadowhaunt) to prepare for a full day of DMing.
I won’t spoil it but I can tell you that you should get a D&D mini that represents the pre-generated character you will choose (one of 5) on Saturday. So call your FLGS and register for a game!
Oh and I scored a Large Silver Dragon in my last D&D Dungeons of Dread minis booster box! Woot!
Here’s a few new community projects to make up for my lack of Chattyness.
The Propagandroid’s Wiki!
My new blogging buddy Propagandroid of the Gamer Dome has created a Game Design Wiki to bring together creative types to works on RPGs (Rules and Settings), Board games and Card games.
He’s giving out a copy of the 2nd Edition of the Talisman game or the d20 A Game of Thrones among those who join.
Is the Pen mightier than the Sword?
James and Harry (see James? I named you first) of Men with Pens have created a new web site called Escaping Reality. It’s a new experiment for those who want to explore creative writing in the form of an online Role Playing game (like you see on some forums).
They have also created a Blog specifically for this endeavor and have posted a contest to get people started! They are giving out a lot of World of Darkness prizes.
It’s a shame I can’t spend more time online, ‘cuz I’d have been there!
Chatty’s own contest!
Also don’t forget about my own contest, open until June 7th where I asked you to provide me with Story tricks and tips for characters.
Pimp your Website here!
Finally, I haven’t been able to keep up much as a community promoter. So I’d lke to invite readers with blogs to leave a comment here and pimp their site or recent posts.
Feel free to leave links. While your comments may get eaten up by my Spam filter, I’ll re-instate them… Which in turn will supposedly teach my new plugin (Defensio) to recognize true comments from spam.
See you later this week.
Slow return to Normal
My son was the ultimate trooper.
He spent more than 3 hours in surgery because the Eye-Nose-Throat surgeon had to repair the more extensive than expected damage that the thing growing in his inner ear had done.
The Good news, the growth is gone.
The Bad News, the whole middle ear has been mostly destroyed. While his eardrum was reconstructed and so as his auditive canal, the little bones responsible to conduct sounds (called osselet in French) were lost. The surgeon is confident that when he’ll re-operate in 8 months to check for re-growth, he’ll be able to successfully install a prosthesis to restore hearing.
Here’s to hoping.
That being said, he hears really well from the other ear. He also was able to stand 3 hours after the surgery and was complaining of hunger all the time. He ate 3 soups and crackers at 6h00 PM and he was released to go home at 6h30.
We’ve spent the whole evening playing Boom Blox on the Wii and this is quite possibly the best boy game ever where you get to break stuff by throwing baseballs, rubber or bowling balls at stuff!
So Cool.
I still will focus mostly on my son for the next 3 days or so, but if I have the energy while he sleeps, I’ll start posting again.
Thanks for everyone’s positive thoughts, prayers and wishes of good luck. Nico made his Fort Save and in 8 months, the surgeon gets to cast Cure Partial Deafness.
