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Ods and Ends, part Deux

May 13, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Hey! We made it! We topped the 300 RSS subcribers milestone!

I say we, because while I write the site’s content, it really only runs as smoothly with Graham’s technical assistance (whose apparently saving the internet one site at a time) and all of your participation as readers, Stumblers and Commenters.

Woot! I’ve got my 300 minions! Hoo-HA!

Thanks everyone!

I’m also sitting on a completed Trope post about doing big reveals in a RPG campaign. It’s scheduled to come up at 20h00 tonight. I think I did a good job with it and I hope it will give you ideas.

The judging of the 10 word adventure contest is progressing. All 3 judges settled on picking our personal top 5 in each of the 3 categories (Best Adventure Hook, Funniest Entry and Best Pop/Geek reference) and we’ll debate them once we are all done choosing. We’re waiting on the results of the last judge and we’ll get to the arguing ๐Ÿ™‚

Oh and before I leave, while backtracking all the contest entry’s blogs and website, I discovered Max’s blog who posted the absolute best D&D 4e Monster Generator.

I’m printing it here without the author’s permission, only to show you how brilliant the guy is… GO READ HIS BLOG! ๐Ÿ™‚

One of the highly touted aspects of the new edition of D&D is the ease with which DMs will be able to create and customize monsters to challenge their players. In fact, I just learned the DMs will be able build monsters on the fly, using just a few rolls of a trusty twenty-sider:

1 black blade brute
2 blood blood creeper
3 bone bond/bound delver
4 death claw fiend
5 demon cloak/cloaked filcher
6 doom doom foamer
7 dread fang gnasher
8 flame fiend horde/hordling
9 ghost fire howler
10 grim gaunt hulk
11 ice haunt lasher
12 iron horn leaper
13 night maw racer
14 poison rake reaver
15 razor scale ripper
16 spell spike scourge
17 stone tusk sneak
18 storm warp/warped swarm
19 thunder wing titan
20 wind wrack wurm

With attacks and abilities built right into the name, spelled out in ubiquitous damned adjectival compound nouns, a DM need only decide the creature’s level range and role, and let ‘er rip.

I made me a Thunder Fang Howler… a critter that has a poisonous bite that deals continuous electricity damage and can deal electricity damage and push opponents with it’s Thunder Howl Breath weapon!

See ya later!

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Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Comments

  1. ScottM says

    May 13, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    That is a cool generator– thanks for pointing it (and the whole blog) out.

  2. Tangent128 says

    May 13, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    Congrats on the milestone. Anyway of knowing which RSS subscriber I am?

    So, how’d an Ice Fire Foamer work?

  3. ChattyDM says

    May 13, 2008 at 6:13 pm

    @ScottM: Max’s blog is part of a group of Retro-gaming sites that do some very interesting stuff.

    @Tangent128: I don’t actually have a ‘list’ of subscriber’ since you’ve been around for quite some time I’d say you were in the first 30s.

    As for your monster I’d say it’s an elemental whose’s Ice and Fire interface creates a melting foam that surrounds the monster and causes opponents to be slowed while it slams you with a Fire attack with a followup Cold slam attack

    Hey this is fun! Let’s make more!

  4. Michael Phillips says

    May 13, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    The generator is quite amusing.

    Michael Phillipss last blog post..Playtesting

  5. Max says

    May 13, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    Thanks for the link, Philippe-Antoine (P-A? Phil/ippe? Chatty? D’you have a preference?) Your monster descriptions have me chuckling!

    I wrote that as satire, not of monster mechanics but of naming style, but it’s even better if people actually put it to use! Sprinkle lightly with descriptors like blast, laser, neutron, droid, and mutant and it should work for SF/post-apocalypse games too…

    Maxs last blog post..Duranmas2: Two for the Doctor

  6. Tangent128 says

    May 13, 2008 at 9:22 pm

    “Poison Claw Ripper”- sure, you could just make up some monster with venomous pincers that tears victims apart.
    Alternatively, parse that differently: it tears apart claws, and is poison- making it some variety of inedible starfish.

    Oh, if your count is from that Feedburner box I just noticed, then I’m not counted in that 300- I subscribe to the feed directly.

  7. Graham says

    May 13, 2008 at 10:46 pm

    Tangent128 – No you don’t. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Every link to the RSS feed is forwarded to feedburner via a wordpress plugin. Check one of the article links (click the title of the article) in your RSS reader next time. It should begin with feedburner.com

    You’re included in that total.

  8. ChattyDM says

    May 14, 2008 at 5:44 am

    @Max: Call me Phil or Chatty, it’s shorter. ๐Ÿ™‚ It was a nice exercise and like many 30 something nostalgia-ridden gamers I like tables like that!

    @Tangent128: You have to start playing RPGs! ๐Ÿ™‚

About the Author

  • The Chatty DM

    The Chatty DM is the "nom de plume" of gamer geek Philippe-Antoine Menard. He has been a GM for over 40 years. An award-winning RPG blogger, game designer, and scriptwriter at Ubisoft. He squats a corner of Critical Hits he affectionately calls "Musings of the Chatty DM." (Email Phil or follow him on Twitter.)

    Email: chattydm@critical-hits.comWeb: https://critical-hits.com//category/chattydm/

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