The Order of the Chatty DMs: Gen Con Guest Posters 2009

Yes, I’m back from Gen Con.  I’m still recuperating from it all, but it was as phenomenal as last year’s.

That also means that the Gen Con hiatus is finished.  Yay!

Over the next few days, I’ll be writing posts about my Indianapolis adventures but this posts isn’t about that.

Today I want to sing the praise of the many many people who’ve been writing guest posts on this blog.  These people have taken the time out of their busy schedules to help keep this blog vibrant and alive while I was prepping for and attending Gen Con.

And they delivered top notch articles, way above my expectations!

For that I want to thank them all and I want to introduce them all to the Order of the Chatty DMs,  a very select group of people who have demonstrated that a cool concept can’t always be described properly in 300 words or less.

So with no further ado, here’s my homage to the first batch of Knights:

WrathofZombie

Our first Knight is a new blogger and a friendly face on Gtalk, Wrath stepped up to the plate to be the first Guest of the Gen Con Hiatus.  The order was tall and Wrath filled it masterfully with a heartfelt and enthusiastic pitch for Savage Worlds.

His blog is can be found here, give him a shoutout.

Wax Banks

Master of the massive blog post, Wax managed to out chat me on my own blog with a treatise on campaign setting creation and new GMs.  Using examples from RPG luminairies (and legends) such as Monte Cook and S. John Ross, Wax’s thought provoking article sparked some very animated discussion.

Cocky and not above geek baiting, Wax managed to do with one post what I hoped to do in these last 2 years of blogging: getting Monte and S. John to comment on my blog. Kudos Wax, you win at the Internet!

Follow Wax on his own, mostly non-RPG blog, here.

Brad Gardner

One of the authors of the Living Forgotten Realms organized play adventure, Brad presented us with an interesting variant for D&D 4e, that of status effect that last for an entire adventure.

I knew Brad from the very interesting ideas he shares in his comments about my 4e adventures.  He has a knack to grasp what mechanics would work best for a given adventure situation.  I’ve come to play very close attention to everything he says as it’s always been excellent thoughtful advice.  If and when I open a 3rd party imprint, he’s among those I’d like to have on board.

Wyatt Salazar

The boy wonder of the RPG blogger community, Wyatt represents everything I look for in a RPG writer.  Insane levels of creativity, a passion for the games he plays/talks about and above all, a propensity to get into trouble that show that he’s as fearless as crazy.

My kind of people says I!

Wyatt gave us a great exposé on ways you can find to make 4e players feel less invicible with their PCs without outright killing them with a cave in.  This (and the comments) are a must read for DMs who are having trouble challenging their players in combat encounters.

Follow Wyatt’s great ideas and antics at either of his blogs, here and here.

Rob (Aka A Hero)

Rob was nice enough to share with us his house rules he uses to simulate crafting in D&D 4e.  Not the type where a PC makes arrows, but the type where someone would like to forge a sword of blue thunder steel, dip it in Arcana-charged quicksilver so it can be enchanted to become a Thundering Sword +3.

Filling a niche left empty by the edition change, Rob presents crafting as skill challenges, a very original idea to recreate the feel of the d20 crafting skills.

Rob’s blog, A Hero twice a Month, can be found here.

Kameron Franklin

Both a fantasy author and blogger, Kameron explored the use of the D&D 4e minor quest as a tool to share narrative control (or at the very least, directorial control).  His idea of letting player pick their own minor quests as long as they fit with the major quest is a stroke of genius.  I’ll be seriously considering it.

Thanks man!  I’m happy to have you among my order of Knights!

WalkerP

Fellow Montrealer and good friend Walker, host of the RPG Haven Podcast, shared with us his passion for Mutant Future, the freely available OGL post-apocalyptic RPG.  This is truly a game that should get more press.  I promise to try it at the Draconis (Montreal’s Gaming con) next year.

Thanks man!

Brent Newhall

A Twitter friend, who played in my trial TwittRPG, Brent shared with us what he thought was the bare minimum needed to prep for a D&D 4e session.  While he goes over the basic, he also discovered a more important issue than focusing on NPC and stats, that of listening to the players and prep in direct relation to what they did and who they talked to.

Brent’s website can be found here.

Storyteller

Last time he wrote on this blog, he ended up in the Open Game Table Anthology.  Back from an extended hiatus, Storyteller delivered another succulent gem of RPG fluff.  Our guest explored what it means to be an Adventurer in a game world.  From there he described various ways that adventurers could be treated in a campaign, from the highly respected to the Dime-a-dozen.

Once again a stellar performance by one of rising talents of the RPG blogsphere.  Find his blog here.

Johenius

My most recent secret weapon, Johenius is a South African friend of mine that’s taken a particular liking to my Dungeon Reality Show ideas.  Co-author (he did most of the work) of this year’s Drunken D&D adventure, and always on the lookout to do things differently, he presented quite a bold article about using Charisma in what he calls ‘Social combats”.  Presenting sample powers and examples, he provides a pretty comprehensive how to.

I’m telling you, along with Wyatt and Storyteller, Johenius will likely form the next generation of successful RPG writers. Follow his thoughts and crazy ideas here.

A humbling reality

All those people sharing such awesome posts for free makes me feel humbled and inadequate.  I hope this little homage will please them and I hope that if you liked their work, you’ll visit their websites and/or drop a kind word with this post.

Once again guys, thanks so much!  You are forever welcome on this blog.

Chatty DM