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You are here: Home / Archives for 2009

Archives for 2009

The One Page Dungeon Codex (and More!)

July 31, 2009 by The Chatty DM

For those too excited to read: The One Page Dungeon Codex 2009 The Combined One Page Dungeons These last few weeks, Chgowiz and I have been working at delivering on our promise of creating a special PDF file that brought together the very best entries from the contest One Page Dungeon contest. Well the wait […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: one page dungeon

I Didn’t Know You Could Do That With 4E: Adventure-Length Effects

July 31, 2009 by guest

Hey everybody!  My name is Brad Gardner.  I’m a long time D&D player.  Currently I’m DMing a game for some friends (The “Savage Tide” adventure path, converted to 4E) as well as writing for the RPGA’s Living Forgotten Realms campaign.  As of GenCon 2009, I’ll have the privilege of having five adventures published for the […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Quick Review: Adventure Art – Issue #1

July 30, 2009 by Bartoneus

Mythic Design has released a new product called Adventure Art in a series of issues, with the subtitle “Professional Artwork for Use in Your Roleplaying Games”.  They were kind enough to provide us with the first issue which is for May/June 2009, which is a nice looking collection of artwork from the archives of AvatarArt.com.  […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: adventure art, avatar art, issue 1, mythic design, Reviews, roleplaying games, Roleplaying Games, tabletop

Hands On: Monster Builder Beta

July 30, 2009 by Dave

The Monster Builder was released today to DDI subscribers, allowing us to build our own monsters for 4e. Of course, we could already do that… through Asmor’s Monster Maker, the Dungeonmastering Tools, or WotC’s own bonus tools utility. So what does the new software bring to the table?

Filed Under: Featured, News, Reviews, Roleplaying Games

For new GMs: Worldbuilding is storytelling: complication, complexity, micronarratives, and your precious little fantasy world-baby

July 30, 2009 by guest

It’s the autism-spectrum version of playing god: surveying charts and tables and lists and believing, for just a moment, that a world can be contained in such a form. Elves and dragons are less unbelievable than that power fantasy.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, world building

Gen Con Hiatus Update: Guest Post Galore and Critical Hits!

July 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I got an incredible response to my call for guest posters and we’ve already started posting!  In fact,  I already have 2 posts more ready to be posted and the schedule is almost full! Speaking of guest posts, have you seen the one I did for Critical Hits yet?  I took Dave’s excellent 5X5 campaign […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Using the 5×5 Method for Adventure Design

July 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

In his post, Dave explained how you can build a multi-threaded campaign, featuring 5 interrelated plot-lines by planning your campaign on a 5X5 Grid. When I read about that post, something clicked in my mind. I could feel that this seemingly simple concept had near unlimited potential as a game mastering tool. At the time I didn’t know what it would be, so I let that feeling simmer for a few weeks.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games

Dude, You Gotta Try Savage Worlds!

July 29, 2009 by guest

Wrath of Zombies is a recent Blogger.  You can follow his RPG antics over at his blog. Wow.  I feel all sorts of special getting to fill in for Chatty today!  Honestly, for a new blogger like me, these are big shoes to fill but I’ll try not to disappoint! I, ironically at the same […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Guest Post, Savage Worlds

YouTube Tuesday: Chase Dat Gold Edition

July 28, 2009 by Dave

A “gangsta rap” about LARPing. Yes, I’m serious. Keep in mind that there is some potentially offensive things in it (some of which are thanks to the genre) so approach with an open mind.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games, YouTube Tuesday Tagged With: larp

Inquisition of the Week: Your Steam is Punk

July 27, 2009 by Dave

This past week saw the release of the Eberron Campaign Guide. While I’ve followed Eberron since its acceptance into the D&D campaign setting contest but I have yet to run or play in any kind of Eberron campaign. Some of the resistance to playing it before has been a dislike among some of my group to steampunk. While Eberron is more nuanced than simply a steampunk setting, there’s some clear resistance to the idea.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: 4e, eberron, steampunk

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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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