• Critical-Hits Studios
    • Criminals Card Game
    • Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game
  • Downloads & Tools
    • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
    • Drinking D&D 2010
    • Drinking D&D 2011
    • Fiasco Playset: “Alma Monster”
    • MODOK’s 11 for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
    • Refuge In Audacity RPG
    • Strange New Worlds RPG
  • Guides
    • Gamma World
    • Guide to 4e Accessories
    • Guide to Gaming DVDs
    • Skill Challenges
  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Critical Hits

Everything tabletop gaming since 2005

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Columns
    • Dire Flailings
    • Dungeonomics
    • Musings of the Chatty DM
    • Pain of Publication
    • The Architect DM
  • Podcasts
    • Critical Hits Podcast
    • Dungeon Master Guys Podcast
  • Roleplaying Games
  • Tabletop Games
  • Game Hacks & Content
  • Video Games
You are here: Home / Archives for 2009

Archives for 2009

Primal/Within Chronicles: Say Yes and have Fun! Part 1

May 31, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Chatty’s game… Our heroes are hired by a mercenary outfit to protect the lives of four City Within candidate in a one-day campaign/election of the city’s newest burg.  Thought wheeling and dealings, criss-crossed agendas, monsters gone wild and delusional candidates, our heroes are caught in this electoral storm and try their best to […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Primal/Within

Special Promo for Dungeonmastering Tools: Free Open Game Table

May 30, 2009 by Dave

Editor’s Note: We’ve been fans of Dungeonmastering since the beginning, and so we’re happy to help promote his new tools that help you run your 4e game, as well as a way to get Open Game Table Anthology (that I helped edit) into more people’s hands. That’s why we’re presenting this offer and the advertising […]

Filed Under: News, Roleplaying Games

Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-05-30

May 30, 2009 by Gato the News Robot

Spiel Des Jahres nominees announced. A great bunch in the nominees! (Not so excited about the recommended titles) The Old School determiner is awesome. The very last “Lying in the Gutters” column by Rich Johnston but he says to check here. Fear and Loathing: The Board Game Wil Wheaton: “in which i find something unexpected […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

Monster Manual 2 – In Depth #3

May 29, 2009 by Bartoneus

Now that the Monster Manual 2 has been out for a little bit, I figure it’s good to continue my more detailed looks at the monster inside it in case any DMs out there have put off buying it and still aren’t aware of exactly what it contains.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, dnd 4e, Dungeons & Dragons, monster manual 2, preview, Roleplaying Games, roleplaying games

New Welcome Page on Chatty DM

May 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

With the Ennies coming up, I finally wrote a welcome page for the blog. It’s a very short introduction to the blog and gives the reader a selection of links to follow as appetizers of the blog’s content. You can find it here. Please have a look and tell me if it needs anything more. […]

Filed Under: blogging, Musings of the Chatty DM

Friday Chat: Do You Sprinkle Silliness in your Campaigns?

May 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

The Bloodbowl 4e post with the actual rules is taking longer than planned to finish and the Ennies application process deadline came and bit me in the a$$.   Instead of posting part 4 of my Dungeon Reality Show this morning, I’m posting another of those Friday questions.  I’ll post the DRS one as soon as […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, Discussions, DMing, Friday Chat, Theme week, Tropes

With Karate (And Psionics) I’ll Kick Your Ass

May 28, 2009 by Dave

Monks are Psionic. (Yes, “Martial Striker” was half wrong). As per the Design & Development article that accompanied it, Ki is a dead power source (though some third party products have already tried to use it). Personally, I have no problem with this. On multiple occasions, I attempted to run campaigns with an eastern flavor, and banned most (or all) arcane and divine classes, relying primarily on psionic and ki powered characters. Conceptually, they always seemed very close together: an internal energy source with fantastic abilities powered by intense discipline.

Filed Under: Editorial, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, karate, monks, PHB3, psionics, tenacious d reference

The Dungeon Reality Show, Part 3: Lets play Blood Bowl, 4e Style

May 28, 2009 by The Chatty DM

In Part 1 of this series, I described the implied setting of the Dungeon Reality Show (DRS) In Part 2, I described a few of the tricks I used when I DMed such an event. Today, I’ll start sharing a recent example of a DRS game using the Bloodbowl game.  My proposed adventure will differ […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, 4e/Bloodbowl mashup, Dungeon Reality Show, Theme week

Special Promotion for Dungeonmastering.com’s DM Tools

May 27, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Get a free copy of Open Game Table! (Here’s a message from my good friend Yax of Dungeonmastering.com, It’s a special promotion for his DM Tools service.  Do note that I get a commission on any new membership.  This will help me pay for Gen Con and finance some prelimenary work to become a full-time […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

The Dungeon Reality Show, Part 2: Of Sponsors, Ambiance and Lines

May 27, 2009 by The Chatty DM

In part 1, I presented the implied setting of my Dungeon Reality Show (DRS)concept. Today, I’ll describe some of the gimmicks I use as a DM when I play a DRS game. The Set Whenever I throw the PCs into the Plane of Games, I always make sure to describe the barely contained chaos that […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, 4e/Bloodbowl mashup, Dungeon Reality Show, Theme week

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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/

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Archives

CC License

All articles and comments posted posted on the site (but not the products for sale) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. References to trademarks and copywritten material are included for review and commentary use only and are not intended as any kind of challenge.

Recent Comments

  • fogus: The best things and stuff of 2024 on Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Routinely Itemised: RPGs #145 on Review: The Magus
  • The Chatty DM on Review: The Magus
  • Linnaeus on Review: The Magus
  • 13th Age: Indexing Truths — Critical Hits on The Horizon Conspiracy

Contact The Staff

Critical Hits staff can be reached via the contact information on their individual staff pages and in their articles. If you want to reach our senior staff, email staff @ critical-hits.com. We get sent a lot of email, so we can't promise we'll be able to respond to everything.

Recent Posts

  • Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Review: The Magus
  • Hope in the Dark Heart of Evil is Not a Plan
  • Chatty on Games #1: Dorf Romantik
  • The Infinity Current: Adventure 0

Top Posts & Pages

  • Home
  • The 5x5 Method Compendium
  • Dungeons & Dragons "Monster Manual" Preview: The Bulette!
  • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
  • On Mid-Medieval Economics, Murder Hoboing and 100gp
  • "The Eversink Post Office" - An Unofficial Supplement for Swords of the Serpentine
  • Finally a manual for the rest of them!
  • Dave Chalker AKA Dave The Game
  • How to Compare Birds to Fish
  • The Incense War: a Story of Price Discovery, Mayhem, and Lust

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in