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You are here: Home / Archives for The Chatty DM

The Downside of Awesome

May 17, 2010 by The Chatty DM

I’ve recently discovered a pattern common to the gaming sessions where I’m not entirely satisfied with the way things went. I realized that it’s partly because encounters reach a state of complexity such that players become confused about the best way to navigate through them. The goal becomes fuzzy or the options are either too numerous or too complex mechanically to be used in full.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, Player Psychology, rule of cool

Gears of Ruin: Sabotage! Part 2

May 13, 2010 by The Chatty DM

Amazingly, the Gnome Airship was still intact when the PCs own ship set in formation near it (along the Melorian’s living airship, and the Warforged chaos-propelled aerolith). Viscount Daven Sakran was joyously awaiting for them, all smiles and virginal innocence under the malvolent look of our semi-railroaded Goliath Warden.

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Clockwork D&D, Gears of Ruin, Tropes

Gears of Ruin: Sabotage! Part 1

May 11, 2010 by The Chatty DM

Brought together to oversee the security of crucial peace talks, the PCs are faced with sabotage at 20 000 feet over the jagged surface of a world torn by 8 years of global conflicts. One of the diplomat factions turns on the other while demon-summoning clockwork bombs explode on the Gnomish airship housing the peace negotiations. Our heroes have to keep the negotiators alive.

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Clockwork D&D, Gears of Ruin

Chatty’s 800th: Missed Opportunities and Future Projects

May 5, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In this, my 800th post, I take a hard look at Wizards of the Coast’s Heroes of Hesiod, and its missed opportunity to tap into the tremendous potential of helping parents introduce kids to roleplaying. And I put my money where my mouth is . . .

Filed Under: blogging, Freelance Writing, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: d&d 4e, gaming with children, Gaming with Kids, Heroes of Hesiod

The Briarthorn Needle, Gnomish Airship

April 30, 2010 by The Chatty DM

The game’s action will occur entirely on board a Feywild grown, Clockwork-powered gnome airship called The Briarthorn Needle owned by ‘neutral’ fey privateers. The last warring factions of Sikkara (our Clockowork D&D gameworld) have agreed to meet on it to negotiate a peace accord and put an end to 8 years of global war.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Airship, Clockwork D&D, d&d 4e, Gears of Ruin, Gnomes

The Gnomish Viral Music Box

April 28, 2010 by The Chatty DM

Upon freeing themselves from the Fomorians, the gnomes knew that they could not rely on the other, more powerful races, to guarantee that they would not fall back into slavery. While many champions of the Gnomish causes have risen in the last centuries, the masters of trickery have created their own tricks to ‘convince” the world’s best heroes and scoundrles to help them.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Artefact, Cursed Items, D&D, Gears of Ruin, Gnomes, What if

A Letter from Chgowiz

April 26, 2010 by The Chatty DM

When my good friend and co-conspirator Micheal “Chgowiz” Shorten decided to pull down his blog last month, many asked me what happened. Last week, Chgowiz asked me if I could link to the thank you letter he’s sending to the online community.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM

My RPG DNA: Part 1: the Early Years, AD&D 1e

April 22, 2010 by The Chatty DM

Say what you want of AD&D 1e, I think that we loved it so much because we had to unlock the game in our own way, adopting bits of rules, ignoring most of it, making up the rest, so we could get to the full fantasy RPG experience it offered. It is the one thing I miss most about it. 1e was MY game because I had no choice to hack it otherwise I’d never would have been able to play it.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 1e, 80s, AD&D, Back in the Day, Grognard, Old Geezer

Gears of Ruin Interlude: The Warforged Wars

April 20, 2010 by The Chatty DM

The arrival of sentient machines in an already explosive political situation plunged the whole world into global wars among economic, religious and opportunistic alliances. The auto-clanks (humanoid machines) ended up obtaining their emancipation at a horrendous price of scrap metal and blood. They took the name “Warforged” as to never forget how they won the right to exist as free beings on this hostile world.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 4e, Clockwork D&D, Gears of Ruin

Friday Chat: Spousal Interuption

April 16, 2010 by The Chatty DM

So this morning I had a very inspiring email in my box: “You have mentioned you have a very loving and supportive wife. My question to you is how often does she interrupt your games and do you have a problem with the interruptions?”

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: boyfriend, Friday Chat, girlfriend, husbands, relationships, spouses, wife, wives

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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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