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You are here: Home / Archives for The Chatty DM

Mouse Guard Diaries: Delivering the Mail, Part 4, Finale

December 23, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Player Turn: In the player turn, each player gets to spend a free ‘token’ called a ‘check’ to do one thing, of his own choosing, like  recovering from a negative condition, playing a scene to achieve an unmet goal or interact with the story in some way.  Players each get 1 free check.  They can […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Game Demo, Mouse Guard

Mouse Guard Diaries: Delivering the Mail, Part 3

December 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Fight at Raven’s Hollow With a failed Pathfinder’s check, I moved to the adventure’s first plot twist.  In a home brewed adventure, the GM would have had the choice of creating a plot twist or letting the PCs succeed but gain a negative condition liked ‘Angry, Sick, Injured’.  From my understanding, the GM is encouraged […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Game Demo, Mouse Guard

Mouse Guard Diaries: Delivering the Mail, Part 2

December 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

The Players I had 4 players attending this Mouse Guard game: Yan: Legendary fiddler and king of crunch. Yan expects fast interaction with the game, be it Story or dice rolling.  Patience incarnate he is not. 🙂 Franky: Our groups most eager storyteller and explorer.  Give him a new setting and story hooks and he’ll […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Game Demo, Mouse Guard

Mouse Guard Diaries: Delivering the Mail, Part 1, Mini-Review/Primer

December 21, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I’ve long said that I was a mono-gamist.  I heavily invest myself in one game system and I spent most of my free time on it.  The fact that many consider this blog to be a D&D 4e blog lends strong support to that assertion.   But lately, maybe because I’m well past my mid-30s, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Game Demo, Mouseguard

Happy Birthday Love!

December 19, 2009 by The Chatty DM

It’s become a tradition on this blog to wish the woman of my life a happy birthday.  She’ll turn XX+1 tomorrow (Sunday). This year has been a  particularly trying one for us and I’m eternally grateful that we made it through intact.  I owe a lot of it to Alex’s resilience and willingness to believe in us and […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Don’t Touch That! A Winter Solstice Tale

December 17, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Last week, Wizards of the Coast posted a contest on their community site (which many of us call Wizbook). The contest is still open for a few days (until December 21st actually) and so far only 2 entries were sent in, mine and my friend Dave: The Game of Critical Hits fame. Entrants can win […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, holiday encounter contest, traps

Chasing the Dream: Chatty Moves One Step Closer…

December 15, 2009 by The Chatty DM

A few weeks ago I wrote a very personal post about the state of me and what I wanted to do with my still nascent writing life. In that article, I posted a list of what I wanted to do in the short to mid term to achieve my ultimate goal: becoming a writer that […]

Filed Under: blogging, Freelance Writing, Musings of the Chatty DM

Creativity and the RPG Mind: Part 2, The Right Answer

December 14, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Way back at the end of September, I wrote an introductory post to a new series where I would explore how creativity is expressed (or stiffed) in the RPG geek’s mind.   Based on the ‘A Whack on the Side of the Head‘ by creativity Guru Roger von Oech, I wish to explore the common barriers […]

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

Gears of Ruin: Creating PC-specific Clockwork Mechanics.

December 11, 2009 by The Chatty DM

My new Gears of Ruin Clockwork D&D 4e campaign starts as soon as the holidays are over (with a pre-campaign session right before). I’ve spoken a bit about what the setting would be.  I’m moving away from my traditional fantasy world and creating a new one based on Clockwork Fantasy tropes (Girl Genius, Iron Kingdoms, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, chatty's, Gears of Ruin, Tropes, world building

Chatty’s Ptolus 4e Demo: A Tail of Two Shities, Part 3

December 10, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here and part 2 here. Rat and Roll! After the PCs rested for a few minutes, they continued deeper in the complex of caves and crypts.  They eventually found the fleeing rats and followed their light to a large chamber.  As they approached, they heard a rumbling sound, like stone rubbing on […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Game Demo, Ptolus

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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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