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You are here: Home / Archives for The Chatty DM

City of the Overmind: Rumble in the Vats 3D, Part 2

October 6, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. The interesting thing about a D&D session that consisted entirely of one fight is that I can relate it through the classic phases of a D&D combat encounter. What’s that you say? Over the last 10 years, ever since I started playing 3e, I noticed that all fun combat encounters shared […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3D terrain, 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Primal/Within

City of the Overmind: Rumble in the Vats 3D, Part 1

October 5, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Chatty’s Game. Our heroes arrive in the Overmind’s re-education camp, finding several brainwashed monsters and losing their Warden comrade, who he went chasing after another Shifter.  Once the commotion abated, the party sought out the camp’s Beholder foreman and defeated it, finding a 3rd key part and discovering how the city’s brainwash portals […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 3D terrain, 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Primal/Within

Friday Chat: Oh Wait!

October 2, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I can’t write a long post today (rejoice) because I’m about to start work.  However, I wanted to bring a hot 4e subject and wanted to launch a discussion about it over the weekend. My players are sick and tired of me harping on and on about the length of combat in 4e.  Apparently I’m […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, advice, Friday Chat

Old School Geekeout: Of Hirelings, Doors and Long Corridors.

September 30, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Last Sunday I invited some of my friends over for an afternoon of Geeking out. This week’s Feature Game was going to be another Swords & Wizardry session, using Math Finch’s Tomb of the Iron God.  Last month we had a real blast with the Quick Start Rules so I was curious to see if […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: old school, Sword and Wizardry

Creativity and the RPG Mind: Part 1, Introduction

September 28, 2009 by The Chatty DM

With the recent completion of my series revisiting Robin Laws’ Rules of Good Game Mastering, I’ve been thinking about starting a new one. Then it hit me.  What if I tackled creativity and it’s role in regards to RPG players and GMs . You see, I’m well aware that I have a high level of […]

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

Chatty’s review: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery, Part 2

September 24, 2009 by The Chatty DM

This is a review of Tracy and Curtis Hickman’s X-Treme Dungeon Mastery, done through the voice of 2 alter Egos of mine, Phil and Tony, see part 1 to learn more about it. For part 2, let’s switch who gets to say what first. The Theory of XDM Tony: All right, the section starts with […]

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

Chatty’s review: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery, Part 1

September 23, 2009 by The Chatty DM

There’s a Method to my Madness Shortly before Gen Con and after completing the very long series of blog posts about Robin Laws’ Rules of Good Game Mastering, I contacted Tracy Hickman and asked if he could send me a review copy of his newest book, X-treme Dungeon Mastery.  He was gracious enough to do […]

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

City of the Overmind: Of Beholders and Mind Control, Part 2

September 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. House of the all seeing Eye As the PCs entered the administrative building of the re-education camp, I described how the first floor was deserted and was reminiscent of a U-store where the whole floor was separated in compartment where stuff could be stored.  Said stuff was mostly armor, weapons and […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Mouse Guard, Primal/Within

City of the Overmind: Of Beholders and Mind Control, Part 1

September 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Chatty’s Game Our heroes were transported into a monstrous city ruled by a mad, fascist Mind Flayer called The Overmind.  After learning that there were pieces of a  key to the Flayer’s castle strewn all over the city, the adventurers set out to seek them out.  They obtained one from a friend and […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 4e, Burning Wheel, chatty's, Mouse Guard, Primal/Within

Something Old, Something New: What Makes a Great GM?

September 18, 2009 by The Chatty DM

A few weeks ago I had an idea and I pitched it to my friend the NewbieDM: What if we created a series of dual posts comparing the views of a new DM and one with 25+ years of experience?  We would pick a subject and each write an opinion post about it and cross […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

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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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