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You are here: Home / Archives for The Chatty DM

The One-Page Dungeon contest: Update week 1

April 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Last week, fellow blogger Chgowiz and I launched our most ambitious contest yet.  We’re asking people from all over the hobby to submit a system-neutral dungeon whose map, key and any additional info fit one a one page-template. While entering this contest requires a certain effort, the number of prizes we’ve got for it are […]

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

A Basic Goal of DMing?

April 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Earlier this week, on his blog, Mike Mealrs posted this conversation starter: The best thing a DM can do (thinking specifically of D&D here), is to do his best to push the party to absolute, utter defeat*, and then watch them try to wiggle their way out, with the party’s victory determined solely by their […]

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

Primal/Within Chronicles: The Font of Sorrow, Part 2

April 19, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. A Wet and Freezing Welcome The PCs traveled through the Dungeon without any trouble and reached the door that the Elementalists had identified as being the way to the Water Temple.  Indeed, a triple-wave design stood on the door and a rapid verification of it showed it to be arcane locked… […]

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

Sunday Contests

April 19, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Just a quick note to tell you that my good friend Zach has a Contest going at RPGBlog2. You just need to send him a list of your top 25 tabletop RPGs and you may win some very cool prizes.  Today’s the last day to enter so have a look here. Also don’t forget our […]

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

Primal/Within Chronicles: The Font of Sorrow, Part 1

April 18, 2009 by The Chatty DM

This is a report of my newest D&D 4e campaign set in the home-brewed Primal Dungeon/City Within campaign. I could see that my players were anticipating the game as emails about PC backstories multiplied like wildfire! All players showed up (s0me had to spend several brownie points to make it) and we got around to […]

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

Chatty’s megadungeon: Meet Spurt and his Wayward Master!

April 17, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Tonight is the first official session of our Primal/Within campaign. Set in the Font of Sorrows, our adventurers will have to trace the source of something contaminating part of the City Within’s water supply. I’ve said it a few times, I enjoy a bit of silliness in my games. So while I was writing the […]

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

Afterschool Trope Special: The Dungeon Crawl, Part 1

April 15, 2009 by The Chatty DM

This is Post # 600 on Musing of the Chatty DM!  To celebrate this and my Dungeon theme week, I decided to write an article in the style that has made me known as a RPG blogger: a Trope post!  You are new to the blog and don’t yet know about Tropes?  Here’s a handy […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games, Tropes Tagged With: Tropes, Tropes Season 2

New Grand Contest: The One-Page Dungeon!

April 14, 2009 by The Chatty DM

A few weeks ago while mulling the jumble of ideas that was to become my new Primal/Within D&D campaign, I made the discovery of the One Page Dungeon template.  I was blown away at the sheer brilliance and simplicity of the concept and I’ve already used it a few times, including for my next game […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: contest, Theme week: Dungeons

Primal/Within Chronicles: The Crypt of the Thief-Prince, Part 3

April 13, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 and 2. Fast-talking the Cursed Prince! The Royal Crypt featured 2 levels of mezzanine overlooking a central ‘court’.  The Court had a Huge stone throne sporting a sculpted effigy of the Dwarven Exiled prince.  Support columns dotted the whole chamber. On the throne stood a dark, spectral form screaming ‘Lies, all LIES! […]

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

Primal/Within Chronicles: The Crypt of the Thief-Prince, Part 2

April 13, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. Mines of Shadows. The PCs took the Teleportal and found themselves on a Magic Circle in what was obviously a Mine (I used D&D’s Fantastic Location Mithril Mines map). As soon as they arrived, they knew something wasn’t right. Broken bodies of workers and guards were lying everywhere.  The magical light […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Megadungeon, Theme week: Dungeons

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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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