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You are here: Home / Archives for The Chatty DM

The Rule of Fun!

February 28, 2008 by The Chatty DM

(Image stolen from Critical Hits) This blog was more or less noticed because of one short text I wrote way back last summer about a Wiki I discovered and a fundamental rule that I believed a successful DM should live by. There is another one, related to the Rule of Cool, made specifically for games: […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games, Tropes Tagged With: Rule of Fun, Tropes

Mini-Fluff: More on-the-fly world building

February 27, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Mini-posts are approx. 500 words posts on one of my pet subjects. I usually do them when I have a busy evening, like Adventure Preping or doing things like, you know, exercise! I’m deep in adventure prep, deeper than I have been for a long time. I don’t know if it’s the same for you […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology Tagged With: fluff, mini-post, world building

Addendum to Adventure Prep and Open Captioned Bragging Contest

February 26, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I can’t write an actual post tonight I have quite a large game to prep because my players decided they wanted to talk with a god and then have a stroll in Asgard/Ysgard… Were I playing 2e Planescape, I could just say “Tough luck, you don’t have the proper portal key”. However, since it’s one […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM

Adventure Prep: Icing on a planar cake

February 25, 2008 by The Chatty DM

This post is part of a series that covers the preparations I do for my current D&D campaign. You can follow it here. Yay! Hopefully we’ll have a game this week. Eric, Franky and Yan have confirmed their presence, I just need Math or Stef to confirm and we’re good to go. My players are […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM

Chatty’s Out of the Box #002 : Linear Thinking.

February 24, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Here’s another stab at this Webcomic thing. Click on image to see full comic (and click again if it can be zoomed further). I had a thousand ideas for the second one all to be crammed in 6 panels. Then I realized that pacing can be different in a comic and that my many gags […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Uncategorized Tagged With: Chatty's Out of the Box, Tropes

Chatty’s Review: Silvervine, Detailed Mechanics

February 24, 2008 by The Chatty DM

This post is part of a series that tackles the reading review of a yet unpublished RPG called Silvervine. Please note that this game is still in development, my review is part of the pre-playtest feedback. Last time I tackled Basic Mechanics, now it’s time for the 2nd (of 3) posts on the game’s Crunchy […]

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

Rogue’s Gallery

February 24, 2008 by The Chatty DM

For those who missed it. Wizards if the Coast previewed the 4e Rogue’s abilities. Sticking to my low 4e hype mission, I invite you to drop by Dave and Bart’s Critical hits for the discussion. I’ll only add that what really sparks my interest is the Attacks vs Wis, Dex or Fort mechanics thatare a […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Updating the social contract

February 23, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Last night we spent the evening playing Magic the Gathering because 2 of our players were missing. Our current social contract stipulates that if one player is missing, we play but if two aren’t there, we postpone the game. We’ve had this “clause” for about 5 years and it’s worked pretty well. However, we’ve had […]

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

Martial Arts + Chinese Bear + Jack Black = COOL!

February 22, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Yeah I’m in a YouTube mood… John, I want you to stat me up a Kung Fu Panda in Silvervine for Gen Con, not negociable!

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: rule of cool

The Guild, a WoW micro Sitcom.

February 22, 2008 by The Chatty DM

It’s probably old hat for a lot of you but a few weeks ago, friends of mine stumbled onto that… Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 You can find the next 7 here. I took a day off today (yay!) but the D&D game was cancelled because of lack of two players…. I guess I’ll […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM

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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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