• Critical-Hits Studios
    • Criminals Card Game
    • Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game
  • Downloads & Tools
    • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
    • Drinking D&D 2010
    • Drinking D&D 2011
    • Fiasco Playset: “Alma Monster”
    • MODOK’s 11 for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
    • Refuge In Audacity RPG
    • Strange New Worlds RPG
  • Guides
    • Gamma World
    • Guide to 4e Accessories
    • Guide to Gaming DVDs
    • Skill Challenges
  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Critical Hits

Everything tabletop gaming since 2005

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Columns
    • Dire Flailings
    • Dungeonomics
    • Musings of the Chatty DM
    • Pain of Publication
    • The Architect DM
  • Podcasts
    • Critical Hits Podcast
    • Dungeon Master Guys Podcast
  • Roleplaying Games
  • Tabletop Games
  • Game Hacks & Content
  • Video Games
You are here: Home / Archives for The Chatty DM

Mining Tropes for RPG Nuggets: I, Overlord!

January 2, 2008 by The Chatty DM

This post is part of a series exploring Tropes (recurrent plot devices and expectations in fiction) as applied to RPGs, see the growing collection of posts on the subject here. Now that Yax has fallen in my fiendish trap by accepting my Ennies challenge, I thought I’d start the ball rolling by finally tackling one […]

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

Chatty’s Review: Silvervine Chapter 1, First impressions

January 1, 2008 by The Chatty DM

This post is part of a series that tackles the reading review of a yet unpublished RPG called Silvervine. The 1st post, explaining what the review project sets to accomplish can be found here. Please note that game is still in development and my feedback is part of the creators’ efforts to make this the […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

My New Year's goals

January 1, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I don’t do resolutions. Personally, resolutions always imply that I need to change something. The “need to change” expression seems to be guilt-laden (yeah, I was raised a catholic) and implies that the resolution will be hard to implement and/or unpleasant. What I do set for myself are goals. For me, a goal implies that […]

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

Chatty's blog 1/2 year in review.

December 31, 2007 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty DM rambles about the cool things brought on by blogging. On July 24th, 2007 after 2 failed attempts on MSN Space and Live Journal, I finally made a jump to blogging using Google’s Blogger.  Having no clear idea what to actually talk about, I started rambling about my future campaign, online tools, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

My D&D Flavour: House Rules for Badass Heroes.

December 30, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Tommi made a post suggestion in my last Adventure Prep post: “How about a brief summary of the house rules you use for those who have not read everything you have ever posted”? I’m happy to comply…. except for the brief part. 😀 The core of the rules we use is D&D 3.5 with a […]

Filed Under: Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Holy Green Giant Clay Golem!

December 29, 2007 by The Chatty DM

This is a short mini-post just to showcase my latest D&D Miniature acquisitions. As I usually do, I buy 2 boosters of each and every D&D mini series they make. The latest one, Desert of Desolation is full of goodies for my future game sessions. Look a Bone Devil, a Spined Devil, a Fire elemental, […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: mini-post, Rant

Adventure Prep: Of Planescaping and High Intensity Hacking, Part 1

December 27, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Here I sit, mentally preparing myself for the next half of our D&D 07-08 season. As I promised my players almost 5 months ago, I’m sending them Plane-hoping in the Great Cosmic Wheel. I’m done reading Planescape and while I love the setting’s potential, I was rather irritated by the late 90’s “Storytelling is a […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: DMing

DM Chronicles, Session 8: Heroic Conclusions

December 26, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Phil’s game: Our Heroes beat the leader of the Cult of Sehan and various other aberrations in an ancient tomb that predates modern Ptolus. After a short rest on Andach’s island, they returned, searching for a way to that pool of glowing green slime that may or may not contain Sehan. They had […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3.5e, Chatty's 2007-2008 campaign, DMing

A very Goblin X-mas

December 25, 2007 by The Chatty DM

What would be X-mas morning without a Goblin Song…. (Taken from the Paizo Blog) (Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells) Sneaking through your yard, Going through your stuff, Hope you didn’t like your dog; we got a little rough! Tied him to a stump. Lit the stump on fire. Maybe you’ll wake up in […]

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

My Perfect Geeky Christmas list!

December 24, 2007 by The Chatty DM

The Soap image comes from Sean K. Reynolds’ wife business. She makes Geeky soaps, have a look! Here’s my list: I want someone working at WotC to comment on my blog I want my wife to download the second season of Heroes I want D&D 4e to be as kickass as what the previews make […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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/

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Archives

CC License

All articles and comments posted posted on the site (but not the products for sale) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. References to trademarks and copywritten material are included for review and commentary use only and are not intended as any kind of challenge.

Recent Comments

  • fogus: The best things and stuff of 2024 on Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Routinely Itemised: RPGs #145 on Review: The Magus
  • The Chatty DM on Review: The Magus
  • Linnaeus on Review: The Magus
  • 13th Age: Indexing Truths — Critical Hits on The Horizon Conspiracy

Contact The Staff

Critical Hits staff can be reached via the contact information on their individual staff pages and in their articles. If you want to reach our senior staff, email staff @ critical-hits.com. We get sent a lot of email, so we can't promise we'll be able to respond to everything.

Recent Posts

  • Remembering the Master: An Inelegant Eulogy for Kory Heath
  • Review: The Magus
  • Hope in the Dark Heart of Evil is Not a Plan
  • Chatty on Games #1: Dorf Romantik
  • The Infinity Current: Adventure 0

Top Posts & Pages

  • Home
  • The 5x5 Method Compendium
  • Dungeons & Dragons "Monster Manual" Preview: The Bulette!
  • Critical Hits Fantasy Name Generator
  • On Mid-Medieval Economics, Murder Hoboing and 100gp
  • "The Eversink Post Office" - An Unofficial Supplement for Swords of the Serpentine
  • Finally a manual for the rest of them!
  • Dave Chalker AKA Dave The Game
  • How to Compare Birds to Fish
  • The Incense War: a Story of Price Discovery, Mayhem, and Lust

Copyright © 2026 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in