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You are here: Home / Archives for Newest Critical Hits / Columns / Musings of the Chatty DM

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

Caspule Reviews: Heavy Gear, Adventurer’s Vault 2, Eberron Campaign Guide

September 16, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I’m going to try something new here.  I have a pile of products to review and, to be quite frank, I don’t like doing long-winded reviews anymore. I think that the true appeal of a product can be projected in less than 100 words.  I also believe that what many people look for in a […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Heavy Gear

#AboutmyPC: Contest Results

September 16, 2009 by The Chatty DM

One month ago, I launched a contest over Twitter called #aboutmyPC where I invited people to submit a description of their character in 130 characters or less (the #aboutmyPC tag taking 10 characters). Over 350 entries were sent for that contest so it was a huge success. My criteria for the contest were pretty simple. […]

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

This is Why I’m Not a Journalist: Andy Collins Interview

September 15, 2009 by The Chatty DM

On the last morning of Gen Con 2009, I, along with my good friend Graham, were given the opportunity to sit down with Wizards of the Coast’s 4e head honcho Andy Collins and perform an interview. He was gracious enough to grant a little more than one hour of his precious time to answer our […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Gen Con 2009, Interviews

Roleplaying games as a teaching tool

September 14, 2009 by guest

Hi, my name is Michael Wolf, author of Stargazer’s World. Some time ago, Barb, a homeschooling mom from California contacted me. She had read about my background in physics and asked me if I ever had ever thought about combining D&D and science. For some time she has paid DMs with backgrounds in different scientific […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: gaming with children, Gaming with Kids

Primal/Within Chronicles: City of the Overmind, Part 4

September 10, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 3 here. Oh noes!  Failure! After recovering the key part from the Merchant “Prince” the players consulted the Map. Math: All right, the next closest thing is the Vats, let’s go! Eric: No, let’s do the Vats last, we’ll be able to bust them after and then go do Rocco, Franky and Mike’s […]

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

Primal/Within Chronicles: City of the Overmind, Part 3

September 9, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 2 here. Stealth and the Art of Not Getting Killed in a Hostile City Chatty DM: So what do you want to do first? Yan: Well, we’ll start my goal of trying to find rumors about the possible location of the key pats. Chatty: All right then let’s make this a 5 part […]

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

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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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