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

One-Page Dungeon Contest Update 2: Four on the Template

April 30, 2009 by The Chatty DM

After 2 weeks, the one-page dungeon contest is revving up nicely.  Entries have been coming in at a steady pace from all over the world. Seriously, this week we got entries from Australia, Italy and Germany just to name a few.  The dungeons are also very very diverse showing off various genres and themes. I […]

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

Random Thoughts Table: Sounds of Free D&D with new Tools!

April 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Here’s a mix and match of some of the things lying here and there on my blogging desk. Worlds of Sounds Earlier this year, I got a complimentary set of 3 CDs from reader Giorgio Vezzini.  Giorgio runs a studio in Italy called World of Twillights where he produced 4 CDs of sounds to use […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM tools, free

Primal/Within: Some Factions, Sectors and (one) Citizen

April 27, 2009 by The Chatty DM

You might notice that my empty speech bubble in my blog’s header is no longer empty.  Thanks to Eric Maziade, I now have a little plug-in that lets me write quotes! This week is session #2 of my new campaign (if we don’t count the awesome prequel session in the Crypt of the Thief-Prince).  My […]

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

FLGS Chronicles: My Store’s Fauna

April 24, 2009 by The Chatty DM

What’s this? I’m not sure. I’m flirting with non- fiction.  Don’t know what it will turn out into.  I think that I’m slowly getting ready to write a novel. Sometimes, before my Friday night games, I saunter on to my Favorite Local Gaming Store in the north end of Montreal and I sit down with […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Notebook Campaign: How I got my Son into Tabletop RPGs

April 23, 2009 by The Chatty DM

This post is my personal musings about introducing my son to tabletop roleplaying as a progression from the Storytime games we’ve been playing since I came back from Gen Con last year.  Instead of telling you why I want to do this, I’ll refer you to Martin Ralya’s excellent RPG advocacy article he just posted […]

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

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

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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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