• 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 Newest Critical Hits / Columns / Musings of the Chatty DM

DM Chronicles, Session 12: The Great Game! Part 1

March 3, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I guess I had to complain about attendance in order to get a full house last Friday as everyone showed up! Yay! Franky and Stef showed up first and I got to clean the floor with them in a few Magic game with my rebel and Elf decks. Then Yan showed up and we teamed […]

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

Slowing down… Spring break… and Akismet finally activated.

March 3, 2008 by The Chatty DM

My kids are starting the primary school equivalent of spring break (i.e no school, but no partying in Florida either) so I decided to slow down a bit on the blog this week. Expect a one or two-part post on last Friday’s game tonight and maybe tomorrow but not much else this week. I could […]

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

Chatty’s Out of the Box #003: Lean and Green!

February 29, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Here’s another comic! This time with some Quality Control by my good friend PM. I decided to leave our Plastic Pirate to his interview and explore new characters. The Green Slaad is too ridiculous a figurine not to make him part of the comic. This joke came to me this morning and it needed to […]

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

4e linkies

February 29, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Everyone talks about 4e since the D&D experience is ongoing. Have a look over at Critical Hits, they are my official source of 4e stuff. Even I can’t stay calm and unfazed by what Dave and Bart are uncovering. D&D 4e will be a different game, as much as 2e and 3e were different games. […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

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

« 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