• 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

Mini-Crunch: Chatty's Top D&D Crunch books!

November 27, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Yeah I know that making lists can be considered bad form by some, but they do serve a purpose. They are perfect for a 500 word Mini-post!!! (Italics included) Oh and if I can get 2 comments on this we hit the 800 comments mark! With D&D 3.5 nearing the end of its useful shelf-life, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Crunch, mini-post

Adventure Prep: When Fun and Logic collide…

November 26, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Woot! It’s game week again! Since this week’s game is the 3rd session in and around a Tomb dungeon, and since the adventure is pretty much prepped since last week, I was thinking of skipping this week’s prep article in order to focus on the campaign’s next chapter (Where Planescape meets Ptolus). But then I […]

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

The Case Report James will Never Write: Post me that Purple Heart, I'm gone!

November 25, 2007 by The Chatty DM

While this may look like bad Fan-fiction, it’s actually our McWod Campaign log told from the perspective of my character James Kevin Smith, Level 1 Awakened. (Franky is GMing). Posted unencrypted on alt.conspiracy.inconnu by KingofheartS on November 25th. James is lost, I don’t know for how long. We’re really hurt… both physically and… well let’s […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Chatty as a Player, McWoD

Brain was Hijacked by Heroes

November 24, 2007 by The Chatty DM

I’m not writing much this weekend, I’m not apologizing, I’m just saying… 🙂 I’m home with the kids while wifey’s doing some consulting work in the Great North, she’ll be back on Monday. I don’t have a lot of creative juices once the wee ones are in bed… and I made the mistake of buying […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM

The Overlord's bid for Superstar status!

November 23, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Man, the suspense is killing me! When I first learned about Paizo’s American Idol-inspired RPG Superstar contest, I was intrigued but not that interested. While I have a certain knack for words and things D&D as well as non-professional experience in both department, being a RPG designer/writer was never seriously on my radar (As mentioned […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Crunch, DMing, fluff

Mini-Trope: The Bad, The Killer and the Evil.

November 22, 2007 by The Chatty DM

So far I have been doing a lot of posts about DMing tropes, but what about tropes on DMing? (This post is very satirical. If anyone is offended by this… well let’s just say I’d rather not play in your game…) When you ask RPG-savvy people to describe a cliché (or a trope) about DMs, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games, Tropes Tagged With: DMing, mini-post, Tropes

DM Chronicles, Session 6: Perfectly Paced Action Crunch! (Part 2)

November 21, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Monster Manual IV, Wizards of the Coast, Artist: Jim Nelson In which ChattyDM’s players find all kinds of trouble and manage to always come out on top. See part 1 here. The players entered deeper in the tomb’s second level, finding themselves in a large “T” shaped room. It featured 2 more stone-doors-with-levers […]

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

Micro-Crunch: I knew Mike Mearls was a Crunch Overlord!

November 21, 2007 by The Chatty DM

As you may know, Martin Rayla of Treasure Table is taking a well deserved month off from writing his daily blog. He’s now slaving away doing NaNoWriMo, writing about whatever it is DMs write about (I suspect Ninjas and Pirates, but that’s just me). During that time he’s reposting some of his best stuff from […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Crunch, mini-post

DM Chronicles, Session 6: Perfectly Paced Action Crunch! (Part 1)

November 20, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Phil’s game: The heroes struck a deal with the Keepers of the Veil to investigate where the plant-like humanoids, created by the drug Green Welcome, were headed in Ptolus’ Necropolis. Said plant-like beings, called Children of Sehan, were tracked to an ancient funeral mound and engaged. Two were slain, diffcultly, one remains, inside […]

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

A fey's journal: Under Ptolus' Necropolis (estimated time: noon)

November 20, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Art from Song of Serenity (Magic the Gathering, Exodus, Wizards of the Coast), Copyright 2005 Tony DiTerlizzi (Check his site!), used with the artists’ permission. Here is Yan’s latest player log detailing last Friday’s tomb crawling. Enjoy! I take a few minutes to write this as we are discussing our next course of […]

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

« 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