• 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

Adventure Prep, Session 4: The Dynamic Dungeon Crawl

October 15, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Wizards of the Coast (I’m baiting for a Cease and Desist letter, I know… hope this falls under fair use) Last time we left our current D&D game, I left my players in the middle of a Sewers-based Dungeon Crawltaken from the Vile Addiction adventure in Dungeon Magazine #145, much to the dismay […]

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

The Emotionally Smart DM: Introduction

October 14, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: The Epic Barbarian, Wizards of the Coast. Having finished the series on the 4-stages of team development in terms of an RPG gaming group, I’m now tackling a new one: Joining the concept of Emotional Intelligence to successful DMing. Think about the best DM you’ve ever played with, or if you’ve never had […]

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

My tools of the Trade

October 13, 2007 by The Chatty DM

While my minions toll away at building my Ultimate Crunch army of Ultimate Power to crush the Fluff Kingdom, I have a game to prepare for next Friday. Recent musings by Dante over at Stupid Ranger has made me ponder about the number of D&D books and gaming aids I use…. I have a lot […]

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

Meet the players!: Stef

October 12, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: WotC’s Player’s Handbook II There we are. After 5 weeks, here’s the last player profile of my gaming group. For the other four, have a look here.   What character do you play in our current D&D campaign? (Name, Race Class)? Nogard Rinevedne, 1/2 dragon Barbarian (Chatty DM: When you read the name […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Community, Player Profile

Setting the Tone for the Confrontation

October 12, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Done by Elmore, owned by WotC The silliness with Wolfgang Baur will run it’s course shortly and I will return with more of my usual stuff. I’m home, on pain meds following a minor surgery so I’m a bit on the silly side lately. Please bear with me. Oddly enough, it’s quite an […]

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

Enter my Nemesis: Wolfgang Baur!

October 11, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Once again, RPGnet’s Forum. To arms! My Fluff Nemesis, Master Wolfgang Baur, has found out about my nefarious plans to topple his empire of Fluff and has already started to maneuver to foil my mad Crunchy schemes! Aside: Well, to be honest, I did tell him about the Nemesis thing, how fun is […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Crunch, fluff, Tropes

Playing around Scheduling conflicts

October 11, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Dante touched a nerve today in his post on scheduling conflicts for RPG sessions. I have been playing with a rather stable group for about 8 years. Enough to take us from our early to mid-twenties well into our early Thirties. Babies were had, house were bought and jobs with traveling occurred. While my non-gamer […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Mining Tropes for RPG nuggets: …and Cut!

October 10, 2007 by The Chatty DM

This is part of a series of articles that tackles the concepts of tropes and how they can be applied by a DM/GM to improve their favorite Role-Playing game adventures. It is heavily inspired by the sheer goodness of the TV Tropes Wiki. Description: a DM’s main weapon and canvas to paint the world in […]

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

Fluff done right: Paizo's Burnt Offering review (spoiler free)

October 9, 2007 by The Chatty DM

I finished reading the 1st issue of Paizo’s Pathfinder #1 and I maintain my 1st impression that it’s one of the best D&D compatible products I’ve seen in a long time (they can’t say it but I can). The 1st adventure, called Burnt Offering, takes characters from level 1 to level 4 (or more) and […]

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

Why do you Play?

October 8, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Monte Cook’s World of Darkness d20 cover. Hot on the heels of the ‘Why do you DM‘ post, and to address the 64% of readers that play at least some of the time, here’s the follow up questions: Why do you play a player character in a tabletop RPG? What are the top […]

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

« 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