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

New DMing Challenge: RPG Improv with my Son

September 17, 2007 by The Chatty DM

I just finished reading my 5 year-old son’s bedtime story from a Pokemon pocket novella. When we were talking about the story after I could not help but notice how much he still loved Pokemon and the whole concept of being a young pocket monster trainer. This gave me an idea. I have wanted to […]

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

The stages of a RPG team's development, Part 1: Introduction

September 17, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: The Cartoon Source. Those who know me know that I’m a very meta-(insert subject) type of person. That’s why discovering the TV Tropes wiki made my month as a DM. But tropes are not all that I find fascinating. People interaction and motivation is also a great subject of interest to me.  There’s […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: DMing, The 4 stages

Meet the players!: Yan

September 17, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Last week I sent a questionnaires similar to the one here to my 5 players. I got 2 responses so far and I’m posting the 1st one today, along with editorial comments on my part. What character do you play in our current D&D campaign? (Name, Race Class)? Lillie, Female Pixie Shaper with a one […]

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

Online Tools, Take 3

September 16, 2007 by The Chatty DM

I’ve been thinking about it for some time now and I finally set everything in motion this morning. (I love Sunday morning cartoons, both my kids are watching while I tap away and keep an eye on them to the sound of high-pitched laughter). After talking about it here and here, I went out and […]

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

Adventure Prep, Session 3: Adapting a published adventure

September 15, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine Two players can’t make it to the game next Friday. According to our social contract when 2 or more players are missing, we try to move the game back one week. While this extra time could allow me to prepare a super extra awesome adventure, I find that I spend […]

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

Mining Tropes for RPG nuggets: Meet Marty Stu

September 14, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: RPGnet’s Forums. (Check out Wil’s blog he’s a gamer too.) 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. […]

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

Where you guys come from…

September 14, 2007 by The Chatty DM

I’m going to commit a little blogging sin and go meta-blogging here. I’ll make it up with a Gaming Post today, honest! Yesterday I was looking at where people link from to get here and the planet is indeed a small place. (I took out the ones that stayed less than 1 minute, those were […]

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

My turn now!

September 14, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Thanks so much for those who answered the Getting to know the DMs questionnaire. I have read all the posts and will check periodically for new ones. I even put the post in my ‘favorite links’ on the page to allow anyone to answer later on. Now it’s my turn. I won’t directly recycle stuff […]

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

Is there such a thing as too much cool?

September 13, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: The Brothers Brick Blog My friends Dave and Danny over at Critical-Hits posted this over on their side. This makes me ask myself: Is there such a thing as too much cool? My rational side is a bit repulsed by the sheer cheesiness of the video. But my primitive, emotional brain purrs overtime […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: rule of cool

Getting to know the DMs around here

September 13, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Image Source: D&D Cartoon. I’m working on a little series of posts where I will introduce each of my players with 5 RPG- related questions. While doing this, I thought it would be nice for me to answer these questions and post it too. Thing in, the questions were mostly player-related and I almost never […]

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

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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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