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Afterschool Tropes Special: What’s That Fridge Doing at the Table?

June 19, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I’ve decided to rename my trope series because the posts feel like I’m writing a new season. I’m also experimenting with slightly different formats of trope posts. It remains to be seen if I’ll be jumping the shark or making the series grow a beard. Have you ever had the experience, at school, in your […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games, Tropes Tagged With: Tropes Season 2

Random Thought Table: Of Subs, Quotes and Anecdotes

June 19, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I took a few days off and I have the kids with me. So online time is limited (I’ll be back later this afternoon when they all go to the Optometrist with my lovely wife). I know that Thursdays is the day where the call of the net is strongest, so let me point you […]

Filed Under: Geek Stuff, Musings of the Chatty DM

The Game System Licence and SRD are out

June 17, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Via The Gamerdome Here’s the GSL and the SRD As promised, the SRD is only a 65 page long list of references defined in the Core book whose names you can use freely (baring that you abide to the GSL) but that you can’t redefine or print the text of. So you can put Kobold […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

D&D Character Workshop: The Stubborn Cleric

June 17, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I’m too tired to write anything serious (I have the plan for my next trope post about fridges, I’ll tackle it this week) so I thought I’d share my 1st D&D 4e character concept. (Run!, Chatty wants to tell you about his character) Okay, I made a Lawful Good Dwarven Cleric. Str 13, Con 14, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Chatty’s Review: The 4e Dungeon Master’s Guide

June 16, 2008 by The Chatty DM

If you want a very good (albeit mostly positive) review of the 4e Core books, look no further than Martin Ralya’s. I don’t think I can beat it in terms of depth, style and entertaining values, but I’ll do my best to share my thoughts on the book in my own rambling style. The latest […]

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

First Crop of 4e Tools

June 16, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I wrote my monthly column for Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips newsletter last night. It was a 1500 word article on teaching a RPG to new players, I’ll repost it here as soon as Johnn puts it on his site. That also means that I have no meaty article for here this morning… time for some […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

I Don’t do Paladins Really Well…

June 14, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I just finished reading/browsing the D&D 4e Core books. As I let my impressions simmer and fuse into a hopefully unified set of impressions for my reviews, a multitude of D&D souvenirs come to the surface. One thought that surfaced this morning was that Paladins have the shortest lifespans in my games. You see, I […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Chatty on 4e: Exploration vs Competence / Fun vs Satisfaction!

June 13, 2008 by The Chatty DM

I’ve mentioned in older posts that D&D 4e seemed to go back to the roots of the game for simplicity of Game Prep and monster stats. So far this has been true. At worse, game stats for level 30 creatures take one full column of the Monster Manual. Such baddies are usually limited to 4-5 […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e

With Fame Comes Opposition! Meet G.I. Mike!

June 13, 2008 by The Chatty DM

My rise to power and global domination of the bloggsphere continues! My Chatty DM clone is slowly winning everyone over with his niceness, cross-pollination and other pseudo-socio-fluffy constructs. Witness the number of times the Head Gnome linked to me in today’s post and tell me I’m not right! Heck, we even managed to beat the […]

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

An Unusual Source for RPGs and Game Design

June 12, 2008 by Dave

Here’s an idea I’ve been thinking about for a while, and is worth revisiting as you plan your next campaign or sit down to design the next great game. Our biggest source of traffic is, of course, Google. Thanks to all the tracking software whojidgts, we have a comprehensive log of the search terms used […]

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Bits, Critical Threats, Roleplaying Games

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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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