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Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #3: Mind your Players’ Styles, Part 1 of 4

July 5, 2012 by The Chatty DM

Chatty’s new Back-to-Basics DMing series continues by tackling a cornerstone issue of understanding and catering to what bring (and keeps) players at your gaming table.

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Zen and the Art of DMing

Making Better Lives Through Genuine Threats Of Death

July 3, 2012 by Vanir

Though I’ve started to find my voice in recent months as a Dungeon Master, there is still a lot of undiscovered ground for me to cover. How to come up with named on the fly that don’t end in “eeberbeeb”. How to keep one lonely alligator tear from rolling down my cheek as my best laid plans are turned to slag. And, of course, how to kill the entire party. That’s right. I’m a TPK virgin.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: dead alive, dead rising, Death, death of a salesman, night of the living dead, party death, Pelor, player death, TPK, val kilmer, weekend at bernie's, zombies

Gen Con Indie

June 26, 2012 by Vanir

As many of you are no doubt rabidly aware, Gen Con Indy 2012 approaches. I am slightly foamier than I usually am since I had to miss all but a few hours of the ‘con last year. That being said, I am a little dumbfounded as to how to spend my time in Indy this year. Sure, there’ll be lots of time spent with old friends and new and many (mis)adventures to be had. But some of that time is going to be spent gaming, and I’ve been struggling with how to fill in the nerdliest 4 days of my year. I looked deep within myself for answers, and after breaking through several layers of E.L. Fudge strata I found my answer in the form of a simple question. “What don’t I get to do at home that I can do at Gen Con?”

Filed Under: Dire Flailings Tagged With: ascension, do the flying pilgrims, fiasco, gen con, gen con indy, indiana, indianapolis, indie games, magic 2013, magic the gathering, microscope, warhammer, wowtcg, yaaay

Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #2: Know your DMing Style

June 21, 2012 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty maintains momentum in his new series aimed at new/returning GMs and explores what motivates Dungeon Masters to run RPGs and how uncannily familiar these motivators will be for some.

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Zen and the Art of DMing

First Impressions Preview: “13th Age”

June 20, 2012 by Dave

Describing itself as a “love letter to D&D”, 13th Age has quite the pedigree behind it. 13th Age is designed by two accomplished and notable game designers, Jonathan Tweet (Everway, multiple editions of D&D, much more) and Rob Heinsoo (Feng Shui, D&D 4e, much more), and is published by Pelgrane Press, whose design on their GUMSHOE and other lines show that their production values are top notch and often eclipse products put out by bigger companies.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, D&D

The Circle Of Laugh

June 19, 2012 by Vanir

A perfect night of D&D for me is one where either a lot of plot and adventure happened, or none happened and lots of roleplaying happened instead. Either way, there is usually some component of us laughing our entire butts off at least once during the session. Like, they have to be reattached. I’m usually the class clown at the table when I play. How odd, then, that I’m not behind the screen…..

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: adlib, dm tips, funny, Humor, roleplaying, you did what

Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #1: What’s in it for me?

June 18, 2012 by The Chatty DM

In Chatty’s first posts of his new series, he tackles what you can expect to gain from being a DM and, as importantly, what you need to stop expecting if you want to have the best possible start in your DMing career.

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Zen

New Series for Beginner Game Masters.

June 15, 2012 by The Chatty DM

As a result of Chatty’s new Sabbatical (from working as a Consultant, not writing), a new series about going back to the basics of the fine art of Game Mastering is proposed! Let us know if it tickles your curiosity!

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Zen

Origins 2012 Report

June 13, 2012 by Dave

I almost didn’t attend Origins this year, despite having attended for many years prior. The date change meant that a number of people I knew would not be attending this time around, cutting down reasons for attending. Likewise, I was already making other plans for that time off. Then Get Bit! was nominated for an award, and that pretty much settled that. Despite the changes, I still had a good time. Here are some of the highlights for me.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Editorial, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: avacyn restored, eventide, flowerfall, get bit!, king of tokyo, magic the gathering, marvel heroic roleplaying, mtg, planechase, set cubed, shelter in place, summoner wars

Casual Magic: Nico’s Tolarian Academy Deck

June 13, 2012 by The Chatty DM

Yes, Chatty plays Magic the Gathering sometimes… he even blogs about it sometimes. Today he discusses a Legacy Artifact deck he built for his son, who brags that it is unbeatable. Oh to be 10 again.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Casual Gaming, magic, magic the gathering, playing with children, playing with kids

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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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