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Fiasco Friday: Chatty’s Tale of Suburbia, Act 1

December 3, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In my quest to play as many different RPGs as I could before settling on new campaigns after the holidays, I finally got to play Fiasco last Friday. Here be the game report, part 1!

Filed Under: Actual Play, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Drugs, fiasco, Revenge, sex, tales from suburbia

The Architect DM: World Building Basics

December 1, 2010 by Bartoneus

So far the Architect DM series has focused primarily on locations and building design, but today and over the next few weeks I’m going to take a look at the larger scale idea of world building and some factors that play into designing a realistic and believable world to play your games in. As with many of the design aspects I’ve talked about previously, designing a realistic world can feel like one of the most intimidating and daunting tasks to undertake but in reality if you apply principles correctly it can make your efforts easier and better at the same time.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: advice, architect dm, campaign, D&D, design, dnd, Dungeons & Dragons, railroad, Roleplaying Games, roleplaying games, sandbox, world building

Savage West, Session 1: The Riverboat Poker Heist, Rio Grande Burning

December 1, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty concludes his Savage tale of Savage Epicness in the Wild West of Savage Worlds. Will his PC be stuck in jail while his friends try to complete the caper without him?

Filed Under: Actual Play, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Chatty Plays, Complications, Con Men, Failure is fun, Far West, Savage Worlds

Dancing Tentacles

November 30, 2010 by Vanir

I might not look it, but I’m pretty good at Dance Dance Revolution. I know this might seem unlikely, especially for those of you who have seen me. I’m 6’3”, 280 pounds, and as gangly and uncoordinated as they come. I very much think my parents rolled a 4 or 5 for my DEX score.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Video Games Tagged With: dance central, dance dance revolution, ddr, fitness, fitness games, kinect, treadmill

Interview with Rich Marflak, Winner of the First RPGA Open Tournament in 1981

November 29, 2010 by Shawn Merwin

An interview with Rich Marflak, the winner of the first RPGA Open tournament at GenCon in 1981.

Filed Under: Interviews, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: AD&D, D&D, D&DXP, gencon, rpga

Savage West, Session 1: The Riverboat Poker Heist, Of Marks and Busts

November 29, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty continues describing his Savage Worlds Wild West game where they start executing their complicated plans to steal the prize money of the Annual Rio Grande Riverboat Poker tournament.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Chatty Plays, Complications, Con Men, Failure is fun, Far West, Savage Worlds

The Gammarizer: Bringing Your Town to Gamma Terra

November 28, 2010 by Dave

The Gammarizer is my attempt at a semi-random adventure generation tool for Gamma World. You start with a location all the players are familiar with (like your hometown) and then change it to fit into the post-apocalyptic setting of Gamma Terra, and in the process, generate an adventure on the fly. This method focuses on using the elements of a setting and altering it to connect to the origins of the PCs to give it that Gamma flavor and a personal connection.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: gamma world

Savage West, Session 1: The Riverboat Poker Heist, The Plan

November 24, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty starts discussing his first experience with Savage Worlds… as a player! Shortly after the American Civil War, the Wild West offers opportunities and riches to those bold enough to venture there… what will 4 lowly hustlers do there?

Filed Under: Actual Play, Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Chatty Plays, Con Men, Far West, Savage Worlds, Visionscaping

How To Stop A Bully

November 23, 2010 by Vanir

That news story about the little girl who got picked on for having a Star Wars bottle last week broke my heart. I was picked on mercilessly from pretty much the first day of school until I got my high school diploma. I don’t want that for my boy. This is, sadly, not an uncommon story for us geeks. What do we do?

Filed Under: Dire Flailings Tagged With: bullying, compassion, decapitation, education, karate, self-defense

One-Hour Game Design

November 18, 2010 by Chris Sims

A year ago, I went to Nanocon and made friends with the illustrious Richard Dansky. On Friday evening, we were a between commitments, and we were amused at the Dakota State University game design program’s promotional literature. We also stumbled on some loose dice and game pieces. We decided to make a game . . .

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Editorial, Featured Tagged With: board game, college, Danksy, fraternity, game design, Humor, jocks, minion, nanocon, princess, zombies

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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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