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DM Chronicle: Session 5, Alien Feys & Whiskered Pirates, Part 1

November 18, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Previously in Chatty’s Game: Our Heroes battled a pirate Scholar and her Dragon Pet only to see her escape at the last second before defeat.  Alone against a city of angry Ape Men, they almost managed to turn them to their cause only to be defeated by a crazed zealot and his retinue of elite […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign

RPG Bloggers Digest and Creative Overdrive Output

November 17, 2008 by The Chatty DM

For those who missed it, Dave and I started posting weekly highlights of the RPG posts that appeared on the RPG Blogger network. You can see my first post here, and Dave’s picks here. It basically highlights whatever got our attention during our alternating weeks as Editors of the network.  Have a look its well […]

Filed Under: blogging, Musings of the Chatty DM

Inq. of the Week: Bad Movie Ideas

November 17, 2008 by Dave

As we are oft to do, we wanted to find out what kinds of games you play. 94% of you play Tabletop Roleplaying Games (only 4 people who voted do not), 71% of you play console games, and 67% play boardgames. Amazingly, 0% are not gamers at all… they have all fled from our gamerdom. […]

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Movies

Chatty’s Online D&D 4e Game: Genesis of the Project

November 16, 2008 by The Chatty DM

As many of you know, I made a lot of friends and contacts around the time of Gen Con 2008. Among those friends was Don, one of the members of the Wizards of the Coast Development team working on D&D insider. Don was one of the Seattle Wizards who read my Open Letter to WotC […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's Online game

Paying the Buy-In

November 14, 2008 by Dave

When starting a new campaign (or even just planning a one-shot), it’s tough to get people into a new game. Thus, the game usually ends up being D&D. Now, there’s nothing wrong with it being D&D, but with so many RPGs out there, I enjoy a bit of variety when I can get it.

Why is it so tough? Because the “buy-in” total for the game is too high.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: campaign, D&D, dark heresy, dread, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games, star wars

4th Edition Encounter Planner

November 14, 2008 by Bartoneus

Earlier this week I was talking to Asmor and idly mentioned to him how I was trying to make an Encounter Planner for 4th Edition that used the DMG encounter templates. I was hoping to have something where I input a level, choose a difficulty, and it outputs a list of the monsters that will […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, asmor, D&D, dnd 4e, Dungeons and Dragons, Roleplaying Games

The long Journey, 500th post!

November 14, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Musings of the Chatty DM started a little over 1 year ago, with a bad colour scheme and a 34 year old nerd with limited editorial and web design skills. The first 200 posts were about finding my voice, the next 200 were those that established me as a credible blogger and building an incredible […]

Filed Under: blogging, Musings of the Chatty DM

Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 6, Being Spontaneous!

November 13, 2008 by The Chatty DM

This post is part of a series where I discuss Robin D Laws’ seminal work on GMing: Robin Laws’ of Good Game Mastering, written at the end of the 90’s . I compare it to my personal experience and opinions and I check how well the guide has ‘aged’. The other posts of this series […]

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

Winter is Coming (to HBO)

November 12, 2008 by The Main Event

George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic has been greenlighted. The plan is to adapt one novel each season, starting with 1996’s “A Game of Thrones.” – AintitCool Martin himself will be doing some of the writing chores (further pushing back Dance of Dragons, eh?) along with others.  Frankly, I’m really excited.  After seeing Rome/Deadwood I have faith […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits, News, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television

Adventure Prep: Keeping it Simple and Stupid

November 12, 2008 by The Chatty DM

All right so last night I sat down to prep for my game as I planned it here and here.  My goal of the night was to be done with the first half of the adventure: Getting on the Fey Airship and reaching the player’s destination. I got out all the battle maps (I have […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, 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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