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Adventure Prep, Session 5: When Frustration leads to Inspiration

October 30, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Okay, so this week’s game is a transition from my adaptation of the Vile Addiction adventure (From Dungeon Magazine #145) to its sequel, Spawn of Sehan from #146. Going in this week’s preparations, I had the following goals: Focus the adventure on the more impatient Butt Kickers like Eric and Math to make up for […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: DMing, fluff, rule of cool

YouTubes of the Week: No Connection At All Edition

October 30, 2007 by Dave

Two videos I just had to blog about this week, but they’re both short. The first, “Mike Tyson’s Brunch Out” which is hilarious and difficult to describe. And after the jump, the first trailer for the first Dragonlance animated movie… and boy, it does not look good, despite some awesome voice talent.

Filed Under: Movies, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Video Games, YouTube Tuesday Tagged With: dragonlance, punch out

Campaign Fluff Tools

October 29, 2007 by The Chatty DM

Tonight I had planned to write an Adventure Prep post for this week’s game, but I don’t have a lot of time and will do it Tuesday evening. Instead I’m whipping up a short post on some Fluffy tools I use to better create a sense of immersion in our games.One of the walls of […]

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

You can do that to Magic cards too, it's just not a big deal

October 29, 2007 by Dave

We’ve talked briefly about Eye of Judgement before, the Sony/Wizards of the Coast game that merges the CCG with the PS3. I haven’t played it, nor to my knowledge has anyone on the staff here, but reviews say it’s pretty fun. It still has a huge cost of entry, however. Well, maybe not so bad, […]

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Bits, Video Games Tagged With: ccg, eye of judgment, magic the gathering, ps3

First Impressions: Guitar Hero 3 (Xbox 360)

October 29, 2007 by Dave

I strolled right into my local GameStop yesterday and picked up Guitar Hero 3 (game only) for the Xbox 360. (Also grabbed the Orange Box, but resisted Halo 3 for now.) Using my trusty band THAC0, I’d estimate I’ve played through about half of the game on Medium, maybe a little more. I still don’t […]

Filed Under: Music, Reviews, Video Games Tagged With: guitar hero, xbox 360

Inq. of the Week: Webvertising

October 29, 2007 by Dave

Transformers! More than meets the eye. Transformers! Better than expected but still meh. Many of you felt it was pretty damn good too, so that sounds like a success overall. I watched it the night after the poll was posted, and found many, many flaws but was quite impressed by Shia LeBeouf. I can see […]

Filed Under: Featured, Inquisition of the Week

Tweaking Classes for Cooler Characters, Parts Deux

October 28, 2007 by The Chatty DM

As I was gearing up for preparing this week’s game, I reviewed the player’s ‘satisfaction levels’ with their characters. By tackling this early this week, I might be able to address any issues before Friday’s game. For those who follow the antics of my gaming group (either from my logs or from a Yan’s) you […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Crunch, DMing, rule of cool

Tabletops & Tropers: The first stab.

October 27, 2007 by The Chatty DM

I’m having a successful run with my posts on coolness and applying tropes to tabletop RPGs. Today I’d like to start a new series that tackles the actual tropes that generate from Tabletop roleplaying instead of other narrative media. The idea came to me while reading a tabletop RPG debate on the TV Tropes forum. […]

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

Min Maxing in RPGs: Mutually Assured Irrelevance?

October 26, 2007 by The Main Event

Amongst my traditional play group, Min-Maxing was an art. Ever seen a Vow of Poverty Cleric/Monk/Divine Fist? How about a Werebaboon Fighter/Warshaper/Exotic Weapon Master/Kensai Spiked Chain user? It’s good you have not. Some us were actually role-players too (but not all) and some chose not to Min-Max either because of a concept (yeah, right) or […]

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, design

DM Chronicles, New Player Intro: The legend of the Broken Dice

October 26, 2007 by The Chatty DM

This post features extensive spoilers for the 1st Pathfinder Adventure path adventure “Burnt Offering” Last night we played the introduction D&D game I talked about earlier this week. It was a good game and while I completely realize that I might be expecting too much from D&D, it could have gone better…. but this time, […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 3.5e, DMing, pathfinder, Teaching RPGs, Tropes

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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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