Why do you suppose the PCs win nearly every D&D battle they have? There’s an illusion of threat, but how often does the party really lose a fight?
The Lost Shrine of the Trickster God: GMing at Conventions
There’s something about running games for complete strangers at conventions that morphs a seemingly mundane tabletop RPG session into an unpredictable and riveting experience worth writing stories about.
Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #7: Asking Loaded Questions
As I mused on the session during the ensuing weekend, I realized that I might have rediscovered some of the best dirty GMing tricks I’d read in small-press RPGs like Dread. Asking loaded question can indeed steer a player’s action.
Chatty’s “13th Age”: The Story So Far, Part 2
In Part 1, I started sharing a summary of my 13th Age campaign. In this post, I’ll catch up to current events and tell you a bit more about my players and table dynamics. If you’ve been reading my recent 13th Age posts, you should know that the next chapter is what inspired me to write the 13th Age hack about dealing with PC vs NPC contests.
The Island Of Dr. Flail
It’s October, and I’m in the mood for some scary stuff. Problem: I’ve never really played in a good horror game and I’m about as scary as a box of Franken-Berry cereal. Time to get my vampire hat on. Come up to the lab, and see what’s on the slab.
Does Size Really Matter?
In which Chatty muses about the importance of size in RPG groups and the fact that he holds on to ridiculous expectations and beliefs in SPITE of contrary data. Could it be that Chatty is not a logical positronic brain but an actual slightly damaged human being?
Carrot Design, Part 1: A Freelancer’s Challenge, From Needs to Rewards
In which Chatty, on the heels of his last article, explores the challenges of designing new D&D 4e material for gaming magazines and how a writer needs to dodge many pitfalls to deliver a quality, useful article.
Beyond Labels: How Each RPG Serves and Rewards Specific Needs
In which Chatty muses about the relative uselessness of the overused art of labelling RPGs. He then explores the importance of matching one’s needs and motivations as a RPG gamer to the proper game that was designed to cater to them.
Ghoulish Mailbag: Handling PC Death
Fighting Ghouls and Goblins, Chatty picks a letter from his mailbox and tackles the classic “but what’s a GM to do when a PC dies?”
When the Bad Guys Win: Chatty’s Gamma World One Shot
In which Chatty breaks out his brand new Gamma World game and tries a different kind of post-apocalyptic game with his buddies. It’s all fun and games until someone gets shredded by a Porcupine Bush on Speeds.
Recent Comments