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You are here: Home / Archives for Roleplaying Games / Player Psychology

Realism vs. Genre Emulation

June 15, 2016 by guest

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?

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: genre, genre emulation, illusionism, night's black agents, realism

The Lost Shrine of the Trickster God: GMing at Conventions

July 28, 2015 by The Chatty DM

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.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: convention tips, D&D, DMing Advice

Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #7: Asking Loaded Questions

March 31, 2015 by The Chatty DM

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.

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Leading questions, Zen and the Art of DMing

Chatty’s “13th Age”: The Story So Far, Part 2

January 10, 2014 by The Chatty DM

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.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 13th Age, chatty's 13th age

The Island Of Dr. Flail

October 9, 2012 by Vanir

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.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: horror, psychological, roleplaying, scary, thriller

Does Size Really Matter?

July 18, 2011 by The Chatty DM

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?

Filed Under: Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Banewarrens, D&D, group size, monte cook, pathfinder

Carrot Design, Part 1: A Freelancer’s Challenge, From Needs to Rewards

December 23, 2010 by The Chatty DM

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.

Filed Under: Freelance Writing, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: d&d 4e, game design, kobold quarterly, needs, pathfinder, Player Motivations, Rewards

Beyond Labels: How Each RPG Serves and Rewards Specific Needs

December 17, 2010 by The Chatty DM

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.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: d&d 4e, Editorial, Gamist, GNS, indie games, indie rpgs, Labels, Narrativist, needs, preferences, Simulationist

Ghoulish Mailbag: Handling PC Death

October 31, 2010 by The Chatty DM

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?”

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Character Death, D&D, d&d 4e, halloween

When the Bad Guys Win: Chatty’s Gamma World One Shot

October 29, 2010 by The Chatty DM

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.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: gamma world, one-shot, Post-Apocalypse

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