Last week, I got an interesting email from M. asking advice about dealing with “That Guy”. Now contrary to the ones we discussed in that panel in Toronto, everything seems to indicate that M.’s guy is one to get the generic “you have to be the flexible one to fit him in your game” answer. Quite the contrary.
Kids and Games: Getting it Wrong is Doing it Right
As I looked at my son and his friend play Talisman “wrong”, I was flooded with powerful memories and a striking realization. One of the reasons why I love D&D so much is because I learned most of it by making stuff up while trying to learn it. I got most of it wrong, but I didn’t know then and I still had more fun than any other games I’d played so far!
The Final Stage of a RPG Group: Dissolution
I thought I was done with this increasingly inaccurately named “4-stages of RPG group development series” when I wrote the last part about Stagnation, but recent event in my gaming group lead me to a painful decision and I thought that tackling it as an addendum to the series would be a good idea.
Full-Spectrum Thoughts: The Traitors Among Us
A few weeks ago, I posted this on Twitter “Old/New/OSR… I’m sick of this. Full-Spectrum Gaming for me please. Sword & Wizardry, D&D4e AND Burning Wheel. You DM it, I’ll play it.” To say that I’m sick and tired of online geek debates about one true wayism is an understatement.
The Soft Landing: Pax East Highlights
Late night board gaming, meeting Wil Wheaton, running the DM challenge, and much more in the Chatty DM’s trip to Pax East.
Oh, and Silver Bulettes that crap gravitational anomalies.
Friday Chat (Early edition): Are you a Backseat GM?
I’m posting this early since I will have limited net access tomorrow. On Friday night, I get to lay aside my Dungeon Master’s Screen, maps, stack of books and other DM paraphernalia to grab a lone piece of paper, one rule book, a set of dice, a pencil and a mini. I get to play […]
The Inner Half-Orc versus The Retro-Clone
(PM is a good friend of mine and while our interest in gaming and movies intersect, we have not roleplayed all that often together. Here’s one of his rare, and always very entertaining posts about his experience as a closet RPG geek -ChattyDM) Where is it? I’m sure it was around here somewhere… I hear […]
Friday Chat: The Issue(s) of Combat length in D&D 4e
This post is inspired bu a Twitter discussions I had last week. As my player level up right into paragon level, I noticed that the length of combat in D&D 4e kept increasing. We often break the 90 minutes point for ‘normal’ encounters and massive boss-level fights will easily eat up most of our 3 […]
4e Lessons: The Penny Arcade/PVP D&D Podcast, Part 1
I’m almost done listening to the Penny Arcade/PVP D&D podcast (which I enjoy immensely) and it makes me realize just how many good D&D 4e lessons are in there. The numerous play mistakes made by the inexperienced players, while annoying to anal retentive rules freaks like me, probably reveal a lot about the parts of […]
Friday Chat: Dealing with Aggressive/Jerk Players
A few weeks ago I got a very interesting letter. I joined my past 2 live tabletop campaigns as a new player joining a pre-established group of players for a new campaign. In both, I’ve encountered a particularly nasty type of player that has caused no end of strife and grief, as follows: 1. Their […]
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