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

Primal/Within: Some Factions, Sectors and (one) Citizen

April 27, 2009 by The Chatty DM

You might notice that my empty speech bubble in my blog’s header is no longer empty.  Thanks to Eric Maziade, I now have a little plug-in that lets me write quotes! This week is session #2 of my new campaign (if we don’t count the awesome prequel session in the Crypt of the Thief-Prince).  My […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Megadungeon, Primal/Within, world building

A Basic Goal of DMing?

April 22, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Earlier this week, on his blog, Mike Mealrs posted this conversation starter: The best thing a DM can do (thinking specifically of D&D here), is to do his best to push the party to absolute, utter defeat*, and then watch them try to wiggle their way out, with the party’s victory determined solely by their […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice

Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 7, Running your Game

March 18, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Way back when, I started a series of posts where I would review and comment on Robin D. Laws excellent GMing book called Robin’s Laws of Good Mastering. My main goal is to compare his thoughts on GM to mine and see how the 7 year old book stayed relevant today.  My objective isn’t to […]

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

Chatty’s Megadungeon: Building the Font of Sorrows

March 17, 2009 by The Chatty DM

A word of warning to my players, this post will reveal the first dungeon of our next campaign. First up, a big hello to Grognards and other readers coming from the Old School side to check things out. I may talk about D&D 4e a lot, but I do love dungeons a lot! All right, […]

Filed Under: blogging, Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Megadungeon, one page dungeon

Players Handbook 2 Preview: The Warden

March 13, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Earlier in the month, I and a few other bloggers and podcasters were given copies of the upcoming Players Handbook 2 for the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  In exchange, we agreed to write about it and share with our readers. The Players Handbook 2 features 5 new races: Deva, Gnome, Goliath, Half-Orc and […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games

Give Feedback to your GM… and live! Part 2.

October 29, 2008 by The Chatty DM

In part 1, I discussed about players giving feedback (both good and bad) to DMs in such a way to make it more useful and to limit the damage of criticism. Today I want to talk directly to the GMs who, while craving feedback, aren’t always that ready to get it. Having to prep, run […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Feedback

Give Feedback to your GM… and live! Part 1.

October 24, 2008 by The Chatty DM

(This post was written in a Coffeehouse in Switzerland, how cool is that?) On the last day of Gen Con, I was sitting in a Restaurant (The Ram if I recall, I had the Salmon, delicious), surrounded by my friends from Critical-Hits and Stupid Ranger. We were all dead tired, living off our energy reserves […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Feedback

Chatty’s Question: Reactions to your RPG hobby?

September 18, 2008 by The Chatty DM

1985: I’m in 6th grade and the phone rings at home. My mom picks up and another stay-at-home mom says that she heard her son talk about this new D&D game I’m playing.  She warns my mother that kids who play that game have committed suicide. My mother answers that she trusts my judgment and […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games

Gaming at the Speed of Nostalgia

September 12, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Wil Wheaton is probably about my age (35) because when I read his recent post about going through his gaming library, I couldn’t help thinking that we loved  the same freaking games! (I checked, he’s 36). As I read his stuff online, I see he’d have made a great gaming buddy. We could have ribbed […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Nostalgia

The Seven Habits of Great GMs

August 29, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Inspired by the Stephen R. Covey’s seminal books. After 25 years of GMing, you learn a few lessons about GMing. Some are easier to learn than others. Here’s a list of what I’ve observed in good GMs and what I strive to develop. It’s in no particular order. Being Enthusiastic: A great GM exudes loves […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Player Psychology, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice

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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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