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 […]
A Basic Goal of DMing?
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 […]
Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 7, Running your Game
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 […]
Chatty’s Megadungeon: Building the Font of Sorrows
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, […]
Players Handbook 2 Preview: The Warden
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 […]
Give Feedback to your GM… and live! Part 2.
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 […]
Give Feedback to your GM… and live! Part 1.
(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 […]
Chatty’s Question: Reactions to your RPG hobby?
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 […]
Gaming at the Speed of Nostalgia
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 […]
The Seven Habits of Great GMs
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 […]
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