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You are here: Home / Archives for 4e

Chatty’s Ptolus 4e Demo: A Tail of Two Shities, Part 1

December 7, 2009 by The Chatty DM

(This series title was chosen by the players, you have been warned) As announced here, I organized a D&D 4e demo for 4 members of the Mindnight’s Lair local RPG forum. I didn’t want to do a big D&D 4e lecture upfront, and I didn’t have to, most players had either played it once before […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Game Demo, Ptolus

D&D 4e Ptolus: Chatty’s Demo Game

December 4, 2009 by The Chatty DM

(This is the first post I write on my new mini-laptop that you all payed for by visiting this site, I thank you all!) Earlier this fall I attended a local gaming con called Draconis where I demoed a D&D adventure written by my friend Johenius.   At the con, I met Erik, the owner […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Ptolus, Teaching RPGs, world building

Primal/Within: Showdown at the Castle of the Overmind, Part 3

December 2, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Part 1 and Part 2. Last Friday’s session was the final confrontation of the campaign.  It was supposed to be an Epic battle between an Avatar of the setting’s  sentient Dungeon and the PCs. I had a game plan, but it didn’t play out as I wanted…again. The fight ended up being hard and climactic… […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, chatty's, Primal/Within

Primal/Within: Showdown at the Castle of the Overmind, Part 2

December 1, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. These last 2 sessions were marked with strong, not so positive emotions on my part.  At the end of session one, I couldn’t believe that we played so little (we started at 7h00-7h30 and ended at around 9h45).  At the end of session two, I was downright angry (and vocally so) […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Primal/Within

3 Rolls, 1 Check

November 29, 2009 by Dave

This happens for many kind of skill rolls. An idea occurs to one player, who rolls a skill, which then prompts several other players to also roll. If a check is declared, then everybody rolls who can roll. You can’t blame the players: after all, rolling dice is fun.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM advice, skill checks

Primal/Within: Showdown at the Castle of the Overmind, Part 1

November 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

(This post covers my last two D&D 4e games) Last Friday we concluded our longest D&D 4e campaign yet, clocking it somewhere between 16 and 20 game sessions (almost one year). In order to make posts length easier to manage, here’s the ultra condensed story. Campaign Finale: Redux Using a mysterious 4 part key collected […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Primal/Within

Campaign Genesis: Gears of Ruin

November 19, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I’m taking a short break from my course prep to share with you some of the brainstorming that is shaping my newest D&D 4e campaign.  Last week, when I pre-pitched my D&D adventure ideas for Dungeon Magazine, one of the ideas that wasn’t retained ‘as is’ was a clockwork fantasy adventure. It’s not that the […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2009-2010 Campaign, Gears of Ruin, Tropes, world building

D&D 4e One-Shots: Putting it into Action

November 18, 2009 by Dave

As a result of playing four very different one-shot games at DC Game Day, I condensed my thoughts about one-shots into one simple rule: Everything important on the character sheet should come up during play. It’s an easy thing to say, but not so easy to put into practice. However, I got a chance recently […]

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM advice, one-shot

Campaign Weariness: Ending a campaign before its time

November 12, 2009 by The Chatty DM

As I hinted in my last game report, I feel the urge to move on from our Primal Dungeon/City Within campaign.  At 15 sessions so far, this has been the longest Mini-campaign I’ve played since we started 4e.  While I think the setting is ripe for more adventures, I feel like creating/exploring a new micro-setting […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, advice, Campaign Management

Convention Report: DC Game Day 2009

November 10, 2009 by Dave

DC Game Day V was held October 24th and 25th, and Geek’s Dream Girl and I were there. It was a bit different than the game conventions I usually go to: it was held in a section of an office building in downtown DC, and it was 4 sessions of RPGs (2 per day). No open gaming, no pick-up games- it was all scheduled ahead of time.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, convention report, dc gameday, dread, lady blackbird, time & temp

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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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