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You are here: Home / Archives for Tropes

Afterschool Trope Special: The Dungeon Crawl, Part 1

April 15, 2009 by The Chatty DM

This is Post # 600 on Musing of the Chatty DM!  To celebrate this and my Dungeon theme week, I decided to write an article in the style that has made me known as a RPG blogger: a Trope post!  You are new to the blog and don’t yet know about Tropes?  Here’s a handy […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games, Tropes Tagged With: Tropes, Tropes Season 2

The Primal/Within Campaign: The Dungeon as a NPC

April 8, 2009 by The Chatty DM

As someone told me earlier today, back to our original programming! With my last mini-campaign done and completed, I’m getting ready to start playing my new homebrewed campaign centered around the Primal Dungeon and The City Within. One of the key challenges that I’ve found with campaigns with an overarching story arc is that I […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Megadungeon, Primal/Within, Tropes, world building

DM Chronicles, Session 13: Crunchy Finale, Part 2

April 6, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. Anti-climatic Finale After the Gnoll lieutenant’s infernal challenge, the party surveyed the room for threats.  The room was two-tiered. On the ground floor was a great minotaur idol sitting behind a boiling cauldron from which noxious fumes emerged. A mezzanine was accessible by a short set of stairs.  On the mezzanine […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Tropes

Under New Management

April 1, 2009 by Vanir

Good day! I am Vanir the Chatty DM. You probably came here expecting Phil the Chatty DM. I’m sorry to say that Phil has taken an extended leave of absence due to a severe poutine-related injury and will not be back for some time. In the meantime, he has handed his cape and sceptre to […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Tropes Tagged With: 2phils1cup, phil_almighty, rpgbloggers, Tropes

Chatty’s Mailbox: Helping out a New DM

March 17, 2009 by The Chatty DM

This morning I had the pleasure to get an email from a reader asking me a few questions to help him out in his D&D 4e DMing.  As usual, I love doing that and it creates instant fresh content of interest for other readers in a similar situation.  Win/win says I. Let’s dive into it […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's Mailbox, D&D for Newbies, DMing, Tropes

Chatty’s Megadungeon: Foundations

March 10, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Aptly enough, Monte launched his new Megadungeon project, have a look here. Like lightning, inspiration struck me over the weekend.  Last Friday’s musings on Megadungeons has left my brain splattered all over the place with a ton of ideas for adapting the old concept to my current way of playing the game. I’ve got so […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Megadungeon, Tropes, world building

Bedtime Campaign: Indiana Nico and The Golden King (and his take on RPGs)

February 26, 2009 by The Chatty DM

Earlier today we were driving to the restaurant for a family dinner. I’m telling my 7 year old son Nico about how long it’s been since we did an interactive story. Nico “I’d like to have another of those stories” Chatty “You know Nico, you’re old enough to play the real game of Dungeons and […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Bedtime roleplaying, gaming with children, Gaming with Kids, Tropes

DM Chronicles: Session 10,Fight Night! Part 2

February 19, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. Oh wow,  I leave my last post with a cliffhanger and a “What would the reader do?” and I get a ton of answers far better than I did. Still I’ll chalk this one in my lessons learned below. Here’s a reminder of the setup: All players are inside a room […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Tropes

DM Chronicles: Session 8, Hey! That’s actually fun! Part 2

February 2, 2009 by The Chatty DM

See part 1 here. When I described to Rocco the Rogue that his recon mission had turned sour and that he was now at the bottom of a pit surrounded by gnashing mandibles and bladed claws I found myself stumped.   I had put the player in trouble without giving him the benefit of a die […]

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign, Tropes

Chatty’s Mailbox: Writing an Adventure

January 13, 2009 by The Chatty DM

As some of you may know, I just finished writing a draft for a D&D 4e adventure to be possibly published by Goodman Games (if the editor likes it).  I’ve been posting vague updates on Twitter and Facebook  and such for the last few weeks and some have been following it, being very supportive. So […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Tropes

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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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