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You are here: Home / Archives for DMing tips

Instant Dungeon Crawling, Trial by Dragon

December 20, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty shares the highlights of his New York Comic Con D&D 4e game, featuring dungeons crawling and dragon mustering… or was that dragon mustarding. I forget.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Adventure Prep, convention, d&d 4e, DMing, DMing tips, new york comic con, nycc, One Shot games

Instant Dungeon Crawling, The Formula and the Setup

December 14, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty shares is instant dungeon crawling formula that he used at the New York Comic Con to improvise a full D&D session.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Adventure Prep, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Adventure Prep, convention, d&d 4e, DMing, DMing tips, new york comic con, nycc, One Shot games

Sly Flourish’s Dungeon Master Tips eBook

July 12, 2010 by Dave

This is 73 pages of solid DMing advice from start to finish. As the book says up front, this isn’t a guide for the brand new DM. Nor is it an in-depth guide to higher level DMing/storytelling concepts like Robin Laws’s book: most topics range from several paragraphs to a single sentence. For DMs who have been playing 4e D&D for a bit and are looking to get a variety of tips to improve their game, this is the book to get.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DMing tips, ebook, sly flourish

The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 1

April 12, 2010 by Dungeon Master Guys

The very first episode of the Dungeon Master Guys focuses on adventure planning, creating a cast-of-heroes setup for your campaign, and using failures to make your games more interesting.

Filed Under: Dungeon Master Guys Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Adventure Prep, DMing tips, failures, hall of justice, Mouse Guard, PC switching, superfriends

Critical Hits Podcast #19: 4e DMing Tips Seminar

February 25, 2010 by Dave

Lead by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish, joined by Matt James of Loremaster and Dave The Game (myself), the last seminar from synDCon 2010 was about tips for DMs, primarily for 4e D&D but also some tips for GMs of all RPGs. The first part focuses on how to plan a game (and the creative process in general) and the last part talks about tips for running at the table, including ways to run initiative and track conditions.

Filed Under: Critical Hits Podcast, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DMing tips, syndcon

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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