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You are here: Home / Archives for DMing

New Series for Beginner Game Masters.

June 15, 2012 by The Chatty DM

As a result of Chatty’s new Sabbatical (from working as a Consultant, not writing), a new series about going back to the basics of the fine art of Game Mastering is proposed! Let us know if it tickles your curiosity!

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, Zen

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

Funny Pants of Omnipotence: The Metaphor Overstays Its Welcome

April 12, 2011 by Vanir

After last week’s existential crisis, I take a look at some of the difficulties I face in coming up with the right plot framework for my campaign, and realize for the 74,343rd time that I have difficulties being serious.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: being funny, comedy, DMing, dungeon master, Humor, plot development, story development, succotash, Writing

The Architect DM: Open Spaces Design Toolbox

February 16, 2011 by Bartoneus

As I introduced in my last post about improvisation, I believe that the key to being able to design a location (whether beforehand or on the fly) is grounded in what I’m calling your toolbox for design. The key is that once you have a well developed toolbox to pull ideas from, you can more readily and quickly design a location for your tabletop Roleplaying Games on the spot or adapt your planned locations to fit the developing needs of the game table. An underlying goal of this series of posts is to help you develop the toolbox required so that you will be able to accomplish this task with relative ease and a good amount of confidence.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: advice, architect dm, D&D, design, DM, DMing, dnd, dungeon mastering, Dungeons and Dragons, Location, Roleplaying Games, roleplaying games, sandbox, Tips, toolbox, Tricks

Let Me Tell You About My Campaign: Age of Awakening

February 10, 2010 by Bartoneus

About two months ago Dave decided to tell you about his campaign – the setting, world, how it all began, characters, planning, and some of his house rules. He set me up to share about my campaign also, as a large part of planning for both of our games was done together. In fact his game is being run in a world that I designed and handed over for him to take and expand upon as he saw fit.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: campaign, D&D, DM, DMing, dnd 4e, dungeon master, dungeon mastering, Dungeons and Dragons, roleplaying games, Roleplaying Games, world building

Leveling Up As An Inexperienced DM

October 15, 2009 by Bartoneus

I still consider myself an inexperienced DM. the 4th Edition campaign that I’m currently running has just passed twenty adventures and is the longest campaign I’ve ever run. Hell, it was the longest game I’ve ever run when it hit ten adventures back in May.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: campaign, D&D, DMing, dnd, dungeon master, dungeon mastering, Dungeons and Dragons, newbie dm, roleplaying games, Roleplaying Games

Adventurers Anonymous

August 12, 2009 by guest

Storyteller is the author of the RPG blog Beneath the Screen, and a content developer for Nevermet Press. He is proud to be back at ChattyDM’s blog for the one-year anniversary of his first guest post ever on the blogosphere, which he wrote for ChattyDM last year. Without further ado, onward with the guest post! […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, DMing, world building

Friday Chat: Do You Sprinkle Silliness in your Campaigns?

May 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

The Bloodbowl 4e post with the actual rules is taking longer than planned to finish and the Ennies application process deadline came and bit me in the a$$.   Instead of posting part 4 of my Dungeon Reality Show this morning, I’m posting another of those Friday questions.  I’ll post the DRS one as soon as […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, Discussions, DMing, Friday Chat, Theme week, Tropes

Do You Throw Rocks in Your PC’s Puddle?

May 14, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I was having lunch with a DM friend of mine.  He was telling me how he was trying to steer his group in is Homebrewed campaign so that they would “spontaneously” decide to go see an Oracle and thus start the Forgotten Realms’ Sceptertower of Spellguard” Adventure. He told  me how one of his players […]

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

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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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