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You are here: Home / Archives for skill checks

Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #6: Smash that Bottleneck

November 1, 2012 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty tackles a subject near and dear to his cold black DM heart: avoiding adventure bottlenecks. This multi-parter series starts with the basics: Skill-related bottlenecks.

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: advice, Bottlenecks, D&D, DM, DMing, DMing Advice, dungeon master, skill checks, Zen and the Art of DMing

What? You want to Sleep here?

February 17, 2010 by The Chatty DM

I don’t like random monsters. On the other hand, the idea of having players sweat for their extended rest could be worth exploring once or twice in a campaign. This is especially true if your group chronically blows their wad of dailies in the first encounter and then just assume they can take an extended rest wherever they please. So, what if you said ‘Yes’ to resting in a dangerous area (like in the middle of a freaking dungeon) but did it with a twist?

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's what if, DM advice, Extended Rest, skill challenges, skill checks, skills

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

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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