A few months ago, I decided I wanted to buy my first dice tray. My druid character in our ongoing D&D 3.5e campaign uses a lot of dice, and our GM (who comments here as Sarlax) has always used a dice tray and seems to quite like it. I knew I didn't want the generic light wood/green felt octagon that I've seen in most gaming stores. It's too large ...

If you love the Forgotten Realms — or should I say, if you love to tinker with the Forgotten Realms — then Fourth Edition presents a rare opportunity. I recommend that DM’s running 4E games take a crack at revising their Realms before the official update, which presumably will advance the timeline and explain the evolution from 3E to 4E magic systems, is published in August.  Why? Here’s a chance ...

It's early because it's Thursday, not Friday, but also late because I didn't do a rodeo last week. It's special because it contains a metric ass-ton of GMing links (the metric ass-ton, of course, is an official gnomish unit of measure...). Gnome Rodeos are our regular link roundups. Provided everyone doesn't simultaneously stop talking about GMing for a week, you should see one most Fridays. GMing Regulars → Dungeon Mastering: Yax ...

What's the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don't be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Just a little peek The more I DM, the more I want to roll in the open. Mostly, it keeps me honest and it dampens hard feelings when the rolls go against the players. ...

Immortal. Classic. Throbbing with manly manhood. Everything a roleplaying game should be. Synnibarr! All others are just pale imitations. Never heard of World of Synnibarr? You owe it to yourself to buy a copy on eBay (mine was $10), or at the very least to read the classic RPGnet review. Thus Continues the Gospel According to Synnibarr III. Ptoing! Your puny missile cannot penetrate my medieval plate armor! Armor in Synnibarr offers ...

Several years ago, a GM that I was acquainted with organized his weekly group into a club. Everyone paid a fee and the GM would ostensibly use this money to purchase gaming materials that he would keep after use. A few years later (but still several years ago...darn I feel old!), I was discussing this arrangement with a fellow gamer buddy. He had a rather heated reaction against it, ...

The second annual Worldwide Adventure Writing Month starts tomorrow, July 1st. Last year's WoAdWriMo generated seven free adventures that you can download or read online. The guidelines last year included a goal of 32 pages, but that suggestion is gone from this year's event -- you can write as little or as much as you like. The many lazy gnomes who write Gnome Stew will be climbing out of our ...

PCs are adventurers. I get it. They’re not slaving away at some lousy 9-to-5 job hoping the boss won’t drop a ton of work on their desk before the weekend or pining for that promotion that will never come. It’s not in their makeup. They’re adventurers! They’re goblin-killers and tomb raiders and dragon-slayers, for goodness sakes. They don’t punch-in at a timeclock and they aren’t worried about the ...

With D&D 4e out (and looking awesome so far), I wanted to start building a collection of prepainted fantasy minis for future use. While I plan to buy some boosters as well, I figured I'd kick things off by ordering a host of cheap minis for representing PCs. Even if creatures get counters instead, it's always cool when the PCs have their own minis. Back when I was collecting ...

I am about to start a new campaign. The game itself is unimportant, save that no one in my group has played it before and as far as I know I am the only one that owns a copy. This is unfortunately typical of most new games I run. I am the "gamer geek" in my circle and as such I tend to be the only one that buys new ...

Ages ago, I had an idea. I was discussing the best use of marketing hoopla and I wanted to come up with an amazingly bizzare game concept to use as an example. What I came up with was Tiny Tinkourers, Victorian gnomish steam-driven battle-suit arena gladiatorial combat! The publisher to whom I was talking at the time (Chris Hill of OKG - They have some really neat stuff) ...

What's the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don't be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Death-proofed PCs Everything I’d heard about Fourth Edition D&D was how hard it was to kill first-level characters — they’re resilient, they’re loaded with offensive capabilities and they’ve got a batch of hit points. ...

Clem asked about less special PCs in the suggestion pot: Almost all settings and campaigns seem to assume that pcs are a breed apart. They may start weak but, if they survive, they can eventually become extremely powerful and/or capable. Ok, suppose there are such special people in the world and that they are born with something extra that gives them this superhuman potential. Now suppose that the ...

Sometimes the GM must do non-game related tasks. As the GM your role extends beyond just running the game. You schedule the sessions, you organize the materials for your game, you approve supplements and verify character builds, and you need to provide the tools for the game. When you agree to be the GM you are agreeing to a second job. I'm not suggesting that you treat the GM ...

Note from Chef Telas: I apologize for my absence from the Gnome Stew kitchens over the last few weeks. Our first child showed up on June 5th. Not only was she over two weeks early, but the first thing she did was break my wife's water, probably not the last thing she's going to break... Everyone's doing fine, but since then, we've been knee-deep in diapers, bottles, breastpumps, ...