Award-Winning GMing Advice
Gnome Stew won the silver ENnie Award for Best Blog in
2011 and
2010 -- thank you for your support! Online since 2008, we've published
1,103 articles packed with GMing tips and advice, as well as
two books for GMs. Our
top 30 articles make a great starting point for new readers.
"I check Gnome Stew every day." -- Monte Cook
"fantastic blog for game masters, dungeon masters, and rpg fans" -- Wil Wheaton
"If you aren’t reading Gnome Stew, you’re missing out." -- Wolfgang Baur
Ever play poker? You might be dealt three of a kind, but you are never dealt three of the same. One eyed jacks, suicide kings, and the Black Mariah all stand out from amongst their peers. “Three of a Kind” is a series that is all about providing you with three distinct versions of an NPC archetype for you to use in your game as well as some ...
A few months ago, I backed a Kickstarter for a product called Writers Dice, by Daniel Solis. I just got my dice this past week, and wanted to use them in my All For One game. So I started to think about how to work them in. I came up with three ways that I could use them to enhance my game and add a bit of randomness to ...
There’s a decent chance you haven’t heard of this CBS drama—recently voted the People’s Choice “Best New...”—so we’re not sure how long it will grace our screens beyond its first season. But the question remains, who will help you if your number comes up?
Person of Interest stars Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson as Mr. Reese and Mr. Finch, respectively. Mr. Finch has built a top secret machine fed ...
Yesterday marked the end of Gnome Stew's first annual New Year, New Game (NYNG) challenge and blog carnival, and today I'm here to share a smorgasbord of excellent blog posts from all over the world about running new games.
This was our first blog carnival, but it won't be our last -- and with 14 participants (15 with us), I'd say it was a great first outing. A big ...
Have you ever needed to reverse-engineer a character sheet? Have you ever run a flashback scene and wish you knew what your PCs' stats were during that time? Have you ever cloned a PC or had her meet an alternate universe version of herself that diverged from a common point and wished you could have built the new version's experience on top of the old stats? Has a ...
This article was written for the first annual New Year, New Game blog carnival hosted by Gnome Stew as part of the 2012 NYNG challenge.
This past weekend I wrapped up a 16-month Star Trek campaign, and ending it (always a tricky affair) made me think about how I started it -- which in turn seemed like a pretty good topic to cover for NYNG.
I'm going to talk specifics ...
IcebergTitanic had a question that will hopefully end more successfully than his handle's history.
Similar to the questions on Metagaming, I would like to see an article on how a GM can give hints and clues for a story without the players immediately leaping upon it. You know, the old “if the GM mentioned it, it must be important!”
Example: The PC’s are meeting an important dignitary for dinner, ...
If you’re like me you’ve found yourself thinking the following: “I need to make an encounter table for this area. It’s a swamp, so I’ll just go though all my monster books and make a list of all the monsters that can live in swamps…” and then three pages of paper and way too much time later you succumb to information overload, shelf it and go do something ...
Over the past couple of years, I've refined a simple, lazy, but highly effective approach to RPG background music. I call it the Three Playlist System, and in this article I'm going to show you how to use it.
This approach to BGM balances the desire to set the mood at the gaming table with the need to focus on what really matters: the game. I want background music ...
Gnome Stew's first annual New Year, New Game (NYNG) contest and blog carnival both end January 23, a bit less than a week away.
The contest features a grand prize worth over $150, courtesy of our four sponsors: DriveThruRPG, Engine Publishing, Obsidian Portal, and Tabletop Adventures. You can enter it right here on the Stew.
The NYNG blog carnival, also hosted here, is themed around running new games -- tips, ...
What do Data, Odo, and the Pathfinder Gunslinger class have in common? Why is it that playing Amber with new players is so much better than with players who have played before? Why is it that splat books almost always dilute, if not ruin, the games they are made for? What the hell is the Weirdo Card? Want some answers? Lets get started.
Note: I am going to make some ...
A while back I dropped an article talking about a prep method I used, called 3-3-3 Quick Prep. It’s a method composed mostly of bullet points to give some minimal structure to a game but allow for improvisation at the table. There were some requests in the comments to show some examples of it in play. Well, I am more than happy to oblige and dug up some ...
*Author's note: A draft version of this article was accidentally published on 12/08/2011. That version did not accurately convey Lenny's ideas and thoughts and was quickly removed. This version is the approved final draft.*
A fairly common discussion, or argument in some cases, that I have observed gamers having is whether or not a GM should run a game exactly as the rules are written, or if it is ...
I'm filled with curiosity about 5e, as I'm sure Wizards of the Coast intended with their press release. So far, I haven't figured out exactly what it'll look like, but I've been thinking about it since the announcement. I seem to have different reactions as I consider the different groups and hats that I wear.
Home Games The ongoing weekly game that I'm playing in currently is Pathfinder; thanks ...
Wizards of the Coast announces Monday it is working on a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
But what's this mean for you as a GM?
Other than speculation about what kind of game will be developed, what considerations should you be making now, before Wizards makes its first limited unveiling at the D&D Experience in February?
Some might be content to wait until 2013 (or later) for the game to ...
