It's March fourth, and you know what that means: we all march fo(u)rth for GM's Day! Happy GM's Day from all of us gnomes, from the bottom of our grubby gnomish hearts* -- GMs of the world, you rock! This year, we're officially lame: We're so insanely busy getting all of our ducks in the row for the upcoming release of our first book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire ...

Regular readers know that the gnomes have been working on a secret project for some time now, and we've been tight-lipped about details. Thanks to the way GenCon event registration is timed, as of today our first official teaser about the project has gone live: SEM1009173 Eureka! Cooking Up Adventure Plots with Gnome Stew Join the infamous Gnomes of Gnome Stew, and learn about their first book: Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to ...

When I'm playing but not GMing (as is the case right now), part of my brain is always watching -- and trying to learn from -- my GMs. During my group's Eberron campaign session last night, I got to watch a great GM handle a tricky balancing act brilliantly, and I wanted to share some of what I took away from that experience. The Quick Setup The PCs in this campaign ...

I love gaming goodies, tsotchkes, and widgets in all forms -- special dice for each campaign, mascots, a wide range of miniatures, Tact-Tiles, piles of books...the more the better! But when I'm GMing, I keep my side of the screen pretty lean. Here are the highlights -- tools I consider essential to my GMing arsenal, and which I highly recommend for any GM (brand spanking new or grizzled veteran). A ...

I looked up at our little counter this morning and saw that as of February 9th, Gnome Stew had published 599 articles. We're all eyeballs-deep in our secret project right now, and I think I've cracked the whip over my fellow gnomes' backs enough over the last few months, so I thought I'd give them a break and make #600 a short article asking a simple, reflective question: What has ...

Welcome to the second digest of Gnome Stew's bite-sized game mastering tips, all of which were originally posted on Twitter (@gnomestew) from July 14, 2009 through February 7, 2010. (Punctuality: not always our strong suit...) We archive our GMing tweets in this article series, making them searchable and collecting them for readers who don't use Twitter. Bite-sized tips can be a great source of inspiration, and can help keep ...

Are there GMing questions you'd like to ask, but that you're kind of of embarrassed about asking? Questions that seem too basic, too simple, or too should-be-obvious to ask other GMs in person? Here on the Stew, we love practical GMing questions -- and there's no shame in asking them. Any of them. I've been GMing for over 20 years, and I still fuck up on a semi-regular basis. All of ...

Andy Collins, Wizards of the Coast's RPG Development & Editing Manager, wrote to us asking if we thought our readers would be interested in this job opening at WotC. We think you'll be interested: A new job posting for an RPG Editor just went up on the Hasbro job site. This person reports directly to me, so I have a vested interest in (and significant influence on) the result of ...

We just created another way to connect with Gnome Stew: our Facebook page. There you can become a fan of the Stew, post weird photos of your butt on our wall, and generally help make our wives wonder even more what the hell we do all day when we're "working on Gnome Stew." Like all gnomes, we're obsessed with a) connecting with our fans and readers, and b) CRUSHING THE ...

OneBookShelf, which runs RPGNow and DriveThruRPG (among other sites), is doing something fantastic to help Haiti: donate $20 to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti relief, and you'll receive a bundle of gaming PDFs worth over $1,400. Honestly, if you have $20 you can afford to donate, this is an incredibly easy decision. Here's the link: Gamers Help Haiti $20 donation. OBS has already raised over $3,200 $7,000 $13,000 $37,000 $42,000 $75,000 ...

I'm a big proponent of using everything my players give me, especially when it comes to PC backgrounds: If you put it in there, I assume it's because you want to see it in the game, and I'll do my best to make that happen. But why assume? As a player, I design character backgrounds this way. I include NPCs my PC would love to fight, fuck, or otherwise interact ...

Gnome Rodeos are the Stew's periodic link roundups -- articles packed with pointers to excellent GMing material we think you'll enjoy. We usually feature a few regulars plus our favorite discoveries from around the web, all with an eye to making your time behind the screen easier and more fun. If you wrote or read something you'd like to see featured here, drop us a line. There's some awesome stuff ...

We recently got an email from a Gnome Stew reader, Shane Kirby (Shaninator here on the Stew), who is planning to open a gaming store in Alabama and wanted some feedback from fellow readers and GMs. He offered some good hooks for an article, and it's a topic we've never covered here before, so we thought it might interest our readers. Sure, it's free market research, but it's market ...

Newbie DM, author of the killer blog of the same name, Newbie DM, emailed me about his latest project: an ultra-light mini-RPG geared towards 4- and 5-year-olds. You can read about his system and download the free three-page PDF on his blog. The PDF includes character sheets. The system itself is essentially mechanics for combat that turn it into a fun counting exercise for kids -- you grab some minis, ...

"Why do you love GMing?" is a deceptively simple question, and I'd like to ask it in a specific way. In doing so, I think our answers -- the responses from everyone who reads this article and comments on it, whether here or elsewhere -- have the potential to be incredibly useful to each other. As a self-reflective person, I'm always interested in looking back over things like this ...