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
1,183 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
My friend Ken has started running a post-apocalypse game based in our immediate area. One of his favorite touches when devising a scenario is to take something familiar -- in this case geography -- and shade it differently. What will our world look like in a 100 years or so after our government collapses?
The campus of Bradley University certainly gives off a creepier vibe when post-apocalyptic bad guys ...
This summer it's been my good fortune to visit a lot of parks and zoos with the family. Seeing a little wildlife, exploring a little greenery — even in carefully controlled park conditions — has invigorated my planning for wilderness encounters.
I mean, if going more extreme fits you, be my guest. One member of our gaming group took a safari to Africa last year before running the Serpent's ...
I recently made what was probably my last purchase from my local bookseller, the soon-to-be defunct Waldenbooks, which was the "Mutants and Masterminds Third Edition Hero's Handbook."
I figured now was as good a time as any to look under the hood at M&M.
(Yes, you are allowed to pause and wonder why I've never picked up M&M before. We're talking about its third edition here, after all. What can ...
Who said “Damn the torpedoes. ... Full speed ahead”?” Well, Navy tradition points to Rear Adm. David Farragut issuing the order Aug. 5, 1864, during the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Sometimes as a GM, especially in a game as devoted to tactics as D&D, I feel like issuing that order.
[caption id="attachment_10221" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Adm. Farragut"][/caption]
That’s especially true during those interminable moments when the game stops to consult a rulebook ...
Question: What’s more daunting than being sucked into a Bizzaro world vortex with Bat-Mite and Mister Mxyzptlk calling the shots?
Answer: How about the New 52?
[caption id="attachment_10001" align="alignleft" width="230" caption="Babs is back as Batgirl!"][/caption]
For those who aren’t readers of DC comics, the company’s entire line of 52 titles is getting relaunched starting Aug. 31. For their signature heroes — Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (and my personal favorite, ...
I admit it. I’ve resisted using a mounted whiteboard for my game for a long time.
It’s not that I have anything against dry-erase markers. On the contrary, a dry-erase initiative tracker and a basic Flip-Mat brand 5-foot base map are both fine GMing tools that have a place at my table.
(And yes, I realize, they are just smaller versions of the same thing.)
My resistance to the mounted whiteboard ...
Is it just a summer thing? Or does the fact I have two boys who run around with their holsters, cap guns, bandanas, stick horses and range hats have something to do with it?
Or how about the fact that there is nothing like plopping down on the couch late at night and watching “Duel at Diablo,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a train-lovers’ guilty-pleasure in “Breakheart Pass,” ...
I love it when my gaming interests intersect with real life — or at least — the lives of our family's mini-mes.
The First Born’s final class assignment for her social studies unit on the medieval period was to construct a catapult. So, armed with scrap wood from my shop, an instructional video from the good folks over stormthecastle.com, a table saw and good length of rope, we set ...
Looking to recharge creatively, I’ve been diving back into an old friend, my collection of pulp fiction. Specifically, this bit of inspiration came from the Robert E. Howard Conan tale, “The Servants of Bit-Yakin.”
The first part of the serialized novella is a cliffhanger, for Conan stumbles into a trap as he explores the jungle palace ruins. It reads:
He turned toward the arch — with appalling suddenness the seemingly ...
Back in December, I promised to deliver my rant on prestige classes.
Instead, I ended up designing one.
(Nothing in life goes in a straight line, it seems. Just curves, twists and unexpected opportunities.)
Using the 3.5 variant Pathfinder rules, I submitted and had published the Dawa Defender, which is available as a free download, Wayfinder 4, over at paizo.com. Thanks to some development from editors Liz Courts, Adam Daigle and ...
Pulp Gamer’s “Out of Character” is on the short list of gaming-related podcasts I listen to regularly. It’s recent episode — “A Novel Idea” — struck a nerve because I often rely on novels as backdrop material. While I usually respond to a podcast on its own messageboards (they started the discussion, after all, and in fairness, it's best to respond in their own forum).
But I thought the ...
I’m an unapologetic fan of the “Wheel of Time” series by the late Robert Jordan and its current author, Brandon Sanderson. (1)
It was interest in trying out the 2001 roleplaying game based on the d20/Third Edition system that moved me to the GMing side the screen in the first place.
I ran two solid campaigns using those rules. It went pretty well. Yes, the channellers can rule combat encounters ...
What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of GMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack.
We've had so many fine suggestions in the Stew lately about how to apply templates to your game prep. DNA Phil wrote about his goals in this regard ...
What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of GMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack.
Nothing ups the ante in a fantasy roleplaying game like having the party confront a dragon. After all, dragons are the baddest actors in the realm — or at least, ...
One of the best ways to learn is by watching other GMs work. Being a player gives you perspective — often a better perspective than what’s offered from behind the screen. Good practices. Bad practices. You can learn from all of it.
Here are some of things I’ve learned about the GMing craft by observing others:
Silence is golden
As a teen I got invited to Bill’s game. That was fortunate ...
