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
1,107 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
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 ...
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 few years ago, I ran a home-brewed fantasy campaign using the Iron Heroes system. I fell in love with the setting that my players and I created, and for the past few months have been toying with the idea of bringing it back, but not with the same mechanics. The more I looked at the setting, I started to realize that different game systems could be used ...
I love starting new campaigns. As a GM it is so exciting to be learning the rules to a new game, and to start to think about how the campaign is going to be run. When I am learning a new game, I like to absorb as much information as I can about the genre and setting. In a way I treat this aspect of campaign prep like ...
Last month, one of our readers, bonao94 made a suggestion: A round-up of awesome and/or innovative indie RPGs from the last few years that people who are trying to broaden their role-playing horizons should try out.
Being the most System Promiscuous Gnome in the Stew, I thought I would pick a few of my favorite games to share. I am always hesitant about the term “Indie” when it comes to ...
I recently started my new All For One campaign, and while I was preparing for its launch, I set up what is now becoming my standard collection of tools for my campaign group. These tools are a collection of various applications that I use to organize my campaign and to keep it running. In today’s article I thought I would dump the toolbox out and show you each tool ...
I just recently kicked off a new campaign, running Triple Ace Games’ All For One. I had the fortune of having two months to plan this campaign before I ran my first session, while I was closing out my most recent Corporation game. While I was getting ready for this campaign, I had some discussions with my players about our views of how the campaign would run, the types of ...
With the conclusion of my most recent Corporation campaign, I have been working on the prep for my new All For One campaign. As with any new campaign I run, I like to try to shake things up, doing things differently from campaign to campaign. In my previous Corporation campaign there were very few reoccurring NPCs (largely because the players did not leave a lot of witnesses), and ...
This year for the annual You Pick It, I Review It , you selected Vornheim: The Complete City Kit. I ventured to GenCon, and in the first hour of the dealer’s floor opening I had this small book in my hands. Now after returning from GenCon, recovering from the Con Crud, and taking care of a few other books that had to get read first (prep for a ...
When I was a younger gamer back in my 20’s - all decked out in flannel and sporting a glorious mullet - I had the fortune and the free time to run my campaign on a weekly basis, and sometimes run more than one campaign in a week. In those days, I never had to worry about keeping up the excitement and interest level of my game, for ...
Those who know me know that I am a polysystemist; a lover of multiple game systems (turns out poly-gam(e)-ist, means something else entirely). While I can remain faithful to a game system for about 6 months to a year, all games eventually are cast to the side for the “next game”. Those same friends also know that when it comes to game mechanics I am kind of lazy ...
I am likely the last blogger on the Internet to get their Gen Con recap posted, but a combination of work deadlines, Con Crud, generating some spousal karma, and my regularly scheduled game conspired against me. Overall it was a very good Gen Con, and I had a great time seeing old friends, meeting new friends, and doing some needed shopping. So here is my 2011 Gen Con ...
Once again some of the Gnomes will be rolling into Indy next week, and today's article is about where we will be and how you can find us. Despite the bad press 4e has been giving us Gnomes, we are a social bunch, and nothing gives us more of a thrill than getting to meet the people who read Gnome Stew, and write the comments that spark the ...
For those long-time readers of the Stew, this is a tradition that I have had a lot of fun doing the past two Gen Con’s. It is the 3rd annual You Pick It, I Review It event. This is where you get to put the last item on my Gen Con shopping list before I pack up and head to Indy for the best 4 days in gaming.
In ...
From the moment I read the Fiasco rules (link and link) I knew that there was something special about this game. Within its short 135 pages was a game of pure brilliance, finely tuned to a specific type of play and yet structured to allow for nearly unlimited re-playability. While I have enjoyed playing Fiasco numerous times over the last year, my inner game designer has been curious ...
