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
Caring about characters is a tricky thing. Many GMs struggle just to get players to like their own character--to treat their character as a person, with coherent thoughts and feelings, instead of viewing their character as an attractive array of powers and stats.
Once you do reach that lofty pinnacle of caring about your character, there's a further step awaiting. Now that your character is becoming vivid and real ...
A couple of months ago, I wrote an article about the differences between public and private games, particularly with a view to some problems that are more common in public games. Before I go any further, you should go read Steel Wing's great post about his own public play experiences over on ENWorld. The post is Why Organized Play has been an Awesome Experience. Organized play really is ...
Pixedragon asked about several things that often tangle together into a big knot: mysteries, clues, and the GM's spotlight versus the player's flashlights. It also ties into the thrashing that often develops in a Sandbox setting. Here's what was asked: Hiya, I have a question concerning GMing, and it’s something I’ve noticed with other GM’s and in my own game.
We tend to play rather RP-heavy games so it’s ...
For the last year, the local organized environment featured just 4th Edition D&D. One Pathfinder Society GM ran a table, but had the same players show up consistently and wound up closing his table and running it as a campaign. A few home groups met publicly for a week or two to recruit an extra player, Call of Cthulhu recruited and filled two tables for months, but everything ...
Today a GM came in and asked to talk about laying out a new plot. She is an officer in a WoW roleplaying guild, and was looking for advice on a new story arc. I'd never been in an MMO roleplaying guild before (though I have, at least, played WoW before), but figured that plots are plots. Besides, I do have some experience spinning out plots... so I ...
This weekend, we organized and threw our first minicon. It was immensely easier than running a "real" con in many ways--but it also telegraphed some of what goes into planning and executing a con of whatever size. If you're looking at organizing a house con, or want to see what goes on behind the scenes, read on!
I was inspired by an Endgame mini-con that I'd been fortunate enough ...
Whenever you add a player you risk incompatibility. In a home game, you've usually screened the players, and usually only deal with one new variable--one new player--at a time. In con games, you're not just adding one person to a table--you're building a whole table from scratch, often meeting your players for the first time.
In both cases, it can be difficult to figure out how to deal with ...
Game ideas come from the strangest places. I'm currently working out details for a new campaign--and I think I've stumbled on a few interesting elements that apply more generally. One big element that I'm considering is how much I want to work out before the players come to the table--do I create a detailed world with 80 pages of history, detailed maps, and several detailed alphabets? Do I ...
A new season begins tonight. It's not the new season of a cooking show--honestly, hardtack is difficult to make sexy, even if you have Kitchen Stadium's resources. No, tonight is the first session of the new 13 week adventure, Dark Legacy of Evard.
I'm looking forward to welcoming new GMs into the fold; a few of our players from the previous seasons are stepping up to run tables ...
If you've been longing to hone your GMing skills, do I have a program for you. Much like the body bootcamps advertised by gyms, this innovative system is designed to increase your flexibility, bulk up your strengths, and build your endurance. It's an intensive program--my first run lasted 18 weeks (including a couple of double sessions), and I'm currently three weeks into a 13 week commitment.
The program is ...
I finally played A Penny for My Thoughts for the first time at a recent RPG meetup. I ran the group straight from the book, following the written guidance and cues. It was a good session-- with prep so light I could never complain-- but many of the pitfalls the author warned about did come true in our session.
Later, I played a pair of games on Halloween ...
At GenCon I was one of the lucky few who managed to find a slot at a Dresden Table. Rubi was kind to me, I guess. I've been a fan of the novels for years, and separately enjoyed games by Evil Hat-- in fact, I'm running a Spirit of the Century game right now. Those two things came together to make my first Dresden experience a great one. ...
Phil already answered Tabulazero's question about note taking, in his post A Deeper Understanding of GM Notes, but I recently found some notes and thought that a couple of concrete examples might prove useful. I'm really answering the second half of the question more, since I'll be sharing notes from a 4e game and my recent Spirit of the Century game.
To refresh, here was the question: I would ...
This set of links is eclectic, but does have a few themes. Major topics this week include interesting ways to rethink your campaign at the level of what scenes an adventure contains, how your scenes/encounters can be structured to show distinct regions and reflect player actions, and how to coordinate a game heavy on characterization when different players show up each week. Then we peek into the ...
On a recent trip, my wife and her friends wound up teaching classes during the day. I spent a few days exploring the city, but also spent a couple of afternoons gaming with their teenage sons.
It's been a while since I was a teen; I admit that I remember the endless hours for gaming with a great deal of nostalgia. So it was neat to get to play ...
