One of the things I learned early on from my father was that it makes no sense to keep a huge laundry list of projects around.  Critical projects crop up with alarming frequency, pushing less urgent projects to the bottom of the list time and again. At some point, the list can simply become too long to ever complete. He taught me this by counter example, keeping huge ...

Christmas Day! It is finally here! And with it we embrace good tidings for all, holiday cheer, and loot. If you were a PC, then Christmas Day is when you get that +3 sword of Ass Kickery that you have been acting Lawful Good for all year long. But much like the occasional cursed item appears in a module, so too does the occasional stinker present show up in ...

'Twas the game before Christmas, when gathered around the table Were gamers a plenty and role players most able. Their dice were selected from their bags with great care, In hopes of rolling max damage and twenties most rare.   The players were nestled all smug in their seats, Craving more victories, and risking defeats. And I with my GM's screen and a clean battlemat, Reviewed my scenario while at the head seat I sat.   When around ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Providing news about the community your player characters use as a home base is an excellent way to make the setting come alive for your player characters. The previous post discussed sources of ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. One way to help players feel like they are taking part in a dynamic setting is to always have things happening in the background. (While mentioning that there’s a two lovebirds snuggling in ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. One of my earliest exposures to fantasy literature was the comic book "Arak: Son of Thunder" by Roy and Dann Thomas. The 50-issue series published by DC Comics told the hero's journey ...

Every time with every group that I have ever been in, when the GM was bringing his or her campaign to a close the question "Who want to GM next?" came up. With some groups the hands shot up without a second thought. With other groups you might as well have asked "Who wants a red hot poker in the eye?" That isn't the issue I'm addressing though. Thinking ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Screen scene I finally picked up the Fourth Edition DM’s screen. (I was waiting for that perfect confluence of events: store coupon, item in stock and cash on hand). You know the screen ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Just Paladin Around Some time ago, Martin asked me and my fellow members of the Stew Crew to offer up our recent reading lists. And one item on my short list of “to ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Matt Neagley brings up an excellent point. When talking horror games, d20 Modern might work just as well - if not better - than D&D. The Shadow Chasers campaign (and its d20 ...

As a GM, when I buy a new RPG I expect the publisher to provide the following support for free: Website for the game. At a minimum, this should include news, a release schedule and links or info where I can buy supplements. But it should do a whole lot more... A sample. Sure, I've already bought the book -- but this might have been the reason why. And even ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. The brew that is Gnome Stew is all about dispensing tasty GMing advice. Frequent readers know I tend to offer a nuts’n’bolts approach to such things. I’m not a gaming theory sort of ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. D&D’s creators made a bold decision with the Fourth Edition: They scrubbed clean the setting lore that too often was an obstacle to new players learning the game. The complex cosmology, the maps ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Tinker, tinker, soldier Why? As a DM, I don't tinker with the rules much.  Oh, as a writer, I've dabbled plenty — articles in Dragon magazine and in a couple of pdf supplements. But ...

We're trying something a little different with this post -- the first in what might become a (highly irregular) series, Tomes of the Gnomes. It's kinda, sorta, maybe in a roundabout way related to GMing, and we thought you might enjoy it. Have you ever met a GM who isn't also a reader -- and probably a pretty voracious one, at that? I don't think I have. And I ...