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
1,110 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
I have been watching a lot of Star Trek lately on Netflix as I prepare to run my next campaign set in that universe. In fact, I am working my way through each episode of every series. Having watched all of the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and now working my way through Star Trek: Voyager I can say without a doubt that:
I ...
An aspect of the hobby I find rewarding is the craft side, namely painting miniatures and constructing terrain from plaster mold pieces.
Here is a "how to" on constructing a modular dungeon set with a single mold, using the kinds of crafting materials that are available at craft stores and big box retailers.
1. Selecting the mold
I purchase molds from HirstArts. For this exercise I chose one of the least ...
If you've been GMing for any length of time then you've probably allowed your characters to have something you soon regretted. Sometimes it's handing a low-level character the +5 Holy Avenger, sometimes it's letting the investigative psychic have the mind-reading power, and sometimes it's letting the military characters acquire a lance of the most powerful mecha on the battlefield.
When such things happen, it can be difficult to "take ...
“Is professor Yell doing this now, or wait, when did I plan to have him introduce that plot point. Oh crap, I was supposed to have the spider queen attack the group after they got the idol, not beforehand. Shoot! Who was it that sent the quicklings after the grey ladies!” My latest game is NPC heavy, and almost all of the NPCs are politically motivated ...
Having no intention of running a game in 2012, I did not craft an entry for our New Year, New Game event -- hopefully you did! -- so imagine my surprise walking out of last week’s game discussion with a new campaign to plan. Did I mention it’s based on a licensed property that I’m only passingly familiar with and two players who dwarf my knowledge? Oh, and ...
Being stuck inside on a winter's afternoon, it seemed an opportune time to run an impromptu game of D&D for two of my children.
(Carolyn's always in the mood for something fresh, so after weeks of train games and card games like Poo, Uno and Hike, she was willing to dive back into an rpg, while Jonathan was eager to use the new plaster dungeon terrain set he helped ...
Ever play poker? You might be dealt three of a kind, but you are never dealt three of the same. One eyed jacks, suicide kings, and the Black Mariah all stand out from amongst their peers. “Three of a Kind” is a series that is all about providing you with three distinct versions of an NPC archetype for you to use in your game as well as some ...
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 ...
There’s a decent chance you haven’t heard of this CBS drama—recently voted the People’s Choice “Best New...”—so we’re not sure how long it will grace our screens beyond its first season. But the question remains, who will help you if your number comes up?
Person of Interest stars Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson as Mr. Reese and Mr. Finch, respectively. Mr. Finch has built a top secret machine fed ...
Have you ever needed to reverse-engineer a character sheet? Have you ever run a flashback scene and wish you knew what your PCs' stats were during that time? Have you ever cloned a PC or had her meet an alternate universe version of herself that diverged from a common point and wished you could have built the new version's experience on top of the old stats? Has a ...
This article was written for the first annual New Year, New Game blog carnival hosted by Gnome Stew as part of the 2012 NYNG challenge.
This past weekend I wrapped up a 16-month Star Trek campaign, and ending it (always a tricky affair) made me think about how I started it -- which in turn seemed like a pretty good topic to cover for NYNG.
I'm going to talk specifics ...
IcebergTitanic had a question that will hopefully end more successfully than his handle's history.
Similar to the questions on Metagaming, I would like to see an article on how a GM can give hints and clues for a story without the players immediately leaping upon it. You know, the old “if the GM mentioned it, it must be important!”
Example: The PC’s are meeting an important dignitary for dinner, ...
Over the past couple of years, I've refined a simple, lazy, but highly effective approach to RPG background music. I call it the Three Playlist System, and in this article I'm going to show you how to use it.
This approach to BGM balances the desire to set the mood at the gaming table with the need to focus on what really matters: the game. I want background music ...
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 while back I dropped an article talking about a prep method I used, called 3-3-3 Quick Prep. It’s a method composed mostly of bullet points to give some minimal structure to a game but allow for improvisation at the table. There were some requests in the comments to show some examples of it in play. Well, I am more than happy to oblige and dug up some ...
