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New to the Stew? There are 618 articles packed with GMing tips and advice in our archives. Why not start with our Top 30 Game Mastering Articles?
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Johnny’s Five – Five Tips For Tweaking Your Gaming Space (Plus one frigging awesome link)

While prepping for my regular Sunday game yesterday, I came across an incredible link on Boing Boing. This might already be floating around out there in the general gaming geekdom, but I hadn't found it yet and felt it needed sharing! A gamer who seems to go by the online name of Burntwire took two years to build his gaming space into a great place to fit ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Things That Puzzles In RPGs Should Do

I’ve been running my gaming group through a dungeon using Dungeonaday.com. In the last session the group came across a really well written puzzle and it got me thinking about the use of puzzles in games. Puzzles can be incredibly fun or incredibly frustrating. From the GM’s perspective, you don’t want to give the players something so easy it won’t feel like they have overcome anything, but ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Movies/TV Shows That Might As Well Have Been Written As An RPG Campaign

While I was watching old movies and cleaning out my basement a few weeks ago, I watched a movie that made me go “Wow! That was totally someone’s role-playing game!”.  It wasn’t the first time that happened to me, and this isn't the first time that the idea has been discussed here on the stew ( 1 | 2 ). There are a lot of movies and ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Ways To Get Your Players Into Shared Narrative When It Isn’t The Focus Of The Game

It is no secret that I’m a fan of shared narrative in the games I run and create. If you are unfamiliar with the term, shared narrative is essentially handing narrative control of the story over to the players instead of the Game Master. If you want a more detailed explanation of shared narrative, here is an article that I wrote on the subject a while back.  ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Reasons To Give Your Group an In-Game Sponsor or Patron

I've always had a bit of an issue dealing with money and loot in-game. Depending on the game system and setting that we are playing, money is very important. For some game systems, like D&D and Shadowrun, it enables the PCs to get gear that enhances their abilities. In other game systems, where the mechanical effect isn’t as tangible, it gives the PCs a resource with which ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Ways To Deal With A Too Large Party

The Gnome Stew suggestion pot has 2 questions about a tricky situation that comes up every so often. Parties and gaming groups that have grown too big. This is something I just finished dealing with in my current gaming group, so I thought I would tackle the issue. The first comment was from Zaraphina: Zaraphina I’m ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Game Ideas For Your Halloween Enjoyment

With Halloween being tomorrow, I figured I would lay down a few ideas for horror/monster themed games that I’m not going to have time to run. My regular game will take the party into a city where necromancy is legal. My party plans for Saturday night will have me carrying along a block tower and characters so that I can co-opt whoever is awake at 3 in ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Things About Your Game That Will Never Beat The Reality Test

No form of entertainment is entirely realistic. Movies, video games, books, and pretty much any other form of media cut a lot of corners when portraying the world. If they didn’t, they would be bogged down with boring minutia and detail. However, a lot of gamers like the complexity and detail of  “realistic” gaming. Without the challenged presented by these small challenges a tabletop game might not feel ...

Your Shiny Wazoo at Con On The Cob & Johnny’s Five With Andy Hopp

  To those of you who do the convention circuit, you’ve probably heard about this thing called Con on The Cob – Games, Art, Freaks & Fun. It’s a small-ish convention in northern Ohio from October 15th –17th. It generates a lot of buzz for a very good reason. I went to last year’s Con On the Cob with my gaming company and had a blast. I have ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Reasons/Ways To Get Out of A Not fun Combat

I recently ran a game that had a far too long and not fun combat in it. The party size is a little bloated, and I had planned out a combat with lots of combatants (mostly mooks who got taken out very easily, but a few actual threats) that became very un-fun. The mooks didn't get creamed like I expected, one character decided he wasn't going to participate ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Ways To Keep Your Players On Track Without Railroading

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of non-linear plots and story structures. However, as the Game Master, you are responsible for making sure the story progresses and certain things happen. Sometimes the players just aren’t picking up what you’re putting down. Here are a few things that you can do to help your players stay on track, without having to railroad them. 1. Make ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Quick Mapping Options

So you’re running late to game. The only thing you need is a map, and you need to do it fast. Here are 5 quick mapping options. 1. Dry Erase Board Dry erase markers and a whiteboard make for great mapping options. The only problem, for the tactically combat inclined, is their lack of gridlines. Some places sell dry erase boards with ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Ways To Get Your Players On The Other Side Of The Screen

Troy’s article on Dave Arneson and Scott’s article on rethinking your play group got me percolating on ways that players can benefit from a change of pace and constant involvement in the game. So, while I don’t prefer to pop 2 Johnny’s Fives back to back, it seemed like the best format for this. Without further adieu, here are five ways to keep your ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Reasons To Sit On The Other Side Of The Screen Every Once In A While

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression Pt. 2) When you get tagged as your groups resident Game Master, you often get the “Hey, what are you running next?” question. While its good to get lots of ...

Johnny’s Five – Five Things You Can Do To Make Characters & NPCs Stand Out

Let’s face it, be they an NPC or a player’s character, some characters just stand out from the rest. Sometimes it is because the player puts lots of detail and crafting into the character’s backstory and description, sometimes the GM has a special attachment or desire to see an NPC live up to its full potential and sometimes it all just comes together that way without any prep ...
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