This past weekend I just finished running a medium length campaign for my group. The game had been a play test and world-building project. The group travelled far and wide across the world and grew to great heights of notoriousness . . . uh, I meant fame. A couple of sessions before the projected finish of the campaign, a few members of the group told me how much ...
When we last left off, I had taken you through the Fiasco book and mechanics. (If you missed yesterday’s article go back and read it…now). The real question is, how does this game actually play, without any prep or any GM? The short answer is that it does it quite well, but to really understand, let me tell you about a guy name Rico.
Rico Is So Dead
Shortly after ...
Today I am going to review a game that does not require a GM. Yes, its true. Let me repeat that. Gnome Stew, the leading blog for GM advice, is going to review an RPG that does not use a GM. Today I will take you through the game book and discuss the nuts and bolts, and then tomorrow, I will show you why playing it will make ...
In what must be the most brazen or naive scheme ever devised by those foul-smelling doglike lizards, some Kobolds have asked us Gnomes to review the latest issue of their magazine, tempting us with a free PDF issue.
Do these Kobolds really think that a new edition means that all the old rivalries are forgotten? Do they think that a simple bribe will make up for past atrocities? Can ...
Get your bull's-eye lantern, a 10 ft pole, and some spikes, because we are taking a journey into the dungeons of yesteryear. For those of you who did not battle the Slavers, wander the Borderlands, defeat the Giants, and stood in the Demonweb Pits, you are in luck. Goodman Games provides you an old school Sherpa, in the way of The Dungeon Alphabet.
Disclaimer—Goodman games was kind enough to ...
Dais Ex Machina (DEM) Games has just released a free adventure using their Amethyst rules, called Biohazard. It is being released in Combat Advantage #15 from Emerald Press, which should be available for download today.
Some Disclaimers—First, I was a playtester for this adventure, running this for some friends at GenCon this year. For the record, it was a lot of fun to run. Second, I was provided a ...
The Desire is a full color 57 page PDF for Fourth Edition D&D by Nevermet Press (www.nevermetpress.com). (Also included was a grayscale PDF, oriented in Portrait, intended for easy printing. That's a nice feature, though one I didn't take advantage of.) Please note that the PDFs were freely provided by the publisher for review purposes.
Structure The PDF begins with a blurb about Nevermet Press followed by A Message ...
This article is part of the Game Cryer's Holiday Gift Guide. You can see other gift ideas for you and your gaming friends at the main Gift Guide page here.
Shock: Social Science Fiction from GlyphPress was on my wish list for quite some time, and when I finally got my grubby little paws on a copy I was overjoyed. As the name implies, it's a science fiction game ...
A long while back, fellow gnome DNAPHIL offered up the chance for the readers to pick what book he would pickup from Gencon and review. The two leaders were the new Hackmaster and Realms of Cthulhu (I'll be abbreviating it RoC). Phil picked up his copy of Hackmaster and and reviewed it here and here. I picked up Realms and proceeded to let it get piled under ...
Recently fellow gnome John Arcadian and I attended “Con on the Cob” where we hung out with the crew from Windmill Game Co. They are the creative power behind the new Dread: Tales of Terror series which are supplements that provide wonderful scenarios and questionnaires for the fabulous game Dread.
Now every year I run a very simple RPG for non-gamers around Halloween time. In the past I have ...
When I first saw the summary page for Miskatonic River Press’s new adventure book Our Ladies of Sorrow I was Instantly excited about getting my hands on a copy. Not only is the cover art phenomenal (click through on the link above to see the original as opposed to my butchered version on the left), but the promise of a mythological ghost story featuring goddesses of grief madness ...
In yesterday’s article we looked at the character creation system in HackMaster, but let’s face facts, if you are interested in HackMaster, you want to know about the Combat system. So let’s not waste any time and get right into it…
Combat Overhaul
With the new edition of HackMaster gone is THACO! The new combat system focuses around competing attack and defense rolls, but that is just the tip of ...
Back before GenCon, I asked you guys what game you would like me to review, and you chose HackMaster Basic. I picked up the book at GenCon and started reading it right away. I kept you up to date with my progress on Twitter with the tag #hmbreview .
Now, weeks later, summer breezes have turned to autumn chills, and I have finally gotten through the book and done ...
One of the most fun things for me to do at GenCon is to wander the Dealers Room and check out the new stuff. GenCon is a natural place for RPG Publishers to launch new books and this year was no exception. One of the books that caught my eye was Fantasy Craft by Crafty Games. After the con, I received a free copy of Fantasy Craft for this ...
This year at Gen Con I attended a seminar given by Ramsey “Tome Wyrm” Lundock titled Secrets for Instant GMing. Focused on how a GM can improvise when the players do something unexpected the seminar was informative and well done. I enjoyed the seminar enough that I bought a copy of Lundock’s books Instant GM: A Bag of Tricks and Instant GM II: On Your Mark, Get Set, ...
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