This is one in a periodic series of articles looking at second cities — places to base a campaign in published settings other than such signature cities as Waterdeep, Greyhawk or Sharn. City: Hardby (5,100) Published setting: Greyhawk (Wizards of the Coast/TSR) Why it’s a good choice: Clearly, the City of Greyhawk is the heart of the Flanaess, which means many of the great adventuring sites are near to the Free ...

There's a fox in the henhouse over at Open Design, Wolfgang Baur's design project that produces d20 OGL and 4E materials for its patrons. This particular fox is games designer John Wick, who was the principal designer for 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings rpgs and has recently released Houses of the Blooded through his Wicked Dead Brewing Co. Wick's been taking aim at some d20 sacred cows, ...

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 ...

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 ...

Ryan and Jay, those d20-rolling enthusiasts over at 3.5 Private Sanctuary, devoted   Episode 87 of their podcast to the subject of divinity and the role of gods in a campaign world. And at one point, Ryan and Jay make a solid case for always using default pantheon — the Greyhawk-lite list of gods and goddesses from the Player's Handbook — for every campaign. Basically, their argument boils back to the ...

This past GenCon, Paizo Publishing released the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Now if you've been a GM (or DM, I'll use the generic here since it's what the Open Game Content and Pathfinder uses) for more than a couple of weeks then you probably know that Pathfinder is a refinement of the previous (D&D3.5) version of Dungeons & Dragons. Today's article takes a look at Pathfinder from a prospective ...

I was offered the chance to write a GMing article about White Wolf's upcoming Geist: The Sin Eaters RPG, and I jumped at that chance. Geist is one of the games I've been looking forward to most this year, and I'm excited to check it out -- and share it with you -- a month before it'll be available in stores. I got a free PDF copy of the ...

Earlier this year, Dias Ex Machina (DEM) games posted a press release for their upcoming RPG, NeuroSpasta (take a look...I'll wait). NeuroSpasta is a Sci-Fi game, and the first Sci-Fi product based off the GSL. This is not DEM's first attempt at moving the GSL past fantasy. Their first product, Amethyst is a combination of Fantasy and Modern settings, which is due out in the Fall; available through ...

Dogs in the Vineyard is a popular roleplaying game, published by Vincent Baker's Lumpley Games. It won the Indie RPG of the Year and Most Innovative Game awards way back in the 2004 Indie RPG Awards. I'll tell you all about it-- but if you're looking for multiple opinions, other gnome comments are scattered throughout. So what are Dogs and what do they do? The characters that the players make ...

Our first anniversary contest ended last night, and rather than dawdle like lazy little gnomes, we decided to get the lead out and announce the winner the next day -- today, in fact. The only catch is that because of the way Gnome Stew is set up, we need a certain amount of pointless, filibuster-style text at the start of this article, or you'll be able to read the ...

Gnome Stew reader Noumenon requested the following article in our Suggestion Pot: I just want to know how you deal with spells like Hypnotism, Charm Person, and Suggestion. Monsters you know the PCs are going to try to kill, but how do you plan for them to start controlling your NPCs? Martin's note: I want to personally apologize to Noumenon, who emailed me about this article just over one year ...

My group is currently playing a D&D 4th Edition campaign, and I love having lots of accessories in front of me when I play. I have a couple hundred D&D Miniatures from past sets, and they rock -- for the price, they simply can't be beat. And I've been using fan-made power cards, printed out on cardstock, ever since we started our campaign. As a GM, I like any ...

I have been running two 4e campaigns, and while I enjoy the system it certainly is not my favorite. Combat tends to be longer than other games that I enjoy, and while one of 4e's strengths is its tight rules system I find it limits my creativity as a GM in some cases. I am now ready to start adding the house rules to my games. Once you have ...

A couple of weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast offered Gnome Stew -- and several other RPG blogs -- the chance to write an article about the Player's Handbook 2 in exchange for a pre-release copy of the book. Specifically, an article about the book from a GMing perspective. We jumped at that chance. I've been poring over the PHB 2 since early March -- reading, taking notes, and ...

Timon and Salcheech tossed related questions into the Suggestion Pot, both dealing with gaming with 9- and 10-year-olds.  Specifically, Timon was looking for advice on pacing games for that age group, while Salcheech was interested in scaling the game to that age range, as well as, whether morality lessons could be incorporated into the sessions. Interesting questions, and I think it’s great these Stew readers are introducing the game ...