Meet the creative team behind Gnome Stew:

John Arcadian

(See John’s posts | Link to bio)

My experience with roleplaying games started way back when I was a kid. I bought every 2nd Ed. D&D book available, and a lot of first Ed. ones. I love Shadowrun as a setting, and was enamored with MechWarrior. I never actually got to play tabletop until college though. Almost as soon as I got a few games into being a player, I knew I was going to be a game master. I immediately started running crappy games to learn the ropes, and eventually got better . . . hopefully.

After gaining experience with other systems and being the defacto game master for my core group, I got the bug to start working on more gaming theory and eventually began developing for a project called Silvervine Games. While this has led to some incredible things in my life, it has best led me into deeper analysis of other systems and the themes available in roleplaying games. When I write or think about gaming, I like to focus on system neutral elements that can improve any gaming experience.

Patrick Benson

(See Patrick’s posts | Link to bio)

Patrick has been a GM since he was 15 years old. He enjoys rules light systems that focus on being cinematic and offer lots of opportunities for role playing. His GMing style is to design around what the players found interesting during the last session, and to rely upon improvisation in order to direct the players towards set plot points.

Patrick is currently working on his own RPG system based upon the Fudge system. He is a Systems Engineer for a software development firm in Chicago, and is married to his beautiful wife Karen who is his only ally in the epic struggle with their two children for control of their own home (the kids are winning).

Walt Ciechanowski

(See Walt’s posts | Link to bio)

Walt’s been a game master ever since he accidentally picked up the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set in 1982. Since then, he’s GMed many campaigns and wrote a monthly column, Keeping Kosher, on RPGNet. Walt also co-ran and participated in LARPs and is preparing to be a convention GM for the first time this GenCon. He also runs a playtest group.

For the last few years Walt’s also been doing a lot of freelance work, primarily in the OGL field with Adamant Entertainment. He’s written an article for Signs & Portents magazine and is currently contracted (but unpublished) with a couple of other game companies. Still a Jersey boy at heart, Walt lives in Springfield, PA with his wonderful (and thankfully gamer!) wife Helena and their beautiful daughter Leianna. Amazingly, he still finds time to torture his players on a semi-regular basis.

DNAphil

(See DNAphil’s posts | Link to bio)

I have been a GM for the past 25 years. I started running the “pink” box D&D, and over the years have played many games including: Amber:Diceless, Vampire, D&D (all versions), Palladium, Conspiracy X, Whispering Vault, and Iron Heroes. My strengths as a GM include campaign creation and management, and session prep. y biggest weakness as a GM is to run a game without any notes and creating house rules. I am definitely a storyteller GM, with my focus being on story and not rules (though I am working on that). I have had the fortune to have the same gaming group for the past 14 years.

I have been a regular attendee of GenCon since it moved to Indanapolis. Over the past few years, I have spoken at GenCon on the area of Metagaming in RPGs as well as part of the GM-Fu panel discussions. I am a member of the somewhat unknown but nevertheless infamous GreenShirts (known for our custom made green bowling shirts). As “seasoned gamer,” I am married with two children, and have spent the past few years learning how to adapt my gaming lifestyle to family and a career. When not gaming I am a computer geek (linux and windows) and a lifehacker.

Scott Martin

(See Scott’s posts | Link to bio)

Scott was first pushed to DM in fifth grade to allow the class to play in more manageable groups. Early on he enjoyed mastering complex mechanical systems (like Shadowrun, Champions, and BattleTech), found new styles in college (Spelljammer with rotating GMs, Amber, and Mage: The Ascension), and keeps returning to D&D.

Recently, Scott has run a number of different games with different groups. A few years ago the meandering group played Vampire and homebrew Wheel of Time and he ran My Life with Master and Dogs in the Vineyard for them. In a parallel group (the trads), he played D&D, WEG Star Wars, and Shadowrun and ran several Mage campaigns. He is currently running a D&D campaign for them. The Hanford group met over a pickup game of Spirit of the Century, and has since played Coyote Trail, Universalis, and SAGA Star Wars. Scott is currently producing a Primetime Adventure series with them.

Adam Nave

(See Adam’s posts | Link to bio)

Adam has been GMing off and on for 8 years, and gaming for only a bit longer. Back in 2003, Adam was one of the leads on the Fantasy Community Council’s Netbook of Traps and a reviewer and contributor to the Netbook of Classes (but good luck finding a copy of either). Adam plays a lot of D&D, but also enjoys the occasional game of Feng Shui, and is usually up for any system, if he can find the time. He is lucky enough to have a large group of friends who are gamers, a wife who is a gamer, and a little girl who likes to throw dice more than eat them. Adam also hates gnomes, and only agreed to this because he likes the idea of stewing them.

Matthew J. Neagley

(See Matthew’s posts | Link to bio)

First introduced to RPGs through the DnD Red Box Set in 1990, geographic isolation and other issues kept him from finding a regular playing group until he entered college six years later. It did not, however, stop him from devouring every scrap of RPG, adventure, and wargaming material he could get his hands on. In college he recruited a group of friends that enjoyed an occasional game, improved his skills as a GM through the practice, but contacting a vicious case of GMing ADD. Still fighting this insidious foe today, his GMing to do list is littered with the broken wrecks of half-formed campaigns, worlds, characters, settings, and home-brewed systems. Luckily for him, one of his college players took over his GMing duty*, allowing him the luxury of GMing only when one of his projects finally comes to fruition.

*No fool, he married her.

Martin Ralya

(See Martin’s posts | Link to bio)

Gnome-in-Chief here at Gnome Stew, and formerly the author of Treasure Tables, Martin has been gaming since 1987 and GMing since 1989. From 2004 to 2007, Martin was a freelancer for the RPG industry, with work in print and PDF from Paizo Publishing, Goodman Games, Necromancer Games and Tabletop Adventures, among others.

Over the years, Martin has GMed AD&D 2e, D&D 3.x, Call of Cthulhu, Mage: The Awakening, Shadowrun, Warhammer FRP and a handful of other RPGs, and played in too many campaigns to count. He lives in Utah with his amazing wife, Alysia, and their neurotic beagle, Charlie, in a house full of books.

Kurt ‘Telas’ Schneider

(See Kurt’s posts | Link to bio)

I started gaming in 1979 at summer camp, and went on to run a number of campaigns and systems (including AD&D, Top Secret, Champions, RuneQuest, and James Bond 007) through high school. For a while, I took a break from a regular gaming schedule to focus on other activities and interests, like working out, cars, climbing, skiing, martial arts, and scuba diving. (Gaming is fun, but there is definitely more to life.)

I live in Austin, TX, and attempt (poorly) to balance my gaming with other activities, such as taking care of a very pregnant wife, fixing computers and networks for money, and staying getting fit. Favorite gaming quote: “A game is only as balanced as the GM.”

Troy E. Taylor

(See Troy’s posts | Link to bio)

Troy can often be found running “Age of Worms” or playing D&D at Dice, Daggers and Dragons in Princeton, Ill. Troy was a regular contributor to Dragon magazine’s Class Acts department during its run with Paizo Publishing. He also has two sourcebooks to his credit with The Le Games, Unorthodox Witches and Unorthodox Modern Cheerleaders. He posts as “Carolina” at Treasure Tables and EN World. These days he hangs out under a full moon in a garden patch with other leafy but lycanthopic freelancers at Werecabbages.com.