Reading Ben Robbins' recent post on Ars Ludi on Major Wesely the first GM, featured on our August 8th Link Roundup, I was struck with the fact that as RPG GMs, players and designers we're the last generation that will ever be able to say that we've experienced firsthand the entirety of the history of our hobby. The older the hobby gets, the harder it will be to get our hands ...

My wife, Alysia, and I are going to see Pineapple Express this weekend. All of a sudden this week's title makes sense, right? Gnome Rodeos are our regular link roundups. Provided everyone doesn't simultaneously stop talking about GMing for a week, you should see one most Fridays. GMing Regulars → Dungeon Mastering: Coming soon: the RPG Maestro newsletter, a monthly-ish newsletter Yax will use to deliver more in-depth articles. If your ...

This post is inspired by John Arcadian's recent post, Ah, the good old Scry and Fry. Before I get into this post, however, I want to whip you into a frenzied mob. March with me and demand a solution to the whole "Scry and Fry" thing, especially the fry part. Gnome Arcadian, show us the solution or (raising torch high in gnomish hands) we'll show ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Hanging out with merry men My summer reading has been pretty light. But I picked up one gem that hadn’t been checked out at our local library for two years: “The Merry Adventures ...

I remember my first time GMing. It was after the third game I'd ever played in any system, ever. I caught the bug. I wanted to GM and do a better job than our current GM. Boy were there LOADS of things that I didn't know. I hadn't read enough of the powers and skills to know how to use them, I was too eager to ...

I finally got a chance to playtest "Dead Man's Hand," the Victoriana game I'm running at GenCon. The adventure was designed as a sequel to last year's "Lost Luggage," using the same characters and background. Since the 2nd Edition of Victoriana is only now getting a full print run, I decided to run this adventure as an "introductory scenario" (which saved me from having to update the characters). Since "Dead ...

Need a new dice bag? Then man do I have a recommendation for you -- hell, even if you like your current bag (I did), you might be surprised how appealing this particular dice bag looks. Why a New Bag? I'm pretty obsessive about small things (as anyone whose ever spent much time with me can tell you), and that certainly extends to dice bags. I bought my first one ...

I apologize for the almost exclusively "D&D-ish" nature of today's Hot Button, but I think it definitely deserves addressing. It's a question that also comes up in other games that have similar distinctions (such as Palladium's alignment system or Star Wars Light Side/Dark Side distinctions). Do you allow evil player characters in your standard campaigns? I mention "standard" because I'm sure all of us old-timers can recall at least one ...

How do you and your group generate stats? A lot of games answer this question for you; Hero System and World of Darkness are two popular games that lack random stat generation. For the last twenty years most newly designed systems have lacked random stat generation, though the exceptions have been the biggest players in the field. D&D in all of its prior incarnations and the ...

The collapse of the famed Moonbridge marks the fall of the goddess Mystra — and woe befalls the High Lady of Silverymoon (as it does all the Seven Sisters) — as the unweaving of magic brings disaster and an onslaught of monsters to the outposts of civilization in the North. Thus begins the Transformation of the North, the third in a series of posts describing how I’d remake ...

Worldwide Adventure Writing Month ended yesterday, and we emailed our completed monstrosity to Jeff, the WoAdWriMo coordinator, with just a few hours to spare. "Gnomes Gone Wild" features six encounters by six different authors using six different game systems. It's every bit as playable as it sounds! The Greatest Encounters Ever Written It's like pissing gasoline into a volcano! Porno + gnomes + Fudge = Gnaughty Gnomish Gnurses in “Is That ...

What’s the Crock Pot? Just a simmering bowl of lentils and herbs, with a dash of DMing observations. Don’t be afraid to dip in your ladle and stir, or throw in something from your own spice rack. Gaming brains don't belong in jars Wizards of the Coast will pull the plug on the gaming social networking site Gleemax in September. The site was difficult to navigate — a crippling factor for a ...

I've stumbled on a number of interesting posts that I have to share with you. Pastures of Green There's been a whirlwind of cool new settings and thought about settings out there recently. I can't imagine what would have everybody scrambling to update and create new worlds. Well, maybe if I stretch myself I can think of something... Troy here at the Stew has a couple of posts about Remaking ...

Face it: You'll never match the polish and cool factor of a published adventure developed by a team of professional game designers in your home game. Nothing you run will ever be as cool as your favorite movie, with talented actors, a multi-million dollar budget, an experienced director and a massive creative push from dozens and dozens of other people. There's no way the plotline of your campaign will ever ...

Fallcrest, as presented in the 4E Dungeon Master's Guide, is a gem. Designed to be a campaign starting point, it's got a handful of adventure hooks and can accommodate additional material of your own design easily enough. At the least, it's a good template for a town of your own design. For me, I'm attempting to make the Realms my own before the official published setting is released. (See previous ...