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Award-Winning GMing Advice

Gnome Stew won the silver ENnie Award for Best Blog in 2011 and 2010 -- thank you for your support! Online since 2008, we've published 1,109 articles packed with GMing tips and advice, as well as two books for GMs. Our top 30 articles make a great starting point for new readers.

"I check Gnome Stew every day." -- Monte Cook
"fantastic blog for game masters, dungeon masters, and rpg fans" -- Wil Wheaton
"If you aren’t reading Gnome Stew, you’re missing out." -- Wolfgang Baur

Sep 8, 2008 by 16

D&D Burgoo (4.0): Action point, smaction point

Swordgleam is looking at the 4E rules, and wonders about this: “If something in a core rulebook looks like it won’t work for your group, should you still give it a fair shot? For example, action points in 4E look stupid. My group, in other games, already uses a version of action points that are a lot more powerful and allow for more cinematic action, and it would ...
May 12, 2008 by 16

Awesome moments: Action Points and FYIA Tokens

There are awesome moments in the game: A critical that drops the rampaging dragon, dodging the sorcerer's lightning bolt, or seducing the noble woman so your companions can make their escape unnoticed. There are moments in the game when the character fails in a way that isn't fun, or even breaks the table's suspension of belief-- like the ranger who can't shoot anything with his bow tonight, the ...

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It's why you always kill the grand vizier.