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New to the Stew? There are 618 articles packed with GMing tips and advice in our archives. Why not start with our Top 30 Game Mastering Articles?
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The Desire – The City’s First Mistress

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 ...

A Game is a Work in Progress

Do your adventures read like a published module? Do they have the precise mix of clues, red herrings, and challenges to keep the players interested enough to work hard for the final reveal? When you’re writing your adventures, do you agonize over maintaining the perfect balance between challenge and reward? Then you’re doing it wrong. Wait, what? Bear with me for a ...

James Cameron on Creating Fun RPG Adventures

Reading through the April '09 issue of Wired, I came across this quote from James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron): But the beauty of [adventures] is that they don't have to be logical. They just have to have plausibility. If there's a visceral, cinematic thing happening that [your players like], they don't care if it goes against what's likely. That's more or less how I read it, too -- I ...

Out in the Garden: Project Kobold Love

Phil "The Chatty DM" writes one of the best blogs for GMs out there, Musings of the Chatty DM, and he's recently kicked off something I wanted to share with Gnome Stew Readers: Project Kobold Love So what is it? Here's the quick summary in Phil's own words: I’m sick and tired of the Editions Wars. So much so that I want to show that a game system is just an ...

D&D Burgoo (4.0): Remaking the Realms IV: Adventure Hooks Along the Rauvin

In attempting to re-envision the Forgotten Realms before the official campaign setting is released, this series has looked at the advantages of DMs putting their own touch to the setting, using the town of Fallcrest from the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and providing a tour of how Mystra’s fall changed the politics and power structure of the North. To close out the series, let’s have a look at some ...

Worldwide Adventure Writing Month Starts July 1st

The second annual Worldwide Adventure Writing Month starts tomorrow, July 1st. Last year's WoAdWriMo generated seven free adventures that you can download or read online. The guidelines last year included a goal of 32 pages, but that suggestion is gone from this year's event -- you can write as little or as much as you like. The many lazy gnomes who write Gnome Stew will be climbing out of our ...

Shower Insight: A-ha! Moments and Clearing GM’s Block

I've tried different approaches to game prep over the years, but lately I tend to do it all in one big rush. The rush is preceded by brainstorming and outlining, but most of my prep happens all at once. One thing I've found about this method is that it's almost inevitable that I'm to going to get GM's block during prep. I reach a point where I just don't ...

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