Posts Tagged by books
| May 16, 2013 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
Preorders for our next book, Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management, will be opening on June 3, and we want you to be able to check out the book before deciding whether to preorder. You can now download a free 9-page PDF preview of Odyssey that includes the cover, table of contents, introduction, and opening section. This should give you a good idea of what topics the book covers and how it approaches them. The initial announcement of Odyssey also offers some…
| May 9, 2013 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
Written by award-winning authors Phil Vecchione and Walt Ciechanowski, the fourth book from Gnome Stew and Engine Publishing is coming in July: Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management. Opening with a foreword by RPG industry legend Kenneth Hite, Odyssey is, to our knowledge, the first book of its kind. It offers up 200 pages of system-neutral advice on starting, managing, and ending campaigns for game masters of all stripes and experience levels. Tell me more! You may have guessed from the title…
| March 26, 2013 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
Lately I’ve been on an RPG reading tear, and I’ve been fortunate to find, stumble upon, and have recommended to me four excellent GMing books that I’d like to recommend to you in turn. Apart from all being good books, they share a slant towards fantasy and setting creation, but also another important trait: It’s easy to use them for other genres, too. Red Tide If I could only have one book about building a sandbox fantasy campaign, it would be Red Tide. The first…
| October 3, 2012 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
I was recently offered a free review copy of The GM’s Field Guide to Players, by Cherie “Jade” Arbuckle of Evil Machinations, and it immediately piqued my interest. There need to be more system-neutral GMing books out there, and I like to spread the word about books like this on the Stew, so I was more than happy to review the Field Guide. Format The Field Guide is a 60-page PDF available directly from Evil Machinations for $7 ($6 until October 31, 2012), as well…
| June 26, 2012 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
The launch of Hangouts on Google+ has been a boon for virtual gaming. While I’ve never tried G+ Hangout gaming myself, I’m curious about it and I know folks who do. (My reason for not trying it yet is schedule-related.) Tabletop Forge is an app specifically designed for virtual gaming on G+. It includes map functions, die rolling, whispers, and other features designed to make this type of gaming easier and more fun. Currently in open beta, it’s been very well received. To take the…
| April 11, 2012 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
One of our goals for Gnome Stew in 2012 is to be more selective about reviews. Each gnome approaches that goal in a different way — for me, it means saying “No” a lot and generally only reviewing things that are specifically GMing-related. Not “GMs can use this,” or “It’s a game with a GM.” GMing tools and resources. (Unless something is really good/bad or I’m really excited about reviewing it, of course.) And I’ll be honest: A lot of the time, I don’t enjoy…
| December 2, 2011 | Posted by Phil Vecchione |
I love starting new campaigns. As a GM it is so exciting to be learning the rules to a new game, and to start to think about how the campaign is going to be run. When I am learning a new game, I like to absorb as much information as I can about the genre and setting. In a way I treat this aspect of campaign prep like a method actor. I want to understand history and the role of the setting. So I immerse…
