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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 1,110 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
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"If you aren’t reading Gnome Stew, you’re missing out." -- Wolfgang Baur

Oct 28, 2009 by 12

D&D Burgoo: A Dragon on the Doorstep

Making players — and by implication, their characters — feel as if they are in over their heads is the hallmark of a savvy GM. Especially for your horror-themed game session. It also takes players who are willing to buy into the moment — the payoff comes when the sick feeling in the pit of the stomach starts churning. Creating that moment of dread requires more than dropping a dragon ...
May 19, 2009 by 14

D&D Burgoo (3.5): What a charming suggestion

Gnome Stew reader Noumenon requested the following article in our Suggestion Pot: I just want to know how you deal with spells like Hypnotism, Charm Person, and Suggestion. Monsters you know the PCs are going to try to kill, but how do you plan for them to start controlling your NPCs? Martin's note: I want to personally apologize to Noumenon, who emailed me about this article just over one year ...
Mar 24, 2009 by 28

D&D Burgoo (3.5): Turning the dial on alignment

Our party's young female fighter -- who was clearly coddled in her upbringing -- has yet to reap the financial rewards of the adventuring life. Yet, she has been steadfastly lawfully good -- certainly she's more idealistic than the rest of the party. On a good day, she is lucky to have two silver pieces to rub together, and that includes any pay she's received from the toil of ...
Aug 4, 2008 by 4

D&D Burgoo (4.0): Remaking the Realms III: Transforming the North

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 ...

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