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
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It's no secret that I love investigative adventures (heck, you only have to go this far back to know that!). I like playing them, I like running them, and I like writing them. That said there's a lot of prep that has to go into building a mystery adventure and I thought I might share some of the tips I've come up with over the years. This is ...
How long is it okay to make a player wait to rejoin the game after losing a character?
As I peruse RPG forums or read articles, I'm struck by the number of times I've come across some variant of this scenario:
Rob Roleplayer finally gets to play in Mr. Legendary GM's totally awesome campaign. Much fun was had by all and Rob Roleplayer remembers, with fondness, his character imprisoned for ...
Encounter types are one of the variables with the most potential impact on games. From design, through character creation to adventure design, encounter type impacts the flavor and success of the game. For the purpose of this article, Encounter type is the main function of an encounter. Common examples include investigation, combat, social, magic, or other skills but games with odd focuses can have more unusual encounter ...
Character Visions and DesignsThere are many approaches to developing characters. Some authors talk about characters who leap into their mind, fully formed and in the middle of an iconic scene, while others talk about characters who "take on a life of their own" as they write. Visual players may imagine their character in a pose and start by sketching their badass hero. System often suggests characters-- a Holy ...
Piggy-backing a bit on yesterday’s Johnny’s Five, one tool that I’ve found useful in fleshing out characters is to ask one question at the beginning of each session and let the players answer it (and answer it myself for NPCs).
The questions are generally “every day” type of stuff, things that have little impact on mechanics (unless you’re playing an RPG that includes mechanics for such things) but really ...
Recently Vanir brought back a good post about the spotlight-- who gets personal (as opposed to group) attention. Much of the article is about how a player should treat spotlight time, which started me along a path of thinking-- who is responsible for spotlight distribution?
Before I dive in, let's figure out what we mean by spotlight. (Or cheat, and just use Martin's definition in GMing 142: Spotlight ...
When does a character's story start? Books and novels often begin just as some exciting event kicks the characters out of their routine and pushes them on a new path. Occasionally the movie will give you a few minutes, or the book a few chapters, to get used to the character's normal life-- then it all changes. Thanks to A Butterfly Dreaming for inspiring this post and ...
Whenever I start a new campaign, I try to run a "pilot adventure." In television, a potential television series shoots a pilot to convince broadcasters to carry it. Pilot episodes are usually a little rough around the edges and certain elements are smoothed out, removed, or changed prior to the series proper.
A good pilot adventure can set the tone for the campaign and give the players a good idea ...
