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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

Jun 9, 2011 by 67

Fair or Foul: Death by Fiat

Have you ever killed a PC through fiat? A while back I was running a street-level superheroes game. Realism (in as much as any game is "realistic") was emphasized, to the point that no one wore spandex and vigilante activity would get you arrested if caught. We also started with none of the PCs knowing each other, as relationships were supposed to be forged in game. In what was going ...
Sep 20, 2010 by 24

Hot Button: Absentee Deaths

While I rarely do this anymore I've found that it's quite common in some games, especially those where each member of the team is absolutely vital to its success, for PCs to be run while their players aren't at the session. Sometimes the absentee PC is given to another player; other times it's NPC-ed. Still, I've heard a number of exchanges similar to this: GM: Sorry you couldn't make ...
Sep 5, 2008 by 16

Funerals in games

I attended a funeral this last week, which sparked thoughts about funerals in gaming. One of the most ambitious roleplaying funerals I encountered was the Throne War scenario in the Amber Diceless RPG book. Less an adventure than a vigorous kick start, Throne War used a dying family member as an excuse to gather the family together and turn the PCs loose on each other in a ...

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