If you play D&D 4e, there's a decent chance you use WotC's D&D Insider Character Builder. It automates a lot of things that frankly would otherwise be a pain in the ass, like creating power cards and calculating 99.9% of what's on your character sheet. For a crunchy, tactical, numbers-heavy game like 4e, it's a real boon. My whole group relies on it, and anecdotally I'd say most D&D players ...

Reading a post over on Story Games, I began to get a bit nostalgic for the days of my youth that I spent on Red Box DnD. The subject of the article I was reading was "Did we (indie game enthusiasts) enjoy DnD back then, and can't now or Did we never enjoy DnD that much and didn't realize it at the time?" and as someone who enjoys "indie" RPGs ...

Our first anniversary contest ended last night, and rather than dawdle like lazy little gnomes, we decided to get the lead out and announce the winner the next day -- today, in fact. The only catch is that because of the way Gnome Stew is set up, we need a certain amount of pointless, filibuster-style text at the start of this article, or you'll be able to read the ...

My group is currently playing a D&D 4th Edition campaign, and I love having lots of accessories in front of me when I play. I have a couple hundred D&D Miniatures from past sets, and they rock -- for the price, they simply can't be beat. And I've been using fan-made power cards, printed out on cardstock, ever since we started our campaign. As a GM, I like any ...

A couple of weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast offered Gnome Stew -- and several other RPG blogs -- the chance to write an article about the Player's Handbook 2 in exchange for a pre-release copy of the book. Specifically, an article about the book from a GMing perspective. We jumped at that chance. I've been poring over the PHB 2 since early March -- reading, taking notes, and ...

Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast, Gnome Stew is one of a handful of RPG blogs lucky enough to receive a pre-release copy of the Player's Handbook 2. Ours came on Tuesday, and the book won't be in stores until March 17th. Understandably, we're not allowed to post excerpts from the book -- but how about a couple of photos? Here's a shot of the front of the book ...

D&D 4th Edition blog At Will recently interviewed several of the gnomes -- DNAphil, Matthew, myself, Patrick, Scott and Telas -- for their d12 Interviews series, and that interview has been posted today: d12 Interviews: Gnome Stew. The focus of the interview is on D&D 4e, and the hook, of course, is that we were asked 12 questions. We're all felt hats and hot air, so naturally we had ...

Combat plays a significant role in most RPGs, and where there's combat there're characters getting hurt. Something I've observed is that rules for healing time are a major factor in setting the tempo of your campaign. How so? Let's consider a few dramatically different approaches: D&D -- Push the Healing Button! D&D in all its forms has always made healing spells, items and potions pretty readily available. How many parties go ...

As soon as I'd read -- and loved -- the 4e core books (reviewed right here on the Stew), I was excited about seeing the 4e Forgotten Realms setting book. I paid full price for the privilege of getting it at the one store in my area that had it on release day (our lone Borders), and tucked into it right away. After several days with it, here are ...

With D&D 4e out (and looking awesome so far), I wanted to start building a collection of prepainted fantasy minis for future use. While I plan to buy some boosters as well, I figured I'd kick things off by ordering a host of cheap minis for representing PCs. Even if creatures get counters instead, it's always cool when the PCs have their own minis. Back when I was collecting ...

In Boss Around the Gnomes, I asked Gnome Stew readers what you'd like to hear about the 4e core books from a GM's perspective. I wrote a lengthy, detailed post about my first impressions, and now I'm ready to tackle the specifics. Rather than C&P large chunks of my other post, if a question was substantially covered in my review I just pointed thataway for a few answers. It ...

With D&D 4th Edition launching today, there'll be lots of places where you can read general reviews and discussion about the nitty-gritty of the rules, but I have a hunch that there won't be many sites other than Gnome Stew talking about the three core books -- Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual -- specifically from a GMing perspective. That doesn't mean that there's nothing here for ...

Big News! Today's big news, of course: Kung-Fu Panda opens in theaters... Oh, That Big News Ahem. D&D 4th Edition launches today! Some of you may have already checked out the leaked PDFs, but I'm willing to bet plenty of folks are doing exactly what I'm doing: Counting the minutes until, the gods of Barnes & Noble willing, I can pick up my 4e core books after work, devour them and ...

When D&D 4th Edition launches on June 6th, many GMs will be making a tough decision: to 4e or not to 4e. Several of us gnomes have already made that choice, though, and will be snagging all three core books either on or shortly after launch day. We'll be rubbing our grubby little gnome-paws all over them anyway, and we'd love to write about all three core books from ...

“Son, you got a panty on your head,” the old hayseed tells Nicolas Cage’s convenience-store robbin’ character H.I. in “Raising Arizona.” And sure e’nuff, somewhere beneath all that nylon is the Nicolas Cage we know and love — even though it’s pretty hard to recognize him just by looking. Experienced D&D/3.5 players know their monsters backwards and forwards, just from hearing the description or showing them a picture. ...