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
1,186 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
Eureka Preorders
We'll be opening up preorders for our upcoming book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters on Monday, June 28th!
On the 28th, you'll be able to preorder the book on the Engine Publishing website and get immediate access to the PDF, weeks before the print edition is available.
That means it's time for our final sample...
Horror Plots
I'm a big horror fan, especially of the Lovecraftian variety, and ...
With our upcoming book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters, now at the printer, preorders are right around the corner -- so it's time for our nest-to-last preview!
Last week was entirely given over to finishing the book, so I never got time to post our fourth sample -- sorry about that! The first three samples (all available as free PDF downloads on Eureka's product page covered ...
From the Engine Publishing blog:
As of 10:36 pm Mountain, just a couple of minutes ago, Eureka has been sent to the printer and a proof will shortly be headed back to me.
Holy shit, this feels weird.
It still doesn't feel real, and likely won't until I'm holding a copy in my hands, but Gnome Stew's book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters, is real.
Nineteen awesome people ...
Last week, I posted the first preview from the Stew's soon-to-be-released book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters.
The sci-fi plots chapter has come back from layout, so without further blathering, here's the second sample: Eureka sample PDF #2.
This time around, you'll see a different group of authors -- all of the gnomes contributed 55 plots apiece to Eureka, give or take a plot or two.
You'll also ...
Last week, we shared the cover of Gnome Stew's upcoming book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters Published by Engine Publishing, Eureka will be out before GenCon.
For this week's preview, we have the first sample from the book! It's a two-page spread of adventure plots from the fantasy chapter: Download the sample in PDF.
This sample showcases all the elements of a Eureka plot: in addition to ...
One of the things I've been waiting for ever since we first started work on Gnome Stew's upcoming book, Eureka: 501 Plots to Inspire Game Masters, is being able to share the cover with you.
Here she is:
(Click on the image for a larger version.)
Eureka's cover features artwork by Andrew McIntosh (who also did some stunning interior pieces for the book), graphic design by Darren Hardy, and art direction ...
Today, Gnome Stew celebrates its second birthday! We launched the site on May 12, 2008, exactly two years ago.
It's been a great two years -- more awesome than I could ever have expected in every way. And it feels totally different than working on a solo blog: There's just no substitute for being part of a killer team.
I never quite know how interesting these State of the Stew ...
We have two more pieces of Eureka news to share this week, one today and one on Wednesday. Today, I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that Monte Cook has written the foreword for Eureka, Gnome Stew's upcoming book of adventure plots!
Not "will write," either -- has written. We've read it, it's excellent, and we can't wait for you to read it when the book comes out.
Eureka is Gnome Stew's ...
Regular readers know that the gnomes have been working on a secret project for some time now, and we've been tight-lipped about details.
Thanks to the way GenCon event registration is timed, as of today our first official teaser about the project has gone live:
SEM1009173
Eureka! Cooking Up Adventure Plots with Gnome Stew
Join the infamous Gnomes of Gnome Stew, and learn about their first book: Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to ...
I've tried different approaches to game prep over the years, but lately I tend to do it all in one big rush. The rush is preceded by brainstorming and outlining, but most of my prep happens all at once.
One thing I've found about this method is that it's almost inevitable that I'm to going to get GM's block during prep. I reach a point where I just don't ...
