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
This wasn’t the article I had been planning on doing for today, but it is in the vein of articles I’ve been thinking about for a while. The comments and feedback on Martin’s State of The Stew article are pretty thought provoking to us here at the Stew. Reading the multiple opinions that proclaim meat over meta, I’ve been looking at my writing style. It would be an ...
I recently did a review of Open Design’s Courts Of The Shadow Fey 4e adventure, an excellent little romp through the interaction between the fey courts and the mortal world. I was incredibly impressed by the adventure, and it reinvigorated an old similar campaign idea that I had been kicking around for a while. The game I’m playing in is trailing off and it will be my turn ...
Back in 2009 I proposed and launched the “Day of Fudge”, or DoF, with the support of some of the members over at the Fudge RPG Community Yahoo Group. Here is some background info from my personal blog (which is nowhere near as popular as this one due to the lack of pointy red felt hats): Every year the first Saturday of June is ...
An idea has buzzing about in my head for quite a while now, and I want to see it become a reality. I would like to host an online game for three Gnome Stew readers using ScreenMonkey and Skype. The game system will be Fudge with a few of my own variations to the rules. The setting is science fiction inspired by the film Blade Runner, and the ...
Sometimes you just need to have the bad guy get away. You might need to make them a recurring enemy, you might need to keep them alive for some other plot reason, or maybe you aren't ready for them to go away yet. For whatever reason you need to do it, here are 5 of the many ways to make it happen.
Teleportation - Any good enemy that ...
Have you ever had this happen at a game? “I roll to see if I know anything about ancient ankthyrian architecture and where they might have hidden a secret door. Crap, didn’t get it. Let me just try that again…” or how about? “Ok, I know I’ve rolled 8 times to try to force the door, but the 9th time is the charm!” ...
At GenCon I was one of the lucky few who managed to find a slot at a Dresden Table. Rubi was kind to me, I guess. I've been a fan of the novels for years, and separately enjoyed games by Evil Hat-- in fact, I'm running a Spirit of the Century game right now. Those two things came together to make my first Dresden experience a great one. ...
Fudging is and always has been a hot topic -- here on the Stew, in most gaming groups, on message boards, you name it.
That's because it gets at the core of what gaming is all about, and once you figure out where you fall on the "NEVER FUDGE EVER EVER EVER!!!! -- I heart fudge, I love it, it's the bestest!!!!" spectrum, it reveals a pretty fundamental divide ...
If you’ve kept abreast of the latest round of fudge-related articles penned by Kurt (here, here, oh, and here) then you’re no doubt aware that this topic tends to fuel some, ahem, passionate replies at the Stew. In this particular case there was one specific bit that stood out to myself as rather unfortunate and it really has nothing to do with the fudge in question.
It’s all about ...
The Gnome Stew suggestion pot has 2 questions about a tricky situation that comes up every so often. Parties and gaming groups that have grown too big. This is something I just finished dealing with in my current gaming group, so I thought I would tackle the issue. The first comment was from Zaraphina: Zaraphina I’m ...
Matt Cruikshank has a long, passionate article request in the Suggestion Pot. Hop over and read it in full if you like. One element I'll seize on is discussing open source/creative commons games.
John Kim maintains links to a vast number of free RPGs. Among them are a subset of open and licensed games, conveniently gathered together as open gaming examples. Eleven open games are highlighted at that link, ...
One of the great characteristics of our hobby is that there is so much variety amongst game systems. Some gamers play every system that they can get their hands on, while others stick to a core system that suits their particular styles. Yet no matter what system is your favorite you can always get fresh ideas by exposing yourself to a new system. Sometimes just learning about a ...
While Martin covered this topic before, no "hot button" column worth its salt wouldn't tackle this question: Do you thin it's appropriate to fudge dice rolls or consequences? For those of you not up on the clean-shaven Keebler forest gnome lingo (oh, come on...they're way too short to be elves! And if it's fudgy and delicious, it was obviously made by gnomes!), fudging is whenever the GM covertly breaks the ...
