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
A few years ago, I ran a home-brewed fantasy campaign using the Iron Heroes system. I fell in love with the setting that my players and I created, and for the past few months have been toying with the idea of bringing it back, but not with the same mechanics. The more I looked at the setting, I started to realize that different game systems could be used ...
Is it just a summer thing? Or does the fact I have two boys who run around with their holsters, cap guns, bandanas, stick horses and range hats have something to do with it?
Or how about the fact that there is nothing like plopping down on the couch late at night and watching “Duel at Diablo,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a train-lovers’ guilty-pleasure in “Breakheart Pass,” ...
Game ideas come from the strangest places. I'm currently working out details for a new campaign--and I think I've stumbled on a few interesting elements that apply more generally. One big element that I'm considering is how much I want to work out before the players come to the table--do I create a detailed world with 80 pages of history, detailed maps, and several detailed alphabets? Do I ...
GM’s create. It could be a great scene, an adventure, a campaign, a setting, or a game system. By the nature of our role we create, and we share our creations be it with just our gaming group, the local gaming community, or perhaps with the world. In this way we create a legacy as our creations live on through those that read and play the things we ...
Over the years, I've met lots of GMs who've created and lovingly detailed their own campaign settings, most often for D&D. These settings are usually extensively developed, complete with maps, country write-ups, elaborate histories -- the whole nine yards.
But as much as enjoy writing setting material, I've never actually done this myself. I've dabbled -- drawn detailed maps for fantasy worlds, written chunks of material for specific cities, ...
Want to know the secret to making a game world or setting your own? Whether you’re using a published setting or brewing your own homeworld for adventures, the key is creating an organization that’s unique to your game.
Simple, huh? One organization of your creation makes all the difference. But why?
1) It gives you mastery over a segment of the world.
I’m not going to learn ...
