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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 1,110 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

Oct 1, 2009 by 12

Deep as a Puddle: Characters and Culture

One of the things that brings characters to life is a realistic culture that they're embedded in. There are many ways to create vibrant cultures; if you are playing in a pre-existing setting, many of the cultures will be defined in the rulebook or supplements. Unfortunately, players often don't know that much about the cultures of the world- some don't own the book or have the specific references, ...
Jun 4, 2009 by 21

Deep as a Puddle: Character Development with Tarot

Tarot readings are an inspirational technique for developing characters. Inspirational techniques are great when an NPC needs more personality, but you don't have enough of a handle on the character to know what the right answer to a question would be. They are also good when you are in a hurry. Beyond adding detail to a character, tarot readings can also give you new ideas for PCs and ...

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Metagaming, Noooo

It's why you always kill the grand vizier.