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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

May 19, 2011 by 3

More Prep-Lite Maps: Classic Crawls

In Phil’s recent article: Prep-Lite: Maps, he proposes a system of making maps for your RPG that reduces prep time but still produces simple and elegant maps. In overview, Phil proposes breaking your map into important and unimportant rooms, making a rough map of the ways your important rooms connect, and using this as a framework  for lite improvisation. However, Phil makes this provision in his article: ...
May 16, 2011 by 13

Prep-Lite: Maps

In my continuing Kwai Chang Caine-like quest to find Prep-Lite mastery, I stumbled upon another place in my session prep, that was consuming a lot of my time, and begged for some prep-lite love. This time, my prep-lite scalpel made an incision into one of the cornerstone elements of our hobby...the Map. When I was done, I had once again removed precious time from my session prep without ...
Jul 22, 2009 by 12

Mapping for the Rest of Us

If you’re like me, you love the old-school D&D adventure modules from the 1980s, with the white-on-blue maps inside the covers.  If you’re like me, you are overwhelmed and/or frustrated by almost every mapping program out there.  If you’re like me, you’ve resorted to the old “graph paper and pencil” technique from the late 70s.  (And I’m a self-proclaimed computer geek!) But ...
Jun 18, 2009 by 13

Johnny’s Five – Five Quick Mapping Options

So you’re running late to game. The only thing you need is a map, and you need to do it fast. Here are 5 quick mapping options. 1. Dry Erase Board Dry erase markers and a whiteboard make for great mapping options. The only problem, for the tactically combat inclined, is their lack of gridlines. Some places sell dry erase boards with ...

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