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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

Feb 1, 2012 by 14

Timelining NPCs To Make Them Organic

“Is professor Yell doing this now, or wait, when did I plan to have him introduce that plot point. Oh crap, I was supposed to have the spider queen attack the group after they got the idol, not beforehand. Shoot! Who was it that sent the quicklings after the grey ladies!” My latest game is NPC heavy, and almost all of the NPCs are politically motivated ...
Oct 7, 2009 by 6

The Three Motivators: A Character-Building Tool

There are many ways to build a good character, but one aspect that often gets overlooked -- or conversely, over-worked -- is motivations. If you know what motivates a character -- PC or NPC -- you can extrapolate a lot of other things on the fly. The trick is not to make your motivators too broad or too focused. Too broad, and they're meaningless ("She's motivated by a desire to ...

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Metagaming, Noooo

It's why you always kill the grand vizier.