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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, 2010 by 7

That Cool Thing Your Character Does

One of the challenges in a new campaign occurs when the players discover that they do not like their characters. Given time, the lack of excitement on the players’ part will degrade any efforts to sustain the campaign and ultimately lead to its collapse. Even the greatest plotline or the most richly described world will not hold your players at the table if they have no passion or ...
Apr 6, 2009 by 10

Starting a New Campaign: The Background-Independent Pilot Session

My regular gaming group of five includes four GMs, which is fantastic for all sorts of reasons -- but one of the best things about it is that as a GM, I'm constantly exposed to new ideas, new approaches, and new tricks and techniques that I never would've come up with on my own. The background-independent pilot session is one of those techniques. There are lots of ways to kick ...
Feb 28, 2009 by 14

Player Characters: Emerging Complexity is A-OK

As a GM, I used to struggle with player backgrounds and PC complexity. I thought that every PC needed to be extensively plotted out down to the tiniest detail, and ignored the fact that many players don't enjoy doing this. Once I took off my blinders and looked at things from a different perspective -- and once I'd seen for myself how enjoyable PCs who start off simple could ...
May 22, 2008 by 10

The Gospel According to Synnibarr: Fun. Is. PAIN.

Immortal. Classic. Throbbing with manly manhood. Everything a roleplaying game should be. Synnibarr! All others are just pale imitations. Never heard of World of Synnibarr? You owe it to yourself to buy a copy on eBay (mine was $10), or at the very least to read the classic RPGnet review. Thus Begins the Gospel According to Synnibarr I. Thy character is made of that bamboo from Rambo. "Never wish to be an ...

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Metagaming, Noooo

It's why you always kill the grand vizier.