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.
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This is written as a response to Quieo’s Suggestion Pot comment. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of this article I suggest checking out two of my other articles on improvising: Preparing to Improvise is all about the fundamentals of improvising as a GM. Improvising? Don’t Worry About Beginnings & Endings, Focus On Transitions gives you an easy to ...
Years ago I played in a game where the GM asked us to help creating the area around our starting town. We brainstormed landmarks, terrain types, enemies, allies, secret societies, and treasures. Sure, our starting area was a little rough, but it was full of cool stuff, and everyone had at least a few things they were excited to explore.
Then we showed up to play. The GM ...
As a player I recently experienced two opposite approaches to how a game master can react to the players’ input during a session. One GM made sure to incorporate what the PCs did into the game, and the other made sure to keep the plot on track with what he had prepared. I am not going to go into the details, but guess which game sucked? ...
