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.
"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
This article was written for the first annual New Year, New Game blog carnival hosted by Gnome Stew as part of the 2012 NYNG challenge.
This past weekend I wrapped up a 16-month Star Trek campaign, and ending it (always a tricky affair) made me think about how I started it -- which in turn seemed like a pretty good topic to cover for NYNG.
I'm going to talk specifics ...
If you've ever played or run just about any edition of D&D, but especially 3.x or 4e, imagine this scenario:
Your party of 1st-level PCs all start the game with +5 weapons and 9th-level spells (or for 4e, 20th-level powers).
In the context of the average D&D game, those characters are essentially gods. Sure, they're fragile, inexperienced gods, but boy are they going to be able to make up for ...
No, it’s not another article on the game charter (a/k/a the social contract). This is about an organizational charter or license for a group of adventurers. While I originally used this in a traditional fantasy game (it doesn’t get more trad than Greyhawk), it can be adapted to nearly any genre with a little manipulation. Call it deputizing the party, Letters of Marque and Reprisal, or a license ...
Reading Walt's recent Fair or Foul: Death by Fiat article reminded me of a related incident from many years ago -- one that's interesting to look back on, and which includes a surprising number of serious GMing problems.
I was probably around 13 or 14 at the time, and was a the lone player in a solo Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campain. My character was ambushed by brigands and wasn't ...
Back in January, I wrote about using PC backgrounds as a campaign roadmap, and I've been putting a version of that concept into practice in my current Star Trek game. It's been fun and it's saved me time, so I thought it might be useful to you.
Specifically, I used a version of the Three Things approach created by the Stew's own Don Mappin: I asked my players for ...
Years ago, before the Stew was cooking, I read a great essay by Richard Garfield written for The Horsemen of the Apocalypse anthology discussing how he came up with the idea of Magic:The Gathering. In the essay, he talked about the idea of playing the game outside of the game...a metagame, and how the metagame intensified the game. That got me thinking about Metagaming in RPG’s.
It’s Not This...
So ...
Over in Le Pote du Suggestiones, Gnome Stew reader gustavovp asked us a great question. As I was typing up a response that began "I don't think there's an article in this, because..." I realized that there was -- and that many of our readers may not know about the Suggestion Pot at all.
The Suggestion What, Now?
Given that close to 4,000 of you read the Stew via RSS ...
I'm fascinated by the similarities and differences between movies and adventures, as well as the ways movies can be used to inspire games, and a striking difference between them hit me recently: Pivotal moments in movies are often difficult to translate into adventures.
I'm a spoiler nazi, so I won't reveal the movie I was watching when this popped into my head, but here's the pivotal incident: A firefight ...
In a previous article on running a game with minimal prep I mentioned that “Players build their character’s classes, skills, and special powers based on what they want to do in the game.” and Rafe pointed out in the comments that this was one of the most fundamentally important things that a Game Master can realize. I hadn’t really thought ...
The other day, I was thinking back to the last ongoing campaign I ran, a story-heavy Mage: The Awakening game, and something occurred to me: Among the mistakes I made in that campaign there remained at least one that I'd never given due consideration.
Lessons Learned
As a GM, I tend to take a hands-off approach when my players seem to be having fun. If they're not doing what I ...
Aside from a lack of fear, one of the biggest problems in having player characters act realistically in a combat situation is the use of hit points (or a similar mechanic). The player knows how much damage her PC can soak before falling and can make tactical decisions based on the amount of damage that a creature/armed villain/martial artist/trap doles out.
Ultimately, this is a matter of security. Players ...
I'm a big proponent of using everything my players give me, especially when it comes to PC backgrounds: If you put it in there, I assume it's because you want to see it in the game, and I'll do my best to make that happen.
But why assume?
As a player, I design character backgrounds this way. I include NPCs my PC would love to fight, fuck, or otherwise interact ...
There are lots of ways to metagame, including:
Using out-of-character knowledge for your in-character benefit, generally regarded as a bad thing
Discussing mechanics during a session, which runs the gamut from useful and fun to a terrible idea
Considering the rules in a way that your character probably wouldn't, which I consider to be common to most RPGs, and often just fine
Sharing mechanical tips with other players, a real mixed bag ...
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Today is a day for gathering with friends and family to reflect upon what we have and to show our gratitude towards each other. Regardless of where you live, what holidays you observe, or what you believe allow me this moment to extend the thanks of all of us gnomes to you our readers. Without you this site would be ...
When I was writing "My Players" and "Your Players," Not "The Players," this question was also kicking around in the back of my head, and it seemed like it was meaty enough for its own article:
Whose campaign is it, anyway?
In other words: When you run a game, is it your campaign?
In terms of how you refer to it in conversation, I'd wager that -- like every GM I've ...
