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
Back before Gencon, Phil threw out an article asking for Gnome Stew fans to pick games for us to pick up and review. Phil reviewed Vornheim – The Complete City Kit and I am now reviewing Microscope. We got no compensation or free copies for these games. I take a long time to do my reviews, mostly because I want to get deeply into what I’m reviewing ...
Arrr, ye fair and gentle readers. Ye be knowing what today be, donch'a? Why of course it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. That be meaning we ought to be talking about, and like, Pirates. Well ole redbeard Johnny has a small treat for ya. In honor of the day, I'll be dropping some nuggets o'wisdom on how to make your game a little more piratical. ...
As Game Masters, I think we’ve all been in the place where we get wrapped up in creating a world or game with an intricate backstory or lots of details. (When I refer to backstory throughout the rest of this article, I mean the intricate details that surround a world or campaign. ) Whether it is the detailed story of the intricate social-politcal relationships at court, the ...
I’m likely going to make the world meta-explode with this one, but let’s take that risk and talk about games. Not just the tabletop games we play, or the video games we play when we aren’t running a game or playing in one. No, let’s talk about games within the games we play. Amalgamation When we sit down to play a ...
It’s safe to say that I’m a bit of an easy sell when it comes to miniatures. Every time I go into a game store, I buy dice or miniatures from their bargain bin. The fantasy games I generally play call for odd or unique minis, so your standard knight in armor rarely works, especially when I need minis to represent the vast array of unique enemy personalities. ...
Thank you for flying Gnome Airlines today. Your pilot for today is Gnome Arcadian, and while he has not yet officially received his pilot’s license, he has logged many hours in flight simulation video-games. While most of these have been space fighters, he assures us that the actual presence of gravity should not be a problem. If you would please buckle your seatbelts, the stewardesses will come around ...
A few weeks ago I was preparing for running games at Ancon, a local gaming convention. A million things were occupying my time, and I only got two out of the three games written that I had to run. Waiting to meet someone at a table in a coffee shop, I decided to start taking notes for the final game I needed to write up. Having only my ...
While prepping for my regular Sunday game yesterday, I came across an incredible link on Boing Boing. This might already be floating around out there in the general gaming geekdom, but I hadn't found it yet and felt it needed sharing! A gamer who seems to go by the online name of Burntwire took two years to build his gaming space into a great place to fit ...
It is no secret that I’m a fan of shared narrative in the games I run and create. If you are unfamiliar with the term, shared narrative is essentially handing narrative control of the story over to the players instead of the Game Master. If you want a more detailed explanation of shared narrative, here is an article that I wrote on the subject a while back. ...
With Halloween being tomorrow, I figured I would lay down a few ideas for horror/monster themed games that I’m not going to have time to run. My regular game will take the party into a city where necromancy is legal. My party plans for Saturday night will have me carrying along a block tower and characters so that I can co-opt whoever is awake at 3 in ...
No form of entertainment is entirely realistic. Movies, video games, books, and pretty much any other form of media cut a lot of corners when portraying the world. If they didn’t, they would be bogged down with boring minutia and detail. However, a lot of gamers like the complexity and detail of “realistic” gaming. Without the challenged presented by these small challenges a tabletop game might not feel ...
I run very improv heavy game sessions. I also do a lot of sandbox style game. Because of this, there are a lot of nights around my gaming table where I’m picking at the players for some direction for the story. Sometimes the players know exactly where they wan to go, sometimes the players really just want to do “stuff” and want someone to tell them what that ...
Years ago, with a different group than I run for now, I had a friend who was a “colossal dick” at the table. He was a spot-light stealing player. He had a solution to everything and wanted to take the party lead role in everything that was done. He was a friend of ours. Everyone was polite and didn't overtly challenge him, but the frustration levels spiked every ...
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of non-linear plots and story structures. However, as the Game Master, you are responsible for making sure the story progresses and certain things happen. Sometimes the players just aren’t picking up what you’re putting down. Here are a few things that you can do to help your players stay on track, without having to railroad them. 1. Make ...
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 ...
