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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 1,109 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

Nov 2, 2010 by 8

Johnny’s Five – Five Reasons To Overact Your NPCs

Right before all of the Halloween craziness of this year occurred, my buddy decided to run a Halloween themed game instead of having the weekly Kilt and Beer night (yes, there is a weekly Kilt and Beer night). Not having been a player in a long time, I said sure why not. We only had a few hours, so knew it would be short and crammed with stuff, ...
Nov 18, 2008 by 21

Fair or Foul: Restricting Roleplay?

Here's a question dug from my GMing archives. In a previous modern occult campaign, there were two players, Dan and Sarah, that played two characters, Drake and Shayla. Dan was very much into roleplaying and being "in character", while Sarah found roleplaying awkward and preferred to refer to Shayla's actions in the third person. Prior to the campaign, it was established between Dan and Sarah that Drake and Shayla would be madly in love ...
Jun 6, 2008 by 16

Hot Button: Roleplay vs. Rollplay

Heh, that title alone should probably spawn 50 comments :-) In the early days of RPG when AD&D was king, my groups eventually crawled out of the dungeons and started running more soap opera style games. Rather than clear out an orc infestation, we were more likely to be found courting maidens (or men, if one of us were in "drag"), running fiefs, and forging alliances. This being AD&D ...

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