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
*Author's note: A draft version of this article was accidentally published on 12/08/2011. That version did not accurately convey Lenny's ideas and thoughts and was quickly removed. This version is the approved final draft.*
A fairly common discussion, or argument in some cases, that I have observed gamers having is whether or not a GM should run a game exactly as the rules are written, or if it is ...
Legend is a reimplementation of the d20 System core rules from Rule of Cool -- a d20 fantasy RPG that does things differently. It's as much of a change from core d20 as d20 Modern was from D&D 3.0.
Through January 14, 2012, it's available for a pay-what-you-like donation to Child's Play. If you have the slightest interest in d20, it's well worth checking out (see my recent post ...
Variety is the spice of life. You may have your favorite game system, but it does not need to be the only game system that you play. One of the joys of this hobby is that by using a different set of rules you can have a completely new experience at the game table even if you are still playing in the same setting. Trying a new set ...
Every gaming system handles magic a little differently, but one thing holds true in any gaming system that has a magical component. At some point it is going to be used to move the narrative along. When magic becomes a McGuffin, it’s going to break the rules. “I’m sorry Vansha. While you can clearly see the princess is in this castle, she is ...
A while back my group got to the end of a campaign I was running and I was 4 steps beyond GM burnout. Deciding that no one wanted to pick up a new campaign of a couple of months, and deciding that we didn’t want to do a string of one shots, we bandied about many ideas for what we wanted to do. Finally, someone suggested we take ...
Despite the well-known enmity between gnomes and kobolds -- AKA scaly halflings -- the Stew hearts Kobold Quarterly. Why? Because it rocks.
KQ is the brainchild of Wolfgang Baur, one of the most famous game designers around, and among the many other irons he has in the fire he publishes the Kobold Guide to Game Design series. Volume III came out in print last Friday, and Wolfgang asked if ...
No, this article is not about Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike...
Any successful roleplaying game will eventually have a new edition. No matter how well-written an RPG is, there will always be room for improvement. Broken rules, unanticipated needs, rules expansions, errata, clunky systems, etc. can make a new edition attractive to fans of the game.
However, a question always accompanies a new edition; namely, how closely should a new ...
Fang asks, What Makes the Perfect Gamemaster?. It is having fascinating world, scenarios and characters? Being able improvise, but not railroad? Perhaps if one lets players act whenever / however they like? I’m a big proponent for keeps things moving; is that it? Maybe a perfect gamemaster can handle a split party with perfectly equal spotlight time? Memorizes all the rules? Is fair to the players but not ...
When I played my first tabletop role playing game it was an experience that I instantly enjoyed. I and my friends immersed ourselves into a world of imagination that I still to this day find intoxicating. We spent all day telling a collective story of our characters exploring a dungeon, and although the storyline was cliché compared to the RPG sessions that I am involved in today the ...
It seems Hamlet had a less vexing decision than the one that seemingly faces many DMs of Dungeons and Dragons. Namely, do I switch to the new fourth edition of the game, or stick with the version I’m playing?
I think it’s fair many factors will go into your thinking. Here’s what I’m weighing, right now.
Cost
The biggie. At $104.95 msrp for the three core rulebooks, this ...
