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
A few years ago, I ran a home-brewed fantasy campaign using the Iron Heroes system. I fell in love with the setting that my players and I created, and for the past few months have been toying with the idea of bringing it back, but not with the same mechanics. The more I looked at the setting, I started to realize that different game systems could be used ...
I recently did a review of Open Design’s Courts Of The Shadow Fey 4e adventure, an excellent little romp through the interaction between the fey courts and the mortal world. I was incredibly impressed by the adventure, and it reinvigorated an old similar campaign idea that I had been kicking around for a while. The game I’m playing in is trailing off and it will be my turn ...
As mentioned on GnomeStew’s Facebook page, I committed an act of fudge last game. I’m not terribly proud of it, but it’s done, and has given my group a lot to talk about (and given me a lot to write about). I’ve got a few articles of material here, so this one is primarily about what happened, and why.
Situation
Without telling you all about my campaign, a few facts ...
Excuse the cliché of telling you about my campaign, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do here. Except that this is about the techniques used to run the game, and not the clever divine dynamic or the really cool twists on the basic fantasy races. My last campaign was traditional D&D v3.5, which I ran almost entirely from a laptop, learning enough to write not ...
While I love the creative and storytelling aspects of being a GM, also I love the mechanical aspects of games. In my downtime from running games and stirring the Stew, I read a lot of rulebooks, many for games I am not planning to run, just to read about different mechanics. I love to see how different designers handle skill checks, car chases, or character growth. With my ...
Hello everyone. I think I might be the last of the GenCon Gnomes to chime in. I wanted to give a quick recap my GenCon experience, as well as dispense a few GMing tips along the way.
Hackmaster Basic
As requested , I made a beeline to the Kenzer & Company booth and picked up my copy of HackMaster Basic. I have started reading the book in earnest, and I ...
In the Suggestion Pot, BryanB wrote: I was wondering if any of the gnomes have played Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition and what your thoughts about the system are. Also, what setting books have you used and which ones are your favorites? Since I’m pretty much the Savage-in-Residence (“Call me SIR”), I’ll field this one… But I have to thank the Savage Worlds Yahoo Group for their assistance ...
