Stew reader LesInk threw an interesting morsel into the suggestion pot the other day. It is about the concept of railroading and how you force an event to happen when the plot absolutely calls for it. The concept is an interesting one, and LesInk put forth a great solution along with the question and story.   Dear Gnomies, I believe ...

Over the last couple of years, I have been lucky to play in two linked series of Star Wars Saga games. My experience with the system has been as a player, but my GM and I have discussed the system quite a bit. He'll chime in with comments in italics throughout the article. Katana Geldar wrote a nice post about the recent announcement by Wizards of the ...

Looking for an article idea to finish this week off with, I went trolling through the suggestion pot. The most recent question caught my eye. Crushnaut asks: "I would like to work a rival, or reoccurring adversary into the next campaign I run. How do you guys work these into your stories? Do you use the powerful, yet utterly hopeless defiler as seen ...

The Gnome Stew suggestion pot has 2 questions about a tricky situation that comes up every so often. Parties and gaming groups that have grown too big. This is something I just finished dealing with in my current gaming group, so I thought I would tackle the issue. The first comment was from Zaraphina: Zaraphina I’m ...

Sometimes the journey ends painfully: a character falls to the evil overlord, the fall that no one could survive winds up being surprisingly accurately titled. In those cases, you can turn to your system and start working in a new character. It's a common event that most GMs learn to handle. Other times, it isn't the character that leaves the journey, but a player around the table. That ...

Scarecrow dropped this little nugget into the Gnome Stew Suggestion Pot, and it’s a great topic. Someplace I think we’ve all been as GMs. "Last night I finally ran my first game of Star Wars Saga. Everything was in place. I knew the rules, I knew the scenario. I was ready for them to fail as well as succeed. I was prepared to ...

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 ...

In many ways, level drain is one of the most devastating attacks in D&D and has been from the very beginning. Fighting an Orc and dying can be a chance to try out a new character, being raised from the dead has few consequences in recent editions (if you pay enough), but level drain is still terrifying. A bad saving throw or two can undo months of adventuring. I'm ...

Over in our Suggestion Pot -- the section of Gnome Stew where you can request articles -- Crushnaut related the following problem: The game started off well. Everyone seemed excited about playing, but now I get the feeling that my player’s interest has waned, although they do not seem to want to admit it. I ask the players if they are enjoying the game and they tell me, “YES! ...

Matt Cruikshank has a long, passionate article request in the Suggestion Pot. Hop over and read it in full if you like. One element I'll seize on is discussing open source/creative commons games. John Kim maintains links to a vast number of free RPGs. Among them are a subset of open and licensed games, conveniently gathered together as open gaming examples. Eleven open games are highlighted at that link, ...

Gnome Stew reader Noumenon requested the following article in our Suggestion Pot: I just want to know how you deal with spells like Hypnotism, Charm Person, and Suggestion. Monsters you know the PCs are going to try to kill, but how do you plan for them to start controlling your NPCs? Martin's note: I want to personally apologize to Noumenon, who emailed me about this article just over one year ...

Raistlin50201 has a good question: How do you get your player to meet the first time? I have been in a few dozen campaigns myself and am GMing one. In most that I played, I was in military situations so we were just ordered together as a unit. I also often hear of the classic “You meet in a tavern and decide to travel together” stuff. For my campaign ...

Timon and Salcheech tossed related questions into the Suggestion Pot, both dealing with gaming with 9- and 10-year-olds.  Specifically, Timon was looking for advice on pacing games for that age group, while Salcheech was interested in scaling the game to that age range, as well as, whether morality lessons could be incorporated into the sessions. Interesting questions, and I think it’s great these Stew readers are introducing the game ...

V.Hobbs asks about gaming on a budget in the suggestion pot. Because I have little money to spend on all of the gaming materials that I wish that I could, and so I always end up looking at my friends’ impressive collections and wondering how they do it. How do you accumulate a large collection? There are several ways to do it-- I'll list a few below. ...

Clem is stirring the Suggestion Pot with this query: “It occurs to me that nobody has said much about ethical screening and training of mages.  Consider: If you are going to enable someone to throw fireballs and petrify people and screw around with the weather, wouldn’t you want to be pretty sure they won’t run amok with the ability?” Spell slingers Judging from how some players have their wizards ...