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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 1,110 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

Jul 19, 2010 by 12

A Deeper Understanding of GM Notes

One question that comes up over and over when I talk to different GMs is about how to take notes for their session. It is a topic that I take personally, as I have gone through a number of different note taking styles and used all sorts of different tools, over the years. Thanks to Stew reader Tabulazero for suggesting this article topic. Rather than this being an article ...
Nov 4, 2009 by 4

Reinforcement: A Simple Tool for Conveying Theme, Tone, and Flavor

One of the best ways to convey the theme of your campaign, the tone of your game, and the flavor of the game world is to use reinforcement -- specifically, reinforcement of small things. This technique is based on two principles: Choose elements that represent what you want to convey, and repeat them. As part of your game prep, consciously choose a few things you can reinforce. They don't ...
Oct 7, 2009 by 6

The Three Motivators: A Character-Building Tool

There are many ways to build a good character, but one aspect that often gets overlooked -- or conversely, over-worked -- is motivations. If you know what motivates a character -- PC or NPC -- you can extrapolate a lot of other things on the fly. The trick is not to make your motivators too broad or too focused. Too broad, and they're meaningless ("She's motivated by a desire to ...

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