Managing Your Digital Library

An Infinite Digital Bookcase I can still remember the first roleplaying game that I got in the early 1990s, the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. The colorful cover with a roaring dragon and fiery wizard left an indelible mark in my memory. I have long since traded or donated...

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Unbound Issue 3 (The Draw Fate) Breakdown

In a similar manner to my articles in which I break down the articles from Arcadia that I used to write for Tribality, I now present you a series of breakdowns for the Unbound collection. Leon Barillaro has been kind enough to provide me with a copy of the issue for me to check out and review. In...

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Gnomecast 184 – D&D and Me

http://misdirectedmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GC_184_DnDandMe_Final.mp3 In honor of D&D’s 50th Anniversary, a whole bunch of Gnomes get on the mics to talk about our history with this venerable game. Prepare for a little nostalgia and musings about this hobby we all...

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A Life Well Lived Review

In older editions of D&D, traveling from one place to another was an activity governed by a lot of rules, but not governed by a lot of active input by the player characters. Depending on what books your DM was using, you would find out how many days it would take to get from one location to...

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Gnomecast 183 – New Players, New Characters

http://misdirectedmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GC_183_Newplayers_final.mp3 Ang, JT and Senda chat about the logistics of adding new players to your groups and new characters to your games. Links: Mythulu Cards Xenolanguage Coriolis: The Great Dark Kickstarter Savage Worlds Science Fiction...

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Call of Cthulhu – Arkham Review

The name Arkham has become entrenched in the public consciousness, even when people don’t know the origin of the name. When I mentioned what I was reviewing this week, my wife said, “Arkham, isn’t that an asylum?” Beyond providing the name of the infamous DC Comics institution, the recurring use...

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Thursday – TTRPG Review

Thursday is a tabletop role playing game for 2-4 players of time loops, drama, and learning from your mistakes, inspired by Russian Doll I got a Thursday review copy while getting ready for my Time Traveling Panel for Big Bad Con 2023 with Sebastian Yūe. Thursday served as a brilliant piece to...

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The Crusty Old Gnome: Midnight Refresh

In the shadow of night, I see the full moon rise, telling me what’s in store…                                                                                                 — Whitesnake, “Still of the Night” Being creatures of the modern world, it can be difficult to get into a medieval...

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Gnomecast 182 – Video Games to RPGs

Ang, Jared and Josh get together and talk about what we can take from video games and apply to the RPGs we bring to the table. http://misdirectedmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GC_182_VideoGames_RPGs-Mixdown-1.mp3 Links: Jared’s Marvel Multiverse RPG Extended...

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Make It About Them (Without Making It About Them)

Do you want to center your player characters’ backstories without making it seem like the whole world revolves around them? Do you want to create emotional bonds as strong as adamantine between not just the PCs and the NPCs but the players, too? Do you want to pull off an enemies-to-allies (or lovers if that’s your story of the game) arc without ham-fisting the heel-face turn? Well then, my friend, allow me to introduce you to a little trick in my toolbox…

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Antagonist Goals

Last month, I talked about giving your character some goals and motivations to support those goals. During a social media conversation about that article, a friend of mine dropped the idea of writing up an article about villain or antagonist goals and their motivations. Matt Dukes (also a fellow...

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It Came From The Stew Pot

Hey you. Yeah, you. Do you know about Gnomecast 21? Why isn’t it in the archives? What are they hiding? If you value your safety… don’t go searching for Gnomecast 21…

Gnomecast 21 poster with a beared gnome and the words "I survived Gnomecast #21

What Are People Saying?

What are people saying?

Gnome Stew is like a one-stop shop for GMing tips. Written by a group of seasoned, passionate and friendly Game Masters, the Stew has rapidly become THE reference GMing blog of the RPG blogsphere. It’s regular, high quality content is backed by a strong sense of community based around a solid readership and friendly discussions with the authors.

Philippe-Antoine Menard, Musings of the Chatty DM

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