Any given game that you pick up off a shelf (or grab from itch.io) is an experience, geared toward creating a specific type of story: a fantasy skirmish simulator, a Jane-Austenesque adventure in manners, or living life as a cozy lesbian snake to name just a few. But sometimes you want to mix and...
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As most of you fine folks out there in Gnome Stew lands know, I’m a fiction author in addition to being an avid role player and part of Gnome Stew. In the realm of getting fiction sold before you can actually sell it to readers, there are agents and editors to work with to get a book ready...
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I have a great problem. I have too many RPGs and not enough time. LOL. I know you do, too. Hell, who doesn’t? I guess the better way to describe my problem is that I have a bunch of new games that I want to play, but all my current campaigns are going well and are stable. In the past, I often had...
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Lots of tabletop RPGs spin tales of fantasy, bravery, might and magic. The game leads players’ characters through riveting stories where everything may be possible. However, you could argue that the real magic at the table happens between players. It happens when the players’...
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Not all characters start out the hero. Very few of them do, in fact. Most are farmers, street rats, servants, common soldiers, apprentices, and so on before the story gets its hooks into them and pushes them out of the proverbial nest. We all want our characters to become the heroes of the lands,...
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I have a bit of a conundrum I wanted to talk about. Even though I’ve been playing RPGs for decades, I had a late start as a GM. Because of that, or maybe because I’ve been a player more than I’ve been a GM, I often suffer from GM fatigue after running a campaign for a while. What is GM fatigue? By...
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In a recent game, my players reached an impasse. They had talked to two parties, which were in conflict with one another, and had gotten similar but not exactly the same information from both of them. The issue was that they felt that neither side gave them enough information to make a decision...
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The situation was all-too-familiar — the characters had subdued a prisoner and were interrogating them. In this case, the game was Forbidden Lands and the prisoner was an Orc. They were able to extract the information they wanted with a few Manipulation rolls and no violence. The Orc’s intentions...
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For long-running campaigns, quite a few GMs will provide a document that ranges from one page to several pages to set the stage for the players. I think these types of documents are vital for a good session zero to take place. However, I’m not here to talk about those longer documents....
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Compared to the one-shot life of the Japanese TRPG scene, most western roleplaying games focus around the concept of ‘campaigns.’ As you’re more than aware of, campaigns are multi-session games of indeterminate length where you and your buddies could feasibly keep adventuring for...
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Written by a team of veteran Gamers and Gamemasters, Gnome Stew is a widely read gaming blog with multiple awards, ennies, and thousands of articles. We’re dedicated to helping gamers have more fun at the gaming table.
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Focal Point
Unframed
Odyssey
Never Unprepared
Masks
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Misdirected Mark Productions
Rockerboys and Vending Machines
Character Cache
Hydro Hacker Operatives