A few months back, during a short Star Wars campaign, my character made the brilliant decision to put on an enviro suit, go outside the space station built inside an asteroid, and try to sneak up on an Imperial troop ship blocking our landing bay. One of my friends looked at me with a raised...
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You have all been in this situation. I got my campaign set up and through session zero. The characters and their roles have been selected and everyone is set. Then through no fault of their own, one of the players has to drop the game because of their work schedule (which is totally cool, because...
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If you’re a player in your RPG group, but also have the ability to run a game, I suggest you be prepared to run a game at the drop of a hat. Your current GM can suffer from burn-out, overload from Real Life, work stresses, or just might run out of ideas as to what to do next with the game....
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Bear with me as I set some expectations for what we’re going to look at today. The basis for everything I am going to explore is the interaction between sub-genres of fantasy and the scope of a fantasy campaign. To frame this discussion, we’re going to look at some terms as defined in the Big Book...
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In combat, when it comes to envisioning the locations of the various participants, there are two general options available: battle grid and theater of the mind. With battle grid, you typically have a battle mat with 1-inch squares forming a grid. The surface is either dry-erase or wet-erase, which...
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Put away the ski mask, you absolute sociopath. This is about doing bad things in gaming, and what you do on your own time is between you and your defense attorney. If you’ve been gaming for any amount of time, you’re familiar with most of the old adages about how to make a good game: “show, don’t...
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The Call of Cthulhu… is Calling You to Self Publish Horror is my happy place. It’s a great contrast to my typical exuberant, happy self. Horror can truly pull the curtains back on human nature and give you some great perspective on what makes people tick. Personally, I love the type of...
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All GMs run dry on ideas. It happens to the best of us. What’s the next campaign? Dunno. What’s the next encounter or story arc? Dunno. Should I toss in a random encounter just for the fun of it? Dunno. In my world as a fiction writer, this is referred to as “writer’s...
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Just over a year ago, I played my last face-to-face game. Like most of us, I had no idea that was the case. It was just a normal session, with friends, at one of their houses, gathered around a table, doing a thing that I had been doing since I was ten. Then in a span of a few days, everything...
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It’s time to heal up and plan for the final push. Long rest. Short rest. It is a moment for healing potions, curatives and salves, binding and bandages. The rules mechanic your game uses to create space before the weary and battle-worn characters throw them into the breach is worth utilizing, of...
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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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