These past few days I’ve got the pleasure of introducing a friend to the world of GMing. I’m in some sort of tutoring role, but I can already see he will do great! One of the things I found myself recommending that I hadn’t given much thought to before is how to introduce new...
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A few weeks ago I was running my Cortex Prime game, Aux. The session went well, and my players had a few minutes of time, so rather than just a simple check-in for how the session went, we got into a really in-depth critique of how the campaign was going to date. Overall, the feedback was...
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When running a game, I ask for volunteers at the table to fill certain roles. I’m not talking about the character roles (tank, damage, healer, caster, support). In this case, I’m talking about player roles that facilitate the running of the game and makes things easier to keep things...
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Do you find yourself stuck when trying to come up with new ideas for your D&D campaigns? Homebrew campaigns are great, but sometimes it can be tough to come up with ideas on the fly. If you’re experiencing writer’s block, don’t worry–you’re not alone. As a...
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Recently, I was taking this training class for my day job, and the person in the video said that we have far more neurons dedicated to visual processing than audio processing. Honestly, I tried to look this up, and there is a mountain of neurobiology about audio vs visual uptake, processing, and...
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Game masters are the eyeballs, earholes, fingers, noses, and tongues for the players. If a GM doesn’t describe something, it doesn’t exist. If they don’t say that something is in the room, it’s not in the room. If a GM forgets, omits, or just plain leaves out an...
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Something that is coming up for me (as I write this) is an “improv game.” I’ve done this a few times before to great success, and I’m really looking forward to doing it again. What I mean by an “improv game” is that I, as the GM, am not providing the storyline....
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Last month, I wrote about overcoming engagement inertia and how to get your game running to a point where it becomes exciting enough that the interest and engagement in the game help to keep it going. In that article, I talked about frictions that if left unattended can wear down that engagement...
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I have for the past few months been running a one-on-one game with my co-host, and all-around lovely human, Senda, and recently our gaming session got disrupted for a few weeks in a row due to life, kids, etc. These things happen. At first, we were both nervous about missing sessions but realized...
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There are times in your games in which you want tension to increase rapidly. Maybe there’s some sort of time limit to deactivate a bomb, or you are sneaking through a gala full of guards trying not to be seen, but the longer you stay the higher the chance of getting caught. There’s a...
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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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