Yesterday marked the end of Gnome Stew’s first annual New Year, New Game (NYNG) challenge and blog carnival, and today I’m here to share a smorgasbord of excellent blog posts from all over the world about running new games.

This was our first blog carnival, but it won’t be our last — and with 14 participants (15 with us), I’d say it was a great first outing. A big THANK YOU to everyone who took time out of their January schedule to write a blog post for or about NYNG!

Posts about Running New Games

Want tips, ideas, and inspiration about running a new game this year? Check out these posts (appearing in the order they came out):

Sinister Forces

My New Game for the New Year! — Sinister Forces is the personal blog of Gnome Stew author Patrick Benson, and he used this post to share some details about the approach he’ll be taking when he runs Star Trek later this year.

“The Gassy Gnoll” at Game Knight Reviews

Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men with Nine Kids — GKR shared a session report about a recent new game: Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men, a kid-oriented RPG run for no less than nine kids!

Monkey in the Cage

New Year, New Game — Karen shares her group’s plans to run not just one new game this year, but four: Mouse Guard, Shadowrun, Pathfinder, and a homebrew called Society of Odin.

Paper & Plastic

How do you choose a new game? — Paolo Cecchetto shares advice about how to choose a new game — for him, it’s all about three key features.

Get Off My Lawn

New Year, New Game — Robert M. Everson (who, incidentally, worked with us on Masks) looks in his crystal ball and sees the Dresden Files, a D&D 5e playtest, and a one-shot of the new Marvel RPG.

Wired.com

A New Year and My New Game: The Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box With the Kids — GeekDad blogger MJ Harnish talks about running the PFRPG Beginner Box for his son, another dad, and that dad’s two sons.

Nearly Enough Dice

A simple tip to running a new game with a new system — Liz shares what really is a simple tip, but it’s one that has all sorts of repercussions if you don’t take it seriously (I’ve fallen into that trap myself).

The Player’s Side of the Screen

Burning in the New Year — Andy Hauge talks about why he GMs, why you should GM, and his plans to run Burning Wheel this year.

Robust McManly Pants on Average Display

New Year, New Game, New System, New Worries — Michael offers up an in-depth analysis of the potential problems — and opportunities — presented by his NYNG game of choice, Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.

Stargzer’s World

New Year, New Game — Stargazer is planning to run Shadow, Sword & Spell in 2012, and in this post he talks about this game’s build-the-world-as-you-go premise.

The Iron Tavern

New Year, New Games — IronWolf delves into a topic most GMs know well: breaking out of ruts and changing routines, and the motivation to do so.

The Contemporary Quixotist

New Year, New Gamers — rpgadvocate sets a high bar by choosing five games to run in 2012: Macabre Tales, Toypocalypse, Cosmic Patrol, Fiasco, and Lost Days of Memories and Madness.

Of Dice and Dragons

New Year, New Game — Scot Newbury focuses on running a new campaign (rather than a new RPG), and lays out five challenges that should make it an interesting experience for him as a GM.

Brightwind

New Year, New Game: Dogs in the Vineyard — David Bowers shares what happened when he tried, back in 2011, to run Dogs in the Vineyard set in the Star Wars universe.

Gnome Stew

How I Prep for the First Session of a New Game — To close things out, I shared my approach to running the first session of a new game here on the Stew.

Posts about NYNG

In addition to posts that were part of the blog carnival, NYNG itself also got some press from RPG bloggers. Thanks to these fine folks for spreading the word:

If I missed a NYNG post anywhere, please drop me a comment or an email and I’ll rectify that right away.

I hope you enjoyed reading these articles and taking part in the NYNG challenge. if you have any feedback for next year’s NYNG event, fire away in the comments.