We’re on our annual Christmas break (12/27-12/31, returning 1/3/11), a week of non-stop drinking and putting our stock of powdered-dwarf-penis aphrodisiacs to good use family time and anime hairdressing holiday merriment, but we never like to let the stew stop bubbling entirely.

As in past years, we’ll be featuring six articles from the 2010 archives every day this week, with each gnome picking three favorites that they wrote. If you’re new to the Stew, or if you don’t pop in every day, this is a great way to catch up on the past year’s highlights.

Merry Christmas and happy Kick a Kobold in the Junk Day New Year from all of us at Gnome Stew!

Patrick Benson

1. Know Your Comfort Zone, Then Step Out of It: Challenging ourselves is important, and that is what this article is all about. The comments that followed are an interesting read too, because some excellent pro and counter points were made by our readers.

2. The Players Just Gutted Your Plans, Now What Do You Do?: This was an experiment that had greater results than what I had hoped for. Letting our readers take the reins really worked well.

3. Video Gnoments, Episode 1: Props: Expanding beyond text and stepping into video was something that made me a little nervous. That is why I had to do it. Why not take advantage of other mediums?

Troy Taylor

1. D&D Burgoo (3.5): A Fox Swiped Our Experience Points: Did I stumble into an actual design mechanic? Sometimes a tweak to something familiar is all you need to add spice to an ongoing campaign.

2. Troy’s Crock Pot: Rollin’ Ones and Twenties: It was the weirdest – and enjoyable – day of gaming for me in a long time. I can’t recall ever seeing the dice roll the way that did during that session. I just wanted to share it with the rest of the Stew.

3. Troy’s Crock Pot: The Skeletons Wore Top Hats and Tails: A primer on Steampunk for my gaming table. Your mileage may differ, but for me, this is what turns the gears and pistons in an Iron-bound world.