Usually when I post contest results, I just post the results — but this time around, there are two nifty GMing resources I’d also like to tell you about.

Well, three, actually, because in case you missed it we took part in a big first this past Friday: Wizards of the Coast gave pre-release copies of the Player’s Handbook 2 to 12 RPG sites — one of them being Gnome Stew — so that we could write articles about the book before launch day.

To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time WotC has initiated a coordinated, third-party preview of one of their major releases. Being part of this one was a lot of fun.

On to that in a minute, though. First things first: the winner.

And the Winner Is…

The winner of last week’s metal dice contest — which drew over 300 entries — is: Gnome Stew reader Grimkin, aka commenter #93!

Congratulations, Grimkin!

Grimkin, you’ve been emailed this morning at the email address linked to your Gnome Stew account. Our thanks to everyone who entered this contest — rest assured that it won’t be our last.

Open Game Table

Coming March 23rd (so soon!), Open Game Table is an anthology of killer RPG blog content from around the web, intended to bridge the gap between folks like you — who read RPG blogs like ours — and gamers who get all their gaming content in print, and who have never read an RPG blog.

This anthology was pulled together by Jonathan, author of The Core Mechanic, and his dedication to this project has been amazing. Equally amazing is the amount of support he’s received from fellow authors and artists, and how fast the project has come together.

I’ve seen a draft copy, and this book looks good. You can read previews on The Fine Art of the TPK and A Butterfly Dreaming.

Embarassingly, us gnomes didn’t learn about Open Game Table in time to submit material or vote on which articles should be included, but we were fortunate enough to have two of our articles nominated by others. They’re included in the anthology; I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you which two they are…

Dungeonaday.com

Dungeonaday.com is the new sexiness from friend of the Stew Monte Cook — and if you’re a fan of Monte’s long stint as the author of the “Dungeoncraft” column in Dragon Magazine, you’ll know exactly what to expect.

For $96 a year (or $10 a month, or $27 quarterly), you get a dungeon campaign built by Monte Cook one encounter at a time. Specifically: one new dungeon encounter every weekday, plus bonus encounters every month; maps by cartography wizard Ed Bourelle, blog posts by Monte, forums access, and a whole bunch more features.

Monte the person and Monte the game designer are both awesome — I fully expect this site to rock. You can check out a host of free preview material to get a feel for what you’ll be getting for your money.

Twitter and Facebook

Incidentally, while I don’t always post new GMing links and tidbits like this right away, I generally have time to share them on Twitter as soon as I hear about them. Case in point, both of these went out on the 10th — think of my Twitter feed as a mini-preview of some of what’s coming on the Stew.

Gnome Stew’s Facebook group is another channel for hearing abut upcoming Stew material. If you’re a Stew addict who likes getting your fix as early as possible, I recommend signing up.

PHB 2 Preview

If you didn’t catch it on Friday, check out our 4,500-word preview of the PHB 2 from a GMing perspective — and the 11 excellent previews featured on these sites:

Congrats again to Grimkin, and I hope you enjoyed the links.