Hello, and welcome to Gnome Stew, part II.
If you read Martin’s farewell and explanation article here, then you know what’s going on, but if you haven’t here’s the short version (short is all we’ve got around here, being Gnomes y’know) – After 8 years of manning the helm here at the stew, Martin decided to step down. When Martin asked the Gnomes whether to keep the stew going or archive it, I threw my red hat in the ring to keep the site around and growing.
With close to 3,000 articles written by stew authors (including the archives of Treasure Tables where many of us met), a handful of industry awards, and most importantly an incredible community of commenters and supporters, we feel the Stew has a lot going for it and wanted to make sure it’s here to help Game Masters and gamers in the future. Gaming’s not going anywhere, and neither are we.
Gnome Stew Gnewness
Times of change can be scary, but they can also be opportunities to broaden horizons and step into new areas. That’s what we’re planning to do here at Gnome Stew, and we’ve got some incredible projects in the works.
- Gnomes Emeritus – A few of the Gnomes – Scott, Don, and Walt – are going to be stepping out of the spotlight alongside Martin and going into Gnome Emeritus status. They may jump in and write the occasional article when the mood strikes, and they still jump into our communications from time to time, but they won’t be writing regular articles here.
- A New Site Design – With a broader perspective and a bunch of new authors, we’ll be putting together a cleaner and newer looking site in the next few weeks. We’ve added a lot of features over the years, but it’s time to consolidate them and update the kitchen. Expect a newer site sometime around the end of the month or the very beginning of next month.
- A Broader Menu – We’ve written a LOT of articles about Game Mastering, and it’s at the core of our passion, but we’ve also got a lot of other topics we’re interested in and want to share with you. To that end, we’re opening up the scope of gaming topics we’ll be writing about to tabletop role-playing games and not just game mastering.Ă‚Â You might see an article about Fate Core mechanics one day, an article about dealing with player conflict the next, then an article about art trends in gaming after that. Our scope is broadening, but one thing is staying the same – we’re writing about things that are helpful and interesting to you and your games. The stew is going to stay as meaty as it ever was, we’re just using some new (still gnome!) meat.
Meet The New Gnomes
Speaking of new meat, we’re pulling in some new staff writers for the Stew. Knowing a few of the current Gnomes were stepping back and it having been a while since we pulled in some new blood, we went out looking for people who were doing really great things to join the team. We wanted to give them another platform, if they already had one, and help them bring their voice to our audience. I’m super excited to introduce the new gnomes who will be joining us here.
- Tracy Barnett
Hey everyone, my name’s Tracy. I’ve been gaming seriously for the last 16 years, or so, and have been a professional game designer for the last four. I co-own a publishing company called Exploding Rogue Studios with my business partner Brian Patterson. Gaming-wise, I tend to the indie side of things and absolutely every game I run is influenced by what I’ve learned through Fate and games that are Powered by the Apocalypse. Game design-wise, I’ve published three roleplaying games (School Daze, One Shot, and Iron Edda: War of Metal and Bone), and we’ve got more in the works. I don’t design full-time (yet), but that’s my dream. - J.T. Evans
- Avery Liell-Kok
Salutations, Gnomes! I am deeply honored to be one of the Stew’s newest ingredients– er, contributors. I’m Avery Liell-Kok, player, occasional GM, and professional illustrator of children’s lit, fantasy art, and more relevantly, gaming books. I pretty much run on horror, melodrama, romance and cataclysm, so if you’re looking for star-crossed lovers bonding over their shared love of cannibalism in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami, I’m your gal. I solemnly swear to shine a little light on the visual side of our industry, wax rhapsodic about narrative theory, maybe even show y’all some pretty pictures. Also, just hang out and squee with people over my favorite hobby. - Darcy Ross
- Senda
We feel that having a diversity of gaming experiences and a diversity of voices will help hit a lot more areas of gaming than we currently have, so we may add a new Gnome or two in the future once we get the current batch of new Gnomes tenderized and prepared on their feet and comfortable.
Thanks To Martin and Thanks To You
We’re always going to be incredibly grateful to Martin for starting up the Stew (and Treasure Tables before that) and we’re looking forward to continuing on the incredible articles he brought us all on board to do, but we’re also thankful for you, the readers, who give us a reason to do this. If you’ve been with us since the beginning 8 years ago, or just recently found us,Ă‚Â thanks for being with us. We know you’ll like what we’ve got coming down the line.
Good luck to all of you new Gnomes! I look forward to reading your articles!
As fondly as I bid farewell to our Gnomes Emeritus, I am equally excited about this lineup of (g)new Gnomes taking up the banner! I see a lot of familiar (g)names in that list, and I k(g)now there are going to be many great things to look forward to. Welcome new Gnomes! I’ll be standing by with my wooden bowl ready for a hearty helping of this new Stew!
We got a lot of great people to come onboard, and I’m super excited they all said yes as well as excited about their articles! Chris’s first one posts today (Wednesday) and we’ve got a couple of group articles coming up.
I’m also very sorry that I couldn’t find any words to keep the (g)n jokes going. Awwwww (g)nuts!
Welcome, new gnomes! I can’t wait to see what you do here, and I look forward to reading your articles. 🙂
John, I couldn’t be happier that your hand is on the tiller. I’m excited to see what Stew v2 looks like!
Thanks Martin! We hope to do you proud!
As a long time lurker, infrequent commenter, and general curmudgeon… I’m interested to see the new direction.
Sorry to see Martin Ralya, cause of so much cash leakage from my pockets, leave The Stew.
Very glad that John Arcadian stepped up to the plate.
Looking forward to seeing the New Stew and the Gnew Gnomes in action.
Long live the Gnomes! New and old!
PS
Darcy Ross Rocks!
Congratulations to the adjusted stew; may your broth be ever flavorful and well seasoned.
The Stew will remain at the top of my reading list–and I’m interested in seeing where you all take it.
Best wishes from a somewhat waterlogged (if not boiled into insensibility) former colleague!