Game Mastering
Ongoing coverage on Game Mastering.
Latest coverage
If You Were Going to Start GMing
This article gathers advice from experienced individuals for those new to Game Mastering (GMing). It addresses common concerns such as balancing player freedom with story direction, increasing player engagement, choosing the right game system, and managing preparation time. The author plans to answer these questions in future posts.
Published Adventures and Me | Gnome Stew
The author discusses the challenges of running published role-playing game adventures after years of creating homebrew campaigns. They explore why adapting pre-written material can be difficult, often requiring significant GM effort to fill narrative gaps and align with player group styles. The piece concludes that while published adventures can be valuable resources, they are not a shortcut to easier game mastering and should be modified as needed.
Gnomecast 242 – Rise of the Lazy GM with Mike Shea
Mike Shea from Sly Flourish joins Ang and Jared to discuss his new book, Rise of the Lazy Game Master, and other topics related to creating content for the RPG community. The interview covers GMing advice and content creation for role-playing games.
There's no such thing as the Matt Mercer Effect
This article argues against the concept of 'the Matt Mercer effect,' which suggests that actual-play series like Critical Role set unrealistically high expectations for new tabletop roleplaying game players. The author contends that issues with player expectations and game mastering predate these series and are often rooted in a lack of proper 'session zero' discussions rather than the influence of professional voice actors.
Introducing Gnome Stew's new AGI - Artificial Gnome Intelligence
Gnome Stew has introduced its own Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) called HATGPT, designed to provide advice on gaming and gamemastering. The AGI is humorously described as being powered by hamsters and utilizing recycled gnome brain matter, reflecting the site's unique thematic elements.
