Gnome Stew

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GC_230_Mutants-and-Masterminds-with-Kenson-and-Thomas_final.mp3 Join Ang along with special guests Steve Kenson and Alex Thomas from Green Ronin as they talk about Mutants & Masterminds Fourth Edition. You know Ang loves all things super heroes,...

What Is a Situation in an RPG? How to Create Dynamic Play.

by Chris Sniezak | Jan 19, 2026 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice, Tools for GMs

There’s an idea that adventures are like trains. Each train car is a scene that has an obstacle. You need to overcome the obstacle in the train car before you move onto the next train car. When you get to the last train car the adventure is over. You get off the train at the station and then get...

Gnomecast 228 – From LARP to Tabletop with Ericka Skirpan

by Poddy Gnomington | Jan 14, 2026 | Gnomecast

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GC_229_from-larp-to-tabletop-with-Ericka-Skirpan_Final_a.mp3 Join Senda with Erika Skirpan as they have a conversation about safety in LARPs and Tabletop RPGs and how to do it in ways that enhance your games. Links: Mooney Bin Entertainment Sinking...

Fresh Starts

by J.T. Evans | Jan 12, 2026 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

It’s a new year! Time for resolutions (I don’t do those, BTW). Time for fresh outlooks on life. Time to plan some goals (I do make goals for the year, BTW). Time for some fresh starts. These fresh starts can come in many forms. New characters. New campaigns. New games. New Systems. New...

Why this game?

by Phil Vecchione | Dec 19, 2025 | Game Mastering, General, GMing Advice

For the most part, I pick the games I am going to run by, as the kids today say, vibes. It has always been instinctual. I hear about a game, the right ones set off my Spidey Sense, and I am hooked. That has been my method for the last 43 years. At different points during those years, I have...

Gnomecast 227 – Actual Play and Your Game

by Poddy Gnomington | Dec 17, 2025 | Gnomecast

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GC_228_AP-and-your-game.mp3 Join Ang, along with Chris and Josh as they talk about Actual Play games as entertainment and what we should and should not take away from them to use in our own games. Ang has been on a Critical Role kick and wants to...

Gnomecast 226 – Get this Party Started

by Poddy Gnomington | Dec 3, 2025 | Gnomecast

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GC_226_Getting_Started_final.mp3 Join Ang, Chris, and JT as they discuss different methods to pulling a party of characters together at the start of a campaign. They talk about everything from strangers shoved together to deeply established...

Background Events

by Phil Vecchione | Nov 26, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

One of the things I love about Blades in the Dark is that it has a mechanism for creating background events for your campaign. During Downtime (though I do this after a session), you roll to see how various factions make progress (or not) on their goals. Mechanically, this is a series of Fortune...

Prepping Your Game in Obsidian

by Josh Storey | Nov 21, 2025 | Game Mastering, Tools for GMs

The perfect game notebook doesn’t exist. That said, out of all of the notebooks I’ve tried—physical, digital, or otherwise—I’ve yet to find an option as close to perfect as Obsidian. I love it a lot, and what’s the point of writing for a TTRPG blog if you can’t share that nerdy love with others? So here’s a rundown of why I think you should try Obsidian with some tips for how you can use it to organize your campaigns, improve your prep, and evolve the way you run sessions.

Gnomecast 225 – What’s Your Type?

by Poddy Gnomington | Nov 19, 2025 | Gnomecast

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GC_225_Whats-Your-Type-.mp3 Join Ang, Jared and Josh as they talk about the types of characters they like to play, why they love those types, and why it’s also good to branch out and try other characters. Links: Global Comix Seth Skorkowsky...

Make It Personal

by J.T. Evans | Nov 14, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice, Player Advice

Session zero is packed. Like, really packed, with so many things to do and consider and take care of. There’s establishing the style/theme/tone of the game. Discussing safety tools. Establishing a genre to experience. Determining which system to use. Figuring out what setting to romp around...

Gnomecast 224 – Tabletop Safety Toolkit Interview

by Poddy Gnomington | Nov 5, 2025 | Gnomecast

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GC_224_Safety-toolkit-list-Final.mp3 Join Jared as he interviews Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk, the folks behind the Tabletop Safety Toolkit, a resource providing gamers with access to a variety of safety tools. There’s a ton of options...

Preludes

by Phil Vecchione | Oct 29, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

In my current Blades in the Dark game, I started to post preludes in our Slack channel a few days before the game. These preludes are short narrative pieces, centered on one of the characters, and convey some information to the players about the upcoming session. It is not the first time I have...

Gnomecast 223 – Getting Spooky with Bridgett Jeffries

by Poddy Gnomington | Oct 22, 2025 | Gnomecast

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GC_223_Getting-spooky-with-Bridget-Jefferies_final.mp3 Join Ang as she chats with guest Bridgett Jeffries about all things spooky and scary games. Need some insight into how to bring the best of horror to your table during this spooky season? Listen...

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