It’s been a great week for GMing content on the web, and the highlights are coming your way in 3…2…1…

Gnome Rodeos are our regular link roundups. Provided everyone doesn’t simultaneously stop talking about GMing for a week, you should see one most Fridays.

GMing Regulars

→ Dungeon Mastering: For this week, Yax talks about Why you should never use pre-made adventures as your main storyline (I strongly agree based on experience) and Stretching scenes: Less prep time, better games! (I’m iffier about this one, but it’s interesting). He’s also having another free entry/big prize contest.

→ Musings of the Chatty DM: Chatty proposes building your campaign on the British TV series model, which pretty is wild in places but an all-around cool idea. Today’s the last day to enter his story building tips contest, but don’t because I want to win it myself (just kidding — you should totally enter!).

→ Roleplaying Tips: Along with the main article, Creating Memorable Enemy Groups, Johnn suggests using a communal dice tray. This wouldn’t work at my group’s giant table, but it might work at yours.

→ Stupid Ranger: Three things to ensure a satisfactory endgame… makes three good suggestions, and Behind the Screen: The Endgame – Epilogue… talks about how Dante implemented them at the table.

GMing All Over the Place

→ ars ludi: Ben recommends expanding your RPG comfort zone — something that will make you a better GM every time — in Try Something New: the Indie Exploration Kit. I’ve heard good stuff about Agon, but never played it; In A Wicked Age sounds neat, especially the zero-prep aspect.

→ Critical Hits: Like campaign post-mortems? You’ll like Campaign Wrap-Up: Recaps, Obsidian Portal Wikis, and General Thoughts, then — it’s one hell of a post-mortem. Good links, too.

→ of Dice and Dragons: Scot Newbury dissects what bugs him about D&D 3.x, and I find myself nodding along. This kind of self-assessment is very useful as a GM, and it’s a great way to hone your gaming preferences. (Via Trollsmyth.)

→ GRUBB STREET: Our own Troy E. Taylor suggested this post on Jeff Grubb’s blog: Spell Component: Brick. Apart from being funny, I like this: “It is one of the strengths of roleplaying that, regardless of the system or edition, stuff happens around the table that no designer could or would anticipate.”

→ Strolen’s Citadel: Gnome Stew reader MoonHunter linked to an excellent post of his called Starting a Campaign the MoonHunter Way over on Strolen’s Citadel, and after poking around I can say that there’s a lot of interesting stuff on the main site, too.

Got a GMing link to share? Shoot me a line at martin(AT)gnomestew(DOT)com. I love finding out about new stuff for GMs.