Once per week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week. It starts innocently enough. A friend invites you over for a meal, perhaps drinks. Maybe they left some dice lying out on the [...]

Each week we answer a question from our loyal audience. Our question for this week is:

Dear Apathy,

How many dice is enough?

–Al in Podunk, WA

We’ve all spent hours looking at dice in our local game store.  We’ve carefully chosen those that call to us, usually based on looks.  Eventually, long after we’ve paid for them and come home, we cast them back into the Bag of Shame because they fail us constantly with a slew of terrible rolls.  Or, [...]

This weekend I was at a multiple day family function and couldn’t get my gaming fix. It was day two and the shaking had gotten so bad that I was considering knocking over convenience store so I could go buy a Monopoly board. That’s when I decided that I would have to put a game together. Fortunately, I had paper, pencils, and a prime audience for creating a new gamer: a fourteen year old boy. What I lacked were dice.

While at my local game store today I saw a curiosity.  It was a wooden dice tray with flip up numbers.  I asked about it, and it turns out that it’s a very old game called Shut the Box.  The man behind the counter explained the game to me, and while it was very interesting, [...]

This post will be rife with my opinions.  You may disagree.  If so, I want to hear it.  I love gaming aids, and if there’s something out there that I should know about, I need to know about it. I’ve used a lot of various tools at the table.  I’ve collected to much stuff, that [...]

The level of preparation for any given session varies. Sometimes you show up late, or forget your character sheet. Sometimes the adventure isn’t fleshed out. Maybe you haven’t considered what to do about food. These things happen, and to a certain extent are expected. But not today.

When you’re introducing a new player, you want it to look like everyone is on the ball. You want the game to run smoothly. It may be a lie, but you want the newcomer to think that all sessions are as awesome as this one. Let them find out the horrible truth once they’re already addicted. As such, whether as a player or as the Gamemaster, make sure you are prepared.