Apparently, nothing drives traffic like a controversy, and nothing gets Paul von Meersheidt fired up like a blog comment.

In his stalwart defense of the Apathy Stat Block, he describes our design philosophy. He also goes on a amusing rant. Read on for enlightenment, entertainment, and a chance to take part in a flame war.

We’ve made it a year. Five days a week, never missing a day, though there were a couple 11:58 p.m. posts. Even so, it’s a feat we’re rather proud of.

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

Dear Apathy,

I left all my materials at home, HELP!

–Idiot, New York, New York
Read More . . .

Rule 2 of encounter building is: Make every encounter unique. Nothing does this better than building an interesting and dynamic environment. A dynamic environment is one that changes. One that provides opportunities and pitfalls for enemies and allies alike. Choosing an Environment The very first thing I do when designing an encounter is to come [...]

Gaming is like cooking, you have to be prepared, have all the rights ingredients and a little TLC goes a long way (that way they really don’t expect the traps).

Metagaming is a fact of life. Others encourage it, and even some games just down right force it, but honestly does it really help or hinder?

I work at a support job where I’m surrounded by geeks and gamers alike.  I even work with a guy who worked at Wizards of the Coast around the time 3.5 was being published.  Oh, the stories he can tell.  In an effort to blow off some steam during my lunch break, I’ve been thinking [...]

As something of a collector of RPGs, I’ve long since run out of time to play everything I want to play.  To compound this problem, I read a lot, and each book I read gives me ideas for new games that would be fun.  The result:  constant disappointment. My solution is to start running a [...]

While I was writing Game Mastering on the Fly I started thinking about Savage Worlds One Sheets and what it would take to design one.  Most of them are written like fleshed out hooks with images and fleshed out enemies. For example in “Feast of Famine” a Deadlands: Reloaded Savage Worlds One Sheet (really guys [...]

I’ve previously discussed organizing your hooks but what if your new to Game Mastering and don’t really know what a hook is and don’t know why you should keep them all organized. A hook is a couple of sentences that give you a jumping off point to begin an adventure. You should keep them easily [...]