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

Dear Apathy,

My group has started to do a lot of out of character planning and talking in combat, and it is really starting to piss me off! How should I go about trying to reign it in?

–Matthew Edwards from Toboggan Glacier, Alaska

If you read yesterday’s post and took my idea to heart you are probably wondering what to get from the store. In this day and age most people have had a very limited exposure to the wide world of alcohol, typically ordering the same thing over and over or confining themselves to the easily available [...]

Every campaign has them, the bar scenes. The characters are sitting at the bar recovering from their latest adventure when the GM decides to describe the house specials in overly complex detail. The players may try to pay attention, but most will have trouble remembering the detailed descriptions of five different drinks. This can easily [...]

Yesterday we explored how what your players see and hear can be modified to raise your sessions to the next level. Today we will explore the senses of taste, smell and touch. Touch This is the hard one. The first way to address touch ties directly in with sight. Recovering all your seating with identical, [...]

If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time you have detected a certain enviable snobbishness evident in our writing and general discourse. Dazzled by the possibilities you have decided to follow our model and add some class to your game. Great! While we have given general advice you may have some questions [...]

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. Drink of the day: Rusty Nail As a gamer one of the things I have excelled at is throwing a wrench in the [...]

In our ongoing series about paper cuts you may have noticed a trend. The one biggest factor controlling the quality of our shared gaming experience can be boiled down to Wheaton’s First Law: “Don’t be a dick.” While a simple concept, many people fail to abide by it, either intentionally or by accident. When a [...]

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

Dear Apathy,

After running a game for several months and getting my players deeply involved with my story, I had another player join my game. They seemed very interested in playing but had a difficult time really integrating with the party. While they are trying, I am having trouble getting them as involved as the other players. We have now been playing with the new player for several months, and things don’t seem to be getting better! Anytime old NPC’s come back, foreshadowing is explained, or long running plots are averted, the player doesn’t get any of the references and totally disconnects from the game, no matter how many times we explain it to them.

Thanks,

–Failure to Adapt, Integrate or Live Up to Reasonable Expectations, Halifax , NS

Yesterday I discussed how to talk to your GM about problems with their game. If you followed my advice you probably pulled them aside and had a meaningful conversation about your concerns. Assuming you presented your case well and made it clear that you were serious, your GM probably seemed receptive to your problems. You [...]

Unless you have been lucky or haven’t been playing very long, you’ve probably experienced it. Your GM is taking the game in directions you don’t like or aren’t comfortable with, or perhaps is just not running the style of game you want to play; perhaps they have implemented house rules or “interpretations” that you disagree [...]