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

Dear Apathy,

I play regularly, but my players still have a difficult time remembering what was going on last session, and it takes them a while to fall back into their characters. How can I get them into the game faster?

–Anxious, Eugene, OR

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 [...]

After gushing lovingly about the Savage Mushroom Kingdom, Theron “SlasherEpoch” Seckington of These Dice Look Funny, invited me to partake in a game over Google Wave. Not being one to pass up an opportunity to play the game with the designer himself, and looking for other ways to branch into online play, I began excitedly communicating with him about character ideas. After [...]

At some point nearly every role-playing session gets bogged down with out-of-character conversation, and in some cases this can bring an entire session to its knees. Although occasionally irritating, especially to a Game Master who has an important adventure planned, in most cases these diversions are tolerated and unconsciously encouraged.

This is because role-playing is social, and oftentimes it is the only opportunity we get to see our friends. Remember, one cannot role-play without other people (we call that dementia, and prescribe drugs for it). If you enjoy role-playing, it’s partially because you enjoy interacting with others.