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Review: Storytelling Mints:: Storytelling Mints: A Tiny Review
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:39:13
Storytelling Mints comes with one Player Guide card, one Game Master Guide card, 24 double-sided PC / plot cards, and a wee little hinged tin to hold everything.
Gameplay: Before play begins, the Game Master draws four plot cards at random. Each card has four sections: a Goal, a Location, an Obstacle, and a Twist. The GM silently reads one line from each card, then uses them as inspiration to create a secret quest seed.
Or maybe the plot of a Mickey Spillane novel
Meanwhile, the players turn the deck over and choose their PCs from the characters described on the other side. Each character card lists a character name (ignorable), a race/class pair (mostly fluff), Strengths, Weaknesses, and Gear.
Slab Bulkhead! Buck Plankchest! Big McLargeHuge!
Notice how the bottom of each character card has an upside-down area containing one of four phrases: “Yes, And,” “Yes, But,” “No, And,” and “No, But.” I think you can see what’s coming.
To begin, the GM describes the world and is urged to start in action. Then play unfolds in a pure narrative style, funneled into the quest seed created earlier. A PC’s Strengths and Weaknesses make it easier or harder to do certain actions, and their Gear exists to do cool things with.
If the players want to try something risky, they draw a card and look at the inverted text on the character side. They succeed on a “yes,” fail on a “no,” and other stuff happens depending on their ands or buts.
There are no stats or anything; such limitations are only in your mind, maaan. It’s up to the GM to keep everyone engaged and the plot moving, and players are equally encouraged to add details and help shape the story.
By the end, the main quest was either successfully completed or utterly derailed. Nothing really happens either way. As you might expect, there’s no leveling up and no long campaign structure. The most you can do is get the GM to draw four more cards and climb back on that treadmill. The play really is the thing.
The provided PCs are very, very D&D coded in their race and class combos. There’s an Aasimar, a Tiefling, and an Aarakocra in the mix. This isn’t a deal-breaker (and may be a bonus for some groups) but it feels … I dunno, infringe-y.
Also, and this is a much bigger thing: Removing cards from the main deck (for instance, when the PCs choose their character cards or the GM deals themselves the plot) changes the ratio of Yeses and Noes to be drawn during gameplay. I count 6 Yes Ands, 7 Yes Buts, 7 No Buts, and 4 No Ands in the deck. If you have a bunch of players who all want characters with Yes Ands on the bottom, they’ll end up inadvertently skewing the game negatively for themselves. The characters on the Yes cards aren’t particularly special compared to the No cards, so it's a solid strat to grab up all the No Ands and make the game easier.
This can be mitigated by either dealing PCs randomly, or else just taking a snap of the card(s) on your phones and returning everything to the deck.
Pocket fit: The tin is about half the size of an Altoids tin by volume. It doesn’t even have extra parts inside to rattle around and disturb your prayer group. A-.
Legibility: Mostly good, with a mix of serif and sans-serif (for headers) typefaces. Text on the plot side can be difficult to see in spots, due to light-colored ink on the bright white background. One line on the character side is equally hard to read for being yellow text on a light-ish background. I've seen far worse, though. B.
Completeness: This game has no leveling, no enumerated monsters, and no campaigns. But it does come with a kinda neat story generator that can generate over 250,000 plots (or so claims their advertising). And the game itself does have a complete gameplay loop, with lots of options for the players to choose from. So. B-.
Final thoughts: If nothing else, Storytelling Mints is a master class in compact game design. I really do think this was originally meant to be a simple RPG story generator, and Arispen had a wild hair to throw in a game to go with it. And it even works, after a fashion! I’d pick this up for the plot stuff alone, but a game on top of that is like getting chocolate in your peanut butter.
Two things prevent me from giving this a full-throated recommendation, though: the vibey, improv-driven gameplay which is not every table’s cup of tea, and its US$22 price tag. I think, you know, the world situation today has really stuck this game in the shorts. If you can find it on sale for like $10-15, it’d be a far more solid choice.
This review was originally posted (by me) at https://ccxp.info/pocket-ttrpg-roundup-part-three/
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:39:13
by Miriable
Yet another joint from Archmage Arispen, maker of the previously reviewed Tinny Dungeons. Storytelling Mints feels like a GM’s tool that somehow evolved into an actual RPG. This one has zero moving parts; no dice, no player sheets, no pencils, nothing but the cards in the tin and a song in your heart.Storytelling Mints comes with one Player Guide card, one Game Master Guide card, 24 double-sided PC / plot cards, and a wee little hinged tin to hold everything.
Gameplay: Before play begins, the Game Master draws four plot cards at random. Each card has four sections: a Goal, a Location, an Obstacle, and a Twist. The GM silently reads one line from each card, then uses them as inspiration to create a secret quest seed.
Meanwhile, the players turn the deck over and choose their PCs from the characters described on the other side. Each character card lists a character name (ignorable), a race/class pair (mostly fluff), Strengths, Weaknesses, and Gear.
Notice how the bottom of each character card has an upside-down area containing one of four phrases: “Yes, And,” “Yes, But,” “No, And,” and “No, But.” I think you can see what’s coming.
To begin, the GM describes the world and is urged to start in action. Then play unfolds in a pure narrative style, funneled into the quest seed created earlier. A PC’s Strengths and Weaknesses make it easier or harder to do certain actions, and their Gear exists to do cool things with.
If the players want to try something risky, they draw a card and look at the inverted text on the character side. They succeed on a “yes,” fail on a “no,” and other stuff happens depending on their ands or buts.
There are no stats or anything; such limitations are only in your mind, maaan. It’s up to the GM to keep everyone engaged and the plot moving, and players are equally encouraged to add details and help shape the story.
By the end, the main quest was either successfully completed or utterly derailed. Nothing really happens either way. As you might expect, there’s no leveling up and no long campaign structure. The most you can do is get the GM to draw four more cards and climb back on that treadmill. The play really is the thing.
The provided PCs are very, very D&D coded in their race and class combos. There’s an Aasimar, a Tiefling, and an Aarakocra in the mix. This isn’t a deal-breaker (and may be a bonus for some groups) but it feels … I dunno, infringe-y.
Also, and this is a much bigger thing: Removing cards from the main deck (for instance, when the PCs choose their character cards or the GM deals themselves the plot) changes the ratio of Yeses and Noes to be drawn during gameplay. I count 6 Yes Ands, 7 Yes Buts, 7 No Buts, and 4 No Ands in the deck. If you have a bunch of players who all want characters with Yes Ands on the bottom, they’ll end up inadvertently skewing the game negatively for themselves. The characters on the Yes cards aren’t particularly special compared to the No cards, so it's a solid strat to grab up all the No Ands and make the game easier.
This can be mitigated by either dealing PCs randomly, or else just taking a snap of the card(s) on your phones and returning everything to the deck.
Pocket fit: The tin is about half the size of an Altoids tin by volume. It doesn’t even have extra parts inside to rattle around and disturb your prayer group. A-.
Legibility: Mostly good, with a mix of serif and sans-serif (for headers) typefaces. Text on the plot side can be difficult to see in spots, due to light-colored ink on the bright white background. One line on the character side is equally hard to read for being yellow text on a light-ish background. I've seen far worse, though. B.
Completeness: This game has no leveling, no enumerated monsters, and no campaigns. But it does come with a kinda neat story generator that can generate over 250,000 plots (or so claims their advertising). And the game itself does have a complete gameplay loop, with lots of options for the players to choose from. So. B-.
Final thoughts: If nothing else, Storytelling Mints is a master class in compact game design. I really do think this was originally meant to be a simple RPG story generator, and Arispen had a wild hair to throw in a game to go with it. And it even works, after a fashion! I’d pick this up for the plot stuff alone, but a game on top of that is like getting chocolate in your peanut butter.
Two things prevent me from giving this a full-throated recommendation, though: the vibey, improv-driven gameplay which is not every table’s cup of tea, and its US$22 price tag. I think, you know, the world situation today has really stuck this game in the shorts. If you can find it on sale for like $10-15, it’d be a far more solid choice.
This review was originally posted (by me) at https://ccxp.info/pocket-ttrpg-roundup-part-three/
Review: The GameMaster's Apprentice:: The Gamemaster's Apprentice Deck: Shuffling Off to Adventure
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:39:08
The first GMA deck came out in 2015. Since then, the publisher has provided a number of themed decks, designed to focus on specific game genres: fantasy, science fiction, horror, cyberpunk, steampunk, etc. The base GMA deck recently got a second edition in 2025, with some streamlining, altered prompts, and less esoteric symbology.
Be aware that most of these GMA decks haven’t been updated to 2e yet. In fact, at this writing, there’s only one actual 2e deck available, the “generic” version. All themed decks are some variant of the original 1e variety.
Here’s a random card from the GMA 2e deck (on the left), next to one from the original deck.
Arthur “Two Cards” Jackson
That’s a lot to process, I know. But that seemingly random jumble of information can fit together in all sorts of interesting ways.
1. Difficulty Generator – A number from 1 to 10, statistically weighted toward 5.5 on a bell curve. There’s only one 1 and one 10 in the whole 120-card deck. This number is useful to gauge the relative intensity of an obstacle or action, from barely impactful to death on a stick.
2. Likely Odds – Use this as an oracle to figure out whether something happens based on rough probability. Bad odds show 25% Yes and 75% No across all the cards, Even odds are 50/50, and Good odds are 75/25. Sometimes you’ll run across a YES! or NO! result, which you can guess adds emphasis (“yes and,” for improvisational types). GMA 2e adds Yes? and No? for more wishy-washy answers.
3. Dice Wheel – Read around the edge for random die roll results (clockwise from 12 o’clock): d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and two d10s for percentile dice. Handy if your dice are elsewhere. Since you still have to draw two cards to read the percentile dice, they feel kinda superfluous when you already have a d10 slot.
4. Scatter Die – Either shows an arrow pointing in one of eight directions, a bullseye, or a complete miss. Besides the traditional “Where did that pesky grenade bounce off to,” this can be useful for things like answering where that weird sound is coming from, which way the bad guy ran, the prevailing wind, or anything else directional.
5. Norse Rune – The red-headed stepchild of the 1e card design. In most GMA 1e decks, this area of the card contains one of the 24 futhark runes. The provided instructional PDF has a large and elaborate chart on how to interpret these symbols. Honestly it feels a bit flaky to me. Unless you’re fascinated with the concept, use the runes constantly, and keep the chart handy until you memorize everything, this can be skipped. There are easier things on these cards to loosely interpret.
6. Elemental Symbol – A little pictograph indicating air, earth, fire, or water. Can be interpreted as needed, either literally (“We’re on fire! Now there’s a tornado!” etc.) or metaphorically (movement for air, defense for earth, etc.).
7. Prompt Icons – GMA 2e replaces the Norse rune and elemental symbol with two random pictographs which you can interpret however you please. The instructions say you can interpret the upper symbol as “positive” and the lower one as “negative,” but it’s really up to you. You paid for the deck. What perverted things you see in it are your own business.
8. Random Event Generator – 120 random verbs, adjectives, and nouns. Draw three cards and use those words as the catalyst for your next epic adventure!
… well, at least the pay’s good
9. Sensory Snippets – Random sounds, sights, sensations, and smells for when you need some detail to spice up your descriptions. These can also be used to help determine what’s going on in a room, so the sound of “glass clinking” could indicate you’ve stumbled into a fancy dinner party, while the smell of “rotting meat” could indicate you’ve stumbled into a fancy dinner party at Mar-A-Lago. Ha ha. Zing!
10. Tag Symbols – Exclusive to 1e decks, these 3 out of 10 icons exist as another interpretive tool. The instructions suggest you make up your own meaning for each symbol depending on the type of game you’re playing. For instance, the castle icon might mean “difficult obstacle” in a dungeon crawl, “stonewalling” in a crime procedural, “heavy shielding” in a space opera, etc. This supposes the person using the deck has enough foresight to plot all that out ahead of time, of course.
11. Scene Types – 2e decks replace the tag icons with a brief line of text which pretty much lays the concept of a new scene right at your feet. It’s almost too straightforward after spending our days vibing plots out of two vertical lines and a picture of a penguin. Use this sparingly or else your plotline will look like Lombard Street.
I mean we all know what I was referencing, but here's a picture anyway
12. Map Icon – New to GMA 2e, this teeny-tiny little compass rose shows a cube and/or hex with its vertices pointing in the six cardinal directions: North, South, East, West, Feather (Up), and Weight (Down). Lines connect the icons on the compass to the cube, with different ways to read them: solid lines means easy access, dotted lines are hidden passages, barred lines are an obstacle, and partial lines are dead ends. No line means no way that way.
Besides the obvious roguelike dungeon generation, the documentation also suggests using the Map Icon for less concrete things, like interpersonal plots or concept maps. If you’re the sort of person who likes to map out your relationships on a flowchart, this can help.
13. Belongings – Your players just whacked someone and are rifling through their pockets; what do they find? While this field doesn’t give specifics, it can help you decide what kind of stuff a character may have, and from that infer what kind of person they are and what role they play in society.
14. Names – Three semi-generic multi-cultural names for NPCs. One name is vaguely masculine, one vaguely feminine, and one vaguely neutral. Very helpful for the GM making up random passers-by off the top of their head. These names pick up the flavor of a deck’s theme, so you won’t come across a lot of Steves in the Fantasy deck.
15. Catalyst/Location – Like the Sensory Snippets above, these are little phrases designed to get your creativity moving again when you’re blocked. Combine with an adjective from the Random Event Generator to turn that Orphanage location into a Profitable Orphanage and … wow, suddenly the story took a dark turn, didn’t it.
16. Situation – The 2e version of Catalyst/Location, adding a third line for stakes, like “Tame a Beast” or “Escape Their Past.” Instant motivation for an NPC or a story beat for the PCs.
17. Virtue/Vice – A quick way to figure out why this guy is worth anything and also why he sucks. All the greatest hits are here: Lust, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Temperance, Diligence, Compassion, Chastity, etc. The designer added a few more, like Fear and Mercy, because I guess we were getting a little too Catholic up in here.
18. Traits – This is the 2e version of Virtue/Vice above, adding a third line for a physical trait like “Cold eyes” or “Mumbles.” Very helpful for off-the-cuff roleplaying that random blacksmith or storekeeper.
19. Flavor Text – Also new to 2e, this contains a silly line of dialogue which may or may not spur your imagination in some way. This is probably the least important area of the cards. It’s really just there for fun. In the Cyberpunk GMA Deck, this area is used for a random megacorporation name instead.
[heading]Adventure Guides[/heading]
Come on, grab your friends
If you get any of the GMA versions that come as or with PDFs, most of them bundle in an Adventure Guide to help you plot out a strategic-level campaign framework. Although these guides all use the same structure, there’s no generic version; each one assumes (properly) you’re sticking with a broad genre of some sort.
The Adventure Guide prompts the GM to choose a Core concept for the overarching game, like exploring the galaxy for Sci-Fi or overthrowing The Man for Cyberpunk. Optionally you should then choose a Big Question to explore, like “What makes a person moral?” or “What is true love?” or “How many roads must a man walk down?” This isn’t a question that you should automatically know the answer to. It exists as a sub-concept which colors the whole campaign.
Next you choose a Doom, the singular lurking threat that will change the world and which the players are fated to deal with one way or another. It is the storm that is approaching, provoking black clouds in isolation. The characters don’t necessarily know what it is, but the GM definitely should.
The GM then either chooses or generates three other problems. Each problem should have a plan, a cast of characters (broadly speaking, at least) and a goal. Throw these at the players to give them something to do while the big plot percolates in the background. Making connections from one to the next can really get the imagination working.
If that’s not enough, you can also ask three more questions which are relatively minor, plot-wise: Will the townsfolk rally in the face of a threat, or flee? Will a brainwashed villain be allowed to repent? These are interesting ideas that may create storytelling opportunities. Or, depending on the direction of play, the players may never really interact with any of them. Doom still comes for us all.
The Adventure Guide continues in a more mundane direction with random Questgiver/Task/Reason tables, random encounter tables, and just, you know, random tables. Slightly disappointing for a product that could make more use of the GMA deck itself.
[heading]Themed Decks[/heading]
Now in mixed berry flavor
Themed GMA decks are not mechanically different except in the artwork and the details. The Age of Sail deck tends toward more nautical-themed sensory bits like the smell of sea air, the snap of sails, brass fittings and groaning ropes, that kind of thing. The Fantasy deck adds a few extra mystic auras and orbs to ponder. The Steampunk deck has lots of hissing steam and clanking clattering collections of caliginous cogs. They all follow this general formula. The differences are all in the tone and color. In a pinch, the generic deck works just as well.
But with fewer sweet eyepatch skulls
[heading]Final Thoughts[/heading]
Catalyst: Mad rantings
If you’ve ever used a game oracle system before (Mythic GM Emulator, One Page Solo, Ironsworn/Starforged/Sundered Isles, etc.), you’ll see that this is ... yet another one. The actual “oracle” part of GMA is pretty limited, with only three levels of odds and four-to-six levels of results. Where GMA shines is its all-in-one compactness. It’s a plot generator, an NPC creator, a dice roller, a passel of random sensory details (which is unique and surprisingly useful), a map builder, a difficulty selector, a vibe injection system, and even teaches you how to read Norse. What a bargain!
GMA 2e is my current go-to for random adventure action. The combination of concrete detail and pure vibe works well for me. It’s super easy to flip a card and run with it, without having to roll dice or consult tables or even really think about it. Just BAM! “South!” BAM! “Wilbur!” BAM! “Shouted blasphemies!” Detail sorted, on to the fun part.
Worth a try if you like that sort of thing. One point eight thumbs up.
This review was originally posted (by me) at https://ccxp.info/rpg-tool-review-the-gamemasters-apprentice...
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:39:08
by Miriable
I thought I’d "quickly" review the Gamemaster’s Apprentice Deck (GMA) by Nathan Lockwood of Larcenous Designs, plus touch on its myriad alternate versions. These 120-card decks (60 cards double-sided in their print version) aren’t a game so much as a tool to help GMs create and run anything from one-shot adventures to entire campaigns. GMA is also a GM-in-a-box for anyone who wants to run solo with pretty much any system they own.The first GMA deck came out in 2015. Since then, the publisher has provided a number of themed decks, designed to focus on specific game genres: fantasy, science fiction, horror, cyberpunk, steampunk, etc. The base GMA deck recently got a second edition in 2025, with some streamlining, altered prompts, and less esoteric symbology.
Be aware that most of these GMA decks haven’t been updated to 2e yet. In fact, at this writing, there’s only one actual 2e deck available, the “generic” version. All themed decks are some variant of the original 1e variety.
Here’s a random card from the GMA 2e deck (on the left), next to one from the original deck.
That’s a lot to process, I know. But that seemingly random jumble of information can fit together in all sorts of interesting ways.
1. Difficulty Generator – A number from 1 to 10, statistically weighted toward 5.5 on a bell curve. There’s only one 1 and one 10 in the whole 120-card deck. This number is useful to gauge the relative intensity of an obstacle or action, from barely impactful to death on a stick.
2. Likely Odds – Use this as an oracle to figure out whether something happens based on rough probability. Bad odds show 25% Yes and 75% No across all the cards, Even odds are 50/50, and Good odds are 75/25. Sometimes you’ll run across a YES! or NO! result, which you can guess adds emphasis (“yes and,” for improvisational types). GMA 2e adds Yes? and No? for more wishy-washy answers.
3. Dice Wheel – Read around the edge for random die roll results (clockwise from 12 o’clock): d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and two d10s for percentile dice. Handy if your dice are elsewhere. Since you still have to draw two cards to read the percentile dice, they feel kinda superfluous when you already have a d10 slot.
4. Scatter Die – Either shows an arrow pointing in one of eight directions, a bullseye, or a complete miss. Besides the traditional “Where did that pesky grenade bounce off to,” this can be useful for things like answering where that weird sound is coming from, which way the bad guy ran, the prevailing wind, or anything else directional.
5. Norse Rune – The red-headed stepchild of the 1e card design. In most GMA 1e decks, this area of the card contains one of the 24 futhark runes. The provided instructional PDF has a large and elaborate chart on how to interpret these symbols. Honestly it feels a bit flaky to me. Unless you’re fascinated with the concept, use the runes constantly, and keep the chart handy until you memorize everything, this can be skipped. There are easier things on these cards to loosely interpret.
6. Elemental Symbol – A little pictograph indicating air, earth, fire, or water. Can be interpreted as needed, either literally (“We’re on fire! Now there’s a tornado!” etc.) or metaphorically (movement for air, defense for earth, etc.).
7. Prompt Icons – GMA 2e replaces the Norse rune and elemental symbol with two random pictographs which you can interpret however you please. The instructions say you can interpret the upper symbol as “positive” and the lower one as “negative,” but it’s really up to you. You paid for the deck. What perverted things you see in it are your own business.
8. Random Event Generator – 120 random verbs, adjectives, and nouns. Draw three cards and use those words as the catalyst for your next epic adventure!
9. Sensory Snippets – Random sounds, sights, sensations, and smells for when you need some detail to spice up your descriptions. These can also be used to help determine what’s going on in a room, so the sound of “glass clinking” could indicate you’ve stumbled into a fancy dinner party, while the smell of “rotting meat” could indicate you’ve stumbled into a fancy dinner party at Mar-A-Lago. Ha ha. Zing!
10. Tag Symbols – Exclusive to 1e decks, these 3 out of 10 icons exist as another interpretive tool. The instructions suggest you make up your own meaning for each symbol depending on the type of game you’re playing. For instance, the castle icon might mean “difficult obstacle” in a dungeon crawl, “stonewalling” in a crime procedural, “heavy shielding” in a space opera, etc. This supposes the person using the deck has enough foresight to plot all that out ahead of time, of course.
11. Scene Types – 2e decks replace the tag icons with a brief line of text which pretty much lays the concept of a new scene right at your feet. It’s almost too straightforward after spending our days vibing plots out of two vertical lines and a picture of a penguin. Use this sparingly or else your plotline will look like Lombard Street.
12. Map Icon – New to GMA 2e, this teeny-tiny little compass rose shows a cube and/or hex with its vertices pointing in the six cardinal directions: North, South, East, West, Feather (Up), and Weight (Down). Lines connect the icons on the compass to the cube, with different ways to read them: solid lines means easy access, dotted lines are hidden passages, barred lines are an obstacle, and partial lines are dead ends. No line means no way that way.
Besides the obvious roguelike dungeon generation, the documentation also suggests using the Map Icon for less concrete things, like interpersonal plots or concept maps. If you’re the sort of person who likes to map out your relationships on a flowchart, this can help.
13. Belongings – Your players just whacked someone and are rifling through their pockets; what do they find? While this field doesn’t give specifics, it can help you decide what kind of stuff a character may have, and from that infer what kind of person they are and what role they play in society.
14. Names – Three semi-generic multi-cultural names for NPCs. One name is vaguely masculine, one vaguely feminine, and one vaguely neutral. Very helpful for the GM making up random passers-by off the top of their head. These names pick up the flavor of a deck’s theme, so you won’t come across a lot of Steves in the Fantasy deck.
15. Catalyst/Location – Like the Sensory Snippets above, these are little phrases designed to get your creativity moving again when you’re blocked. Combine with an adjective from the Random Event Generator to turn that Orphanage location into a Profitable Orphanage and … wow, suddenly the story took a dark turn, didn’t it.
16. Situation – The 2e version of Catalyst/Location, adding a third line for stakes, like “Tame a Beast” or “Escape Their Past.” Instant motivation for an NPC or a story beat for the PCs.
17. Virtue/Vice – A quick way to figure out why this guy is worth anything and also why he sucks. All the greatest hits are here: Lust, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Temperance, Diligence, Compassion, Chastity, etc. The designer added a few more, like Fear and Mercy, because I guess we were getting a little too Catholic up in here.
18. Traits – This is the 2e version of Virtue/Vice above, adding a third line for a physical trait like “Cold eyes” or “Mumbles.” Very helpful for off-the-cuff roleplaying that random blacksmith or storekeeper.
19. Flavor Text – Also new to 2e, this contains a silly line of dialogue which may or may not spur your imagination in some way. This is probably the least important area of the cards. It’s really just there for fun. In the Cyberpunk GMA Deck, this area is used for a random megacorporation name instead.
[heading]Adventure Guides[/heading]
Come on, grab your friends
If you get any of the GMA versions that come as or with PDFs, most of them bundle in an Adventure Guide to help you plot out a strategic-level campaign framework. Although these guides all use the same structure, there’s no generic version; each one assumes (properly) you’re sticking with a broad genre of some sort.
The Adventure Guide prompts the GM to choose a Core concept for the overarching game, like exploring the galaxy for Sci-Fi or overthrowing The Man for Cyberpunk. Optionally you should then choose a Big Question to explore, like “What makes a person moral?” or “What is true love?” or “How many roads must a man walk down?” This isn’t a question that you should automatically know the answer to. It exists as a sub-concept which colors the whole campaign.
Next you choose a Doom, the singular lurking threat that will change the world and which the players are fated to deal with one way or another. It is the storm that is approaching, provoking black clouds in isolation. The characters don’t necessarily know what it is, but the GM definitely should.
The GM then either chooses or generates three other problems. Each problem should have a plan, a cast of characters (broadly speaking, at least) and a goal. Throw these at the players to give them something to do while the big plot percolates in the background. Making connections from one to the next can really get the imagination working.
If that’s not enough, you can also ask three more questions which are relatively minor, plot-wise: Will the townsfolk rally in the face of a threat, or flee? Will a brainwashed villain be allowed to repent? These are interesting ideas that may create storytelling opportunities. Or, depending on the direction of play, the players may never really interact with any of them. Doom still comes for us all.
The Adventure Guide continues in a more mundane direction with random Questgiver/Task/Reason tables, random encounter tables, and just, you know, random tables. Slightly disappointing for a product that could make more use of the GMA deck itself.
[heading]Themed Decks[/heading]
Now in mixed berry flavor
Themed GMA decks are not mechanically different except in the artwork and the details. The Age of Sail deck tends toward more nautical-themed sensory bits like the smell of sea air, the snap of sails, brass fittings and groaning ropes, that kind of thing. The Fantasy deck adds a few extra mystic auras and orbs to ponder. The Steampunk deck has lots of hissing steam and clanking clattering collections of caliginous cogs. They all follow this general formula. The differences are all in the tone and color. In a pinch, the generic deck works just as well.
[heading]Final Thoughts[/heading]
Catalyst: Mad rantings
If you’ve ever used a game oracle system before (Mythic GM Emulator, One Page Solo, Ironsworn/Starforged/Sundered Isles, etc.), you’ll see that this is ... yet another one. The actual “oracle” part of GMA is pretty limited, with only three levels of odds and four-to-six levels of results. Where GMA shines is its all-in-one compactness. It’s a plot generator, an NPC creator, a dice roller, a passel of random sensory details (which is unique and surprisingly useful), a map builder, a difficulty selector, a vibe injection system, and even teaches you how to read Norse. What a bargain!
GMA 2e is my current go-to for random adventure action. The combination of concrete detail and pure vibe works well for me. It’s super easy to flip a card and run with it, without having to roll dice or consult tables or even really think about it. Just BAM! “South!” BAM! “Wilbur!” BAM! “Shouted blasphemies!” Detail sorted, on to the fun part.
Worth a try if you like that sort of thing. One point eight thumbs up.
This review was originally posted (by me) at https://ccxp.info/rpg-tool-review-the-gamemasters-apprentice...
Craig Hatler (Shadowlight & Personae) ep. 277
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:09:24
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:09:24
A new episode has been added to the database:
Craig Hatler (Shadowlight & Personae) ep. 277
The art of Storytelling with Judith of Misunderstood Minions
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:09:07
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:09:07
A new episode has been added to the database:
The art of Storytelling with Judith of Misunderstood Minions
Audio EXP podcast: May 23rd - Mongoose's Swindon Mandate, Modiphius Line Closures, and Crunchyroll's Big Winners
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:07:42
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:07:42
A new episode has been added to the database:
Audio EXP podcast: May 23rd - Mongoose's Swindon Mandate, Modiphius Line Closures, and Crunchyroll's Big Winners
94. DDD The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Session 24
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:04:50
Posted: Sat, 23 May 23:04:50
A new episode has been added to the database:
94. DDD The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Session 24
What's New May 23, 2026: Mothership, The Protector's Memories, 7th Sea, Against the Darkmaster, Generic!, and a bit more!
Posted: Sat, 23 May 18:03:06
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I wish one of these would stop at my bird feeders. Alas, resplendent quetzals do not come to Indiana.
Slow week!
New releases at your FLGS (sourced by Leisure Games)
Mothership
⭐ Awaiting The Burning Gods Box Set - Magnum Galaxy Games
⭐ Emergence - Single Stage to Orbit Press
The Protector's Memories
⭐ The Protector's Memories - Critical Kit
New PDF releases @ DriveThru
7th Sea (Second Edition)
⭐ The Price of Arrogance - Studio Agate
Against the Darkmaster
⭐ Trouble in Grayport - Open Ended Games, Inc.
Generic / Universal
⭐ 100 Ways to Start a Campaign (That Are Not in a Tavern) - Azukail Games
⭐ The Book of Random Tables: Feudal Japan - Dicegeeks
Imperium Maledictum
⭐ Adeptus Mechanicus GM's Guide - Cubicle 7 Entertainment
SURVIVE THIS!! Bloody University
⭐ SURVIVE THIS!! Bloody University - Core Rules - Bloat Games
Posted: Sat, 23 May 18:03:06
by Bruce McG
I wish one of these would stop at my bird feeders. Alas, resplendent quetzals do not come to Indiana.
Slow week!
New releases at your FLGS (sourced by Leisure Games)
Mothership
⭐ Awaiting The Burning Gods Box Set - Magnum Galaxy Games
⭐ Emergence - Single Stage to Orbit Press
The Protector's Memories
⭐ The Protector's Memories - Critical Kit
New PDF releases @ DriveThru
7th Sea (Second Edition)
⭐ The Price of Arrogance - Studio Agate
Against the Darkmaster
⭐ Trouble in Grayport - Open Ended Games, Inc.
Generic / Universal
⭐ 100 Ways to Start a Campaign (That Are Not in a Tavern) - Azukail Games
⭐ The Book of Random Tables: Feudal Japan - Dicegeeks
Imperium Maledictum
⭐ Adeptus Mechanicus GM's Guide - Cubicle 7 Entertainment
SURVIVE THIS!! Bloody University
⭐ SURVIVE THIS!! Bloody University - Core Rules - Bloat Games
Crossover: Rokea in Mage
Posted: Sat, 23 May 17:07:15
Posted: Sat, 23 May 17:07:15
A new episode has been added to the database:
Crossover: Rokea in Mage
Folge 97 - World of Onn: Supplement I
Posted: Sat, 23 May 11:08:41
Posted: Sat, 23 May 11:08:41
A new episode has been added to the database:
Folge 97 - World of Onn: Supplement I
[DND3 Pg 240] A Fistful Of Dolls [Week 40]
Posted: Sat, 23 May 11:05:01
Posted: Sat, 23 May 11:05:01
A new episode has been added to the database:
[DND3 Pg 240] A Fistful Of Dolls [Week 40]
Bonus: Fast, tactical (and 5e compatible)! Nimble TTRPG!
Posted: Sat, 23 May 05:09:39
Posted: Sat, 23 May 05:09:39
A new episode has been added to the database:
Bonus: Fast, tactical (and 5e compatible)! Nimble TTRPG!
Punk Pantheon EP 4: Gotta Get Gregory
Posted: Sat, 23 May 05:09:04
Posted: Sat, 23 May 05:09:04
A new episode has been added to the database:
Punk Pantheon EP 4: Gotta Get Gregory
