I was drawing a blank on what to write about today so I picked up my Science-Fiction GM’s Apprentice Deck and drew a card at random:

The first thing that caught my eye was the Location: School. What were the odds? I mean, me being a teacher and all that? I love the Catalyst: Caught red-handed. But what I really love when I draw a card from these decks is that there’s loads of different categories of inspiration to draw upon.

Larcenous Designs, LLC has a shed-load of useful stuff on DriveThruRPG and what I wanted to do is give you a quick heads-up about his best offerings: the GM Apprentice Decks are good value (unless you live, like me, outside the USA, in which case it’s mad postage). Hundreds of ideas in the Base Deck that I have used weekly for more than 3 years without exhausting it… and there are genre decks too.

Nathan Rockwood is a teacher who tests his stuff on 9th-12th graders. All the products are very accessible and have multiple uses but I particularly love the GM Apprentice Decks because they are never-ending in utility. When I solo play, I use them to draw odds of difficulty, generate NPC names, set up sensory triggers for a scene, or select locations for a scene. I also use them in much the same way at a regular game.

Need a quick name? Draw a card. Pick one of three choices. Done.

Where’s the next scene? Draw a card.

What’s the catalyst for the situation? Draw a card.

With themed decks for all the major genres plus the generic all-purpose Base Deck… well, you can’t go wrong. Highly recommended.

Game on!