This is a fascinating, if compact, rumination on the use of existential questions to add narrative depth to a game. While billed as a collection of questions, the far more valuable portion of this work is the 3 page preamble on the value of questions and their applicability to role playing. The author mentions Planescape Torment more than once, which famously asked “What can change the nature of a man?”, it’s fair to say that Torment’s driving question is what gave the game it’s depth and gravitas. Here, the author discusses several methods of weaving such a question into the fabric of a character, a campaign, or a world.

You've probably seen randomized decks of cards for RPG seeds before. But I doubt you'll find the competition half as useful as the Gamemaster's Apprentice.

Most randomize decks have one or two things on offer in a single draw. A name? Or perhaps a picture? The GMA stores a whopping 14 (!) random elements. Drawing a few of these cards is like reading part of an awesome story all on it's own. In fact, this is how I most often use my deck; as prompts for new directions in short fiction. Plot flagging? Draw a card. Need a name? Draw a card. Did the hero make the jump? Draw a card. How credulous is that guard? Draw. A. Card

Different randomizers have different levels of usefulness, depending on your situation. The Names randomizer alone is worth the price (never run out of NPC or supporting character names again!). As other reviewers have said, I generally prefer to roll dice myself. However, it's nice to know the cards can stand in if you've left your dicebag at home. I haven't made a lot of use of the event generator, the elements, or the Norse runes (yet), but I'm very glad they're there. The Odds and Difficulty randomizers can be great for determining the outcomes of unpredictable events, I use them to throw curveballs at characters all the time.

The sense snippets and belongings sometimes take a few draws before you find the "right" one for the situation, but they're still worth their weight in gold. They can confer instant verisimilitude to a scene, or point you in a new direction to focus the attention of your players.

There's a lot of depth and care here. Too often, a randomizer deck is little more than an excel spreadsheet in card form. Each just an individual selection from a long list. These cards contain world's worth of useful data by comparison.