The GameMaster's Apprentice Base Deck Second Edition is a system- and setting-neutral deck of cards that can supplement traditional tabletop RPGs or serve as a complete game engine for GM-free solo or group RPGs. The GMA line of cards has been tested, used live, and lauded by gamers, students, and professionals. Each card shows more than a dozen randomizers; with 60 double-sided cards showing 120 unique card faces, you can generate literally millions of possible adventures, all without having to hunt for a single table. Instantly generate NPCs with names, motivations, and backgrounds. Create random events, story seeds, and plot threads. Provide sensory details or loot for characters searching or stealing. Use these cards to run games without a human gamemaster, or as as creative-writing prompt generators.
Each GMA deck includes both full-color and low-ink Print-n-Play files in US letter-size and A4 formats; PDF instructions; an Adventure Guide (advice for generating adventures with the cards, themed around a genre); and a ZIP archive of all card faces as .JPG files. A .JPG image of a 'card back' (not yet available for all decks) lets VTT users apply it to their decks.
About the 2025 Second Edition, designer Nathan Rockwood says, "I've learned a lot about solo gaming and improvisational GMing over the past decade, watching the hobby evolve and continuing to teach Game Design to generations of high school students. I have made the new version more true to my original goal: removing the need to reference tables or look up information. I removed the tag symbols and some abstract runes/images, and replaced them with 240 unique images to inspire you visually without needing to research or write tables in advance. I also added a field with 120 unique but quickly usable 'scene types,' making it easy to just grab an idea without having to interpret anything.
"I've added 120 unique 'stakes' to the Situation block and 120 unique character details to the 'Traits' block to help fill in a missing type of information, and I've also added 'partial yes/partial no' (Yes?/No?) to the Likely Odds block, so the results are more highly varied.
"There's nothing wrong with using the old decks and materials, and I still have a soft spot for the tag symbols from the old decks. But I believe this new version is a huge improvement, and much easier to use on the fly, as intended."
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