THE APPRENTICE CORNER, AND LIFE “OFF THE TABLE”
What's going on, everyone? This is Stephen—better known as The Apprentice here at the Master of Mazes Project. Today I'm bringing you another WAY overdue post on The Apprentice Corner. It's been a while since this blog has had any form of regular content, and honestly, that's exactly what this post is about.
When The Apprentice Corner first started, it was intended to be a secondary blog for all the things that didn't really fit alongside the flagship TTRPG content we were covering on the main blog, and later on, the podcast. Back then, the focus was primarily DnD, Pathfinder, Daggerheart, and other RPG and Fantasy-related topics. The Apprentice Corner became my outlet for everything else. Over time, though, things changed (in a good way!).
The main blog, Scribbles & Scrolls, has expanded far beyond its original scope. The “MazeCast”, has done the same. What started as a project focused heavily on tabletop gaming news, community discussions, and RPG content has grown to include movies, video games, pop culture, horror, and just about anything else Dad and I find interesting enough to talk about.
So what does that leave for The Apprentice Corner?
Honestly...not a whole lot.
I still plan to use this space to talk about video games, hobbies, and whatever else grabs my attention, especially if it's something Dad and I probably wouldn't cover collaboratively. These days I don't have a ton of free time to venture far outside the wire as it were, to find new and different things outside of my responsibilities at home, on here, and at my 9-5.
If you've followed the blog for a while, you've probably noticed the kind of posts on there changing over time. Early on, I was writing original short stories. That eventually shifted into retrospectives, lore deep-dives, and setting analysis posts for formative games to me like The Division, Left 4 Dead, and The Forever Winter. Then, for a while, it seemed like the blog became almost entirely dedicated to Diablo IV, which is because that was what I was spending most of my free time on.
The reality is that free time becomes harder and harder to find. These days, a lot of my gaming and hobby time revolves around the Master of Mazes Project itself. The more content we do, the more involved I've become, the more I've invested in it—not just creatively, but in terms of my time and energy as well. Recently, The Apprentice Corner was seeing more and more TTRPG posts, which is indicative of my interest growing in the hobby organically, but also out of necessity as well. This revealed to me that my corner was becoming outdated, because that very same content that was suitable for the main blog was now finding its way to the “off topic” blog.
My free evenings are spent editing TTRPG session recaps, helping maintain the website, posting content to YouTube, or interacting with all of you through Discord and other community channels. That is not a complaint, the experience has been truly awesome and I’m beyond thankful for the opportunity to do all of this with you all! What I’m getting at is the other free time I get usually gets consumed by the less exciting parts of adulthood: work, household responsibilities, family commitments, and everything else that comes with being a functioning adult-so tons of free gaming time, is probably a thing of the past. I don’t like to speak in absolutes, I still play here and there, but it will most likely never be as much as before.
The more technical content, however, is a different story. Guides, build breakdowns, and deep-dive analyses—especially for games like Diablo IV—require a massive amount of time invested within a relatively short window (seasons). I'm not the kind of person that will post a breakdown, guide, or any real gameplay overview without feeling like I can do so with at least some authority. As much as I would love to, I simply don't have the time to pour 100-plus hours into any game every month or two to bring you all the best content available.
Even when I was using Maxroll to get a leveling build together and to kind of give myself a baseline of a build, I tried to put a spin on everything I did to distinguish it from the META builds, and right now that would be hard for me to do-so that begs the question…
Does this blog NEED stay the same?
Like I mentioned above, the gaming, movies, and pop culture stuff isn’t “going away”, I’m just targeting to bring MORE content to this blog specifically.
You'll still see game retrospectives, deep-dives, random tabletop gaming thoughts, and general pop culture discussions, but what I've been thinking about more recently is the time between those posts.
I don't really like the idea of months passing without new content appearing here. Part of me starts wondering why I even maintain a separate blog if it's sitting dormant for long stretches at a time.
That led me to a question:
Does this blog HAVE to be exclusively about what it has been in the past-or could it be a little broader in scope?
The idea I've been kicking around awhile is a semi-regular series on this blog called “Apprentice Gear & EDC”.
The folks who know me personally know outside of being a gamer, I'm just as much (if not more so) a gear and tech nerd. Everything from backpacks, pocket knives, multi-tools, power tools, anything EDC related and beyond. While, I think most guys my age could say the some, but I’m hoping I can offer something different here due to already having this blog, and as all of you know, I'm also a stats/analytical guy (a yapper🤣)
The truth is, unfortunately, we spend far less of our lives playing games, watching movies, or rolling dice than we do simply living our everyday lives. I've talked about this stuff with friends for years. I've spent countless hours researching it. And if I'm being honest, it occupies far more of my daily life than most of the stuff we write about.
“Off the Table”
This is where this new blog post topic comes in.
It would give me more opportunities to create content while discussing things that genuinely interest me.
Things like:
Backpacks, purpose driven clothing and travel accessories
EDC Gear
Knives
Pocket Tools
Watches
Useful tech
DIY projects
Product reviews/overviews
Travel lessons learned
With special guest ideas like:
Finding size 17 walking shoes that don't suck, cost a fortune, or just look stupid!
My ongoing attempt to build a fixed blade carry knife (and taking way too long)!
Even occasional stories about my girlfriend's furniture refinishing jobs/stories!
Just normal life stuff. One thing to keep in mind, I'm not an influencer, and don't have any industry insider info. I work a 9-5 like everyone else. I'm not going to have the newest and nicest stuff. I do have some nice tools, knives, etc. for sure, but a lot of the content will be about the gear most people (including me) can attain, or ideas most people can relate to.
Now, I'm still a relatively private person. I don't have any interest in turning the blog into a personal journal or sharing every detail of my life. But I do think some of the things I've learned, built, researched, or experimented with could be useful—or at least entertaining—to other people.
And when there isn't much happening in the gaming or tabletop space that Dad and I don't already cover in multiple ways, maybe those topics can help keep this corner of the internet active. So I'm curious what all of you think. Let me know in the comments or over on Discord! Thanks for your time!
Later on…
Check out these sites for the above items! (no kickback to me obviously) - more than likely info about all of these coming down the road!
5.11 Tactical (Pictured - 5.11 Covrt 24, 41L pack)
Leatherman (Leatherman Signal Multitool shown above)
The image above is from this article
7.11L Accessories/adapters (Flat style socket adapter for Leatherman tools by 711L)