Frugal GM Review: Black Pudding #2 (OSR Zine)

Back from a not-long-enough Christmas Break (my day job is in retail) and hunting for review material dropped this awesome bit of Zine called Black Pudding #2, an OSR Zine, into my lap.

I'm already a big fan of J.V. West (his blog has an entry on the "+12 Links of Helpfulness" Page), so picking up both issues of Black Pudding is a bit of a no-brainer, but I have to acknowledge my inherit bias.

Right off.....the art is hella awesome. If the cover doesn't draw you in, then you probably shouldn't even bother because Black Pudding #2 is littered with similar art, but I would be willing to go out on a limb and say not all the art is in the same style. Similar styling yes, but the exact same style...no. This isn't good or bad, just an observation.

The Last Few Hours of a Good Couple of Maps on Sale at DTRPG

I know I planned on extending this vacation from the blog until Monday, but I found out there are still a few hours left on this particular sale for two giant maps from Heroic Maps. Basically two 50" x 50" maps, usually $19.98 ($9.99 each) for a total of $6.

The Ravenswild Forest is $5 and the Fort Ravenswall is $1.

Each one is worth it!

Click on the graphic below to go straight to the purchase page on DTRPG.

Happy Chrismahanukwanzika!

Merry....er Happy Chrismahanukwanzika everyone!

I hope that you all have a great Christmas and get to spend time with your loved ones.

I'll be taking a bit of a break from the Frugal GM blog, popping back in on January 2nd to start of 2017 right (or at least see 2016 off).

Free GM Resource: Map to Globe

This week's Free GM Resource is Map to Globe, a website that can help make your game world come to life. I haven't done much "under the hood".....yet, but there are a lot of cool options to make your maps come to life.

Things like adding height maps, switching out map projections, or even just randomly create a globe.

I spent a few minutes quickly coloring one of my old maps (the intro graphic) just to see it in action and I was pretty impressed. Definitely worth checking out Map to Globe.

Frugal GM Review: Claws of Madness Digital Maps Set

This week's Frugal GM Review makes me feel like I'm phoning it in today, but when I pick something to review I try to stay with it.....just part of my own internal set of rules.

This download, The Claws of Madness Digital Maps Set, is a companion piece to...you guessed it, The Claws of Madness, which is an adventure for 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Not to knock 5E, but I haven't picked up anything (deliberately) for that edition and I don't intend to. Heck, I only learned this adventure was for 5E while typing out this paragraph.

So we have an adventure I'm not interested in for a system I don't particularly care about, but it does seem to be popular since The Claws of Madness is currently a "Best Copper Seller" over at DTRPG. Good news for the publisher LoreSmyth.

You might be wondering why I picked up this map set to begin with....

I picked it up because the product's download page seemed a bit "wonky". I didn't realize that DTRPG lists the newer editions as "Dungeons & Dragons" and/or "D&D-OGL". What I should have been looking for is "1e (AD&D)" or "2e (AD&D)"... ok, that's my bad. I did notice that the listing showed it was a 6 page Watermarked PDF, which didn't seem right for digital maps.

Since digital maps are pretty system-neutral I decided to check this out, especially since it was PWYW. The download is actually a .zip file containing 5 maps which are actually .jpeg images. The maps are essentially A3 sized maps (297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 in), but are actually a hair larger, presumably with some bleed area to be trimmed off.

Of the five maps presented, two are copies, with one set (of 2 maps) being a bit more "subdued" and the other set full-color art pieces. The fifth map is a region map that I don't think you need for the adventure. Since these maps are 300 dpi and rather large (format-wise) changing the resolution to make the grids suitable for Virtual Table Top use is easy to do.

Aside from the download page listing, which I already know can be problematic, I only have two real criticisms. The first one has to deal with the region map, which contains a pretty useless legend. Don't get me wrong, the map is nice, but the legend really isn't needed and detracts from the map overall. The only other criticism I have is that the in-game maps have numbered rooms. While you need them for running the game, if including an additional set of these maps, I'd have preferred to have one without room number since I can reference the other map set if needed. Heck, getting rid of the grid lines would be a nice touch as well.

Overall though I liked these five maps of The Claws of Madness Digital Maps Set and could see re-purposing them for my own needs. I liked that the publisher included these base maps and extra maps as a PWYW download. If I was in to 5E that would probably have been enough to make me want to look at the adventure these maps came from, which kind of feels like that is the point of this download, at least to me.


January 9, 2017 Update:
I got word via the contact widget that the publisher is going to update the map and incorporate my suggestions. Cool beans....

Free GM Resource: Two YouTube Videos for Making RPG Terrain Supplies

Today's Free GM Resource is a duo of YouTube Videos from Infinite Roleplay. Unlike most of the YouTube channels I've posted before, I'm just highlighting two particular videos, not necessarily the whole channel.

You might find some of the other videos interesting, but me....not so much. Of course that could be said by any of my 12 regular readers about anything I've ever posted.

Anyway these two particular videos are on how to make some pretty decent DIY Flock and how to make some DIY Modeling Paste. You can use the links to go right to YouTube or you can just watch them here after the break....

Frugal GM Review: Automata Run Amok

Earlier this week i was asked to review a new PWYW adventure called Automata Run Amok and I said, "Sure, why not?"

If I had not been asked, I'd never have even considered picking up this download as the subject matter just isn't my style: "Out-of-Control automata have driven a wizard from his shop. He would like the PCs to solve the problem (without damaging his creations) while his rival will pay for evidence of the wizard’s dabbling in forbidden knowledge."

Nope.....just doesn't work for me.*

Free GM Resource: Libib

I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess that a significant portion of my 12 regular readers tend to collect certain RPG items, like cool OSR material, old games, etc. I myself just stumbled across an old 80's Thieves World game to add to my collection.

It has been my experience that most of us couldn't remember every item in our collection and since most of us also have a limited budget, doubling up on some items means we don't have the resources to pick up new things instead.

Not so much with RPGs, but in the last few months I can think of three separate occasions where I picked up a new movie that I already owned. Returning the ones I could return was a bit of a PITA.

This is where Libib comes in. Libib is an online database that lets you keep track of your media collections. You can add stuff through a bar-code reading app, do an online search, or just add stuff in manually. You can publish the collections online if you want, which means that anywhere you have access to a web browser you can see what you have in your collection. The free version is quite robust as it isn't really a feature-limited (or size limited, as in only cataloging 100 items, but technically there is a free limit of 100,000 items...I can live with that) and if you needed the paid version, which included things like generating your own item bar codes or managing lent out items, the service is $5 a month.

Libib is a great option for helping manage your collections, not just the RPG stuff.