10/02/2017

Free GM Resource: Mixmere Audio mixing Software

Free GM Resource: Mixmere Audio mixing Software
This week's Free GM Resource is a bit off the beaten path, but I assume if I'm looking to do a specific thing for my home game then the odds are good that one of my twelve readers is, or has, devoted some small measure of brainpower to trying the same thing.

One thing I've done in the past, and am thinking of making better for the future, is incorporating sound into my game. I've got a couple of options, some cheaper than others, but I haven't quite nailed it down yet.

One of my many old computersAs I'm building my dedicated game room I'm trying to decide how to incorporate sound. Since I'll probably have a dedicated computer, or three, beside my GM chair I have to consider windows-based options. This is where Mixmere comes in. There are a few other options out there, but in addition to free, Mixmere has some other good benefits. It runs on Windows NT/2000/XP, and supports WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac, and Mod audio files.

Free GM Resource: Mixmere Audio mixing SoftwareThis means I can pretty much use any old-assed computer I have lying around (and I have quite a few)....even my really old touch-screen "laptop" that hasn't seen the light of day for years now.

I'll probably end up going with a different direction, but we'll see. The Mixmere interface is a bit dated, but it is much more concise than some of the paid options for doing the same thing.

If you need/want to have a free sound-effect player for your game and you have an old computer (not that a newer one wouldn't work), than you might want to check out Mixmere.


10/01/2017

A Bit of a Freebie Post, but With Some Ads (Fat Dragon Games Kickstarter)

A Bit of a Freebie Post, but With Some Ads (Fat Dragon Games Kickstarter)
First off.....I wasn't asked to make this post and to a certain extent it (this post) goes a bit against what I consider fair/appropriate/normal because I'm going to direct-link some freebies from Fat Dragon Games.

I'm going to counter-balance this by shilling for Fat Dragon Games current Kickstarter. In all fairness you should know that this benefits me directly because if more people take part in the Kickstarter, the more bonus files I get from my pledge level.

Two things you, dear reader, should do, is to head over to Fat Dragon Games and not only sign up for their newsletter, but go ahead and download their free stuff.

A partial peek at the Dragonlock 3 Kickstarter from Fat Dragon Games

Have you seen enough of the Kickstarter yet?

OK, here is the Dropbox file dump for the assorted freebie 3D Printing files for the last several months. FDG is unlikely to do a single point of collection for these freebies in the future.....BUT....if you sign up for the newsletter you can get the ones coming out in future months.

9/30/2017

Frugal GM Review: Dice Roll Zine #1

Frugal GM Review: Dice Roll Zine #1
Last night I was gifted with a download of Dice Roll Zine #1 and I have to say I was pretty impressed.

This 36 page zine came out originally in print (which is available from this link) it is now available digitally from the likes of DriveThruRPG for a measly $3 (looks like the regular price is $4).

1st off, I was quite surprised at the digital offering because I expected a single PDF...anything above & beyond was just a bonus. included with the PDF were a number of files, mostly .PNG versions of the maps and an alternate cover.

I do wish the .PNGs were larger full-page-versions of the maps, but they were rather odd sizes/resolutions. Tweaking the files in Photoshop they came out roughly 300 DPI at digest-sized pages. I'd have preferred at least letter-sized pages, but these were pure bonus, so no big whoop.

The PDF also didn't come with bookmarks and it is locked-down, presumably from DTRPG. Normally I would mark down a rating based on the bookmarks, but that didn't feel quite right since this is a zine and not some other type of gaming supplement. My assumption is that this was fully intended to be printed out at home to enjoy, not to "consume" digitally. I'll be printing this off for my own use instead of keeping it just as a digital file.

Layout is great and I loved the consistency in style through the various articles, which...unfortunately, isn't as common as you might think. The writing was pretty good too, I enjoyed the overall "tone" in this zine. I think I found a whopping 1 typo, but I wasn't really looking for typos...they just usually jump out at me when I'm on my second read-through.

There are a wide variety of articles and I enjoyed almost every one of them. Not a huge fan of the adventure presented, but that is really because it just wasn't my style.....I didn't find anything wrong with it and thought it was presented rather well. I really liked a couple of new/alternate game mechanics presented and my favorite article was just a few tables of random dungeon stuff. That one I haven't quite figured out yet (why I like it so much), but I'm not sure I need to do anything but roll with it!

Frugal GM 5 Star Review: Dice Roll Zine #1 Overall I think Dice Roll Zine #1 is definitely worth $4, so being able to snap it up for $3 is a good deal. I'm looking forward to printing this off to read through a couple of more times. I'm looking forward to future issues.



9/27/2017

Free Map071: Another HUGE Cave

Free Map071: Another HUGE Cave
It's been a while since I've put out a free map....

This map is the 1st level of what I intend to be a rather large 3 level cavern map for an adventure I'm writing up. I haven't decided on just how fleshed-out I want the adventure to be because the maps are quite fricken large and it might be better to put together some tables to make it into more of a random dungeon crawl that uses a specific map.

There are a few ideas percolating at the moment.

The original map this free map is based off of is rather large at 90" by 30". I wanted it to be even larger, but this thing took me a good 10 hours or so as it was....

Another HUGE Cave on Patreon
My patrons get the PDF map at A1 size and a bunch of PNGs so they could print it out to create the huge physical map (or tweak it for a VTT).

As usual, click on either graphic in this post to go to the free map, or use this link.

9/26/2017

Free GM Resource: Paper Miniatures Link Collection

Free GM Resource: Paper Miniatures Link Collection
Missed getting this up yesterday...

This week's Free GM Resource is a link collection of sources for paper miniatures from "Zen Seeker's Home on the Net". The miniatures are grouped by category, with each category having it's own sub-page.

As is the case with this sort of thing, some of the links from these pages are dead, so you are forewarned. On the bottom of the main miniature page is a suggestion to try the Wayback Machine.

Even if every mini link was dead (they aren't) one of the pages has a rather useful scale converter.

9/22/2017

Small Dungeon Maps Vol. 2 Kickstarter is Live

Small Dungeon Maps Vol. 2 Kickstarter is Live
Well, I guess this is the week to pimp Kickstarters....

I got notification this morning that Jean Francois Senay had launched his newest digital map Kickstarter, called Small Dungeon Maps 2. I've backed a couple of his earlier Kickstarters and thought they were totally worth it, especially since the biggest backer level is less than $30 and that is only because there are physical prints made & sent out.

Personally I would rather just have the digital copies that I could print out locally to get however many copies I want/need quickly and at the quality level I desire.

I did a review of the 1st set of Small Dungeons that was made. Bottom line, for me, is if you run a game online, these unique maps should hold a lot of value. I've continued becoming a backer because the maps are good, fulfillment is relatively quick, and I think I've always gotten my money's worth.

Be sure to check the Kickstarter out.

9/19/2017

Fat Dragon Games DRAGONLOCK 3: Dangerous Lairs Kicksterter is now Live

Fat Dragon Games DRAGONLOCK 3: Dangerous Lairs Kicksterter is now Live
Today is the launch of the DRAGONLOCK 3: Dangerous Lairs Kickstarter from Fat Dragon Games (FDG).

Now I've always been a fanboy of Fat Dragon Games ever since I 1st met Tom Tullis, FDG's main man. I won't go into the story but it is safe to say I have purchased most everything FDG has produced that fits my game table.

As far as paper modeling goes, I don't think you can do much better than Fat Dragon Games, but if you have the appropriate resources their 3D printed dungeons pieces and parts are pretty damned cool.

I spent this morning on a huge post about the various terrain options and how 3D printed models from FDG fit into the scheme of things, but the bottom line is if you want a high-quality high-end terrain for you table that doesn't rely so much on your artistic abilities or on your ability to cough up huge sums of cash, 3D printing is the way to go. Fat Dragon Games has done a great job producing on their Kickstarters ($5 says all the base 3D files were rendered before the Kickstarter went live) and you can get some great models at a good price if you take part in the DRAGONLOCK 3: Dangerous Lairs Kickstarter.

I'm in for Hero Level 2 5 6 (Damn you Tom!):

  • Tower of Terror
  • Dungeon Delve Part 2
  • Realm of the Mountain King
  • Dungeon Delve Part 1
  • Mountain Adventures Terrain Set
  • Wilderness Encounters terrain Set
  • Trees
  • Streams
  • More stuff (damn you Tom for adding more cool add-ons!)

9/18/2017

Free FM Resource: A Threefor of HackMaster Basic

Free FM Resource: A Threefor of HackMaster Basic
This week I really want to show some extra love for my main RPG of choice: HackMaster.

I've featured a few freebies for this game before, most notably this post on the free release of HackMaster Basic. I played HackMaster Basic for a couple of years before we moved on to the "advanced" game, which is just referred to as HackMaster.

While the freebie HackMaster Basic is really all you need (rule-book wise), there is also a HackMaster Basic Quickstart Rules which covers a truncated character creation process. If you want/need even more help the quickstart character creation, the 1d8 Blog has a character creator that takes the simplified process (HackMaster Basic Quickstart Rules) from the simplified game (HackMaster Basic) and makes it even easier by only requiring a couple of mouse clicks.

I still prefer to roll up PCs the old-fashioned way, but sometimes you need/want something quick & dirty......

Technically this post is a twofer since we've already covered HackMaster Basic, but mentioning that again makes this a threefor. I have no clue if threefor is a thing, but I'm going to run with it....