Frugal GM Review: The Ruined Hamlet by Barrataria Games

This review is for the Barrataria Games free version of their Adventure Module BL1-2, downloadable from DriveThruRPG. This adventure is designed for use of "classic" fantasy roleplaying games of the basic level.

This adventure, The Ruined Hamlet: Terror in the Gloaming, is one of two offerings from this fledgling publisher. Barrataria Games does not have a website yet, but they do have this adventure, as well as two other offerings, available for printing at their Lulu webstore.

I had two immediate impressions, one bad and the other good. The overall look of this "adventure" was a little off-putting because it is rather plain and visually sparse. The main font used is Soutane Black, which does have more of an "old-school" feel to it, but I find it difficult to read. The file goes 49 pages before anything more interesting than some boxed text appears. Fortunately, this first negative impression is the absolute worst thing I can say about the "adventure". I'm using quotes around "adventure" because of my good immediate impression. At 58 pages long (56 pages of content) The Ruined Hamlet is just about a mini initial campaign setting as opposed to a simple adventure. Instead of a single playing area like you might find in the adventure, the author has put together a group of individual areas set in a wilderness location that is basically an adventure onto itself.

What really stands out as I go through this download is the author's acknowledgement of how GMs might use The Ruined Hamlet. Specific notes on playing this adventure with different level PCs or even with another system are given. Care had been taken to avoid using Proper Names and adding too many details that would make for extra consideration (work) for other GMs to use this setting in their own custom campaigns.

There are a lot of little thoughtful touches that might not seem like much, but they really do add up. Suggestions as to appropriateness for specific wandering monster checks, noting which wandering monsters should be removed from the monster pool, and tweaks to encounters to account for larger or more experienced parties of adventurers. Sure, a lot of these things may come naturally or be "old hat" to established GMs, but even for these groups an occasional reminder doesn't hurt.

While I personally appreciate a lot of the nice touches mentioned above, as well as the inclusion of a blank player's map, there were a couple of minor points that need to be mentioned. First is the fact that a couple of other adventures are mentioned, namely Adventure BL-2 and BL-3. The Ruined Hamlet is obviously intended to be part of a series, but there are no BL-2 or BL-3 listed outside of the text of this adventure, which is dated as 2008. The numbering of the encounters is a little inconsistent and could possibly be a bit confusing. In general the encounters are grouped by area, but not designated differently, meaning there are multiple encounters with the same designation (Encounter 1, 2, 3, etc.). Later on in the adventure the encounters are designated by number and encounter (V1, X3, etc.)

While I would like to see some of the text cleaned up and made a bit easier to read, I think this is a
pretty good adventure and I plan on using portions of it if my home group decides to venture to a particular nearby area in my own campaign. Of course I'll need to make a bunch of tweaks, but they will be easy enough to do. I think most any Fantasy RPG GM will find this a useful product.

GM Prep Tip: Mapping Decision Points

One thing I've come across often with other GMs is an issue of pacing that comes from information creep. As GMs we might have a huge game world rattling around in our heads and know the smallest detail, but the players don't need to know that.

I once had a GM who went far too deep into the minutia for my tastes. It wasn't uncommon to take hours (real time) to have our PCs travel down the road just a few miles. We'd joke how he could tell you exactly how many field mice were reproducing right now in every farmer's field the next county over from where we were adventuring.

Of course you could chalk this up as a severe difference between Role Playing and Roll Playing.

I think most of us would agree that the players don't need to know every small detail of every step traveled, just as they don't need to know all the detailed background information of an adventure. I've seen information creep turn a 5 page adventure into a 15 page adventure. Now this isn't as likely to happen to a GM writing an adventure for his own group, but when writing for another table, like at a gaming convention....it is easy to do. At some point you have to just let the table GM "wing it" based on some big-picture background information.

There is also a seriously diminished risk-reward ratio when you sink too much time into minutia. Quite often the most valuable GM resource is time.

My suggestion...the tip for today...is to simply map out the logical steps or paths the PCs will take
during your adventure. When writing the adventure these mini decision points are places where you may wish to write an entry or simply a bit of flavor text. At the table these places are when you might want to make rolls or describe what the PCs see. If the PCs are in unvarying terrain, these natural decision points would be spread out much father. If they are travelling a long trail or open road, you don't need to describe their travel every hour along the trip and ask if they want to go off the trail. When they come to a river crossing or a crossroad, they would probably like to know, even if they just came across another river or crossroad just a quarter-mile before.

By mapping your adventure this way you can make your GM prep time much more efficient and at the table you can keep the action moving at the player's pace. The PCs will almost always come up with something unexpected and it is a poor use of time (and futile) trying to prepare for every possible circumstance.

Free GM Resource: One Page Dungeon Contest

This week's Free GM Resource is a big one. Last week I came across the One Page Dungeon Contest because they just announced their 2013 winners.

All the submissions are Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported and you have several choices as far as how to download them. You can simply download the winning entries, all submissions, or even individual files.

There is a lot of talent and inspiration that went into this contest and I was blown away by the entries. Even cooler is the fact that you can go through and get the submissions from years past.

I really wish I had known about this contest before because I would have entered. I don't think I would have won (because the other entries were that awesome), but it would have been a fun

Seriously....save the date!

challenge. It is good to push your GMing boundaries a bit and trying to come up with an adventure condensed to such a small format would definitely be a challenge for this GM.

I'm assuming that next-year's contest will be in April, so you might want to save the date!

Frugal GM Contest for Inked Adventures Stuff!

OK, I've had some time to think about things regarding a sponsored Inked Adventures contest and I've come up with some parameters for the contest.

My goal is to get some evidence of people using Inked Adventures product in their home game. I know from experience there is a huge difference between making something for others to use, seeing that people have at least downloaded it, and actually witnessing people having fun with your "stuff".

For the record, I don't benefit personally from this contest. This is my way of helping support a cool indie publisher.

Contest Rules:

1. This contest will be open to all followers & viewers of the Frugal GM.
2. There is a maximum of one entry per person.
3. The number of prizes awarded will be determined by the number of contest entries, with 1+ entrants there will be a first-place prize (Inked Adventures Hand Drawn Large Geomorph Tiles $8.00 value), 11-20+ entries will introduce a second place prize (Inked Adventures: Modular Dungeon Cut-Up Sections Basic Pack $4.50 value), and 21+ entries will allow for a third-place prize as well (Inked Adventures Encounter Lairs 2 Templar Chapel $2.50 value).
4. The Frugal GM reserves the right to substitute a DriveThruRPG gift card in the appropriate value amount or other Inked Adventures products at the same dollar value (In case you already have the prize in your library).
5. Contest period starts today (May 23, 2013) and ends at midnight on June 30, 2013.
6. To enter, post a picture of Inked Adventures product in use at "your" table somewhere on the web, along with a few (at least 50) words on how you used it at your table. Email a link to "article" the Frugal GM or put it in the comments for this blog post. 
1. The web location must be publicly view-able.
2. The picture must be original.
3. "Your Table" refers to a game you are running or playing. You must be an active participant. It can be an online game.
4. It can be a pic/post of free Inked Adventures product.
7. The Frugal GM reserves the right to change this contest as needed, but all changes much be published edits to this contest blog, dated and displayed prominently.
8. The winning entries will be determined at random from all entries received. (2013.05.23-I can't believe I overlooked this one huge detail!)

TLDR Version:

Make a unique post online with a pic of you using Inked Adventures product, along with a blurb before the end of June. Let the Frugal GM know about it.

Go out, download and use some free product (or buy some....buying some is good too), and have fun!

Free GM Resource: Inked Adventures

I'm making a small departure from my normal Free GM Resource and instead giving you a link straight to a GM's or publisher's website, I'm linking straight to some specific free offerings on DriveThruRPG.

Last week I was excited to find out that Inked Adventures had a new product: Hand Drawn Large Geomorph Tiles. If you've read all of my product reviews you'll probably remember that I did a review on the original set of geomorph tiles. I really liked the tiles set, but there were just a couple of minor tweaks I wished for.

After finding out about this new tile set I reached out to the artist, Billiam Babble, and in the course of a few emails back & forth he offered to give the Frugal GM some complementary product to give away to readers as part of a contest.

How fricken cool is that?

I haven't figured out the parameters for a contest yet, but I plan on incorporating some of the Inked Adventures tiles as part of that contest. Right now I'm leaning towards people submitting a picture of them clearly using an Inked Adventure Tile in play, one entry per person. I'm trying to figure out a method for bonus entries, but in either case expect detail in an announcement later this week.

It doesn't help that Inked Adventures is currently running a big promotion on DriveThruRPG where everything is on sale. Now I'm not suggesting you go an purchase any of Billiam's products, but I think if you check out the free downloads you might very well decide to pick something up....and if you do, now is a good time to do it.

If anything I'm just trying to point out an opportunity to pick up some free product and if you like it get some more at a discount......and maybe win some free product on top of that. Now if you end up liking the Inked Adventure line and end up purchasing the very product you end up winning, then I'll make sure you get taken care of, either with different product or DriveThruRPG credit in the appropriate amount.

The assorted free Inked Adventures products can be found here.


I have one simple request if you download and use any of these files: please make sure to fill out a feedback sandwich) as well. I can tell you from experience that product reviews really help motivate a small publisher in putting out new product or making tweaks to older ones.
brief review on the item. At a minimum, click the appropriate number of stars. It'd be cooler if you left some positive feedback.

Frugal GM Review: D20 Cartographer's Sample Tavern

This week I took a look at another free offering from Drive Thru RPG. I've used some of D20 Cartographer's One Dollar Dungeon's, but I haven't yet looked at their Mega Townscapes line.

The Tavern is a sample file from that Mega Townscapes line and I find it to be a pretty good little map. There were five files in this zip file: a easy-print PDF, a .rpmap file (MapTools map), a simple readme, and two jpgs.

The first jpg is the tavern with no roof on a background of grass and dirt. There are the edges and outlines of several building in addition to this tavern and I have to assume that those would be other locations in the Mega Townscapes line. The other jpg is comprised of two parts. The left half is the same picture from the 1st jpg, but this time the roof covers the tavern. The other half is just the tavern. There is no roof or background on that half of the picture.

While I appreciate having a Virtual TableTop file for MapTools as part of the download, I didn't really see the point as it didn't appear to have any blocking set up as part of the map. All the rpmap file did was show the same file as the first jpg, but without any grid overlay.

I would have liked to received two simple jpg files, one of the roof and one of the tavern, neither containing grid lines. The jpgs are 100 dpi, so we know the resolution or grids should we want too add them ourselves. Best would be 300 dpi files so I could print this out and use as part of a table-top map instead of just as part of a virtual tabletop display. If I could print this up at that resolution I'd make this sample tavern the default tavern location for my home group.

As it is I'm going to have to play around with it in Photoshop to use as a regular VTT resource. Still, it is a nice map of a small simple tavern.

Free GM Resource: Myth Weavers

This week's Free GM Resource is a small website that really reaches out to be a useful GM tool. At Myth Weavers they have a blog, forum, wiki, and several great GM aides:
          Dungeon generator*
          NPC Generator
          Town Generator (no maps though)
          Treasure Generator
          Die Roller

I think the die roller is a forum post function. If you wanted to have a place where you could run a play by post game, Myth Weavers could easily accommodate you. They seem to have a pretty active gaming community, with over 120,000 users.

Could be worth checking out.

*I loved the fact that you could generator your dungeon and they give you a url so you could bookmark it and come back to it as needed. Great feature.

Frugal GM Twofer: Free Zine and Zine Review

Last week I had a blog comment I chose to not publish. This comment offered up two issues of a Zine that I figured I'd just feature today instead.

Today is a twofer because not only am I sharing a Free GM Resource, but I was given links to two of these Zines, and I figured I'd review the first Zine.

Back to the Dungeon is a Zine by Eldrad Wolfsbane. Sorry, but the link I had to this individual is no good, probably because his profile isn't public. The link above is to Volume 1 Issue 1.1 and here is the link to Volume 1 Issue 2.

While the production values are arguably quite low on this Zine, I would say it should be for the nature of this work. It really reminded me of the poorly mimeographed copies of Zines from back in the day (I wonder how many people would even recognize a mimeograph these days) and I think this style was quite deliberate.

Eldrad writes this specifically with Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion in mind. He

Don't really need much more than this

is taking the information put together for his home campaign (The Little Barony) and assembling it for possible use by others. Issue 1.1 is pretty much a mini campaign setting with an old keep, a regional map, and a dungeon.

Overall I liked the idea, even if I don't play that particular game & setting. I think the style could have been updated some if only for the fact that the old style of Zines were created a certain way out of necessity. This Zine isn't made on a mimeograph and it isn't a photocopy of a cut & paste master. I think moving over to a word document printed off to a PDF should require a bit more organization and layout. Not a lot, just some more.

Of course this is just my opinion. A Zine like this I'm not so likely to print off and use as-is. I'm more likely to keep this as a PDF on my laptop or iPad and so I'd like some more features. If I was to print this off and work right off of the sheets...it would probably be pretty cool when I was done marking it up and annotating things.

I think that Back to the Dungeon is worth checking out. If you happen to play Labyrinth Lord you might really get a kick out of it. Otherwise it is just good idea fodder. I think it would be cool if every GM shared their campaign worlds like Eldrad did.

I'm glad he sent me these files and hope to see more of these Zines in the future.

Frugal GM Quick Craft Tip: Working With "White Glue"

In my project box I have a variety of glues: hot/cold glue guns & sticks, decoupage, epoxies (various working times), superglue, paper glue sticks, and even some fancy clear "paper" glue that sets up fast-great for paper models.

I'm a big proponent of using the right tool for the job and one of the most useful glues I have is plain old "white glue".  You can water it down to get it to flow better, and to prevent it from forming a skin too quickly, which helps with flocking.

The thing I like best about "white glue", the thing that puts it above many other glues at times is that it doesn't have to be white. Simply color it with a few drops of acrylic paint and the glue can blend into the background.