Frugal GM Review: The Grinding Gear

Last week I picked up a copy of The Grinding Gear, and adventure I'll definitely not be running with my current group as I could see this being a complete deathtrap. It is an adventure for a well-provisioned, and well-balanced,  group of 1st through 4th level PCs.

My first pass-through on this adventure I was more "meh"....the formatting left a little to be desired, but to be fair it was far nicer than what I've done in a similar vein. If I was to just rate this on my first gut-check I think I'd have done it a great disservice.

Had I been reading this in say...2007 I'd have gobbled it up for use with the HackMaster 4th Edition system. When I went back through a second reading this dawned on me as a great HackMaster adventure. Things that I'd frown on for my current game would have been quite awesome playing the earlier version.

This adventure is trap, puzzle, and screw with your players (only a little bit) kind of game. Many times I found myself chuckling because I could see the average adventuring group trying to overcome an obstacle by hitting it "from the side" and getting "rewarded" for it. More than once the author thought of things from this perspective and added some insight for the GM.

I don't want to post spoilers, but I have to share one of my favorite lines:
"...the answer to, "Can my character read sheet music?" is "Yes!"....."

There were a couple of points in the adventure that puzzled me (as a GM). I don't like it when there is some incongruities, or something that just doesn't seem to make sense from the game-world perspective. The author thought of this and added a "cheat sheet" that helps explain a few things. I really felt that the cheat sheet was a great touch.

The PDF is open, but that isn't as big of a deal because there is an additional PDF that contains the maps that have been tweaked for printing. If you are printing the adventure though you may want to replace the dungeon maps with the tweaked ones to save on toner.

The adventure and ancillary files are provided in both US Letter and A4 formats, which is a great touch.

If you're looking for a tougher dungeon crawl for your OSR game, I think you'll love The Grinding Gear. I particularly recommend it for HackMaster 4th edition games.

New Frugal GM PWYW Product: Tracking Drop Table

Today the FrugalGM blog has been "down"......well, not "down" like last week, but just not quite pointing right. I apologize to anyone who tried to access the site and went "GAH!" when they saw a huge picture of my mug.

After the all-too-long domain name server (DNS) issue with my last service provider I said "screw it" and migrated the domains over to Google Domains. For some reason everything got diverted to the main index file on my primary hosting account. Luckily it was an easy fix and I shouldn't ever have to screw with it again.

Because of the pending domain issues I didn't post anything since Monday and instead of my usual map I decided to go a different route and make my own version of a drop table. I ended up with something I can be proud of and most importantly, use. This thing is a huge file, but that's what you get with a hi-res full color PDF set for High Quality (or maybe Press Quality, cannot recall). I plan on getting it done up right at the print shop and laminated. Then I might actually make a small box for it, but that is getting ahead of myself.

Here is a quick glance and you can get the real deal as a PWYW product over at DriveThruRPG. You can use this link or just click on the lead-in graphic.

If you're wondering where I got the idea, well I was having some issues sleeping last night and came up with the idea of a drop table based on Chutes & Ladders. The footprints actually line up to the ladders I found on one set.

As far as rules go, they are printed on the table, but I didn't go too far into elaborating on how I'd use it because I like the idea of each GM inherently tweaking it for their needs. The way I'm going to use it though, is to use the table to mark progress, with the lead party getting a lead somewhere along the 1st line (boxes 1-12). A d6 & a d8 will denote the tracker and tracked (respectively) and the markers advance that many number of spaces. I'll require a tracking check initially and after any water or wandering monster encounter. A failed tracking check drops the tracker down to a d4 and I'll use the listed bonuses/penalties. If the tracker catches up to the "quarry's" space at the end of any roll, they will have caught up.

Free GM Resource: Drop Tables (Post in Progress)

This week's Free GM Resource is a bit of a work in progress, and I'm hoping that a few of my readers can help out with it. Over the last couple of weeks I've been seeing a few drop table show up in my G+ feed, presumably because Dyson Logos has gotten a bit excited about them as of late.

January 27th Edit: It might be useful if I explain what a drop table is. It is a random table that isn't a sequential look-up chart, but a graphical table that the dice are actually rolled on. The physical placement of the dice on the chart, along with the numerical values, determines the results. 

Now to be fair, I don't use drop tables. I love 'em, but I don't tend to use them. My preference is for electronic tables 1st and compact tables 2nd. Generally speaking I don't use many tables in-game.....tables are usually used when I prep for my games. I tend to have too much "stuff" to juggle when I run a game and more paper often means more mess for me to sift through.

Regardless of how or why I use tables, the drop tables I've seen are just fricken cool. Basically a nice intersection of information & art, I think drop tables are worth collecting just for the awesomeness of it. What I'm proposing to do is post links to the few drop tables I know about and as people point them out to me, I'll append the post.

Frugal GM Review: Schema- Halls Beneath the Hills

It is a rare day when I come across a RPG product I simply do not like, and today is one of those rare days.

Schema: Halls Beneath the Hills is a product I purchased based off of the free low-res PDF version. The low rez was a bit fuzzy, but good for planning layout. Heck, that is what it's advertised for.

The same graphics are used to advertise the "hi-rez" version which is touted as "presented to 100% scale for use with standard 1" base miniatures" Now right off the bat I have to call BS. The graphic files are presented as B&W .gif files that are 72DPI. Now they are large files, but when you re-size them.....and you have to re-size them.....they don't come out to scale when re-sized to 300 DPI. What should be eight inches of hallway (2400 pixels, which is 300*8 for those following at home) instead comes out at 1500 pixels.

The publisher advertises "NO piddly 3D assembly", but instead replaces this with piddly printing instructions. Seriously, if you have to provide a graphic and instructions on how to print your product to scale....when it is already advertised as "presented to 100% scale" when it clearly isn't.....well that is just downright false advertising.

I only opened up a couple of the .gifs and the very first one I couldn't even open in anything but a web browser. The files I did open ended up being Index color .gifs, which makes no sense as these are black & white files. Granted the size difference between an Index Color and Greyscale .gif is minimal...but still.

What are we even doing in this corridor?

I also noticed there was a specific mention of a commercial license available if you wanted to use these files in your product, and there were even some instruction as to how, but if you really wanted to do so you might need to get more information, "For further information and terms of license, see the Game Developer License in the Extras folder." Of course there is no Game Developer License in the Extras Folder.

There is a small one-off adventure and a whole RPG in the extras folder, which is nice....I guess. There is no mention of these goodies in the product description and when you factor in this RPG PDF takes up 62% of the download file it really feels like it was included to beef-up the download size, which is again...false advertising.

"Wow, must be a lot of cool floorplans if the zip file is 43.72 MB!" Nope!

All this could be forgiven if the "hi-rez" graphics were better. Alas, I was disappointed in them as well. I can see why there wasn't a preview, which is a shame because it still looks better on-screen than printed out. There is a noticeable difference between the low and hi resolutions, but it just isn't enough.

$2.98 is too much for a product I won't be using. I'm not even going to keep this on my hard drive. I realize that is a tremendously cruel thing to type in a review, but I pretty much feel like I was tricked on this one.

There is potential though, and I'll be more than happy to re-visit this publisher if some changes are made.

Free GM Resource: An Absurd Amount of Cool Fonts

I've featured fonts quite a few times here at the Frugal GM blog. Everything to a font I made up to a cool collection here or there.....heck, I even featured a resource for creating your own font.

A buddy of mine unwittingly lead me to this HUGE collection of fricken cool fonts. There has to be over 300 fonts represented.

I'm sure not every font is a gem, and it is hard to go through them because the main page is a simple list of fonts, but a little poking around is bound to be rewarded with some great fonts to use in your game.

Just a Head's Up

Just a head's up that the Frugal GM blog may have a day or two of "downtime" as I transition the web hosting. A year ago I bought web hosting for some Frugal GM projects, but there was an issue trying to use Blogger with the domain and web hosting.

Basically I was buying services I couldn't quite use the way I wanted, which really isn't surprising. If I had bothered to look into it I'd not have bought the hosting. I just jumped on an opportunity for a cheap-assed year of hosting.

I'll just have to chalk it off as a good $12 lesson. Probably a bit on the cheap side as far as RPG-based lessons go.

There might not be any problems, but just in case....well, you've been warned.

January 22nd Edit:
Well the FrugalGM site is finally back on track after being down for 2 1/2 days. Not a good time as my tech support gave me the complete run-around. I was given at least 3 different BS excuses that ranged from "You ISP must just be blocking that IP" to "You don't have 'www' listed in your A records".

You might notice that I've pulled some links off of this site....and now you know why. Service was great when tech support was US based....not so much when out-sourced to India.

Garweeze Wurld Moon & Weather Generator

This week I've been a little selfish in that instead of working on a map which I could share I've decided to work on the Excel sheet I use to track the different moon positions for the three moons in my campaign.

I use Garweeze Wurld as my campaign world because, quite frankly, I like the amount of detail that has been published....and probably just as important, what hasn't been published.  Garweeze Wurld was the game world of Jolly Blackburn and the default setting for Kenzer & Company's 4th Edition of HackMaster.

Years ago Jolly published in Knights of the Dinner Table a guide to calculating the different moon's position for any date. I made this Excel sheet and used it for years before being told it was "wrong". Evidently the directions printed in KoDT were off, but screw it....I've already done the calculations....multiple times. The thing is that a worksheet that calculates just the moon's positions is of limited usefulness.  Using some of the information from the 4th Edition GameMaster's Guide I made up some figures for calculating the albedos of the moons, factoring in their size and making a hip-shot guesstimation for how much light they send back.

Frugal GM Review: 47 Tips and Tricks to Become a Better Game Master or Storyteller

I just picked up this small PDF of 47 Tips & Tricks to Become a Better Game Master or Storyteller from Blackstone Entertainment, Inc.

The premise seems good....who doesn't want some tips & tricks to be a better GM? The price is a whopping $1, definitely in my budget. Let's not forget how important to me that a PDF not be overly secured....this one has no security.

My first question when getting this file, which is only compounded even more when I look at the rest of this publisher's offerings, is, "What is the deal with 47?" All 12 of BlackStone Entertainment's offerings are about "47 things". I don't get it, and the publisher's website isn't about the publisher at all, just some RPG I've never heard of...and seems to be a work in progress.

At any rate, I read through the 29 page PDF and while I liked the general advice, it was a difficult read. This PDF is not something you want to print out....ever. Every page is black text on a way-too-dark grey background. The background on the cover is the same on every page. The font selection and layout is funky enough to detract from the reading, with too many widows & orphans. The original text was written using MS Word and while 3.56 MB isn't that large of a file, for what you're getting it is relative huge, presumably from the background graphics that don't add anything to the product. The layout itself isn't even consistent point by point. Some of the tips are indented, other are not. The use of paragraphs in general is spotty throughout the document.

This was not a pleasant read for me. Many of the points could be simply deleted and replaced with the 1st sentence explaining the point. For example, "Develop, copy, or wing your vocal skills." doesn't seem like a tip to me while "Find a way to alter the tone, depth, and pace of your voice as you run your games." is a useful tip.

There is some good information in this product, but pulling it out is a less than stellar experience.

Inked Adventures Contest Winners

OK...I've selected the two winners from the recent contest and have reached out to them. Surprisingly, both winners...and my alternates in case either one isn't interested, came off of the members list.

That's the way the random dice rolled....this time.

I'll wait to announce the actual names until the winners have responded.

Free GM Resource: Encounter Magazine

Today's Free GM Resource is a bit of a mixed bag.

Encounter is a pretty good fanzine for the "classic D&D game" with some good production values and interesting articles. I'm not a huge fan of the three-column layout, but to each his own.

The zine is free, which is obvious good, but there are only four issues to be had. Since this was a quarterly attempt, I'm glad it went to a full year's production.

There really isn't much more to this week's resource other than to go to the website and download your copies today!

Frugal GM Review: The Smoking Pillar of Lan Yu

Now I tend to pick and choose what I review here to the extent that I don't generally pick up things that don't pique my interest immediately. The Smoking Pillar of Lan Yu, from Sine Nomine Publishing, didn't seem all that interesting to me at a glance and I'm not quite sure why I picked it up.

Boy I'm sure glad I did though!

Frugal GM Contest: Inked Adventures Hand Drawn (Large) Geomorph Tiles

I think it is about time I've gotten rid of some of my crap, er had a contest....yeah....a contest.

OK, I'll come clean. I'm clearing out my office because I really let things go this winter and when I came across one of my many small storage boxes containing the bajillion Inked Adventures Geomorph Tiles I painstakingly put together. I had them professionally printed, mounted on high-end self-stick foam core, and then laminated with high-end lamination. These things are a bit larger than 3" square and come just short of completely stuffing my photo storage box (11 x 7.5 x 5).

I think these things are pretty fricken sweet, but I also know I'm probably not going to use them. I already have plans for the electronic files and if I had been just a bit smarter about making these things I would have sized them to about 4" square. That size I'd have more of a use for because they'd fit the large collection of generic tokens I have.

Maybe some day I'll re-do these tiles, but for now.....well, something this nice has to have a good home. I've already reached out to Billiam Babble and gotten his permission to give these away. He liked the idea well enough that he's offered to let me give away a free download of the set as well!

So here is the deal:

• Check out the original review post on the Inked Adventures Hand Drawn Large Geomorph Tiles, to make sure this is something you'd be interested in. This set I printed much smaller.....
• Shoot off an email to iacontest@frugalgm.com

and/or

• Follow this blog by clicking on the little "Join this site" with Google Friend Connect. 

The contest will run for 1 week, ending at midnight (my time Mountain Time) on January 15th...as in when the 15th starts for me. At that time I'll open up the email account, count the number of entries, count the number of blog members, and use a random generator to figure out who won the tiles and do it all again to see who won the digital download.

I'll pay for standard shipping here in the US and up to $10 for any international shipping. I like to think we're all adults here, but in case I'm wrong I'll just go on the record to say I reserve the right to make any necessary changes to the contest as I feel like. A little bit or me feels dirty for even having to type that......

Please help spread the word about this contest and help me find a good home to this excellent product.

Free GM Resource: Omniglot

In the last couple of weeks I've been made aware of two particular font-based resources I plan on sharing as Free GM Resources. I'm a sucker for new & unusual fonts to use for gaming props...which is "funny" because I don't actually get to use them all too often....

.....but I can, and for some reason this pleases me more than it should.

Omniglot is an interesting little website that has quite a few good uses...even for players.

My current HackMaster is one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" PCs, a statistical anomaly for sure, but he started off the game being rather racist and didn't even know any language other than Dwarven. Well, technically he knew a little bit of one of the human languages, but not much. I played this up by using a crib sheet of phrases in Dwarven.

"But Chris....you don't know Dwarven....it isn't a real language!" OK, you got me there, but I simply decided that I'd use Icelandic as a substitute. Google Translate helped some, but in my experience a lot of common phrases don't necessarily translate directly (some swears come to mind), so I need a little linguistic help. Omniglot has some nice (i.e. "Clean" references) as well as some links to more. I especially like the help with pronunciation so when my Dwarf asks a foe "Viltu dansa við mig?" I can say it right.  Oh....."Viltu dansa við mig?" translates to "Would you like to dance?"

My first stumbling upon Omniglot was to find some obscure fantasy fonts, which can be found in the "Fictional Scripts" section. Fricken jackpot! Some even have downloadable fonts to use.

I highly suggest just getting to the site and poking around......if you find a font you like and want to use, but doesn't exist, I'd suggest this Free GM Resource.

Frugal GM Review: Mead & Mayhem

This week I have an interesting little RPG supplement that covers probably the wildest and most chaotic thing I can think to GM: a bar brawl.

Mead & Mayhem is a 6 page PWYW supplement pretty much consisting of a single bar-brawl table. The general idea is to consult the table at specific intervals and use the results to guide the brawl to its inevitable conclusion, which is the utter destruction of the establishment.

Put out by D-oom Products, Mead & Mayhem uses the much-maligned d30. Most rolls have a positive modifier to the next roll and when you hit 30......well, it is time to find a new watering hole.

I love the fact that this uses a d30, that the PDF is open, and that they've also included a "printer friendly" version of the cover. I think a little more work could have been done with the "printer-friendly", since the woodcut is not black and white, but it is a minor point. Since it is an open PDF I can (and did) "fix" the cover for my personal file.

While I'm on the point of files, this PDF is way too large in terms of size. Storage-wise this 6 pages comes in at 11.6 MB while the "printer-friendly" cover is 3.71 MB. I don't know if this is a factor of the Ghostscript distiller used or incorrect settings, but a quick "re-print" using Adobe Acrobat set to "Press Quality" resulted in a PDF not much larger than the cover. The PDF is sized for A4 paper, which might seem a bit off to Americans, but is perfectly normal for most of the world.

I think I'm more of a fan of the idea of the bar-brawl resolution table and using a d30, but I think there needed to be a bit more to this PDF than a single chart. Another table to two to run in conjunction with the main table could spice things up a bit so the table could be used multiple times with seemingly completely different outcomes. Speaking of outcomes, it'd be nice if there were multiple options for the end-result. Even something as little as when you hit result 40 roll on a sub-table to generate the ending of the bar-brawl.

Personally I don't think Mead & Mayhem is worth the suggested $3, but I love the idea and the use of a d30. With a little tweaking, some of which I've already done, I think this supplement will find a place at my table.

Frugal GM's End of the Year DriveThruRPG Review 2014

At the beginning of each year I like to do a quick review of "sales" over at DriveThruRPG. This helps me gauge my "work" over the previous 12 months and allows me to keep things in check with the initial goals I had when starting this effort.

I think I'm right in line and while some goals may change over the course of 2015 (i.e. I have some plans I'm not announcing yet) at the core I want be able to give back to this hobby that has given me so much over the previous years.

For some of you, these numbers may be surprising and for others it might be useful to have something to compare to.....just be aware that there that are going to be some discrepancies by design. None of these number incorporate the free Lunch Box Heroes game that was put up recently.

1,201   The number of RPG products "sold" by Frugal GM on DriveThruRPG in 2014
   667   The number of "sold" products that were new in 2014.
55.5%  Percentage of new items "sold" in 2014

42.3%  Percentage of 2014 sales compared to all sales since April 2012

$58.01 Gross Sales
$39.34 Pay-What-You-Want Sales
$97.35
      .70 Commission
$68.14 Net Sales

$0.06   Average Net Sale

     6%  Percentage "For Profit" Sales
     2%  Perecentage Pay-What-You-Want Sales
     8%  Percentage of revenue-generating sales


This means that 92% of everything downloaded from Frugal GM through DriveThruRPG was free. My overall goal was to hit at least 90% I think I've been successful in this regard. I'm a little disappointed in that there have only been three product reviews this year, but it's within the expected range of 350-400 downloads per review norm that has been established.

The one thing I'm personally not happy with is that there were only seven new items released this year. While I didn't exactly have a goal in mind, I think I need to shoot for at least one a month.

I do think things have been steadily progressing and as I find more free GM resources to post and more cool RPG products to review I like to think that this blog is slowly becoming a more valuable tool for my fellow GMs. Thank you for being a part of this endeavor and for helping more folks enjoy RPGs.

Game on!