Free GM Resource: Printable Heroes

This week's Free GM Resource is an awesome collection of  digital miniatures featured at the Printable Heroes Tumbler.

Of course I like the minis themselves, but I also appreciate that the artist is using Google Drive and Patreon to distribute the minis. I won't link directly to the Google Drive folder where the minis are (You'll have to click through the Tumbler yourself), but the Patreon link is no problem.

One of the things I like is that there are only 2 Patreon levels: $1 or $2 a month.

These minis are designed to be printed out, but I'll probably use them as digital tokens myself. You should really go check out all of the Printable Heroes!

Frugal GM Review: Common Places #13 from The Forge Studios

When I go looking for something to review I'm not always certain what draws me to a particular item. Sometimes it is the idea, sometimes I just want to see how somebody else does something, and sometimes I just "get a feeling".

I've been a bit of a fan of The Forge Studios stuff for a while, even if I haven't really used any of it yet. I liked the idea behind the "Common Places" series and wanted to check one out, but I think I settled on Common Places #13 because I've seen this building before.

The whole idea behind this series is just a small booklet of maps of a specific place that can be used as a one-shot for a GM. Common Places #13 gives the GM the "Library of Lost Leafs", which can be dropped just about in any city, but I'll get back to that.

The download is a 16 page PDF that comes in at almost 16 MB. That is pretty hefty size for only 16 pages and something tells me it could have been optimized a bit better. The cover is in color while the rest of the A4 sized pages are black & white. If I had to guess I'd say the whole PDF was rendered in color......just those colors were black & white. The PDF is secured so you can't tinker with it, but that isn't too terrible of an issue. I will say the pages print up nicely.

Although you can easily set the Library of Lost Leafs in any locale, three pages have been devoted to providing a small town. The first city page shows a smaller city map with room for notes, the second a full page map of the city and the third is another full page map of the city with an inset showing where the library is.  This felt like one page too many to me. I realize getting the page count to 16 makes it easy for booklet printing, but I'd have preferred some different content. The map with an inset wasn't needed, for two reasons. The 1st is as a GM I'd rather put the Library where I want anyway. The 2nd is that the shape of the building where the Library is allegedly located doesn't match the shape of the Library.....might as well just place it anywhere....

There are two pages showing the same graphic from the cover, one with notes and another with a larger picture of the building. Again, this seemed like an extra page because if the GM wanted to show the players a picture of the building he'd want to show the entire building, not just the part shown on the cover....and he could just show the players the cover then.

The rest of the pages are maps of the building and I don't want to post any spoilers. I did note though that there was some inconsistency when it came to marking out the grids and among the maps there is a "ground floor" and a "1st floor" instead of a "ground floor" and a "2nd floor".

Even though there were some minor issues with this product I do like it quite a bit. As a GM I could easily see using Common Places #13 not only as a whole, but in parts. I could grab the city map to use by itself, and the basement of the building map could easily be used apart from the the building itself.

Personally I hate trying to draw decent city maps so for me this download was worth the price for that one page, but as usual YMMV. I think I'd take a close look at the rest of the series when I needed to drop something into my game.

About This Week's Frugal GM Review...

This week's review will be a day late due to unforeseen complications with Thanksgiving.

Sandbox Gaming Question: How Much Do You Need to Start?

In a chat last week a question came up about how much does a GM have to have pre-planned at the onset of an open, or "sandbox" campaign.

There were several responses, but almost all of them involved using the PC's ability to travel as a factor. Most of the GM's agreed on having the immediate starting area planned out, it was just the mode of travel that was at issue.

Me, I assume the PCs starting out will not have access to expensive horses and will be on foot. I'll plan out the starting town/city and figure that the next villages will be at most a day's walk away. Larger cities will be no less than three day's walk away so the PCs/NPCs could walk there, spend the day conducting business in the city, and walk back in the span of a week.

All I do at that point is flesh out enough of a skeleton to represent those other villages and the city, and have some road encounters, village encounters, and a few dungeons that I can place wherever the PC's decide to go.

Of course, knowing what your players want and how they are most likely to take your adventure hooks helps a lot. I also recommend the d30 Sandbox Companion as a help.

My open question about this is: "How much pre-planning do you think a GM needs when starting a sandbox campaign?"

Last Bit of d30 Height & Weight Tables now Available

I think I've milked the d30 Height & Weight tables enough......

The remaining races I had left were an assortment of "lesser-used" races from HackMaster 4th & 5th edition:
     * Grel
     * Gnome Titans
     * Sil-Karg
     * Pixie-Kin
     * Half-Ogres
     * Gnomelings

I just couldn't see putting these up as individual races, especially since the Sil-Karg entries were doubled because there was some sexual dimorphism resulting in large differences in height & weight.

What I did was combine the remaining tables into two PDFs, one for English units (FGM031ze) and one for Metric units (FGM031zm).

Free GM Resource: The Terrain Tutor

This week's Free GM Resource is another YouTube channel.

The Terrain Tutor has about a bazillion videos and not all of them are ones I want to sit through, but there are a lot of great tips, tricks, and how-to videos well worth your time.

I particularly enjoy these playlists:
Back 2 Basics for Wargames Terrain and Scenery Builders
How to make simple wargaming hills
Quick and Simple Tips

There are several more playlists to watch as well.

Frugal GM Review: A Guide to Hallowfest

I was link-hopping recently and came across this "Halloween" themed Pay-What-You-Want supplement called A Guide to Hallowfest. It was published by Sundered Blade Games.

I had never heard of Sundered Blade Games, but a quick check of their publisher's page revealed that they only have a few titles out and almost all of them are PWYW. They also have one adventure for sale that is written for two systems.

Really not bad for a start-up from earlier this year.

A Guide to Hallowfest is an 18 page black & white PDF in a Zine (5.5" x 8.5") format that  comes in under 4 MB. The PDF is secured, but I don't really see the need to extract pages or reassemble the PDF.

There is a little bit of information on what appears to be a custom game world, but at best it is a couple of sentences and this adventure could be put anywhere in an existing campaign. What this supplement is really about is a small dungeon crawl. The creatures and items listed in the beginning are used in the adventure.

Normally I'd rather have the adventure written 1st and then have a listing/entry for the monsters and items. When I was reading A Guide to Hallowfest the fact it started out with the monsters and then the items before going into the adventure.....didn't really bother me any. The art in the PDF was a  little "cutesy", but not distracting. One monster didn't have a picture but instead some text reading "Image not approved for all audiences". That felt like a bit of a cop-out.

This bit of text and the cover are my only criticisms. I'd have preferred a white cover instead of an orange one so I could print this out for use. An inclusion of a printer-friendly cover would have bumped up the page count to 20 and if they enlarged some of the fine print (like the legal stuff) and/or included a title page they could have gotten the page count to 22. This would allow the end-user to print pages 2-21 (a 20 page spread) in a booklet format and have a nice, full printed product.

This is a minor consideration though and not something I care enough about to drop my rating any. Overall I did enjoy this adventure and think A Guide to Hallowfest would be a fun adventure to run my players through.

Free Map055: A Set of Caverns

I've just posted Free Map055 ocer at my Patreon page. This is a small set of two caverns that are not connected.

When I make these caverns, unless I'm using them for a specific adventure, I usually do not put in things like entrances and features, leaving those decisions up to the GM.

I have been putting in some grids, but I haven't specified the distance. The GM could make them 5' or 5 yards/meters for all I care.

Click on this link or on the graphic below to go straight to the pertinent Patreon post.

Limited-Time Good Deal for a Free Low-Level OSR Adventure

Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr., the man behind the awesomeness that is New Big Dragon Games, has just put out a "Work-In-Progress" or Beta psionics adventure called Vault of the Faceless Giants.

This will be an inexpensive adventure when it is done, but if you pick up this beta version now, for free, you can get the finished version for free as well!

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Free GM Resource: AD&D Downloads

This week's Free GM Resource is a wide collection of other GM resources that  span a wide array of RPGs, but the focus is on the different flavors of D&D.

AD&D Downloads has been re-branded as a mobile-friendly website listing numerous resources for players and GMs alike.

Site navigation is a bit wonky, but it looks like the whole redesign is still a work in progress. Definitely worth poking around a bit....I know I will be!

Frugal GM Review: Tribes Most Foul (GM's Miscellany)

OK I said I'd do a review of one of the GM's Miscellany from Raging Swan Press. There were a few to choose from and I ended up with the one that interested me the most, which was Tribes Most Foul.

These supplements are specifically written for Pathfinder, but I'm looking at them more from an OSR standpoint and won't be looking at game-specific mechanics. If something isn't quite right as far as Pathfinder is concerned I wouldn't know anyway. It is my belief that everything needs to be tweaked by the GM for their group anyway....

First off, the supplement comes in two downloads. One is a larger PDF tweaked for printing and the second is a smaller, lower resolution file for viewing on a screen (PC, tablet, etc.). The difference isn't noticeable unless you print the screen version instead of the print version. I do like how Raging Swan treated the print version with the same respect as the screen version. The only criticism I have with the print PDF is I really wish they would have used a different cover. Simply inverting the colors so there is a little black text on a white background is highly preferred to an all-black cover I don't want to waste ink on.

Both PDFs are well bookmarked, with some internal cross-links. The PDFs are secured, but only the ability to edit the documents, assemble a new document, or extract pages is restricted. For the majority of the end-users this is perfectly fine.

Not including things like the covers or the OGL, this supplement had 60 pages of content. There are 25 humanoid tribes detailed in two-page spreads and a nice little 5 page section of creating your own humanoid tribes. I really liked this create-your-own section, but I'm a sucker for large random tables. If you aren't wanting to go through the process of creating your own tribe there is one table filled with 50 sample tribe names. Just grab a name and fill in the background as you will.

What you are really buying with Tribes Most Foul are these 25 pre-generated tribe backgrounds. Each write-up consists of a quick introduction, society & organization, ecology & lair, combat & tactics, notable personalities, and tribal lore. You also get a good picture of a tribal totem or symbol. The overwhelming majority of the "Pathfinder Stuff" is in the stat blocks of the notable personalities. There is a bit in the knowledge checks for tribal lore as well. I really don't think that GMs for other systems will have too much trouble interpreting these stats to their system.

The more generic (system-wise) tribal information is rich with details that really make these creatures "pop". I don't think GMs will want to use this supplement "on the fly" to try and add some interest to their game, but instead plan out possible interactions and possibly work the campaign around these notable foes. There are a few integration ideas presented with each tribe.

If nothing else, I think Tribes Most Foul can serve as a great template for GMs who want to put together their own custom humanoid tribes. I know if I had tried to do so without some guidance I'd probably have either written up something too small, forcing me to "wing it" during the game, or something huge that would prove cumbersome. Raging Swan Press did a great job of managing this information balance, and I highly recommend picking this one up.

Free d30 Tables: Combined Height & Weight for Half-Elves

The next set of combined height & weight tables are up at DTRPG. This time I've skipped ahead of the list to present what I think is the last of the "standard" races I have: the Half-Elf.

Here is the link to the English PDF and this is the link for the Metric version.

Corporia Expansions 1/2 Off

An old friend of mine, who wrote the RPG Corporia (link to my review) decided to put up three expansions for half price. I'm hoping he put out an email to Corporia purchasers, but in case this is one of your games and you missed it....

"It's my birthday month, but you're getting a present!

Starting now until the end of November, you can now get all three Corporia expansions at half price! Simply use the DriveThruRPG discount links below.

Corporia: New Hires (now only $1.50) -http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=908774f8ba

Corporia: Agents of Change (now only $1.50) -http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=908463f0e3

Corporia: Familiar Spirits (now only $0.49) -http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=908658f507

If you get all three, you're getting 80 pages for only $3.49 - but remember, these discounts expire November 30, 2015!

Best,

Mark Plemmons

Brabblemark Press"

Free GM Resource: GM's Miscellany Free Previews

This week's Free GM Resource is a set of interesting product previews from Raging Swan Press.

The free resource this week are the previews for GM's Miscellany:

• Village Backdrops
• Village Backdrops II
• Village Backdrops III

Although intended specifically for Pathfinder, the GM Miscellany Series are hearty GM aides that really flesh out small locales/dungeons that GMs can pretty much drops right into their campaigns. 

Usually free previews like these are little more than an example of the writing and layout that really have no value on their own and are just intended to entice you to pick up the full product. What Raging Swan Press has done is actually put out some useful free content that would entice you to purchase the rest of the product.

For example, the GM Miscellany: Village Backdrops is a 98 page PDF while the free preview is 34 pages. Instead of just putting out a few pages of free preview, what the publisher did was actually provide the 1st 2 pages of content for each of the 12 featured villages. You get a quick background, demographics, notable information and even a map!

Sure it is written for Pathfinder, but there isn't all that much Patherfinder-specific "stuff" to get in the way.

I'm planning on picking up something from the GM's Miscellany line to review this week.

It is Time for Secret Santicore 2015!

It is that time a year again!

Time to submit your Secret Santicore requests. For those of you unfamiliar with Secret Santicore the basic premise is that you make a simple (usually OSRish) RPG request and be willing to fulfill one wish in return. Helper elves mix up the requests and send them out to all participants. The elves also help with editing and assembly and then Secret Santicore delivers everyone a free PDF chock-full of the requested RPG items.

If you want in, please click on any of the links here for the overview blog post and a link to the submissions page.

Free d30 Tables: Combined Height & Weight Charts for Half-Orcs

It is a busy day at home as my wife heads off to Gameholecon without me...at least I get some extra hours in at work....

Before I drop her off at the airport and start my longer-than-average-day I wanted to get out the next two d30 Combined Height & Weight Charts.

This time around they are the charts for Half-Orcs.

FGM031je is the English d30 table and FGM031jm is the Metric. You can use these links or click on the graphics below to go to the appropriate free d30 tables:

English

Metric

Free Map054: Generic Cavern

I have my newest cavern map up on the Patreon site. This map is was originally designed to fit a latter-sized page, and my Patrons get it at 300 dpi. The free version is 100 dpi.

I'm working on a GM supplement to make cavern crawling these 2d maps a bit more interesting and hope to have that out next week. Until then, have fun using this map....

Free GM Resource: Exquisite Corpse Dungeon #2

This week's Free GM Resource is a highlight of a cool community project called the Exquisite Corpse Dungeon. Technically I'm pointing out the more recent 2nd project, but here is a link to the 1st as well.

The Exquisite Corpse Dungeon is a series of HUGE maps that are broken down into small sections, with each section being drawn by one artist. At best the artist knows just a sliver of the map piece before it, just enough to make the appropriate connections from the old section to the new.

This can make the overall map look like somewhat disjointed, but it does make for an interesting collaborative effort. The final map comes in at a huge 18" x 48". I can't speak for anyone else, but I loves me some big-assed maps.

I can't wait to get my skills up to the point where I could contribute.....well, at least to the point where folks would want me to contribute. Until then I'll be like everyone else and enjoy the Exquisite Corpse Dungeons.