Frugal GM Review: River in a Mountain Landscape - I from 3rd Supplement

This week's Frugal GM Review is a PDF map that really blew me away, enough that a minor thing or two I see as possible downsides just pale in consideration.

Seriously, I don't think I've seen a better PDF map product to date. I'm almost a bit jealous because the publisher, 3rd Supplement, is able to pull off a few things I've been wanting to do but can't until I get some better software (which is on my wish list).

I might as well get some of the downsides out of the way. There really isn't a preview of River in a Mountain Landscape - I. You can tell 3rd Supplement tried to make a preview available, but the link ends up 404ing on me, and some of the pictures/links on the product page just don't work. As a small publisher myself I'm all-too familiar with DTRPG just not playing nice with external links and PDF previews, so 3rd Supplement gets a bit of a pass here.

Seriously though, trying to share links on a DTRPG product page is near impossible far too often. It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother and just put urls in plain text for cuting & pasting.

I'm rather surprised that River in a Mountain Landscape - I comes in at only 6.92 MB. It is 12 pages long (really 11 with the title page, making 12) and just packed with awesomeness. First off this PDF is not secured, which makes sense because I think locking it down would makes some bits & bobs unusable. 3rd Supplement really makes full use of everything the PDF format has to offer. The pages are not all sized the same, with the GM-use pages being Letter sized and the main map pages are 22" x 17" (ANSI C). The PDF is bookmarked and one map page has layers so you can toggle certain features on and off with ease.

While you can toggle the features on & off on one of the maps, there is a dedicated map page for hexes, grid, and elevation, along with one "pure" map devoid of any markings.

To date River in a Mountain Landscape - I is the most expensive map from 3rd Supplement at $3.45. I haven't checkout out their other $1.99 offerings, but based solely on my experience with this map, I'm going to grab them up, and you should too.

This product is a great example of what the PDF format can offer and means I'm going to have to up my game (so to speak).