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!

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.