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.

Free GM Resource: (Old) Local History Books

Open Old Book by George Hodan

This week's Free GM Resource might be a bit of a no-brainer for some, but I'm sure that very few GMs have specifically done this intentionally: scour old history books for ideas.

I'm in the middle of some ancestry research and I'm finding some of the various trials and tribulations of the old settlers simply fascinating and ripe for inclusion in my low-magic fantasy RPG campaign.

Want to kick this idea up a notch?  Grab your ideas from the history books (the first-person accounts in older books are the best) and then head on over to the USGS National Map Viewer to grab the topographicals for the area the event occurred.

I was visiting the family farm last month, after GaryCon, and we had the opportunity to check out

some of the local "historical" sites after I stumbled upon an old settler's history book.  This book was nearly a century old and it detailed the settlers coming into the area.  Some awesome stuff.  There were reports of children going missing in the area.  A surviving child reported that they had found a cold-air cave and ventured in.  Only two entrances are known.  One appears as a deep well out in the woods and the other was in someone's dug-out basement.

The basement has been cemented in and I was told the owners poured several trucks of concrete into the hole to try and seal it up, but they never managed to do so.

In your RPG maybe the kids just went missing or maybe they went missing a long time ago.  Did they simply get lost or did something "down there" get them?  Perhaps the child's spirit is restless and causing problems for the new home owner.  Maybe the PCs are in trouble and seek out this passage as a way to escape town unnoticed.  It doesn't have to be a fantasy RPG setting either.  This cave has been known for over 150 years....it could be another 150 years before it comes up again.....

Lots of possibilities....that's all I'm saying.

Frugal GM Quick Craft Tip: Rescuing Dried Up Brushes

I know...it happens...you didn't take good care of your paint brushes and now they are dried stiff with paint residue.  Hopefully you invested in quality brushes to begin with, so you don't just want to toss them in the trash.

No worries, just soak the bristles in white vinegar for an hour or so until you can bend them easily without "breaking" them.  Heat up the vinegar to boiling, let the bristles soak some more, and then gently comb out the paint.

Wash (properly),dry, then store for future use.

Free GM Resource: DCC Adventures on Facebook

Recently Dungeon Crawl Classics, from Goodman Games, had a Facebook contest where if they got 1,500 "Likes" they would offer up two free adventures.

The first adventure is actually the 2012 Free RPG Day adventure booklet and contains two shorter adventures:

•  The Undulating Corruption, a level 5 expedition to cure a wizard of corruption
• The Jeweler that Dealt in Stardust, a level 3 heist where clever thieves can excel.

The second adventure is #66.5 Doom of the Savage Kings, which was a level 1 adventure that was briefly given away for free with a DCC purchase or was available independently for $10.  It is a 14 page adventure with three pages of pretty cool maps.  Even though it is a level one adventure, you might find it suitable for smaller parties of higher level PCs.

I won't provide a direct download link, but you can get it from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Facebook Page (look for an April 8th, 2013 post).  You should send them another "Like" before downloading.

Frugal GM Quick Craft Tip: Miniature Weights

Now that the Reaper Miniatures Bones Kickstarter is being shipped out to backers, there are a lot of people that are going to be painting and basing their new miniatures.

I've been hearing that some folks are finding that the minis are so much lighter than they are used to and they are having problems due to the lightweight nature when they are painting or using these figures.

One quick and simple tip is to glue an appropriate sized fender washer to the bottom of your mini base.  Bought in bulk, a box of 100 1" fender washers goes for $6-$10.  They add a good amount of weight and can be used with magnets.  Make sure you get a Fender washer, which has a lot more metal that a regular washer.