Free GM Resource: Digital Tokens from Devin Night

This week's Free GM Resource is a HUGE batch of free digital tokens from Devin Night. Devin has been around the digital table top scene for years now and I've bought a fair amount of tokens from him over the years. Of course a lot of those tokens are now FREE, but I thought they were a good deal at the time.....so I think they are an even better deal now.

I'm not sure why so many of his token packs are now free, but if you want some PCs, NPCs, and monsters for your digital table top, then you need to pick up these free tokens. You'll probably want to go and pick up some/all of his paid token packs as well. Like any artist, his work has just gotten better over the years and the token packs from his Kickstarter campaign are looking pretty good.....

Custom tokens now priced at $7.50 each....well worth it.

I'm guessing that the older tokens are now free just because his work has improved so much over the
years. Earlier tokens were pretty low-res and the newer ones are much larger. As I said I've bought a few tokens from Devin over the years, but I have also purchased some of his custom tokens as well. Three Four (I had forgotten about the Gnome-Titan "Monk" I had made) of these tokens are actually part of his free download, so if you don't like these three figures I guess I'm to blame......

These figures are full-sized as I received them, but in-use they are all the same size. The newer larger sized tokens are much better to work with, in my opinion.

Quick Craft Tip: Liquitex Flow Aid

Next time you are at the Art Supply Store.....you DO know where your closest art supply store is.....right? Next time make sure to pick up a small bottle of Flow Aid. You might want to get a nice squeeze/dropper bottle while you are at it.

This stuff is awesome and will pay for itself big time!

Mark off your bottle into appropriate measures (10 x 1 oz markings work for me) and dilute some Flow Aid to at least 1:10 with water.

This is the stuff!

Use this diluted Flow Aid to make your paint flow nice and smooth. If you combine it with some cheap latex primer from the hardware store you can get a great miniature primer at a fraction of the cost. My rough mental math puts a finished quart of good brush-on mini primer at under $10 and you'll have barely touched the Flow Aid. I have no idea what I would do with a quart of mini-primer, but if I made a smaller batch then I could use the rest of the primer (thinned down as appropriate) for my other hobby projects.

I would recommend using some of the rest of the diluted Flow Aid for your mini paints.

Free GM Resource: Tavern Maker

This week's Free GM Resource is an interesting little database program that quickly generates a tavern for you campaign. While TavernMaker isn't quite complete, there is really quite a lot going on under the hood. You can tell that there is some possible upgrades expected, but I'm not sure how forthcoming they will be.

Still, definitely worth a download.

The generator settings are quite easy to manipulate, consisting of four main variables with some sub-options as well. One thing I think is really great is that when you set up the variables the way you like them you can just save those settings. One way I think this is useful is I can set up the general parameters for an area and just regenerate or quickly tweak things on the fly.

When you generate a tavern you get a short description of all the people at occupied tables, a listing of what they have to pick-pocket, and a map. The map can be printed or saved as a BMP file. While the map is pretty simple, it does give a scale and even a coat of arms for the establishment.

It doesn't take too long to figure out that there is a lot of potential for this program, like adding tavern menus, etc. Unfortunately the project seems to have stalled out some years ago. Still, even in just this limited program offering there is a lot a GM can get out of this. If you need a tavern on the fly, use this to generate one, make any tweaks needed, then just add some names and menus.

TavernMaker can really cut down some of the work of putting together a tavern for your FRPG.

2014.06.20 Edit
When setting up my new office computer after a HDD crash I found I was missing some TavernMaker files and tried to download the program, with not too much luck. Fortunately I did find some help from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, specifically the last update of 2013: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.tavernmaker.de/eng/men-eng-inf.htm

I've gone ahead and left the original links up in case they come back.....

Frugal GM Review: The Manse On Murder Hill

I'm trying to look ahead several gaming sessions to see if there is some groundwork I want to lay for my group. To that end I'm reviewing some adventures I might want to borrow ideas from.

The Manse On Murder Hill is an interesting adventure from Taskboy Games. Created for Labyrinth Lord, The Manse On Murder Hill is supposed to be the 1st adventure in the Return of the Red Talons trilogy. Unfortunately this adventure is the only full-length adventure available from Taskboy Games.

Still, the price is right....at free, so even if you aren't playing Labyrinth Lord you can get a lot of good use out of this adventure. Unfortunately for me and my uses, I'd have to change too much to fit this adventure into my current campaign. "Too much" in my case means I'd like to use this adventure closer to as-is, which means I simply choose to save it for later.

The Manse on Murder Hill is set for 6-10 characters of level 1-3. Pregens are provided at the end. This PDF adventure comes in at 29 pages (including cover). While the graphics are a bit sparse and there are only two pages of maps, what is present is more than adequate. There are a lot of nice little touches that I think all aspiring adventure writers need to include:

• Good rumor table
• Resolution (what happens depending on how the party performs)
• Extra adventures in the area after this adventure is completed
• Extended NPC descriptions

I don't want to provide any spoilers, but I will say that overall I really liked the story elements with one notable exception. Fortunately it takes next to nothing to make what I think is a needed change. It is as simple as swapping out one monster for another....which is exactly what I would do. Heck, for all I know what I see as an odd discrepancy is simply one of the subtle differences between Labyrinth Lord and some of the other OSR games.

I'm looking forward to the next adventure in the trilogy, but seeing as how The Manse On Murder Hill was written a year ago.....we will just have to wait & see.

TLDR review: Pick it up for free, regardless of the rules you play with, and odds are you'll get some
good use out of it.

Free GM Resource: Complete Monster Manual

This week's Free GM Resource is a rather extensive collection of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons monsters hosted on this German website.

This site advertises itself as a "complete" listing of the various monsters from pretty much ALL the 2nd Edition AD&D settings/game worlds. I was quite surprised at the list because some of these settings I had never heard of. I'm willing to bet that you, and more importantly, your players, haven't heard of all these settings, much less the monsters from the settings:

• AD&D 2nd Editions (Generic Monsters)
• Al-Qadim
• Birthright
• Dark Sun
• Dragonlance
• Forgotton Realms
• Greyhawk
• The Horde
• Kara-Tur
• Lankmar
• Masque of the Red Death
• Maztica
• Mystara
• Planescape
• Ravenloft
• Red Steel
• Spelljammer

With so many folks playing AD&D, HackMaster 4th Edition, or the various Old School Rules (OSR) games, being able to drag out a few new monsters that are already statted (or require little work to convert) is a huge boon.

If you don't play one of these compatible games you might be lucky to find an easy conversion from the 2nd Edition AD&D ruleset. Even if you have to do a lot of conversion work simply having a large store of monsters to start with might prove useful. The websites' page on monster stats might prove quite useful in making conversions.

Free GM Resource: Mazes & Perils

After last week's Free GM Resource of 2013 ENnie award nominations for Best Free Product I received a note from someone associated with one of the items up for the Best Free Game category.

While I could simply do another posting of those free games, you can just as easily go over to the ENnie page and look for yourself.

This week's Free GM Resource is just one of the nominations. I'm only listing this one because it hits a soft spot for me. For many "old school" players there is a bit of pride about when you started playing Dungeons & Dragons.

My introduction to Dungeons & Dragons goes back to 1978 when I was seven. I had one uncle that is a few years older than me and he wanted to play AD&D after seeing another uncle's PHB. We both read and re-read the rule books until we got our hands on the D&D blue box set. Our games were more structured fantasy than bona fide games of D&D and all I really remember is playing with all these rule books and one really absurd adventure.

My first "proper" game of D&D didn't come until 1983, but by then I had years of these infrequent sessions with long stretches of just the rule-books to tide me over.

Mazes & Perils really takes me back to the early days of gaming when it was more about the shared story & experience and less about the rules written down on paper. This 61 page Core Rules book is inspired by the Holmes version of D&D and is a great way to get a few folks new to RPGs around a table and slinging dice in no time.

I encourage you to check it out and possibly vote for it to win an ENnie for Best Free Game.

Hefty 12¢ Miniature

Over the years my miniature collection has waxed and waned according to my whims and needs. I used to have a bazillion paper minis, so many that the collection became too unwieldy to use.

I eventually switched over to a flat paper mini that I could use with Alea Tools markers. I still use the Alea Tools markers and highly recommend them. A good set of these magnetic markers travels easily and can be used to relay quite a bit of information in-game.

My preferred flat "paper" mini is actually mounted on a 1" fender washer. This gives the miniature some real heft, making it easier to pick up and move around with or without an Alea Tool marker underneath. My goal was to get the price down to 10¢ a mini, which is doable, but realistically my final cost comes down to about 12¢ a mini.

Supplies needed (preferred option):
Printed Monsters (Magic Cards, or other Collectible Card Games)
1" Craft Punch (Fiskars squeeze punch)
White Glue (Aleene's Original Tacky Glue)
1" Fender Washer (Bulk Box)

The process to make a mini is super-simple and really only two steps, punch out your monster and then glue it to a washer. If you have Alea Tools markers, they make great clamps for gluing. Just put a marker on top of the card-stock after you've glued it down to the washer.

I used to source my Magic cards from the Favorite Local Game Store (FGLS). The ones that run Magic tournaments often have big boxes of common cards that you can sift through. You might also ask your Magic playing friends for old cards. It had been my experience that if they knew you were cutting up the cards you could get them much cheaper. The first time I tried this the FLGS wanted a dime a card, but when I explained what I was doing I got them to halve their price.

It never hurts to ask.....and if you bring your punch with you it might help prove your sincerity.

For the washers, shop around. You can usually find a pound box of bulk washers much cheaper than grabbing a handful from a bulk bin. I was able to get my per-washer price down to a bit over 6¢.

Finally, I highly suggest getting a quality Fiskars squeeze punch. It will make getting the right part of the card punched so much easier. Saving $5 on a tool you will get a lot of use out of isn't worth it. Now I don't count the cost of my tools in the overall mini price, but I end up with:
   5¢     Card
   6¢     Washer
+ 1¢     Washer & Glue
12¢       Total Cost

If you glue another card cut-out to the other side of the washer you can get your price down to under 10¢ a miniature.

Free GM Resource: 2013 Ennie Nominees

GenCon is coming up in a few short weeks, and at the convention (Friday, August 16 at 8 p.m. in the Union Station Grand Hall to be exact) is the Annual ENnies Award ceremony. Voting is open starting today and ending on the 31st. You can see the nominees here and vote here.

The ENnies are a good deal for Frugal GMs for a couple of reasons. One good reason to be interested in the ENnies is simply the fact that this is a fan-driven award so those items that have been nominated and especially those that win should be somewhat vetted, meaning that they are at least worth a look-see.

The second reason, and the underlying purpose of today post, is that the ENnies have an entire category devoted to free RPG products. There is also a category for "Best Podcast" and "Best Blog" I've yet to pay for a podcast or blog, so presumably there are some free goodies there as well.

You should check out the free products before voting...after all, you do want to be an informed voter, right?

2013 ENnies Free Product Nominees (Click on picture for download sites)

Battletech: A Time of War Quick-Start Rules/Shadowrun Quick-Start Rules (Catalyst Game Labs)

EPOCH: Road Trip (Imaginary Empire)

Fools Rush In (Privateer Press)

Night in the Seyvoth Manor (Darklight Interactive)

Wayfinder #8 (Paizo Fans United)





I find it difficult to believe that any GM couldn't find some good ideas from one of these free products. Please check them out and vote for your favorite before the end of the month.