Free Map 002

After last week's map I felt like moving in a different direction and work on a small village map. After a few hours I decided to go ahead and scale back the map some while taking some more time in colorizing it.

I had started going through placing buildings, but those buildings were detracting from the effort (granted I hadn't finished tweaking them) and I thought that maybe this map wouldn't be as useful to other folks.

Free GM Resource: Dyson's Dodecahedron

This week's Free GM Resource is one of those online sites that is just....WOW. Dyson's Dodecahedron is a wordpress blog that contains tons of goodies for any GM running a Fantasy RPG:
     Maps
    Other stuff

Actually, there are a ton of great resources on this blog, along with links out to even more resources, but the focus is really on the wonderful maps....and by "focus" I mean that's as far as I'm able to get without wanting to abandon today's post to spend the day perusing the rest of Dyson's blog.

Frugal GM Review: Torchlit Dungeons 1

With my recent map kick I decided to start scouring Drive Thru RPG for some other maps and I came across this free introduction to Heroic Maps' line of products.

Torchlit Dungeon 1 is a seven page PDF that contains a four page dungeon. Two pages show the overall dungeon, one with the page layout outlined and the other without.

Free Map 001

Yesterday I found myself doodling a map while I should have been paying 100% attention to something...well someone else. Fortunately I caught myself before long and did what I should have been doing.

Now I'm not much of a doodler to begin with. Sure, I'll sketch out plans for ideas in my head, but maps? Not usually my thing. If I need a map, I'll make a map.....assuming I cannot find one already made to my liking.

This evening I decided to go ahead and make a map. This map has no purpose, but I figure someone can make use of it....

The map on the right is my finished attempt. This version is low-res, but here is a high-res version from my Patreon account. There are two obvious entrances at the top & bottom, but I envision a third secret entrance further up the hill/mountain this cave complex is in. This "secret" entrance goes into a small cave and there is a tunnel to another lower chamber which has another downward tunnel to the main complex. These tunnels, and the "secret" entrance can be marked up as you like.

I know it is a simple map, but I figured the more complex I made it, the less useful it would be for others to use.

If you like this map, or you have some basic suggestions and/or desires, feel free to let me know. I might make this a regular "thing".

New HackMaster Form-Fillable PC Sheet

It's been a good six week to two months since I started this latest version of my form-fillable PC sheet, and I've finally finished it.

I ended up making three different versions of this PC Sheet, one for multi-classed spellcasters, one for "regular" spellcasters, and another for fighter & thiefy types. The largest of the trio is only 8 pages while the other two are 6 pages each.

An earlier version had a bunch of spellcards to help track all of a Cleric's or Mage's spell details, but it added too much bulk to the finished product.

Compared to my earlier version which came in at 1.27 MB, this "larger" version that has twice as many pages and better graphics only weighs in at 1.47 MB.

The older version is free while this newer version is $1.99 for all three sheets or $0.99 for one of the versions.

Free GM Resource: Tile Maker 2.0

Today's Free GM Resource is a pretty cool dungeon mapping "program" from the folks over at Project Zero Games.

Tile Maker 2.0 is a rather simple, well....a tile maker. You use the easy web interface to create a single tile which you can print out. There are twenty different room/corridor types and a large number of items to place within each room.

Item placement is quick and simple. You can churn out rooms at a pretty good clip if you want, allowing you to create simple & effective dungeons....

....all for free. If you have a PDF printer installed you can get even more mileage out of this program. I've only made a few tiles to play around with Tile Maker 2.0, but here is a quick & simple dungeon:

Click for a different example

There were two things I noted specifically about this tile program. First was the fact that this will print out at roughly 200 DPI. If you are using this to print out 1" = 5' tiles for actual table-top play you'll get a little bit of detail loss during printing. For virtual table-top use this won't be an issue.

The second thing I found is a bit of a surprise. There are hidden objects for you to use! If you cycle through the rotation of objects using the space bar, some objects with rotate then morph to other objects. The fire pit, for example, will change through several types of fires and then onto torches. The trap door will rotate and then open up.....

This is a pretty cool hidden feature.

Hoody-Fricken-Hoo! "My" Adventure is Now Available Online.

Last GaryCon I was offered a proposal to write a HackMaster adventure for Kenzer & Company. Steve Johansson had a skeleton framework of an adventure (a single page map), but didn't have time to flesh it out. He gave me the rough map with the designated encounters that I was "fortunate" enough to experience 1st hand as a player.

Fortunate might be a bit of a misnomer because the adventure was a bit of a meat grinder for a couple of reasons. A good number of the players played either pre-gens or quick-rolled up characters and I think we all cared more about just having a good time and trying to fling our PC's bodies against the adventure's foes...

....and we did have a good time!

The initial adventure proposal

I fleshed out a full adventure, made a cover (above) and submitted it last April. The adventure map
took me a little more time to do, but I had that done in May. Fast-forward a few months of intense editing and Kenzer & Company has a new adventure to release.

A Sewer Runs Through It is designed for 1st level PCs and can serve as a great start to an urban campaign. Although our experience at GaryCon was...interesting...I think most home groups would have a better go at it.

.....and for the record, anything you don't like about the adventure is due to Steve's edits. The stuff you like....all me.

Free GM Resource: Frontier Explorer

As a nod to last week's Free GM Resource of Star Frontiers, I wanted to make people aware of this excellent fanzine which supports the game.

Frontier Explorer is a web-based magazine that primarily supports Star Frontiers.

If you play Star Frontiers, or are thinking about playing Star Frontiers, you should check out this zine and get involved in the community so they keep on producing new issues.