Frugal GM Review: The Mysterious Shrine

It isn't a big secret that my favored game is HackMaster. The thing is when I get to play it is in my wife's campaign which is often completely home-brew.

When we first started her HackMaster Basic campaign though we got to play in the pretty cool Frandor's Keep setting. One of our group's adventures was dealing with this odd "savage" obelisk in the foothills surrounding the Keep. I remember a bit of this adventure, but one thing I don't remember is that the adventure was a "bonus" adventure from KenzerCo's Steve "Stevil" Johansson.

Free Map 004

A couple weeks into this map-a-week bit and I'm already using somebody else's maps.....

Actually this is a "quick" map that my wife made for a one-off. While I really enjoy the creative process and labor at putting things together in writing or any other "art", I'm more at home screwing around with the technical aspect of things. For me it doesn't really get fun until I can scan it in and start playing with Photoshop.

My wife is 180* out. She's the artistic one who would like to become better playing with the computer.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side....

Free GM Resource: Talislanta Library

While I like to be able to scour the interwebs for some free products that GM's can use at their home table, I love to be able to point out entire new games.

Imagine my glee in being able to offer up an entire gaming system....

Talislanta has been around for over 20 years and is currently in its fifth revision. The IP holder, along with a sizable fan community, has made just about everything having to do with the game free for personal use. Aside from the downloads, all you need is paper, pencils, dice, and of course....players.

Seriously, there is a TON of stuff available at the Talislanta site:

Frugal GM Review: Dramascape Japanese Garden

I am of the opinion that there are two main reasons why a publisher would put something up for free on DriveThruRPG. The first is simply because they want to get their product "out there" and DriveThruRPG is a great distribution platform. The second, and often more compelling, reason a publisher puts product up for free is so you'll try it and then go back to purchase more of that publisher's offerings.

I specifically went looking for some free maps that I could review and the first thing I downloaded was supposed to be an example of the artist's/publisher's work, but I hated it. The download was simply two .jpeg maps, one of which had some garish overlay on it. Now I'm certain that the "regular" offerings from this publisher were pretty good as I'd looked at their homepage, but as an example of work, the free download wouldn't come close to convince me to plunk down some cash towards other map packs.

GM Prep Tip: Lewt as an Adventure Hook

Realistically there are two general motivations for PCs to be adventuring in Role Playing Games: Power and "Stuff". A lot of the times the "stuff" are things that give the PC more power.

A more appropriate term for this "stuff" is loot (or lewt).

A common adventure set-up is problem caused by a Big Bad Guy (BBG), PCs tackle the problem, defeat the BBG, and get some experience & lewt that lets them tackle bigger problems and bigger BBGs.

While this is a broad, "big-picture" overview of an adventure, it kind of holds true on a single encounter level. PCs engage a foe (combat, social encounter, trap, etc.), defeat foe, get reward. Heck, there is even an acronym for his cycle: KTATTS.

Free Map 003

This week's free map isn't too new for folks who have read up on some of my other blogs, namely my infrequent campaign blog. I originally made this map a couple of years ago, intending to introduce it as a new locale to my players, but that never happened. It sat, unused, on a virtual shelf until I picked up the dice for a new side-campaign for the group I'm normally a player in.

Free GM Resource: Inspiration Pad Pro 3

This week's Free GM Resource is one of those "time savers" that can really help cut down on some GM prep time. Of course it could also be a huge time-suck for some, but that is the nature of these kind of things.

Inspiration Pad Pro is now at version 3. This table generator has a pretty slick interface and I love the way they've alternated color in the results window.

Frugal GM Review: Threshold Magazine

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Google+ link in my feed for a new 'zine and I had to go check it out. Now I fully expect most folks to probably check out this free magazine on their own, but I'll give you a quick, and then more detailed run-down of my observations.

My first impressions of this 'zine from the Vaults of Pandius?
     Holy Crap! Its HUGE!
     Something is just a bit "off"

After spending some time looking at the magazine I was better able to quantify my initial thoughts.