A "Work in Progress" Map

I've been completely inspired by the likes of +DysonLogos and +mattjackson both sweet map-makers whose style I really love. Both these guys have Patreon campaigns you should really check out.

This week Matt added a top-down map that also featured a profile view of the cave complex. While I've seen both style of maps before I don't think I've seen them married in such a cool fashion.

Also this week Dyson started a step-by-step progression of his latest map. While I have sketched out a rough map to help me determine how to proceed with the rest of the map, I've never even considered actually drawing the final map over the top of the scribbled rough map.

Of course, now that I think of it, I've seen artists do this type of thing all the time. If you look at any "how to draw" book you see this natural progression. It seems like a no-brainer, but was well above my level of ability. You see......how do I put this delicately.....I'm no artist.

I'm not trying to detract from any natural ability I might have. I'm trying to state the painfully obvious. While I can think of what I want something to look like, the actual creative process, much less the steps to get from point A to point Z pretty much elude me. In order for me to come up with any type of map at all I have to play to my strengths, which usually boils down to breaking a process down into steps I can manage.......and not be too afraid to screw things up experimenting as I go about things.

If I can, I like to document the process so I can attempt to replicate what worked well and improve upon what I think did not live up to my expectations.

Frugal GM Review: Desktop Dungeons

I realize I'm straying off the path, so to "speak", with reviewing a video game, but sometimes a GM needs to just waste some time in order to recharge the batteries. For some that means getting to sit down on the other side of the table and for others....well we sometimes we just need to KTATTS* and don't have a table to sit at.

Enter Desktop Dungeons. This is a game currently in Beta development that lets you solo various small dungeons. The Beta is $15 or $25 dollars and can be run through Steam or played in your browser.

The Alpha version of the game, the one I've been having fun with, is absolutely free as a download. It definitely has an an old-school 8-bit vibe going on and is good for messing around for a while. You basically get to pick what race (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, and Gnome) and class (Fighter, Thief, Wizard, Priest) you want to play and off you go. If you manage to defeat the "simple" dungeon you get some other options unlocked and you can try again.

So far I've only unlocked a couple of new classes, and only because I've gone straight Human Fighter.

The interesting thing is that this game seems to be a straight-up hack-n-slash, and in many ways it is, but the reality is that the game is actually much more of a strategy game than it appears to be. The most important aspects are laid out right in front of you and the game even tells you if your next attack against a foe will lead to your death.

You have to be strategic about combating your enemies and being in a position to face off against the final boss of the dungeon. You need to balance out your resources and exploration because you regain health and mana by uncovering/exploring new areas of the map.

Desktop Dungeons is a fun little free game that is well worth the download.

*Kill Them and Take Their Stuff

Free Terrain Piece: 5' (Scale) Diameter Log

I've already started on my next map and this time I decided to take my time and not rush things. I'm using better supplies and even going through the motions of sketching some rough ideas/notes out before hand.....

....and I've started a new job where I have to be in training from 5:30 AM to 2 PM. For a night owl like me this is a huge change from my norm and it is taking some time to compensate.

What does this mean to you? Well, no map this week....sorry. I do have a few other table-top props and map helps lying around that I'm more than willing to share.

This week I went ahead and played around a bit with a product idea I had done a lot of work on
before abandoning it almost finished. The idea was a simple way to make some in-scale logs/timber as terrain pieces. I started with actual picture of bark that were played around with and displayed with a sizing sheet. The sizing sheet let you cut out the length and diameter you wanted and then either wrap the print-out around an appropriately sized dowel, or just glue some end caps on the logs.

I got to the point where I was finishing up the end caps. The work I really needed to do was clean up the cutting/gluing guides, finish he end caps, and then start messing with the PDF layers so you could add the cut-off branches and pick the diameter of your printed out logs. I also figured you could just print this to sticker-stock and wrap around appropriately sized cylinders. The end caps were going to be two different types to give another choice on how to proceed.

For this download I just made one choice of diameter and put one type of  end cap on there, squeezing it into one page. If there is any sizable request to finish this project up I probably will, but I don't expect it, especially in this particular format.

This was an interesting experiment, which is about all I can say at this point.

Free GM Resource: Map Folio 3D

I've got one for you....

...have you seen a company take an in-print product, add content to it, and then give it away for free?*

I can think of at least one other occasion, but in general, this doesn't happen. This week's free resource is something I thought I had shared before, but evidently not.

Back when I first started trying out paper modelling I purchased the Map Folio 3-D from Wizards of the Coast. The models looked good and were relatively easy to cut out and put together. I was a bit hesitant to do so since I only had one copy of the Folio and some pieces I wanted more than one copy of. I was quite happy to find that WotC had added a few files and made it available for free on their website.

Now you can get as many copies as you need printed up and assembled. Sure you'll have a little bit more work having it printed and then cut out, but the files are free, which goes a long way towards getting things done.

2014.01.20 Edit:
Someone sent me a note saying that they didn't think these files were the actual Map Folio files. I went ahead and looked at my assembled models and while a couple of the files look the same, it is evident that this collection isn't the Map Folio +additional models like I thought it was. I have a Blacksmith shop and a couple of regular houses that aren't on the list of files. You can see pictures of some of them in the photos they used, but the files aren't there.

Sorry about this....the free files are still free and still useful. I do wish the houses were in with those files though.

Frugal GM Review: Sandbox Resources Hex Map Pack

This review for New Big Dragon Games Unlimited release of Sandbox Resources: Hex Map Pack could just as easily be posted as a Free GM Resource, because it is, but I thought if I posted a review a few more people might see just how good of a product this is.

Before I get into the review I want to note that I borrowed the graphic for this post from the publisher's blog, which you should take some time to visit. There's a little something I found there I'll have to see about posting about at a future time.

If you are not familiar with New Big Dragon Games Unlimited , they recently put out a hugely successful d30 Sandbox Companion Supplement. Evidently there was a file/page in that supplement that garnered a lot of comments so they expanded upon that page, turning it into this free supplement.

Now I find that cool enough on its own, but they just had to go and step it up a notch. Basically this product is a set of three hex map tools. One page is just a grid of small hexes, another is those grids clumped together into a collection of larger hex grids, and the third page is a worksheet for detailing the contents of the larger hex grids. The real meat of the pdf is this third worksheet, which is organized simply and quite effectively.

Now this sounds great as-is, but the über-cool aspect that geeks me out is that "pages" two and three, as I described them before, have been done up three times at three different scales! The larger hex grids are either 4, 5, or 6 smaller hex grids across. Evidently the author had been using a 4 grid scale for some time, but the publisher products have been using a 6 grid scale while some producers "back in the day" used a 5 grid scale.

It is really this tiny extra attention to detail that takes a great product and makes it even greater. After seeing this file I went back to DriveThruRPG and went ahead and put some of their other products in my wish list.

Free Map 016: A Quick Attempt

This week I decided to try and make a quick 15' map. Since it took an hour I pretty much failed in that regard, but seeing how many times I started over I think the problem wasn't so much my time limitation, but the fact I really didn't have an end-result in mind.

Overall I took an hour, but I ended up restarting this map several times.

I started off with a USGS map of my old hometown. I cropped into what I thought was a good section of the 7.5' map I downloaded and cleaned off the elevation markings after deselecting the map options I wanted. After putting in the roads I scrapped everything and started over again.

After another failed start I decided I didn't like the underlying map as much as I thought I would and

The background is white...

chose to instead take that map and stretch it out some. What I ended up doing was taking the map at the scale I liked and then cutting it into pieces that were placed farther apart. While I could have used a paint-brush to reconnect contour lines I opted to cut and paste parts of existing contour lines and then use the bubble-warp feature to finesse those cut & paste jobs into place. Then in went my roads, originally straight lines that were bubble-warped to give some gentle bends and wobbles I'd expect in non-paved roads. The buildings were a brush setting I had made. I thought I'd use the buildings I had given out earlier, but I thought it would take too much time and even though I was already over time I figured I'd at least stick with the spirit of my attempt.

The end map had some interesting artifacts from my cut & paste jobs and the use of the brushes. I noticed my eye catching on some odd color jumps or minor gaps here & there. Some quick use of the blur feature smoothed in some issues and for the rest I just copied my finished map into Adobe Illustrator and had it do a Color 16 tracing. This last bit evened everything out to my liking.

I think next time I might try to make the underlying USGS map look a little more hand-drawn with the use of some filters and then add in some vegetation. Some of the maps you can get have shading you can use giving more of a 3D effect that is pretty cool. I have an idea for a small border fort & town I may have to put together for a future map.

As always, you can click on this post's pictures for a copy of the map or use this link.

Free GM Resource: The Story Games Names Project

If I've said it once, I've probably said it one-hundred times, I'm a sucker for random tables. While technically not a collection of random tables, The Story Games Names Project is a huge collection of lists, lists of names to be precise, all numbered 1-20. There are a little over 100 categories of names, most of which have multiple lists per category.

The PDF, hosted by the folks over at Bully Pulpit Games, is a good 280 pages long. In case you wanted to pull out the text for insertion into your random table generator of choice, the folks over at www.random-generator.com have already done a lot of the heavy lifting.

Frugal GM Review: Howler

This free levels 1-3 module from Random Order Creations really surprised me. It is their first offering on DriveThruRPG and not something I'd normally be so quick to pick up because it is listed as a d20/3.x adventure. I tend to stay away from those because it is usually too difficult for me to alter them for use in my low-fantasy HackMaster game.

I have to admit that the cover art of Howler drew me in and made me give this a once-over before putting in in my cart. I absolutely adore the attention to detail on the art for this adventure. The front and back cover have been "aged" to look like something you've had sitting around for ever. The art style inside isn't completely consistent, which in this case is a good thing, even though it was all illustrated by one guy. It really looks like a couple of different artists were used.

The choice of fonts and some of the art, like the map, reminded me (for some odd reason) of Groo. That's probably just in my head, but it really made this a nostalgic adventure and I was just reading it for the first time.

The layout is simply great, starting off with a full-page monster battle sheet for everything in the adventure. This is a great touch I don't see often enough. The adventure was well written.....everything made sense within the scope of the adventure and it wasn't heavily scripted. There was a good amount of randomness to the adventure that two different groups playing this would pretty much have the same adventure, but the GM side of things wouldn't be identical.

I don't want to put in spoilers, but I will say if you have a group that tries to pry every last copper piece from an adventure......you might want to get back at them with this adventure. I have the distinct impression that the writer either has an evil group or just a bunch of thieving bastards that go so far as to strip the dungeon doors off their hinges.

Although written for d20, this adventure will not take me a lot of effort to convert over to my
preferred system and it could almost be run as-is for any OSR game. There's a lot of good meat on the bones of this free adventure......you won't have to pick at it to make it useful for your table. The price is free and you should go and download this adventure today.

Great job and I hope to see more from J.V. West and Random Order Creations.