I Fumbled!

Pretty much since day one I've had a custom domain for this Blogger (www.frugalgm.com) blog, with my domain hosting coming from my "normal" web hosting account.

Last Friday I took advantage of a special discount my web host had to open up a second account, and I moved the FrugalGM domain over to this new account.

Of course all the various domain settings didn't transition over. This shouldn't have been a big deal, but when I tried to manually update the settings.....nothing worked. Ok, sometimes these things take some time, so I waited a full 36 hours....

.....and nada. Some time spent with the tech support for my web host, a frustrating experience I'm not used to, and the best they could do was offer to use a simple domain re-direct. Instead of hosting on www.frugalgm.com, you'd get directed to the blogger sub-domain (www.frugalgm.blogspot.com).

Ugh.

This isn't the norm for my webhost, who I would normally be quick to recommend to anyone.

Hopefully I'll be able to get it squared away by Monday.....I hope I get it resolved ASAP, but until then I've shut off the custom domain for the blog and I've put up a real-simple page with a link to the blogspot domain.

On the flip-side, once this gets fixed I'll have a virtual place I can use for a lot of stuff.......

Frugal GM Review: Tavern Keeper

Tavern Keeper is an interesting online campaign manager that really isn't for me, but I can see a lot of good use for some folks out in the RPG community.

I see the most use of this campaign manager being for those that run a game online and/or those who like to be able to keep a few things going on with the group between sessions. This is not to say there isn't some good stuff for the strictly table-top GMs either.

I like the ability for GMs to throw out a schedule for their next game and for players to check out new games. The interface is relatively easy to use and updating information seems to be easy.

To check it out I started entering information from my Return to Garweeze Wurld campaign. I'm several sessions behind in updates, largely because it was frustrating to me that my links on the blog went to crap. I'd been using Blogger, which is good for everything I'm trying to do except using links to be able to jump around the site. That Tavern Keeper has a wiki seemed like a good idea.

I had no problem setting up the initial game parameters, dumping in info regarding my game. I really liked I could categorize it as a mature game. Starting a new wiki page was as simple as it gets, but this is where things started breaking down for me.

The system Tavern Keeper uses isn't what I'd really call a wiki. Instead it is more an easy-to-organize hierarchy of pages. Linking between the pages isn't really going to happen. This is a bit of a disappointment to me because this is really the missing feature I wanted. Shuffling individual pages around is quite easy though and I think for a lot of folks this is exactly what they need. I really liked how the GM could put some "secret" notes for GM use only on the pages. This is a nice addition I think I'll miss elsewhere.

When playing around I did have a problem with my game showing up as "seeking players" even

though I had turned the option off. Since I already have a campaign log going and I really need a true wiki to migrate, I didn't really try to fix this. Another sweep through the settings didn't resolve the issue, so I just made the campaign private, sent in a bug request, and left things at that.

While Tavern Keeper isn't going to be meeting my specific needs, it seems like a great resource for many GMs to keep track of their own campaigns. Even if I get my wiki going, I may very well come back to Tavern Keeper to help my players keep in touch and to help disseminate information.

Free Map 017: A Small Cave Complex

On my lunch break Monday I doodled a small cave map and when I got home I was able to use some recent lessons learned to whip that map into shape!

I had a second section to this map, part showing a long ladder from the one interior room that led to a small tower high above the mesa this cave was in.

It looked like a three year old drew it.....

....and not a creative or talented one at that.

I'm not even being overly-critical, it just plain sucked. First time trying to do a cross-section view and it came out bad. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

Because it didn't take long to scan and clean up my map I was able to spend a bit of time playing with
the layers and adding some background  color. Not much, just colored in the rocks and used a dirty stone texture to place behind the cross-hatching. Having that hatching as a file doesn't even come close to doing it by hand, but it saves me a ton of time and looks better than it would otherwise, 'cause I'd just forgo anything in there.

I'm happy with how it turned out and I actually had fun creating this map. Sometimes mapping feels like a chore so this is a pleasant change.

I hope you get some use out of this.  As always, you can click on the post's lead-in graphic or this link for the hi-res file.

Free GM Resource: More Generators!

This week's Free GM Resource isn't a whole lot to look at as it is pretty much all function over form.

www.mathemagician.net is home to four online random generators;
          Town Generator
          Treasure Generator 3.5
          Weather Generator
          Treasure Generator 3.0

I found the Town and Weather generators to be the most useful. I like the notes listed on the Town generator, especially the suggested racial mixes (feel free to use your own) and the expected generation time. It is always nice to know about how long it will take the server to create your locale. A metropolis could take two minutes....so it's nice to know that the program hasn't simply crashed, but a server is busy gronking away on my new mega-city.

As far as the weather generator goes....I just don't see that many weather generators so anything is a bonus. I particularly liked the ability to switch off between Celsius & Fahrenheit. I may be able to get my head around liters and kilograms, but Celsius is largely a mystery to me.

Documentation on the site is rather sparse. There is a credits page where the author thanks a few folks and the weather generator lists a Justin Dunmyre as a point of contact for questions. I'm going to assume that Justin is the author of this website and while I'm not a huge fan of the bare-bones delivery, he's put a couple of good tools out there for the community to use. Good job!

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.