Free GM Resource: Tabletop Audio

This week's Free GM Resource is another collection of audio files for use as "mood music" during your games.

Tabletop Audio is a relatively succinct site that allows you to play individual 10 minute background sounds that are a mix of ambiance and music.

The cool thing is that it plays right in your web browser and you can even queue up a collection of sounds. Using the playlist is super simple and doesn't require much of your attention as a GM.

I realize that this site won't be for everyone, but it really doesn't get much simpler when it comes to playing some mood music for your game.

Frugal GM Review: Devin Knight's Dark Forest Token Pack

Thanks to the GM's Day Sale over at DriveThruRPG I was able to pick up several items off of my "wish list".

One of these items was Devin Knight's Dark Forest Token Pack. Normally $2.99, during this sale it is marked down to 99¢. Normally I'd have grabbed these up at the full price, but since I'm not currently running or playing in an online game (the place I generally use these tokens), they were shuffled off to my wish list instead of my shopping cart.

Free Map 022: A Small Iced-In Fishing Village

This week I decided I wanted to try my hand at re-creating a "new" map using a previous map as the inspiration. Now I don't want to say where I got this previous map from, but only because I want to see if some folks recognize it.

The cool thing about re-purposing a map from another source is that if your players have any familiarity with the source map you can use that to your advantage. Maybe the PCs should be familiar with the area and by using a base map that your players are familiar with, there is a stronger connection to your game. Of course you can use this familiarity for evil purposes as well. If you players think the can rely on their personal information to gain an advantage, then you can twist that aspect like a knife to stick it to them.

I'm not saying you should do this, just that you can.

This map is the edge of a small fishing village that is iced-in for the winter. There are a couple of buildings, some lower-lying areas, and even a couple of tunnels through the hillsides.

This map only took an hour or so to throw together, but I've spent hours (if not days) on this map.......click here for the hi-res version.

Just A Head's Up on Maybe Saving a Few Bucks

I was checking out DriveThruRPG for something and happened to go into my wishlist. The reason is lost to me, but the important thing is that there is a special GM's day promotion going on until the Ides of March.

Everything that is part of the promotion is supposed to be 1/3rd off, but if you hunt around a bit, or in my case just scanned through my extensive wishlist, you might find some things at an even deeper discount. There were a couple of items, mostly digital maps and some tokens that I found at 2/3 off!

Just a small plug for DriveThruRPG and judicious use of their wishlist feature. It really helps to squirrel things away there to look at later. From a publisher side of things I know your could (I assume they still can) reach out to folks who had your products wish-listed and send them a discount code to help convert them from shoppers to buyers.

...and for you "purists" out there notice it is GM's Day, not DM's Day! ;)

Free GM Resource: 1974 Style Roleplaying Game

This week's Free GM Resource is am interesting minimalist RPG. 1974 Style Roleplaying Game just about defines the term "minimalist", with the single-source PHB/GMG/MM "book" coming in at a whopping 5 pages. The PC sheet is a staggering 4" x 6".

With such a small ruleset you really don't have any problems using  this for any genre.

Coming from a heavy ruleset background (HackMaster 4th Edition), the 1974 Style Roleplaying Game seems like an odd curiosity that couldn't possibly be worthwhile. Seriously?! What's the point in this game?!

Well, after the initial WTF moment wore off I realized that this could really be a perfect GM training tool. With such a rules-light system you really have to "go with the flow" and rely on rulings, not rules. A GM also has to go way beyond simple flavor text spoon-fed from the adventure writer. As somebody who has written (and run) more than a few tournaments, I had learned that I had to go pretty much word-by-word through the adventure's text boxes. If you allowed deviation your players might run rough-shod over the adventure, gaining an unfair advantage, or you might just screw them over in the process.

I'm 110% certain that this led to some bad behaviors as a GM in my home game. I'd also like to think that with my newer edition of the game and not having run tournaments in a couple years that I've gotten better.....

Anyway, I think you should definitely check out 1974 Style Roleplaying Game. It would be great for some quick one-offs or even an on-going rules-light campaign. I could also see this as a great "gateway" game for new players. If I was ever to run a game for my In-laws, this is what I'd choose. To put this statement in context, when we introduced my In-laws to a simple game of Munchkin it took 3 hours......

Another "Work In Progress" Map: Continuing the Process

OK, it has been a couple week since I last stepped through a "work in progress" (or WIP) map. The big learning event in that post ended up being a surprise to me because it was kindly pointed out (despite my allegations to the contrary) that I could use some of my available tools to streamline the process considerably.

In that post we pretty much just went from scanning the crudely drawn in map to getting a good working computer file.

This time around though I'm working on a new map, so I've already taken things to this point. It might be important to note that on this map I'm doing things differently in that instead of starting out with a complete drawn out map I have instead elected to draw a bunch of elements that I'm planning on stitching together in Photoshop. GIMP would work just as well, but the commands and toolbars will vary.

Most of the work so far

So I have this digital file that is still rough and I put it through some quick auto-tracing in Adobe Illustrator. There are alternatives to AI, Inkscape immediately comes to mind, but I use the tools I have available.

Frugal GM Review: Moleskin Maps Volume Five

One of the map-makers I keep online tabs on is +matt jackson, who just came out with his fifth volume of Moleskin Maps. I have some of his earlier maps, and have even reviewed his Village of Cowfold.

This 28 page PDF was a PWYW (Pay What You Want) product but I just checked it and saw Matt had changed it to $3.99. I'm not sure how many people were downloading it for nothing, but I bet it was a lot.

Too bad, because this collection of 13 maps, and the rest of the download, is quite worthwhile. First off, each map comes with a lead-in page that is.....if I might be so bold...damned useful. There is a section to record the area name, background, key locations, GM Notes, and even spots for wandering encounters and treasure.

Free Map 021: Another Attempt at the Cave Complex

As "promised" last week, I went back to that map and tried to create more of a 3D effect. After a couple tries I didn't like how things were progressing and ended up scrapping an hour or two or work. I got to watch/listen to some "classic" movies, and I learned what doesn't work, so the time wasn't a total loss.

After those initial missteps I just ended up going back to my work-in-progress files to where I had every level on it's own layer and simply created the same drop-shadow to each layer. The effect was pretty good, in my opinion, right up until the point where I did the stippling. With the stippling the effect is a bit subdued except where the layers overlap.

I ended up having to roll things back, essentially starting over yet again. I added some "tunnels" on each level, leading to lower levels. I kept the same shape, although the size changes sometimes, for the entrances and exits. Hopefully it is easy to tell how these two connect.

After re-doing the stippling I went ahead and added a floor texture. Nothing fancy.....

Like usual, clicking on the lead-in graphic gets you the hi-res download (or use this link). You can view/download the low-res on the right.