Frugal GM Review: The Sandbox

As a small publisher wannabe I have a vision for producing what I think will be some great RPG products that people will love. Of course I am cognizant that a) my appetite for this may be far larger than I can stomach and b) I don't know what I don't know, so there is a helluva big learning curve.

This is why I'm developing a bit of a publisher crush on the folks over at Sine Nomine Publishing. Not only do they put out some fine products, but they are more than willing to share their institutional knowledge. So far it has been my experience that most of the folks that want to "share their knowledge" are people that really have way too high of an opinion of themselves and want me to acknowledge their self-appointment as someone "important" I should be listening to. They also tend to try to pollute my various social media feeds....

...no thank you.

Sine Nomine Publishing, on the other hand has pretty much just put their advice "out there" and really hasn't promoted it, or at least not that I've really seen. I pretty much had to stumble into it, starting off with The Smoking Pillar of Lan Yu when they included some cool publisher-useful info. That review got me a comment or two that led me to A Brief Guide to Small Publisher RPG Production (some awesome other stuff at that link...), and now on to The Sandbox.

While there are two RPG articles, the bulk of this "irregular journal" is about plotting & running a successful Kickstarter, from a production point of view. The article covers a bit of the same ground as A Brief Guide..., but damned if it isn't needed in this day & age.

I have a particular project that I was considering as a Kickstarter and I'm somewhat happy to see my initial plan is close to The Sandbox guidelines, but I'm not going that route. Even if you aren't ever planning on using Kickstarter the advice in this article is top-notch, or at least it feels that way to me. I have to remember point b) from above, after all.

All I have to say is thank you Sine Nomine Publishing for sharing your experience with the rest of us. I think they seem to get that we are all in this hobby together and bringing up the quality for one of us helps the group as a whole. Even if you aren't a writer, editor, or artist, you might get a great bit of insight off of The Sandbox. At the price of Free (as in beer), it'll be one of the best c

Map Work In Progress: Which Way to Go?

I actually have about five different projects in process that I'm skipping back and forth between. Some of this is due to a couple being larger projects (which need more resources than I currently have available) and some is because I haven't quite figured out the end-game (pardon the pun) for these efforts.

When I was cleaning out my desk a couple weeks ago I came across a couple game world maps I had created twenty years ago. At the time I had found what I thought was a cool RPG resource and I was in the process of translating it into my own campaign world. IIRC the "resource" was a book detailing a number of cities and countries that some series of choose-your-own-adventures books was set in. What really intrigued me was that each entry was quite abbreviated and no more than a page per country. Really just the highlights, but with just enough crunch to satisfy. In many ways I think this early exposure is why I liked the Garweeze Wurld Gazetteer from Kenzer & Company (now bundled with the Atlas to form the World of Aldrazar)

Anyway I found these old maps and some were heavily marked up on tiny hex paper and others were relatively unused. Sine I no longer have that earlier reference material I just tossed out most of the maps and scanned in the best copy I had left. While I have some memories of working on those other maps, the nostalgia didn't outweigh my desire for a cleaned out file-cabinet desk drawer.

My immediate question is what to do with this map now. Obviously I'm going to share it, but how much work do I want to put into it? Do I want to just update the map....do I want to start another game world guide with it? I'm half tempted to make the map the best I can (within reason) and then start to "drill-down" in a series of small products. If I did so I'd obviously want to leave everything a bit fast and loose so enterprising GMs can work their own particular magic.

Do I want to write to a specific game system? I'm starting to come around to maybe using Labyrinth Lord as my default "OSR" stand-in, but really I'd prefer to make it as usable as possible. Of course I really have to have fun doing this however I do it because I'm going forward with the assumption that very few would be interested.....unless I made everything completely free and then most who express interest would just download it and barely look at it.

At any rate, I'm of the opinion that I'll take this base map and start working on it, releasing the tweaks as I go along.

Free GM Resource: Mappery

A lot of times when I'm looking to make a map I start with a real-world map to get an idea of how to lay things out. This is particularly important if your map is supposed to be based on a real-world analog anyway.

There are a lot of places to find maps, but fewer places to find collections of more modern maps (maybe with a few older ones sprinkled in). There are enough collections here and there (I'm sure I've highlighted some in the past), but this one interwebs source, mappery, is pretty cool.

In addition to the requisite map collections there are a few great features worth checking out. One is the ability to have your own "room" where you basically assemble your own collection of maps. The best, in my opinion, is a "Gallery View" where you can pan-in on a big world map and see where the maps themselves are located. You can jump straight to the world view, but it works better if your narrow your focus first and then switch over. If there are too many maps in a small area they don't show up on the global view.

I went to the Antarctica page and then switched to the map viewer and got to see the location of the maps in the collection.  Pretty cool, yes?

Next time you need access to a real-world map, you should check out mappery.

New Frugal GM Product(s): Menu Generator & Drop Table

Once in a while I get one of those creative itches that I really need to scratch and this week I've spent too much time taking care of that needy feeling.

Earlier this week I had an idea for a simple drop-table to create a fantasy RPG menu. I had an idea in my mind how it'd work and after creating the original background graphics and doing a fair bit of research I realized that my concept was far too simple and trying for an "authentic" sort of medieval meal was just unrealistic.

In addition to the whole idea of when & where, as "medieval" encompasses such a large swath of time & space, there were some considerations for poor meals and better meals. Before I knew it I was looking at a slew of menus with different price points and complexity. Eventually I had to just stand back a bit and hit the subject with a rather wide brush that "felt" right to me. I took some historical information into account and just hammered a few points around until it felt right to me.

In the end I came up with a series of tables that allow you to use a full range of "standard" RPG dice. I also made sure that the tables had some extra entries so the GM could add some regional fare and even had some room for an extra table. I didn't forget the drop table, but tweaked my original idea and made a rather simple table. The drop table is available as a freebie and I put a price on the full PDF.

Here is the drop table, just for a look-see. If you want it I'd download this copy from DriveThruRPG. If the full-on version interests you, use this link.

Frugal GM Review: Mad Monks of Kwantoom

This week I managed to pick up the Mad Monks of Kwantoom, a Labyrinth Lord compatible sourcebook. Truth be told, "sourcebook" is a bit of an understatement. This thing is not just a Oriental Adventures sourcebook, but also a solo-campaign generator. There is a ton of cool stuff in here to "lovingly borrow" and the author knows this, going so far as to note "just rip off whatever you need for your game". Now I don't need permission to do that, but this acknowledgement tells me that Kabuki Kaiser (an interesting nom de plume if I've ever heard one) "gets it".

Right off, there is a metric butt-ton of content in this download, 229 pages of it. The PDF was obviously created for A5 printing, but doesn't look too bad when expanded for letter-sized printing. I'm not a fan of the huge side margins and single column layout. That empty space is put to use often for little notes and asides in red text, which is visually striking but leads to probably my greatest frustrations.

I am extremely disappointed in this product as a PDF download. I bet it is glorious as a printed book, but as a PDF....not so much. There isn't a single bookmark in this PDF! The PDF is also needlessly locked down. You cannot change the document or extract pages, which means you cannot add your own bookmarks or even make your own PDF section from the book. Imagine as a GM you wanted to go ahead and actually make all these little bits of red break-out text do something. Nope! Do you want your own Monster Manual PDF? Not going to happen. Heck, even if you want to go to the Monster Manual you need to either know it is on page of the PDF or mouse up to page four, which is marked page two...., see it is listed as page 134 and either type that in to your reader's navigation box, or do a shit-ton of scrolling.

There are other little things here & there, like an almost full-page of a cool monster graphic (on page 116/118) when you know they have a color version, because it is on the cover! Going through and listing all of them would just be piddly, but mostly just an effort to vent because of the ungainly PDF. Seriously though, the PDF is enough of a pain I doubt I'll end up using this without printing it off, unless I attempt to crack the password and go through fixing things myself, which is a lot of PITA for a nearly $13 PDF.

Lucky for me I got this on sale for $5 and there is a lot of good content. Even if you aren't running a full-on Oriental Campaign, the information for new classes, races, monsters, and magic items can weasel their way into your home campaign. Heck, I could see some folks just picking this up for the variant Monk classes. With minor tweaking the 1001 Pagodas of Doom can become just a "regular" random dungeon crawl. My favorite though is probably the roughly 20 pages of content that is "The Little Tome of Lucky Charms". I've always loved minor magic items and this collection of 100 is pretty cool. Again with some minor tweaks this would fit in with any style campaign.

Overall the Mad Monks of Kwantoom is a bit of a mixed bag and it really depends on where you want your campaign to go. There is some great content, but accessing that content is a bit of a pain. If you want to simply borrow some elements and if you can get this at the cheaper price point of $5 I think it'll be worthwhile, but if you want to use this as a PDF and you have to pay the full cover price, I'd rather just get a printed copy and save some of the frustration.

If you are itching to run an oriental adventures campaign.....then all bets are off and you should definitely pick this up.

Free GM Resource: Dragon Age Inquisition Tavern Songs

A fellow HackMaster player and new blogger Andrew Bush gave me a head's up last week about some free RPG themed music that is up for grabs until February 9th.

Evidently the folks at BioWare had been inundated with requests for the tavern music from the Dragon Age: Inquisition game and they decided to comply. From now until February 9th you can head over to the game's website and download a zip file of 10 tavern songs. If that isn't enough for you, they've also included sheet music for the songs as well!

No I can't carry a tune with a bucket, but I'm willing to bet a few brave souls will take this sheet music and run with it. It wouldn't surprise me to hear some cool versions of these songs floating about eventually. Now I'm personally not a fan of filking, but that's just me......don't let my opinion keep anyone from getting their geek on.

The songs are short, ranging from 1:11 to 2:13, although one song is a whopping 3:23. I'm planning on using these to spice up my in-game sound board (when I get off my but and organize it!).

If you come across this after February 9th, 2015 all isn't lost as the songs will be made available for sale. It isn't as good as free, but then that is what you get for not following the Dragon Age, FrugalGM, or Dungeon Beef websites.

Frugal GM Review: The Grinding Gear

Last week I picked up a copy of The Grinding Gear, and adventure I'll definitely not be running with my current group as I could see this being a complete deathtrap. It is an adventure for a well-provisioned, and well-balanced,  group of 1st through 4th level PCs.

My first pass-through on this adventure I was more "meh"....the formatting left a little to be desired, but to be fair it was far nicer than what I've done in a similar vein. If I was to just rate this on my first gut-check I think I'd have done it a great disservice.

Had I been reading this in say...2007 I'd have gobbled it up for use with the HackMaster 4th Edition system. When I went back through a second reading this dawned on me as a great HackMaster adventure. Things that I'd frown on for my current game would have been quite awesome playing the earlier version.

This adventure is trap, puzzle, and screw with your players (only a little bit) kind of game. Many times I found myself chuckling because I could see the average adventuring group trying to overcome an obstacle by hitting it "from the side" and getting "rewarded" for it. More than once the author thought of things from this perspective and added some insight for the GM.

I don't want to post spoilers, but I have to share one of my favorite lines:
"...the answer to, "Can my character read sheet music?" is "Yes!"....."

There were a couple of points in the adventure that puzzled me (as a GM). I don't like it when there is some incongruities, or something that just doesn't seem to make sense from the game-world perspective. The author thought of this and added a "cheat sheet" that helps explain a few things. I really felt that the cheat sheet was a great touch.

The PDF is open, but that isn't as big of a deal because there is an additional PDF that contains the maps that have been tweaked for printing. If you are printing the adventure though you may want to replace the dungeon maps with the tweaked ones to save on toner.

The adventure and ancillary files are provided in both US Letter and A4 formats, which is a great touch.

If you're looking for a tougher dungeon crawl for your OSR game, I think you'll love The Grinding Gear. I particularly recommend it for HackMaster 4th edition games.

New Frugal GM PWYW Product: Tracking Drop Table

Today the FrugalGM blog has been "down"......well, not "down" like last week, but just not quite pointing right. I apologize to anyone who tried to access the site and went "GAH!" when they saw a huge picture of my mug.

After the all-too-long domain name server (DNS) issue with my last service provider I said "screw it" and migrated the domains over to Google Domains. For some reason everything got diverted to the main index file on my primary hosting account. Luckily it was an easy fix and I shouldn't ever have to screw with it again.

Because of the pending domain issues I didn't post anything since Monday and instead of my usual map I decided to go a different route and make my own version of a drop table. I ended up with something I can be proud of and most importantly, use. This thing is a huge file, but that's what you get with a hi-res full color PDF set for High Quality (or maybe Press Quality, cannot recall). I plan on getting it done up right at the print shop and laminated. Then I might actually make a small box for it, but that is getting ahead of myself.

Here is a quick glance and you can get the real deal as a PWYW product over at DriveThruRPG. You can use this link or just click on the lead-in graphic.

If you're wondering where I got the idea, well I was having some issues sleeping last night and came up with the idea of a drop table based on Chutes & Ladders. The footprints actually line up to the ladders I found on one set.

As far as rules go, they are printed on the table, but I didn't go too far into elaborating on how I'd use it because I like the idea of each GM inherently tweaking it for their needs. The way I'm going to use it though, is to use the table to mark progress, with the lead party getting a lead somewhere along the 1st line (boxes 1-12). A d6 & a d8 will denote the tracker and tracked (respectively) and the markers advance that many number of spaces. I'll require a tracking check initially and after any water or wandering monster encounter. A failed tracking check drops the tracker down to a d4 and I'll use the listed bonuses/penalties. If the tracker catches up to the "quarry's" space at the end of any roll, they will have caught up.