Free Map049: Isometric(ish) Cave System Map

I've just put up a few versions of a cave system map over on my Patreon page.

This is my 1st attempt to create an isometric map in my own particular style and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Usually what I envision and what I can manage are pretty far apart, but this came out darned close. Now I just need to figure out how to get the grid the way I envisioned and then I can start working on incorporating water features.

The free maps are roughly 8" by 10", with and without a grid. As I was posting this maps I had a thought that this might work as a VTT map, so I tweaking things to add a 100 DPI .png file that is 20" by 24". That map still comes in just under 5 MB so it might be too much for a VTT map, but you guys will have to let me know.

My Patrons get much larger versions of the map that are 18.6" by 15.4". That size is much nicer than this preview size:

Frugal GM Review: Savage Characters Volume One

Last week I was offered another Savage Worlds product for review and I seriously considered turning it down, or at least putting it off, because I don't play Savage Worlds and reviewing two Savage World products in a row felt a bit much.....

....then I realized why spend my own money when I want to blow it all on some special deals?

Seriously though, Savage Characters Volume One is one of those products I'd never pick up for myself, for the aforementioned reasons, but I'm really glad this opportunity fell into my virtual lap because I'm highly impressed. There is maybe one real issue for concern with this product and anything...well everything else I could come up with as criticisms is nit-picky....as in I had to really look hard for stuff to suggest for improvements.

Awesome Good Birthday Deal on Heroic Maps Over at DriveThruRPG.

One thing I've noticed as I've gotten older is that birthdays don't excite me nearly so much and I generally enjoy trying to give other people gifts to help celebrate being another year older.

Think about it...should the fact that you've survived another 365(ish) days intact be gift enough? Shouldn't everyone else that had to put up with you over the course of the last year get some kind of reward?

Now I'm not saying that the folks over at Heroic Maps share that same general sentiment with me, but it does seem like they like celebrating their birthday in a similar fashion. Going on...like right fricken now...is a HUGE 2nd birthday sale. From now until sometime Monday (23:39 GMT) all of their maps are 60% off.......60% OFF!!!

You should really hop over to DriveThruRPG right now and pilfer through, I mean judiciously spend all your money on buying up their entire collection. The only thing they could have done better was just make a kitchen-sink bundle for those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure of using their maps.

Happy Birthday Heroic Maps.....now take the rest of my money!








Seriously....why are you still reading this? Go over there now....my posts aren't going anywhere...

GM Prep Tip: Being Prepared for Inspiration

I think I've eluded to this GM Prep Tip before, but I cannot find where I've come right out and stated this one little thing that has helped me immeasurably over the years.

It might sound dumb, but please bear with me.....

When you are out & about carry with you...at all times...a simple pen and paper. "Of course!", I can practically hear a lot of you saying this out-loud, but I want you to think about the more-than-likely many times you needed a pen to make a note, sign a credit card receipt, whatever...and didn't have one. In my experience a pen is much more common for people to have than an appropriate thing to record some notes in.

I've Made a Decision.....Definately a Cool New Product

Earlier this week I posted about two Kickstarters, the Reaper Bones III and the new TerraTiles (links to the actual Kickstarters, not my posts).

Like so many others, I'm watching this Reaper KS blow up, getting 3/4 of a million in 24 hours, but I think it has already leveled off some as it was close to that last night when I went to bed. By my quick counting and horrible mental math I'd say that at the current count the minis are coming in ate an average of $1.20 a piece, which is great is you actually want all those minis. There isn't a lot being offered I'm overly excited about.

Compare & contrast with the TerraTiles.

New "Mundane Magic" Items Over at DriveThruRPG

This weekend I was cleaning up some files on my computer and came across an article I had written for Knights of the Dinner Table #198 called "Mundane Magic". I love the idea that not every magical item has to be created by a wizard and not every item has to be super powerful.

I know I've read somewhere about giving some items a chance to become magical through surviving magical attacks and I recall a tournament adventure where an odd spell mishap turned one random item in the spellcaster's backpack magical, but I wanted to push it out a bit further.

Click for the DriveThruRPG Link

In the KoDT article the three items were a courting-candle that gave a bonus to resist-persuasion, a cheap helmet that granted an additional first-aid skill check, and an animal nose ring that indicated the direction home.

This time around I decided not to submit to KoDT and put it up myself. The three items are arguably a bit more useful this go-around in that they are a set of bracers, a weapon hilt, and a utility knife.

I've put this up on DriveThruRPG as a Pay What You Want Item with a suggested 50¢ price. My patrons over at Patreon got it last week as a download.

Free GM Resource: The System (a "new" RPG)

It is no secret my primary game is HackMaster, but what you don't know is that I generally run & play the game about as by-the-book as I can. I think this is a habit based on my previous position as a tournament manager (and frequent tournament GM).

Even though I generally have no need for another game system I do enjoy reading up on them for a couple of reasons. The 1st is just to see if it might be fun for a one-off or a change of pace (even though I never seem to run one of these). The 2nd reason is because I like to see how other designers handle certain RPG "problems". Every game has to figure out how to handle a simulation of events in a fast, "fair", and gamer-friendly way. Rounding out my reasons are I like looking at layout and I'm always on the lookout for a different way of doing things (even though I seldom deviate from the game rules...I'm kind of oxymoronic that way.)

Today's Free GM Resource is another RPG system simply called....wait for it....The System. Written by +Richard LeBlanc The System is a product of the mid-80's....and Richard's teenage mind.

Now I remember trying to write my own RPG in the mid-80's, and I didn't get much further than a few pages and even then they were just ideas hobbled from multiple systems. I think I latched on to the 4th edition of HackMaster because they were doing everything....and I mean everything from my so-called system, and they did it better.

I highly recommend picking up The System if for no other reason than to transport yourself back to the 80's. You will have to fiddle with it if you want to play (there are no monsters listed), but it is a good read (or at least I thought so).

I loved this dedication, "This book is dedicated to those brave new geeks who embraced RPGs in their earliest days, and gave the moral majority something to worry about."

Instead of linking straight to the download, I'm linking to the page where you can read about The System. The download is at the bottom of the page.

A Cool New Product or Missed Opportunity, Not Sure Which

After a really late night watching fireworks across all of Treasure Valley the Mrs. and I tried to sleep in today. I'm not a big sleeper-inner so when I got up relatively early I hopped online to work up a Free GM Resource post. I tend to try and work a week or two ahead, so I was on the prowl for something to share.

One of the rabbit holes I went down on the interweb was a link to what initially seemed a company called TerraTiles, but that is the name of this "product" by Rainn Studios. I have to put quotes around the word product because you can't actually go out and buy the TerraTiles. Evidently this is pretty much a Kickstarter-only item.