Free GM Resource: Wyloch's Armory

This week's Free GM Resource is another YouTube channel. Hopefully you aren't sick of dungeon crafting channels because I'm sure not. If it helps any I don't have any more lined up....

Wyloch's Armory is a new YouTube Channel that only started up two months ago and already has 16 crafting videos.

There are a couple of things I love about this channel. 1st is that the videos are clearly labeled. I know it is a minor thing, but depending on how you are watching your videos, having a well-labeled video "still" is really worthwhile.

Wyloch also has a pretty cool intro and I like the overhead camera position when he is crafting. The videos are shorter as well, which is nice. Usually if I'm following along I want to see the highlights, not follow through every fricken second of a build.

I hope you like these as much as I have!

A Bit of Re-Work on my Last Map

I received a comment asking me to post a small full-scale (?) version of the Isometric(ish) map from last week. I'm still playing around with these maps and while I was working on something else I figured, "why not?"

Ugh....I kind of wish I hadn't taken a closer comparative look.

While I liked the end result of Map050, there were aspects from the earlier map that I attempted to "improve upon" and I don't think I did. These are probably minor points that might not matter to anyone else, but I found the newer map to be too far of a departure in some aspects that I didn't realize at the time were important.

Click for larger view

I wanted to make the cavern walls taller, which was easily accomplished, and I like those results. The brown outlines? Ugh...they got to go! I also didn't care for the level of detail of the cavern floor, or even the wall striations. The new map had just too much detail.

A few "quick" trips of various layers of the original map through Adobe Illustrator got me some of the fixes I wanted. I'm not thrilled with the stipple layer, but I didn't bother to re-do it for the updated map. Instead I just put a dark photo-filter on the old one and called it "close enough".

The bonus is that now it will be much easier for me to make a larger version of this map should I want to. Blowing it up 2 or 3 times the original size will be easy. Going too far beyond that will tax my computer memory and is probably overkill anyway.

I've posted updated maps for my Patrons and if there is a call for it I could add updated PDF versions as well, but I'll save that effort for when it is called for.

Free Map050: Another Isometric Cave System

I've finished the map from last Thursday and decided to go ahead and make it available for free on my Patreon site.

I really enjoyed the last attempt at an isometric map and sometime between then and now I had a few ideas for improvement, one of which was a rather "duh!" moment for me.....man the things that come to mind when you are trying to sleep....

Anyway, this map is going to be part of a somewhat inter-connected series and I've taken a minor liberty with the water feature on this map to try and show the lake pours into a waterfall. The WIP map had the waterfall featured much more prominently and I think without the other parts of the cave system in place it looked off. One appropriate remark I got on that map is that this cave system really looked like it was "floating"..and I think that waterfall was a big part of that unwanted effect.

Here is a larger view (but smaller than the download size) of the finished map. The free map comes with two versions as a PDF and my Patrons get the maps as three PNG files (grid, no-grid, and a 100 dpi VTT version).

Frugal GM Review: Tavern Workers

I've been toying with the idea of making an NPC booklet for some time now....I know...I know...I need to finish a plethora of other works-in-progress 1st before starting another one, but it's been on my mind, so after last week's review of a collection of Savage World characters, I thought I'd see what else is out there.

Tavern Workers is a collection of "10 Shadowy Characters" for your game table that came out this last week. Right off the bat I was a little confused as to what system this product was for. Now I know that DriveThruRPG lists product information on the right side of the product listing, but I've been burned before and I know how easy it is for that information to be just plain wrong (to make things easier to set up a title you are allowed to copy the basic product info from an existing product, so errors in different settings can easily creep in). The text of the product page or the available previews don't reveal this information, which is a real shame. At a minimum I'd like to to see one of the NPCs to see if this product would meet my needs.....

....as it was I was going in pretty blind, even if I knew that this was a D&D 3.5/Pathfinder product.

Map050 Work-In-Progress

Since last week's free map I've been itching to try again at a better isometric(ish) cavern map.  I've been churning some ideas on how to make the next one better and thought instead of doing the entire map in one go I'd create it in at least two, probably three or four, sections.

Obviously I'm trying to improve my own abilities making maps, but I'm also trying to "cement" some of the things I did that felt "right" so I could do it again in the future.

One of my other "hobbies" is participating in Toastmasters and I always tell those I mentor that when ever taking on a new role they should probably try to do it at least twice in close succession so they can build upon what worked and overcome any challenges identified the 1st time out.

I am one to take my own advice....

GM Prep Tip: Game Master Standard Operating Procedures

This is another one of those "stupid" or "common sense" things that is in reality not dumb at all and definitely not common, but when implemented, has really saved me a ton of grief:
          GM Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

What is a GMSOP? Simple, it is those sets of rules declarations, player guidance, and GM parameters that are declared to the players before starting play. Invariably players establish their own in-game SOPs and over time the players learn a GM's requirements or how they prefer things, but sometimes the transition is a slightly painful one.

Free GM Resource: Classic Marvel Forever

I know I tend to bestow all my love on the more traditional "Fantasy" Role Playing Games with a dash of SciFi here & there. This week's Free GM Resource isn't so much a single product or even a game system, but a whole fricken genre.

The folks over at Classic Marvel Forever have done what they can to maintain a long-since dead RPG. While their site does have links to downloads of what appears to be the entire non-supported Marvel Super Heroes RPG line, I think you'll find a slew of other resources as well.

Now I'm sure that these downloads violate common-sense intellectual property rights, but I personally don't get to worked up about abandoned properties. If Ha$bro manages to pick up the rights to d a re-print of this game or Di$ney does one themselves, please let me know and I'll delete this post right-quick.*

If these companies don't care enough about the game to make it available to those who want to play, then they don't care enough about these product being available for download. If I'm just plain wrong about this, please feel free to let me know. I've had a few required courses on copyright and trademark law but I've also had a few life lessons on the law vs. reality.


*OK, I'll admit using the dollar signs might be a bit much....

Lessons Learned From a "Bad" Review

It has been my general experience that we gamers can be a rather resourceful lot, but sometimes we can come up short. The other day I got this review on the d30 Quick NPC Generator I put up for free over at DriveThruRPG:

"Enjoy the ease of using this product, ecepecially when you're trying to create a load of npcs. The only problem that I have is that I have had to modify it because I can't find a d30 anywhere around."

Now I'll admit I took this rather harshly, and personal, because I'm human and can't always see the forest for the trees. You'd think as someone who (usually) likes to review RPG products I'd have a thicker skin.....and usually I do. One of the problems is the short general format of reviews on that site and my natural inclination to assume what is written is the rationale for the rating.