Gaining a Bit of GM Insight from an Out-of-Table Problem

I don't try to go too-personal here at the Frugal GM, but there have been some times I can't help myself. I've gotten on the old soap-box once or twice and I've saved the really negative post I had for someone else's blog (to be fair it was more appropriate over there.)

I like to think that think, well probably delude myself, that my real-life alignment is somewhere along the lines of Neutral Good, but considering my military and organizations (Scouts, Toastmasters, etc.) background I'm probably in the Lawful spectrum for sure. Most likely Lawful Neutral.

Like many, I have some slightly convoluted personal code that helps guide my actions. I like to think most of us have them and if you could codify them they'd make for an interesting read. A good "mission statement"-ish phrase or two doesn't hurt and trying to get back to the overall RPG theme here, might be useful in creating NPCs.

GM Prep Tip: Tracking Some of the Fiddly Bits

I'm quite certain that the last thing any GM wants is to add a heap of extra work on their plate when it comes to running a game. For this reason I'm willing to bet that most GMs gloss over a lot of the fiddly rules in their chosen game system.

As a HackMaster player I keep track of a helluva lot more "stuff" than I'd ever be willing to do as a HackMaster GM, and even then I've had to go out of my way to make it easier for me to do. My custom PC sheet tracks my PC's carried weight, fatigue, and even the last time I used a skill (well, a check box if I'd used it since I last leveled). I don't even think the "Official" HackMaster PC sheets keep track of this information.

Now I'm not advocating my PC sheet, or even my game, but just noting that often the more fiddly bits of a game can be a royal pain in the ass. It is usually just best to either work out some sort of shortcut or determine what matters and what doesn't.

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.