Frugal GM Essential Gamemaster Gear: Noteboard

As part of a small series of posts I'm outlying what I consider some "essential" GM kit that I have found necessary to be able to run a game. I'm shying away from dice....for reasons...and I don't expect my opinions to be the end-all of the topic, but instead the beginning of a larger conversation.

I wasn't going to put the Noteboard on my essential list, but a G+ comment made me reconsider. Don't get me wrong...I love the Noteboard and did a review of it last year when I brought one home from Origins. The reason I wasn't going to use it for the "essential" list is because I don't use it in my game....

....and this isn't a bad thing. I bought the Noteboard to be a permanent fixture in my small GM "go bag" to be used when needed, more of a backup. In the last year I've used it exactly once and it did a kick-ass job that one time. Normally I have other equipment I use at my home game and I haven't forgotten my larger map boards at the away games.

I've been fortunate in that regard, but by making this a permanent part of my travel bag it pretty much becomes essential gear in use if not completely in theory. Even though I've used it only that one time I'd still say that Noteboard was a great $12 spent.

Pimping for a Worthwhile Patreon

Ok, I'll freely admit this is a bit against type for me because while I don't mind promoting other people's distinct products I generally refrain from generic "check out and support this guy's work". That is what the "+12 Links of Helpfulness" is for.

Why would I want to let you know about any Patreon but mine?.....

.....especially since I have friends with cool Patreon projects*.

I've been a big fan of Dave Graffam from afar and I've mentioned his work in a post here or there. I don't know the guy, but I think he does some kick-ass work. Enough that he's made the short list of folks I support myself on Patreon. It might be significant to note that I'm not currently employed and generally broke as hell, so making my list at all is a significant endeavor right now. I'm supporting him at a whopping $3 a month and if I had any decent amount of discretionary funds it'd be at $10 a month so I can get all the cool models he makes gratis.

Dave's 1st Patreon Model

Honestly, at $3 I think you are ahead of the game since you get a free model every month. Most of his models run more than than and since I do own a few I'm risking unneeded dupes, but I'll take my chances.

I might not be all that flush with disposable cash, but I can out in a good word to you guys. Straight up.....paying $3 a month for a "free" model is a good deal. Unless you want to bide your time for a sale and try to blow tens upon tens of dollars (for me it's be hundreds) trying to grab a bunch of stuff on sale at DTRPG, you are better off supporting Dave on Patreon. Besides....if you get one model a month you'll be much more likely to actually assemble the damn things. If you get 10 or more in a go you'll probably just see it as a mountain of work....

....come on...admit it....




*Please don't ask me to pimp your Patreons, this is a bit of an exception since I can't pledge what I'd like to.

Hoody Fricken Hoo! Post #500!

Wow...I'm amazed I've managed to make it this far, sharing what I can and working to help give a little something-something back to the RPG community as a whole.

Thank you everyone for dropping by, leaving comments, or just picking up some dice an playing.

The last 3 & 1/3 years has been interesting to say the least and I'm hoping it'll be a lot less than 3 & 1/3 years before I hit post #1000.

The best part of doing this has been the opportunity to interact with gamers I've never met in person, share ideas and work, and be a better gamer, GM, and publisher because of it. I know for some 500 posts isn't a lot, but I see this as symbolic of the late night online chats (group and one-on-one), emails of encouragement, and collaborations.

I'm one of those types that always has about 20 different ideas for projects in some stage of production and I'm lucky if 5 of them get finished. The Frugal GM blog has really helped give me some direction and a pathway to getting those five items checked off my list. Of course it probably is responsible for remainder of those 15 unfinished projects as well, but I'm going to dwell on the positive.

Again, THANK YOU for all your support, it has been much appreciated!

Free GM Resource: Pointcrawl

This week's Free GM Resource is a pretty cool, if non-standard Dungeon Generator with an unwieldy title.

DunGen Pointcrawl Dungeon Generator by Ed Allen: Ed's Hobby Hovel & Ruminations of a Geek throws your random dungeon up as a chart and gives you the transitions from room to room. There are plenty of options to choose from and this thing will spit out wandering monsters, regular monsters, and treasure.

You can also click on a room in the chart which highlights it and the transitions. You can get some quick lookup info and twirl the room around some to "mess up" the chart.

I'm sure there is a valid use for this property, probably to help keep the charts organized, but mucking the chart up a bit is some stupid fun and I can't help myself......

Frugal GM Review: 200 Character Backgrounds

Yesterday I was asked to review this new RPG product that had been released that day and while I already had my next review or two "in the hopper" I said something to the effect of  "I'll get around to it."

Well, I guess 12 hours later is technically correct, but not what I was expecting. Evidently one of my pets decided that 6 AM on a Sunday was "sleeping in", so here I am.

Frugal GM Essential GM Gear: Staedtler Non-Permanent Pens

With arguably the biggest convention of the year coming up (depending what you mean by "big") I thought I might write a few posts about what I consider some essential GM gear, highlighting one small piece of kit at a time.

I will not cover dice though, because I have mentioned before I'm a bit of a dice snob and that is one thing too many GMs and players hold precious. I might as well try to stoke an edition war.....nope, just not gonna happen.

Frugal GM Review: Monster Pamphlet #1

This week I grabbed what looking like a cool little zine-style mini-monster book simply called "Monster Pamphlet #1". Written by Arlin Ortiz and put out under the Monster Pamphlets imprint, this 1st issue of 3 is a Pay What You Want product.

Right off the bat, this PDF is has no PDF security, which really isn't a factor with the exception that means there won't be a PDF watermark on every page. I think that is important for a visual product like this.

Originally running $5 an issue, the 12 page PDFs are being released for $2 each. For that 12 pages you get 2 pages of cover, 5 pages of write-up and 5 pages of art.

FGM033 "Were" Have the Good brothers Gone?

I have a new Tweak & Toss available over at DriveThruRPG entitled "Were" Have the Good Brothers Gone? Obviously the title is a bit of a give-away that there might be some lycanthropy in this adventure....or is it?

This time around I didn't go through and list a bunch of encounters, but instead focused on a couple of "important" points and used the remaining space to highlight a number of specific tweaks that could be made based on the party's strength. It is a bit of a departure from my normal Tweak & Toss short encounter sets, but I like changing it up some.