Frugal GM Essential Gamemaster Gear: Generic Tokens

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.

Like my post about the Noteboard, I bought a bunch of these little generic tokens specifically for "emergency GM use". They cost a couple cents each from Chessex and I'm certain I've gotten some from Koplow Games as well. I'm not linking to their respective websites because these tiny pawns aren't there. They come in a bunch of colors and I probably have a small handful of each color.

Unlike the Noteboard I pull these things out all the damned time. While I do have boxes and boxes of miniatures, these things are just to handy. I use them at my home table and at conventions. I've found that using these things for monster minis and "real" minis for the PCs adds a lot more to the game than I'd expect. If I need to I can write a number on the upright portions and it is easy to use a combination of color-coding and numbers to keep everything straight.

For me this is one of those simple things that just seems to work. I don't have to understand it, I just have to reap the benefits. There are almost always two-three of each color in my GM bag. I also keep some larger "regular" pawns to use as NPCs and even down-n-dirty PC figs if I need to.

The only place I've seen these from the likes of Chessex and Koplow are at their booth at conventions, but if you keep a look out you might find them elsewhere........definitely worth "splurging" on.

Free Frugal GM Product: d30 Potion Adverse Miscibility Table

Another month, another free d30 Table. Now I'm not saying that I plan on putting out a free d30 table every month, but I'm not saying I won't either.

Let's just say I'm non-committed at this point.

I was really hankering to make a d30 potion table for an upcoming project and, just as a bit of a precaution, looked through the d30 DM Companion and wouldn't you know it.....there was a table that was too damned close to what I wanted to do.

No use reinventing the wheel.....

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not above making my own version of something someone else has done, but if I'm not doing it "better" in some fashion....I don't see the point. Instead I just shifted efforts a bit to create the d30 Potion Adverse Miscibility Table.

I'm scheduled to be without internet access when this gets posted so the links should work. If they don't it will probably be on the front page under "Free Products" or you could find it on the Frugal GM publisher page.

Frugal GM Review: GM Mastery Book Three

The last couple weeks to maybe the last month I've been blessed with free content to review. While I cannot complain about free RPG product to review I have to state (again) my 1st 2 rules when it comes to reviews:
          #1. If you give me something appropriate to review I'll do so
          #2. I'll be honest in said review.

This last week I was offered something "cheap" to review. Now I completely get that "frugal" is synonymous with "cheap", but the primary definition of frugal is "sparing or economical with regard to money or food" and I'm in the economical camp when it comes to being a Frugal GM. I don't mind spending money on quality and I loathe free crap. Something cheap isn't necessarily bad and something expensive isn't necessarily good.

Please remember this, and my two rules, when offering things....

OK, now that is out of the way this week's Frugal GM Review is a "GM Mastery Book" from John Four over at Roleplaying Tips. He is trying to drive traffic to his website and build his email lists so he's giving this "Book Three" for the low, low price of your email.

Now I got this off of a Dropbox download link, but I did take and sign up again so I could make sure what I got was what you'd get. As is my usual course for a review I opened up the file, poked around a bit under the hood for an initial impression, and stashed it away to read (usually) a day later or so.

I have to admit my 1st impression of the GM Mastery book was somewhere between, "This is a hot mess" and "Do I have to read this?". Needless to say I wasn't impressed. The download is a whopping 8.29 MB in size and it isn't just a 141 page PDF as John Four told me it was (via email and on his website). No...this is six PDFs ranging in size from a measly 88 KB to a decent 5.56 MB. Three of the PDFs are tavern maps, with two of them being over-sized, one of the files is an over-sized cover and the last two....actually the 1st two in the zip file, are "the book". Chapters 1 and 2 are in one PDF and the third chapter, essentially the longest list you've ever seen, is in the other PDF. The largest file in this download is chapter 3.

For me the questions kicked in immediately. Why is this organized this way? Why does the cover list one author (John Four) and the title page list two? Do I really need to have the D&D 3rd Edition PHB? Wait a second....who the hell has the 3rd Edition anything? When was this thing put together? Why is there a 87 page list? Seriously...who makes an 87 page list?

After clicking through a lot of pages to see that this 87 page list contained 10,000 unique "Random Tavern/Inn Names" I skipped back to the 1st page of "charts and tables" in Chapter 3 and read the 1st entry. This list (?) was entitled "50 Example Themes and Hooks" and the 1st entry was:
"1. Tree House. The place is inside or on top of a large, ancient tree." Not bad....but wait, there's more! This entry has a second sentence: "Think Dragonlance or of various movies that have featured this theme."

Ugh......that felt like a sentence written just to fill space. I'm pretty sure he meant "Inn of the Last Home" in Solace, from the Dragonlance series. When pushing a list of "themes" telling the reader to (paraphrase) "think of themes" is pretty much missing the point.

After setting this download aside for a day and coming back to it I could go ahead and start reading the 1st two chapters. I was halfway through before the author actually describes the differences between a tavern, an inn, and a restaurant. The two short paragraphs regarding the "Origins, History, and Background" of these establishments is nearly at the end of the thing, on page 133. There is some good details and ideas in this "book", but you'll have to sift through a lot to get there. There are pages of content that could probably be summed up in a sentence or two.

Often with a PDF product things come down to, "Would I be willing to print this out?" These PDFs aren't secured or locked up, which is a plus, but I can't see me even wanting to print up a section of this. Not a fan of the name and page numbers on each page and there is a huge black/grey pattern border on the outer edge of each page. These elements are just straight-up ink wasters. I'm thinking there is some good bits and pieces in here, but it might be better to review the documents, take some notes, and work off of those.

With the reference to 3rd Edition D&D I'm pretty sure this download is quite old because the stuff I've seen from John more recently isn't so much like this. It's older content he is making free to help drive some traffic (like I mentioned earlier). There is some good stuff in here and he does have some great tips so you might get a lot more out of this download than I might have let on. I think with some layout changes and some heavy editing this could be re-released as a pretty decent sourcebook.

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.