Frugal GM Review: Dice Chest from Dog Might Games

At the Origins Game Fair last June I decided to be a bit "adventurous" and splurge for a new Dice Box, primarily for use with my home game. There were several vendors at Origins selling what I was looking for, ranging from relatively cheap (not inexpensive, but cheap) wooden boxes to some really high-priced top-end dice trays. My wife got a beautiful leather-lined tray exquisitely made with some gorgeous hardwood, but I didn't have that kind of cash and I wanted something more along the lines of a full-on box.

I ended up getting a good end-of-con deal on a dice chest from Dog Might Games. You might remember these guys from one of three gaming box Kickstarters (dice chests, deck boxes, and adventure cases). These guys sold just shy of $135,000 worth of product on those crowd-funding efforts.

What I picked up was a white ash box stained in dark walnut, with red felt, nickle pedestal legs and an aluminium helm logo. The regular retail for this chest is a whopping $64.90....$60 if I had bought it as part of the Kickstarter. After reviewing the Kickstarter campaign and video it is clear that Dog Might Games only used the platform for sales....there wasn't a single reference to needing funding to purchase supplies, new tools (plant), or anything that needed to be "funded".....I realize that a Kickstarter Rant isn't the purpose here....so I'll let this matter drop. I will though, review this item like I had purchased it for full price....

GM Prep Tip: Pre-Campaign Survey

I wish I can take credit for this, but like many of you, I seek out and learn from those around me and this tip came from a GM buddy of mine:

Poll your players to see what kind of campaign they want to play in.

This probably seems like both the most brilliant and yet the dumbest thing ever, because I bet most of you have done this yet half-assed it like I have.

I'm certain we've all asked a player or two a pointed question about what type of game to run, but the information collected was tainted or just generic. Asking in a group setting introduces bias and influence and even the act of asking a verbal question can muddle the waters.

My buddy took it s step further and created an actual survey for the players to fill out and then he worked up his campaign based on what the document responses were. What he got surprised him but he ended up being able to focus his efforts and put together quite the memorable campaign.

Actually, I know he's done this a few times and the resulting themes have been interesting:

• An Icelandic Saga campaign
• A campaign set on the eve of the fall of Constantinople
• A campaign of wizards proceeding through magic school (like in Harry Potter)

Here is a link to one of the questionnaires he has used. Undoubtedly you will have to tweak it to fit your needs.....

I think you'll find a little effort to effectively poll your group will pay HUGE dividends down the road....and don't forget to fill one out for yourself.

Frugal GM Contest: Monster Stand Ins

It has been a while since I've had any sort of contest here on the Frugal GM blog, so I think we are overdue.

In the past the contests have been a bit hit or miss and I think know I'm to blame because of the contest parameters I've set up.

This time around I'm going to make it simple....but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This contest prize will be the complete Monster Stand-In set I picked up at GenCon and reviewed here. I haven't cut out any of the monsters, but I have (obviously) removed the shrink-wrap on the cardboard and opened up the packages of stands. The whole set is in impeccable shape and I'll leave it to the winner to cut these things apart and use them as they will.

The rules will be quite simple:
1) Comment on this post that you'd like the Monster Stand-Ins
2) No spamming the comments
3) Wait until next Thursday's (August the 27th) post to see if you win.

I'll count up all the comments on Wednesday evening (about 10PM Eastern) and use a random die generator to figure out which comment wins. If I'm available I'll do it on the Tenkar's Tavern chat, so if you tune in you can to find out early.

That's it....no muss & no fuss. If you would like this, speak up in the comments of this post and you'll have as fair a shot as anyone else. I'll ship the prize to the winners.......


Late day edit:
Some folks might want to know which monsters are included...and here is a link to the list.

Frugal GM Essential Gear: Dice Box

Honestly, I thought I was done with the whole idea of "Essential Gear" for gaming, but it was pointed out to me that aside from dice, which I've repeatedly stated I'm not going to cover, there are several more things that I simply don't game without.

One of them is my dice box.

Like so many of you I do have dice bags, with the old standby being the much beloved Crown Royal bag. That was my first dice bag ever and I still have a small pile of them.....our local liquor stores keep them just for folks like me.

Free GM Resource: Awesome OSR PC Classes by James V West

Sorry guys, but this week's Free GM Resource is not some low-hanging fruit.....you're going to have to jump through some minor hoops for it (but it'll be worthwhile!)

Over the last week or so, the highly talented James V West has been releasing some awesome new "OSR" PC classes. He has also released an OSR PC Sheet as well and I don't think he has plans on slowing down anytime soon.

These new offerings aren't on his website, but you can check out his G+ feed and look for them yourself. I realize some of you might not do the G+ "thing", so I've checked and his feed is view-able without a G+ account.

Because I know people might be seeing this months or years after I've posted it, making reading through a long G+ feed impracticable, I'll post some linked previews for the four files he has up now. You'll be on your own for any others.....

First up is the OSR PC Sheet...

Then we have the Chainmail Chick

Next up it the Sinewy Barbarian

Followed up by the Star Wizard

Now all of these were created with Labyrinth Lord in mind, which means they should work decently well with just about any OSR game. You might need to make some minor tweaks to XP or some such, but nothing terrible.

Free Map051: A Small Village

While my wife was playing in an online HackMaster Game I was working on a new map.....OK, I'll admit it, I was working on the map for a few hours before and after her game as well.....

Often when I'm working on something I've got several objectives, usually more than "just make a map". In this case I was experimenting with new techniques and materials. At first I really thought it was all going to come together, but when I digitized the work.....not so much. A lot of fine detail was just utterly lost because the scanner can only do so much.

Now I'm not saying I don't like this finished map, it just didn't come out nearly like I had hoped. There was a particular use for this map in mind and now I don't want to use that map anymore and pretty much have to start from scratch. These things happen and truth be told I learned several great things from the process.

Click to enlarge

The map is 8" x 10" and a standard-quality PDF print. My Patrons get a high-quality version of the map as part of their Patronage of the Frugal GM.

You can get the free map by clicking the lead-in graphic above or by using this link.

Frugal GM Review: Far Away Land Pawn Pack I

I think one of the reasons I was so interested in checking out the Monster Stand-Ins last week was because I had downloaded the Far Away Land Pawn Pack I set right before I headed off to GenCon.

I managed to get the Far Away Land Tome of Awesome in hardcover (it is by they way...awesome), and I'm still waiting on getting in on a game.

A BIG part of FAL is the art. While I could use my normal minis with FAL, they really come up short. After picking up the rules I want to play in that game world, with those characters. FAL feels like Futurama meets Adventure Time with a large dose of Heavy Metal. I'm sorry, but a handful of Ral Partha or Reaper minis just isn't going to cut it.

FGM034: Spell Cards (Magic Card-Size, 9 Up)

A couple weeks ago, before GenCon, I accidentally washed my little idea notebook, totally shredding it. Well, shredding might be too harsh, but it isn't going to usable any longer.....

This means I had to painfully flip through the soggy, somewhat torn pages looking to see if I could salvage any information. Luckily, most of the lost data was mostly calculations and scribblings for old projects, so no big whoop.

The only project in the book that hadn't been at least started was some generic spell cards I wanted to work on. Most of the spell cards I've seen are for specific systems and none of them have enough details for my current....well, heck, even my old game systems I would want to use them for.

For example, my HackMaster 4th Edition Double-Specialist Invoker essentially changed every spell he cast. Even if there were spell cards for HackMaster 4th Edition, I had to remember all of those changes. If I had these cards I could have simply filled out a card for each spell and when he leveled up, I'd just fill out new cards.

These cards come 9 to a page and while I have put in a back-side page of graphics, I'm assuming that most people wouldn't print the backside, placing the cards in card sleeves or making their own backs. I could have made these into forms as well, but the idea was for the player using them to personalize them to their needs.

I'm sure that I'll get some negative comments regarding the fact that the cards are greyscale and not fillable forms, but they were conscious decisions on my part, so I'm not going to get worked up about that. If that is a problem, then I assume folks won't download them, much less use them!

I'll eventually put this up on DriveThruRPG, but for now...and probably the next couple weeks, you can download these off of my Patreon page.