What Would You Do With an Improbable Set of Stats?

I managed to get one of my HackMaster PCs to 9th level during our last gaming session, which is a bit of a milestone for me as this is only the second time I've managed to get a PC to that level.

The leveling process was pretty quick and painless as these things go and I won't bore you with the details, but in the course of things I had more than enough time to think about this character's progression from rolling 3d6 straight down the line for stats.

I also won't bore you with any character stories......well, not yet at least.

This PC is a statistical anomaly for sure. Before adjustments for race I had for my stats:
16 STR
16 INT
16 WIS
18 DEX
12 CON
  9 LKS (Looks)
11 CHA

Frugal GM Essential Gear: Personal Libations

I was going through my Thinkgeek Bag of Holding, which I actually use to haul my gaming stuff around at conventions (for now) and found one of my many flasks.

It occurred to me that I pretty much always play in an "adult" game and this is one of the few times I imbibe. Travelling to a convention, for me, has the added task of figuring out how much, and what type of, booze to bring.

The last handful of years I've simply used a series of Stanley flasks to haul my hooch. I don't have the 8 oz flask pictured left, but I do have the shot glasses and the smaller 5 oz version of this flask. At Origins this year I had a veritable mini bar with me and while I don't advocate gaming while intoxicated, because it might lead to too many PC deaths, I do recall having a wee bit of excess on Thursday night.

Now I'm not complaining....the next morning I found myself light one small personal item and heavy a butt-load of minis and a wicked Army knife. I still had both my d30's so no harm there.....

My normal Sunday game is at my house and everyone in the group usually has a beer or two. It isn't uncommon for the game to start late because we are catching up from the week.....game night is a social event that extends far past rolling the dice. I guess I'm a social drinker so that makes sense....

How many of you folks knock-back a drink or two while gaming? Have you had to account for this in the when and where of your regular game? I don't think I'm in the minority here, but I have to consider a flask of "the good stuff" to be some of my essential gaming gear. The way I figure it, having something on-hand beats having to play in the bar (too noisy) or make a run to the local liquor store (all sorts of issues if flying to a game).

Another Month, Another d30 Table: Night Watch Event

I put up my latest d30 table over on my Patreon site yesterday with the full intention of placing it on DriveThruRPG later in the week when the last free item I had up there dropped off the front page.

Technically it is later, but I expected the spell cards to have a bit more time up.

The d30 Night Watch Event Table is just a collection of things that can happen during the night outside of a wandering monster check. I wrote this up with some rather simple mechanics to serve as a bit of flavor text to make the boring night watch not so boring, but not jam-packed enough to get too old.

I haven't gotten tired of using my d30 yet, but I did tweak this particular table to call for my old d30 that is numbered 1-10 three times. I'm sure somebody will complain about that, or the fact that it uses a d30. If I get too many complaints though I guess I'll be a complete dick and start writing tables for a d60 or that weird d37 I have lying around. I'd hate to do that because then I'd feel obligated to send my Patrons d60s or d37s.....

As always, since I'm using the Order of the d30 logo, this table is 100% free (not even PWYW).

On a side note, last day of my meds!

Free GM Resource: Menu Generator from Inkwell Ideas

This week's Free GM Resource is something I don't think I've shared before, but I may have danced all around it.

Yesterday +Erik Tenkar (yes, that Tenkar) did a guest post regarding a GM's "go to" resource. While I have to admit his choice was way high up on my list I have to go a bit beyond and just admit that random tables in general are my "go to". I've highlighted Tablesmith before and I'm trying to learn how to use Inspiration Pad Pro 3 because I want something I can use on one of my tablets at the table.

In the meantime I tend to make my own smart-book of random table results I can pull from as needed in-game. One of the many generators I use is the Random Inn/Tavern Menu from the folks over at Inkwell Ideas. Loading a few results into a word document helps me pull a menu out of my butt.

Now I'll admit that I don't use this one so much anymore since making up my own menu generator, but if I need something quick and easy, this is still a great way to go.




On a personal note I'm out of the hospital and finally off pain meds, but sitting at my computer is a bit taxing and just hammering this out makes me want to grab "the good stuff". Thanks for all the well-wishing & positive thoughts. I'm hoping that I'll be back to 100% in the next couple of days.

Guest Poster - Tenkar - What is Your Go To GM Resource?

+Christopher Stogdill asked me to drop a guest post over here at the Frugal GM blog and I was honored to be asked. Chris has posted over at The Tavern a few times and it's nice to be able to return the favor :)

Of course, being that this is the Frugal GM blog, I had to put my thinking cap on as to the kind of
post I'd be writing. It didn't take long for it to come to me - GM resources.

I think most of us have certain resources or inspiration fountains that we return to, whether it's during game prep or when the party goes left and all you have prepared is to the right.

For me, the one thing I nearly always have close at hand is the d30 Sandbox Companion by +Richard LeBlanc . In the 21 months or so since it's release, I've gotten more use out of the 50 some odd pages of charts and tables than probably the rest of my gaming collection combined. It's inspired game prep, it's been used in game sessions and it's even been used at The Tavern to inspire gaming posts. It's like the swiss army knife of the OSR for me. All I need now is one for the White Star RPG and I'll be ready to run scifi games on the fly.

Now, what works for me won't necessarily work for others. We all have our own quirks and backgrounds that make us what we are.

So, tell the readers here at the Frugal GM what your go to GM resources are. Maybe you'll open the eyes of others to some excellent products or ideas that may have been overlooked.

Unexpected Frugal GM "Vacation"

Just a brief head's up that the Frugal GM blog will likely be short on posts because I've had a bit of an accident and am currently in the hospital. With any luck I'll be released in the next day or so, but I'm likely to be bedridden.

If I'm lucky we'll have a guest post or two and if I can manage it, I'll spend this down time work my trusty pad & pencil. It is hard to post from my phone and the WiFi isn't working to post from my iPad.

The Winner of the Monster Stand-In Giveaway

My apologies to anyone who might have tuned in to last night's Tavern Chat over at Tenkar's Tavern hoping for the winner results, but I hurt my back yesterday and literally wasn't in a position to attend. I'm not faring too well this morning so I won't be spending too much time drawing out the results here.

Luckily for me there were 16 folks who wanted a chance to win the Monster Stand-Ins I picked up from GenCon and reviewed here. I was able to bust out my very own d16 and roll.....a 16! Must be lucky dice to get the max result right out the gate...

That means our lucky winner was Tony T. Tony...I'll be in touch.

Frugal GM Prep Tip: Pre-Drawing Your Battlemats

I know a lot of GMs are fans of using Battlemats, I know I am.

The thing with battlemats is, obviously, you can draw on them, but that great benefit is also that you usually have to interrupt the action to draw on them.....if you do it in-game. Because of this, what usually happens is you end up drawing something rather crude.

Personally I don't think players really mind since crude outlines of rooms and obstacles on a battlemat is the de facto standard for most home games, but it doesn't have to be.

The answer is to pre-draw some of your rooms/battles onto pieces of acetate. This was my go-to response for multi-table (i.e. big) tournaments where I wanted all the tables to have a standardized battlemat overlay. You can get thin flat sheets meant for use with overhead projectors at most any office supply store.

Some of the higher-end (& quality) stuff from Dick Blick

My personal preference was a far cheaper roll of acetate picked up at a fabric store. Not just a run-of-the mill sewing supply store, but those larger places that carry upholstery fabric. They usually have long 6' rolls of varying thickness for a couple bucks a running foot. That stuff goes a long way.

I prefer the thick acetate because it is usually more flexible and easier to work with. The thinner flat sheets for overhead projectors are the best, but hard to pick up and place...or at least they are for me. You can solve that problem easily enough by taping a small pick-up tab on a discreet spot along the edge.

Something I've been meaning to do and haven't gotten around to, is creating some flat trees (outlines) that have been printed out onto the acetate that I can use as terrain. I could also do small buildings the same way. IIRC they cost about $1 a page at places like FedEx Kinkos and if you lighted the design enough in Photoshop you can still make out your square/hex lines form the underlying battlemat.