I Want You To Support Your FLGS

I usually look forward to Sundays because I often to get to sleep in, there isn't a whole lot I have to do and most of all because Sunday is game day!

Usually my group comes over to the house in the evening, we catch up of how our week has gone, and then we get to sling some dice. I'm fortunate in that I'm usually a player (after pretty much only GMing for years), but when the holiday season comes around and my GM's job encroaches too much on her ability to prep and run for us I gladly pick the shield back up.

The one thing I've pretty much been missing is a Favorite Local Game Store (FLGS). I had one here in Boise but the guy moved his small store to another county and eventually closed up shop. Some enterprising folks rented out his old space immediate and set-up a new game store and they did put together a pretty nice-looking shop, there were some customer service issues and it just felt "off" to me. I will give them credit that they moved to a new location, expanded, and seemed to be doing well, but I just don't get over there that often.

This summer my group attended Origins, travelling 2000 miles to run into a game store owner from just down the road in the next city. We were invited to run our game at his shop this weekend during their anniversary event (the shop isn't normally open when we game). This means I still get my game on today and I get to check out a new place that might be able to fill the FLGS role.

While I'm at it I might as well plug the store: Phoenix Fire Games. It seems to fit all the requirements I need in a new FLGS, so I'm looking forward to checking this place out.

If you are wondering about the lead-in graphic, it is my version of Knights of the Dinner Table 81 cover. KenzerCo had made this a poster of sorts, but I wanted to try and get a bit closer to the source material. One of the reasons I've always liked KenzerCo is that while they are happy enough to sell you games and comics directly, they'd prefer that you go through your FLGS. They've even put together special retail packages for game stores that get shafted by their distributors....which happens more than many realize.

Do you have a good FLGS? If so, you might want to snap a few pictures, write up a paragraph or two, and get it featured in Knights of the Dinner Table. Here is the link to the submission guidelines.

Map052F: Halfling Hollow

I've temporarily set aside the city map I was working on....largely because I didn't like how my buildings were coming out (i.e. they sucked) and instead switched gears to create a large valley map....

.....and I mean LARGE. The Patron version of the map is 30" wide and the free version is "only" 16.5" wide. For only a couple of bucks it could be printed out at Fed-Ex Kinkos at full size for a different map than you might be used to.

I'm hoping to be able to get the associated adventure seed out tomorrow, but it might have to wait until Tuesday. Between my healing back and the new job, I'm still working on finding some semblance of balance.

One thing I'm still fiddling with is my naming conventions when it comes to the maps. I really dislike the haphazardness I've used so far, but I like the idea of Map###P for the Patron version and Map###F for the free version. If I put out more versions I can just append the names to designate versions in this fashion Map###P# or Map###F#. Yes, these are the dumb things I worry about.

Frugal GM Review: Book of Lairs

This week I wanted to take a closer look at Simon Forster's "The Book of Lairs", a project I had been following as one of his Patrons. The finished book is available now on DriveThruRPG and is a pretty good deal for a soft-cover and watermarked PDF for only $12.22

Even though I have a Patron PDF I'm sorely tempted to buy a print copy for my files, but I'll stick with the PDF....for now. It is my Patron copy I'm specifically reviewing, so I know there might be some minor differences, such as a watermarked PDF in the retail version vs. my "clean" copy.

The Book of Lairs is "ACKS Compatible" and was written with this system in mind, but with my not knowing anything about ACKS, I didn't really see anything that stood out as an impediment with the stats or layout. My gut says you wouldn't need to really figure any conversion on the fly for your standard OSR game....odds are you'd read not what was written down, but what it needed to be. A good portion of the monsters might already be in your game system of choice already.

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.