Working on Some More d30 Tables for Eventual Release

Over the last few months I have been trying to put out a new/free d30 table on a monthly basis.

This month's table was a combined Human Height & Weight chart, available in two flavors (English & Metric) on DriveThruRPG.

I had finished the tables a little late in the afternoon and barely got out an announcement post before rushing off to work. Because of the rush I didn't get to elaborate on the next few tables I'm working on.

While I started with Humans, I plan on doing a whole slew of races, at least all the ones usable in my home-game. I'll probably toss in a few others if I get the inclination. When I created the 1st set of tables I had the foresight enough to create a template of sorts that make it far easier to produce the subsequent tables. The Elven tables, for instance, took less than 1/4 of the time the Human table took.

These tables are being uploaded to Patreon for my Patrons immediate use, but they won't be publicly available on DriveThruRPG until the previous tables get bumped off the "Newest Free Titles" section of the homepage. This means that the release time-table for these additional tables is flexible and it might take more than a month (or two) for them to be posted for download.

My plans for October, as far as Patreon goes, is to make these table releases in addition to my normal release schedule, charging for the 1st 7 items (I try to do 4-7 creations a month) and only the 1st set of tables (the Human's) "counts" as far as my d30 table release schedule.

This means that I need to figure something out for the month of November. I have a few ideas, but it seems that usually when I come up with something I'm finding it has already been done. I don't mind treading the same ground as others sometimes, I specifically try to avoid anything already done by New Big Dragon.

If you have some ideas you'd like "done up" for d30 tables, please drop me a line and I'll try to work it up. I can always use ideas.....

New Free d30 Table(s) Available Now at DTRPG & Patreon

I have another couple of d30 Tables up on Patreon and DriveThruRPG. Both are Height & Weight Tables for Humans, with one using English units of measurement and the other Metric.

I plan on making tables for each of the major PC races and some of the minor ones as well...

Free GM Resource: A Twofer of Names for or From Random Tables...

This week I thought I'd do a bit of a related twofer for the Free GM Resource, and technically neither one of these is a random table...although I think this lead-in graphic is still the most appropriate..

The 1st resource is the relatively simple "List of Random Names" and it is a quick and easy online generator for coming up with "human" names. There are options for quantity (5,10,20,30, & 50), names by gender (or mixed), first names only, and alliterative names. For me the alliterative name option is a pretty cool feature I could see being useful for general writing purposes.

The 2nd resource is another simple website that is just a listing of a bazillion names from around the world. 20000-names.com claims to have 20,000+ names from around the world, which is significantly less than the bazillion I've claimed, but there are a LOT of names to go through. If you are like me and you like to use real-world ethnicities to enhance your game (all my Dwarves have Icelandic names, for example), then you will get a ton of mileage out of this site.

What to do When You're a (Wo)man Down.....

I tell you....I'm jonesing for a game right about now. My home group hasn't played in probably a month of Sundays and I need to sling some dice.

Unfortunately our GM is out of town, which means that even if I was to belly up to the table we are down a player. In a large group missing one player might not be an issue, but in a small group like mine, one player down makes the game a no-go.

The rest of us will probably get together and play board games, but even as much fun as some games are, it is a poor substitute. I could see maybe running a one-off of another game system for shits & giggles, letting the two players have two PCs each for a four PC party, but I think they feel as I do in having more than one PC in-game.

I guess the real issue is how much the social aspect of game night means, vs. enjoyment of ......since the game is more than just slinging dice (and kicking ass &/or taking names). I tend to miss the social aspects of playing as much as anything else, so I guess board games aren't too terrible a fate if we can't have a regular game.

Is there anything else your group does if you can't get together for your regular session? I remember going out for a meal or a movie being popular options.....

 

Frugal GM Review: Return of the Mad Hermit by Small Niche Games

This week's review is on the Small Niche Games release of Return of the Mad Hermit.

I have to admit that I picked this adventure up based on the cover artwork by JV West, and on my initial quick glance I was a bit disappointed in the adventure. This really isn't an uncommon feeling for me, so I don't put a lot of emphasis on the initial impression, which is usually due to some specific expectations.

The PDF adventure is 26 pages long and after you cut out the cover, credits, and license you have 21 pages of content. The only illustration is the cover, but there are seven pages of maps. I personally didn't look forward to reading fourteen pages of text and figured I'd probably wasted my $2 on this purchase.

Luckily I know that I tend to be a bit negative on these 1st passes, and I haven't even read the thing yet, so I figured I'd at least give the adventure a read.....

....and I'm glad I did. I'm planning on using this at my table in a couple of months, so there won't be any spoiler details in this review.

Is Your GM "Out to Get You"

This morning I was fortunate to have a long talk with an old gaming buddy who lives out of state and part of our conversation was about various "complaints" he had with a particular game system and the GM for his home game.

Nothing major, pretty much run-of-the-mill stuff. The system didn't have this or that in it and the GM....well a lot of players think their GM is screwing them on this, that, or the other. Aside from one instance where I had a GM also playing a PC/Multiple PCs (not NPCs!), I haven't really experienced a GM screwing over the players.....

Free GM Resource: For Gold & Glory (2nd Edition AD&D Clone)

This week's Free GM Resource is another RPG system, but this is one we are probably familiar with. A lot of love gets thrown at the 1st Edition of the "Popular Role-Playing Game" and we have a bazillion (I may be overstating it a bit.....) retro-clones. There is much love for the even earlier editions as well, but the 2nd edition?

Not so much.

This is where Justen Brown steps in with For Gold & Glory, which "gives role players a complete reference to 2nd
Edition 'core material' and allows publishers to release original
or new material using 2nd Edition rules."

At 382 pages long, For Gold & Glory is a well put-together PDF with pretty much everything but dice, pencils, and players needed to game. I'm not planning on reviewing this as I have to many RPGs in my review list as it is, but I'm thinking I'd be hard pressed to find some things to suggest improvement on and I'd give this five stars for sure.

If you are even remotely interested in playing in a 2nd Edition game, you need to pick up For Gold & Glory. This is pretty much a no-brainer.....

Do You Play Multiple RPGs at Your Home Table?

The last couple of years I've made the major shift of being predominately a GM to predominately a player. I still GM, but usually when our group's GM needs a break, which is usually during the "Retail Hell" period of the year.

In talking with other GMs and gamers I'm finding that our general situation is the same. Most group basically have one "main" GM and maybe some fill-ins when that GM is either burned out or just too busy to take up the shield.

I think the average group has their main "go-to" RPG and that's usually what they play. When another GM picks up the shield then they might try a different RPG...might. From what I've gathered it is about 50/50 of thing being just a different campaign of the same RPG (like we do) or a brief switch to something else.

It is far from secret that my favorite game is the current edition of HackMaster. I've got a small roster of RPGs I need to run/play for review purposes and I'm trying to get my group to do some one-offs as a change of pace and to help me through this backlog since my con season is over until next year (I think....)

I was wondering just how many gaming groups take the time to "change things up" just for the experience. Honestly if it were for wanting/needing to review some other RPGs I doubt I'd stray too far from my main game, definitely not at my home table.