Frugal GM Review Delayed This Week......

Just a quick head's-up that due to a wonderful collision of time-sucks and opportunities I'm going to have to push off a RPG Review until tomorrow.

I'd rather not half-ass a quick review as it isn't fair to the publisher/creator of what I'm reviewing.

Free Map064: An Underground Lake

While I have several writing projects in the works, I felt compelled to try out a few new techniques to see if they worked for me.

For the most part they did. I like experimenting a bit and while not every step worked out the way I wanted it to, I figured out how to essentially fix a few things instead of having to start over.

I was working on another larger map that I re-sized down to Arch D (24" x 36") and today was the 1st time I didn't crash my programs because I was asking it to do just too much. Hopefully this was because I changed my work-flow up a bit to minimize trying to do more than the computer could handle......

....I guess if I pull this off 2x in a row I can consider myself successful. Of course I still have much to learn...like not sizing my web graphics at 300 dpi...whoops.

While the freebie map is 11" x 17", the Patron version is the larger 24" x 36" and doesn't have the Patreon "ad", which isn't shown in the graphic below. Like always, click on either graphic in this post to go to the page to download the free map, or use this link.

Free GM Resource: Prism Dice

This week's Free GM Resource, like every week's free resource, might not be for everybody.

Prism Dice is an older Windows-based program that works as a configurable die roller. Now when I say "older", I mean older, as in the listed system requirements goes so far back as to mention Windows 95.

Of course "old" doesn't mean useless. When installing this program there were some hiccups, but nothing that hitting the "ignore" button didn't fix. I already had a lot of background Windows files on my computer.

Click to embiggen

The running program isn't that big and you can configure up to eight buttons per page. The cool part is you can simply add a page (or three) and toggle between them as needed. There is a lot of flexibility to the dice roller and you can easily tweak how each button/die is rolled. It won't work too well for my beloved HackMaster, but mostly because the die rules there are a bit much.

By default the sound is on but you can easily click that off. Now there are a lot of electronic dice options, usually embedded in as part of another program, but I have yet to see something as stand-alone and functional as Prism Dice.  I can think of lots of times I want to roll dice and not alert the players to the fact I was rolling dice. Since I use a computer a lot when I do GM, having Prism Dice can really be a useful tool.

I know it isn't for everyone, but I think most GMs could find a good use or three for this program.

Frugal GM Review: D30 DM Companion

This week's review is on an item odds are many of my 12 regular readers already have. After being a bit frustrated with my search for something to review (I have a few items already selected, but they need more hands-on time before I'll be comfortable reviewing them) I started searching for some 1st Edition material...because I was in a 1e kind of mood. For some reason DTRPG will let you do a search on "1e AD&D", but they also tack on "Official D&D" and "Dungeons & Dragons". Removing either of these other tags simply scraps the whole search. It is all or nothing I guess.

So here I am wanting to review some 1e material and I'm being forced to only look at TSR stuff....screw that noise. I know I have something that feels appropriate and isn't TSR material- my handy dandy D30 GM (er...DM) Companion.

Now I've already reviewed the D30 Sandbox Companion, and I'm a huge fan of the d30, so I might be a bit biased. I'm hoping that doesn't show too much on this review.

Free Map063: A Multi-Level Cave System

This week's Free Map is a multi-level cavern system. The freebie version of this map is 11" x 17", while my Patrons get a significantly larger 24" x 36" map. Both maps are High Quality PDFs so you can chose to have them printed professionally or simply tile the pages for printing out at home (a feature available with Adobe Acrobat).

With Erik Tenkar's pimping of the Frugal GM yesterday I didn't want to half-ass a map for this week. I figured it was worth staying up working on this bear of a map.

Hopefully you'll agree....

Like always, you can click on either graphic in this post to go to the download page, or use this link.

Free GM Resource: OpenD6 RPG System and Some Maps

Today's Free GM Resource is a bit of a twofer from one original source.

First we have the Anarchy RPG, which is a "post-apocalyptic adventure based on the OpenD6 system". You can download the PDF of the game for PWYW over at DTRPG using this link. Now to play this game you'd need to know the OpenD6 rules, which is available as a freebie download over at the Dicegeeks website.

While you are visiting Dicegeeks, you might want to check out their set of free Dungeon Maps.

Now this might seem like three Free GM Resources this morning, but this early in the morning I'm not the best at math.....

Frugal GM Review: Medieval Tannery from DramaScape

This week I decided to take another look at a DramaScape item and the Medieval Tannery just jumped out at me. I don't think I've ever seen a RPG publisher tackle a tannery and frankly the cover really pulled me in.

Now I discovered the Medieval Tannery through a bit of link-hopping. While this download is PWYW, the rest of the DramaScape line, at least those with a price, range from $4-$8.

Free (or PWYW) d30 Table: Random Jewelry Generator

April's Free d30 Table is now up on DTRPG.

I've been working on a series of alternate treasure tables for use with any OSR game. My Patrons have been getting the tables as I finish them, and I've been putting them up on DTRPG as PWYW titles on a monthly basis.

The d30 Random Gem Generator was quite popular, so this month's table is a d30 Random Jewelry Generator. May's table is already finished and I'm working on the final two tables for the series. I do have an idea for another random treasure, but I'm not sure if it is worth fleshing out.

If you want to get to the new d30 table, feel free to click on either graphic in this post, or use this link.