Free GM Resource: Graph Paper Printer (No, this isn't Déjà vu)

Yes.....yes I am well aware that *last* week the Free GM Resource was some graph pap er. I'm wondering if anyone has even noticed that the lead-in graphic is recycled from the 1st time the resource was some graph paper... five & 1/2 years ago....

Anyway, after last week I got a lead on this program to print graph paper. Now personally I would probably just use one of the earlier free resources to print to PDF and then keep a copy if I needed graph paper while offline.

That's just me.....you, you can use this Graph Paper Printer to do the same thing.

Free GM Resource: Gridzzly Graph Paper Generator

Six years or so......<insert mental commentary about aging> ago I posted a graph paper generator as a Free GM Resource. Now there is nothing wrong with that source for grid paper, but if you want something even simpler, Gridzzly is about as simple as simple can be. You see the lead-n graphic there on the left? Yeah....that's the entire interface. Click on one of seven types, use the slider or enter a size in the box, one more slider on how dark your lines/dots will be and click on print.

Gridzzly is super quick & easy to use...check it out today!

Free GM Resource: Origins 2008 Learn to GM Freebie Disc

This week I'll have a couple of Free GM Resources to make up for an unexpected lack of content the last couple of weeks cause by me not being as prepared for a business trip as I should have been.

Lessons learned for certain.....

Speaking of "lessons learned" my very 1st thoughts/attempts at this Frugal GM thing go back more than a decade to the 2008 Origins Game Fair. A GM buddy of mine agreed to co-chair a small workshop about Learning to GM. As you might expect, the workshop was free and together the two of us covered a wide array of topics, from finding players to at-the-table tips, and how to work around a variety of issues (time, weight, money & ideas.....sound familiar?). Included in the workshop were some freebies, including a disc full of files and links.

There was a distinct focus on HackMaster 4th edition, but there would be a large carry-over to AD&D 1st/2nd Edition and to an extent D&D as well. We both new the majority of attendees would come from the HackMaster community since the other GM and I were big volunteers for KenzerCo's HackPack.

There are a mix of files on here and links that will undoubtedly be dead more than a decade later, but everything here was either created by me (I cannot recall if the other GM contributed to the disk) or was given freely by the perspective creators. I did, at the time, make sure that links were provided to the content creators, but you may have to do some sleuthing to see if they still have a web presence.

2008 Learn to GM Freebie Disc (Dropbox Link).

Another Shill Post For The Man!

I know I've already posted about the current Fat Dragon Games Kickstarter, but today the campaign enters into its final 24 hours.

Now I'm not normally a big shill for Kickstarter because I've been burned before, but FDG has consistently (like 110%) fulfilled their obligations, often before the established release dates (hence the 110%) and the product has always been well worth the money, in my opinion.

For example, the current campaign has three simple tiers, bonus items, and a bunch of stretch goals. FDG doesn't screw around with expensive "limited tier" pledge levels or reward those already on the inside track for gobbling up the good tiers.

You want the product, you got it. The more the merrier, which really leads to the reason I'm "shilling for the man": I want the stretch goals....ALL the stretch goals.

I realize at this point of the post I hadn't bothered to even explain WHAT this Kickstarter is....this FDG Kickstarter is for .stl files for those of us that have access to 3D Printers. Who doesn't want affordable minis?

So check out the Kickstarter, see if it's good for you, and pledge (or not). Seriously though, if you do have a 3D Printer you should also check out the add-on pledges. Compare the price available for this Kickstarter with the price over at DriveThruRPG.

The Free GM Resource will be posted later this week....AFTER the Kickstarter Campaign ends.....

Free GM Resource: Some Background Prelude to a History Lesson (Lesson not Included)

Ok, so this week...well specifically today, I'm phoning it in. It's the final day of a three-day weekend and I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I wanted to. I'm hoping I can free up some time for a new project, but until I get some other things off my plate, it isn't going to happen.

So what happens when the Frugal GM phones it in instead of just skipping a week or three?

A bad movie and a bit of a history lesson.......

If you were a satanistic hopeful like I was in the late 70's or early 80's, then the worst thing that could happen is that your parents happened to watch Mazes & Monsters....probably at the behest of an overly zealous church or BADD, also known as Bothered About Dungeon's & Dragons (link to the Wikipedia entry on BADD's founder).

OK...for the record I was never a "satanisitc hopeful", but that's what BADD and some churchfolk pretty much chalked AD&D players as. This movie was some powerful and misguided propaganda from back in the day. Personally I've never seen it, well before now.....

Free GM Resource: World Anvil

I know I'm a couple days late here, but this week's Free GM Resource is something one of my GMs uses and I thought that others could find some good use out of it.

World Anvil is a website where the GM can essentially....you know, I should just use their own words: "World Anvil is a worldbuilding tool for Authors, Storytellers and worldbuilding lovers. It's an online set of tools specifically designed for  Bloggerworldbuilding. It will allow you to organise your world, search through everything and anything with ease, present it publicly and get feedback from a community of worldbuilders around the globe."

I did some of this once with Blogger, but it was a lot of work. If you actually share world-building chores you'll probably want to upgrade to a paid membership, but there is a feature-packed free version.

Google is Killing G+ but Frugal GM is not Going Anywhere

Courtesy of James V. West

If you haven't heard, Google's G+ is going away because they don't wish to support it anymore. Invariably this means that some of the comments on Frugal GM posts will disappear, if theiy haven't already.

Some bloggers, probably with a lot of activity stemming from G+ participation, aren't happy and I've heard more than one state they were going to move away from Blogger. While other platforms like Wordpress can offer a lot of functionality if you have a good host, I highly doubt that I'll be migrating away from Blogger anytime soon. In the future I may add an additional site specifically for product sales, but posts shouldn't be going anywhere.

Why.....you might ask....because Blogger is pretty damned simple and solid. My friends with Wordpress sites might have awesome pages with some cool features, but they have to occasionally deal with their site going down because of some new plugin or mandatory Wordpress upgrade. The only time I've had problems here is when I've tried to screw around with the coding for this site (which is kind of unique).

Commenting still works here and if I need to do something different I'll make sure to give everyone a heads' up.

Fat Dragon Games Has a Kickstarter You Should Check Out

As a service to any one of my 12 regular readers that didn't already know, Fat Dragon Games is in the middle of another promising Kickstarter, this time for DRAGONLOCK™ 3D Printable Miniatures.

I'll admit I'm borderline fanboy for FDG (they are on the +12 Links of Helpfulness page for a reason), but why wouldn't I be? FDG's products are right up the Frugal GM alley. Inexpensive & light (mostly terrain), the stuff they put out has always been pretty awesome......and there is absolutely no reason to think these .stl files will be any different.

One of the cool things that Fat Dragon Games does with their Kickstarters is that the don't do a metric butt-ton of complicated levels with a bazillion add-ons that require a pen & paper, an abacus, and help from your 10th grade algebra teacher to figure out. There are no "special" limited deals for early adopters or people who were just fortunate enough to come along at the right time.

.....but maybe you should just check this out for yourself.