Frugal GM Review: Shane's Delve

Before I went and downloaded a butt-load of free GM resources from Drive Thru RPG, I was doing a quick search on "kobold lairs". My players were seeking out the lair of some kobolds that had moved into the area and while I have plenty of maps I was looking for something new.....mostly because I could.

What I wanted was something I could make a big battle-mat out of. I assumed that this little map might get a couple of game sessions of use, possibly more depending on how the group decided to proceed.  In my GM's prep I had envisioned several different "hooks", all dependent on what the party wanted to do.

This small adventure, Shane's Delve, is a free system-less offering from Chubby Monster Games.  There are eight small encounter areas and a nice little map.  Although I already had a couple of ideas in mind, the encounters meshed really well with what I had conceived already and my final adventure incorporated quite a few of Matt Jackson's ideas.

This was a great little adventure that really worked well as a GM resource because there was already an assumption that you'd have to make some edits to fit it into your setting and game system.  Normally I'm not a huge fan of PDF maps, but this adventure included two maps (one small and numbered and one one-sheeter at the end) and the download from Drive Thru RPG had an additional download for the map as a JPG.  This was a great touch.  I was able to use the larger map to make notes and the JPG to edit in Photoshop to make a much larger map.  I separated the map into pieces, printed them at home, and assembled for the group.

Since the map itself would be a spoiler, I'll embed it after the break.

Overall this was a quick and easy GM resource that was exactly what I needed....even when I didn't quite know what I needed.  It was easily adaptable and added some interesting ideas that made the map useful beyond the initial encounter.

Free GM Resource: RPG Sound Pack

This week's Free GM Resource is simply a collection of sound effect files that you could use with any sound effect player you may have for your game.

What...you don't use sound effects in your RPG?

Sound is a great tool to use in your game.  It can be hard to incorporate and I should probably devote a couple of posts on just how you can do that.

In the meantime, enjoy this collection of RPG sound effects.

Frugal GM Review: Trouble at Niven's Creek

The Frugal GM is back with another review of free Drive Thru RPG product.  Up this week is an excellent adventure from Ye Olde Gaming Companye.

Entitled "Trouble at Niven's Creek", this adventure is designed for a party of 0-2nd level characters using the Wayfarers Roleplaying Game.

I'm not familiar with the Wayfarers Roleplaying Game, but that isn't going to stop me from enjoying this (or most any) adventure.  Just because a GM will have to adapt an adventure to suit their own needs, it doesn't mean that you should gloss over these offerings designed for other game systems.

I don't want to add any spoilers, but I really liked the micro-setting of a small logging town, a handful of NPCs, and this well put-together tomb.  I'm playing in a low-magic campaign and it wouldn't take much to tweak this setting for my next game session.  I especially enjoy the little extra effort the authors took to suggest alterations that could be made to make the adventure, setting, and NPCs useful later on.

I think that Jimmy Swill, Trouble's author did a great job putting just the right amount of info into the adventure to make it useful for players of both this one game system and many other FRPGs.  If the writing on other adventures is this good, I will be looking at adapting other Wayfarers Roleplaying Game adventures for my own use.

2012.02.08 Edit
For some reason or another, this adventure is no longer available on Drive Thru RPG or even mentioned on the Ye Olde Gaming Company website.  I've left the links intact in case it comes back.

Making Goals and Crunching Numbers

I did some math today concerning the Frugal GM offerings on DriveThruRPG and I was a bit surprised at the results.

It had always been my intention to try and come up with some useful gaming items and offer them at a good price, with some amount being made free.  My initial assumption was that I'd not price things over $2 and I was hoping that I'd give half of the product away for free.

Imagine my surprise when I calculated that 92% of everything downloaded was done so for free.  Wow......

I'm actually somewhat proud of myself now, because I managed to follow through on an initial "goal"  The Frugal GM has "sold" over 700 items, but there is still quite a narrow product line.  There is still one item from my challenge last month that was technically completed, but I have to double-check some things and spend a far amount of time working on a guide.

There are some other items in the works as well, and I hope to put them out as time allows.  The real reason I can do this is because it is still fun.  If I go trying to make it "work" in order to earn money, then motivation will dry up quickly.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to check out the Frugal GM's DriveThruRPG store and given my items a review.

Free GM Resource: PocketMod

One thing I recommend for all GMs is that they carry around with them a small notebook to record ideas.  Inspiration can strike at any moment and if you don't write down these ideas you may very well lose them forever.

You could have an idea for a campaign, an adventure, maybe some interesting trap design....who knows?

I've tried carrying a small notebook around and I'd be good for a couple days before I either forgot it somewhere or just misplaced it at home.  Obviously in a pinch any old piece of paper will do.

This week's Free GM Resource falls somewhere in between.  PocketMod is this awesome website that does one simple thing well: help you create small disposable mini-notebooks.  For the cost of a sheet of paper and some printing (essentially free), you can have your own custom notepad.

I prefer to use the storyboard layout along with a few pages of lists and graph paper.  There is a good selection of pre-designed layouts you can string together.  New since I used the site last is a downloadable PDF to PocketMod converter.  I'm thinking that I might use that as a player to create some small custom spellbooks.

I highly recommend you checkout PocketMod.

Cost Effective Home Storage for Miniatures

I have a lot of minis.  I have too many minis.  The number of minis I have is enough that I often don't end up using minis because I cannot find the ones I'm looking for.

Granted, the overwhelming majority of my minis are paper minis which don't take up a lot of space, but even if you only count my metal and plastic minis there are quite a few to deal with.  In a couple months I'll have even more because I bought into the Reaper Miniatures Kickstarter campaign.

Sorting minis only gets you so far.  What I need, and I'm going out on a limb here and say many GMs need, is a good way to organize their mini collection so they can access what they want when they need to.  Jolly Blackburn tosses his figures in little stacking bins and I've considered that as an alternative.  The thing is those bins are not cheap and I'm not a big fan of painted minis (or let's face it.....minis I someday hope to paint) loose in a bin where they get jumbled around.

PC Death Marker

I was wondering if any other GMs keep track of their PC deaths.

I've been using a barely modified version of Jolly Blackburn's skulls to keep track of my PC deaths, but I'm needing to expand past using that art.

Don't get me wrong, I've liked the skulls he made, but I'm wanting to silk-screen some PC death skulls in order to make some patches to put on my Bag of Holding that my wife got me from Think Geek. In order to do the silk screening I needed different skull artwork that a) doesn't use someone else's IP and b) lent itself to the silk screen process.

Free GM Resource: Manorhouse Workshop Tutorials

This week's Free GM Resource is a small collection of modeling tips/tutorials from Manorhouse Workshop.

This Italian model manufacturer makes some great pieces.  Everything I've looked at was made of resin and their prices were comparable to pieces made here in the US.

While the quality seems great, it is still too expensive for my tastes...especially since you have to factor in shipping.

I'd love to have some of the furniture pieces though!

Anyway, the folks over at the Manorhouse Workshop have put together a couple of tutorials that could be useful for anyone wanting to create some models or scenery from scratch.  I especially like the How to create realistic looking bushes and the three-part How to work with high-density polystyrene.  The website is a mix of Italian and English and in places the English could use some work, but it should be easy enough to follow.