Free GM Resource: (Old) Local History Books

Open Old Book by George Hodan

This week's Free GM Resource might be a bit of a no-brainer for some, but I'm sure that very few GMs have specifically done this intentionally: scour old history books for ideas.

I'm in the middle of some ancestry research and I'm finding some of the various trials and tribulations of the old settlers simply fascinating and ripe for inclusion in my low-magic fantasy RPG campaign.

Want to kick this idea up a notch?  Grab your ideas from the history books (the first-person accounts in older books are the best) and then head on over to the USGS National Map Viewer to grab the topographicals for the area the event occurred.

I was visiting the family farm last month, after GaryCon, and we had the opportunity to check out

some of the local "historical" sites after I stumbled upon an old settler's history book.  This book was nearly a century old and it detailed the settlers coming into the area.  Some awesome stuff.  There were reports of children going missing in the area.  A surviving child reported that they had found a cold-air cave and ventured in.  Only two entrances are known.  One appears as a deep well out in the woods and the other was in someone's dug-out basement.

The basement has been cemented in and I was told the owners poured several trucks of concrete into the hole to try and seal it up, but they never managed to do so.

In your RPG maybe the kids just went missing or maybe they went missing a long time ago.  Did they simply get lost or did something "down there" get them?  Perhaps the child's spirit is restless and causing problems for the new home owner.  Maybe the PCs are in trouble and seek out this passage as a way to escape town unnoticed.  It doesn't have to be a fantasy RPG setting either.  This cave has been known for over 150 years....it could be another 150 years before it comes up again.....

Lots of possibilities....that's all I'm saying.

Frugal GM Quick Craft Tip: Rescuing Dried Up Brushes

I know...it happens...you didn't take good care of your paint brushes and now they are dried stiff with paint residue.  Hopefully you invested in quality brushes to begin with, so you don't just want to toss them in the trash.

No worries, just soak the bristles in white vinegar for an hour or so until you can bend them easily without "breaking" them.  Heat up the vinegar to boiling, let the bristles soak some more, and then gently comb out the paint.

Wash (properly),dry, then store for future use.

Free GM Resource: DCC Adventures on Facebook

Recently Dungeon Crawl Classics, from Goodman Games, had a Facebook contest where if they got 1,500 "Likes" they would offer up two free adventures.

The first adventure is actually the 2012 Free RPG Day adventure booklet and contains two shorter adventures:

•  The Undulating Corruption, a level 5 expedition to cure a wizard of corruption
• The Jeweler that Dealt in Stardust, a level 3 heist where clever thieves can excel.

The second adventure is #66.5 Doom of the Savage Kings, which was a level 1 adventure that was briefly given away for free with a DCC purchase or was available independently for $10.  It is a 14 page adventure with three pages of pretty cool maps.  Even though it is a level one adventure, you might find it suitable for smaller parties of higher level PCs.

I won't provide a direct download link, but you can get it from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Facebook Page (look for an April 8th, 2013 post).  You should send them another "Like" before downloading.

Frugal GM Quick Craft Tip: Miniature Weights

Now that the Reaper Miniatures Bones Kickstarter is being shipped out to backers, there are a lot of people that are going to be painting and basing their new miniatures.

I've been hearing that some folks are finding that the minis are so much lighter than they are used to and they are having problems due to the lightweight nature when they are painting or using these figures.

One quick and simple tip is to glue an appropriate sized fender washer to the bottom of your mini base.  Bought in bulk, a box of 100 1" fender washers goes for $6-$10.  They add a good amount of weight and can be used with magnets.  Make sure you get a Fender washer, which has a lot more metal that a regular washer.

Frugal GM Review: Damager from Chaotic Shiny Productions

Damager is a rather limited program from Chaotic Shiny Productions.  In addition to a simple built-in die roller, which is really an add-on more than anything, there is a cool "effect" generator which takes a given amount of damage and adds a sentence of flavor text.

Instead of "You hit your target for 12 damage" or "The monster strikes at you for 12 damage" you can select a damage type (slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing for weapons as well as fire/heat, ice/cold, lightning/electricity, poison, acid, light/radiant, shadow/necrotic, sonic/force/untyped for powers).

Quick examples:

• He gashes your leg with expert accuracy and a vicious blow. (12 damage)
• You hew through his hand with expert accuracy and a complex manouver. (12 damage)
• You blast his stomach with crackling bolts and an electric blast. (12 damage)

The program is just interesting enough that I'd want to use it, but also just clunky enough that I wouldn't use it.  If it was possible to input a single die expression, or even better one or more macro buttons and have that result spit out with the flavor text it would be much more useful.

Being able to line-up a few different die expression & damage types to macro buttons would make this quite useful when dealing with different combatants. It's a good idea, but as-is it is more an idea than a useful tool. 

Free GM Resource: Moleskin Maps & Lapsus Calumni

This week's Free GM Resource comes from Matt Jackson's blog: Lapsus Clumni.  Matt makes some awesome maps available through Chubby Monster Games.

You can get some of Matt's Moleskin Maps online at Drive Thru RPG, and you can get a sample of his work on his blog.

If a couple maps weren't enough, Matt has (at the time of this posting) eleven Zines available for reading and download.  The Zine is called Lapsus Calumni, which is where the name of the blog comes from (or is it the other way around?)

The first couple of Zines are only a few pages, but they do get longer.  Even if they were all only three pages long, they would still be a good read.  I think they are worth checking out, which is why I'm helping spread the word on this wonderful Free GM Resource.

Frugal GM Review: Fantasy Floor Plans Tombs & Tumuli

Another quick review of freebie product from Drive Thru RPG.  This item, Fantasy Floor Plans Tombs & Tumuli, is a short 8 page PDF file with four quick maps of paleolithic tombs that could be useful for a number of RPG genres.  Included are some brief descriptions of the tombs and some flavor-text describing how the tombs might be used.

This is a pretty straight-forward download that isn't bogged down with much more than what you see on the title page.  The author/artist offers some free sample products and downloads for joining their mailing list, which is nice if you want more free stuff in the future.

Free GM Resource: Paper Minis by Ze Bulette

Even though I'm personally moving away from paper minis, they've always had a special place in my heart so I'm quick to point out new collections as I find them.

Ze Bulette, from the Dungeons and Digressions blog likes to make paper minis.  He seems to be on a bit of a hiatus, but I'm sure he'll be back to making posts and minis when the time is right.

One thing I particularly like about his various minis is that he likes to include the base as part of the figure.  With careful cutting and folding you don't require a special holder to keep these figures upright.