Free GM Resource: The Map of Early London

This week's Free GM Resource might not be everybody's cup of tea (kind of a pun), but it really appeals to my inner map geek.

The Map of Early Modern London is a bit of a work in progress, but it has improved much since I first became aware of it. Basically this is an online copy of the Civitas Londinum, AKA The Agas Map, a woodcut map of London made in 1561. The really cool thing about this historical map is that because it is a digital map, the folks behind this project are able to overlay a bunch of cool information onto the map.

You can choose to highlight specific neighborhoods or all the guildhalls. Want to look up all the known taverns? Just a few clicks and you are there. You can kind of look at things in reverse as well. Click on a spot on the map and you'll be told what is there and be given a list of historical references for that location.

Now for a lot of folks, this is just something fun to poke around with, but I could see this as a real boon to GMs trying to get their head around a large urban location in their campaign. Being able to see how things are laid out can help give some ideas. Heck, you could probably use this map as a major location in your game and use this online version to help flush things out some. Change a few names here & there and depending on how you lay it out for your group they might be none the wiser....

I think the Map of Early London can be a valuable resource and even if it isn't, for you, it could be a fun historical diversion.

Frugal GM Review: Free Map Pack from 2 Minute Table Top

Today's Frugal GM Review is a bit of a twofer in that it is also a Free GM Resource. Just consider the freebie part a nice bonus because I'm not trying to milk this one thing for two regular posts.

Earlier this week I came across a new YouTube channel quite by accident. A little bit of link-hopping and I managed to find the homepage for 2 Minute Table Top. That led me to the 2 Minute Table Top Patreon site and well.....I'm hooked. I'm definitely signed on as a Patron, and I'll probably add the website to the links page.

For the purposes of this review, I'm taking a rather broad view and reviewing the collection of 2 Minute Table Top Free Map Pack.

Free Map059: A Small Hamlet

This week I'm working a little backwards from my norm in that I have an idea for a Tweak & Toss and I'm working backwards from it to come up with a new map.

Last week it the idea came to me to try my hand at developing a couple of new map-making techniques. I wouldn't say either effort was a rousing success, but now I do have a couple of ideas to expand upon these original ideas to get even better at a couple of the "tricky" parts.

 Personally I much prefer my cavern maps or the USGS-based maps I make over small area maps like this, but if I don't try I'll never get better.....

This map is a "standard" letter-sized PDF print. There is a 1/4" border around the map, so printing at 100% should work since most printers can get in that close to the edge. My Patrons get a "Press-Quality" PDF print without the Patreon ad.

Like usual, click on either graphic in this post to go to the appropriate place to download the PDF, or you can use this link.

Free GM Resource: Drunkens & Dragons YouTube Channel

This week's Free GM Resource is another YouTube channel. I spent some free time this weekend surfing YouTube, admittedly on this nothing to do with gaming, but I re-watched a couple of terrain-making videos and managed to link-hop to the Drunkens & Dragons: Play D&D Like a Badass channel.

Now whatever you do, use the provided links or actually write-down the name of the channel. Don't be like me and scribble down "Drunkards & Dragons". That is....how do I be polite....not a channel I got any enjoyment out of. I'm generally OK with the occasional live-play podcast, but not videos.

Anyway......you would be amazed at how many channels, webpages, etc. are some variation of "Drunk and Dragon". Thankfully I was able to go to YouTube on my computer and navigate through my viewing history to find the right channel.

There are a few videos I really got something out of. My favorite has to be quick sculpting of ice/winter terrain using blue insulation foam and a lighter. It doesn't get much easier than that. I still have a few of their videos I want to watch and know I have the right channel I can subscribe to Drunkens & Dragons: Play D&D Like a Badass.

Frugal GM Review: More Battle Ready 25mm Dungeon Maps

This week I dipped into my DriveThruRPG "wishlist" and purchased More Battle Ready 25mm Dungeon Maps from Doug Anderson over at Blue Boxer Rebellion. You may remember that I reviewed his 1st set of maps a little more than a year ago.

I'm pretty sure I've picked up just about everything from Blue Boxer Rebellion except this one download, so it was time to round out my collection.

Free Map058

Yesterday I pretty much bit off more than I could chew, working on a HUGE map. As is my way I just knuckled down and keep gnawing at this map until it was done.

In the end is took me almost two hours just to upload everything to Patreon. The "Finished" map was cropped to 75" x 80" and the resulting PNG file was 449 MB in size, way too big for most people to use. I ended up doing some more tweaking to come up with something better.

First I cut off 2.5" from the top and bottom to square off the map and then I simply reduced the image size. My Patrons got the finished map in 3 working sizes: 24", 12", and 8". I also went ahead and sliced up the full-size beast of a map into 26" x 21" sections in case someone was brave enough to tray and assemble the entire map. Each section has 1" overlap with neighboring sections.

The free map today is just the 8" square version. Click on either graphic in this post to go to the Patreon download page, or use this link.

The Map I'm Currently Working on is a Big One.....

So I had this idea for a map.....

...this is often the beginning of my biggest headaches.

This time around the map I'm working on utterly dwarfs anything I have ever done before. It...is...HUGE. How huge? Well, unless I scale it down, which I'll have to to some extent, it will be over 7,000 square inches.

I'm actually thinking of using this map for a series of adventures, not just a one-off. I'm pretty sure I'll have to break this thing down into sections because unless you want to spend a bazillion dollars on a large format printer, it'll never see the light of day as a printed map.

Normally I'd be long done with a map, but this thing is so big I'm maybe 25% done quite a few hours in. I'm not even sure if my computer is beefy enough to handle the work-in-progress file. We will have to see.

To help show an example, here is my last map shown for scale:

I've got a few other things I need to finish up today, but I do hope to get this map up tomorrow and the first of a couple Tweak & Tosses up by Friday.

Free GM Review: Trap-A-Day

This week's Free GM Resource is one I've had tucked away for quite some time.....one of the authors at Mentats of Gaming presents: Trap-a-Day reached out to me when the site was first started.

I think when I 1st checked in there were less than a week's worth of traps and personally I wanted to see that Mentats of Gaming were able to keep it up before sharing it. They have, so I am.

The site lists a couple thousand traps, which I'm sure is way off since each trap has multiple tags. Still, if you are looking for a specific Challenge Rating trap for the newer incarnations of D&D, or just a trap idea you can lovingly "steal".....this is a good place to start.