Frugal GM Review: The Cursed Fountain

This week I let DTRPG guide me by the hand to select an adventure to review as this week's Frugal GM Review. Sometimes I get a bit of a kick out of seeing the "Personalized Suggestions", especially when they suggest items I've written.

Meh, it happens.

This week, though I found a little gem of an adventure for Swords & Wizardry called "The Cursed Fountain". This short, 13 page PDF is part of the "Dungeons of Dazegoneby" line from Creation's Edge Games and intended for 4-6 PCs of 1st through 3rd level. The PDF is locked down as one would expect, but I don't see that being an issue for this product as it doesn't impede usage. It also isn't bookmarked, but this PDF is really one of those items you print up for use.  If you wanted to print this up I'd suggest just printing pages 2-12 of the PDF, ignoring the cover and the obligatory Open Game License.

Free GM Resource: 2016 Gongfarmer's Almanac Compilation

Last year I shared a cool Free GM Resource that was the Gongfarmers Almanac. I'm kind of double-dipping here, but this week's resource is not just one almanac hosted on some Google Drive, but a whole year of almanac available over at DTRPG.

The 2016 Gongfarmer's Almanac is a compilation of eight issues all rolled up into one file filled with 468 pages of goodness. Designed as a 1/2 US Letter page, I'm thinking of printing the whole thing out as a giant booklet.

The bookmarking is a bit half-assed because it jumps from Volume 1 to Volume 7, but it is free and has a bunch of cool articles.

Free GM Resource: The Randomizer

This week's Free GM Resource is a random table generator made for the Windows platform (sorry iOS and Linux folks). I haven't spent much time "under the hood", so I'm not familiar with the nuances of creating new tables, but The Randomizer comes with about a bazillion tables already established.

The download links are for the current version (as of September 5th, 2016), but news about updates, along with a link to the download site, can be located in this Reddit thread.

From that thread: "The Randomizer is an always free and open source Windows application designed with role-playing games and story tellers in mind. It is a customizable random thing generator able to generate nearly limitless things including and certainly not limited to names, plot hooks, and maps."

The download is small and installation was extremely quick.

Frugal GM Review: Strange Trails

Originally I was going to review this one PWYW item, but after looking at the preview I decided to not only get the PDF, but a soft-cover printing as well. It'll probably be a couple weeks before I can review that item.

Lately I've been on a bit of a kick in actively looking for "stuff" to review that I probably wouldn't use myself. This week it was Strange Trails, a freebie preview of previously "published" blog articles for a new pulp fantasy RPG called Weird Adventures. I've just about given up on reviewing complete RPGs because I'm not getting the extra table-time I think needed to do a RPG review justice. An article sampling for a new RPG, different thing altogether.

Had Some Unexpected Website Admin to Take Care of....

This morning I had to do some unexpected maintenance on this blog so that the Table of Contents page would work properly. This was instead of finishing up my Frugal GM Review this week.

After a couple of hours looking, and testing, new code I ended up simply finding out that google had moved the javascript required to make the TOC page work. It took about five minutes to find the new location and update the appropriate URL.

Reminder to self: examine your code before looking for alternatives...

I'll have to finish up the review sometime tomorrow (late afternoon) once I get off work.

September's d30 Table is up!

I've largely taken the month of August off to attend to some rather pressing personal issues, but I think I've gotten to the point where I can resume some more writing & creating. I've managed to keep up with the Free GM Resources on Mondays and a Frugal GM Review on Saturdays, but everything else was put on hold.

Lucky for me I was able to work a bit ahead on some things like the d30 tables. This month's d30 Table is posted on DriveThruRPG for GMs to use and abuse. Technically the table is PWYW, but for the majority of folks it is free, so I don't think I need to change the graphic any...

This month's table is a quick tavern generator that quickly establishes the size of a tavern, how busy it is at the moment, and the tavern's name. Coupled with a food & drink generator (not a d30 table, but still.....) and you should be relatively good-to-go.

Like always, click on either graphic in this post, or use this link.

Free GM Resource: Additional Resources for Medieval England

This week's Free GM Resource is a small treasure trove of information regarding Medieval England simply called "Additional Resources for Medieval England". The website proper is about English literature and I stumbled upon the website looking for real-world historical information regarding prices for goods & services.

There are about a bazillion links on this giant link page, and some of them are dead links...BUT...there is usually enough info that a quick web search will get you where you need to go. For example, there is a link to an article on The Black Death which goes to my Alma Mater (Boise State University). The link is dead, but a quick search led me to this page still being hosted on a BSU sub-domain.

Frugal GM Review: Waybury U

This week's Frugal GM Review is on an interesting, almost system-less "adventure" called Waybury U.

Now I'll admit I was a sucker for the cover.....I had to check this out. That it is a free download was just a nice little bonus. A buddy of mine ran an entire campaign where the players were young students at mage school, somewhat in the vein of Harry Potter.