A Quick Look at Frugal GM's 2017...

Hopefully everyone had a good Christmas and was also able to gather with their gaming group for a little bit of dice throw-down.

Since my "day job" is in retail, I've been busy, so I was on a "vacation" for the last couple of weeks.

Once the turmoil of the holiday season is passed I like to take a little bit of a look at the last year and, if I'm able, give my 12 readers a look ahead on my plans for the next year as well.

Since I started the Frugal GM blog I've been using DriveThruRPG as a barometer for how I've been doing as a small-time content creator.

Overall: It has been a bit of a mixed bag. Due to a few personal issues that I won't get into here, I've not been as productive as I was in the past, something that needs to change. Few "products" means fewer sales and downloads. On the plus side, one of the metrics (percentage of free downloads) increased from 86% to 91%. That might seem like a negative, but achieving a 90% was probably the 1st goal for using DTRPG. Adding a PWYW option in 2014 skewed the free downloads percentage.

As an aside, a LOT of the PWYW purchases were for a dime or even a penny, which really messes up the numbers.....

By the Numbers:
-17.4% Products "sold"
-35.1% Gross sales
-17.2% Free downloads by count
+05.4% Free downloads by percentage
91% Percentage of free products of all products "sold"

What's next?
The last couple of years I have been sharing content through DTRPG and Patreon, but after Patreon's little pass-the-buck cash grab, which they have since rescinded, I'm just not comfortable using that platform any more. I might give them some time to see if they come around to dip into Patron's pockets again, and I might...might, go back to them, but so far that's not in the works for me.

I have a couple of projects that I really want to see in printed form. I don't know if this will mean local printing and distribution, using Lulu, DTRPG print services, or some option I haven't even considered.

I do plan on taking some/all of the maps I've created and disseminated on Patreon over to DTRPG, and to put future maps on that site as well. I might go back to using Dropbox for some files....I'll know more when I start the process.

I'd love to be able to attend some conventions with professional-looking product in hand, but my ability to travel is up in the air for now, pun intended.

Free GM Resource: 12 Days of Christmas from Frog God Games

Normally at this time of year gaming becomes a little more scarce because we all have many more things taking up our free time. For me, well I work in retail so the Holiday Season is the busiest time of the year.

Since this is the season of giving, this week's Free GM Resource is a series of free downloads from Frog God Games. If you set up an account you can head on over to the "Free Downloads" section and check out the freebies as part of Frog God Games' 12 Days of Christmas.

These downloads are supposed to be a daily type of thing, but I think there have been some issues with the website and email reminders. As of the time of this post, days 2-4 are still available for download. If you haven't used the Frog Gods site before, you "purchase" the freebies and after your order is complete you'll get an email with a download link.

While you are at it, you should pick up A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming and maybe even the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules.

Free GM Resource: Revisiting Printable Heroes

This isn't a new Free GM resource, but a revisit of something posted over two years ago. In that earlier post I was promoting Printable Heroes Tumblr account.

Now with over two years of posts on Patreon, GMs and players that want free paper minis should really just bypass the Tumblr and just go straight to the Printable Heroes Patreon page.

Now I am a Patron and Printable Heroes is a feature of the "+12 Links of Helpfulness" page, but with the advantage of being able to go back a couple years, you really should check out the Patreon.

I'm currently a $3 a month Patron, but I'm about to move up to $4 a month so I can get cut files for a cutting machine I don't own yet (maybe a Christmas present?). I highly recommend this particular Patreon campaign and the reason for me revisiting this Free GM Resource was prompted by a recent question posed on Tumblr:

Q: "By pledging for a Tier 3, would that give me access to older stuff ?"

A:"Yup, by pledging for Tier 3 you’ll get access to all of the older stuff and all future work that will be accessible through areas of my Patreon page that will become visible at the tier you sign up for."

To me this is an awesome reason to sign up......

Free Map #73: A Large Mountain Lake

Squeeking in a free map before the end of the month. Some of you might know I have a retail job, so this time of year is a bit hard on trying to maintain regular posts.

This map is of a large, mountain lake. The original map created for my Patrons is sized A0, while the free map has been scaled back to a much more manageable A4 sized.

The free map has the same layers as the Patron map, one for adding contours, and another to add a suggested scale.

As usual, click on either graphic in this post to go to the free map, or use this link.

Free GM Resource: TabletopMusic.com

I love being able to bring in some elements that can help kick my home game up a notch. One relatively easy way of doing this is by introducing sound effects into your game, and the easiest way of doing that is to just use some good background music.

There are some CDs (Midnight Syndicate anyone?) available, but I've always liked music that was a little more customized. I've featured some sound track resources before and here is another one.

TabletopMusic.com is an online music player that you can check out for free, but it features a music randomizer. Great news is you can also register for free and establish a playlist.

If you like the music you can always sign up on TabletopMusic's Patreon. The reward levels on Patreon start at a $1 a month. Not free like the online player, but hey, 50¢ a track is damned cheap! Right now there are about 38 tracks, give or take, and this Patreon is a new endeavor, so you could get in on the ground floor.

You really should check out TabletopMusic.com

Free GM Resource: Quassi's Bell Tower YouTube Channel

You'd think with all of the crafting video I've been putting up lately that I've been waist-deep in my own crafting projects...but not so much. With the holidays coming up, work, and working way too slowly on my game room, I've made 0% progress on the tabletop crafting.*

As you can undoubtedly tell, this week's Free GM Resource is another Crafting YouTube channel: Quassi's Bell Tower.

The channel is about a year old at this point and while there aren't a ton of videos, the content is stuff I really hadn't seen elsewhere. What I really like, though, more than anything is the ability to see the crafting process through yet another set of eyes. While there are a lot of guys making similar(ish) props and tiles, being able to see how different people approach a build is quite useful. Ultimately when I/you start crafting we'll have to develop our own styles, but being able to pick up tips and approaches is really beneficial.

Check out Quassi's Bell Tower YouTube Channel.








*About a month ago I did actually build my own hot wire foam cutter station, but despite my best efforts I'm not all that happy with the end results. Great for rough cuts though and it was a fun exercise since almost all of it was made from bits and bobs from a reclaimed building materials place.

Free Monster Ecology: The Carnivorous Caterpillar

So yesterday I published what I think was a bit of an odd Tweak & Toss, because it seems a bit....well sometimes our real-life adventures don't quite add up or seem to be what we expect....and I'll leave it at that.

In conjunction with The Eaters of the Dead Tweak & Toss I did a write-up for a rather benign creature, just something interesting to inhabit a little corner of your game world.

The Ecology of the Carnivorous Caterpillar is available for free off of DriveThruRPG and also on my Patreon page. Clicking on either graphic or using this link will take you to DTRPG, while this is the Patreon link.

New Frugal GM Tweak & Toss: Eaters of the Dead

With all of the unexpected curves that life like to throw at, well everyone, it has been far too long since I've out out a Tweak & Toss OSR Adventure Seed.

FGM044a: Eaters of the Dead is a short little adventure seed that has the party trying to investigate something that the villagers cannot. It could be a rather trivial thing, or not....just depends on how the GM wants to take things.

This download drops on Tuesaday, November 7th and I'm writing this post in advance, so if there are any problems it might take me a couple of hours to figure it out, but figure it out I will.

These kind of items hit my Patreon page earlier than they get released on DriveThruRPG. Patrons also have access to better/larger maps used for my Tweak & Tosses....

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