Free GM Resource: 3d Plate Tectonics

This week's Free GM Resource is a cool little website that proceduraly generates a whole little world. Tectonics has a bunch of settings you can play with in the web browser controls.

I've been tinkering with it for a while and I'm not down with all the settings yet. Things kind of broke for me when I sped time up to something like 10K years per second.

Still, being able to toggle "view crust density" and "view height map" worked well for me. If I did something I didn't like it wasn't a big deal just refreshing the page to get a new map. Not enough detail for me to use as a game world in my campaign, but I could really see using this to generate the view of a moon.

Still, what I'd use and how has no real importance beyond my table. Please go check out Tectonics for yourself and see if you can get any good use out of it.

Free GM Resource: Token Stamp 2

Today I got off work early and checked out some of the local game stores where I'm at. I probably spent more than I should have on minis, a Deadpool Expansion for Marvel Munchkin, and a d60....not sure if I already had a d60 or not, but what the hell.

Not everyone has, or even needs, physical minis. I do have a bunch of digital tokens for when I play online (they come in handy on some PC/NPC sheets too), but I really don't have a lot of extra time to waste making tokens......probably because I'd use the tools I already have on my computer, like Photoshop or GIMP.

Instead I can use Token Stamp 2 to easily put together new tokens. Drop in an image, tweak a few settings, maybe add some text....and done. You can easily make not just one token, but a few variations of that token with overlays (...maybe status indicators?). Regardless of how many, or few, tokens you need for your game you should bookmark (and use) Token Stamp 2.

Free GM Resource: GM Binder

This week's Free GM Resource is a bit of an offshoot from an earlier resource which was The Homebrewery (shared October 31st, 2016). I may have over-simplified the relationship between the two, but if you've used one, you'll probably like the other.....

The GM Binder is "a tool for you to create and manage your favorite tabletop RPG documents". You have to register for an account and the team behind GM Binder is up-front about wanting to offer this as a paid subscription....eventually. For now GM Binder is free and actively managed. There is a reddit for alerting folks of updates and if you want to provide a little more support there is a GM Binder Patreon.

While Homebrewery was aimed more at helping GMs make their own pages that thematically look like "official" D&D documents, the GM Binder is geared towards making useful documents in addition to "pretty" ones. A quick look at the Patreon page has the team's road map for future (and completed) upgrades in functionality.

I can speak from experience that creating RPG documents can be a royal pain in the.....dice bag. Unless you want to spend hundreds of dollars on software like Adobe InDesign, and a lot of time learning how to use it.....or in my case re-learning how to use it.....well, GM Binder can quickly look like a more attractive option, especially at the current price of free.

Free GM Resource: Graph Paper Printer (No, this isn't Déjà vu)

Yes.....yes I am well aware that *last* week the Free GM Resource was some graph pap er. I'm wondering if anyone has even noticed that the lead-in graphic is recycled from the 1st time the resource was some graph paper... five & 1/2 years ago....

Anyway, after last week I got a lead on this program to print graph paper. Now personally I would probably just use one of the earlier free resources to print to PDF and then keep a copy if I needed graph paper while offline.

That's just me.....you, you can use this Graph Paper Printer to do the same thing.

Free GM Resource: Gridzzly Graph Paper Generator

Six years or so......<insert mental commentary about aging> ago I posted a graph paper generator as a Free GM Resource. Now there is nothing wrong with that source for grid paper, but if you want something even simpler, Gridzzly is about as simple as simple can be. You see the lead-n graphic there on the left? Yeah....that's the entire interface. Click on one of seven types, use the slider or enter a size in the box, one more slider on how dark your lines/dots will be and click on print.

Gridzzly is super quick & easy to use...check it out today!

Free GM Resource: Origins 2008 Learn to GM Freebie Disc

This week I'll have a couple of Free GM Resources to make up for an unexpected lack of content the last couple of weeks cause by me not being as prepared for a business trip as I should have been.

Lessons learned for certain.....

Speaking of "lessons learned" my very 1st thoughts/attempts at this Frugal GM thing go back more than a decade to the 2008 Origins Game Fair. A GM buddy of mine agreed to co-chair a small workshop about Learning to GM. As you might expect, the workshop was free and together the two of us covered a wide array of topics, from finding players to at-the-table tips, and how to work around a variety of issues (time, weight, money & ideas.....sound familiar?). Included in the workshop were some freebies, including a disc full of files and links.

There was a distinct focus on HackMaster 4th edition, but there would be a large carry-over to AD&D 1st/2nd Edition and to an extent D&D as well. We both new the majority of attendees would come from the HackMaster community since the other GM and I were big volunteers for KenzerCo's HackPack.

There are a mix of files on here and links that will undoubtedly be dead more than a decade later, but everything here was either created by me (I cannot recall if the other GM contributed to the disk) or was given freely by the perspective creators. I did, at the time, make sure that links were provided to the content creators, but you may have to do some sleuthing to see if they still have a web presence.

2008 Learn to GM Freebie Disc (Dropbox Link).

Another Shill Post For The Man!

I know I've already posted about the current Fat Dragon Games Kickstarter, but today the campaign enters into its final 24 hours.

Now I'm not normally a big shill for Kickstarter because I've been burned before, but FDG has consistently (like 110%) fulfilled their obligations, often before the established release dates (hence the 110%) and the product has always been well worth the money, in my opinion.

For example, the current campaign has three simple tiers, bonus items, and a bunch of stretch goals. FDG doesn't screw around with expensive "limited tier" pledge levels or reward those already on the inside track for gobbling up the good tiers.

You want the product, you got it. The more the merrier, which really leads to the reason I'm "shilling for the man": I want the stretch goals....ALL the stretch goals.

I realize at this point of the post I hadn't bothered to even explain WHAT this Kickstarter is....this FDG Kickstarter is for .stl files for those of us that have access to 3D Printers. Who doesn't want affordable minis?

So check out the Kickstarter, see if it's good for you, and pledge (or not). Seriously though, if you do have a 3D Printer you should also check out the add-on pledges. Compare the price available for this Kickstarter with the price over at DriveThruRPG.

The Free GM Resource will be posted later this week....AFTER the Kickstarter Campaign ends.....

Free GM Resource: Some Background Prelude to a History Lesson (Lesson not Included)

Ok, so this week...well specifically today, I'm phoning it in. It's the final day of a three-day weekend and I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I wanted to. I'm hoping I can free up some time for a new project, but until I get some other things off my plate, it isn't going to happen.

So what happens when the Frugal GM phones it in instead of just skipping a week or three?

A bad movie and a bit of a history lesson.......

If you were a satanistic hopeful like I was in the late 70's or early 80's, then the worst thing that could happen is that your parents happened to watch Mazes & Monsters....probably at the behest of an overly zealous church or BADD, also known as Bothered About Dungeon's & Dragons (link to the Wikipedia entry on BADD's founder).

OK...for the record I was never a "satanisitc hopeful", but that's what BADD and some churchfolk pretty much chalked AD&D players as. This movie was some powerful and misguided propaganda from back in the day. Personally I've never seen it, well before now.....