Free GM Resource: Historic Cities (Map Collection)

I know I like to use this general graphic for maps I've been working on, but for this week's Free GM Resource I wanted to make a tweak and use it for this collection of maps I came across recently.

Historic Cities is a map collection of roughly 448 (if my count if right) historical maps. Some of the maps are a bit difficult to navigate in that when you initially try to view the map you get a picture of just a single building.

You basically have to make a couple of clicks and look at the "hi-rez" version of the maps to get a good look.

Anyway, I love the look of old maps and if I had one iota of artistic talent I'd make maps in that style myself. I'm already thinking of a way I could pull it off, but that's just adding one more thing for me to attempt to add to my list of things to work on......

Free GM Resource: Two-Minute Tabletop's Token Editor

This week's Free GM Resource is one of those things I could've sworn I had already shared, but a quick search yielded nothing for me.

Two-Minute Tabletop's Token Editor is a cool little tool that will undoubtedly be expounded upon, but as-is works for making/marking up fourty different digital character or NPC Tokens. Currently there are also twenty seamonsters and fifty-two "Greenskins". They're good as paper minis and would work great as Virtual Table-Top (VTT) Tokens.

The creator has promised some future updates and since there were originally just a subset of original tokens available, I'd say that he's been keeping up on that promise.

Anyway, check out Two-Minute Tabletop's Token Editor and take it for a spin.

Finally Scored at Half Priced Books

Just before this trip that I'm on I had a visit up to the family farm back in Iowa. While there I mentioned a specific book that my mother would be interested in and that led me to stopping by a Half-Priced Books in Oklahoma City on my way back.

I have friends in Texas and between them and listening to the now-defunct Roll For Initiative podcast, I was always hoping that HFB would be the gaming treasure trove I've heard miraculous tales of in the past. Things like 1st printing Fiend Folios for $10 and the like.

Alas....I haven't found much to brag about myself....until this unexpected side trip. The store had already sold the book my mother wanted, but I decided to look at the rest of the "rare book" section because I have been building up my own "Appendix N" library and many of the old pulpy books were really only available in old dime-store paperbacks. This store had nothing I wanted, or so I thought.

As you can probably guess by the lead-in graphic, this Half Priced Books had a fair number of the old TSR Endless Quest Books. They had maybe 15 books and wanted $150 for the lot, which was a bit more than I can afford because of this trip, but I was able to pick up most of the 1st 10 books for under $50 and these books are mint...doesn't even look like they've been opened. I'm now kind of looking for crappy copies so I can play with them. I picked up books 1-6, 11, 13, & 15 and will have to add the others to my list of stuff to look out for.

Regular Posts Will be Shifted This Week....

This week's Free GM Resource will either be late or simply skipped due to a completely avoidable work trip.......well, kind of. I'm off to an undisclosed location for an unspecified period of time and I've been told we'll have internet, but it might be iffy. Definitely no high-speed gaming, but email and blogging should be doable. If not, I'll have to visit an internet cafe because where I'm off to has those kind of things.

I am taking most of my gaming files with me and I'm really hoping that some of my downtime will let me catch up on organizing my files (fun!) and start working on some items I hope to have for publication in 2020!

I'm not forgetting about you 13 regular readers.....I just had a last-minute opportunity to squeeze in a visit to the family farm (last seen in 2016) before this business trip and I had to take it.

Free GM Resource: Rybonator YouTube Channel

It's been a while since I've been looking through build channels on YouTube, so I was surprised to see Rybonator pop up in my "recommended" videos.

Against what I thought was my better judgement I went ahead and watched a couple of videos. I type "better judgement" because the first video recommended to me was about casting your own dice.

Right off I'm not a fan of copying dice, which is essentially what Rybonator is doing, although he is making cool variations. Now that might make me sound some like ethical-type goody-two-shoes (which I am on some level), but really I'm just a bit of a dice snob and I roll how/what I roll.

What I did like though, was the narration style and I got too much of a laugh out of one early line of dialogue, and I went ahead and kept tuned in for a while.


There are some interesting build videos, but I also know that some people would love the idea of making their own dice and just because I'm not into it......

Free GM Resource: Chartopia

Now it isn't a secret that I like random tables.....even though I have a particular fancy for d30 tables, I dig random tables of all types, shapes, and sizes.

Some of the coolest tables I've made/seen were on the 'ol computer because software lets you call tables from tables and link everything together.

This week's Free GM Resource is not just an online repository of tables, but also a website that can actually let you run tables as well. Chartopia lets you make your own charts, call data from other charts, and even display them on a third-party website. There is a LOT of functionality, much more than I can delve into here in a quick blog post.

I suggest checking out Chartopia.....sign up, putz around with some charts....you can start with these Moldvay Treasure Charts.

New Kickstarter (That I'm Backing): 3D Printable Fantasy Dwarven Mine RPG Dungeon Tiles

This morning I decided I had to back a new Kickstarter for some Dwarven Mine Tiles for 3D printing from Tomb Guardians Miniatures.

Maybe an hour or so later I got a message from the Tomb Guardian guys thanking me for backing the Kickstarter and asking me to share the news of their campaign.

1st off, the message is simply brilliant. Why wouldn't you want to thank an investor/buyer/backer/customer for their purchase/funding? Obviously I thought their campaign was worth me spending $66, so who better to let others know?

2nd...and this is more an important disclosure....I actually stand to benefit if one of my 13 regular readers (or an online read-by) participates in this particular Kickstarter Campaign. Like most campaigns, the more funds they raise, the more bonus goals that get unlocked. The more bonus goals that get unlocked, the more free files I get.

All that being said, I think this Dwarven Mine looks awesome and is something I want to be able to add to my growing collection of .stl files.

Of course the Kickstarter has a bunch of pictures and some videos, which you should check out. The 3D Printable Fantasy Dwarven Mine RPG Dungeon Tiles should be worth at east a quick look.....

Free GM Resource: Nameberry

There wasn't a Free GM Resource last week due to a death in the family, but this week a resource normally used for a birth in the family is something I'd like to re-purpose for the game table.

At 1st glance Nameberry seems to be a rather sparse website with a few lists of baby names available to peruse, presumably to name NPCs.

The thing is there is actually a lot more names available, with lists buried as sub-pages & lists from other pages/lists. Allegedly there are over 50,000 names on the site.

Now I'm a fan of the historical names listed, but what I really enjoyed was the "Name Hunter" where you can put in up to 8 names you like as "themes" and the generator will spit out somehow magically-aligned names that go with your liked names.

Unless you're like me an have been cultivating numerous lists of names for your own name generator, you can probably get a lot of use out of Nameberry.