Free GM Resource: Guild of Ambience

This week's Free GM Resource is a YouTube channel that I was definitely NOT looking for and almost completely missed.

I sometimes travel for work and a couple weeks ago I was on a trip. My employer's employer decided that I have to undergo a two-week quarantine upon my return, so for the last two weeks I've been pretty much sitting in front of my TV all day sitting at a small folding table banging away on my laptop instead of going in to work and banging away at a laptop there. I do more than that, but indulge me in a little hand-waving.

During said "work" I usually have the TV going, playing something interesting, but not too interesting. Something that doesn't matter too much to me 'cause I cannot give it my my real attention. So movies are generally right out, but YouTube videos usually do just fine. I've really liked Adam Savage's Tested Channel, but that's not my focus here...not really a Twofer.

Anyway I'm plugging along, not really watching TV, lost in what I was working on and next thing I know I'm no longer hearing people talking, which is pretty much my background "music". I look up and it doesn't seem like a video is playing, but technically it is. What had happened is that I had stumbled upon a background music/sound channel called The Guild of Ambience.

So The Guild of Ambience isn't a large channel, but the videos they have....are rather long, HUGE even. As of the time of writing this post there are 21 videos that total a little over 46 hours! Wow...that's a lot of background sounds.

For example...here's a 9 Hour The Guild of Ambience video of Rain on Roof Sound....9 Hours!

Just a Little Appreciation for Tom Tullis & Fat Dragon Games

I've NEVER been shy about how great Tom Tullis and Fat Dragon Games (FDG) is. When I had first met Tom I had already purchased most of his paper terrain sets on CD and I was wanting to do a bit of a collaboration with FDG.

I had just started heading up the HackMaster Association for KenzerCo and was in my initial drafts of writing a three-part tournament adventure. I'd already done one three-parter, but that was more for local use and this one I only had some rough outlines for, but it was going to be for the HMA Wurld Championship. Anyway, I thought it would be cool as a bonus to be able to provide pre-printed maps and even paper terrain. I didn't necessarily need anything special, but I wanted to get permission to use FDG terrain at up to eight tables and maybe.....maybe get a coupon code for a percentage off for the players/GMs to purchase the files for the terrain used in the game.

I'm not even sure Tom completely "got" what I was suggesting, because...come on, we're at GenCon and it's busy. I'm a fricken stranger and all I'm hoping to accomplish is to plant a seed, follow up with an email after the convention, and let Tom check with KenzerCo at his convenience to verify my backstory. I doubt I was nearly as eloquent as I could be here pounding away at this keyboard.

Didn't really matter. Tom indicated that he knew I was trying to support a convention game and started handing me CDs clearly indicating "Take what you want." I didn't actually take any CDs of terrain files 'cause I already had them all, but the fact he was so willing to support gamers/gaming really sat with me.

That's just a personal example from my past, but a more current example that you can see on your own here: "The remastered DRAGONLOCK Dungeons Expansion Set 1 set has now been uploaded to DrivethruRPG. This is a FREE upgrade for anyone who bought their set from FDG (either our website/DrivethruRPG or Kickstarter.) Just log into your DTRPG account and re-download from your account library. 🙂"

Now Tom & FDG is currently in the middle of production of files to fulfill pledges and stretch goals for their most recent Kickstarter. To be spending time (and money!) going back and improving older, already paid-for products? Who does this? Evidently Fat Dragon Games does.

I think most companies would update files to make things work/print better, but to add content and just pretty up sculpts?

This is the kind of thing that makes Fat Dragon Games stand out to me. It isn't the only thing.....I'm a HUGE fan of their naming convention, which should be a 3d Printer standard, but if you don't have 160+GB of stl files like I do.....you might not notice.

Free GM Resource: D&D Solo Adventures

So yesterday I was writing about "playing with yourself" over at Tenkar's Tavern....specifically referring to RPGs, and I needed to look up the name of a solo adventure I had played before. All I remember was that it was an official TSR product and used that weird red film window to let your read the "hidden" text of the module.

I found it with a quick Google search, but not until after stumbling across the website "DND Solo Adventures". Wait....what? That's an actual thing?

Sure enough. "Paul" has put together a series of series of quests/dungeon delves into a campaign of sorts and bundled up most everything but the dice and rules you'll need to tackle the campaign solo. His website steps your through the process (handy "How to Play" as well as print & play accessories) AND the adventure itself. It's online, but if you're reading this so are you.

Paul's Dragon Shore Campaign is written with 4th Edition D&D in mind. I don't have a single XP in that 4th Edition so I'm not going to pretend to say if it's a good adventure or not, but there's a lot of solo gaming on this one campaign. If 4th Edition is your thing, or if you think you can make it work in another edition (again, no XP on that front), you really should check out D&D Solo Adventures.

If you do though, and like it even a little bit, send Paul an email of thanks....he deserves that much!

Free GM Resource: LibraryThing

I'm kind of stoked about the fact that this is the second week in a row that the Free GM Resource I've put up was suggested by a reader and not something I (well, kind of) discovered on my own.

Hint: If you have some free resources, let me know so I can share them!

Yesterday I made my Sunday post over at Tenkar's Tavern about my Appendix N library that I have been working on and despite my best efforts I have about five titles that were accidental duplicate purchases. I don't like wasting money, and second copies of books that will probably take me forever to get to anyway just rub me the wrong way. I've been using Libib for a while now and I know one or two purchases were mistakes on my part about updating the library files for my mobile app. Another was definitely due to a title (or two) being republished with a different name. Libib doesn't know there are multiple names for a given work, nor does it know what titles from a series I'm missing.

One of the commentators, HJB, recommended LibraryThing. Allegedly LibraryThing does.....and a couple months ago LibraryThing went totally free! I already had an account, but since I had too many titles for their then-free option, I barely gave it a glance as it wouldn't work for me, which is a shame because I liked the interface.

Now that it is free, I've updated my login and I'm currently importing my current records.....

There is a mobile app and it isn't rated highly, but it also is free and it looks like a lot of folks are expecting full database interaction like you'd get from being online with a full-sized computer. That isn't an issue for me, because if the app lets me search my titles and scan in new titles.....I'm good.

Free GM Resource: 5E Magic Shop

This week's Free GM Resource is a bit unusual in that it is more than a twofer and that it was sent in to me by one of my 12 13 regular readers (thanks Mark).

On the surface 5E Magic Shop seems like a quick down & dirty magic shop generator for (drumroll.....) 5th edition. It is clearly so much more. Not only can you generate your magic store based on the size of the locale, but you can tweak the prices, and you can heavily tweak the settings, and the you can save it for future use.

If that was it, it'd be fine as-is....but wait, there's more!

In addition to the shop generator there is also a spellbook generator, a mercenary cost generator, a bounty generator, and.....well, the list goes on.

The site is free, but there seems to be some sort of subscription service via Patreon, so I highly suspect that the alleged "short-list" of stuff this site can do will be growing over time. I recommend checking 5E Magic Shop out and checking in periodically, or just use it and support it on Patreon.

Free GM Resource: A Free Steam Game you can Enjoy to Help Celebrate Gary Gygax Day

Today is Gary Gygax day, celebrating the birth of the Godfather, er "Gawdfather" for the HackMaster community, or the modern Role Playing Game.

The lead-in graphic is a version of the commemorative magnet I made for my guests at the GaryCon my home-group hosted a week & a half after Gary had passed.

I hope that everyone got to roll dice and enjoy this hobby with friends and/or family this weekend in celebration of our holiday. If not, I give you the free Steam game Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. The game "...is a Dungeons & Dragons strategy video game that brings together D&D characters from novels, adventures, and multiple live streams into a single grand adventure."

So, if you couldn't sling dice this weekend and cannot do so today, at least you can enjoy a game directly inspired by the game and game worlds created by Gary.

Courtesy of Jim Wampler

Less than a week left for the Vallis Mortis (Fat Dragon Games) Kickstarter

Now I've never been shy about promoting Fat Dragon Games, and if you haven't ever tried their products, you really should......

Tom Tullis, CEO/Owner/#1 guy over at Fat Dragon is a great guy who puts out great product at a fair price. He gives back to the community in a couple of ways, and I've personally experienced his generosity, although I didn't take him up on it......and $5 says he doesn't even remember the offer.

Anyway, he currently has a Kickstarter with a week left and straight-up it's a good deal. If you do 3d printed terrain, you should....at a minimum check it out. I'm in for the maximum of $90, which should prove how I feel on the topic.



Now to be fair, if you decide to buy-in on the Kickstarter, I do stand to benefit because of stretch goals......but then again, so do you.

Free GM Resource: Megadungeons Discussion over at Beyond the Black Gate

I'll be blunt: I'm not a fan of megadungeons. Just not my thing in general, but I could definitely see some settings (like an Underdark campaign) that are pretty much megadungeons, but not always named as such.

I could go on why I don't like megadungeons, but who cares? Nothing to be gained from dissing what some of my regular 12 13 readers might like. If you're like me and generally don't care for a megadungeon, then don't run one. Simple solution.

Now Al.....Al likes megadungeons and he has some great articles about them on his blog (Beyond the Black Gate) and he even has a master list of megadungeon articles on his blog, which is what I'm putting out there as this week's Free GM Resource.

Al's got some great articles/posts about design philosophy, some special megadungeon "crunch" (equipment, monsters, spells, etc), and even a free megadungeon level.

Even if you're like me and not a megadungeon fan (seriously, how many times can I work "megadungeon" into a single blog post) I still suggest you poke around these articles because a lot of the ideas can work for smaller dungeons and even ruins.....you don't have to use them just for megadungeons (at least one more!)