Free GM Resource: OSE Basic Rules

I got an email from Necrotic Gnome telling me about an update to a freebie that is the Old-School Essentials: Basic Rules. After looking through my old posts I realized I hadn't shared the free basic rules for OSE....so that's this week's Free GM Resource.

Now the Basic Rules will only whet your whistle for a little bit, but for the four basic classes you can get at least a couple levels of play out of just these rules, so it's nothing to sneeze at. You'll probably want an adventure as I don't think there is much in the way of monsters in the Basic Rules:

• The full introduction and character creation rules.
• The four core human classes: cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief.
• Full lists of adventuring equipment, weapons, and armour.
• The rules for dungeon adventures, encounters, and combat.
• The full rules for spell casting, and the list of 1st level spells.

Still, for the price it's worth checking out. I personally enjoy this particular flavor of OSR and I like the layout and ease of use.

Free GM Resource: D&D Facebook Group

Kind of a surprise find this week that I needed a little bit of time to check out for myself ...well at least the non-free common-sense follow-on......which came in today.

I know, I know...way too vague so I'll kind of jump in by saying that my recommendation for this week's Free GM Resource is a Facebook Group, specifically Dungeons & Dragons B/X (Moldvay/ Cook & Marsh). Now that is a fricken mouthful!

Lots of cool resources in the group, but the one that has inspired me today is basically an omnibus collection of the Basic & Expert Rules for D&D.  Now I don't think the Omnibus itself is in the group's files section, but there is a TON of other awesome files and, more importantly for me today, a whole collection of different covers for if you want to print out a hard or soft-copy of the Omnibus. Now I already own the Basic and Expert rules, recently purchased off of DTRPG, but having the two rulebooks expertly meshed together all professional like? Not until the Omnibus. 

Getting the Omnibus is one thing, but in general I have better things to do than try and screw with Photoshop (much) for a good hard or softcover. The covers available from the group are generally already setup for hardcover printing over at Lulu.com

My hardcover was roughly $15 and the softcovers were half that. I did try to tweak the softcover a bit and I probably shouldn't.....but the end results were still good:

Free GM Resource: Easy/Simple Mass Combat Rules

This has been out for a few years (like at least an edition ago), BUT it is largely system-less and can easily be adapted to other versions of D&D or even other RPGs. One thing I see "lacking", assuming it is even needed/desired, is an option for larger-scale, or even mass, combat.

The fine folks over at WotC put out this Unearthed Arcana Battlesystem (pulled from this page). I recommend downloading a copy, giving it a once or twice over, then file away for the 1st/next time you need to figure out how to do some mass combat.

Did Not Realize That Free RPG Day was LAST Weekend: DCC QSR Still Available Though!

What we missed this year!

I did not realize that last weekend was Free RPG Day, as it had been moved from May to October 16th.

D'oh!

In looking over some of what I missed I found a nice little gem from Goodman Games, which is a FREE PDF copy of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Quick Start Rules. This is normally $5. While I've seen this freebie before, I have the full set of rules that I tend to use, but on a quick 2nd look this 44 page PDF only has a couple pages of ads & covers. There's enough "meat" in this freebie that you can roll up zero level PCs and easily run through the three-page adventure The Portal Under the Stars.

Free GM Resource: Crypt of the Crimson King 5e Adventure from Nord Games

This week's Free GM Resource is a 5E Freebie Adventure from Nord Games. If you head on over to their website you should see it as a pop-up for their "Spooktacular Sale", but you can also find it on their adventures page (or right here....) 

Now I know a few folks will scoff at the fact that this is a 5E adventure, BUT...and please hear me out, grabbing adventures from other RPG systems and then converting them to your system is a great thing to do, especially if your players are also GMs or collectors. If you've got players that seem to know all of the published adventures for your preferred RPG system, then begging/borrowing/stealing from other systems is almost a no-brainer.

I'm of the opinion that almost no adventure goes unchanged by the GM, so trying to find something that requires no GM effort to run is an exercise in futility....

Go ahead and grab your free copy of  Crypt of the Crimson King, and if you do play 5E, check out the rest of Nord Games offerrings.

A Bit of a Flip on the "Free" Resource

 

I've been silent here for a month because of a personal loss and I really wasn't up for this, but it's been a month and life has to go on.....

I was looking for something specific to share with my 12 13 regular readers, and technically I did come across a free player resource for a specific subset of players: teens (possibly teens in Utah, but I think they aren't that restrictive).

Now the thing is the charity behind Tabletop for Teens is pretty much maxxed right now so this free resource isn't really available, BUT I think that a few like-minded gamers (like my 12 13 regulars) could probably do something to change this.

Now I've always been of the opinion that the future of our hobby is really with the next generation, so even if I didn't care about Tabletop for Teens' mission:

"Our quest is to defeat the demons of youth depression and suicide through the power of tabletop roleplaying games. Tabletop roleplaying games empower a player’s imagination, confidence, and social skills by challenging youth to work together to forge their path to glory. Grab some dice, create your character, and roll initiative as you make new friends and memories that will last a lifetime!"

....even if I didn't care about their mission I'd still be in favor because of that opinion. I don't know about you, but when I'm an old.....er older grumpy gamer I'm not sure how down I'll be with having to GM a bunch of other old grumpy farts.

Yeah, I think we'll need fresh blood.

So I'm seriously thinking of reaching out to Tabletop for Teens and seeing how I can help, but GMing D&D, well at least the current version, isn't something I'm up for. One thing I can do though is support them through my shopping.

Yep, since they are a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit set up with Amazon Smile, I can support them at no cost to me through my Amazon shopping. Talk about win-win!

Free GM Resource: Thundar the Barbarian Gaming Supplement

I found this one interesting, if not kind of messed-up and hilarious, post in my Facebook feed regarding somebody trying to get $250 for a printing of a freebie 110 page gaming supplement that was available, again for free, by the original author.

Now I haven't made a 110 page gaming supplement myself, but I'd be both amused and pissed if someone was trying to sell something I'd written to be given away for free.

So this Thundar the Barbarian RPG supplement is available on The Savage AfterWorld blog. Scroll down the page and you'll see the cover graphic shown used as the lead-in for this post. Clicking on that will get you direct to the GoogleDocs file for this supplement.

Obviously I think you should click on the link and if you feel like it, have it printed up at your local copy shop. Do not print it up and try to swindle someone out of $250 and....it should go without saying...pay $250 for a printed copy off of eBay!

Free GM Resource: Mystara World Guide for D&D 5e

 

This week's Free GM Resource is most likely a limited-time thing so I do not feel at all guilty of piggy-backing (or just outright stealing) this post idea from today's post over at Tenkar's Tavern.

The RPGmp3 blog has a labor of love posted that is the Mystara Guide for D&D 5th Edition. 

"5 years. 224 pages. Countless hours of playtesting. All original art. The Mystara Player’s Handbook is a labor of love to bring the Known World, the greatest Dungeons & Dragons setting of all time as determined by science, into the 5th edition.

Inside you will find everything you need for your players to get started adventuring in a setting rich with culture and history. Five new races, over two dozen new subclasses, countless new spells, new forms of magic in the secret crafts, runes, and the incredibly powerful but dangerous Radiance. Featuring maps by Thorfinn Tait, a list of Immortals by Marco Delmonte, art by Rubus, Mischa Cel Frumos, and many more, is everything you wanted for a new setting."

Yeah......while I don't see Ha$bro ever putting out their own Mystara guide I can see them quickly doing a Cease & Desist on this project, so please, grab it while you can!