Free Role Playing Game Supplement: GM’s Monthly Miscellany: May 2017

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: May 2017 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. The supplement is intended primarily for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and, as such, is covered by the Open Game License with some parts being considered Open Game Content. This is the May edition of a monthly series which consists of eleven regular supplements and a twelfth, compilation, issue which is also available as a print on demand softcover.

This is a seventeen page bookmarked PDF. Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and rear covers, one page is an ad for their Patreon campaign, one page an ad for their website, one page is the front matter and Contents, one page the Foreword and one page the Open Game License.

20 Pieces of Hill Giant Steading Dressing is from 20 Things #14: Hill Giant Steading and is as it says, 20 things to use to add detail to a hill giant’s residence.

Quey’s Glade At a Glance is taken from Village Backdrop: Quey’s Glade. Quey’s Glade is an unusual place of fey origin which is accessed through portals and is randomly teleported from place to place. An overview of the village’s history is given, as well as its demographics, marketplace, lore, whispers & rumours and notable folk and locations, as well as a map of the settlement.

Dunstone At a Glance is an extract from Town Backdrop: Dunstone. Rather more detail is given on the place than is found with the various villages. Its history, marketplace, demographics, lore, notable locations and NPCs are all given as usual, but there are rather more of both the locations and the NPCs. There are also descriptions of a number of streets including their names as well as a map of the town and of part of the Duchy of Ashlar, for this town is in the Gloamhold campaign setting.

Hill Giants Aplenty is a number of stat blocks for hill giants.

Down with Point Buy and Dump Systems is an article from the publisher’s website and gives the author’s referred methods of generating stats for characters.

The PDF is well bookmarked for its length and, for the first time in quite a while, all the bookmarks point to the correct places. The text maintains a two column format and one error was noted in the text for Quey’s Glade, as it refers to a northeast location for something in the southeast of the map and the location list for Dunstone was wrong. The map labels go from 1-11 whilst the locations go from 12-22; 11 appears to have been added on to every location.

As always, this is intended to be a promotional supplement for other products but it still has use in itself. Quey’s Glade, as it has no fixed abode so it can easily be dropped into other settings. More fleshing out may well be needed; the village isn’t quite suitable to use as is.

Dunstone may be a little harder to place in another setting. It is the closest settlement to the Gloamhold megadungeon and is therefore rather more tied to the setting, unlike some of the other villages which predate the setting itself. It can still be used; it will just need a bit more tweaking.

Both the articles on the hill giants are suitable for anyone planning an adventure involving such. The dressing table helps flesh out the location and the stats will save time.

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: May 2017 is perhaps not the best entry in this series, but it’s free, so click here to get it.