Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: GM’s Monthly Miscellany: April 2016

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: April 2016 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. The supplement is primarily intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game; as such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some of it is considered to be Open Game Content. This is one in a series of supplements that consists of eleven regular issues and a twelfth compilation issue that is also available as a print on demand softcover.

GM's Monthly Miscellany: April 2016This 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 is an advert for the publisher’s website, one page is the Contents and front matter, one page the Open Game License and one page the Foreword. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and one for screen.

Four Things Modern Dungeons Seem to Lack is an article from the publisher’s site. This is about four things that tend to be lacking from new dungeons, as opposed to Old School dungeons, that the author believes adds to a dungeon’s realism – change, wandering monsters, empty spaces and level inappropriate encounters.

Silver Bluff At a Glance is taken from Village Backdrop: Silver Bluff This is a mining town that has recently discovered powdered adamantine just as their silver vein was running out, both of which caused tensions. Covered are the demographics, marketplace, notable NPCs and locations, lore and whispers & rumours, as well as a map of the settlement.

Looting the Cleric’s Body: Pouch Contents is from I Loot the Cleric’s Body. This is a d100 table of various odd items that could be found in a cleric’s pouch.

Marsh Town: Sights & Sounds and Marsh Town: Business are both from Urban Dressing: Marsh Town. The first is a d100 table listing, as the name suggests, various sights and sounds, whilst the second is a d100 table with 50 businesses on it. Each business has its name, type and a short overview.

What’s the Point (in Gaming)? is another article from the publisher’s site. This is one examining the point of gaming – which is to have fun.

The PSF is well bookmarked for its length but, as seems to always be the case now, some of the bookmarks point to the wrong locations, decreasing their utility. The Contents is slightly less thorough. Navigation is okay, but not as good as it should be. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. There are a number of black and white illustrations; barring the village map, these would appear to be stock.

As is the case with other supplements in this series, the primary intention of this is to showcase other supplements from Raging Swan. As is also usually the case, this supplement has use in and of itself. Enough details are provided on Silver Bluff that the village could be used as-is. The cleric’s body table can be used for players examining a corpse, although the results could be used for other classes as well; they don’t all appear to be cleric-specific. Both the marsh town tables could be used in a suitable location; the businesses table also contains results that could be used in other towns, especially ports.

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: April 2016 is another decent entry in this series, and it’s free, so click here to get it.

 

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