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

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

GM's Monthly Miscellany: April 2017This is a fifteen page bookmarked PDF. Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard, plain, front and rear covers, two pages are ads for their Patreon campaign and website, one page is the front matter and contents, one page is the Open Game License and one page is the Foreword. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and one for screen.

1,000 Abnormal Hill Giants is an article from the publisher’s site. This is three d10 tables (hence 10x10x10 = 1,000), one table for appearance, one for battle tactics and one for trinkets & treasures to make hill giants more unique. Similar to the article 1,000 Abnormal Skeletons in the April issue, it’s debatable as to whether there really are 1,000 different options, as they would become rather repetitive. However, the tables need not be limited to hill giants; they could be used for similar large, brutish races.

Byrnfort At a Glance is taken from Village Backdrop: Byrnfort. Brynfort is a fortified logging camp that also earns from an alchemist who makes charcoal from the unusual wood. The village’s demographics, marketplace, lore, whispers & rumours and notable NPCs and locations are listed, and there is a map of the village.

Fraywrack At a Glance is from Places of Power: Fraywrack. Fraywrack is a camp where the crew of a wrecked ship, along with harpies and a few others, train to combat Dagon. The settlement’s demographics, notable NPCs and locations, whispers & rumours and marketplace are listed, as well as a d6 table of events and a map.

Character Wealth and Magic Item Musings is an article from the publisher’s site on, as it says, wealth and magic. It has character wealth and typical items listed up to 10th level; as stated several times in the article, characters seem able to get items made from supposedly rare materials at really quite a low level, suggesting that they aren’t as rare as stated.

From My Campaign: Undead Stat Blocks has stat blocks for two undead types from an undead horde (these may be connected to Lord Monel Dehar from the August 2014 issue; certainly the same illustration is used). This is just a bit of useful crunch.

The PDF is well bookmarked for its length; as is now typical, some of these bookmarks are incorrect, making them less useful. The Contents is to slightly less depth than the bookmarks. Navigation is, on the whole, not as good as it should be. The text maintains a two column format and a few errors were noticed, these being in the republished articles not the extracts from the commercial supplements. Apart from the maps, there are a few minor stock or reused black and white illustrations.

As always, this supplement is intended to showcase products from Raging Swan and, as always, the supplement has use in itself. Brynfort can be used as-is, although there isn’t much information on the dangers of the surrounding forest or the machinations in the village. It can still be dropped into an out of the way and dangerous wooded area though. Fraywrack can also be used, but more changes may be required, as it’s unlikely that most campaigns (other than Call of Cthulhu) will make much use of Dagon. Adapting this will be harder.

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: April 2017 is perhaps not the most useful or flexible supplement in this series, with Brynfort being the best part, but it’s still useful and free, so click here to get it.

 

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