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

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: February 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 and, as a result, is covered by the Open Game License with some of it being considered Open Game Content. This is one in a monthly series of supplements that consists of eleven regular issues and a twelfth, compilation, issue that is available as a PDF and as a print on demand softcover.

This is a sixteen page bookmarked PDF. Two pages are the publisher’s standard, plain, front and rear covers, one page is an advert for their Patreon campaign, one page is the Contents and front matter, one page is the Open Game License and one page is the foreword. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and the other for screen.

The 10 Commandments of Dungeon Delving is a short article from the publisher’s site, listing ten principles that should be followed, which is largely aimed at less experienced players.

Cahill Abbey At a Glance is from Village Backdrop: Cahill Abbey. This gives the demographics, marketplace, notable NPCs and locations, village lore and whispers & rumours, together with a map of the settlement. This is a small settlement that has recently had a large – greater than its population – force of troops stationed there due to a prophecy.

I Loot the Rogue’s Body: Tools of the Trade is an extract from I Loot the Rogue’s Body. This is a d100 table of various professional items, such as lockpicks and disguises, that could be found on a rogue.

Shunned Valley of the Three Tombs: Notable Locations is taken from Shunned Valley of the Three Tombs. This has a map of the exterior area with seven different locations listed and described.

Treasure, Trinkets & Trash: Longswords & Maces describes the appearance of ten longsword and ten maces.

The PDF is well bookmarked for its length, but unfortunately a number of them point to the wrong pages. The Contents is to a similar level of detail. Navigation is okay, but not better, due to the errors. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. There are a few black and white illustrations but, bar the map of Cahill Abbey, they would appear to be stock.

These supplements are intended to showcase other products, but they do have use in themselves. Cahill Abbey lacks enough information to use it for its intended purpose by itself; there are not enough details on the threat and the prophecy. However, it could still be used for a village, perhaps a border one, that has had a recent influx of troops to deal with a problem, either current or potential. The Tools of the Trade article can be used as is for various interesting, but perhaps not valuable, items to find on a rogue. The exterior locations from Shunned Valley of the Three Tombs could be used to detail a wilderness location without actually covering the tombs in detail. GM’s Monthly Miscellany: February 2016 is another decent collection of articles, and it’s free and can be found by clicking here.