Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: GM’s Monthly Miscellany: January 2014

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: January 2014 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. This is the first supplement in the Monthly Miscellany series published by Raging Swan. Eleven supplements are published each year with a twelfth at the end combining the previous eleven and also being available in a print on demand softcover. The supplement is intended for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Consequently, it is covered by the Open Game License and some of it is considered to be Open Game Content.

This is a sixteen page bookmarked PDF. Three pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and back covers, three because there appear to be two versions of the back cover, one page is the contents and front matter, one page is a Foreword and one page is the Open Game License.

Freelance Advice: Three Part Adventures is a short article, duplicated from the Raging Swan site, on the subject.

Chasm At a Glance is an overview of the village of Chasm from Village Backdrop: Chasm, including some details on the village, locations, lore and notable NPCs, as well as a map.

Dungeon Dressing: Dressing and Features is an extract from Dungeon Dressing: Floor, a d100 table of floor-related features for dungeons.

Caves & Caverns: The Last Nail is an extract from Caves & Caverns, and features an encounter which is a rather novel approach on the standard intelligent weapon.

From My Campaign: Valrim Torevin is the stats and history of a dwarf character played by the author.

GM Advice: How and Why to Say “No” is another article reposted from the Raging Swan site on when a GM should say no to a player’s request – primarily game balance, campaign flavour and access to the relevant information – and how to do it in such a way that it pleases everyone.

The PDF is very extensively bookmarked for a supplement of this size. It follows a two column layout which is largely error free, although a couple were noted, most notably in the Open Content section in the front matter which refers to the supplement as GM’s Januaryly Miscellany. There are a few black and white images, some of which appear to be stock and at least one of which was commissioned for another supplement.

Most of the supplement is written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and as a result has appropriate stats. Some are fairly system neutral. Chasm may only be an overview of a village, but it is extensive enough that it can still be used, the dungeon dressing table can be used in most settings and The Last Nail is useful in itself.

Such supplements as this are generally intended to be adverts for the publisher’s products, and indeed this does do that, but GM’s Monthly Miscellany: January 2014 is useful in and of itself, and it’s free, so click here to download it.