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

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2014 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. This is one in a series of regular supplements that are primarily intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Eleven monthly supplements are published as well as a twelfth compilation issue which is also available as a print on demand softcover. The supplement is covered by the Open Game License and therefore some of it is considered to be Open Game Content.

This is a sixteen page bookmarked PDF. Three pages are the standard plain front and rear covers and third, similar page. One page is the Contents and front matter, one page is the Open Game License and there is a one page Foreword. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for the screen and one for print.

Freelance Advice: Are You a Pixie Dust Designer? is an article from the Raging Swan site. This has a number of tips on things to do to become a successful freelance game designer.

Prayer’s Point At a Glance is an extract from Village Backdrop: Prayer’s Point. This gives an overview of the town; its demographics, origins, rumours, items for sale, local lore, some notable NPCs and locations, as well as a labelled map of the village.

Mystic Groves: Dressing is taken from Alternate Dungeons: Mystic Groves and provides an overview of function and dressings for mystic groves, including a d100 table of dressings, although this has a lot less than 100 different results.

Minotaurs of the Black Hills is taken from the supplement of the same name. This covers one specific minotaur tribe, the Scarlet Axe, who are the servants of the Yith, described as being an almost extinct but powerful race. It has details on the tribe’s society, ecology, combat, tactics and some notable NPCs.

From My Campaign: Vesicwyr is from the publisher’s own campaign and details a green dragon foe, as well as some chase cards and two further enemies.

GM Advice: Reoccurring Villains is also from the Raging Swan site and is about using villains who are encountered on a number of occasions, and how to make them genuine foes of the players.

The PDF is exceptionally well bookmarked for its length. It has a two column layout throughout and no errors were spotted. There are a few black and white illustrations, one of which would appear to be from an existing supplement and one from an upcoming one. The others may be stock.

This may be the sort of supplement that is intended to promote products, but the content in it is still useful. There are enough details provided on the village of Prayer’s Point for it to be used. The content on mystic groves is perhaps less useful; such would need to be present anyway before this can be used, but it’s still usable to a degree. The minotaur tribe can probably be used, although the references to the Yith might need removing, as not enough details are provided on what they are. The green dragon Vesicwyr can also be used as a more dangerous foe than might be expected for her size. GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2014 is perhaps not as outright useful as some of the supplements in this series, but it still has worthwhile content and it’s free, so click here to get it.