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

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2016 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press, 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 the June issue of a yearly series that consists of eleven regular issues and a twelfth, compilation, issue, which is also available as a print on demand softcover.

This is a fifteen 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 an advert for their website, one page the front matter and Contents, one page the Open Game License and one page the Foreword. The supplement comes in two formats, one designed for printing out and the other for screens.

10 Things to See in a Burned Out Building is a short, d10, table from the publisher’s site which lists things that could seen in such a place.

10 Things to See in a Plague-Infested Building is another article from the publisher’s site. This is another d10 table, this time for things to see in a plague building.

Feigrvidr At a Glance is from Village Backdrop: Feigrvidr. This provides a background to the village, which is a rather dubious mining town founded by a group of dwarven brigands. The demographics, marketplace, notable NPCs and locations, lore and whispers & rumours are provided, along with a map of the village.

The Monastery of the Marble Palm At a Glance is taken from Places of Power: The Monastery of the Marble Palm. This provides an overview of this very small monastery which is built inside an enormous, regenerating marble hand. This settlement is small, and there are only 3 NPCs and no marketplace. The locations inside the hand, a map of the hand itself, lore and whispers & rumours are provided.

An Uneventful Day’s Travel in the Hills is a table from Campaign Backdrop: Hills & Mountains. This is a d100 table with 50 results that can be used to describe a journey in which nothing major happens.

10 Lich’s Phylacteries is another article from the publisher’s site, this one describing in detail 10 alternative phylacteries for a lich.

The supplement is well bookmarked for its length; it does however have the now-standard problem of many of the bookmarks pointing to the wrong location. The Contents is slightly less thorough than the bookmarks. Navigation is therefore not as good as it should be. The text maintains a two column format and a few errors were spotted. Apart from the maps of the village and the monastery, the only other illustrations would appear to be stock.

As always, the primary intention for this supplement is to showcase others from the publisher. As usual, it does still have use in itself. Feigrvidr can easily be dropped into a suitable setting as-is. The monastery could also be dropped in, but a lack of information on the monastery’s signature Marble Palm way constrains this a bit. The non-events table can be dropped into pretty much any setting and system.

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2016 is a good entry in this series and it can be obtained for free by clicking here.