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

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2017 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. The supplement is primarily intended for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and, as such, is covered by the Open Game License and therefore some of it is considered to be Open Game Content. This is one in a regular series of supplements that consists of eleven regular monthly issues and a twelfth compilation supplement that is also available as a print on demand softcover.

This is a fifteen page bookmarked PDF. Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and rear covers, one page is an advert for their Patreon campaign, one page is the front matter and Contents, one page is the Foreword, one page the Open Game License and one page is an ad for the publisher’s website. The supplement comes in two formats; one PDF optimised for print and high end devices, one for screen and lower end devices.

10 Pieces of Battlefield Dressing is from 20 Things #15: War-Ravaged Land and is a simple list of ten things that can be seen on a medieval or fantasy battlefield after the battle.

Ronak At a Glance is taken from Village Backdrop: Ronak. This is a rather unusual dwarven village. Founded by a dwarven expedition many centuries ago, it was abandoned after their sponsors ran out of money, and is miles from anywhere in the middle of a swamp. The dwarves are an offshoot called scaled dwarves, as they are slowly turning into lizardmen. The settlement’s demographics, marketplace, whispers & rumours and lore are listed, along with notable NPCs and locations, together with a map of the village.

Raveneye Sanatorium At a Glance is an extract from Places of Power: Raveneye Sanatorium. The Sanatorium is a former fortress that is now a region’s only site for magical healing, together with unusual alchemical remedies. The place’s demographics, lore, whispers & rumours and notable NPCs are listed, together with a map of the sanatorium and a list of the locations.

Villains: Teraim Arasten is from Villains (said supplement being combined with others in Scions of Evil) and provides a drunken dwarven foe with absolutely no compunctions to encounter and threaten players with.

Are You Suffering From Option Fatigue? is an article from the publisher’s site. This article considers the ever-growing list of options for the Pathfinder game and how they can actually detract from it, suggesting that focus should be given to creating stories, characters and challenges.

The PDF is well bookmarked for its length but some of the bookmarks are wrong, decreasing their utility. Fortunately, most of these aren’t the ones for the actual articles. The Contents is not quite as thorough. Navigation is therefore okay, but it could be better. The text maintains a standard two column format, and the only errors noted were in Ronak. The location list for the village is ten higher than the numbers on the map. There are a few black and white illustrations, together with the two maps, and apart from the dwarven villain, these all appear to be stock.

As always, this is a supplement intended to showcase and promote Raging Swan’s products and, as always, it has utility in and of itself. Both locations, Ronak and Raveneye Sanatorium can be used as-is. The provided villain can almost be used without changes; there are options for encountering him at different CRs (although they are referred to as ELs) and these refer to other stats from the Villains book. These would need replacing, but that’s not a big deal. The battlefield. The battlefield list can easily be used, although more results would be preferred. GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2017 is another decent entry in this range and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.