GM’s Monthly Miscellany: March 2015 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press, primarily 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 one of a monthly series that consists of eleven regular issues and a twelfth compilation issue that is also available as a print on demand softcover.
This is a sixteen page bookmarked PDF. Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and rear covers, one page is an advert for an adventure, The Sunken Pyramid, one page is the front matter and Contents and one page is the Open Game License. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and one for screen.
Top Ten Pathfinder Arguments is an article that was formerly published on the publisher’s site, and is a list of some common problems when using Pathfinder’s, admittedly complex, rules.
Barlow At a Glance is taken from Gibbous Moon Collector’s Edition. This is a sylvan village with a comparatively recent influx of dwarves whose presence is causing some tensions. Listed are the village’s history, demographics, marketplace, notable locations and NPCs and lore, as well as a map of the village.
Dwarven Hold: Sights and Sights and sounds is from Urban Dressing: Dwarven Town and is a d100 table of different sights and sounds for a dwarven locale.
Duergar of the Obsidian Citadel is an extract from the supplement of the same name. This provides a brief overview of the duergar, how they might be encountered, and their combat and tactics.
How to Make an Old School Character is another article from the publisher’s site. This provides two different methods, on regular and one hardcore, for creating character for Pathfinder in an Old School fashion – which leads to generally more limited and less powerful characters than newer creation methods.
Gloamhold: The Murkwater is another part of the in-progress megadungeon, Gloamhold, this covering various sites on the Murkwater, a river that leads into Gloamhold from Rivengate (which was described in the previous edition).
The PDF is well bookmarked for its length, although not to the degree the first year’s issues were. There are also several errors in the bookmarks again, decreasing their utility. Still, the supplement is short enough that this isn’t a problem. The text maintains a two column layout, and appeared error free. The supplement has a few black and white illustrations, which would appear to be either stock or from other supplements.
Despite being to a large degree a promotional supplement, this still has use for the contained articles. Barlow contains enough information to be used as is, although it is perhaps less useful than other similar articles have been, being more tightly entwined with an adventure and having details missing. Still, this is quite a minor point, and a GM can always flesh it out more. The dwarven hold table is system-neutral, and could feasibly be used in any setting where standard fantasy dwarves can be found. The article on the duergar is probably not complete enough in itself to use without some fairly extensive expansion, but it is a decent start.
GM’s Monthly Miscellany: March 2015 is another useful collection of articles, and it’s free, so click here to get it.
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