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

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: March 2016 is a free role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. The supplement is primarily aimed at 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 series that consists of eleven regular monthly issues followed by a twelfth compilation issue 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 the standard ad for the Patreon campaign, one page is the Contents and front matter, one page is the Open Game License, one page is an advert for the publisher’s site and one page is the Foreword. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and desktop devices and the other for screen.

House Rule: Identifying Monsters is an article from the publisher’s site and elaborates on the Pathfinder rules for using knowledge skills with monster identification.

Feyhall At a Glance is from Village Backdrop: Feyhall and gives the demographics, marketplace, notable NPCs and locations, village lore, whispers & rumours and a map of the settlement, and the nearby area, a settlement which is under threat from something called the Hunger. The settlement itself is an underground, formally fey, complex inhabited by bandits and refugees.

Prison Break: Prison Dressing is taken from Campaign Events: Prison Break and is a d100 table of various items of dressing that could be found during the aforesaid prison break.

Looting the Druid: Pouch Contents is from I Loot the Druid’s Body, and is another d100 table, this time of various odd items that could be found in the pouch.

Why Character Optimisation is Pointless is another article from the publisher’s site. This explains why optimising a character to be unstoppable doesn’t work (except if it’s fun or in Living campaigns) because a GM will simply increase the challenges facing the party.

The PDF is well bookmarked for its length; unfortunately, as has been the case for some time, some of the bookmarks point to the wrong destinations. The Contents covers the main sections and, as a result, navigation is okay but not as good as it should be. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. There are a number of black and white illustrations, all of which appear to be stock.

As with all the publications in this range, its primary intention is to perk interest in the products, but it does have use by itself. There is enough information on Feyhall that it could be used, and it is also close to the village of Vaagwol (an extract of which can be found in GM’s Monthly Miscellany: January 2016), with the positions of both marked on the area map. Both are under threat from the Hunger, but not enough is given to really use that threat without further development; it seems to be a disease that animates the dead. Both of the d100 tables are essentially system-neutral, and can provide useful items in many settings. GM’s Monthly Miscellany: March 2016 is another decent entry in the series, and it can be got for free by clicking here.