Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: GM’s Monthly Miscellany: May 2015

GM’s Monthly Miscellany: May 2015 is a free role playing game supplement from Raging Swan Press. The supplement is intended 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 in a regular monthly series that consists of eleven normal supplements and a twelfth compilation issue, the latter being available as a pay what you want PDF and 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 a full page illustration advertising their Patreon campaign, one page is the front matter and contents, one page is the Open Game License and one page is the Foreword. The supplement comes in two versions, one of which is optimised for print, the other for screen.

How to Handle Zero Ranks in Knowledge Skills is an article from the publisher’s site. This considers what to do in the Pathfinder game when no character possesses the needed Knowledge skills – a trained skill that needs to be possessed in order to use it. This basically involves using common sense about easy or profession-related knowledge that a character would have, even if they lacked the Knowledge skill itself.

Saint Fiacre At a Glance is taken from Village Backdrop: Saint Fiacre. This provides an overview of the history of the settlement, demographics, marketplace, notable locations and NPCs, lore, whispers and rumours and a map.

Abandoned Temple: Dressing is from Alternate Dungeons: Abandoned Temple and has various ways in which a temple could become abandoned, dressings and how to loot and alter them and finally a d100 table, with probably around 50 results, of dressings.

Wolfsbane Hollow At a Glance is an overview of the town from Town Backdrop: Wolfsbane Hollow. This has demographics, lore, notable locations and NPCs, marketplace, in your campaign (it is actually located not far from Hjalward, whose overview can be found in GM’s Monthly Miscellany: July 2014) a map of the town and a d100 table, containing 50 results, of rumours, some true, some false.

The supplement is well bookmarked for one of this length, although there are a number of errors in them, which does decrease their utility. The text maintains a two column format, and some errors were noticed, primarily in the location list for Wolfsbane, in which every location number was ten higher than it should be. There are a number of black and white illustrations, which would appear to be either stock or from other supplements.

Although this is intended to promote other products from Raging Swan Press, it has utility in itself, although perhaps not as much as others in the series. Saint Fiacre does contain enough information to run the village, but it also, being an extract, lacks details on the current major problem that the place has, which frankly sounds like an invasion of pod people. Wolfsbane Hollow can also be used, but this is a bigger settlement and would require more fleshing out. The abandoned temple dressings table can probably be used in any game. GM’s Monthly Miscellany: May 2015 may not be the best in the series, but it is still decent, and it’s free, so click here to get it.