GM’s Miscellany: 20 Things Volume I

The first collection of the 20-things blogposts clocks in at 68 pages, 1 page front cover, 3 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page author bios/foreword, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 59 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

So, before we start – you can get the content in this book on Raging Swan Press’ blog – Creighton publishes new small tables in regular intervals there, so if money’s tight, that may be an option. At the same time, though, you’d miss out on an extremely handy book. Let me reiterate: If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, it won’t be a surprise to you that I consider Raging Swan Press’ Dungeon and Wilderness Dressing books to be simply revolutionary. They are, frankly, the two books that have increased the quality of my games more so than any GM’s guide, any other book. No matter the system you prefer, if you even remotely are into fantasy roleplaying, I guarantee that these two books will rank among your most often used books ever. There is a reason they made my number 1 Top Ten spots. I am literally a better GM with them, in spite of having to translate the entries on the fly to German. Yes, these books are that good. They will be used for decades to come.

This book, then, would be pretty much the little brother of these tomes, providing a vast array of smaller tables to use in your games that seamlessly interact with the dressings sported in the two legendary tomes. The book is organized by environment, with the first chapter depicting tables that help you flesh out dungeons: From effects affecting evil altars to pieces of cavern dressing and notable cavern features, the details are copious and abundant also sport cool effects that have an actual effect on gameplay: Unstable floor, with falls broken by ice-cold water, remnants of platinum ore in the walls…there are some pretty awesome things to discover. Strange things that can be found in abandoned mines, alchemist’s laboratories, dusty crypts or the sanctums of dread necromancers – no matter the system you play, there is pure evocative gold to mine here. Tables of guardrooms, odd chests, unique triggers for secret doors – this book basically is the magnifying lens to add to the clarity already provided by the big books, the collection that sports the small details to the general renditions and particularly GMs weak on the improvisational side will adore this book for it.

What about a generator that can make up to 8000 pieces of graffiti to find on dungeon walls? But it’s not just dungeons that get their due: Strange traditions you can encounter in towns and build upon, different kinds of noxious stench (associated, perhaps, with the objects you can find in slums?), creepy happenstances you can stumble upon in haunted houses – a lot can be found herein. And yes, there is a table of sights for the iconic seedy tavern as well.

Beyond the confines of civilization lurks the wilderness eternally, and from sea voyages and coastal caves to complications for journeys through swamps and marshes or forests to flotsam washed upon the shore, these tables in no way remain behind the superb quality of the rest of this book.

For newer fans of Raging Swan Press, you may have already thought that this leaves out the relative newcomer to the dressing-fold , but no – this book also expands the concept of the “I loot the body”-series and extends it – beyond a general table, one for rogues and wizards, we also get more unique ones: I particularly enjoyed the tables for things to be found in purple worm stomachs, in owlbear’s lairs or within the very body of the gelatinous cube.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are, as I’ve come to expect from Raging Swan Press, top-notch. I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to RSP’s elegant two-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. Artwork is nice b/w and the pdf comes in two versions – one optimized for screen-use and one for the printer.

Creighton Broadhurst’s collection of tables…is stunning. You know, I actually lurk regularly on his blog and read what he has to say. I honestly wouldn’t need to buy this book…but, as with the big books, this is a false conclusion. Why? Because this book is a superb example for the importance of structure and organization: Much like its big brothers, this book excels by virtue of its absolutely superb organization.

You take the book, flip it open and booyah, awesome. It may just be me, but I frankly can’t derive the same sense of satisfaction from searching for a particular page; when I’m playing and I spontaneously need such a dressing-table, I don’t want to search – I want to flip open my book. This installment of the GM’s Miscellany-series is frankly no less inspired than its big brethren: If the big dressing books are the macrocosm, this provides the microcosm. As such, it has less entries for the more niche components, but to make up for that, the entries themselves are longer and more detailed, which is just what the doctor ordered as far as I’m concerned.

In short: I consider having this as either pdf or print just as vast an improvement for the game as the big books, though, by virtue of its size, obviously on a smaller scale. This does nothing whatsoever to diminish the superb quality of this offering, though. Hence, this book receives a final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval and is a candidate for my Top Ten of 2016. Get this great book!

You can get this great supplement here on OBS!

Want the system-neutral version? You can find that one here!
Endzeitgeist out.

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