Tuesday 23 December 2008

No need to take up a life of crime, free stuff to feed your fantasy RPG habit

I've been saving up a whole hamper of Christmas goodies. Firstly, we have a list of free paper models for fantasy, modern and Sci Fi, a computer tool for generating city maps at the click of a button and more tables than you can shake an entire tree at. Put down that shotgun, there's no need to raid that local supermarket to pay for your embarrassing RPG addiction, get stuck into some of this.

Free Paper Minis

Some people like lead. Some people like mild steel. Others like vulcanised rubber. For those of us who just like free stuff, there are paper minis. Paper minis are download-print-cut-fold and stick. Of course, with the help of a responsible adult. Looking at my player group of 20 and 30 somethings, responsible adults are in short supply! I like the idea of paper minis: you can squash villains with a fist, if tried with their lead counterparts would result in a trip to hospital and a rather embarrassing explanation of why a skeletal necromancer is embedded in the side of your hand. Here's a selection of places where you can get hold of paper minis, from little people through to buildings and other wargamey goodness.

City Map Generator

Obsessive cartographer types, avert your eyes! The City Map Generator is a Windows application that creates beautiful maps of cities at a click of a few buttons. Within a few moments, I had managed to create a city with buildings, rivers, a wall, plant life and more. Sadly, the website that it was home to has disappeared off the web (original here) but the downloads are available across the web. The maps do look a bit samey but then I'd argue that most fantasy/historical towns do. You can export to different formats for labelling streets. Even looking at my fiddling-about test runs, I can see mugger's alleys, bustling thoroughfares and market squares. And that's my Sci Fi addled mind. We can only hope that the original developer (who goes uncredited on the application) pops up and says hello, because I'd love to congratulate and thank him/her/them/it.

Tables for fantasy

Age of Fable has produced a plethora of Tables for fantasy games. There are 228 of them. That's staggering. Normally, quantity means a spinning plummet of the quality level. Not so here, all the tables I read through (admittedly not all 228) were well written and contained some great ideas. The tables are not specific to a single system, so even if you're using a system written in your own blood on the carcass of a swan, there's something here for you. Don't be put off with the simple design, they make for very easy printing or ready straight off a laptop at your gaming table. Many thanks

Just a brief note...
My next article will be published in the new year, I do hope you all have a fantastic holiday season and see you again in 2009.

4 comments:

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

Have a happy holidays and thanks for all the free stuff!

Rob Lang said...

You're welcome, chgowiz! The new year is looking to yield some more classics!

Norman J. Harman Jr. said...

Excellent and much needed blog. I hope to see it continue through the new year.

Rob Lang said...

Many thanks, Norman! I will certainly try to keep things going. There's plenty of free stuff left to review.

Also, I missed some more paper minis from Age of Fable. Smashing stuff.