Times are hard - when faced with this kind of situation, you can either put the children out to beg for tobacco (as these people did) or you can game your cares away. Not only is gaming healthier for you and your family but the links in this post also have no cost to you beyond using a computer and your printer. Those kids don't look happy about the prospect...
Character Sheets - RPGSheets has sheets for a lot of available systems. If you're a 4E player, then you likely already have the
official 4E character sheet. Then again, you could visit
Dragon Avenue.
Graphics - Online graphic manipulation is getting more prevalent.
Big Huge Labs in particular has some very neat tools that allow effects, badge making, trading card making, photocubes (a.k.a really big dice) and lots more. Also there are timesinks like motivational posters and Flickr tools.
PDFs - Printing PDFs is easy. Re-arranging pages and editing is a little trickier but there are still sites and apps out there for free. I can vouch for
PDFTK and
PDFTK Builder. For a web-based version take a look at
MergePDF or
PDFEscape.
PocketMod - A one-page disposable PDA (in the manner of Hipster PDAs). The
original site isn't so active so the torch was taken by
re:PocketMod with online and offline flavours. A Word template can be found
here but I've found custom mods can be made using
Scribus. More on that later...
Random Generators - A nice selection of 3.x edition-friendly tools can be found at
donjon. Grognard DMs who like 0e and who are in a hurry will appreciate the
Moldvay Dungeon Generator. For random names take a look at
squid.org's RPG tools and for cyberpunk plots take a look
here.
Bonus PocketMod level: Here's a couple of custom mods I've done using Scribus and converted into PDF for general use. A
five-room dungeon planner (based on
Johnn Four's idea) and an
Adventure Funnel planner (based on
Dr. Rotwang's idea).
Got more ideas for recession-proof gaming? Leave a comment already!
