recession-proof gaming XIII: victory lap edition

Serious kudos to Old School Hack for their Gold Ennie award for 'Best Free Product'.  With the new levels of financiapocalypse, I thought it may be wise to collate more free things for your delight.

Artwork!
108 Free Character Portraits - Courtesy of Duane O'Brien & Jeff Preston.  Thanks Nevermet Press!

DM/GM/Referee Tools
DungeonWords / WilderWords - Tables of words, useful for inspiration from Risus Monkey.

Geomorphs
Geomorph Collections courtesy of Netherwerks.

Systems
Classic Marvel Forever - A massive site full of classic Marvel Super Heroes (MSH) RPG stuff & rules!
Gaslite - A PocketMod format steampunk/weird future system from Black Hole Diaries.
Small But Vicious Dog - A B/X edition set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy from Vaults of Nagoh.

recession-proof gaming X: pixel-stained technopeasant revolt

Image courtesy of Drollerie Press

More financiapocalyptic musings means it's time to look at what makes  good gaming without breaking the bank (assuming the banks don't do a good enough job themselves) and for those in post-GenCon hock, this may be a good thing.  This edition is dedicated to Jo Walton whose books are worth your consideration.  From such stone soup can spring some neat games. 


Games
5x5 - Action-based system toolkit.  Anime-style artwork and a smooth template system. 
Clockwork - Steampunk cowboys.  On one page.  You can't say fairer than that.
Mini Six Bare Bones - Open D6, cinematic in the vein of Star Wars but much more to it.  Remember when West End Games put out all those movie tie-ins?  Hack your own version.  Anti-Paladin Games needs more submitted settings and an Inception-based Mini Six would be interesting.

Game maps

Drag and drop map generators at Stone Sword.
Dungeoneering.net provides free terrain maps for RPGs and wargames.
A lot of free high-quality maps at Paratime Design Cartography.

Online Dungeon Generators (brought by the letters D and G it seems).
Dizzy Dragon Games Adventure Generator - Several shades of geomorph and OSR awesome. 
Donjon - Dungeon and Encounter generator in d20 and 4E flavours.
Gozzy's Dungeon Generator -  For those who like their dungeons unpopulated.

recession-proof gaming VII - mission to game

Is that light at the end of the financiapocalyptic tunnel?  Maybe.  Here's some more stuff anyway.

Browser Tools

• hack/ has produced some neat RPG bookmarklets.  I've mentioned bookmarklets as game tools before and these provide dice rollers and character generators for D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Hackmaster, Classic Traveller and WHFRP.

Games

• Dino Pirates of Ninja Island combines dinosaurs, pirates, ninjas, monkeys and robots with adventure into an intriguing whole.  A Creative Commons license lets you add to the game setting - the rules and lots of content is free.  There's also an introductory adventure for $6.  Courtesy of Scratch Factory.
• Engines & Empires is a free PDF steampunk sourcebook for Labyrinth Lord courtesy of Relative Entropy Games - the Relative Entropy site also has free resources and nicely priced print copies.

GM Resources

• Those running d20/OGL games will like The d20NPCs wiki which has a searchable list of pre-generated NPCs for both fantasy and modern games.  
• More d20 fantasy generators are found at Myth Weavers including an updated version of the random dungeon generator originally coded by Jamis Buck.
• Dream Weaved Worlds offers some generators for barrel and crate contents,  name generators and the taverns & inns random encounter generator as well as d20 fantasy and sci-fi resources.
• What's in a name?  Chris Pound's Language Machines provides names for people of many types including Barsoomian and Tsolyani, Dying Earth spell names, martial arts moves worthy of Feng Shui or Exalted and has a wonderful list of name/word generation resources.
• CrystalBallSoft has a random fantasy city generator which can handle any settlement you'd find in the older editions of the DMG (thorp, hamlet etc.)  It outputs based on D&D data and takes into account some nice touches.

standing on the shoulders of giant automata

For those of you who crave a little more steampunk in your life (and my that's a lot of you!) this humbly-submitted post may be the panacea you desire. So without further ado, my lords, ladies and gentlemen an octet of links for your research and edification... please share in the comments!

Aether Emporium Steampunk Essentials - An essential collection.
Brass Goggles Steampunk Name Generator - A lot of fun.
Christian Lorenz Scheurer - eye candy in deluxe jars.
NAGS Society - free version of Terra Incognita (FUDGE RPG setting).
Steampunkopedia - A truly massive resource.
The Linacre School of Defence - Instruction on how one defends oneself.
The History of Costume (1861-1880) by Braun & Schneider - An excellent reference.
The Steampunk Timeline of Futures Past - A history of technology and pulp literature.

steel, steam and spit

This month's RPG Carnival is hosted by Mad Brew Labs and deals with steampunk and klokwerks. Some have noted steampunk seems to comprise two divergent streams - the utopian steam-based science and dystopic punk social dynamics; you can mention Gibson & Sterling's The Difference Engine, Moore & O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. You may even mention the movie Wild Wild West (or it's TV inspiration) without too many outraged looks - alright, maybe that last is a bit... colonial. You get the idea.

While there is plenty of the steam, there is not so much about the punk elements - a shame because there is an awful lot to rage against for any subversive. The historic eras that steampunk draw on were times of massive social upheaval and reform.

How do you consider poverty caused by massive industrialisation leading to slum living? Or the rocketing abuse of gin and opium? Maybe prostitution and the hypocrisy of the public towards the 'unfortunates' who were committed to asylums to reform or being subjected to humiliating inspections by public officials if suspected of having an STI?

Or child labour and exploitation? How about the conflict between creationism and evolution? And the rise of feminism and the suffragette movement? All at the same time? The enforced social mores and repressed conservative attitudes yield much for punk ideologies and ethos to illustrate and attack - whether it be Fabian ideals, patriotic socialism or an alternate morality.

A sense of manifest destiny grants divine right to conquer and exploit in the name of your nation, God, Reason or Progress. Ugly? Industrialisation isn't always pretty. Finding the focus on technological marvels lets us embrace a sense of wonder inspired by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Yet there is a darker edge to steampunk, dealing with social ills that still hang over us.