In all my many years of gaming I've never run a hex crawl. Weird, but despite having bought countless products, watched endless Youtube videos and read a multitude of blogs, I'm still not entirely clear on how to handle a lot of the actual exploration part. Oh, and the fear. Of what, I don't know but it's that nagging self doubt many GMs have of 'what if they go somewhere I haven't prepped for and I freeze'?. Enter the Brukesian Duchy. Not too big, a great overview map, a load of factions and adventure sites with gorgeous cartography, and, glory be, some simple but interesting exploration rules. Random encounters, random events tables, weather, it's all here so if they do go off piste then grab a monster book and you can tread water with ease while gently nudging them back to the bit you have prepared.

I've seen the concept of 'good vanilla' for rpg products. Things which are well made but not full of such outlandish themes or monsters that it can't easily be integrated into an existing game if you need. This is great vanilla - system neutral but so easy to use with 5E, older D&D or just about any fantasy system you can think of. About as little work needed (other than reading it) as the busy GM could wish for. And very, very reasonably priced, with a great free preview to give you a flavour.

Hopefully not the last one of these that Elven Tower produce.

There is a certain cross section of RPGers whose quest in life is to find the 'perfect' system. Take it from me, it doesn't exist - I've been looking for longer than many people reading this will have been alive and haven't found it yet. What I have discovered is that there are games which are particularly good for a specific purpose, that tick all the right boxes for something you want to do in a game, so you go back to them again and again; I can see Pocket Fantasy joining that group for me. What would I use it for? Well, perhaps surprisingly, as someone who played D&D back in the day and after a dalliance with new fangled ideas and mechanics is coming to the OSR, it is to my mind an almost perfect fit. Why? Well one of the OSR tenets is rulings not rules, and in 4 pages PF manages to set down a set of rules that is, as intended, perfect for new players, particularly young 'uns, but which has so much potential for reviving those old classic modules from yesteryear because of its flexible skill and magic systems. The skill system itself is, in my humble opinion, worthy of high praise and reason alone for downloading the rules, and while there are no pages of spell lists (how could there be when the whole ruleset only clocks in at 4?), it's trivial to find a D&D clone to use as guidelines for what you can and can't do. One of the best 4 pages you'll read today - come and join us at the Pocket Fantasy G+ group where people are adding classes, and working on ways to extend the game beyond a single level.