Announcing a Summer 2014 release of THE HOUNDS OF HALTHRAG KEEP for DCC

In my line of work (mental health therapy), we tell people that unless you have clear and concise goals and have written them down somewhere (anywhere!) then you don't really have goals.  You have ideas.

I had an idea early last year to self-publish, under the HAPLESS HENCHMAN imprint (maybe), a solo game book that captured the terror and distress that trying to stay alive in a fantasy world with no training ought to be.  Essentially, the DCC funnel, but all alone - like that first lonely Kai Initiate except without all the cool powers.  Merely a dagger and a spool of twine.

Well, my idea is a goal, and (lucky for me), I have successfully acquired a limited amount of mastery over some fundamental tools needed to make the thing a reality.  I'm drawing again, and when I am not Spelunky-ing or holding the baby or drinking whiskey, I have picked up the arts of layout via InDesign in a rudimentary fashion.

So, work proceeds!  I have acquired permission to pursue the thing from Goodman Games.  I've written the first draft of the rules.  I've written the first draft of the random encounters section of the book.  I've gone over many of my initial influences which are

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Next, in no particular order, I need to:

It takes a while to get the hand uncramped after 30 years of not drawing.

1. Finish the clumsy black and white scrawlings I call 'art'

2. Finish the game map and decision nodes - the setting itself hangs behind my eyes almost every free waking moment
3. Write the 300-400 more entries it takes to make an exciting and arduous 0-level solo funnel for DCC

Mr. Goodman (and a couple of others) have advised me - quite rightly - to seek help.  And a number of particularly cool people have offered it unsolicited, and I thank them deeply and graciously.

Here is what I propose, before motivation slips away tonight.  I must write and for that the map needs finishing - this weekend (probably tonight) I will scour the house for my first-draft map of the ruins of Halthrag Keep, outside of which the Jackal Gang holds a number of innocent people captive, forcing them to enter in and search for... Something terrible.  I know what this is, and I even have a couple of low-level endings (like you would get in the CYOA games if you didn't make a lot of good choices).  The random encounter entries for both day- and night-time are written and include a dozen or so new monsters for DCC that will be quite harrowing for your average level-0 medieval Joe or Jane.  I may release a bestiary as a teaser or something very soon.

What I need is to have goals established or else (like many other things) I will dilly dally with Spelunky and babies and never finish this thing.  So:  the official goal is to release the PDF version in the Summer of 2014, with a print-on-demand of the thing if anybody is interested.  If it sells even a single copy at PWYW then I might make a DCC module for a funnel and append it to the printable version or release it as a standalone, since most of the work will be done already (actually, that part is mostly done now IN MY HEAD)

I figure once I've gotten the map and outline, the simple thing will be to untangle the knot of entries, and that's taken care of mostly but I'll speak to it later.

Anyways, the big goal is out in the world.  Twist my arm or ear or whatever as you will.  Subgoals, officially (and I am sure there are many that are hidden to me)  Map -> Static Encounters Keyed -> Write/Edit the Entries + Draw the arts + Lay out the document -> Submit to Goodman Games for approval.  By the by, I'm trying to find a way to enable a particularly old school favorite of mine to do the cover, but we'll see how it goes.

My birthday is in May, and I have selected that as the submission date, so I hope the hellish deities that hound desktop publishers will yap at me in my sleep.

That said - I need to get off of here and write/draw/make! Or game, or something.

Long have I laboured, searched far and wide

Well, not really.  I am retro-playtesting the BSOLO adventure module, trying to decide if it was nostalgia or fun I was having.  Seems like raw frustration, now that I am older - some of the pre-gens are handily supplied with Potions of Gaseous form, with the obvious upshot that you lose all your stuff when you go through the bars...It's all lying there on the other side of the portcullis and the wizard Sargon's magical might dispels all enchantments within...  You walked 9 days from the town to the Gate of Lion Castle, only to float through the portcullis all smug n' shit, to die of starvation a few days later.  Seems about right.

The fact of the matter is, getting through Lion Castle is difficult for anybody, nevermind a puny 1st or 2nd level Basic D&D Magic-User.

I used the 3rd level MU - Eztar - that was the best (non-elf) pre-gen and he was killed by a Giant Ferret in the first room after entering the tail tunnel.  Furry bastard saved against my Web and we resorted to combat - with his AC of 5 I needed 17's, With my AC of 9 he needed 9's.  Got him down to 1 HP, though.  Fucker. I can't bring myself to write "Skeleton of Eztar" in the margins of the module since getting all the (poorly spelled) pencil scrawlings off'n it surely must have weakened the 30 year old paper.  The good thing is, the next guy will surely find Eztar's corpse, iron rations, and +1 dagger. And spellbook!

So, will my Labyrinth Lord: Realms of Crawling Chaos 3rd level Deep One Hybrid do any better?  I hope so, as I intend to use him to go through The Ruins of the Undercity after pilfering Sargon's fortress... I don't believe that the ring can be mine, though, since Sargon will never allow a non-magic user or elf to be his heir.  The shame is that at 4th level the stirring call of the ineffable deeps will surely distract him from his travels...

Why am I going through this? Well, as you may have caught snippets of, here and there, I am self-publishing (one day - possibly this year!) a licensed solo module for DCC... My precarious initial tests of what I've got so far reveal that there is little likelihood, the way it is set up, that any 0-level character will survive the whole thing.  I hesitate to change the time mechanic or the plot of the thing to accommodate any considerations as trifling as survivability though.  It will take a generous run of lucky dicing and a perilous amount of Luck points to make it out - although I've placed about 5 "medium good" exits in the first draft.  I think maybe a half-dozen to a dozen plays through will give you a survivor, provided you leave good notes in the margin and aren't surprised by any zombified previous characters, as getting their stuff will naturally be harder.

Think of it as an alternate funnel for when you can't find a game online or face-to-face.

OLD DEAD WIZARD'S LION SHAPED CASTLE, I AM IN YOU!