Thursday, October 16, 2014

DCC Solo Module: Achieved!

I'm very happy to report that my own personal pet project for maybe the past year is for sale on RPGNow:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/138653/HHSOLO-1--The-Hounds-of-Halthrag-Keep

What do you get for the purchase?  Well - a digital file that will bring to mind those lost days of yore when your trusty Brass Lantern kept the Grues at bay. It will remind you of Fighting Fantasy books.  It will remind you of some Lone Wolf and Choose Your Own Adventure books

Inside there is a highly-condensed version of The Dungeon Crawl Classics rules-set, which if you aren't already familiar with them will give you a taste of what you might expect from DCC. If you do know DCC already, then I expect you will be able to jump in and get your 0-level death-wish fantasy within a couple of minutes.  You may even have a satisfactory conclusion, although that's somewhat beside the point...

Playing through the adventure with a 0-level character and escaping from the Keep somehow will give you about 10XP if you burn a little Luck and have the Gods on your side.  If you really work the thing over, you'll come out of it with some cool stuff that will make for a very interesting Level 1 character of whatever class you choose - the location is chock full of weapons and monsters and some gold and enough interesting events to propel some character development before a PC is even ready for play in groups.

On the other hand, just like in a regular DCC funnel game you may find the dice go against you and you are slaughtered without fanfare or mourning.  So it goes, eh?  The good thing is there is a system in place so that you could recover some stuff from your previous character if you play your cards right.

There is bonus material provided by +Claytonian JP, as well as the meaty and dangerous part of a Patron by +Paul Wolfe from Angels and Daemons and Beings Between.

I can't even remember all the little terrible references I slipped in, but I think gamers of a certain age will know the thing before they even read it, mostly!  I admit it's a work of pastiche but I crafted it pretty lovingly over the course of a year and I hope that you check it out.

Expect a print version soon, and an old-fashioned game book format before the year's end!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

On Submission and Prices and Other Weighty Matters

Ahh, the banal details of business for which I believe I am relatively unprepared to handle any ramifications whatsoever except the most rudimentary ones like maybe this will be an outbreak of financial Ebola that will finally sink me in a mire of unremitting money problems (O WAIT ALREADY HAVE THAT!)

So, the solo funnel module HHSOLO1: The Hounds of Halthrag Keep is submitted to Goodman Games, in what is likely to be (barring any OGL weirdness - man that thing is a wasp nest of legalese) the for-salable iteration

(note to self: there happens to be one or two widows NOT PEOPLE that I just noticed that grate upon me but I will address them later so as not to throw the whole thing out of whack)

When this puppy allows me to retire in leisure and just attend RPG cons across the country humbly turning down high-paying new positions in game companies all over the world, having paid off my student loans to you admirable debt collectors who may read this post LOOK AT YOU AND HOW INDUSTRIOUS YOU ARE!, I will look back on those lost hours of sleep fretting about text/style GREPs (still haven't exactly sorted them out, yet) and leading and points and Character vs Paragraph Styles etc. etc. etc. and LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK

Some minor details:  business license and pricing of the actual thing.  At 86 pages and a million heartbeats and a cupful of salty tears to make, I honestly don't know what a digital book goes for on the streets.  I printed it out at Kinko's for something like 9 bucks total.  I know I sunk about 130 bucks into some art and 60 bucks for the software to write it and at my going hourly rate for the day gig, I guess the thing has cost something like $20,195.00 give or take a few hundred man-hours and like WHY DID I GO TO GRADUATE SCHOOL AND INCUR THIS IMMENSE DEBT if not to have the leisure to write this thing and draw it and lay it out and fuss about fonts and draw maps and cross-check entries and throw playtesting to the wind all willy-nilly?  Thank the Dark Gods That Abide Behind My Water Heater when they cast a sleeping dweomer on my wife and daughter so that I can finagle the free time and lost sleep to do this thing I love so well!

I PROMISE, O DEBT COLLECTORS, TO ONLY SPEND THIS FAT WAD OF $$$$MONEY$$$$ ON BOOZE AND A BUS or possibly cargo freight TICKET TO GENCON AND/OR NTRPGCON

Also, Hey! New Logo:  maybe I will figure out a way to stick it in the banner when I have recovered from sleep debt (non-monetary, although I am sure that one day the Feds will figure out a way to charge me for that, also).  Man, work life and money are starting to impinge upon my fantasy life in a very unacceptable way.  Off to look for consolidation that won't cost me a testicle and the souls of my child's children's children's children!  I'm not a welcher, I swear!

Eh?  Wink wink, nudge nudge?  KnowwhatImean?

Buy 'The Hounds' - Click Here