Goodman Games

RevTurkey wrote:I agree with Finarvyn in that a BiG setting would be a draw. Would Blackmoor be possible?
I have heard good things about it and it has that historical pedigree of course. Never looked at it however. Is it good?

My understanding is that WotC is unwilling to negotiate the rights to Blackmoor as a setting. There had been a company who had 3E/4E rights, but they were directly tied to Dave Arneson and those rights have expired. Now that Dave is no longer with us, it appears doubtful that anyone will be able to get that license from the vault.

Sad, too, since Blackmoor is such a cool setting. If you want "pure" Blackmoor look for the First Fantasy Campaign book published by Judges Guild in 1977. The next layer of coolness would be the DA modules (there are four) for B/X D&D in the 1980's. The third option would be to track down the 3E books. My last resort option would be the 4E Blackmoor volume.

Worth a look.

Been thinking more about the whole setting thing, and in retrospect the problem seems so obvious. DCC is about cool and unusual things. Established campaign settings are about following someone else's rules.

Blackmoor is problematic. It has a very Appendix N feel to it, but the main issue is that there is no actual Blackmoor literature to go along with the world. A game rooted in Appendix N should choose an established setting also rooted in Appendix N. Conan, Elric, Fafhrd/Mouser, whatever.

So let's suppose that Goodman Games could come up with enough cash to acquire the Conan franchise. Very pulpy, very cool setting, as Appendix N as you can imagine. Then they create The Most Amazing Adventure Ever(TM) and the Howard Estate says "most impressive, but it's not Conan." That's a problem. Suddenly, Goodman Games would have to follow someone else's rules about the setting.

Tithian may have said it best:

What I'd like is an free or low-priced pdf of a fairly small-scale overground map, and I'd like all current and forthcoming modules to be placed on that map.

What we probably need is "DCC World."

Not a reboot of GG's earlier efforts. Something that could take all of the modules from DDD#067 onward and put them all onto one map.

Anyway, this is my present mode of thought on the issue.

I think Gygax's idea of interlinking campaign worlds representing, together, the Material Planes (everyone's home being their Prime) is the ideal setting. John Carter's earth may be his Prime, but it is on Barsoom that he found his highest calling. How many planes has Elric travelled to?

Golden Shanthopal is part of the Ancient Earth, but when I ran Perils of the Sunken City, the Great City and the sunken ruins both were part of a future New Orleans, in the past of Shanthopal, but in our future. In a game where travel in time and planes is the norm, even from low levels, one need not limit oneself to a single world.

RC

If you will permit me to do a little marketing research here for the folks interested in new rulebooks:

So the series of modules I'm writing (started with Haunting of Larvik Island which is being re-mastered for DCC as we speak, and obviously Attack of the Frawgs which was just released and continues with "Larvik 2" which I'm currently writing) are being written as part of a series of about 4 modules (think how the G1-G3 series progressed, or how Village of Hommlet tied in with Temple of Elemental Evil) My brother and I have written out a fairly detailed environment for this campaign; as GM's and player's you obviously don't need to know about The Big Picture (you can pickup any one of the modules and have a fine romp) but for those types of people that like to play a larger game you will have that option.

As we're writing I'm keeping track of all my major NPCs, new monsters, new gods, new spells, new magic items, major cities, politics within regions, past histories in a wiki to make sure I don't screw up any continuity within the stories.

Big Q #1:
Would publishing that type of material as a "Campaign Guide" be interesting to anyone?

Big Q #2: Do people care about modules that "link together" as part of a larger series anymore? (This answer probably will less affect how I'm writing the modules because, as the guy writing these adventures it's the type of story I want to play... but I may minimize the amount of "Campaign Notes" that I'm putting into the adventure, "If the player's are returning from Larvik Island, then blah blah blah, otherwise blah blah blah." type stuff.

Interested in your thoughts.

I'm planning to create some hex maps for my campaign, maybe I can write some booklets for them, Judges Guild style. Funny thing is, I based them on a map of the Jurassic age (with current coastlines) and as I was redrawing it, it started to look a lot like a compressed Wilderlands of High Fantasy map. So, now I know what kind of Pangea map was the Wilderlands based. Still, I'm not going to turn back, because the layout of the land is way too good for a kick-ass campaign. Maybe I'm going to expand it, so I can have a place for oriental adventutes, but it'll take time.

goodmangames wrote:I am more inclined to include tools to help the judge create his own monsters, rather than statted-out creatures.

This is EXACTLY what I want! Yes!

It seemed to me that the area of ritual spells and their effects were eluded to within the core rulebook..,I'm not saying any of the characters is our budding campaign are ready for them but I'd love to see some in the annual.