DCC 38 - Goodman Games' answer to Dungeonland?
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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DCC 38 - Goodman Games' answer to Dungeonland?
I have to say Escape from the Forest of Lanterns has me grinning like a little kid. My players are going to love/hate this.
Does this constitute an attempt to capture some of the madness of Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, or can we expect further lunatic adventures in the whimsical-but-deadly vein?
Either way, you've got a copy sold right here!
Does this constitute an attempt to capture some of the madness of Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, or can we expect further lunatic adventures in the whimsical-but-deadly vein?
Either way, you've got a copy sold right here!
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- Cold-Hearted Immortal
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- Cold-Hearted Immortal
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Escape was indeed inspired from Dungeonland/Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (and the author's nightmares, if I remember correctly).
The deadly/whimsical vein is tied entirely to the tome --- but the tome has a habit of being passed around so there's no telling when a sequel might pop up.
//H
The deadly/whimsical vein is tied entirely to the tome --- but the tome has a habit of being passed around so there's no telling when a sequel might pop up.
//H
The lucky guy who got to write some Dungeon Crawl Classics.
DCC Resource thread: character sheets, judge tools, and the world's fastest 0-level party creator.
DCC Resource thread: character sheets, judge tools, and the world's fastest 0-level party creator.
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Escape From the Forest of Lanterns
The writer here,
Yes, there was a great deal of inspiration from Gygax's modules EX1 and EX2. However, the true origins of this module's creation dates way back to a recurring nightmare about a witch that had trapped my family in the flagstones of her atrium/garden. The image of walking over the flagstones and looking down and seeing my family's faces frozen in the stones and knowing the witch was lurking around and watching me was terrifying to a 4-5 year old. It's no wonder it kind of stuck in my head for a long, long time.
Anyway, one night a couple years ago I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep. It was like 2 AM or something and I started thinking about that old dream, so I got up and went to my computer and started writing an adventure about a witch living in a cottage and being a little kid stuck in a small demiplane that she controls. As it developed a bit more, the Gygax concepts from Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror spawned a few similar ideas.
So, that's my longwinded explanation.
Will your players hate you for running this adventure? Absolutely And they'll love it at the same time. At least, judging from the playtest I ran with my own group.
Yes, there was a great deal of inspiration from Gygax's modules EX1 and EX2. However, the true origins of this module's creation dates way back to a recurring nightmare about a witch that had trapped my family in the flagstones of her atrium/garden. The image of walking over the flagstones and looking down and seeing my family's faces frozen in the stones and knowing the witch was lurking around and watching me was terrifying to a 4-5 year old. It's no wonder it kind of stuck in my head for a long, long time.
Anyway, one night a couple years ago I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep. It was like 2 AM or something and I started thinking about that old dream, so I got up and went to my computer and started writing an adventure about a witch living in a cottage and being a little kid stuck in a small demiplane that she controls. As it developed a bit more, the Gygax concepts from Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror spawned a few similar ideas.
So, that's my longwinded explanation.
Will your players hate you for running this adventure? Absolutely And they'll love it at the same time. At least, judging from the playtest I ran with my own group.
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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that is a disturbing dream... sounds like you ate some bad cabbage to me
Greg Oppedisano
Author: The Great City Campaign setting, PC Pearls, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly, GM Gems, DCC 48, DCC 49, DCC 43, DCC 32, DCC 29...
Contact info and bibliography in the WereCabbage patch: http://www.werecabbages.com/members.php?id=22
Author: The Great City Campaign setting, PC Pearls, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly, GM Gems, DCC 48, DCC 49, DCC 43, DCC 32, DCC 29...
Contact info and bibliography in the WereCabbage patch: http://www.werecabbages.com/members.php?id=22
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Well, that's good to hear. I suspect that a good amount of people may falsely assume it's too whimsical. And that's too bad because it's a lot grittier and nastier than you might first assume.JediOre wrote:The annoucement for this module turned me off.
However, after reading your post concerning this DCC, I'm a changed man.
I never actually purchased Dungeonland or The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror when they appeared on the shelf of my FLGS back in the day. After picking them up and reading the descriptions on the backs they sounded too silly to run. It was only later when I heard how fun they were that I picked them up in a used book store and realized what gems they were (IMO, of course).
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
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Were_Cabbages Reference
Hey, Greg! Sorry to gloss over your cool ass Were_Cabbages reference. "Ate some bad cabbage..." Nice.gargoyle wrote:that is a disturbing dream... sounds like you ate some bad cabbage to me
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
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Thats awesome! I thought you didn't get it and have been patiently checking back every day for that AHA! moment...
were_cabbages rule!
were_cabbages rule!
Greg Oppedisano
Author: The Great City Campaign setting, PC Pearls, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly, GM Gems, DCC 48, DCC 49, DCC 43, DCC 32, DCC 29...
Contact info and bibliography in the WereCabbage patch: http://www.werecabbages.com/members.php?id=22
Author: The Great City Campaign setting, PC Pearls, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly, GM Gems, DCC 48, DCC 49, DCC 43, DCC 32, DCC 29...
Contact info and bibliography in the WereCabbage patch: http://www.werecabbages.com/members.php?id=22
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Hitting the stores... now we can discuss it!
Hi, everyone! Well, it looks like this module has started to arrive in local game stores and various online stores such as the one here. I would love to hear some feedback on this adventure once the adventure starts getting played. I've been shamelessly plugging this adventure over at the Paizo website. A comment made there was awfully clever and I would love to hear about someone actually doing it. Namely, using a real gingerbread house as a prop to be used with miniatures. The ideas was to eat the "prop" afterwards.
Anway, I look forward to feedback (good or bad) from you all and some stories about your adventuring experiences.
Anway, I look forward to feedback (good or bad) from you all and some stories about your adventuring experiences.
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Some others that were too out there...
I mentioned this previously in this thread, but back in the 1st edition days of the mid 80's, I saw Dungeonland on the shelf of my favorite hobby store, Page After Page Comics (man, I miss that place) and picked it up and gave it a front and back cover inspection. My first impression was exactly the same as your's was with Escape.... It seemed a bit too out there, too whacky, too whimsical, when I was looking for more of a meatgrinder/supsence/high adventure module. I later picked it and Land Beyond the Magic Mirror up in a used bookstore and discovered that they were 2 of the greatest modules I had ever passed on.Eryx wrote:I wasn't going to pick this one up because it was a little "too out there" for my tastes. Then my DM muse walked in and suggested that it be perfect for the time I want to send the players into the Faerie Realm, and that was it, bought and paid for there and then.
Now, while I don't presume to put Escape from the Forest of Lanterns in the same class as Gary Gygax's classics, I find it ironic that your's is not the first comment of this nature and is very reminiscent of my early experience with Gygax's early attempts at this style.
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
I haven't quite read through the entire mod yet but so far I like it. I think the various exploratory encounters throughout the demiplane are very interesting. But I can see the players really getting leary everytime the DM begins to describe another area. Just about every encounter is tricky and decieving, I know as a player I would become especially cautious. Such are the ways of the fey.
I love the gingerbread house idea. My girlfriend had made one for christmas that came as a kit from Costco. Everything was included from gum-drops to icing to gigerbread walls and roof. Unfortunately the whole thing became less and less stable over time eventually disentegrating.
I do like the art in the mod but am a bit disappointed in no player handouts. I so look forward to these in every DCC and wish they all had more. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for S1, my first purchased mod, ahhh... I can make handouts from the art interspersed in the mod though.
Eric.
I love the gingerbread house idea. My girlfriend had made one for christmas that came as a kit from Costco. Everything was included from gum-drops to icing to gigerbread walls and roof. Unfortunately the whole thing became less and less stable over time eventually disentegrating.
I do like the art in the mod but am a bit disappointed in no player handouts. I so look forward to these in every DCC and wish they all had more. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for S1, my first purchased mod, ahhh... I can make handouts from the art interspersed in the mod though.
Eric.
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Eric, I absolutely love them, too. My finished manuscript had about 1/4 of the total text taken up with little notes in red saying "This would be a really cool handout" or "This would be great for artwork". OK, maybe not THAT much of the text, but, yeah, I would have liked artwork on every single page!!! Ahh... wouldn't that be great? But artwork takes up a good deal of space and needs to be commisioned by GG's various artists, tends to get pretty expensive, and can take a lot of time to get back or maybe not turn out the way the editors were hoping. The artwork included in the adventure is pretty cool, though. I really dug it.Ludyee wrote: I do like the art in the mod but am a bit disappointed in no player handouts. I so look forward to these in every DCC and wish they all had more. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for S1, my first purchased mod, ahhh... I can make handouts from the art interspersed in the mod though.
As far as "tricky" encounters, you can always mix in a few random encounters of a straight up nature to keep your players from getting too suspicious of every keyed encounter area they come to. I hope you have a really fun experience with running the adventure.
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Glad to hear that this out now, Steve, I'll have to keep an eye out for it
grodog
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Allan.
grodog@gmail.com
Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site
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Allan.
grodog@gmail.com
Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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Hey, I didn't know you were local to LV, Steve: have you and Theocrat gotten together? I'm out there at least once a year for conferences, next time I'm there we should grab lunch/dinner/whatever!
grodog
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Allan.
grodog@gmail.com
Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site
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Allan.
grodog@gmail.com
Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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I've had Theocrat (Issac - I probably spelled it wrong as always!) play in my Friday night games on a couple of occasions. That would be great to meet up the next time you're here. Drop me a line at sgreer@lvcoxmail.com the next time you're planning to visit.grodog wrote:Hey, I didn't know you were local to LV, Steve: have you and Theocrat gotten together? I'm out there at least once a year for conferences, next time I'm there we should grab lunch/dinner/whatever!
Steve Greer
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
Lord of the Miniature Trolls
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- Ill-Fated Peasant
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I saw this DCC at Sci-Fi City (which is amazing, because they usually order one and then never restock it). Looked really interesting. I immediately thought of Dungeonland/etc when I saw that DCC.
Shane
Sword in my hand / axe on my side / Valhall awaits me / soon I will die
Bear skin on my back / wolf jaw on my head / Valhall awaits me / when I’m dead
- Amon Amarth
Sword in my hand / axe on my side / Valhall awaits me / soon I will die
Bear skin on my back / wolf jaw on my head / Valhall awaits me / when I’m dead
- Amon Amarth
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- Far-Sighted Wanderer
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I picked it up at Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge/Boston last night, along with a few other titles. I'm looking forward to reading it on my flight home tomorrow morning.
grodog
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Allan.
grodog@gmail.com
Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site
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Allan.
grodog@gmail.com
Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site