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Post by geneweigel on Dec 8, 2019 16:30:47 GMT -5
Heh this all seems surreal. Talking to Rob again. It almost feels like the spirit of Gary walks among us. I wonder what his opinion of BROKEN CASTLE would be? "...er... I don't review uncommissioned works..."
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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 9, 2019 9:06:36 GMT -5
Mail him a signed copy, and ask for his opinion. Come on, it's Rob!
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 9, 2019 10:42:50 GMT -5
That probably would be a good idea. Maybe after Christmas though. I wonder how much it would be to ship it to France?
I've been so distracted with Christmas shit that I can't even get a follow up going. Creative-wise.
There is some leftover material believe it or not! I left out one encounter area and detail of a border area. However they need finishing.
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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 9, 2019 14:14:22 GMT -5
I received my copy of BROKEN CASTLE but unfortunately there was a printing error and pages 1-24 are missing. I opened it up and started reading it and it said Grogham Castle followed by a description and key of the castle, and I thought that was strange, and eventually I looked down and noticed it said "Page 25" at the bottom. So, I'm going to have to send this one back. But I've been reading through it as much as I can, and I love it so far -- especially the creativity and drawings. Definitely a fresh approach with so many new monsters and magic items, and oddities in the dungeon like time travel. Something that stuck out to me were the glommer elves and glommer elf lords: I like the way you present an alternative version of elves that are a capricious interpretation -- childlike shoe-thieves and strangely elongated elders with bad teeth!
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 9, 2019 15:56:09 GMT -5
That sucks. I was thinking Amazon would be above that somehow. I retained the ISBN so I can leave if this goes sour.
The glommer elves are definitely almost straight out of folklore as they were anti-Tolkien holdovers. The other "demihumans" are mostly campaign play and ideas.
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Post by grodog on Dec 9, 2019 23:30:23 GMT -5
I received your email, Gene, and should be able to talk with Jon sometime by year-end or so. I'll keep you posted!
Allan.
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 11, 2019 9:29:37 GMT -5
I deleted the Facebook page as its too annoying. I'm getting messages from facebook about nothing every half hour so thats done. Refer to the blog for any updates:http://justkeeponrollin.blogspot.com/
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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 13, 2019 14:57:57 GMT -5
So Gene, tell me about how your campaign played out when you ran this adventure for your players. What did they do, where did they go, and how did they react to your new monsters and magic items? How long did the campaign go for, and what sort of characters were played, and how high did they get in levels? Did you make any changes as a result of things they did?
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 13, 2019 17:16:22 GMT -5
The bulk of backs and forths were mostly on the road headed north with some people stopping at the farms for assist.
They lost NPCs Primo and Secundo to the Sporting Jenny before they hit 4th level.
They went wandering and hit the cult caves before getting to the lower castle.
The Orc mound was after that but before they ran into the Nekrakon (Fled and lost NPC Chigin, who was eaten).
There was a lot of players around 15 or so. Some players were left out of the credits because were only there for one session and/or they were whackjobs.
Taylor, who is usually always game, was not allowed to play in this run because I wanted to explain everything as it went.
I originally intended the sessions to be filmed but it didn't happen. I only have a test photo. Its too bad these were jam packed with real life drama.
Most players were assuming the plaggol was a balrog with another name. There is a monster that is mentioned but does not appear in the adventure that really was encountered in the adventure: The "asteryx". Those things are everywhere but I thought it was too "drow-y" to include them.
It got pretty erratic, as many players had moved, so I had cut out the low level characters by the time they hit the anchorite tower and finished off the castle.
Post-campaign (I had enough with recruiting with the public.) all the material had been integrated into the regular campaign with "Battle of Blackthrush" and the "Battle of Skulldon" with Lord Marll as a principal of the "Council of Skulldon" with the regular players (Taylor and the rogues gallery of smelly old character sheet people.). So the module is set as if none of that is pending and it is already done.
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 14, 2019 9:15:26 GMT -5
The real question is the blog now. Is it a conflict of interest? Should I have a separate AD&D blog? That sounds like a terrible idea on paper but is it prudent?
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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 14, 2019 12:31:45 GMT -5
What is your concern, exactly? Something legal?
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 14, 2019 14:25:31 GMT -5
Yeah I mean having straight up free AD&D but original material as it has been going on the same blog with the commercial adventure generic material.
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 16, 2019 8:19:25 GMT -5
I thought about it some more and D&D 4th edition and below is vaporware at best. If having fan elements using Gygax era stats is a problem let them republish and put effort into proving me wrong.
My publishings for sale are not in AD&D so they have nothing.
So the new generic format, which can be seen in the "LOOK INSIDE" button on Amazon (page 266 Appendix IX), is my universal format.
Should I continue the blog with AD&D or switch to the universal format? Or have both? Its a good question.
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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 16, 2019 9:51:01 GMT -5
Your blog is free so no need to change anything. BROKEN CASTLE has your own terminology so you're safe there, as well. Actually, I think you could have gotten away with using terminology common to AD&D and all of its clones, by simply not referencing any specific game system and making use of what is designated as "open content." Check out the SRD on the Wizards website, as it specifies what is considered open content.
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 16, 2019 11:34:48 GMT -5
Although, I did not want to get mired in recent D&D legalese where you have to follow the guidelines for products. I wanted the product series to be worry free forever in case some random greedy corporation changes its mind when they gobble up Hasbro. Honestly? I mean REALLY honestly? Some of these companies that have "worked with" official D&D over the years are led by individuals that can't even put a decent idea together and their solutions are rip off then throw money at everything. Making us believe there was some unknown process(Kenzer probably the best example.) Thats bullshit just look at Role Aids those came out non-stop. The only problem they had was saying compatible with D&D on the cover.
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 17, 2019 12:04:21 GMT -5
Amazon is having a Christmas sale with $5 off. I'm guessing because they did not notify me.
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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 19, 2019 9:15:47 GMT -5
I'm going to wait until after Christmas before buying another copy because I put it on my wish list and want to see if someone buys it for me. After Christmas I'll give more feedback on your module. I'm still amazed that you completed it! Great job! Excellent artwork, by the way, as usual.
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 19, 2019 12:32:51 GMT -5
Its surreal someone saw it on the Barnes & Noble website for $39.99 and I was like, "WAIT! Its on sale!" Its on the Goodreads website where they review books so that makes it even weirder. Some people that I know review everything that they read there but are not into fantasy in any form. Here is the link: BROKEN CASTLE by Eugene Weigel
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Jan 23, 2020 10:40:14 GMT -5
Gene,
I ordered Broken Castle on-line yesterday, looking forward to checking this out!
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Post by geneweigel on Jan 23, 2020 13:28:08 GMT -5
Cool. I'm currently putting something to do at Gary Con just in case. So that will be available on the blog as the free add-on.
I'm thinking for "SKULLDON" I might lag it out into two parts over a year to give people a break and cut the price down. My aim is probably just before next fall.
2021 I'm probably going to introduce the first part of a large sequence of relatively small adventures that have a central hub. Now I'm not sure about the pricing at this point.
Family is piling on a lot of chores before and after Gary Con so I might not get a break to polish "SKULLDON" until May.
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