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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Apr 30, 2018 10:40:17 GMT -5
Your creative process just needs to have your brain compartmentalized with dad/work-stooge/romantic in a different section of the brain before the "wizard" section. My output to nowhere was immense, I would just pump shit out as if their was an audience that never came. Unfortunately with great talent comes great thievery. Living in weirdsville all the time has a heavy price. You don't keep track of your stuff. I sometimes pick a book off the shelf and find endless insane notes in there. Last week, I found a duplicate yellow file in the basement of "AD&D Observations" of photocopies, transcribed extracts and data analysis...again. While my friends were going to Woodstock and shit like that I would use those events as a chess piece to get around going to lame family functions then switch gears at the last moment and do fantasy obsess time. There is this misconception of me as this hard drinking person because I always have a drink and a cigarette and there is a bar in the background. FAKE! Don't get wrong when I party, I like to party (I have a mutant tolerance for anything;someone recently tried to keep pace with me and almost died.) but fantasy and wine-sipping is not a good combo. My ideal time is after socializing with a few drinks, have a few pulls off a cigarette outside preferably in the dark then sip some black coffee come back inside and scribble out everything you just thought of to be reprocessed. The cover painting of the Broken Castle module has not been worked on for months because its irrelevant at this point as I'm violently processing "the trip". A few more weeks and I'll be obsessed with it again because the trip will be over. Anything that pops up that is incongruent either gets considered in view of other things from my campaign "the Swordlands" or perhaps specific adventures planned or is blogged. I do have the scattered notes issue happening. I've lots more scattered notes than posts on this discussion board it's just sifting and remembering where everything is to see if it has potential to be interesting/useful or not hopefully I find the notes with potential and post before I misplace it? I remember my English teacher in junior high telling me I'd write a novel someday (but she warned most authors don't get a quality novel written before they are fifty) because I read so incessantly it was steeped into me how to write. Then my high school senior literature and composition teacher was so disappointed in my career choice - it's paid the bills and then some, but a career of more actuarial tables type content, though I can flow through it, doesn't fulfill the creative juices...so hopefully I can turn more that creative direction now as paying the bills is a lessening issue...at least I'm fifty now...!
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Post by geneweigel on May 7, 2018 19:59:37 GMT -5
I finished part 3 a awhile back of the TOEE expansions but then I hammered details of part two and it inflated (and its huge) so my plan of merging the two is now a bad idea. So I might plow forward on part 2 and then refocus 3 to be bigger.
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Post by GRWelsh on May 8, 2018 7:39:51 GMT -5
You should do some illustrations for your expansion modules. Aerial view of Tetutuphor, drawings of the new monsters fighting adventurers, that sort of thing.
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Post by geneweigel on May 8, 2018 8:34:51 GMT -5
I was thinking of that considering that part 3 has some new stuff in there. I would hate to have to come back and do it again but I might revert at some point and start illustrating prior concepts once the big adventure product is done.
I was also thinking campaign illustrations with stuff in action because for example some characters and monsters featured in my upcoming adventure were elements of the Battle of Skulldon. The only illos from that are the "greater stirge" on the blog, Grok's failed charge and the "Fire User/Frank USer". The latter two I drew in-game.
And various greater trolls have been fought over the years. Not all of them though because some I had developed fresh because its on my mind. I have endless piles of thin statted but unique monsters just waiting for the blog treatment.
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Post by geneweigel on May 18, 2018 7:04:08 GMT -5
All this week I've been stuck on the side of the broken castle adventure. Its a ptetty big aside. This ain't no BOOK OF LAIRS type thing. Maybe if it was on steroids.
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Post by geneweigel on May 18, 2018 7:54:57 GMT -5
It involves two small elements in place in the main dungeon and its all original played material as it was played but I've altered everything to make it more DM-able. The creatures here are not really new but the details are such that they needed a whole new monster entry. The other major side involves some real traditional stuff but just my version of it. It started as being based on a location that kept restocking but then I decided to save that for its actual area (Its big) and keep this somewhat small one level as an optional feel to the main dungeon. This is step down from what I'm on. The one I'm doing right now is not a quick find in the woods. Some characters are not coming out of here for sure.
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Post by geneweigel on May 23, 2018 15:16:40 GMT -5
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Post by GRWelsh on May 25, 2018 12:49:38 GMT -5
"I will come with you," the storm giant said to the adventurers. "Just a moment while I get my horse."
"Your... horse?"
"Mountainhoof. His kind, known by some as Woefarers, are very rare. I was lucky to find him!"
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Post by geneweigel on May 25, 2018 13:17:14 GMT -5
I based this on the horse Svaldilfari which can translate into "woe farer" but as most kennings go it can also have many poetic meanings. It can be taken as "ice rider" so I played that into that as well. Also Shadowfax is Tolkien's direct reflective wordplay on Svadilfari. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sva%C3%B0ilfari
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Post by geneweigel on May 25, 2018 13:20:04 GMT -5
This is the tip of the iceberg on horse monsters for me. By the time I'm finished players will be well mounted!
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 1, 2018 14:37:41 GMT -5
For the next TOEE chapter there is going to be a low medium level job. It'll fit in as if it was meant to be nearby although the high level players who enjoyed my first installment are going to hate it this is a tribute but its utility first so its jam packed.
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Jun 1, 2018 16:22:59 GMT -5
For the next TOEE chapter there is going to be a low medium level job. It'll fit in as if it was meant to be nearby although the high level players who enjoyed my first installment are going to hate it this is a tribute but its utility first so its jam packed. About 2nd to 5th level or what level range?
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 1, 2018 17:16:43 GMT -5
0 to 3
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Jun 5, 2018 9:47:27 GMT -5
For the next TOEE chapter there is going to be a low medium level job. It'll fit in as if it was meant to be nearby although the high level players who enjoyed my first installment are going to hate it this is a tribute but its utility first so its jam packed. Gene, I am looking forward to this installment! When do you anticipate to post this adventure?
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 5, 2018 11:08:24 GMT -5
I'm trying to work on it as much as possible. But so far the map is almost finished (I've impressed myself!) and areas almost complete but I need more time as the weekends are sucking. Maybe a week tops but if I get some free time I might punch it out a lot sooner.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 7, 2018 11:02:34 GMT -5
My biggest problem with any adventure is overlap especially with the product that I'm making. How much is too much? I don't want to leave anyone hanging that is my big pet peeve of Gary's career that he never filled us in.
Here is an example. I'm putting around 8 gods in the adventuring area in the adventure product and they are evil campaign gods. I want people to know these things but I don't want to get into all the details of who else worships them, what do they summon, etc because its too distracting. So I have to leave it for now.
Now on the other hand, they are not even an iota of the major monstrosities that I have presented as being worshipped so where do I draw the line?
I was thinking an ongoing Deities and Demigods type blog feature grouping but I hated the "Suel pantheon" style. Thats exactly what I don't want. So I'm thinking no theme like the monster bits. Just BAM! Random gods in bursts that can't rely on a theme of standardized pantheon format like the Suel did. Each one has to be refined to stand on its own and be universally appealing for use.
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 7, 2018 15:56:39 GMT -5
I always enjoyed the "Gods of Greyhawk" articles but they weren't terribly useful. The details on places of worship were the most useful parts, but my favorite parts were the hints at some deeper mythology tying them all together. That is something they were always missing.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 7, 2018 16:47:18 GMT -5
I always enjoyed the "Gods of Greyhawk" articles but they weren't terribly useful. The details on places of worship were the most useful parts, but my favorite parts were the hints at some deeper mythology tying them all together. That is something they were always missing. Thats a great point. I'm going to think more about what kind of utility to add. Each deity must have two or more (player or non-player)character workable game elements in the entry to make the cut.
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Jun 13, 2018 15:16:37 GMT -5
I'm trying to work on it as much as possible. But so far the map is almost finished (I've impressed myself!) and areas almost complete but I need more time as the weekends are sucking. Maybe a week tops but if I get some free time I might punch it out a lot sooner. Gene, how's progress coming along with this adventure you're working on?
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 13, 2018 16:59:46 GMT -5
The map is elaborate but that is hammered except the room detail (doors, secret doors, etc) which is only partial.
I had to walk away for a while as its been a tough week but I was back on it yesterday. Not today though.
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