The Pit of Abandoned Projects

[geneweigel]

I usually go into my computer and there is so much RPG work that never saw fruition of any sort its like going through a 100 level tomb of wandering undead things that lash out and waste your time on your way to finding a specific treasure in a forgotten chamber. Just because I don't want to redo the current related work all over.

There is the sci-fi game that I treat like an ex-wife.

There is the fantasy war game that I treat like a dead whale where I keep going back to for some kind of lamp oil just to find all my lamps are broken.

Keep in mind I have yet to devise a functional game system.

Then there is the campaign to computer quick notes that are like reading piles of ancient philosophy just to find one line about a different type of dragon.

Then the LOTR D&D add on which needs finishing but because its LOTR it like tap dancing in Mount Doom on bits of cooled lava jutting out.

Right now I'm physically looking at notes on characters and its box after box of little pieces of scrap paper and then digging through the computer then back to the boxes.

[rredmond]

Aug 4, 2021 10:19:16 GMT -5 geneweigel said:

There is the sci-fi game that I treat like an ex-wife.

This made seltzer come out of my nose.

Good luck digging some of this out of the pit!
How goes Broken Castle sales?

[GRWelsh]

I have something similar with plastic totes full of notebooks and folders dating back to the early 80's, and computer files going back to the 90's. I even have some 3.5 inch hard disks from the 90's that still have game stuff on them, although I no longer have a way to access them! Most of the time going through the old stuff is a chore, and like sifting through dirt for gold. Most of it is derivative, but there are some usable bits. I still like my old illustrations, drawings, and maps!

[geneweigel]

Broken Castle sells at least a few a month currently there is a big lag though maybe a month and a half or so. Some copies sold at North Texas RPG convention but I was unable to attend so I have to put that on my calendar for next year unless I'm eating out of a garbage can after the economy collapses...

[geneweigel]

I have the computer stats of games like the original Diablo and the unofficial add on that was printed up plus Doom and 80s Ultima somewhere. I have medieval reference stuffed in everything.

[geneweigel]

Some campaign monsters have made it into the blog like my horse series but the list goes on of those.

I have a series of classical-themed monsters, from my combined Earths campaign, that just got jerked the hell around, I wanted to do one big article style about 20 years ago then was thinking of game system for them then contributing them to a monster thing, to the point where one was a monster then it became a class project now I guess rebooting them all as a blog monster series at some point.

[geneweigel]

Heh, I think that I might have just found a lost rough gem in the pile. I was staring at this terribly made 1980's NPC villain sheet thinking why did I make this? Then I recalled his crude predecessor that he was reimagined over.

At the time, the original 1981 concept seemed so bad that I polished him up made worthy of an NPC character sheet with him have high charisma instead of zero charisma, a florid and ancient sounding name (With an accent mark!) and illustrated him as a handsome cross between Bryan Ferry and some Howard Chaykin-looking superhero. I had ripped up the old adventure and threw it out.

So it was just forgotten.

As I'm looking at the now dated "new" character version today in its total 1985 era INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE cheesiness, I saw the name rewritten several times and erased, I'm like why was I rewriting the name over and over? It just hit me, I was rewriting the name of the original monster character to make it sound contemporary cool and then the now dated but lost shameful memories of DMing this hit me. After the conditioned recoil, I realized that I no longer have any shame. This is so bad, its good. But I can't spoil it.

I'm definitely going to rebuild his dungeon for a blog adventure

[geneweigel]

Here is another weird character sheet issue, looking through these folders, in 1982, I had created a magazine article barbarian of the "sunken continent" (Swordlands version of Africa) then "updated" his sheet when we all, the rotating DMs, had decided on Greyhawk as the shared world (Basically because my "Swordlands was dumb"; 1985?) by filling in "Amedian". Then the sheet was stuck in a shitty module and forgotten.

Then a conversation in 1993 about lost NPC character sheets (Mainly my lead Gamma World NPC that had disappeared.) led to "what was that D&D NPC's name?" so my friend Taylor reinvented that character for an adventure with what he thought was the name. I started routinely using the new version.

After shuffling around all these books and papers over the years. The original resurfaced but so vastly different I had forgotten he was the original. Of course, I had sketched both of them. The original looks like a resident of Skull Island (I roleplayed him as the chief.) with scars on chest and the redo is more authentic with facial scars. The original sheet is plain as hell and the redid character has "non-weapons proficiencies". The original has the best lines:
WEAKNESS/FEARS: COLD/MAGICKS
HATRED/FOES: DINOSAURS & PYGMYS/{left blank}
DESIRES/LOVES: TO ROAM THE KNOWN WORLD/{left blank}

[geneweigel]

Its weird looking at these 80's NPCs that seemed so easy to make with more closely knit players then were crushed in the late 80's into more "valid" sounding or easily playable rewrites (Many I had just thrown away for sounding too "Conan #14") when I was exposed to public play in the late 80's and 90's.

Here is another example of old character shame:

The Dragon Magazine #56 (DEC 1981 "Snowman dragon cover") introduced the "Welsh bard" (Non-offensive, non-thief and easy to make) and I had made one of the very few bards that I had made over the years. A female bard NPC who looked, from my memory of it with my circa 1982 drawing ability, like an awkwardly drawn mix of Veronica Cartwright (From ALIEN) and Faye Dunaway with her hair tied up 1800's style with a guitar that did not age well. She looked like Goldmoon from Dragonlance's alcoholic stepmom. After a some time it just seemed awkward using her especially after years of teen boys making advances at any female NPC. By the time of the late 80's, I needed to round out the party (only 2 people were playing) so I had an idea to use the sheet and the stats. I just made a total opposite persona, gender flip to an old "Swedish chef" coot. So it was the end of the "give us a song, milady" crap and nobody wanted to hear this guy talk much less sing.

So after that session, I had erased and mauled the pencilled image then there were two characters completely different. You can just make out the big head of hair erased which I covered up with a wide-brimmed "kettle" helmet. The original character is a kenning and the 2nd character version is a first name added to the kenning just pencilled in.

I had used the hell out of the 2nd version and eventually he congealed into a group of two other "stiffs"* (My pet name for non-companion, tag-along NPCs who will automatically act but never do any non-standard actions unless pressed and planned) as a regular "crutch party". Most people remember the cleric of Zeus (In Greyhawk? Er..Uh.. shhh!!! I had a greco-roman island nation in the southern Azure sea.) but this character wins the title as most used bard NPC that I had DMed.

Looking back, it just seems the original version was a good concept just ruined by time and no love. Who mourns for these fallen characters?

*Most stiffs would slow down use once they reached 7th level.

[Scott]

When I was living in LA I found an OD&D box set in the garage where I was living. Along with the booklets, there were a ton of old PCs and NPCs from he 70s written up on index cards. you could tell they were from some late middle school/early high school kids campaign. It felt like such a neat piece of gaming history. I left it there when I moved back, because I didn't know I was moving back at the time. It was supposed to be a visit that just turned into a move. I left a bunch of gaming stuff there, and a ton of wine.

[geneweigel]

Well, that stinks! About the wine not the Basic crap... Just kidding!

Prior to the mass production of the yellow AD&D sheets by my uncle, every character was on looseleaf of which there are absolutely zero left. I think every one of them was taxed not just because they were all illustrated by myself with coiled dragons, orcs everywhere and dungeon corridors all over them, but rather I had transferred most of the NPCs to the goldenrod sheets when I went apeshit drawing all the Greyhawk leaders on sheets.