Summer of Kickstarters

O.K.  so the kickstarter bug has bit me again. I am in on Dungeon a Day. Still 32 hours to go so you can be in on it too! I am not in on Bones although I still have 9 hours to change my mind. As such I thought this was an apropos time for some good old groginardian angst on the subject. As a rocket scientist I am sufficiently well paid (although not lawyer/doctor rich) that dropping $50 to $100 a month is not going to put a dent in either the grocery or rent money. However, my frugal upbringing (and she-who-must-be-obeyed) does not allow me to tie up large quantities of cash on projects with no quick return on investment. So,as I stated on my previous kickstarter post I am looking for kickstarters from people with a proven track record, whose stuff I have bought and liked before. I also seem to be tending to jump in on projects already funded with lots of swag. That being said, both these kickstarters meet all of the stated criteria.

I am signed up Dungeon a Day in hopes of picking up a complete .pdf of the Mega-Dungeon Monty Cook put together. I already have through level 8 saved on my hard drive from the years subscription I purchased when it first came out. However since I found downloading a dungeon one itty, bitty piece at a time damn annoying, so I let my subscription lapse (WoTC the same is true of Dungeon and Dragon Magazine as well, I mean how much would it cost to hire some intern to spend a half hour a month combining all the little .pdfs into one big .pdf?). Unfortunately the lack of closure in owning half a dungeon gnaws at my soul (it does not apparently bother Monty, since he jumped ship and past the completion to lesser mortals sometime after I left the project [probably more on bait-and-switch authoring in a future blog]). Given the above conditions, the chance to pick up the complete edition for $50 was irresistible. I mean the original subscription was $87 a year! So I am in.

On the surface Bones looks like something I would jump at as well. I mean I like Reaper Miniatures, they have some totally fantastic sculpts. As others on the web have pointed out the $100 pledge gets you an insane amount of miniatures. I also think that the Reaper plan to raise the capital needed to convert their production over to a new process is a perfect fit for Kickstarter. However I am not fond of hard resin models, having had troubles with them in the past (difficult to glue, break easily [many of my miniatures have been subject to the nose-dive from the table], and bubbles in all the wrong places). I cannot tell from the information on the Reaper web site exactly what kind of resin they are using (it might even be something soft like thermoplastic, although fine detail seems to rule this out), but am leery of it (the fact that they are using superglue to reposition is a tip-off its not my favorite plastic polystyrene, the stated objective of cheap is not promising either). I am also concerned that although it is a vast quantity miniatures, many are genres I would not use in my game and would end up siting around unpainted taking up storage space in a house already bursting at the seams with miniatures. March 2013 is also way too long for my impatient soul to wait for something. Getting everything out to  the currently 14,869 backers will be a logistics nightmare (as they say in new product development, the second worst thing that happens to you product is that it succeeds). I wish Reaper luck, I certainly will buy the specific models I want at the gamestore (although with 14,869 orders to fill new Reaper stuff may not ship to the game stores for a while). Besides this looks like direct competition for my evil plan involving 3D printers, polystyrene, and a print-on-demand website. Go ahead and check it out for yourself (my resolve weakens every time I peek at the kickstarter website), but I am out.

Wilderness Map River Kingdoms 2

Here is the wilderness map just East of Blyron. Edge Hexes overlap previous map. This map marks the end of the Northern forest and the beginning of the River Kingdom proper. Patrolled zones on the Eastern edge are the start of the interlocking castles that protect the River Kingdom from wandering monsters.

Old School Dungeon Links Page

Having recently been adding stuff to my posts of the Dungeon and Campaign I ran from 1976 to 1979, I though it might be a good idea to post a page of links to my posts on the subject. So here it is.

Dungeon Maps

Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5

City Map

Blydron

Wilderness Map

River Kingdoms Map 3

Layout

Overlay and Cutthroughs

Blydron Environs Map

Wilderness map of the environs of Blydron at five miles to the hex flat to flat. Blydron is the river crossing labeled 1. To the southeast you can see the start of the Great Gorge and the Great Glacier in the mountains beyond. To the north you can see the lakes and swamps of the Northern Wilderness. Red lines indicate patrolled regions around towns and castles. According to the interpretation of the rules we played by then one could clear up to 25 miles distant from ones stronghold so red lines are a maximum of 4 hexes out from the center. I marked most of the smaller towns and hamlets as not patrolling that far.




Hex grid courtesy of that pad I got from Game Designers Workshop in 1975.

Old School City Dungeon layout

This diagram shows the Tower and Bridge from the Old School City map overlayed on the first three levels of my old school dungeon. The City is in black, outline of first level is in blue, outline of second level is in green, outline of third level is in red.

*** NEW IMPROVED DRAWING COURTESY of She-who-must-be-obeyed ***

Here's two dungeon cut throughs as well. Top cut through is from East to West; bottom cut through is from North to South.

Old School City

Blydron, the last River Kingdom outpost. Gateway to the Northern Forest and the Great Gorge. This is the City I started to draw to go over the top of my Old School Dungeon. Note: SE corner was never drawn. Overlay map of the City and Dungeon as well as Dungeon Cut-through to follow.

Old Dungeon level 5

Lake Level. Last level I drew in college. I am afraid it is somewhat unfinished, doors have not been placed in all rooms and what lies beyond the Lake in the upper right is still a mystery. Includes: (unlabeled but in the bottom right corner) the stairway that appears to go up but actually goes down (2) elevator room to even lower levels (3) the waterfall (4) the room on the sloping passage which is actually flat. In the bottom center a complex sloping passage from level 4 with three exits. In the bottom right a large sloping passage down (I believe this one was supposed to bypass level 6 and head straight for seventh. In the In the top left corner is a large spinning section with a smaller spinning section inside.

Afraid barring my acquiring a specially customized Deloren or a really weird hot tub, this is the last of my mega-dungeon levels from back in the day. Did not much more than mark the entrances for level 6. After leaving college the gaming style had shifted to them newfangled modules and the desire for mega-dungeons wained. Having to get up and go to work really cramped the all night dungeons crawls as well. However, I do have some graph paper with a nice patina....

Old School Dungeon the Maze

Most notable feature is the teleport maze in the south east corner. Also the full complement of sloping passages, spinning rooms, and rooms on an angled grid. Of course there is the infamous staircase that appears to go up but actually goes down. This staircase was very useful for lining up the levels. Those who have been following along may notice it does not appear in the same place on the map. The theory is that it is always in the same place and the dungeon levels themselves rather than being one atop another are offset. I laid out a top down overveiew of how the levels line up. If I can figure out how to scan the two 11x17 sheets I used for it, I may post that diagram some time.

Another note this level is only partially keyed. I am afraid I graduated from college before this level was much explored and the group I hooked up with after starting my new job in a different state were into these new fangled scenarios that Judges Guild and TSR were begining to produce. Another issue the way we played once the party hit about fifth or sixth level the adventures started moving out into the wilderness, so dungeon levels below third more often lurked as dark dreams rather than being explored. Except in the case of my character "Boris the not too bright" who decided that Wizard Mountain would be the perfect place for his castle if he could just get that nasty basement cleaned out. The Dungeon Master folded the campaign rather than face drawing another level for me to bash through. The demise of the dragon guarding the back door to fourth is a legend in its own right, but that is a story for another day.

Old School Dungeon Level 3 the river

Level 3 the River. I refer to it as the river because the big river is the largest feature on the map. Notice how ever that there are very few places on the map where adventures can actually see the map. Key features of this map are (1) the staircase which appears to go up but actually goes down (2) The bridge with an inivisable section (3) The rotating dungeon section with a staircase: positioned in one of four positions when the party enters it is rotated to another position randomly and (8) a secret chamber only enterable by an under water passage.

This level highlight one of the interesting features of old school dungeoneering. Since the play pogressed by drawing maps on graph paper, DMs would often through things in to make mapping hard, hence the rotating dungeons sections and slanted rooms. Being a fledging rocket sciencist not only did I solve my friends rotating dungeon section but took mine up a notch by putting a staircase in it.Note that because the slanted rooms where done with glue this map is a bit yellower than the others.

Old School Dungeon Level 2

Here it is level two. My Plan is to release a level a week. The sloping passage to the south due to its proximaty to the stairway which appears to go up but actually goes down was notorious for getting adventurers in over their head. D is the Temple of Crystal Cats. Six foot tall statues of clear adamantium crystal, stomachs filled with jewels, Only access a narrow passage from the throat. They are designed to work like the gourd and rice ball monkey trap. Monkey reaches in; grabs the rice; discovers his hand is now too big to pull out; but refused to let go...

Old school Dungeons Level 1

Here's level 1 of the Monster Pit I ran my first campaign in. Unfortunately faded pencil is not the best mediun for scannning so the lines are a little light in spots. I have used Paint Shop Pro to fix it up a bit. My favorite features (marked by numbers in circles) of this level include 1) the stairway which apears to go up but actually goes down 2) The double doors leading to the main dungeon with a bar on the entrance side 7) the Balcony overlooking second level 8) the hidden secret double doors to the staricase to second level and the rat tunnels under the floor (denoted by matching pairs of numbers).

Palace of the Vampire Queen Review

Here are the comments I posted on the Palace of the Vampire Queen on the Dragons foot forum:

Well, I bought Palace of the Vampire Queen mail order back in the day and thought it was pretty ho-hum then. Seriously guys for something to play you could do better in an afternoon with a piece of graph paper and the dungeon random monster tables in the little brown book (although the illustrations in the margins are kind of cool). I think the Dungeon which came with the City State of the Invicible overloard was more interesting (although it is not populated). I keep mine just to prove my Grognard credentials and because I hate trying to sell stuff. If you would like to see it republshed you need to track down the copyright owners. The authors are listed as Pete & Judy Kerestan. Since Wee Warriors published last the copyright would probably reside with either Wee Warriors, or whatever printer they owed money to if they folded.

Note: Further, Further investigation reveals that the copyright was never held by Lou Zocchi [I asked him at Origins, he said no] (A man I hold in high regard for replacing my misprinted volume of Swords and Glory Volume 1 on the spot 10 years after I bought the first one, merely on my verbal description of the misprint)