Hey everyone! Seems things have slowed down a bit around here, but I'm not worried. You have to take the highs with the lows. Hopefully we can get a a little more engagement over the next week while I'm at GaryCon!
Speaking of, if you're a DCC person (and obviously if you're reading this you more than likely am) I'll be passing up some postcard sized flyers around the convention. If you'd like to help me spread the word and hand them around your gaming table or perhaps take some for another convention let me know and we'll meet up. The more people that know the closer we can be to defeating these stretch goals! (I soooo badly want to unlock the dice add on... The dice goblin inside me craves MORE!)
Seekers x Crawl Cross-Collab
Rev. Dak and I finally have something to show those of you that have thus far backed both projects! The illustration below by Jordyn Thompson, is an homage to Brett Miller's original piece with elements tying into Seekers ov the Other Worlds. This will be a sticker (approx 5in in height) that backers will receive with their Crawl #1 order seeing as it will be printed well before Seekers is!
I just gotta share this another cool project! LorePlayPress has just launched Sickle & Torch - a rules expansion and a set of four adventures for 5e & 5.5e, Shadowdark and most importantly Dungeon Crawl Classics,focusing on 0-level commoners and their first steps on the path that will lead them to glory!
They'll be a live music set by Gloamwalker, followed a TTRPG liveplay of DCC: The Dying Earth as run by one of its designers, Julian Bernick! Set your alarms, it's bound the fun!
200 Backers!
The flow of backers has waned some as those that can't face the trails and tribulations of setting the Balance right have fled and others must step in to fill their place. None-the-less we have triumphed and unlocked the 200 Backer Stretch Goal that will deepen the box to allow for the previous adventure to fit snuggly inside, safe and sound. Thank you all again for your support and I'll see you on tonight's stream! - Thorin
It was down to the wire! But right at the end a couple stout warriors stepped up and rolled a crit! And now here we are. What a wild ride and what a wave of relief... As most of you know this adventure has been a loooong time coming! So let me take this time to thank you again for your support. Some of you are here for the first time and some of you are veterans from the very start of mine "adventure writing" career. I hope you all know that your support means a lot. I will never take it for granite!
The Battle Has Only Begun!
The struggle isn't over yet though folks for the Multiverse is still out of Balance! The first stretch goal is coming up: Page Borders for each chapter of the Campaign Book!
My thoughts here is to have a different border that reflects each of the Other Worlds, possibly even the Prologue and Epilogue sections. Something akin to the borders seen in the Barrowmaze book (if you're familiar with that mega dungeon).
And another goal that will probably be achieved by the time I'm finished writing this is our 200 Backers Goal where I'll enlarge the depth of the boxset so you can include both of the original first adventures in the Trilogy: Sky ov Crimson Flame & Blights ov the Eastern Forest.
GaryCon Approaches!
I'll be flying into the mystical lands of Lake Geneva next week to attend GaryCon! Am I running any games to promote this crowd funding campaign? That would've been smart, but NOPE! I'm there to play games and chew bubblegum! (And I'm all out of bubblegum!) But what I wanna know is who's going to be there? Maybe we can catch a beer or something. Let me know in the comments!
Hello Champions! First off, I want to again give you my thanks for making this happen. I couldn't do with out your support!
Secondly I'd like to dive a bit deeper into the design of Seekers ov the Other Worlds. If you've been following my newsletter on Substack you may find some of this repetitive, but there are newcomers among you and they must needs know!
The Structure of the Adventure
“The Other Worlds may only seem to be dream realms to you, but to those that live on them they are real and it is you who is the dream. Mankind was not meant to know of such things, but this necromancer, this Balrothhariid, defied cosmic law when he split his soul to merge into these Other Worlds and in doing so upset the very Balance of the Multiverse.”
- Excerpt from the Ny’Drj Fragments
Seekers is a standalone sequel campaign to my 0-level funnel Sky ov Crimson Flame. (Meaning you don’t have to play Sky to enjoy it, but you probably should...) A very eager and naive Thorin teased this concluding title at the end of the funnel adventure (far too many years ago now) and when I first set out to write the first draft it was going to be no more than maybe 20k words or so. That proved to be a lie...
I have at least one notebook (maybe two) filled with mad scribblings concerning these so called Other Worlds. Trying to figure out what the heck I was doing and lamenting the fact I made the Necromancer split his soul into 5 slivers... “Why not 3 instead,” the writer screamed into the void!
I also knew the dagger Atma-khanjr from Sky ov Crimson Flame was going to play a key role in this whole soul stealing endeavor. (We’ll dive into that in upcoming updates.)
Over time though it all started to click and I began typing it out. At first it was a little too linear and so I had to go over it again and again (I have no idea the number of drafts) until eventually I had 5 Other Worlds that are each essentially one whole adventure unto themselves!
The thought occurred to me earlier on to publish this in a zine format, but that would disrupt the entire flow of the adventure and make it too linear again. No, the adventure needed to be one whole book (maybe even a boxset!)
So that’s where we are today! But lets dive in just a little deeper into these mysteries!
The Structure
The setup for Seekers is this: The PCs are swept into the unremitting strife between Law and Chaos when they are presented with the ultimate task of restoring the Cosmic Balance. To accomplish such a momentous undertaking, the PCs must journey to the five Other Worlds, parallel realms which lay just beyond the veil of space and time. On each Other World the characters must face and vanquish divergent incarnations of a powerful necromancer known as Balrothhariid. Before the end dire choices and sacrifices will be made for good or for ill…
At the start of the adventure the PCs will find themselves wandering into the red curtained corridors of the Lodge Between before meeting up with Fate’s humble servant Azari Quismat, a small and quirky dwarish man who declares them to be Fate’s Champions! How they get to the Lodge Between is ultimately up to the judge, but current draft from the Prologue states:
You arrive at yet another nameless village; merely a short reprieve before carrying on. The local tavern is already a place of merriment with gathered patrons partaking deeply from barrels of ale. Settling down with a frothy mug your mind eases and your thoughts soon to drift. How long have you been wandering, haunted by this feeling of unease as if you’re on the cusp of a gathering storm, seeking relief only in the slaying of forest fiends and the gleam of hoarded treasure? What is it that gnaws at your heels and drives your weary soul onward?
Thunder rumbles overhead as if in answer to your thoughts and you swear therein lies the faintest hint of laughter. You soon realize how quiet it’s become and looking around find yourselves transported to a chamber swathed in crimson drapes, stretching down from infinity. The very air hums with a charm both festive and foreboding, a tune, spun by some unseen minstrel of the void, now stirs with a sprightly, jazzy vigor, merry yet uncanny as if teetering on the brink of Chaos…
It is from this point the story will unfold at the hands of the players. Should they choose to pursue their destiny they will be able to venture to any of the five Other Worlds from the very get go! Once they choose a curtained corridor, the judge will flip to chapters 1 to 5 in the adventure book depending on which path was chosen.
The current chapters are:
The Temporal Tower
Omega Terra
Terminal War
Messiah of Chaos
Asteroid of the Cosmic Skull
This doesn’t include the Prologue, Epilogue and Appendics.
More to come in later updates! Spread the word Champions! We've almost reached the funding goal! - Fate's Faithful Servant - Thorin
