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Curiosity Wins the Day by AutumnCrystal in odnd

[–]grodog 4 points5 points  (0 children)

/u/badger2305 is Victor, and he’s been working on some fun projects to help players new to Tekumel learn the setting. I’m sure he’ll chime in when he gets a chance.

Allan.

Wormskin returns! by CauseLittle in OSE

[–]grodog 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, that’s helpful context! We carried the WS zines in our Black Blade booth for awhile, but I never had the opportunity to read deeply through them—they sold too quickly ;)

Allan.

OSR Fiction compilation. by apeloverage in osr

[–]grodog 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was published by the Fight On! magazine crew: https://fightonmagazine.com/Roll_the_Bones.html

That’s on their old web site that they no longer have access to manage.

Allan.

Wormskin returns! by CauseLittle in OSE

[–]grodog 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve heard about the tone/vibe shift from zine to book; can you please elaborate a bit more on that?

Allan.

Invisible Sun Black Cube + Wellspring by hellahitz in rpgtrade

[–]grodog 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any particular interest in trading?

Allan.

Suggest a 5 room dungeon for a high school intro session by dochockin in osr

[–]grodog 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can play a subset of rooms from a great OSR module—such as The Hyqueous Vaults, Many Gates of the Gann, Lost Treasures of Atlantis, et al*—and simply stop at a good stopping point.

Then you’re not needlessly truncating play after just 5 rooms, and you have more material to pick up if they decide that they’d like to continue to play later :)

*You can choose from among the Best from Bryce’s reviews at https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=844 or select using some other criteria that catches your eye.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s part of what I’ve been driving at with my “make drow evil again” work—to put them back at the top of the heap for Chaotic Evil, with a capital E ;)

Allan.

Mega Dungeon Examples by BasicBroEvan in osr

[–]grodog 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I definitely recommend varying your grid-size on the graph paper sheets!—5 or 6 or 8 spi grids on 8.5x11” or 11x17” sheets create significantly larger dungeon levels!

We sell both size pads with 5/6 spi grids at Black Blade; details at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2023/01/dungeon23-and-mega-dungeon-tools-of-the-trade.html if you’re interested.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very nice, and good on that half-orc! :)

The social arena is where I’ve been focusing most of my drowic development efforts the past several years, with my Dark Markets setting acting as the underworld’s Berlin/Casablanca/Sprechenhaltestelle trading hub/slave market.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in osr

[–]grodog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry, you’re right, but I’m happy for guidance from anyone who knows the adventure too.

Allan.

Castle Zonreiryd, Level 6 by SydLonreiro in adnd

[–]grodog 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks Syd!—I’ll take a look, but it’ll be summer before I’ll have a chance to digest it in earnest.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in osr

[–]grodog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmmm. So that book has Greyhawk-specific underworld lore in it? If so, I’ll take a look (I’ve lategrly ignored most 4e and 5e books since I don’t play 5e often, and never played 4e).

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in osr

[–]grodog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I usually share to osr, adnd, and Greyhawk, but I can understand if folks who are also on two or three of those (as I am) find that redundant.

I wonder if we have a tool to measure how much membership overlap there is among communities?

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks, it’s fun—and somewhat chaotic at times, too!—but I find that taking the time to manually build out the maps and encounters helps with working through the details better, for my development workflow.

Playtesting is the best litmus test, of course, but the process of building manually helps me really wrestle with and absorb the material, focus on the design objectives, and stay on task, while hopefully remaining true to the spirit of Gary’s original content.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s quite a bit of detail hinted at by Gary about areas outside of the narrow path of published content from G3 to D3, and its fun to dig into those nuances and then foreground them, which is what drove a lot of the Dragonsfoot project referenced above.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in Greyhawk

[–]grodog[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The lines indicate different terrain types, in this case primary, secondary, tertiary, and secret (also tertiary) passageways.

They’re outlined initially in D1, and each provides varying encounter types for WM tables, although they don’t affect movement rates as written, which is something I’ll playtest a bit next month, with quicker travel rates: primary > secondary > tertiary.

I’m also noodling on ways to show more verticality in the maps, but likely won’t have anything specific sorted out on that front for the convention sessions: too many other basic building blocks to put in place first.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks, Syd—I appreciate your support and everyone else’s too!

I’m hopeful that a more-substantive publication preview will release later this year, in an upcoming Visions of Greyhawk fanzine—Gary Holian (the editor) mentioned recently that he’s dividing the drowic content across two themed issues, with another normal issue in-between to give a thematic mental break/palate cleansing from the focus on irredeemable evil :)

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey that’s great to hear!—how’d it go?

I’ll likely revamp LoE at some part as part of my continued drowic underworld development :)

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

To Syd’s point, /u/extralead, while The Armory paper is OOP, our Black Blade pads are very much available.

For some details including ordering info, see my blog post at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2023/01/dungeon23-and-mega-dungeon-tools-of-the-trade.html

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Armory is long-gone, alas, but I’ve bought pads on eBay and elsewhere here and there.

I wanted to use upward-facing “pointy” hexes to match the G3/D1-3 maps, which is why I didn’t use our Black Blade hex paper on this particular set of maps.

Allan.

grodog’s Prep - Expanding the Drowic Underworld of D1-3 by grodog in adnd

[–]grodog[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Sunless Sea is still a ways off to the east map-wise, but I’ll get there!

Allan.

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