Dragon Heresy PDF - check your email
about 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 02:26:01 PM

It came to my attention via another project that some of y'all might not have received your PDF of Dragon Heresy if you ordered the print book. I though that was taken care of, but upon further digging, it was not.

I believe I rectified this last night. Please check your email if you ordered a hard copy of Dragon Heresy; it should have come with the PDF, but I don't think it did. For the roughly 10-12 of you in this circumstance, that should have been fixed, and a file sent out.

Please let me know if you need any more help. I want to make sure you got what I promised!

Lost Hall 2nd Edition: Pre-Final PDF Distribution
about 5 years ago – Mon, Jan 28, 2019 at 08:40:48 PM

It's Happening

The pre-final PDF for the 2nd Edition of Lost Hall of Tyr has just been distributed to everyone who ordered Lost Hall in all of my Kickstarters. Please take a look! Check it out, read it, see if you can find any typos (I left at least one as a test . . . can you find it?)I'm going to give a week or so to get error reports in the file so that the version that goes to print is as perfect as we can make it.

What can you do?

There are several things I need you to do if you get the new version:

• Check your name in the Kickstarter backer list. I tried to keep the surveys blazingly short this time, so I used other information to credit you as a backer. See if I got it right. Email me at [email protected] if I didn't.
• Check for typos. Please. My eyes blur over with too much staring at the screen.
• Look for "oops, you forgot to convert that." The 2nd edition of Lost Hall owes a lot to Hall of Judgment, which is Powered by GURPS. I think I got all of that converted back to Dragon Heresy . . . but since I'm so familiar with both systems, I might have missed a few.
• Read it, comment on it, and review it. Ideally in public. We're really not that far away from the big offset print run, and if you like the new version, please say so loudly and frequently.
• Play it!! I can't emphasize this enough, but the more it gets played, the better I'll know what works (and I should repeat in the future), and what doesn't. 
• Check for WTF moments in DCs. I'm pretty sure I got 'em right, but if there's a TPK hidden in there or the thing's a cakewalk . . . I kinda want to fix it.
• Finally: Play it in 5e or Swords and Wizardry! It should be straight-forward, but if there's a bit more conversion work that needs to be done, well, I've got a blank page at the end and I can do something, whether it's a quick afterword or a more detailed conversion note.
• Show it to your Favorite Local Game Store owners and buyers. A few retail purchases will get us to an even higher quality printing.

The Beginning of the End

The distribution of the pre-final PDF marks the beginning of the end of this campaign. I think we made a great book, and I'm thrilled how well Juan and Glynn delivered on their part of the tasks. Once we settle the PDF, I'll send it to print. I expect a six to eight week turn-around if we go digital (as I expect), but if a few folks throw in for retail levels, or we get one or two shields . . . we're there. That would push print receipt to the 12-16 week delivery zone, but we'll ALL be happier with the result.Thank you so much for helping make this happen! 

Oh . . . you don't have it, but you want to?

It's not too late to pre-order

Coming Soon: The Citadel at Norðvörn
about 5 years ago – Mon, Jan 28, 2019 at 12:22:09 AM

Greetings, most awesome supporters of Hall of Judgment!

Checking in to let you know that the draft of Citadel at Nordvorn is taking shape. I've got over 42,000 words written so far, and in super-dense text format (no art, only the barest of layout, and a very temporary background) I'm at 650 words per page and 66 pages. The usual with-art layout is 500-550 words per page, which means the final document would be something like 78-86 pages were it done.

Which it's not.

A Mini-Setting for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG

In Hall of Judgment, I set up Isfjall as "Town," where you buy and sell your stuff, and it served as a jumping-off point for the quest to find the titular Hall.

Nordvorn is going to be a bit different. Yes, there's Town. And nice GMs will tell the players which that is. But there are many other potential settlements to explore, and all of those are very much not Town.

There will of course be monsters to fight, ruins to explore, and bandits to kill and take their stuff. There will also be a tapestry of personalities and culture to play in, and if you liked what you got with Isfjall for Hall of Judgment, well, you're going to get a whole lot more of it with the Citadel at Nordvorn.

Bear in mind that everything about the presentation of this will probably change. The image is just a simple background of a castle done up in Photoshop; the real background and graphic design will be similar enough to Hall of Judgment that you will know they're related, but different enough to set it apart.

But it's much easier for me to pick apart words on a page than it is to stare at a screen, so I dumped it into layout and now I can see what's going on.

What's In the Book?

Well, lots of stuff. But at least:

Nordvorn itself, both the Citadel and Laegribaer, the lower town. I cannot wait to get an artist to detail this up. I've got a really crude sketch of the city and town in, well, PowerPoint.

I've also got notes on what braethralag (brotherhoods devoted to the same god) cluster where, temples, craft districts, etc. Note that the Citadel is not necessarily "Town," and that betrayals, violence, and things that aren't rest, study, and buying and selling stuff can happen there!

There are five inns in the city, and each is located and described. There's a fun section on shopping (and shipping, for that matter), of course. Plus even more festivals, some familiar, some new:

Geitur Dag (October). A festival peculiar to Norðvörn—and peculiar in general, really—Goat
Day. Each year, the Lower Town goes absolutely mad for goats. Goat costumes, fermented goat milk, goat races, head-butting competitions, and the animal husbandry competition to see which pair of goats will be dubbed Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr (the goats that pull the Thunder God’s chariot) for the day. Alas for the winners, at the end of the day, they get eaten by the Hamar and Steðji of the Thunder God’s temple. 

Two neighboring towns, one of which very much is "Town." The other is Ainferill, and there's . . . a lot going on there. Little of it good. Violence, betrayal, cult activity, and a tangled web of intrigue. Plus folks to kill and stuff to take. Good times.

This is a piece I commissioned a long time ago for Dragon Heresy . . . but from the moment I set it down, I knew it was going to be one of the plot points in Citadel at Nordvorn.

There's also Longbru, which is home to a dwarf-made bridge that spans the Jotunnain river for over a mile (thus: Long Bridge), and the opposite end terminates at one of the few sallyports in Audreyn's Wall. Naturally, Longbru hosts many adventures seeking glory in the Endalaus Forest . . . and can be considered "Town" as per Exploits!

Coming Soon

With the relationship web already written, and the nouns coming together (Places, People, Things), I'm hoping to get to the point where I feel comfortable launching a project in a few weeks. That will be the first of three Dungeon Fantasy RPG projects, all set in Nordlond, and all planned for PDF delivery, if not print, in 2019.

Stay tuned! I hope you will have as much fun exploring this, which is the beginning of an extended look at Nordlond, as I am having writing it.

New International Print Option!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 31, 2018 at 09:56:10 PM

Print-on-Demand via CPI-Anthony Rowe

I'm always on the lookout for better options than the usual "please amputate your leg in exchange for shipping internationally."

Over the last month or so, I've been arranging a POD option for new orders of Hall of Judgment, done by the same printer that did the original copies. 

The new books are printed on 130gsm silk-coated paper instead of 140gsm, so they're slightly thinner, but otherwise they're the same quality as the prior books.

But if you got the PDF and wanted a print copy, there's now a source that originates outside of the USA for these books, which will save big-time on shipping.

Lost Hall of Tyr (2nd Edition) - ends in 60 minutes
over 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 23, 2018 at 07:45:32 PM

I haven't been bugging you guys about my current Kickstarter for Lost Hall of Tyr (2nd Edition). You already have most of the content, because Hall of Judgment IS most of the content.

But some of you might play That Other Game too, and if you do, you might be interested in a direct conversion of Hall of Judgment to my own take on 5e, making it a tetch more GURPSy, called Dragon Heresy. It's a complete game that brings a bit more coherency to hit points and whatnot, fixes the short/long rest issue, and a few other things.

In any case: it's a great book, done in spectacular hardcover.

The campaign to bring this kind of production value to the Lost Hall of Tyr (2nd Edition) ends in 60 minutes, at 9:30pm CST. Now's the time to jump in, if it's of interest!

Lost Hall 2e Campaign ends in 90 minutes

Regardless: thanks for your support in making Hall of Judgment happen. I've got great new things in store for you for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG in 2019.