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Post by amityvillemike on Apr 8, 2009 22:12:47 GMT -6
When the incorrect news began to spread yesterday that Dave had passed, I sat down to think long and hard about how I wanted to honor his memory. I considered doing a lengthy post on my blog where I would talk about how Dave had influenced me and of the deep respect that I had for him not only as a game designer but as a man. I ultimately rejected that idea because so many similar posts were appearing and mine would just be another easily lost among the masses. I then remembered that I had in my notes from my first attempt at a megadungeon a sub-level that was largely influenced by Dave’s Temple of the Frog. I thought that it would be quite an appropriate tribute to his life to dust that sub-level off, polish it up, and dedicate it to him. I was mid way through those preparations when the word began to spread that Dave’s death had been misreported. Although that was a relief to hear, having lost loved ones to cancer, I knew his reprieve might be very short lived. Knowing this, I continued to work on the sub-level, entitled The Fane of St. Toad, with the hopes that I could turn it from a piece honoring his memory to one that celebrated his life. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to do that. I was still in the process of readying the Fane when the confirmation that Dave had passed away last night came. I chose to keep working on the Fane throughout the rest of the day because, quite frankly, I didn’t know what else to do. Despite knowing Dave only indirectly through his presence here, his passing has struck me deeper than I had expected. By finishing the Fane I hoped to achieve some sense of equilibrium between the sadness at his loss and the celebration of his life. Not long ago, I put the final touches on the Fane and I do feel as if I’ve created something, however insufficient, to honor Dave. I think I’ll set it down and, barring any grave errors, step away from it for good now. It’s a poor substitute for Dave himself, but it’s the only thing in my power to provide. I’m going to post a link to the Fane on my blog tomorrow morning but I wanted to make it available to the members of the OD&D Discussion first. Without you all and this place to gather, I would have never found my way back to the hobby and never would have written the Fane. Of course, without Dave, there wouldn’t have been the game in the first place, so there wouldn’t have been this place to begin with. I won’t dare presume what Dave might have thought of the Fane but I do hope you all might find some enjoyment and perhaps even some solace in it. I want to especially thank both Gabor Lux and Jeff Rients who each allowed me to use one of their creations in the Fane. I hope they’ll agree I treated their babies well. So with that, here it is: The Fane of St. Toad – Dedicated to the memory of Dave Arneson
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Post by RandallS on Apr 9, 2009 8:17:48 GMT -6
Mike,
It looks good -- and is a great way to honor Dave, IMHO.
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Post by stonetoflesh on Apr 9, 2009 11:38:24 GMT -6
Looks like I've found the module for my Dave Arneson memorial game this weekend... Thanks for sharing this!
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Post by amityvillemike on Apr 9, 2009 13:17:11 GMT -6
Thank you both. I was a little hesitant to post this here last night, as I didn't want the Fane to be misconstrued as an attempt to capitalize on Dave's passing. My intention was to honestly honor a man who has given us so much enjoyment over the years. I'm relieved to see that the Fane was seen in this light. I'm glad that I went ahead and made it available.
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Post by chgowiz on Apr 9, 2009 13:59:02 GMT -6
Thank you both. I was a little hesitant to post this here last night, as I didn't want the Fane to be misconstrued as an attempt to capitalize on Dave's passing. My intention was to honestly honor a man who has given us so much enjoyment over the years. I'm relieved to see that the Fane was seen in this light. I'm glad that I went ahead and made it available. Awesome stuff. Many of my players read ODD, so I will have to mix and match. I think this really needs a lazer to be in the tip of the amulet ...
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Post by Melan on Apr 11, 2009 12:47:53 GMT -6
I inserted the module as a tribute area into the larger dungeon we are playing (Tomb of the Minotaur King, originally for the Mazes&Minotaurs RPG), and the players found a trapdoor leading into it when they searched a pile of stone rubble. I inverted the order of the levels, the first being the lower one, and renamed the whole thing "The Tomb of Darz Ennon".
Then it started getting weird. I forgot that one of the PCs in our party was a worshipper of Tsathoggus the Frog God. Oops. It turned out that this way, it was impossible for the party to loot the place without intra-party bloodshed; so the character performed sacrifice in a smaller shrine room, paid his respects to the immortal high priest Darz Ennon (who was annoyed about being bothered for such trifling reasons), and then they got back to the main dungeon.
Craziness. ;D
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Post by amityvillemike on Apr 12, 2009 18:22:22 GMT -6
I inserted the module as a tribute area into the larger dungeon we are playing ( Tomb of the Minotaur King, originally for the Mazes&Minotaurs RPG), and the players found a trapdoor leading into it when they searched a pile of stone rubble. I inverted the order of the levels, the first being the lower one, and renamed the whole thing "The Tomb of Darz Ennon". Then it started getting weird. I forgot that one of the PCs in our party was a worshipper of Tsathoggus the Frog God. Oops. It turned out that this way, it was impossible for the party to loot the place without intra-party bloodshed; so the character performed sacrifice in a smaller shrine room, paid his respects to the immortal high priest Darz Ennon (who was annoyed about being bothered for such trifling reasons), and then they got back to the main dungeon. Craziness. ;D That's very cool, Melan. Thinking about it now, it seems that the levels would be very interchangable as to which one is encountered first. "Darz Ennon" is sheer genius. I'm glad you were able to find a home for the Fane and thanks again.
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Post by waysoftheearth on Apr 12, 2009 19:34:34 GMT -6
Amityvillemike, that is utterly superb! I exhault thee.
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Post by amityvillemike on Apr 14, 2009 11:27:46 GMT -6
Amityvillemike, that is utterly superb! I exhault thee. Thank you. I did what I could with the materials and time that I had. I'm glad you found it to your liking.
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Post by Mr. Darke on Apr 16, 2009 21:38:26 GMT -6
I just downloaded this. I'll give it a good once over and tell you what I thought.
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Post by Ghul on Apr 17, 2009 5:30:16 GMT -6
Very nicely done, Mike. I'm reading it now and quite enjoying it. A fitting tribute that indeed reminds me of Temple of the Frog.
--Jeff T.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 20, 2009 11:13:28 GMT -6
Hey all--I opened the above file on last wednesday and when I did I immediately started getting pop-ups, and my antivirus program started alerting me about all sorts of threats. To make a long story short: my computer coughed blood and died as a result of this.
Good news is I've got a spiffy new computer now!
Just thought I'd post this as a caution.
I'm wondering if the download service has been compromised?
Anybody else had problems?
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Post by amityvillemike on Apr 20, 2009 16:39:18 GMT -6
vladtolenkov,
My sheer condolences on the death of your computer. That's never a happy event.
In light of your post, I downloaded another copy of the Fane from Orbitfiles, opened it, and let some time pass. I then ran a full system scan of my computer and nothing seemed to be amiss. This is the first time I've heard of anyone having a problem with any of the files I've posted on Orbit. While it's not beyond the impossible that there's been some compromise of their servers, my search of the web didn't turn up any alerts or anyone else mentioning a virus in connection with Orbitfiles.
I'm truly sorry if you got an infection from the Fane but I haven't seen anything else alluding to this problem. I'll most assuridly keep an eye peeled and an ear open and I'll adjust things if I see there's cause for alarm.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 20, 2009 16:52:58 GMT -6
Amityvillemike,
It is entirely possible this was something that was laying dormant in my system. Maybe it just happened to coincide with my download.
BTW The Fane looks cool!
Nick
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Post by amityvillemike on Apr 22, 2009 18:47:48 GMT -6
Amityvillemike, It is entirely possible this was something that was laying dormant in my system. Maybe it just happened to coincide with my download. BTW The Fane looks cool! Nick Thanks, Nick. I'm glad the Fane wasn't responsible for the death of your hard drive, but those Toad Gods can be insidious so I don't blame you for suspecting them.
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agcias
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 84
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Post by agcias on May 14, 2009 9:51:32 GMT -6
I just finished reading The Fane and it is extraordinary; you should be proud. You did an incredible job of capturing the "feel."
A fitting requiescat for someone I always greatly respected and admired.
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Post by amityvillemike on May 15, 2009 11:01:43 GMT -6
Thank you very much, agcias. I am indeed very proud at how well the Fane turned out and with the reception it has garnered by its readers. I just wish it could have been born out of a more happier occasion.
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Post by Finarvyn on May 15, 2009 13:40:34 GMT -6
Double thumbs-up from me as well. I finally got around to running THE FANE with my group last weekend and they had a blast!
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agcias
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 84
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Post by agcias on May 15, 2009 18:16:10 GMT -6
Double thumbs-up from me as well. I finally got around to running THE FANE with my group last weekend and they had a blast! Say, great idea. I may have found a local OD&D group and the Fane would be a great adventure. I'll suggest it (I am very good at forgetting modules).
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ant
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 243
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Post by ant on Jun 3, 2009 4:57:36 GMT -6
amityvillemike, just thought I'd let you know that I'm running this adventure for my OD&D game at GenCon Oz this year. It was too perfect for me to pass up. And I've ensured that you get credit for creating the adventure!
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Post by amityvillemike on Jun 3, 2009 18:30:11 GMT -6
Thanks, ant! I hope you and the players have great time in the Fane. Be sure to let me know who lives, er, I mean how it turns out.
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Post by amityvillemike on Jun 3, 2009 18:31:24 GMT -6
Double thumbs-up from me as well. I finally got around to running THE FANE with my group last weekend and they had a blast! I'm very pleased to here that, Finarvyn. I'm sure the Toad Thing enjoyed having people over for dinner.
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ant
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 243
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Post by ant on Jun 6, 2009 4:55:05 GMT -6
Thanks, ant! I hope you and the players have great time in the Fane. Be sure to let me know who lives, er, I mean how it turns out. Will do. Depending on how things go I may do a write-up like I did for my OD&D game I run at last year's GenCon Oz. See here.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jun 6, 2009 5:40:51 GMT -6
I decided that (1) with the dedication to Dave, and (2) with the Toad theme, that I ought to place it in the Blackmoor section where Dave's followers might find it.
It's not official Blackmoor material, of course, but I think it belongs here.
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Post by tavis on Jun 6, 2009 18:35:04 GMT -6
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Post by amityvillemike on Jun 8, 2009 17:36:47 GMT -6
Glad to here that tavis. I stumbled upon the thread regarding the game session on the redboxwiki and it seems like folks had fun.
The breakdown of the combat data also seems to indicate that the Fane was just about the right size for the amount of time I anticipated it would require to explore. Thanks for the data.
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Post by tavis on Jun 9, 2009 11:50:13 GMT -6
Yep, a good time was had by all. It was especially fun because to date all the games we've organized through the NY Red Box site have been low-level - only just in the past few months has anyone leveled up (going from 1st to 2nd in the Glantri game, and from 3rd to 4th in my OD&D game since I adopted Gygax's house rules and started characters out with enough XP for third level).
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Post by amityvillemike on Jul 6, 2009 21:16:11 GMT -6
Due to some features changes by Orbitfile.com, the link to the Fane of St. Toad .pdf is currently not working. I'm looking into alternatives to meet my file-hosting needs and, once I find a solution, I'll modify the original post with a working link. In the meantime, if you need to get your hands on a copy of the adventure, drop me an email at poleandrope AT gmail.com and I'll work out a way of getting you a copy. My apologies for this state of affairs.
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Post by amityvillemike on Jul 7, 2009 12:49:07 GMT -6
I've found a new file-hosting service and the Fane is again available. The link has been changed to point to its new location and everything seems to be working correctly again. My apologies for the difficulties.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 7, 2009 13:12:20 GMT -6
I've found a new file-hosting service and the Fane is again available. Very good news!
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