FO! #1: The Ruined Monastery

[ant]

Just a quick thankyou to James for his excellent contribution to Fight On! #1. Last game session the scheduled DM wasn't able to run his game so I did an impromptu OD&D game using leftover pre-gens I had created for GenCon Oz (see the Around the Campfire forum). The cry was for B2 but, wanting to try something different, I offered James' mini-adventure.

Needless to say, it was awesome. The guys loved the dungeon (the Tunnel Wolves and Death Maggots caused much terror) and the few who had never played OD&D before had a blast.

So, well done, James and thanks!

[calithena]

James is one of the magazine's stars, for sure, and several groups have had fun with that adventure. Actual play, baby! Can't wait to see his city adventure for issue 3.

[James Maliszewski]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'm glad "The Ruined Monastery" is something people have enjoyed; I know I had a lot of fun writing it. Since then, I've been bitten by the adventure writing bug and have turned out quite a few new ones, so expect a steady stream of such things in Fight On! and elsewhere.

And, yes, the city adventure -- more a collection of encounters -- is shaping up nicely. I'll be submitting it sometime in the next week or so, depending on how much free time I get to polish it off.

[mythmere]

Sept 1, 2008 10:32:30 GMT -6 James Maliszewski said:

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'm glad "The Ruined Monastery" is something people have enjoyed; I know I had a lot of fun writing it. Since then, I've been bitten by the adventure writing bug and have turned out quite a few new ones, so expect a steady stream of such things in Fight On! and elsewhere.

And, yes, the city adventure -- more a collection of encounters -- is shaping up nicely. I'll be submitting it sometime in the next week or so, depending on how much free time I get to polish it off.

I just put up a massive city encounter table on the Swordsandwizardry.com site (well, at lulu, really). Sounds like they might go well together, if your city is cool and sorcerous and not wimpy and realistic.

[grodog]

You planning a sample/preview, Matt?

[Melan]

Sept 10, 2008 14:01:22 GMT -6 mythmere said:

I just put up a massive city encounter table on the Swordsandwizardry.com site (well, at lulu, really). Sounds like they might go well together, if your city is cool and sorcerous and not wimpy and realistic.

It's looking impressive by the few pages I have read of it. It's downloaded, and I will print myself a hard copy when I have the time.

grodog, there is a preview of the first 9 pages on Lulu, and it is representative of the whole. Nice CSIO vibe there.

[grodog]

Thanks Gabor!

[Melan]

On some more reading, I confirm my initial impressions: this thing is packed, and with very good material. I do have two points of criticism, though.

First (and less importantly), PDFs over 12 pages should be layed out with an eye towards printing in booklet form. That means pages in multiples of four, something serving as an internal cover for the beginning and end, and a back cover as well.

Second, I think compared to the colourful extravaganza of the standard tables, the nocturnal encounter array is -- simply not there. I can imagine how it would be hard to create even more content so good, but it should have been done, nonetheless, because in the cities the product assumes (i.e. a sinful sword&sorcery metropolis), there would be a lot of nightly action. One can use the diurnal tables with alterations... But still, a more expanded one for the night would have been welcome.

But all in all, these are small blemishes. Buy the PDF, because it is highly worth it. I want to write a more formal review, but it will have to wait until after I complete some other things - both work and hobby-related.

[akrasia]

I ran the 'ruined monastery' in May for some people pretty much new to RPGs, using the Moldvay Basic D&D rules. Everyone had a blast!