BLUEHOLME™ Project

[Vile Traveller]

Well, as some of you may know the Prentice Edition of Blueholme is as good as done. I'm now going through a printed copy for a final layout and text check, so I expect I'll put it up on DTRPG in a week or so. It's a freebie, but I have a publisher account and PDF exclusivity agreement with them so it will only be available there. Once the PDF has been out for a while and I can be sure all the errata that's going to be caught has been caught, I'll sort out a PoD version.

I haven't had any luck sourcing a sample dungeon for the free introductory module, so I'm now in the process of writing that. This booklet will have two parts, the first an overview of dungeon design and the second the actual dungeon. At the moment I'm not decided whether to do it as a fleshed-out dungeon or a B1-style DIY module for the GM to complete. Anyway, I hope to get it done before Christmas, not least because it's high time I got back to AEONS.

[derv]

I'm surprised no one has stepped up with a dungeon. Maybe it's the timing and people are involved in other projects at the moment? Interest in these things sometimes runs in cycles. Anyway, just wanted to give a word of encouragement to keep up the good work. Also, my 2 cents is the sample module should include a side view dungeon map.

[Vile Traveller]

Oct 21, 2012 7:35:17 GMT -6 derv said:

Also, my 2 cents is the sample module should include a side view dungeon map.

Ahead of you there.

[xerxez]

I already volunteered the Nuromen dungeon if you want it.

[Vile Traveller]

Oct 21, 2012 14:17:22 GMT -6 xerxez said:

I already volunteered the Nuromen dungeon if you want it.

Xerxes! I just noticed your comment on your blog, for some reason it wasn't showing up on my home PC.

Thanks a lot for making Nuromen available, I'm just about to finish the "how to design a dungeoon" intro to the module so this is great timing! I'll post the plan and section artwork soon, in that case.

Can you PM me with your real name for the credits?

[Vile Traveller]

Work continues apace on converting the most excellent Maze of Nuromen to BLUEHOLME™. One of the things I'm doing is re-arranging the layout. There are three reasons for this:

• The layout is 8.5" x 5.5" digest size, so the whole thing won't fit legibly on one page.
  
  
• I want to include a cross-section in the dungeon design chapter, so it needs multiple levels.
  
  
• I want to add some Holmesian empty rooms (not shown on the floorplans yet).

To make sure the whole thing lines up, I've constructed a basic 3D model of the first two levels. The third level is the natural caverns, which are too much work to do in Sketchup.


Maze of Nuromen 3D by viletraveller, on Flickr


Maze of Nuromen L1-L2 by viletraveller, on Flickr

[Vile Traveller]

Project update: I printed the Prentice Rules booklet as a test (an for final proofreading). I'm no happy with the 8.5" x 5.5" digest format, so I've decided to go back to a two-column 11" x 8.5" layout. Means laying out the whole thing again, but it's only 50-odd pages so not such a big deal.

The raws for the Maze of Nuromen maps are done, I need to tidy them up in Photoshop and add a key and legend. I've started in on the text, but there's still a little way to go on converting xerxes descriptions as well as the dungeon design chapter. It's full steam ahead now, if I want to get these babies out by Christmas!

Here's a teaser for level 1:


Maze of Nuromen Level 1 Small by viletraveller, on Flickr

[blackbarn]

Pretty cool. I like how you did the 3-D rendering of the dungeon, too. And not going with digest seems appropriate for a Holmes-based book, so that sounds good.

[Vile Traveller]

Thanks, blackbarn.

In case anyone is wondering about the layout changes to the maze of Nuromen, what I'm basically doing is increasing the size of some rooms and adding long corridors and empty rooms, which is the sort of thing Holmes was wont to do in his dungeons. It has some specific effects on things like missile use, wandering monsters, etc. Content-wise, the Blueholme Maze is almost identical to xerxes' original although I'm changing some monsters to stick with what's available in the rulebook.

[xerxez]

Vile

I am absolutely thrilled to see the Maze of Nuromen in your project and I really love the changes!

Nice layouts. I hope many heroes find gold and glory in those misty depths. Gamosh and his cult were a particular favorite among my campaign materials and I hope someone can incorporate it into a larger campaign setting.

Let me know when it's all ready to order!

[Vile Traveller]

And I'm glad you like it, xerxes! I'm frantically editing away now so that both the Prentice Rules and the Maze of Nuromen PDFs will be up before Christmas - time is getting short ...

[Vile Traveller]

Time for a little Blueholme Prentice Rules preview - follow the link for a download of the Spells Chapter. 8)

dreamscapedesign.net/2012/11/24/blueholme-prentice-rules-spells-prieview/

[machfront]

Dude.
Having it ready in time for Christmas is a wonderful idea.
Goodness knows I'll little to nothing decent in the way of gifts from those who supposedly 'know' me...
well... 'cept for The Girl... she buys me collectible vhs and last year got me a spare 1E MM and Moldvay Basic and Star Wars coffee mugs and her little one got me a G.I. Joe action figure...but besides my ladies, it'll be underwear-socks-and-impulse-gift-junk from friends and family.

[Vile Traveller]

About 60% of the rulebook and the module is finalised now. Planning a marathon editing session this weekend. I expect I'll need a day or two to fix up the covers, too.

Stay on target ... Stay On Target!

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

All I have to add is that this whole project looks incredibly awesome!

[Vile Traveller]

Okay, the final edit of the Blueholme Prentice Rules text is complete. Now on to finishing off the Maze of Numenor (almost done) and polish up the covers (also almost done). I can't believe it, but it looks like I'm actually going to hit a self-imposed deadline. Will wonders never cease?

As this place is probably the one that set me on this road, here's a litle thank you - I've replaced the "draft" link on my Downloads page with the final text (no cover yet, obviously). If you fine folk want a sneak preview, go and get it:

viletraveller.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/blueholme_prentice_1st_text.pdf

[Zenopus]

Looks great! Fantastic job on the layout. Love the artwork.

A few minor typos I spotted in a quick look over:

Page 4: MANY-FACETTED -> MANY-FACETED (unless "facetted" is a UK spelling?)

Page 13: Duration: "see BLUEHOLME Prentice Rules" -> "see BLUEHOLME Compleat Rules"

Page 13: First Level Cleric Spells table: Light -> Light* (since it is reversible to Darkness on page 14)

Edit: Just realized today that your thread title here must be a take on Project Blue Book (either the original USAF version from the 1950's or the fictional version from the Project UFO show from the Holmes Era (1978-79)).

[Vile Traveller]

Thanks for the pointers, Zenopus. Heh, yeah, "facetted" is a British thing. I wouldn't trust myself to try to Americanize the English!

Dec 8, 2012 9:41:12 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Edit: Just realized today that your thread title here must be a take on Project Blue Book (either the original USAF version from the 1950's or the fictional version from the Project UFO show from the Holmes Era (1978-79)).

I only found out about the former through the latter, but still ... we show our age ...

[Zenopus]

Actually, I only heard about Project UFO for the first time this year, due to the excellent space 1970 blog!

[blackbarn]

Wow, looks great. Nice work Vile!

[aldarron]

Looking fantastic!

However…

Page 9
“Magic-user spells are written down in great tomes known as magic books, each book containing all spells of one level.” Does this mean every 1st level spell in the list is in the 1st level book? It sounds that way and that might be an issue considering the rules for spell research and personal spell books….

“A magic-user is necessarily able to learn to use all of those spells, however. …... A magic-user only gets one chance to figure out each spell; if he cannot learn it then, he never will.” These two sentences contradict one another. Did you mean “..is NOT necessarily able..”?

I bet you’ve seen this, but just in case there’s a very interesting discussion on Holmes spell books that I participated in here www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=33860&start=30

Summerizing comments I made there, my reading of Holmes is that each MU has a unique personal spellbook for each level of spell they have successfully “studied and copied” (p13), as determined by the chance to know table. I think that’s your reading too but I’m not certain.

EDIT: Okay I see on page 15 you wrote "Every magic-user own one or more magic books, one per spell level, in which all the spells of that level are recorded." Unfortunately then that does contradict what Holmes wrote on page 13. That's totally fine of course if that's just the way you prefer to make it, but if your goal is a true to Holmes approach then you might want to rethink this. Holmes rules call for unique spell books for each mage having only those spells they successfully copied per the chance to know. Have a look at my post on dragonsfoote for a more in depth discussion.

[Vile Traveller]

Thanks for reminding me of that thread, Aldarron, I'd read it a while ago but forgot all about it. You're right, I shall have to amend that section. It is supposed to chime directly with Holmes.

[aldarron]

Dec 9, 2012 22:19:22 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

Thanks for reminding me of that thread, Aldarron, I'd read it a while ago but forgot all about it. You're right, I shall have to amend that section. It is supposed to chime directly with Holmes.

Sure thing. Other thing I should mention is your take on the Elf. I'm sure you've seen the threads here and basically theres a lot of room for interpretation there. Heck even I took a stab at a Holmes elf on my blog.
Thing is I don't quite understand what is intended with the BlueHolme Elf and would hope you would make it a bit clearer. I think the character can pick either F/Mu or Mu/F, but must switch to the other after every level gain to always stay within one level on each. Is that right?
The other thing I don't quite get is whether there is any play difference between being a Mu/F or a F/Mu. As far as I can tell each plays the same; the difference being only a mater of exp points. If that is the case then there is little reason to want to be a F/Mu elf since the Mu/F elf gets a spell and needs less exp to advance. What am I missing?

[Vile Traveller]

Yeah, I'm still struggling with making this crystal clear. The difference is which class is your odd levels and which your evens. For example, an FM/M-U goes like this:

1st level = fighting man
2nd level = magic-user
3rd level = fighting man

So it does make a difference which class you pick first, especially at 1st - 3rd level, mainly in terms of spells per day. The difference is that is level characters are not multi-class yet, so an M-U is obviously a lot more likely to die than an FM. That's why I treat the elves in the monster listing as FMs (as a rule, but of course there are exceptions).

I could have gone with the usual and doubled the FM XP to get the XP per level for elven FM/M-Us, but I've never been happy with that approach. However, I may revert to it in the end - you are not the only one to have trouble with this approach.

[aldarron]

Dec 11, 2012 0:17:45 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

Yeah, I'm still struggling with making this crystal clear. The difference is which class is your odd levels and which your evens. For example, an FM/M-U goes like this:

1st level = fighting man
2nd level = magic-user
3rd level = fighting man

So it does make a difference which class you pick first, especially at 1st - 3rd level, mainly in terms of spells per day. The difference is that is level characters are not multi-class yet, so an M-U is obviously a lot more likely to die than an FM. That's why I treat the elves in the monster listing as FMs (as a rule, but of course there are exceptions).

I could have gone with the usual and doubled the FM XP to get the XP per level for elven FM/M-Us, but I've never been happy with that approach. However, I may revert to it in the end - you are not the only one to have trouble with this approach.

Okay. Hmmm. Well, if it helps my thoughts on the Holmes elf were posted here boggswood.blogspot.com/2012/04/holmes-elf-varient.html

I think what you've got isn't bad, just a little confusing. I'm not too keen on the requirement to switch back and forth between classes though. Players will likely object to that. I think the class switch really ought to be optional.

[Vile Traveller]

Dec 12, 2012 11:11:58 GMT -6 aldarron said:

I'm not too keen on the requirement to switch back and forth between classes though. Players will likely object to that. I think the class switch really ought to be optional.

This is based on the following statement:

Elves progress in level as both fighting men and magic-users, but since each game nets them experience in both categories equally, they progress more slowly than other characters.

I think if multi-class characters were able to advance differentially, it would depart too much from Holmes. However, I am coming to the conclusion that the only option that really cleaves to Holmes is to have fighting men/magic-users advance in both classes simultaneously, but at twice the fighting man XP. Not my preferred option, but the intent of Blueholme Prentice is to stay as close to Holmes as possible.

Thanks for all your input, guys, this has really helped me to get to grips with possibly the thorniest issue in the rules as far as this book is concerned.

[Vile Traveller]

Some bad news, I'm afraid! due to illness I haven't been able to work on Blueholme as much as planned over the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I will be over this soon, but the Christmas release looks unlikely at this stage ...

[Vile Traveller]

If I can't finish off the Maze of Nuromen in time, I may just release Blueholme Prentice first. The latter is basically done now. Thanks again for getting me to think about the elf and magic book issues, aldarron, that really helped me to sort them out at last.

Fingers crossed there are no more relapses before the end of the year, and I'll get the Maze up before 2013, at least.

[Mike]

I know we're all singing this same tune but this is a fantastic piece of work. Love it.

Plus, on page 9, the sample magic-user is non-other than the mighty Catweasle! That was my fave show as a kid.

Thanks for all your hard work.

[Vile Traveller]

Dec 22, 2012 2:43:11 GMT -6 Mike said:

Plus, on page 9, the sample magic-user is non-other than the mighty Catweasle!

I'm glad someone spotted that! The file has been uploaded to DTRPG, but because it's my first as a publisher it will take them a few days to clear it. I am now trying to finish off the Maze of Numenor so people have something to try out the rules with.