DCC 38 - Goodman Games' answer to Dungeonland?

Whizbang Dustyboots · Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:38 pm

I have to say Escape from the Forest of Lanterns has me grinning like a little kid. My players are going to love/hate this.

Does this constitute an attempt to capture some of the madness of Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, or can we expect further lunatic adventures in the whimsical-but-deadly vein?

Either way, you've got a copy sold right here!

Post by **goodmangames** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:24 am

You'd have to ask the author about his inspirations when writing it. I just thought it sounded like a really cool adventure!

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:24 am

Escape was indeed inspired from Dungeonland/Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (and the author's nightmares, if I remember correctly).

The deadly/whimsical vein is tied entirely to the tome --- but the tome has a habit of being passed around so there's no telling when a sequel might pop up.

//H

jfrenia · Post by **jfrenia** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:13 am

Sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check that out!

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:32 pm

The writer here,

Yes, there was a great deal of inspiration from Gygax's modules EX1 and EX2. However, the true origins of this module's creation dates way back to a recurring nightmare about a witch that had trapped my family in the flagstones of her atrium/garden. The image of walking over the flagstones and looking down and seeing my family's faces frozen in the stones and knowing the witch was lurking around and watching me was terrifying to a 4-5 year old. It's no wonder it kind of stuck in my head for a long, long time.

Anyway, one night a couple years ago I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep. It was like 2 AM or something and I started thinking about that old dream, so I got up and went to my computer and started writing an adventure about a witch living in a cottage and being a little kid stuck in a small demiplane that she controls. As it developed a bit more, the Gygax concepts from Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror spawned a few similar ideas.

So, that's my longwinded explanation.

Will your players hate you for running this adventure? Absolutely

And they'll love it at the same time. At least, judging from the playtest I ran with my own group.

gargoyle · Post by **gargoyle** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 6:52 am

that is a disturbing dream... sounds like you ate some bad cabbage to me

JediOre · Post by **JediOre** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:07 am

The annoucement for this module turned me off.

However, after reading your post concerning this DCC, I'm a changed man.

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:10 pm

JediOre wrote:The annoucement for this module turned me off.

However, after reading your post concerning this DCC, I'm a changed man.

Well, that's good to hear. I suspect that a good amount of people may falsely assume it's too whimsical. And that's too bad because it's a lot grittier and nastier than you might first assume.

I never actually purchased Dungeonland or The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror when they appeared on the shelf of my FLGS back in the day. After picking them up and reading the descriptions on the backs they sounded too silly to run. It was only later when I heard how fun they were that I picked them up in a used book store and realized what gems they were (IMO, of course).

JediOre · Post by **JediOre** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:33 pm

They are gems, period.

I've DMed them several times and always used them as an excuse to re-read Lewis Carroll's great works.

jfrenia · Post by **jfrenia** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:50 am

Yeah, I been through those as well as a player and run them often. Always a good time. I'm looking forward to checking this module out as well.

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 4:03 pm

gargoyle wrote:that is a disturbing dream... sounds like you ate some bad cabbage to me

Hey, Greg! Sorry to gloss over your cool ass Were_Cabbages reference. "Ate some bad cabbage..." Nice.

gargoyle · Post by **gargoyle** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:32 pm

Thats awesome! I thought you didn't get it and have been patiently checking back every day for that AHA! moment...

were_cabbages rule!

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:55 pm

Hi, everyone! Well, it looks like this module has started to arrive in local game stores and various online stores such as the one here. I would love to hear some feedback on this adventure once the adventure starts getting played. I've been shamelessly plugging this adventure over at the Paizo website. A comment made there was awfully clever and I would love to hear about someone actually doing it. Namely, using a real gingerbread house as a prop to be used with miniatures. The ideas was to eat the "prop" afterwards.

Anway, I look forward to feedback (good or bad) from you all and some stories about your adventuring experiences.

Eryx · Post by **Eryx** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:36 am

I wasn't going to pick this one up because it was a little "too out there" for my tastes. Then my DM muse walked in and suggested that it be perfect for the time I want to send the players into the Faerie Realm, and that was it, bought and paid for there and then.

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:20 am

Eryx wrote:I wasn't going to pick this one up because it was a little "too out there" for my tastes. Then my DM muse walked in and suggested that it be perfect for the time I want to send the players into the Faerie Realm, and that was it, bought and paid for there and then.

I mentioned this previously in this thread, but back in the 1st edition days of the mid 80's, I saw Dungeonland on the shelf of my favorite hobby store, Page After Page Comics (man, I miss that place) and picked it up and gave it a front and back cover inspection. My first impression was exactly the same as your's was with Escape.... It seemed a bit too out there, too whacky, too whimsical, when I was looking for more of a meatgrinder/supsence/high adventure module. I later picked it and Land Beyond the Magic Mirror up in a used bookstore and discovered that they were 2 of the greatest modules I had ever passed on.

Now, while I don't presume to put Escape from the Forest of Lanterns in the same class as Gary Gygax's classics, I find it ironic that your's is not the first comment of this nature and is very reminiscent of my early experience with Gygax's early attempts at this style.

Warduke · Post by **Warduke** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:58 am

off topic, but i love your sig Eryx.

on topic, at first brush (haven't played it yet, just read) this adventure rocks! i'll let you know how it goes over with the players

Ludyee · Post by **Ludyee** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:28 am

I haven't quite read through the entire mod yet but so far I like it. I think the various exploratory encounters throughout the demiplane are very interesting. But I can see the players really getting leary everytime the DM begins to describe another area. Just about every encounter is tricky and decieving, I know as a player I would become especially cautious. Such are the ways of the fey.

I love the gingerbread house idea. My girlfriend had made one for christmas that came as a kit from Costco. Everything was included from gum-drops to icing to gigerbread walls and roof. Unfortunately the whole thing became less and less stable over time eventually disentegrating.

I do like the art in the mod but am a bit disappointed in no player handouts. I so look forward to these in every DCC and wish they all had more. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for S1, my first purchased mod, ahhh... I can make handouts from the art interspersed in the mod though.

Eric.

Eryx · Post by **Eryx** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:40 pm

Warduke wrote:off topic, but i love your sig Eryx.

My "books used last session?"

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:09 pm

Ludyee wrote: I do like the art in the mod but am a bit disappointed in no player handouts. I so look forward to these in every DCC and wish they all had more. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for S1, my first purchased mod, ahhh... I can make handouts from the art interspersed in the mod though.

Eric, I absolutely love them, too. My finished manuscript had about 1/4 of the total text taken up with little notes in red saying "This would be a really cool handout" or "This would be great for artwork". OK, maybe not THAT much of the text, but, yeah, I would have liked artwork on every single page!!! Ahh... wouldn't that be great? But artwork takes up a good deal of space and needs to be commisioned by GG's various artists, tends to get pretty expensive, and can take a lot of time to get back or maybe not turn out the way the editors were hoping. The artwork included in the adventure is pretty cool, though. I really dug it.

As far as "tricky" encounters, you can always mix in a few random encounters of a straight up nature to keep your players from getting too suspicious of every keyed encounter area they come to. I hope you have a really fun experience with running the adventure.

Warduke · Post by **Warduke** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:20 pm

Eryx wrote:
Warduke wrote:off topic, but i love your sig Eryx.
My "books used last session?"

yeah....it's cool, and a useful tool, a running reference as to what's going on.

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:50 am

Glad to hear that this out now, Steve, I'll have to keep an eye out for it

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:16 pm

Hey, I didn't know you were local to LV, Steve: have you and Theocrat gotten together? I'm out there at least once a year for conferences, next time I'm there we should grab lunch/dinner/whatever!

Miniature Troll · Post by **Miniature Troll** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:25 am

grodog wrote:Hey, I didn't know you were local to LV, Steve: have you and Theocrat gotten together? I'm out there at least once a year for conferences, next time I'm there we should grab lunch/dinner/whatever!

I've had Theocrat (Issac - I probably spelled it wrong as always!) play in my Friday night games on a couple of occasions. That would be great to meet up the next time you're here. Drop me a line at sgreer@lvcoxmail.com the next time you're planning to visit.

MrFilthyIke · Post by **MrFilthyIke** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:36 am

I saw this DCC at Sci-Fi City (which is amazing, because they usually order one and then never restock it). Looked really interesting. I immediately thought of Dungeonland/etc when I saw that DCC.

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:27 pm

I picked it up at Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge/Boston last night, along with a few other titles. I'm looking forward to reading it on my flight home tomorrow morning.

Goodman Games

DCC 38 - Goodman Games' answer to Dungeonland?

DCC 38 - Goodman Games' answer to Dungeonland?

Escape From the Forest of Lanterns

Were_Cabbages Reference

Hitting the stores... now we can discuss it!

Some others that were too out there...