DCC World

jason.richardson · Post by **jason.richardson** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:46 am

Since you guys have been sharing your world development, I thought I'd share too.

Here's a link to the weblog I use to host some of the information about my homebrew setting. Note that this is all from a player character's P.O.V., so many falsehoods and such.

Fun stuff:

http://thundervalley-dd.blogspot.com/

EDIT: Thunder Valley blog is no longer posted.

Jeff LaSala · Post by **Jeff LaSala** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:42 am

That's pretty cool, Jason. And it really makes me think that the next time I start a campaign, I'd like to keep a journal of it (in character or otherwise) with a weblog, since they're so easy to set up. Thanks for the idea!

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:59 am

"Bearded Witches."

Sweeeeeeeet. Very cool.

//H

jason.richardson · Post by **jason.richardson** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:28 am

Thanks for the comments guys, glad you like it.

I showed you mine, now you show me yours...or, umm; nevermind.

toper · Post by **toper** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:58 pm

Greetings all.

Just wanted to spread the good word that the DCC World maps are very nearly done! A hundred hours and one fried motherboard later, there are only a handful of hours of work left to do, mostly "clean-up" sort of stuff.

Of course, I can't actually SHOW you anything yet (or Joseph, as previously mentioned, would send his minions to wreak a horrible vengeance on my person), but soon, my pretties!

Nonetheless, I've got my ticket to Mexico City on standby...in case it doesn't work out. Or maybe I'll go to Managua...one could really disappear into a mass of humanity there...even a goofy white guy like me.

Seriously, the maps are going to be kewl but are only a part of how awesome this whole box set is gonna be, due to the hard work and creativity of a LOT of hard-working folks.

End communication.

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:22 am

All hail the mighty map master!

//H

Renshai · Post by **Renshai** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:43 am

Thats great news! I, for one, can't wait to see those maps! I know I had fun trying to make all those modules fit into my little CC-2 map. I know you had a blast mapping the world around them.

Jeff LaSala · Post by **Jeff LaSala** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 9:59 am

All hail the mighty map master!

That's Topographic Rex to us mortals, Harley. Pay your proper respects to He Whose Electronic Pen Shapes the World.

With the slightest drag and click, he can obliterate any one of us.

toper · Post by **toper** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:06 pm

Jeff LaSala wrote:
All hail the mighty map master!
That's Topographic Rex to us mortals, Harley. Pay your proper respects to He Whose Electronic Pen Shapes the World.

With the slightest drag and click, he can obliterate any one of us.

DAMN RIGHT! At least ONE of my mortals knows the truth...now we only have to educate the rest, tutor them in the Ways Of Righteousness and mighty Photoshop!

Or...well, I mean, umm...sorry. This Deity thing is really going to my head! Wow. I'm still not used to the omniscience and all those fluttering psychotic cartographically-inclined cherubs floating around me. It would be nice if they would at least leave me alone when I'm in the shower for cryin' out loud! Good thing I don't shower much.

I must admit I had a HORRIBLE moment of panic earlier this morning when I printed a proof sample of the map and it looked just flat out awful. The mountains were all polarized and super high-contrast, the whole thing looked terrible and that ticket with Greyhound to Juarez started to look pretty good. But then I sample-printed a random photograph from CBS News and it looked just as bad, so I realized the problem was my printer or printer drivers...so that's good. I'd say "Thank God", but since I'm a god, that would be sort of, well, inappropriate.

In all seriousness, it's been a pleasure working with all you guys, and it will be even more of a joy to see the whole thing: my artwork with Harley, Mike and Jeff's designs and hard work (not to mention the Uber-God, Joseph) put together and making a lot of gamers out there really friggin' happy.

Has it occurred to anyone that kids and young adults might be talking about this campaign setting with at least some of the same nostalgia and warmth with which we now speak of Greyhawk (and Forgotten Realms, to a lesser extent)? Think about that one for a few moments.

Can't wait to show everyone the maps. And I'm happy with the other art I've been priviledged enough to do for this project, including a book cover and some page backgrounds, etc. It's been fun. And how about that sample artwork (taunting the non-Goodman Games insiders here) Joseph showed us last night? WOW! That artist is extremely talented! Alex, umm...can't remember his last name. Help me out here. Excellent stuff anyway, and truly fitting for the project. Horses for Courses, as the English would say.

Is the longest, most self-indulgent post on this entire forum? Probably.

-Jeremy S.
"Topographic Rex"

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:11 am

Heh. This morning I was sending Rex a master list of Northland nations and settlements. I confess I had forgotten how monstrous this project is. An average novel is 90,000 words; this single chapter was 30,000.

Good thing most of it was simply translated from the scrolls we found in that old sealed urn. Jeff, Mike: have you gotten a weird rash yet? That, and I keep hearing all these voices.

toper wrote: Has it occurred to anyone that kids and young adults might be talking about this campaign setting with at least some of the same nostalgia and warmth with which we now speak of Greyhawk (and Forgotten Realms, to a lesser extent)? Think about that one for a few moments.

Dare we hope to dream ...

Renshai · Post by **Renshai** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:40 pm

I am Dungeon Mastering for one of those young souls right now. He is currently about to face Blood Whisker, before heading off north to Wildsgate.

toper · Post by **toper** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:41 pm

Harley Stroh wrote:
Jeff, Mike: have you gotten a weird rash yet? That, and I keep hearing all these voices.

As for me, I think this map alone has hastened my inevitable Carpel Tunnel by at least three or four years...

Jeff LaSala · Post by **Jeff LaSala** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 1:49 am

Good thing most of it was simply translated from the scrolls we found in that old sealed urn. Jeff, Mike: have you gotten a weird rash yet? That, and I keep hearing all these voices.

Mostly I just keep getting advice from my ancestors in the middle of the night. That's normal, right? I mean, that's a usual occurance for everyone, right?

JediOre · Post by **JediOre** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:43 am

Ancesters? Middle of the night? Huh?

Most of my advice comes from my Rufus, the Naked Mole-Rat doll I have on my desk at work.

Renshai · Post by **Renshai** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:07 am

Perfectly normal. No worries.

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:58 am

Renshai wrote:I am Dungeon Mastering for one of those young souls right now. He is currently about to face Blood Whisker, before heading off north to Wildsgate.

You guys have to forgive this terribly cheesy moment, but ... wow.

On one hand we are just playing games. But on the other we are providing profound emotional experiences for human beings. The action is imaginary, but the experience is real.

So much of our culture has shifted to passive entertainment --- we get shown stuff that someone else decided was cool. Radio, television, movies.

RPGs (tabletop or otherwise) are one the few active pastimes that engage the imagination. They make you work. The stuff we write isn’t even half the experience; the best dungeon in the world is useless without a good GM and a good group of players.

So the next time someone mocks you for your pastime, ask them what they did that was creative today.

As for Renshai’s little friend, I’m envious. Remember what it was like when you didn’t know how tough an ogre was? It was life or death, and spilling down a surprise pit produced a visceral reaction. You only get to have that once.

All right. Enough of my sappy rant. Next time I'll save it for the blog where it belongs.

//H

Jeff LaSala · Post by **Jeff LaSala** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:07 am

Not sure it's on topic, but I still know that a chimera has 8 Hit Dice in the original Monster Manual. (And a gorgimera has 9 HD.) That's just burned into my head visually.

It's possible time has eroded my perfect snapshots, so maybe I'm wrong, but the information, accurate or not, is still there, occupying space in my braind that might otherwise be engaging in some mindless passive pasttime, as Harley says.

I'm proud of that.

jason.richardson · Post by **jason.richardson** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 11:58 am

Hello guys,

What, if any, plans for future development of the Known Lands do you guys have planned? Maybe area or kingdoms that could stand some furthur development or something beyond what's provided in the boxed-set.

OR, do you plan to let future DDC adventures handle all of the continuous development?

Just curious.

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:22 pm

Speaking for the other writers, I know we'd love to do sourcebooks that provide greater detail, but a lot of those decisions may hinge on how the boxed set does.

So, yes, I know we'd love to do more. The material is ripe for exploration, in the DCCs and otherwise.

ynnen · Post by **ynnen** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:43 pm

The best way to ensure that there's more content and product support for the DCC World Boxed Set is to buy a copy... Have the players pitch in and get a copy for their DM. And then get your own copy. Or two. I'm really looking forward to getting my grubby little hands on my own set.

toper · Post by **toper** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:15 am

Actually, in reference to Harley's insights above (his self-described "cheesy moment"), I can't imagine a better way to say it. But I'll stumble through my own addendum to his thoughts:

Are we nerds for playing D&D? Probably. But then I like to think I'm a nerd for reasons that go FAR beyond that. Anyway, at least ours is a pastime that requires participation, and not only that, but is entirely dependent for its success, in each and every gaming session, on the enthusiasm and quality of that participation! What else offers that? Team sports, perhaps, but you can't play basketball in your parent's basement (well, actually some friends and I once tried...and umm...let's just say it didn't go well) or on an airplane, or on a camping trip in the mountains.

We who are fortunate enough to create this sort of material for publishing are lucky indeed, but as Harley sagely points out, what's more important are the people who play it, the DMs who breath life into the setting and the PCs who usually end up setting it on fire, looting it and scampering off into the woods, hauling away the gentle-speaking sage bound and gagged...who I put in there to HELP THEM!!!!!! Smashing everything in site and missing every friggin' clue I carefully left for them to find, totally ruining the DM's plan and forcing them to come up with a new one on the spot. [sigh]. Dontcha just love the players? ARRRGGGGGHH!

Sorry.

As for the unbelievers, let em make fun of you, and when they're done railing against something they know nothing about they can go home and continue flattening their brains with television and beer, and we can, for a little while at least, fire up our imaginations and do some really, really cool stuff that is so ridiculous that it's just GOTTA be fun! With beer, too. For those who are old enough...of course. Until then, Coke and coffee are just fine. In fact, sometimes that's better than the beer, come to think of it.

However, I do draw the line at dressing up as Lando Calrissian. That is nerdy. I'm sorry. And constant quoting of Monty Python. Okay, I'm done now.

Jeff LaSala · Post by **Jeff LaSala** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:25 am

In fact, most players, looking back at some old Forgotten Realms campaign that they really enjoyed, will fondly recall visions of their DM and their adventures and their characters....not Ed Greenwood, who created the setting. Admirable though his work may have been, it was a player's DM who did the everyday work.

Some of us may have been able to craft the DCC world itself, built upon tons of existing fragments (the DCCs themselves), but it's still just a framework.

And in the end, writing about the exotic cultures of the Southlands, for example, is a heck of a lot easier than portraying them in game. That's the domain of the DM. As a longstanding DM myself, I'm being only partially selfish when I think that DMs should get paid for what they do.

toper · Post by **toper** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:54 am

Hear hear!

Excellent point, Jeff. Who will really remember the Stroh/Fergus/LaSala/Simmons/Goodman team who created this world? As long as they remember Aereth, I'll be content.

Of course, I'd like to be rich and famous too...but I think I picked the wrong bloody profession for that.

Renshai · Post by **Renshai** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:26 am

I don't know, I played Greyhawk as a kid and ran Forgotten Realms when I got older and I still hold Gygax and Greenwood in high esteem. I got to shake both of their hands at GenCon 2000 and thank them for so many wonderful and memorable weekends. So, don't sell yourself short!

Renshai · Post by **Renshai** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:28 am

Psst. We'd love to see some shots of the DCC World maps...

::ducks::

Goodman Games

DCC World

The DCC World Maps

A Box Set and a Dream

DMs on salary!