One thing I would like to see...

[Pilgrim]

Once the game is out and rolling for a while. I would love to see GG put out an adventure to rival ToEE or something similar. I know there are a lot of standard adventures on the pipeline and I look forward to playing all of them. But I would love to see a something big, akin to the super modules of TSR that leaves players blown away and feeling really accomplished when they're done.

Just food for thought.

[finarvyn]

A couple of thoughts come to mind here:

1. Goodman Games has a history of some big products (boxed sets, hardback adventure books, etc) so I can certainly see something like this on the horizon.

2. It's possible that some of the modules will have some built-in connectivity; if so then running through a sequence becomes a lot like a mega-module. (For example, TSR had the G-series of Giants modules which were seperate but can become a single whole.

[ThickSkullAdv]

The modules I'm writing now is a series very much a series of modules that can be enjoyed standalone or as a longer campaign arc (similar to Giants/Drow series) I suppose the bad part is due to my Real Job I'm writing them about 1 per year, but I'm hoping to increase my productivity to about 1 every 9 months.

[finarvyn]

The modules I'm writing now is a series very much a series of modules that can be enjoyed standalone or as a longer campaign arc (similar to Giants/Drow series) I suppose the bad part is due to my Real Job I'm writing them about 1 per year, but I'm hoping to increase my productivity to about 1 every 9 months.

One thing to consider is that good modules don't need to be really long. The Giants modules were all about 16 pages each, if memory serves me correctly. The important thing is to set up an interesting situation and figure out a few key encounters. Most of the rest of the modules can be quite generic. That can speed up your writing time a little.

[ThickSkullAdv]

One thing to consider is that good modules don't need to be really long. The Giants modules were all about 16 pages each, if memory serves me correctly. The important thing is to set up an interesting situation and figure out a few key encounters. Most of the rest of the modules can be quite generic. That can speed up your writing time a little.

Yes, I'm learning that. Haunting of Larvik Island was 20K words (about 15 encounters + wandering monsters) - in hindsight I probably could have shortened a bit or spread into 2 adventures, but I had a specific story in mind and, well, that story required 20K words. That module was based on 4E and essentially takes about 5-6 nights to get through. It will be interesting to see how many nights of gaming the DCC re-mastering will require.

Attack of the Frawgs (which is an "alternate prequel to the sequel to Haunting of Larvik Island... that should make more sense when I post more about it later) is about 6-7K words (about 15 keyed locations with 10 or 11 encounters) and I've found in my platyesting that it is short enough so that most players could probably make it through the adventure in one evening, max two.

I'm thinking 10K to 12K words is going to be the sweet spot for length for DCC module writing, but I'm sure I'll learn more once I get feedback on Frawgs.

Regardless, I've outlined the story arc on paper it's a 4-module series (with Frawgs being a bonus-prequel).

[jmucchiello]

The modules I'm writing now is a series very much a series of modules that can be enjoyed standalone or as a longer campaign arc (similar to Giants/Drow series) I suppose the bad part is due to my Real Job I'm writing them about 1 per year, but I'm hoping to increase my productivity to about 1 every 9 months.

One thing to consider is that good modules don't need to be really long. The Giants modules were all about 16 pages each, if memory serves me correctly. The important thing is to set up an interesting situation and figure out a few key encounters. Most of the rest of the modules can be quite generic. That can speed up your writing time a little.

IIRC G1 and G2 were eight pages each. G3 was 16 pages. The collected G1-3 was 32 pages.

[ThickSkullAdv]

IIRC G1 and G2 were eight pages each. G3 was 16 pages. The collected G1-3 was 32 pages.

Well now I just feel long-winded.

[finarvyn]

IIRC G1 and G2 were eight pages each. G3 was 16 pages. The collected G1-3 was 32 pages.

Well now I just feel long-winded.

Well, remember that it's a different age and publishers are catering to a different audience. A monster stat-block used to fill up one line of text of a two-column module but now it takes up several inches of space. Flavor text used to be short and infrequent, now it leads off evey room. A totally different style. If you havn't looked at the old Gygax modules you might peek at some.

[ThickSkullAdv]

Well now I just feel long-winded.

Well, remember that it's a different age and publishers are catering to a different audience. A monster stat-block used to fill up one line of text of a two-column module but now it takes up several inches of space. Flavor text used to be short and infrequent, now it leads off evey room. A totally different style. If you havn't looked at the old Gygax modules you might peek at some.

Oh, I agree, I was only half-joking. I actually have most of the old modules on PDF (you used to be able to pick them up on pdf before 4E came out) and their lack of flavor text is pretty amazing. Some of the flavor text that was included was pretty funny (a random table to figure out what's the giant's bags hanging on pegs.)

That said, I believe the original Tomb of Horrors was only 12 pages. You can pack a lot of adventure into 12 pages.

In fact, I also have the PDF of the Silver Anniversary G1-G3 Liberation of Geoff module and the flavor text in that module was also pretty good in terms of flavor text (it was actually very interesting as they squished the modules, as originally written, in between larger fluffier encounters). (Don't get me started on the 4E "Revenge of the Giants" version I have as well...)

I think it would be interesting to see how a "shot for shot" homage-module would hold up today (and by shot for shot, I would mean, same number of rooms, monsters, and ratio of flavor text).

[finarvyn]

I believe the original Tomb of Horrors was only 12 pages.

I assume you are only thinking of the text. Tomb of Horrors came with a big thick book of illustrations as well. They were great visual aids. The players would come to a certain part of the dungeon and you could say, "you see THIS!" and show them the picture. Awesome idea, and one I'd like to see DCC emulate some time.

I think it would be interesting to see how a "shot for shot" homage-module would hold up today (and by shot for shot, I would mean, same number of rooms, monsters, and ratio of flavor text).

Agreed. I think there are a decent number of "old guard" gamers who would enjoy this sort of thing. And it would be a nice change of pace for some of the newer gamers. Very minimalistic.

[Geoffrey]

Sutherland's and Trampier's illustrations in S1: Tomb of Horrors are worth far more than boring word-walls. I have little patience and no time for pointless RPG art of the "look at the adventurers posing" type. Instead, RPG art should illustrate weird and unusual places, things, and monsters. When RPG art does that, it is very useful indeed.

[finarvyn]

Sutherland's and Trampier's illustrations in S1: Tomb of Horrors are worth far more than boring word-walls. I have little patience and no time for pointless RPG art of the "look at the adventurers posing" type. Instead, RPG art should illustrate weird and unusual places, things, and monsters. When RPG art does that, it is very useful indeed.

And when I look at some of the maps and artwork for DCC I'm reminded a lot of the stuff in S1. I'd love for Goodman Games to put out a tribute module with artwork desinged as player handouts like S1 did. I think we have the kinds of artists on board already who could really rock a project like this!

[GnomeBoy]

I'd love for Goodman Games to put out a tribute module with artwork desinged as player handouts like S1 did.

Have you read all the way to the back of the DCCs???

[finarvyn]

I'd love for Goodman Games to put out a tribute module with artwork desinged as player handouts like S1 did.

Have you read all the way to the back of the DCCs???

I know that each DCC module has a few art pieces, and I love them. That's one thing that makes them better than almost anything else on the market.

However, TSR's S1 module has 33 of them for the same dungeon.

Have I missed a DCC module with so many? I know that I don't have them all....

[GnomeBoy]

I know that each DCC module has a few art pieces, and I love them. That's one thing that makes them better than almost anything else on the market.

However, TSR's S1 module has 33 of them for the same dungeon.

Have I missed a DCC module with so many? I know that I don't have them all....

I don't know of any with that many, though I can't say I've counted. And I'm assuming CW doesn't count, since it's count of everything is higher.

If there were plans to make a module with that many illustrations, perhaps they could just turn out a few additional illustrations and give us an animated DCC movie to watch...!

[jmucchiello]

As a side note, Enworld has a long thread where we discuss the presentation of Tomb of Horrors. It is a room by room dissection of the module. The OP wanted to know why it was considered a great module and we point out that great is relative. Since ToH was initially written for a 1975 con. It's worth reading even at 39 pages and still growing (were a few encounters short of the ending at the moment). Be aware though that the places where the Tomb makes little sense are derided. This is not a fanboy review of the module.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rp ... where.html

[Klyngster]

Attack of the Frawgs (which is an "alternate prequel to the sequel to Haunting of Larvik Island... that should make more sense when I post more about it later)...

...Regardless, I've outlined the story arc on paper it's a 4-module series (with Frawgs being a bonus-prequel).

I'm looking forward to 'Attack of the Frawgs'.

Is 'Haunting of Larvik Island' one of the four modules in the series? Will you be converting it to the DCC RPG? How 'Appendix N' is it right now?