Dungeon Set #3 Update/Dungeon Trappings Insert

Dungeon Set™#3 (levels 13-18) will be released at the end of December/beginning of the New Year with The Boreal Level.  Ramsey will be finishing he maps by the 3rd week in December.  As previously announced, we are pleased as pixie-punch to announce that Gene Palmer (of Old Guard Gaming Accouterments) has designed a special 2,000 word+ DUNGEON TRAPPINGS™ insert for it, detailing many bits of magic and treasure that can be used immediately in stocking these levels or can alternately be used in a DM's campaign however they see fit.  I read Gene's first pass with glee, in fact, and wrote him back that it was spot on.  Gene will be doing some design work for the DUNGEON TRAPPINGS™ full sets and is a very fine writer and very creative, so we welcome him to do as much for us as he likes.  More on this as the 'TRAPPINGs take form.

So Many Paths

There have been some concerns or guesses (speculation?) that our new line of products equates to me no longer crafting adventures. This is not so. The OC levels are still planned, and one named the Annex is in the works as is Dhalt. I have received lots of complements for my adventure crafting. Then again, a time does arrive sooner or later that a general design plan for my upcoming years will kick into effect. I wish to write essays and am doing so, instructive works, my memoirs, special projects and fiction, non-fiction and other. I do not have time to do all, so I must weigh against what makes me happy and what fans want (some at least) and arrive in middles. And I've always avoided middles, as one gets run over from both directions...

It has been 42 years in the industry (AND) in thinking, pondering and writing on many, many subjects other than RPG--I have always been a writer and a deep thinker first and only a designer second. That is a long time by some standards at least. I have a lot of thoughts on my life experiences, and only a fraction, not even a percent if I had to quantify it with haphazard human measuring systems, has been expressed. And I consider these the essence of my being and worthy of expression.

I've recently admitted to myself that the many mss and notes and maps and other that are contained on disc (3 cds) from my various auctions to date, well, there is going to be no way that this matter will get published as a greater whole in my life time--there is just not enough time and resources for it, even though there is great interest on my part to do so. Because of this, and at some future time, I will hand off these discs to someone who is competent in reordering and classifying/arranging their contents so that these could then be offered to the public. So this has been a recent question mark as well, and not only by myself but by close associates and friends.

Back to Dungeon Sets/Dungeon Trappings.

Historically, I can sense things changing but yet, again, remaining the same. DUNGEON SETS is also, in some part, a comment by me. At the beginning there were no booklets, EGG and I and Dave Arneson drew maps and invented things. TSR lost the early vision as they bought into the adventure business as influenced by outside forces (Palace of the Vampire Queen, et al, and then the plethora of JG material for AD&D). Then when the vision workers left TSR the whole marketing machine kicked in (like WotC has emulated today) and pumped out gobs of stuff, mostly junk in my estimation. What had happened was the pursuit of the dollar and that will always pinch out the truly creative kind and products spawned by them. I had always remained true to the vision and promoted quality above quantity; but surely without a staff of excellent designers and vision workers such efforts rarely succeed in making but a modicum of push in a market/sales driven model of OLD TSR's day or WotC's today. However, we have a game which on different levels is appreciated by all, including the idealistic creative types like me. It is extra painful for myself to watch the vision I helped create be raped over and over and then regurgitated as a truth to be bought into by others who will so readily listen and believe. To me it is a sin against all of what was the truth back then and an insult against the years spent working towards an unselfish end as comrades and friends. Adventures are becoming like pancakes, even in our grass roots movement to "FIND" the past--just add adventure batter and water and stir. There is no blame here, for look at what the model historically rests upon by comparison. Indeed, it is time for true creators and teachers to start creating and teaching again and to show the way to the youth who always inherit the "before-time"; and the barbarians are at the gates threatening the young as I type. "Back to basics" has only one meaning to me. Draw and craft and learn which is the only path I had in 1973. Very simple. Others rise to their own level and/or for their own reasons. But that's my level and a lot of other DM's levels as well. Ultimately it is all about fun, yes. But we also set the examples for the future, and in this I will speak only for myself as this is my truth and mine alone.

So I am returning to the start that I neever really left, part as an example, part out of hope, part of fear that we may be carried away in the tide of exhuberance too often noted when TSR rose and then so quickly fell. Negative? No. Just look at the examples. History has repeated itself time and again within this industry. Everyone has once again discovered the fountain of youth and the grail. Remember when...? And yes we do. Many "ancients" returning to their boxes in closet, basement, attic or garage remember fondly the FUN on many levels, and that includes crafting such adventures themselves.

Now if I had a PR Manager he would have shot himself by now, as I seem to be railing against my own existence as a publisher of booklets at least of the type I abhor on so many levels. But I have been doing this for years. Up the Bar, push the envelope, reach for excellence. It can only create more good and thus spur and inspire more positive growth. DUNGEON SETS/DUNGEON TRAPPINGS will allow me to get pieces of my creative mind to paper sooner than longish adventures would. That is both good for fans and for myself, for I always look at what I do with the idea of outdoing myself in the next round. :)

Though I have carried on a bit, ranted only slightly, and came close to uncontrolled egoism several times, I remain Galadriel... Uhhh... RJK ;)

"There is nothing at the end of twisting, twiddling paths; it is on the journey to Ithaca that all is revealed." -- Sah The Estranged.

Sample & Updates to DS Line

We are excited about this new product line. This has been thought out carefully and Ramsey and I have discussed the possibilities of this line by phone and have traded many, many emails to get it down right and into production. Andy Taylor has been commissioned to draw all exterior and interior art. We may have other "spot" artists doing some add-ins here or there.

Future DUNGEON SETS™ will include 1,500+ word inserts on heavy card stock, three-hole drilled, entitled DUNGEON TRAPPINGS™ This matter will resemble in type what we will be including as separate DT set releases, which as discussed in the news release will be supplemental material of various kinds, such as new magic, spells, monsters, tricks, traps and special set pieces, etc. There will generally be a pleasing mix matching the range of each Dungeon Set. I will be contributing heavily to this material in their special DS forms and as separate releases (I am already 1,200 words into DUNGEON TRAPPINGS™ #1 and have contacted another crafty designer to help with future sets). For my design end this will also include primary matter gleaned from my Original Campaign files dating back to 1973, with salient art re-rendered from my illustrations done then. None of the information will be duplicated from one line (DS>DT) to the other, but each insert will be numbered for sequential ordering and different colors will be chosen for the stock as well. We are looking at no less than 65# color stock for this, and as noted, these will be three-hole drilled, making them easily organizable in a 3-ring binder for storage and reference/extraction.