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.

NEW DRIVE ANNOUNCEMENT

At 12 Noon CST tomorrow (the 15th) our ordering platforms will be live for purchasing DUNGEON SETS™ 1 and 2.

Please note the FRONT PAGE news and the HELP FILE.  I will be on hand monitoring the whole affair and will immediately answer questions emailed to me during the process.  Please note:  If you are not transferred to PAYPAL and pay there, then the order did not go through.  Follow the instructions in our HELP FILE for completing the payment.

> I will be signing and numbering 500 Limited English Editions for each set.<

(Thanks to Allan Grohe for reminding me to post this.)


I wish to thank everyone who has encouraged us in this new product line launch.  We have received dozens of emails in so short a time period and it is encouraging to say the least.  This is but the start of an eager endeavor for us to bring a line of products to bear that will creatively grow with the needs of the DM and his or her players.  We look forward to your participation.

Rob Kuntz
President, Pied Piper Publishing

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.

DUNGEON SETS™ Product Line New November 15th

PPP Will Launch a New Product Line. DUNGEON SETS 1 & 2 will be available November 15th. See You There.


DUNGEON SETS™ was an idea conceived to bring maximum game value to each DM’s table, whatever FRPG system they are currently using. These are un-keyed, color maps with integration notes and a comprehensive legend that are presented as a contiguous, and exacting, dungeon setting. In studying the needs of DMs who all have specific campaigns with real histories, characters and plots of their own, it became apparent that the idea of mainstay adventure modules, such as many based upon TSR’s old model of assumed expediency, has shifted greatly with the contraction of that market and an ever present need over the years for specific game material created by each DM. In keeping with that honored ideal, PPP will make a leap in two areas: in presenting challenging maps for expansion along different creative lines by individual DMs; and in offering supportive materials for these, such as booklets containing new and innovative monsters, NPCs, spells, magic items, magical areas and set pieces which can be incorporated into the map designs as each DM sees fit, thus expanding the range for them to continue “branding” their own campaigns as creatively unique.

The last part of the term, ‘Dungeon Master,’ is ‘Master’. Thus PPP sees this product line, and those others forthcoming that will support its implementation via each creative DM, as not only sound as it is keeping with the actual vision of the game as first earmarked for the public, but these will allow an immediate expansion of the DM’s design process which until this point has had its purchase in a pick-and-choose, or almost scavenger-like, basis, the last in the sense that DMs cannot always use specific adventures offered by small publishers (let alone larger ones) and that they glean what they can in an endless search for good, or more importantly, “useable” material to extract from these.

DUNGEON SETS™ is the first step towards making sure that we as a publisher are doing as much as possible to reach each individual DM’s needs and to thereby inspire their immediate and imaginative use of our products, this rather than letting “NICE, BUT…” products from us languish on their bookshelves as collectibles or until a time arrives in their campaign, perhaps years later, to use them. One of the key elements in this game has always been “utility” and with its inclusion in the design and implementation of each campaign DMs’ creations tend to soar as they continue to find and hone their imaginative juices. This is of course what our grand game is all about, reaching for creative horizons while having fun on its interrelated levels. Pun intended!

The Future of Dungeon Sets™

I will be designing sets such as the Fortress of Fyarz and the Cloud Castle of Aer (as noted in the Bottle City). Ramsey will also be creating increasingly imaginative and challenging sets to test the tenacity of your players! The integration notes for DMs will increase as each set expands upon the base we have realized. They will include creative additions not seen at “basic” levels and in concert with supplemental source material will allow for an ever-expanding range of imaginative material to be used in stocking these dungeons and settings. Within that context, Ramsey Dow and myself have concluded that a treatise—an in depth essay—on dungeon-crafting in its many facets should be of interest, so we are gathering notes to add to my already 10,000+ word MS which describes the creation of Greyhawk™ Castle, Castle El Raja Key and Maure Castle™. This historical and instructive treatise will cover the beginnings of this honored endeavor and track some of the changes that have taken effect with the modernization of the game.

We wish to thank the hundreds of loyal fans for continuing to support our diversified game through the purchase of our products.

Happy Gaming!

Rob Kuntz, President
Ramsey Dow, Production Manager for the Dungeon Sets™ Line


Greyhawk and Maure Castle are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Their use here is for historical reference only.
Dungeon Sets™ is a trademark of Pied Piper Publishing.