Projects that Keep Spinning, and Spinning, and Spinning

One of the things you learn when you're climbing into a closet with a pretty girl for the first time is that you have to prioritize your time so that you're not just fumbling your way through a stuttering conversation with fidgety hands and wasted time. You got to remember that she raced you into the closest and with that smile that made your knees go weak

Priorities, kids.

Projects Currently in Works

Americas Campaign: Currently bogged down in map hell so I'm going to skip the map for a bit and do some additional work on setting up the campaign that should see the light of day soon.

Artisan Toolkits: Currently working on the Cartography kit but got a bit distracted by the Royal Geographer's Society. The article should be up by Wednesday-ish.

Great Blog Roll Call 2015: Working on the banner, cover plate, and button. Also working on a list for a side portion that I'm hoping to launch with the GBRC this year. Too much to do here.

Let's Forget the World & Be Friends: Well into the planning stages for a June release. +Jens D. of The Disoriented Ranger, +Sean Bircher of Wine and Savages, and +Stelios V. Perdios of The Word of Stelios are all back for this project and we've also added +Alasdair Cunningham of Iron Rations, +Travis Milam of The Rambling Roleplayer, +Mark Van Vlack of Dust_Pan_Games, and +Mike Bridges of Greyhawkery!

[EDIT 3/30/2015 3:56 PM] AND we just added +Kevin Smith of Melvin Smif's Geekery! This is looking like a really great series!

I got to tell you that one of the best things about doing projects like Dungeons & Drunkards and now Let's Forget the World & Be Friends is that you end up working with a lot of creative people that you really like. The first project was with three guys that I love reading and I was really lucky that they decided to come along with me for the ride. And watching them talk about what they wanted to do, and then seeing it take shape was really fascinating. The new group has doubled our project group size and so far it's really going well as these guys are coming up with good ideas and I can't wait to show everyone what we're working on! 

More later.

Attitude of the Americas Campaign

So I'm focused in on building my campaign in the South Eastern portion of North America. My idea is to build along the Gulf Coast / Mississippi River basin and to bring in the elements that I love about Central America that I discussed last time in Narrowing the Focus on the Americas Setting. This time, though, I want to talk about the attitude of the setting.

Berserker by Frank Frazetta

Most settings tend to set up the tone of their worlds as either one of quiet desperation (such as is the case in Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play and Wheel of Time) or of tense anticipation before a massive, world spanning conflict (as is the case in Greyhawk, Iron Kingdoms, and the Kingdoms of Kalamar). Quiet desperation doesn't work in the Americas as the people of these continents are too optimistic and pragmatic. Things may be terrible, as they have been and will be again, but there is always the view that we can make it through this and be better on the other side. It's why people travel thousands of miles across jungles, deserts, and brave countless rednecks with guns to come north for work. On the whole we believe things will work out for the best. That said, the world spanning conflict is played out for me and no longer feels fresh (though hopefully I can come back to it later).

Instead I'm going to have to focus on a tone of fear and awe. Fear is easy. Beyond every unexplored hill, in every new indigenous tribe, and down every ancient tomb there has to be the unknown. My players will have to feel that what comes next isn't a fight with a 1 HD orc who can only strike at them once before he falls to their blades. This means that I need to make use of the most dangerous element in the game: humans. I need to take advantage of all the terrible, awful things that we are capable of and put that to bear in this campaign. My players need to fear the human nomad more than the orc, troll, and giant. They have to fear what might happen if they're captured. They have to fear what dark substance is dribbling down those blades and why those traders are whispering quietly to each other in the corner. That I can do but I need to pace it well by allowing them to feel comfortable and have a home base that they believe is safe off in the distance, just over that next hill.

Awe is more difficult. For awe to be successful I'll need to push things further away from the traditional standards. My temples will have to be patterned off Mississippi burial mounds and Myan temples. I'll need to pull the aspects of our architectural designs that emphasize the brutal pragmatism of the Americas while pulling in elements of our most adventurous artists. The campaign has to take on a more nuanced feel. I need to emphasize how this is different from the Old World that they're used to.  

My mind is filled with images from metal covers and underground artists that have shaped my understanding of what it means to live in the Americas. I want this setting to feel awesome like the first time someone else touched your dick and you realized that great things come next. I want to embrace the awesome without making the word lose its fucking meaning. 

I need to draw a damned map. 

Narrowing the Focus on the Americas Setting

Since I began this project it has become clear that building an Americas campaign is fraught with external problems that I've never experienced in publicly talking about a pseudo-European setting. Let's set those sort of problems aside though as I've no interest in rehashing such topics and instead would like to talk about focusing the campaign a bit more in the interest of building towards actually putting the damned thing out there. So if you're all about having those discussions take a deep drink of tea and chill the fuck out for a minute. We'll talk about that stuff on another day.

The question then is where and when to begin the campaign. For some the obvious answer is to build in a pre to early colonial period in what would eventually be the United States. There are advantages to doing so that go beyond familiarity with the geography. The area that will eventually encompass the entirety of the Untied States is wildly diverse going from steamy swamps of South Carolina, to the wooded mountains of Appalachia, to the plains of the Midwest, to the deserts of the southwest, to the formidable Rockies, to the massive forests of the northwest.  Yet if we were to begin in what came to be Canada we would have a far colder version of what's found further south, with perhaps far more formidable challenges in those frigid regions further north. Or we could abandon the North entirely and head towards Central America and their jungles and lost cities. But if we do then shouldn't we head further south into the mountains, jungles, lost civilizations, deserts, and plains of South America?

My instinct is to throw the campaign firmly into North America, focusing on an early colonial period of time in the area of the Eastern United States; but I also find myself thinking strongly about launching a campaign in the area occupied by modern day Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The allure of lost cities appearing in the jungles and mountains of that region with a ready access to the sea really appeals to my sensibilities. Focusing the campaign in this region of the world would give me access to a wide variety of actions (piracy, jungle exploration, contact with lost civilizations, tomb raiding, wild animals of practically every type looking to kill and maim the players, etcetera, etcetera). Moreover I suspect that playing here would allow me to have a bit more freedom in choosing how to set up the world as my players aren't anywhere near as familiar with the landscape down there as I am. 

The Central American nations of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras are places that I would really like to throw my players early into the campaign. Perhaps using Belize as a starting area since it's the least mountainous and has a disarming beauty that I should be able to use to lure my players into a false sense of security. 

In the real world there was a pretty heavily fortified Mayan civilization up in the Yucatan Peninsula that kept the West from really investing in Belize - plus there was no gold readily apparent so it seemed like a low end priority when you've got some of those areas with seemingly an inexhaustible supply of the stuff. You've also got Guatemala who didn't really recognize Belize's boarders (or even its statehood) for a long time. So it would be relatively easy to draw from these to build a state that sits on a razor's edge, balancing precariously in a very dangerous world. 

John Carter of Mars Frank Frazetta

I could push the campaign further south towards Nicaragua, which might be advantageous as well. Nicaragua has jungles, mountains, and lost civilizations and is a rich area of the world where I could build up a campaign without having to invent everything wholesale (something I'm not really interested in doing). So it's a possibility as well, but I'm already pretty sold on the idea of rocking a campaign in Belize.

Now as for when I think that it would be relatively easy to set this campaign in an era similar to the early 1500s. I'd get to throw in some guns, which I'm fine with, and yet it wouldn't be an overwhelming advantage for more modern civilizations over the, relatively, more primitive ones from the jungles. In fact if the players become accustomed to the idea of using guns it could actually place them at a distinct disadvantage as these older guns are a slow reload even under the best of circumstances; let alone in the middle of the jungle with poisoned spears and arrows hurling all around them.

A great thing I've discovered about building a campaign in the Americas - whether you're talking about North, Central, or South America - is that there is enough diversity and wild spaces lurking in this side of the world that you could have dinosaurs, lost civilizations, and treasure hunts anywhere because mentally we've been prepared for that stuff to happen. Our pulp literature is filled with them and if there's one thing that I love to bring into my campaigns it's the feel of pulp novels!

Alright, so I know that my time period is going to be set in the early 1500s and I've narrowed down the location to either Central America (Belize-ish starting area) or to the South Eastern Untied States. I'm pretty sure that the Belize-ish thing is the way that I want to go at this point but since I'm not really focused on an accurate historical portrayal of the world it isn't that big of a deal to switch things up if I find that my Belize isn't kicking things in the direction I really want to go.

Damned if building a campaign over here isn't reigniting my creative fires!

Fuck yeah, Americas Campaigns for the win!

Early Thoughts on an American Setting for Dungeons and Dragons

In researching how to build an American campaign it has become increasingly clear that many people want to focus on the colonial aspects of our history. Whether discussing North or South America the discussion revolves around the impact European settlers had on the native populations and the destruction to the environment that followed in their wake. Slavery is big in the conversations as are words like "genocide" and "racism." Then the conversations become serious as people discussing these "very serious" topics ask each other how it made them feel and if they better understand the plight of the natives.

What a terrible fucking time they must have in those games.

Anyway, If I am going to build a campaign world in the Americas then I have to reject the things that bore me and ruin the fun of a game set here. Gone then are the suggested themes of slavery, racial tension, religious strife, the plight of the poor, detailed dramas exposing the struggle of women (besides, they're too busy trying to survive just like everyone else to care about voting rights and jobs that no one else has either), and police states slowly supplanting the Republic. Nuance and complexity are mostly gone too as they have no place in an American setting. Pragmatism rules the cultural mindset here with Occam's Razor being the rule rather than a gentle lesson on disentangling our minds from over-thinking our problems. Our cultural heroes are men who cut through seemingly complex problems and dealt with the issues in a direct (often bloody) way.

Pragmatism has to be the fundamental underpinning of all that comes after if the setting is to ring true. Towns and cities are organized as best they can be at the time without holding to their ancient pathways and patters - because there are none here. Old ways have been abandoned with the transition to the New World and that means that new customs built on need rather than tradition are the way to go. No longer do you avert your gaze at the Lords and Ladies (gone too are those titles) because you're too busy trying to carve out a living on your own lands away from such frivolous titles and practices. The rich hold sway not because of title but because they can pay for what they want.

A game set in the Americas has to be different, not out of spite, but because the Americas are different. Unlike Europe the Americas are wild with large portions unexplored even today on both continents. This land hasn't been settled (occupied yes, but not settled) for the majority of its history. Its native peoples are proud and often refuse to just get up and go for the new comers. There are mysteries here too which cannot be found in Europe. Mysterious lost cities rising out of dark jungles and swamps. Strange burial mounds rise high above the forests and ancient drawings for the gods wind their way across the arid deserts. Languages with out writing are spoken everywhere while words written down long ago have had no tongue utter them in more than a thousand years.

For this setting to gain traction there has to be a feel of the wild spaces without the hope of a big, friendly city over the next hill. You have to feel alone out there and be ready for hostile natives that don't take kindly to your explorations (would you if some jackass came creeping through your woods). More than that, though, there has to be a feeling that wealth and power are within your reach. It has to feel like you can win your fortune through daring and cleverness and the world will know your name for it.

Cleverness and hope have to be rewarded and encouraged. This isn't a theocracy or dictatorship - especially out in the wilds away from the watchful eyes of kings and queens across the Atlantic. This is a land that should reward you for your efforts. So if you're smart enough to come up with a way to kill the Hill Giants without exposing yourself to danger than so much the better. Cleverness should be encouraged at all turns as their thinking will be what saves them more often than not when arms fail. As for hope, well, my group is from the United States and we've got hope covered in spades.

Magic will have to be rethought as too much freedom from danger will ruin the setting and allow them to walk over the challenges with mindless aplomb. No, no, no. Can't have that. Gone goes create food/water, light, and all similar such cheats. This game will need to feel like hard mode to get it to run right. Playing here will have to make you think and plan for the unforeseen. It will need to feel dangerous again.

I think this idea is beginning to take hold of me kids.