At Gary Con: Castles, and Druids and Cairns, oh my!

A quick update from the trenches at Gary Con!

Rob's design work on Maure Castle gave us a strong test last night, as Jon Hershberger ran 8 of us through the Chamber of Antiquities level, looking for a couple specific artifacts. Unsurprisingly, it had one of Rob's trademark MASSIVE rooms, with really (!!!) dangerous elements that practically dare you to hang yourself.*

Jon Hershberger probably giving Nik Dunn some bad news. We are playing AD&D, of course!

Rob has been known to put high-HD, many-headed beasts in modules targeted for 1st-3rd level characters. So if you see a similarly-shaped monster in a deep level than only 12th-14th level characters are likely to get to ... well, give it plenty of respect. Dwarves, please don't rush forward and hurl your hammer at it. At least only the Dwarf died. The rest of us pointed and laughed!

But I shouldn't laugh too hard, because my fighter "fell at the hands" of hordelings. (Inside joke.) Thank goodness for the Elixir of Life!

In other news, the Black Blade Publishing booth at Gary Con has lots of Rob's work available: New printings of Cairn of the Skeleton King, Tower of Blood, Dark Druids and The Original Bottle City, along with the earlier versions of both Dungeon Sets, El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury, and Cairn (2nd print, IIRC).

Stop by the Black Blade Publishing booth to check those out, along with all the other great stuff nearby!

* Just a note:  Chamber of Antiquities was originally published in DUNGEON Magazine by Paizo and for 3rd edition; and it was later converted for use in AD&D.  The link details an adventure into it using the former rules. --  Thanks to Guy for the report and to Jon for making the session a fun time had by all (maybe excepting the dwarf....)  RJK

Cairn of the Skeleton King & Tower of Blood Available at Garycon!

Boxes of Cairn of the Skeleton King and Tower of Blood were shipped by the printer to Garycon and copies will be available there for purchase from Black Blade Publishing.

Black Blade is also handling Chaotic Henchmen's sales distribution (there and in the future), so Dark Druids and their other titles will also be acquirable at Black Blade's booth.

Though I am not attending the convention I will be receiving updates from Jon Hershberger, Allan Grohe, Guy Fullerton and Paul Stormberg (including photos) of what they are doing there, snapshots of convention activities, etc.  I will post con information and photos when I receive them.  In fact I just talked to Jon and he and Allan are in Des Moines on the way to the convention at this very moment!  :)

More updates later!

New Auction

To support my move, my upcoming marriage and the publication of various here-to-fore unpublished works of mine including RPG material, CD Collection, fiction, board game design, and my current non-fiction work, I am holding another auction through the Collector's Trove here: LINK

Currently only game related items have been listed; and the listings will include many more collectibles and interesting artifacts as Paul continues to post these over the upcoming days.

Cairn of the Skeleton King reprint - off to the printers

Here’s an update on the reprint of Rob’s Cairn of the Skeleton King adventure that is being published by Black Blade Publishing.  The adventure has received another editorial pass and an all new layout including the cover shown below.  

This version of Cairn of the Skeleton King is a very faithful reprinting of the adventure published by Pied Piper Publishing.  The editing and layout are complete and just today the production files were sent off to the printer.

We should have these available at the Black Blade Publishing vendor booth at GaryCon, and they will then be available directly through Black Blade Publishing.

Thanks for your interest, and thanks to Rob for working with us to bring this adventure back into print.

Jon

Min-Maxed Updates

Dark Druids has reached its final incarnation (in English, see below) via Chaotic Henchmen and under the guiding hand of Guy Fullerton.  A big thank you is due Guy and the folks who are championing through purchases and appreciative gestures its re-release!

I have agreed in principle with an Italian RPG publisher to have select adventures/works of mine translated for that part of the EURO market and we are in the final stages of ironing out the contractual details.

Pied Piper Publishing's remaining materials, stock and project particles (already printed color maps for two related projects which I was furthering--THE ANNEX and DREAMLANDS--before the company ceased operations) have been turned over to Black Blade Publishing.  At some point I am sure that the stock, otherwise available at their convention booth, will be available for online purchase in the future.

I re-reviewed DREAMLANDS and discovered that I had about a week of (full time) writing left to finish it.   So...  I will be plucking away at it in between the courses on my always variegated plate of delectable choices.

Here's the cover (2009) by Andy Taylor (aka "ATOM"); and a partial of the color 11x14 map I rendered for it (1985) when the design moved from being the "OZ LEVEL" for Castle Greyhawk (2nd iteration) to its final state.  In reinventing the former model I'd previously used this expanded it into element usage in ways consonant with my template for Lost City of the Elders (1974) and (distantly) for the GOD GAME model (played by LGTSA members in 1974), the latter which is already detailed for my upcoming book, A NEW ETHOS IN GAME DESIGN.