Last Chance to join the Custom Adventure Project!

countgray · Sep 30, 2006

Just a heads up that in less than 24 hours membership will close forever on Wolfgang Baur's first ever Custom Adventure project. This is your last chance to get a copy of a rip-roaring great adventure that has been custom designed for private patrons by top-notch freelance designer Wolfgang Baur. You may know him from his fantastic work for TSR, WotC, Malhavoc, and Call of Cthulhu, on such projects as Planescape, Al-Qadim Land of Fate, Frostburn, and countless articles and adventures for both Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

The adventure is now finished and about to go to press. It's a damn good adventure. But it's a unique work, commissioned for the express enjoyment of the patrons. Only patrons will receive a copy. The adventure will never be published in any other venue.

If you are interested at all in getting a copy, you need to sign up within the next 24 hours. If you want to know what all the hubub is about check out this link:

http://customadventure.livejournal.com/

Whizbang Dustyboots · Sep 30, 2006

Is there a link that actually describes what the module is about a bit better? The nuts and bolts are discussed on that first post, but not the flavor or subject matter.

And is this going to be available in hard copy or PDF only?

Varianor Abroad · Sep 30, 2006

Uh, pdf only. (Unless there's some huge surprise waiting I don't know about.)

Let's see, if I had to summarize, it would be "A mystery about steam-powered devices, a University, and a town where a Mouse is King."

Let me also try a second way.

An open-ended city-based adventure for 12th level PCs, scalable as low as 6th level. Features mysteries, multiple potential villains and allies, flying monkeys, clockworks, steam golems, and tons of neat stuff.

However, I sent an email to Wolfgang to see if he can write a better one. I have to admit, I looked and couldn't find one easily. The closest I could find (after I wrote the above) was "a city adventure with a clockwork mage, a Mouse King, and a persistent devil. Designed for 12th level characters, and scaledg it down with full details for 6th level and 8th level."

Monkey King · Sep 30, 2006

"Steam & Brass" Summary

Well, I wrote it, so you'd think it would be easy to summarize it.

In "Steam & Brass", the heroes become entangled in old grudges between three villains:

* a devil looking to collect on a contract,
* a clockwork mage building a powerful steam golem, and
* a necromancer with plans to use kill and animate angels to suit his own twisted purposes.

Naturally, these three don't get along well with each other -- and they threaten the city and everyone in it. Meddling in their schemes is the Mouse King, who just wants the city to survive the conflict.

Regardless of which side the heroes work with or against, events pick up steam (ahem) and proceed to one of four major climax scenes. The party may meet zombie angels, steam gates and the Door of Knives, a whole Arcane Collegium, elite kobold snipers, worshippers of the Gear Goddess, an implacable inevitable, clockwork minions, and strange familiars. The maps are beautiful, and so are the seven player handouts. Clues about what is really going on are scattered throughout for both investigative and combat-oriented play styles. The adventure gives players a taste of the mysteries going on, but to provide lots of intense combats as well.

"Steam & Brass" is written sandbox or matrix style; lots of possible hooks and triggers, no linear story line, but well-described locations and NPCs that guide the action. In the playtests to date, the parties haven't had any trouble finding trouble and choosing sides.

Set in the merchant Free City of Sobeck, "Steam & Brass" is a city adventure easily adaptable to Greyhawk, Eberron (probably Sharn), the Forgotten Realms (one of the playtest groups used Suzail), or even the Iron Kingdoms. It is written for 12th, 8th, or 6th level characters (with statted-out foes for each level of play).

countgray · Sep 30, 2006

Oh there is soooo much more than that. It is a complex adventure of over 80 pages. There are three interweaving plots. One involves a clockwork mage and an arcane college. Another plot involves a merchant lord who is in league with the forces of Hell. The third arc involves the Mouse King, an animal lord, who is a very cool character indeed.

This is an urban adventure, it can be easily dropped into any city setting. The adventure has a lot that will appeal to any gaming group. There are a ton of great encounters with some very cool monsters -- clockwork monsters, constucts, some awesome new undead creatures, two new creature templates, a winged monkey, and a lot of interesting twists on some old favorites.

There are many colorful NPC's and the opportunity to do some great role-playing.

There is a fully detailed Arcane College.

There is a new cleric domain -- the Gear domain.

You will also find a few great puzzles and traps, and many opportunities for investigation and exploring mysteries.

The whole adventure is scaled for 3 levels of play, with stats for encounters at 12 level, 8th level and 6th level.

Half the fun as a patron has been the fun of seeing the creative process in action, and being able to coment on the design along the way. But the finished adventure is really very, very cool, and whether you run the adventure as is, or just mine it for all the spiffy ideas, encounters and monsters inside, this adventure has a hell of a lot to offer. I think anyone will find the adventure a great read and great fun to play.

Of course, you won't be able to join after Saturday, September 30th.

countgray · Sep 30, 2006

While I was typing I didn't realize that Wolfgang himself was responding above. I don't think my description did the adventure the justice that he did, but I can add that I have been running an early draft version of the adventure for the past couple weeks in my home game, and the players have had a tremendous lot of fun with the adventure so far.

Odhanan · Sep 30, 2006

I kept pushing back my patronage without thinking about the deadline! Done now.

Monkey King · Sep 30, 2006

Odhanan said:
I kept pushing back my patronage without thinking about the deadline! Done now.

Glad to have you as a patron.

The design has come together really well, and the quality of the maps, art, and handouts is much better than I expected when I kicked the whole thing off some months back.

Hmmm... 16 hours till I close the doors on this one. It's going to feel a little weird when it's over.

Varianor Abroad · Oct 1, 2006

Interesting. Since you're planning on doing a new one, that's surprising. But, I can see it since it's been a different sort of project.

Land Outcast · Oct 1, 2006

Now I guess some can grasp how I might feel with my unavaiability of "web cash"...

Hope the best for the patrons,
and Wolf, kudos for the Adventure Builder articles