Kulan World Journal

[Knightfall]

The "Spelljammer Fan Magazine?" thread I started (on The Piazza) was meant to spark interest in the idea of the Spelljammer community there (and, maybe, elsewhere) getting together to create a fan-based Spelljammer e-zine. Since I posited the idea, it was put to me that I should lead such an endeavor. After thinking about it, I quickly came to realize that while I would love to participate in a combined leadership group for such a magazine (and I still am), I'm not willing to be the project leader of such a magazine.

I just don't have that kind of passion for Spelljammer.

But what it did do for me was give me the idea of creating an e-zine for World of Kulan. Of all my RPG endeavors, Kulan is the one that I am truly passionate about. It is my flagship campaign setting for v.3.5, and I've already mapped out world in Campaign Cartographer. I already know I'd have more than enough material to create such a magazine, but since it is my own world, I'd have to accept 99% of the responsibility for putting out a free PDF e-zine detailing different parts of the world. It would hard for me to ask for help with such a creation since no one else has the same kind of investment in the world like I do. Maybe if I allow others to submit general articles unrelated to the world but with a strong emphasis on v.3.5. It's an idea, but it likely would be a long shot.

For now, it is just an idea. I'm in the middle of a night class that takes up some of my time, but I do have free time, which I've been using for Kulan. If I do decide to create the Kulan World Journal it will be inspired by all the things about D&D that I love including the bits & pieces from official and OGL settings that I've integrated into the world. I foresee articles detailing how I've integrated such published material into the world. (As part of this, I might ask some of my peers to provide reviews of their favorite D&D or OGL references that I've integrated into Kulan. Just an idea.)

I foresee regular columns dedicated to each of my continents (but not in every issue). I foresee an ongoing creature article that would take something I've already detailed in my Monster Compilations and expand them (similar to the DRAGON ecology articles). I foresee articles that go beyond Kulan to detail the other worlds of Kulanspace* or delve into my homebrewed planar cosmology. Articles detailing NPCs and other tidbits will likely happen as well, and NPCs I've already posted to my NPC Compendium will be the starting point for such articles, which would expand on the NPC's background, family, etc.

Personally, I think the sky's the limit, but I'm going to try to not get ahead of myself. I need to come up with a plan. Maybe I'll need a mission statement, or maybe I'll just go for it and see how long it will last. What I won't be doing is forcing myself to put out new issues on a regular basis. That would be too much pressure. Instead, I will create the Kulan World Journal primarily for myself. If others want to read it, I'll simply say thank you and ask them what they want to see in the future. And if my peers want to give advice (or more), I will gladly accept their input.

I want to make the world a living and breathing construct that all can enjoy.

* Of course, anything Spelljammer related that I create could end up in The Spelljammer Fanzine too.

 

[Knightfall]

Calling in these members of the Social Group for their thoughts...

@A'koss, @Blackrat, @Dog Moon, @freyar, @Hand of Evil, @Piratecat, @Psion, @Scott DeWar, @steeldragons, and @the Jester.

 

[Knightfall]

Goals
• To improve my writing and publishing skills.
• To practice my cartography and game design skills.
• To detail key regions of the World of Kulan whether those regions are continents or island groups.
• To finally build Kulan's Underearth and Undersea.
• To write fiction set exclusively on Kulan or in the Mirrored Cosmology.
• To detail how I've integrated certain official D&D and OGL settings/locales into my world.
• To provide my peers with interesting gaming material that will inspire.
• To have some fun with this project.

 

[Knightfall]

Here is the introduction that will be in the first issue. The first issue will also have a separate editorial. Issues that follow (fingers crossed) will only have the editorial.

Introduction
World of Kulan has been a labor or love for me since the mid-90s. At that time, I began a new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition campaign for my friends Dan, Dave, and Gerald. For this new series of adventures, I created a new hex map created in pencil and colored with crayons. The map covered a significant area, but it was only one part of the landmass that would eventually become the Lands of Harqual.

The campaign started with the published adventure entitled Rudwilla's Stew by Christopher Perkins from Dungeon Magazine #45. Many adventures later, which included a trip to the Isle of Dread and another continent, the campaign ended with an abbreviated attempt of Richard Baker's adventure Prism Keep from that same issue. Dungeon #45 remains one of my favorites to this day. The heroes of that campaign are now known as The Companions of Harqual. (It is a name I've given them and was never used during play.)

Kulan would not see play again until the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons was well into its run. The setting for the longest campaign I've run in the world also came from the pages of Dungeon Magazine. The heroes known as the Order of the Silver Hand would make their mark on The Shackled City, and Cauldron would leave a lasting mark on the Lands of Harqual. All of the SCAP adventures except the last one were played through on Harqual.

While I've also run two other play-by-post campaigns set on Kulan (one on the EN World forums and the other on the Old D&D Campaign Worlds forum named The Piazza), the world has been more for my own enjoyment. The maps for Kulan have morphed from pen and crayon hex maps to digital creations laid out in such programs as Campaign Cartographer by ProFantasy Software Ltd. and Hexographer by Inkwell Ideas. As well, I have detailed almost every aspect of the Lands of Harqual, although in many ways it is still bare bones.

Kulan has remained a D&D v.3.5 world even with the release of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The world is now heavily tied to several products released during the 3E era. I was (and still am) a big fan of the d20 System and Open Gaming License. No, Kulan is NOT and OGL creation. Instead, it is an homage to the D&D v.3.5 game system and the multitude of compatible products released through the d20 System and the OGL.

So, what does that mean for the Kulan World Journal? It means that it will be a magazine more for myself and my peers at The Piazza than anything else. I guess it could also be said to be a fan e-zine for D&D v.3.5, but I don't want to shoehorn it into any game system in case I decided at some point to run the world using D&D Next or some other system. (I will never run it using D&D 4E. Pathfinder? Unlikely. I would be more likely to run it using AD&D 2E or Troll Lord Games' Castles & Crusades.) However, from what I've seen of D&D Next, I'm more inclined to keep World of Kulan a homebrewed D&D v.3.5 campaign with strong d20 third-party influences.

Kulan World Journal (KWJ) will strive to remain as systemless as possible, but when statatics are provided, they will conform to D&D v.3.5. This project is more about practicing my writing and publishing skills than creating tons of new rules compatible with D&D v.3.5. The e-zine will be open to my peers from The Piazza to practice their own skills as well whether they be writers or artists. I've already brought on Angel R. Tarragon to write a Pathfinder-based column and other Piazza members (or any of my former players) may volunteer their services if they so choose. For such columns, volunteers aren't required to link their writings to the World of Kulan (but they can if they so choose).

Note: If I ask you if you'd like to contribute and you say 'no', I won't be offended. Kulan is my creation, after all, and it would be illogical for me to take offense that others don't have the same kind of passion for it.

Cheers!

Robert Blezard, February 2014

 

[Knightfall]

Some ideas for "catchy" titles for ongoing articles...

• Arcana
• Cityscape
• Divinities
• Endnote (last page)
• Iconic Heroes
• Johna's Travelogue
• Monstrous
• On Kulan (d20 system, OGL, and official D&D locales on the world)
• Plane Shift
• Racial Icons
• Rivalries (races, merchant companies, nations, etc)
• The Miscy
• Unseen Infinity (SJ)
• Vile Villainy
• Warmongers

 

[freyar]

Sounds like a cool idea, and I expect I'd download it. Can't promise about reading any time soon, though, since my work schedule's kept me from reading much RPG related for a while, especially electronically.

Well, it is good to have a job I like.

 

[Knightfall]

Sounds like a cool idea, and I expect I'd download it. Can't promise about reading any time soon, though, since my work schedule's kept me from reading much RPG related for a while, especially electronically.

Well, it is good to have a job I like.

No worries.

Since it is likely to take a while before I have the first issue ready, you won't need to worry about reading it for a while. At the earliest, KWJ1 would be available at the end of May.

 

[Scott DeWar]

I have an idea to add if you are interested. It was a side quest for a kingmaker campain I played in before moving from Columbia missouri to Nashville Tennessee a year ago.

It was in an underground setting, involving a race of people that I am unsure if it is in the 3.5 or not. The Oread. Intrigued? I am thinking it is not 3.5, they can be any other race or even be made into 3.5.

The eventual goal was to find a path to the crossroads market place, a business point between the underdark and the not underdark.

The idea was inspired by a photo on a different computer of a huge cavern with stone pillars all over the place. I will try to find it.


[sblock=Personum Notorium Fatal]
duegar
grindylow
grindylow, greater [really nasty bugger that one is!]
Oread, cursed [cariatid column]
various mephits
fungoid creatures ['normal' [as far as a monster can be normal] creature, re-skinned as a fungoid monster]
[/sblock]

[sblock=personum dramaticum]
The oread King and his subjects
crossroads market place and its denizens
duegar 'peacekeepers' led by a captain who is a 'real piece of work'
[/sblock]

other tasks:
exploration - risks: getting lost, starvation or any other surface wilderness risk
crossing a broken rope bridge (skill challenge)
fixing said bridge (skill challenge)

 

[Piratecat]

"Labor of love" always rings warning bells for me! That means the creator loves it, but it doesn't tell me why I should love it too. I think this is cool, but you may want to build awareness and excitement in other people first if you need to be compensated for the work, or be comfortable writing it for primarily yourself because it would be awesome.

Have you looked at Patreon?

 

[Knightfall]

"Labor of love" always rings warning bells for me! That means the creator loves it, but it doesn't tell me why I should love it too. I think this is cool, but you may want to build awareness and excitement in other people first if you need to be compensated for the work, or be comfortable writing it for primarily yourself because it would be awesome.

Have you looked at Patreon?

It's meant mainly for myself. I'm not looking for compensation. I see more as practice of my writing and publishing skills, but I want it to be fun for me. If other people love reading what I write then that would be gravy.