Danny O’Neill of Hammerdog Games is one of the individuals you want to know in the RPG industry. His resume is long and from the business side of gaming, he’s giving with his time, and always has something of interest to share. I met him after backing, and writing a small piece for, The Dread House. He GM’ed me in a great session of Call of Cthulhu using The Dread House at Gen Con 2017. During Origins 2018, Danny shared a sneak peek at The Dread House hardcover with me. At Gen Con 2019, we talked about Denoa and he invited me on an art procurement excursion through artists alley. In the lead up to his crowdfunding campaign for Chronicles of Denoa: Chapter 1 - 5e RPG Setting & Campaign I’ve put together two short articles about his Denoa teaser videos (here and here). I’m excited about this project and was glad when Danny agreed to talk about Denoa and life in gaming.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Danny, it’s good to talk with you again. For the benefit of everyone reading, what’s the pitch for Chronicles of Denoa: Chapter 1?
DANNY O’NEILL (DO’N): Denoa is a campaign and setting for the 21st century. It is a new concept that will bring an unbeatable experience to 5e games and RPGs in general. It takes the best aspects of a Living Campaign and mixes them with a dedicated app and enhanced organized play, creating the world’s first i3 RPG experience – one that is Immersive, Interactive, and Interconnected. Denoa itself is “A World Made of Worlds” in which every landmass is separated from the others by a divine sea serpent that disallows travel between them. That means every continent has its own fantasy culture, its own races or subraces, its own magic styles, spells, feats, monsters, and so on. In the campaign, players will begin to travel between these continents, discovering and “unlocking” their content. They will need this content in order to overthrow the dark forces that plague Denoa and save the world.
EGG: An impassable sea, continents with unique fantasy cultures, and all in the shadow of an angry god, that’s a lot to envision. How do you keep it compartmentalized so your DM and PCs aren’t overwhelmed with lore and options?
DO’N: When I started writing, the tendency of RPG writers was to say “OK here’s the world, the cosmology, the mythology, the history, the region, the country, the town, the NPCs, the background, the setup, the synopsis, and the local weather conditions. Ready? GO!!! They would bury you in exposition that had nothing to do with the fact that you were say, just going to slay a monster to save a town. For Denoa, we are going the opposite route. You start with just bare bones information, bare bones choices, and you grow from there. If you play the story paths from the start, your choice is to be a zero-level human. That’s it. Your first adventure will give you options to move into a few classes. Your next adventure will introduce you to the Dwarven race. Now you can play a Dwarf. The plan is to control the content release through PDFs and/or the app, then combine it all later into the book. Likewise, lore will be put out piecemeal, typically through the adventures themselves, providing an organic story experience.
EGG: Is it fair to say that this is one-part adventure path and one-part campaign setting?
DO’N: Absolutely! But it’s also one-part splat book. Since we are working with the OGL, we have to provide crunch to fill out the experience for players, and to make things familiar and fresh at the same time. That means we have to add some backgrounds, feats, character builds, and magic styles that make things exciting for both new and veteran players.
EGG: What’s your favorite culture and setting in Denoa?
DO’N: That changes constantly! I am enormously fond of Colarwyn, which is kind of the “Greyhawk” or “Forgotten Realms” of the world. It’s a diverse set of fantasy countries surrounding an inland sea known as Merala. It is from here that the heroes rise that will ultimately challenge the current world order. Because of that it’s the most developed region and prominent in my mind. But I grew up in northern Canada and I am extremely fond of northern settings. So, I am eager to get people playing in Nordosta where arctic culture and magic will give them adventures that are more spiritual than in Colarwyn. But there are too many regions coming to pick one now! Fans of the Witcher may be interested to know that Carthane, the region next to Colarwyn, is a region where monster hunting is a real thing that anyone can do – and if they are successful, they can even become the “Thane” of the entire region. Fans of edgier locales will find their comfort spot in Efrades, a virtual hell on earth where Demons and Devils walk the land with other races. Fans of lighter fare will love Faevalon where Fey are prevalent. Their fairy-tale-inspired-adventures are perfect for DMs that have younger players, even children.
EGG: This is exclusively for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Why not more systems like your prior projects? And why is 5e the right option?
DO’N: This was an enormously difficult choice to make, but in the end, it comes down to audience. Currently, 5e is in its prime and has a massive audience. A lot of that audience are newer players who have not settled on a campaign setting yet. Since Denoa starts at 0-level and grows organically, it’s perfect for newer GMs and groups. Furthermore, Pathfinder is in the process of transitioning people to 2nd edition, meaning their audience is just a bit fractured at this point. When that settles out, we’ll look at providing the Denoa experience for Pathfinder players.
EGG: The teaser trailers are very professional. How hard were they to create and how’s the response to them been?
DO’N: Aren’t those amazing? I can’t thank Erdenstern enough for their efforts on them. The teaser trailers were designed to create an emotional experience that would cause people to remember Denoa for years to come and I think they will. The reaction so far has universally been positive, with a number of fans clearly stunned by the quality. I can’t say they were difficult because Erdenstern was just amazing to work with. But I had to let go some control and let them do what they wanted, so things turned out slightly different (though much better) than I had originally intended. For example, Erdenstern made the choice to insert Abominous, the big bad, right into the final trailer. I would have been too chicken to do that. But once I saw it, I was like “yaaaaaaasssss.”
EGG: You’re doing a Denoa app for this and organized play, that’s ambitious! What did you have in mind for each?
DO’N: Well, the app and the [organized play] are what differentiates Denoa from other settings out there. It’s no secret that just about anybody can produce a fantasy campaign setting these days. So, I wanted something to set Denoa apart. The initial idea was to get stores involved with organized play because folks playing 5e in stores is peaking right now. But that brought some logistics issues to the forefront, not the least of which was character control. I wanted to remove barriers for new players to join the OP and an app seemed the obvious way to do so. Once I started mapping the app out, I realized just how integral it could become to the entire experience. Then everything flowed from there. So, the app starts as a means for us to share info with players and for them to scan Story Capsules. If we hit mid-tier stretch goals it becomes a fully-fledged character generator. Later on, it gains the ability to generate backgrounds and (the one I’m most excited about), it will help generate what happens to characters in their downtime. For the organized play, I currently imagine a season being a calendar year broken down by quarters. In each quarter there will be casual Denoa events and “official” or “special” events. The special events will run over the course of 2 weeks or so. They contain Story Capsules that enhance the play in several ways, and create wonder in both the players and the DM. The app will work with those capsules to provide lore, create plot twists, and surprises. The app will connect players across those events, and they’ll be able to share information as it is discovered.
EGG: There’s an extra piece of organized play, the Story Capsule. What are those?
DO’N: Story Capsules are acorn-style plastic capsules that contain a “scroll.” That scroll contains something (usually) useful to the players – a bonus to attack, temporary hit points, a spirit guardian – anything. It could contain loot, clues, or other rewards. The key is that it won’t always work for the person opening it, making them the hero when they SHARE it with other players. Sometimes they’ll be able to share it with players at a completely other table at the event. This “pay it forward” attitude represents the selfless sacrifice of the characters themselves as they band together to defeat the dark forces that plague Denoa. Most story capsules will be specific to Denoa events, but retailers will also be able to purchase “Generic 5e” capsules that can be played with any game. Retailers can use them as a revenue stream to pay for running their in-store play programs, which really DO cost them money and resources. The true magic of the capsule comes in when the scroll inside is scanned with the app. That’s when the bonuses morph, often expanding to help more players. But this also allows us to use the capsules to truly surprise people. Imagine when a player pops a capsule and finds that it says, “Give this scroll to the DM.” Imagine their trepidation as they hand it to a DM that has no idea what it’s going to do when they scan it. That is pure RPG magic.
EGG: Story Capsules replace Inspiration and they interact with the app, where did the idea for these come from?
DO’N: In the mid-90s I had experimented with various ways of making in-store events more exciting. I was running special D&D events, even having “parties” with multiple tables running simultaneously – and players at those tables could interact – sometimes even changing tables mid-stream. I was always looking for ways to make this something that other retailers could run, but my career changed soon thereafter. 5e gave us the Inspiration mechanism and I realized that this was the perfect way to introduce the capsule concept. The DM can simply give a capsule instead of a bonus, or simply allow a player to pop a capsule instead of getting a simple reroll.
EGG: For those that don’t know who you are (I’m, of course, referring to the Canadian version of the IRS. The rest of us know, Danny. The rest of us KNOW!), can you share some of the highlights from your resume?
DO’N: LOL. No problem. I’ve basically worked or volunteered at every level of what is known as the Hobby Game Industry, specializing in product sales and creating organized play opportunities. I started by running local conventions through a University Gamers Club in the late 80s. In the mid 90s I managed Edmonton Alberta’s best game store for two years. I created one of the first organized play store models ever, a model I shared with hundreds of retailers over the next two decades. I was the Midwest and Canadian sales manager for Alliance Game Distributors for 20 years, which allowed me to speak to hundreds of stores about market conditions and their best practices. I also got to speak to dozens of manufacturers as to what products best fit the market, sometimes helping them shape their design, marketing, or sales efforts. But my favorite highlight was running a 100 person live-action game of Clue when I was teaching English in Tokyo, Japan.
EGG: Since I mentioned The Dread House, and have a question about The Grande Temple of Jing, can give the quick pitch for each?
DO’N: Certainly! The Grande Temple of Jing is the Megadungeon Home of a Trickster god. It’s an anything-goes dungeon crawl that is mega and meta at the same time. 60 levels of various size, complexity, and theme give GMs endless options on what to play with their groups. They can put them through a 2-hour level that is more puzzle than anything, or they can slog through an 8-hour battle with tactical orcs that know their environment well. Or you know, they can go to a casino run by intelligent oozes that think they are 1920s “Dick-Tracy-Style” gangsters. The Dread House is similar in that it’s a “Mega Haunted House” that you can play various ways. It has 19 separate adventures that can be combined in various ways, even as a “time-travelling-system-hopping-meta-story.” You can do it in parts, with the group being teenagers that grow up in the shadow of the house – and explore it a bit year-by-year as they age and level up. Or you can just bring in a veteran group of adventurers. You can play it as a campaign, or a one-shot. You can even play it like a dungeon crawl, with characters battling all the ghosts, demons, and other monsters in the house. But the best part is that you can play it with 5e, Pathfinder, or Call of Cthulhu with little or no modification.
EGG: The Dread House and all of its extras are out. How’s The Grande Temple of Jing for 5e coming?
DO’N: Excellent! The Grande Temple 5e hit a snag in layout that we had to work through but that is resolved. I anticipate fans considering it Hammerdogs best RPG book to date. The accessories are pretty much done, although we are awaiting minis from Trenchworx at this time.
EGG: What other projects have you done through Hammerdog?
DO’N: Hammerdog has been making products since about 2000, so we’ve got a few legacy products. Our best-known current product is The World’s Greatest Screen, a customizable GM screen in 9 colors and 3 formats (tall, wide, and mini). In certain circles we are well known for Chaos Chess, especially Warlord Chess a fun 4-player chess variant (No really! It’s super fun!).
EGG: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, Danny. For fans interested in learning more, where can they follow your projects?
DO’N: For Denoa, head to [the Denoa website] and sign up for our newsletter. You can also find it on World Anvil, where we are eking out information slowly. That’s because we need to maintain the mysteries and surprises of Denoa for as long as possible. Of course, we can be found on Facebook and Twitter, as well as at [the Hammerdog website].
Chronicles of Denoa: Chapter 1 - 5e RPG Setting & Campaign by Hammerdog Games
DANNY O’NEILL (DO’N): Denoa is a campaign and setting for the 21st century. It is a new concept that will bring an unbeatable experience to 5e games and RPGs in general. It takes the best aspects of a Living Campaign and mixes them with a dedicated app and enhanced organized play, creating the world’s first i3 RPG experience – one that is Immersive, Interactive, and Interconnected. Denoa itself is “A World Made of Worlds” in which every landmass is separated from the others by a divine sea serpent that disallows travel between them. That means every continent has its own fantasy culture, its own races or subraces, its own magic styles, spells, feats, monsters, and so on. In the campaign, players will begin to travel between these continents, discovering and “unlocking” their content. They will need this content in order to overthrow the dark forces that plague Denoa and save the world.
EGG: An impassable sea, continents with unique fantasy cultures, and all in the shadow of an angry god, that’s a lot to envision. How do you keep it compartmentalized so your DM and PCs aren’t overwhelmed with lore and options?
DO’N: When I started writing, the tendency of RPG writers was to say “OK here’s the world, the cosmology, the mythology, the history, the region, the country, the town, the NPCs, the background, the setup, the synopsis, and the local weather conditions. Ready? GO!!! They would bury you in exposition that had nothing to do with the fact that you were say, just going to slay a monster to save a town. For Denoa, we are going the opposite route. You start with just bare bones information, bare bones choices, and you grow from there. If you play the story paths from the start, your choice is to be a zero-level human. That’s it. Your first adventure will give you options to move into a few classes. Your next adventure will introduce you to the Dwarven race. Now you can play a Dwarf. The plan is to control the content release through PDFs and/or the app, then combine it all later into the book. Likewise, lore will be put out piecemeal, typically through the adventures themselves, providing an organic story experience.
EGG: Is it fair to say that this is one-part adventure path and one-part campaign setting?
DO’N: Absolutely! But it’s also one-part splat book. Since we are working with the OGL, we have to provide crunch to fill out the experience for players, and to make things familiar and fresh at the same time. That means we have to add some backgrounds, feats, character builds, and magic styles that make things exciting for both new and veteran players.
EGG: What’s your favorite culture and setting in Denoa?
DO’N: That changes constantly! I am enormously fond of Colarwyn, which is kind of the “Greyhawk” or “Forgotten Realms” of the world. It’s a diverse set of fantasy countries surrounding an inland sea known as Merala. It is from here that the heroes rise that will ultimately challenge the current world order. Because of that it’s the most developed region and prominent in my mind. But I grew up in northern Canada and I am extremely fond of northern settings. So, I am eager to get people playing in Nordosta where arctic culture and magic will give them adventures that are more spiritual than in Colarwyn. But there are too many regions coming to pick one now! Fans of the Witcher may be interested to know that Carthane, the region next to Colarwyn, is a region where monster hunting is a real thing that anyone can do – and if they are successful, they can even become the “Thane” of the entire region. Fans of edgier locales will find their comfort spot in Efrades, a virtual hell on earth where Demons and Devils walk the land with other races. Fans of lighter fare will love Faevalon where Fey are prevalent. Their fairy-tale-inspired-adventures are perfect for DMs that have younger players, even children.
EGG: This is exclusively for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Why not more systems like your prior projects? And why is 5e the right option?
DO’N: This was an enormously difficult choice to make, but in the end, it comes down to audience. Currently, 5e is in its prime and has a massive audience. A lot of that audience are newer players who have not settled on a campaign setting yet. Since Denoa starts at 0-level and grows organically, it’s perfect for newer GMs and groups. Furthermore, Pathfinder is in the process of transitioning people to 2nd edition, meaning their audience is just a bit fractured at this point. When that settles out, we’ll look at providing the Denoa experience for Pathfinder players.
EGG: The teaser trailers are very professional. How hard were they to create and how’s the response to them been?
DO’N: Aren’t those amazing? I can’t thank Erdenstern enough for their efforts on them. The teaser trailers were designed to create an emotional experience that would cause people to remember Denoa for years to come and I think they will. The reaction so far has universally been positive, with a number of fans clearly stunned by the quality. I can’t say they were difficult because Erdenstern was just amazing to work with. But I had to let go some control and let them do what they wanted, so things turned out slightly different (though much better) than I had originally intended. For example, Erdenstern made the choice to insert Abominous, the big bad, right into the final trailer. I would have been too chicken to do that. But once I saw it, I was like “yaaaaaaasssss.”
EGG: You’re doing a Denoa app for this and organized play, that’s ambitious! What did you have in mind for each?
DO’N: Well, the app and the [organized play] are what differentiates Denoa from other settings out there. It’s no secret that just about anybody can produce a fantasy campaign setting these days. So, I wanted something to set Denoa apart. The initial idea was to get stores involved with organized play because folks playing 5e in stores is peaking right now. But that brought some logistics issues to the forefront, not the least of which was character control. I wanted to remove barriers for new players to join the OP and an app seemed the obvious way to do so. Once I started mapping the app out, I realized just how integral it could become to the entire experience. Then everything flowed from there. So, the app starts as a means for us to share info with players and for them to scan Story Capsules. If we hit mid-tier stretch goals it becomes a fully-fledged character generator. Later on, it gains the ability to generate backgrounds and (the one I’m most excited about), it will help generate what happens to characters in their downtime. For the organized play, I currently imagine a season being a calendar year broken down by quarters. In each quarter there will be casual Denoa events and “official” or “special” events. The special events will run over the course of 2 weeks or so. They contain Story Capsules that enhance the play in several ways, and create wonder in both the players and the DM. The app will work with those capsules to provide lore, create plot twists, and surprises. The app will connect players across those events, and they’ll be able to share information as it is discovered.
EGG: There’s an extra piece of organized play, the Story Capsule. What are those?
DO’N: Story Capsules are acorn-style plastic capsules that contain a “scroll.” That scroll contains something (usually) useful to the players – a bonus to attack, temporary hit points, a spirit guardian – anything. It could contain loot, clues, or other rewards. The key is that it won’t always work for the person opening it, making them the hero when they SHARE it with other players. Sometimes they’ll be able to share it with players at a completely other table at the event. This “pay it forward” attitude represents the selfless sacrifice of the characters themselves as they band together to defeat the dark forces that plague Denoa. Most story capsules will be specific to Denoa events, but retailers will also be able to purchase “Generic 5e” capsules that can be played with any game. Retailers can use them as a revenue stream to pay for running their in-store play programs, which really DO cost them money and resources. The true magic of the capsule comes in when the scroll inside is scanned with the app. That’s when the bonuses morph, often expanding to help more players. But this also allows us to use the capsules to truly surprise people. Imagine when a player pops a capsule and finds that it says, “Give this scroll to the DM.” Imagine their trepidation as they hand it to a DM that has no idea what it’s going to do when they scan it. That is pure RPG magic.
EGG: Story Capsules replace Inspiration and they interact with the app, where did the idea for these come from?
DO’N: In the mid-90s I had experimented with various ways of making in-store events more exciting. I was running special D&D events, even having “parties” with multiple tables running simultaneously – and players at those tables could interact – sometimes even changing tables mid-stream. I was always looking for ways to make this something that other retailers could run, but my career changed soon thereafter. 5e gave us the Inspiration mechanism and I realized that this was the perfect way to introduce the capsule concept. The DM can simply give a capsule instead of a bonus, or simply allow a player to pop a capsule instead of getting a simple reroll.
EGG: For those that don’t know who you are (I’m, of course, referring to the Canadian version of the IRS. The rest of us know, Danny. The rest of us KNOW!), can you share some of the highlights from your resume?
DO’N: LOL. No problem. I’ve basically worked or volunteered at every level of what is known as the Hobby Game Industry, specializing in product sales and creating organized play opportunities. I started by running local conventions through a University Gamers Club in the late 80s. In the mid 90s I managed Edmonton Alberta’s best game store for two years. I created one of the first organized play store models ever, a model I shared with hundreds of retailers over the next two decades. I was the Midwest and Canadian sales manager for Alliance Game Distributors for 20 years, which allowed me to speak to hundreds of stores about market conditions and their best practices. I also got to speak to dozens of manufacturers as to what products best fit the market, sometimes helping them shape their design, marketing, or sales efforts. But my favorite highlight was running a 100 person live-action game of Clue when I was teaching English in Tokyo, Japan.
EGG: Since I mentioned The Dread House, and have a question about The Grande Temple of Jing, can give the quick pitch for each?
DO’N: Certainly! The Grande Temple of Jing is the Megadungeon Home of a Trickster god. It’s an anything-goes dungeon crawl that is mega and meta at the same time. 60 levels of various size, complexity, and theme give GMs endless options on what to play with their groups. They can put them through a 2-hour level that is more puzzle than anything, or they can slog through an 8-hour battle with tactical orcs that know their environment well. Or you know, they can go to a casino run by intelligent oozes that think they are 1920s “Dick-Tracy-Style” gangsters. The Dread House is similar in that it’s a “Mega Haunted House” that you can play various ways. It has 19 separate adventures that can be combined in various ways, even as a “time-travelling-system-hopping-meta-story.” You can do it in parts, with the group being teenagers that grow up in the shadow of the house – and explore it a bit year-by-year as they age and level up. Or you can just bring in a veteran group of adventurers. You can play it as a campaign, or a one-shot. You can even play it like a dungeon crawl, with characters battling all the ghosts, demons, and other monsters in the house. But the best part is that you can play it with 5e, Pathfinder, or Call of Cthulhu with little or no modification.
EGG: The Dread House and all of its extras are out. How’s The Grande Temple of Jing for 5e coming?
DO’N: Excellent! The Grande Temple 5e hit a snag in layout that we had to work through but that is resolved. I anticipate fans considering it Hammerdogs best RPG book to date. The accessories are pretty much done, although we are awaiting minis from Trenchworx at this time.
EGG: What other projects have you done through Hammerdog?
DO’N: Hammerdog has been making products since about 2000, so we’ve got a few legacy products. Our best-known current product is The World’s Greatest Screen, a customizable GM screen in 9 colors and 3 formats (tall, wide, and mini). In certain circles we are well known for Chaos Chess, especially Warlord Chess a fun 4-player chess variant (No really! It’s super fun!).
EGG: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, Danny. For fans interested in learning more, where can they follow your projects?
DO’N: For Denoa, head to [the Denoa website] and sign up for our newsletter. You can also find it on World Anvil, where we are eking out information slowly. That’s because we need to maintain the mysteries and surprises of Denoa for as long as possible. Of course, we can be found on Facebook and Twitter, as well as at [the Hammerdog website].
Chronicles of Denoa: Chapter 1 - 5e RPG Setting & Campaign by Hammerdog Games
- END DATE: Fri, January 31 2020 9:00 PM EST.
- “A fantastic RPG fantasy world for 5e, explored & unlocked through campaigns and short adventures. A world shaped by fan feedback.”
