[Necromancer Games] Lots of New Books and Cover Art Previews Posted!

[Greg V]

Hey guys,

Sorry so long on a response. I just found this thread.

Thanks so much for your interest in Slumbering Tsar. It's an adventure I've wanted to write ever since I got RA1. That teaser about Tsar at the beginning just made a lightbulb go on in my head. I thought, what a cool back story.

This is my first Necro product, and I'm really excited. "1st edition feel" is my passion ( I was sad for very many years when 1e and its dungeony goodness seemed to have been left by the wayside), and NG's focus on this seems like home to me.

My other adventures have all been in the pages of Dungeon magazine over the last couple of years..."Tammeraut's Fate" #106, "Torrents of Dread" #114, the Istivin mini-campaign #117, 118, and 119, some other stuff still in the hopper, and a chapter of their new Adventure Path "Age of Worms" that I'll be working on at the end of this year.

Right now, though, I'm up to my ears in Slumbering Tsar, Part 2: Temple-City of Orcus that should be done by the end of this month at which point I'll be launching on the thrid and final chapter. All of them should have have quite a bit of Orcus flavor and even some new and hidden Orcus lore.

They are not actually around Rappan Athuk (i.e. not on the map of the area that came with RA1) but rather deal with the city of Tsar where the great battle and chase began that ended so auspiciously at the Dungeon of Graves. I've got the adventure ostensibly set north of Bard's Gate (off that area map as well) but it is left vague enough that it can be placed anywhere you wish along the flanks of the Stoneheart Mountain.

ST1: The Desolation is a big wilderness area that once comprised the main battlefield of the war mentioned in Rappan Athuk with a lot of smaller encounter locations. It reminds me a lot of the way The Vault of Larin Karr is set up.

ST2: Temple-City of Orcus takes place after the players breach the ruins of the city itself. I guess I'd liken it along the lines of the classic old 1e adventure I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City except with a lot more encounter areas and some major dungeon/ruin complexes.

ST3: Caverns of the Barrier is set in and under the great Citadel of Orcus, paramouncy of the ancient Church of Orcus back when it was a coherent worldwide religious organization before it had been pushed to the fringes of society and forgotten wastelands by the goodly churches. Its pretty much pure dungeon crawl along the lines of the Rappan Athuk adventures, though a lot of story threads and secrets will be revealed once and for all, including the identities of the the mysterious "Three Gods"; Thyr, Muir, and ....

Anyway, there's some little tidbits for you. I hope you like it. It's really great to be writing for Necromancer.

By the way, Mouseferatu. Destiny of Kings rocked. I ran it again about three years ago, and it was still a blast. I can't wait to see your adventure. If it's anythin like that, you've got solid gold on your hands.

 

[Nightfall]

Greg,

Now that I know which mods you did BEFORE Necro, I must say they were awesome. (Well the Istivin's ones anyway. )

So if that's any indication of your style and doing the Tsar, I'm looking forward to it EVEN more. Especially with what you've indicated here. So consider me sold.

 

[Greg V]

Cool. Thanks, Nightfall. I really appreciate it. I hope I don't disappoint.


As the other guys have said above, short of giving away spoilers (well not too many anyway ) I'd be happy to field any questions on the adventures or any discussion.

Writing adventures for Necro is like Christmas, so talking about writing adventures with other gamers on messageboards is like candy with crack. (Just kidding about the crack part to any undercover narcotics agents who may be on this board ). Seriously though it's great fun, and I appreciate all reader feedback.

 

[Greg V]

Greg,

Now that I know which mods you did BEFORE Necro, I must say they were awesome. (Well the Istivin's ones anyway. )

So if that's any indication of your style and doing the Tsar, I'm looking forward to it EVEN more. Especially with what you've indicated here. So consider me sold.

Incidentally both the Istivin and Slumbering Tsar trilogies began as single mega-adventures that got sliced into three parts for publication purposes (one Ulitimate Dungeon is probably enough for anyone's personal library), so maybe that coinicidental similarity is a positive indication...

From your first parenthetical comment above I am unclear as whether you haven't read Tammerat and Torrents or just didn't care for them. Hopefully the former, but if it is the latter I promise to try harder on the Tsar adventurers . Thanks again.

 

[Nightfall]

Greg,

The former. I started getting more into Dungeon probably around...115. I had read a few others but none that featured you.

But that's cool how both started out. I look forward to see Tsar very much so.

 

[DeadlyAccurate]

Some 2005 (later in the year...printing overseas) and most in 2006. Ari and Gang can go ahead and tell you a bunch (no spoilers is all I ask), so writers, feel free to talk! My favorite cover is Family Affair....but they are all great. Rick is simply the best around. Oh, and we are currently buying art (WW is contracting our usual guys, this is not an open call) for the Temple of Elemental....errrr, Bard's Gate...believe it or not, its almost in layout (only 4 years late!). Due for release in early (like Q1) 2006 from SSS.
Bill

I was so amazed when Bill sent me a scan of the cover art for The Family Affair, because it just looks incredible. It's my Windows background at the moment. As soon as it was posted online, I sent links to everyone: my parents, my boss and coworkers, random message board patrons. I went around telling everyone, "I have a cover artist!" Then I got a big ego, started demanding only Perrier and no brown M&Ms in my dressing room and...oh, sorry, wrong fantasy.

A Family Affair is my first full-length adventure, and I had so much fun writing it. I've already written and submitted a second. I'll keep checking back in this thread, so if anyone has any (non-spoiler) questions on the adventure, I'll be happy to answer.

Oh, and Destiny of Kings was my first introduction to D&D. It still stands out as one of the best.

Carla Harker

 

[Arnwyn]

Thanks Ari, that sounds excellent. I can't wait to get my hands on it! (Now I just have to wait for 2006...)

Yeah, that does sound excellent. I can't wait until '06.

And now I understand what The Slumbering Tsar is about, and how it's tied to Rappan Athuk. Wicked. (And I love multi-part adventures. And Orcus.)

 

[Ryan Henry]

Coils of Set

Hi, this is Ryan Henry, author of The Coils of Set. I'm here to tell you a little bit about the upcoming module from Necromancer Games.

The Coils of Set is composed of three adventures that can be played independently or all together for one supermodule, taking characters from 1st level to 13th level (or higher).

As the module focuses on the evil serpent god of darkness and lies, there is a good deal of mysteries to solve -- and a lot of action. The settings in which CoS take place can be as much an enemy as the opponents the characters fight. There are numerous exotic, deadly locales, and I hope DMs will feel free to let their characters explore, roam, and get into extra trouble (as mine did when I first ran it).

I had an excellent time writing this one, my first module. I hope this is the first of many.

If you have questions, let me know. I'll answer what I can, but I can't give up all of Set's secrets now.

Ryan

 

[Nightfall]

Ryan,

And chance this mod will give us new insights into Set and his followers? Is this in any way related to Necropolis?

 

[Ryan Henry]

Coils of Set

Nightfall,

Thanks for the question.

When I first ran the modules that would become Coils of Set for my home group, I was leading them up to Necropolis. Now, this isn't an "official" prequel to Gygax's adventure, but it should be thematically close enough to use it as a lead-in for Necropolis (I can say from experience).

There are certain details that you could change to make it even more tightly bound to Gygax's story. I'm not sure what I can tell you at this point without giving too much away, but there's a certain major villian who could be replaced with the Set Rahotep.

In my home campaign, when I was first running this, all of the players selected deities from Necropolis, and we used a lot of information from the Khemitian sourcebook.

I removed some of this Khemitian feel from the final copy to make it more accessible for those who don't own Necropolis or who want to place Coils of Set in their own campaign world, but it shouldn't be difficult to re-Necropolize the module.

As far as insights into the cults of Set -- it's definitely there. There's descriptions of bizzarre, powerful rituals, statistics for priests of Set, some serpentine new opponents, maps of temples. You could easily pluck out information about these cults and drop it into your own campaign, even if you're not playing the Coils of Set module.

The first adventure in the module is an urban mystery (with a couple of small dungeons). Every group I've run through it was appropriately terrified....

Ryan