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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9183569" data-attributes="member: 2209">The Chained Coffin adventure and mini setting does explicitly"Dedicated to Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986), who taught us to loveand fear the old mountains."The intro talks more about his influence and inspiration.[SPOILER="Chained Coffin intro"]I cannot escape the mountains.In fairness, I’ve never actually tried, because thecall of those ancient giants is too powerful toabandon. My soul is never calmer than when Ican feel bare rock beneath my feet, see the land vanish intothe mist of distance below me, and feel the wind touch myface. The mountains are one of two places that I ever feeltruly at home.Anyone familiar with Manly Wade Wellman’s John theBalladeer tales therefore understands why these stories resonatewith me. Like the songs that John sings, these storieshave their own unique music that speaks to the soul. Theydepict a land that feels both welcoming and foreboding,much like the mountains themselves; a place of laughterand shadow.From the first time I read “O, Ugly Bird!” I knew Wellmanwas a kindred spirit. I’ve returned many times to the Appalachianshe described, wandering along with John, thatchampion of good, as he confronted everything from conjure-men to demons to vampires, never tiring of either theplots or the way that Wellman paints the landscape withhis choice of language. He remains to many the poet laureateof the Appalachians.Exposure to Wellman’s stories spurred me to explore themountains beyond what he wrote. I acquired various bookson Appalachian folklore and history, investigated musicalgenres native to the region, and studied the people whoshaped the mountains—sometimes literally. This newfoundknowledge merged with my firsthand experiencesin New York’s Catskill region, providing me with a vaststorehouse of mental images and ideas. As that storehouseswelled, I knew something had to be done with its contents.Finally, one day, a flash in my brainpan struck. I experienceda crystal clear mental vision of a band of people haulinga mysterious coffin, one bound in chains and inscribedwith eldritch symbols, over a mountain ridge as a stormraged. It was from this image, which itself owes somethingto Faulkner’s As I Lay, Dying, that all this acquired mountainlore coalesced into a single gestalt concept. And fromthat concept, The Chained Coffin was born.Luckily for me and for the adventure, Dungeon Crawl Classicsis a game dedicated to re-exploring the Appendix Norigins of fantasy role-playing. Wellman’s inclusion on thatlist gave me the leverage necessary to pitch the adventureto Joseph Goodman. I had no expectations about how he’dreceive the idea of an adventure set in a fantastical versionof America instead of the pseudo-Western medievalEurope landscapes that dominate the hobby. Joseph took ashine to the idea, however, and I got to writing.* * *One of the reasons I wrote The Chained Coffin was to demonstratethat not every DCC campaign has to be a “gonzo”place filled with blood gods, sorcerous robot villains, soul-chuggingswords, and other zaniness. If DCC RPG’s defaultsetting is “metal” (something I neither agree with nor enjoy),then the Shudder Mountains are set firmly on “countryand blues.”[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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