So I wrote a 4E D&D Module...

...that I've been working on for about 2 years and I'd love to tell you guys about it (and the whole Creation of a Printed Module in Today's Day and Age which is probably more interesting to most) if you're interested because in a unique way this forum & ToE in general is one of the more consistent connections I've had to D&D over the years, but I don't want to be banned for spam.

Is it safe to post a single announcement?

 

Thanks, Gaear.

So the short version of the story is: I have written a 4th Edition D&D module called, "The Haunting of Larvik Island". It is now available for purchase either as an old-school print module from local gamestores, order online through sites like FRPGames.com, or the PDF version can be grabbed at RPGNow.com

More details about the adventure can be found at the website www.thickskulladventures.com



The backstory is this:
About 2 years ago I was going through a creative mid-life crisis. Growing up I had always though I would do something more on the creative side, like writing fiction or be more involved in gaming. I had written a short interactive fiction game (think "Zork") called The Coast House back in 2001, but that was really just to experiment with the IF parser tools. This yearning to be creative combined with a frustration of "half started" projects in my portfolio was beginning to get me frustrated. I felt like my work life, where i write literally about 200K words per year in big product requirements documents, were leaching from my creative side.

So I decided: darn it, I'm going to write something and finish it. After toying around with several ideas I finally decided to pursue a D&D module. I loved D&D, had been playing on & off since I was a kid, I thought it would be a fun way to pursue it.

So, in June 2009, I picked up a module I'd written for my local group back in 2004 and started having at it. I then realized two things that caused this project to be delayed for about 18 months longer than I expected:

1) D&D had moved to 4th ED, and I won't get into the edition war issues here but will say the modules are written dramatically different than previous versions (one could also infer its a dramatically different game, but I think that is also up to the DM. Yes the combat mechanics are different, but if you want your game night to feel like an AD&D game night, you can make that happen...)

2) the self-publishing industry seems to have taken off - it was now very possible for a single person to create a .pdf and have it available worldwide (easier than it sounds, but more on that later.) So somewhere around month 6 I decided I would not shop this around to publishers, but do it myself.

The writing alone took about 12 months. And then once I started playtesting, it took another 4 months to complete the module (if you're only playing 1x every 2 weeks) and then another couple of months to incorporate the edits. I then started hitting up every friend I had with talent: I had a close friend from Jr. High do all the illustrations, the girl who is the goalie on my hockey league who is also a great graphics designer do the layout. I should also point out that I have a friend down here who actually works at a local game shop and he was instrumental in making sure I had all the elements, learned about modern expectations, etc. So, the project couldn't have happened without there help.

The hardest period was about Nov 2010 after writing for about a year and knowing that I wasn't going to be making any money from it (indeed, I'd be surprised if I cover my printing costs) but I did not want to just give up and have another half-completed project in the drawer. (This is also around the time where I opened a thread here and started looking at learning the ToEE modding tools to recreate the G1 module... I quickly realized that biting off learning those tools would be a darn-near equal time commitment so I abandoned that as much as I'd still like to see that one day!)

As for the module itself, it was obviously influenced from the old-school AD&D & movies I was weened on. Its effectively an island exploration style (homage to I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City or the moathouse area of Hommlet) combined with some puzzle story elements because I also enjoyed interactive fiction as mentioned above and puzzles/mysteries are typically a bigger deal with those types of games. I tried to capture the spirit of earlier adventure wrapped in rules for the modern audience.

So that is it, my friends. I really hope some of you will give it a look. If anyone out there does blogging or reviews of modules and is interested in doing a review of the module, feel free to ping me directly beforehand.

Thanks!

 

Awesome Manos! I know the feeling ... i am trained as an animator, what i studied in college - and I have a LOT of incomplete creative projects as well, fallen by the wayside... Way to go!!!!

I know how much work goes into trying to complete a personal project from concept to completion, though i have yet to actually finish my own projects... LOL and i agree doing similar work in your "real" job can be draining to actually completing your own creative projects and aims. Even if you happen to "luck out" and get a job similar to your own personal creative aims - i happen to be currently a video editor for online commercials - its usually not close enough to merit as truly fulfilling that need to create... and you want to relax when you get home! whether you end up making money or not, you know you made a significant accomplishment.

Congratulations!!

i also like Gaears idea to write the next TOEE based game on your module. I don't know what's in it, but it would be a truly community based, unique D&D / TOEE engine based game.
a great idea.

 

Although, i think since it is written with 4th edition rules, maybe the NWN2 toolset could be of use to recreate a portion of your module.

 

I would be honored to contribute anything interesting back to the Co8.

On an interesting note (well, interesting to those who follow the D&D third-party publisher world) I released the product under WotC's GSL license - this is the license that followed the OGL that they released with 3ED which gave folks a lot more freedom with the content. There's a lot of debateon the intewebs about how folks don't like the GSL (I won't go into why I personally made that decision unless you guys are really interested in such things). But the bottom line of that is: the GSL has many restrictions and they really restrict using GSL with online tools.

Now that said, many of the other 3PPs out there will actually release multiple versions of their product: a 4E version and a Pathfinder version (pathfinder being the spiritual successor to 3ED and is itself based on the aforementioned OGL).

Bottom line: If anyone really was truly interested in adapting my game, I'd be honored but I would probably have to do some finagling to the title language, etc.

 

Thank you, sir! I still have a pile of unfinished projects, and the sequel(s) module work is already looking daunting (because again, I was inspired by all the early TSR work, so I've got a 4-module story arc in mind), but at least I have one finished piece

You know, I have not spent much time playing the NWN game, when I loaded up my old version it looked to be single-person and I do enjoy the 5-party arc. There are a few games in my mind that achieved a nirvana-like balance of game-play and I really think the ToEE engine was one of those (although if I were to re-create I would probably optimize the way the people scamper about the larger maps). That's one of the things I liked about the IF tools (I used TADS for my game back in the day) as it was relatively easy to create settings, characters, objects, etc. Maybe I just need to hunker down and spend more time with Shingingted's tutorials but the locations in my adventure would probably be fairly easy to replicate. (MODULE SPOILERS: about 6 outdoor encounters similar to Dekklo Grove, a 5 building ruin similar to Moathouse about 5 "flooded cavern" locations similar to the crawdad/moathouse area).

This is also why I'm so eager to see the scripting/worldbuilding tools that Darkstorm is working on.

 

Congradulations!

I too know the frustration many started but few likely to be finished projects.
Hope ypu are able to keep the ball rolling.
Good luck

 

PS, here's a link to the sample .pdf file on RPGNow.com. It has enough pages to show the plot outline and the beginning of the first encounter vs. The Crab Fiends.