Projects

A little Saturday introspection calls for a quick run down on what's cooking in Beedo's world.

Gothic Greyhawk
The campaign continues to roll weekly.  While the players grind day-by-day through the crypts of Ravenloft in wintry Barovia, big things are brewing in the wider world.  The spring thaw will see the resumption of the zombie war in the Earldom of Sterich, and I've got the various factions and cabals involved with the "Race for the Demonomicon" ready to go when word reaches the civilized lands that the Horn of Iggwilv has been discovered at last.

The Black City
It's alive!  I've been really sidetracked this summer with our adoption - integrating an older child from Ethiopia and assimilating him into family life is no mean chore, and I'll leave it at that.  Blogging about gaming has been a welcome outlet.

That being said, I've reorganized my headspace and am ready to kick the Black City back into gear.  When I set out earlier this year, I really wanted to make it a weird horror setting, but the needs of a megadungeon ecosystem quickly pushed it into gonzo, and that aesthetic began to discourage me.  Now I'm ready to embrace the gonzo.  Editing the manuscript and working on turning the dungeon levels into e-files starts this weekend.

The Library of de la Torre
Part of the reason I'm content with the Black City as a gonzo place is because I see the excellent potential for the Wide Area Sandbox as a "serious" horror setting; I've been diligently reading stuff on the 30 Years War and the early modern period, and compiling ideas into the brainstorming notebook; it's like Lovecraft Country meets The Three Musketeers.

Halls of the Erlking
I've wanted to build a fantastical and whimsical dungeon for a while - something where monsters have alternate origins and non-naturalistic explanations, and fairy tale logic applies to the world.  I have promises from the wife and kids to start a family D&D game sometime in the next year, so I'm slowly putting ideas into the notebook for a fairy-themed dungeon that should appeal to wifey, my daughter, and the younger kiddo - I'm calling it the Halls of the Erlking.  It's part Lord Dunsany, part Arthurian legend and chanson de geste.

I don't have expectations of making significant progress on the last two projects any time soon, but it gives me a clear place to park ideas that don't fit into the Black City without derailing me; for instance, I had been seriously thinking about stripping down the Black City and rolling it into the Library project, but in the end, it's better to stop worrying and learn to love the dungeon.

One big decision is whether I pull back on blogging a little; a daily post has been my aspiration, but 3 posts a week might make more sense for maximizing time to work on projects.