DA2 Back on Sale!

February is Temple of the Frog month it seems! I only just talked about how Monte Cook is sneaking in a reference to the legendary Dave Arneson adventure in his upcoming Numenera RPG. Temple of the Frog was of course the first TSR published adventure, appearing in Supplement II: Blackmoor. TSR later published an expanded version, DA2 Temple of the Frog.

As most of you will know, WotC have been bringing back some of the classic edition PDFs this year in cooperation with DrivethruRPG. It is interesting to see DA2 being so high up on the list of modules being brought back. I am delighted that it is once again legally available to fans.

Several versions of the Temple of the Frog have appeared over the years:

D&D Supplement II (TSR) - 1975
DA2 Temple of the Frog (TSR) - 1986
Return to the Temple of the Frog (WotC) - 2007
Temple of the Frog D20 (ZGG)  - 2007

The Temple also appeared as part of the Blackmoor MMRPG Campaign.

When will we see yet another new version of the Temple?



(More discussion of this article)

-Havard

A Sexier Temple of the Frog by Monte Cook

Aegir over at the Comeback Inn forum pointed me in the direction of this stunningly beautiful painting by artist Matthew Stawicki.

Known as Le Temple De Frogue (I don't know French, so I guess it could mean anything ;) ), this fantastic location is part of Monte Cook's latest endevour of Numenera. According to the Numenerea website Le Temple De Frog is located in the Caecilian Jungle. With its many crosses between fantasy and science ficiton, I could have sworn I had brought up Numenera earlier on this blog, but I guess I never got around to it.

Automaton by Guido Kuip

Ever since Monte Cook walked away from D&D Next, I have been curious to see what this game designer was up to. Running side projects such as the Unbegotten Citadel with James Raggi (LotFP) and lately the news of the Planescape Torment Computer game Sequel set in Numenera with Colin McComb are all things that sound great in my book!

From the start I thought Numenera had a Blackmoor vibe to it with Automatons and other sci fi references tossed into its fantasy(?) setting, but with the Temple included as well, I know I am going to check it out :) By the way, if you like Matthew Stawicki's art you can find more of it in his gallery here.

More discussion of this topic here.

-Havard

Piazza Member to design 5E.

Monte Cook

Although he is better known for other things such as being one of the main designers behind 3E and his previous work for TSR and ICE, Monte Cook also has a "shady" past as a member of the Piazza. ;) I remember being very happy when the designer of Glantri: Kingdom of Magic signed up to the forum to talk about Mystara with us. G:KoM was perhaps not the best recieved Mystara product, but that had more to do with excecutive decisions than with what Monte did with the assignment given to him.

Robert J Schwalb

Another excellent RPG designer on the 5E design team, Robert J Schwalb, also has a connection to the community. He has made a long list of classic D&D monster conversions to 3E which all appear on the Vaults of Pandius.

I see alot of optimism concerting 5E even on old school gamer discussion boards. Having these two excellent designers on the team definately cannot hurt! :)


-Havard



Image Sources
Monte Cook
Robert Schwalb

Lorraine Dille Williams

I came across this picture of Lorraine Williams over at Monte Cook's website. Williams was in control of TSR from 1985 til 1997 when she sold the company to WotC. I have heard so much about her and controversial role in running TSR that it was interesting to see what she looked like back then. The picture was taken in 1992.




-Havard

The Piazza Phenomenon

In May 2008, someone at Wizards of the Coast decided they wanted to reorganize their forums. An unfortunate consequence of this was the decision to merge all of the "Other Worlds" forums, that is forums dedicated to settings no longer supported by WotC. Some of these forums were quite dead, but several including Dark Sun, Dragonlance and Mystara were highly active. Others, like the Spelljammer Forum had their small group of loyal fans. The forums were focal points for fan communities of varying sizes. A merger of the forums would result in everything being thrown into one big pot, it would be difficult to find topics you were interested in etc etc. Furthermore, the fans were not warned of this, but a few days in advance and there was seemingly no way of reversing the process either. Frustration lead to action. Fans of different settings, all now found themselves without a "home". Joining forces, these fans set up a forum of their own, which they named The Piazza.

There were other D&D fan forums out there, most dedicated to one setting or to specific editions of D&D. The Piazza's focus was on multiple settings independent of preferred ruleset. It was a huge success! Roughly a year and a half later, the community now has over 500 members and extremely active forums. Moreover, the site is characterized by a highly friendly atmosphere. This might be surprising since the group might have reason to feel bitter about their treatment by WotC. However, the focus has not been complaining about the past, but rather about building somthing new. Lately, the forum has also attracted several prominent game designers, such as Monte Cook, Tim Beach, Colin McComb, Allen Varney, Trampas Whiteman, Andrew Steven Harris, James Mishler, Geoff Gander, Robert S Conley, Aaron Infante-Levy, Adam Miller and others.

In May 2009, Ashtagon, The Piazza's highly dedicated webmaster, made the Blackmoor forum (which had started out as a subforum for Mystara and Greyhawk) into a fully independent forum alongside that of the other worlds. At this point, almost 700 posts have been made in the Blackmoor forum alone. If you havent done so already, go and check it out! :)










Havard