Dragon Horde Zine #2 Coming Along Nicely

So these are the articles I'm looking at as the "anchor" pieces
for what is to be a Nordic-themed issue...

Monster Roster: Linnorms. I know this is a creature that has been dealt with in a few places (e.g., 2e's AD&D Monstrous Compendium Annual 1, John Turcotte's Stormcrows Gather. I felt like 2e's linnorms were too strong, and Turcotte's linnorm really only came in one variety. I wanted the variety of 2e, but executed with more of a BX vibe (even though Oe/1e stats will be included).

The Völva: A New NPC Character Class. Honestly, the way I've done this one up, there's no reason it doesn't work as a PC character class. I've seen other people mention they'd like to see this as a class for a Nordic/viking-themed RPG, but haven't found anyone working it up (especially for old-school D&D editions and clones).

Vifillmein. This is the issue's adventure designed for beginning level (1st=3rd) characters. I'm feeling pretty good about the concept, and the presentation (even though I do have a lot of work left to flesh out the bones).

A Futhark Rune Adventure Seed Generator. It's based on the actual meaning of the runes, and the various methods used to draw them from the bag. I'm really trying to make this substantially different than the adventure generator from the d30 Sandbox Companion, and keep with the spirit of the runes used as predictions (things for the DM to aspire to, rather than design around, as the adventure goes on). I'm feeling pretty good about it so far, and the "bones" of the system are in place. Mostly, I've just got to get runes broken out to match the dice rolling (trying to keep it completely d6-based).

There will be some other, smaller articles (about a half-dozen or so). But, like I said, these are the main anchors of the issue.

"Shreds of Fabric" Adventure Design Technique

This is a sketch for the adventure I've got in the works for Dragon Horde Zine #2... for which I shared the illustration recently.

There's actually a lot of story going on here that's not obvious from that illustration or this sketch (which really does nothing more than lay out the major encounter areas, and note how they're related). The story does, however, drives the whole thing.

In some ways, the way I'm approaching adventure design as-of-late is based on a technique I'm calling the "shreds of fabric" technique. Hah! I just made that up. Look, if Hemingway could use an "iceberg" approach to storytelling, why can't I use a "shreds of fabric approach." Okay, I'll admit, "shreds of fabric" is just my way of saying that little clues are planted here and there, and as more shreds of fabric and placed to together, the clearer the picture becomes of what really happened. I know that's not really a new technique (and those writing professors out there will probably chime in with a more appropriate term for the technique), but it does help me think about how I want the story to be woven as the characters progress through the encounters, regardless of the order of those encounters.

Part of what I'm resolving in this map-sketch (which actually deals with both encounters AND story), is when and how to reveal the story's big plot twist. (I'm avoiding the tendency to want to railroad this kind of reveal. As such, I'll be reworking those "blocked passages" in the middle of the map.)

I'm reminded of the movie The Sixth Sense. Somebody had warned me not to read too much about it before I saw it, because of the big plot twist at the end. Because I knew there was a twist, when I saw the movie for the first time, I started looking for it. Halfway through the movie, I figured it out. Watching the rest of the movie just reinforced my hypothesis. So when the twist was finally revealed at the end, I thought to myself, "Yep. I figured it out." But it didn't necessarily reduce my enjoyment of the story. I'm hoping this adventure is the same. That even if the characters discover the "plot twist" (i.e., get the "whole picture") halfway through the adventure, that it doesn't keep them from enjoying the other little shreds of fabric as they discover them.

New Illustration: Troll "Family" Attacking

From a personal project I'm working on right now. It's a troll attack where two young male trolls are egging on the troll that may or may not be their father. Any resemblance between the young troll at the upper left and the character Beavis (from Beavis and Butthead) is purely coincidental.