Unfocused Thoughts on Uz

I've been trying to coalesce a few Uz related thoughts into a coherent post.  I've failed, so I'm going to do what I always do when I fail at that...

• What the Dark Country is to Doom Metal, Uz is to Space Rock.
• Uz takes place in Earth's very very very distant future.  Some of the humanoids (morlocks, deros, etc.) are degenerate humans.  Others (reptoids, greys, etc.) are the remnants of alien invasions that succeeded and failed at various points in the planets past.
• The biggest influences are: HPL, CAS (particularly the Zothique cycle, Atomic Horror movies, Coast to Coast AM, and the Old Testament. 
• I need to go back and remake the Priest class.  I still like the idea of them mutating hideously as they get higher in level, but I'm not sure how big to make there spell lists.  I'm also not sure if I should make different spell lists for each god or one big one they all draw from.
• If I can nail down Priests good enough, then I'll probably get rid of MUs.  That'd mean there would only be three character types: Fighter, Specialist, and Priest.
• No demi-human characters.  Well... maybe Reptoids.  That would be kinda cool.
• Psionics and tech stuff taken from Carcosa.  Also a bunch of monsters.
• No magic items, just ray guns.
• No alignment.  Hell, there won't really be any metaphysical forces at all.  "Gods" are killable (with probably only like 15 - 20 HD) super-aliens who have strong enough psionic powers to give mortal spells.  Theres probably really powerful ones like Azathoth, but most are what CoC would classify as Great Old Ones, and pretty weak ones too.
• Two types of ruins/dungeon: high tech and low tech.  Low tech ruins are structures that became ruined after the deluge.  High tech ruins usually became ruined before the deluge, but some priests/sorcerers/whatever that survived the flood remembered crazy super-magic-science long enough to pass it on to other enterprising young demons.
• Gods are Moloch (a sentient patch of radiation), Dagon (exactly what it sounds like), Mot (mass of swirling, decaying flesh with awful Ghoul Priests), Kothar (Yog-Sothoth in a disconcerting, humanoid form), and a few others.  I want to include Lilith, but I'm not sure how to treat her yet.
• The Sun has turned a deep shade of red.  Most of the world is desert with rain forests trapped in little valleys.

That's it for now.  I might post more later on this crap later.

Mappa Mundi

Several months ago, I said I would make a post about what makes a good fantasy map.  At the time, I would have said that utility is the highest good.  A gaming map should ultimately be usable at the table, and as such its primary purpose is to display the distances between two points so that the travel time and the number of random encounters that will occur between the two can be determined.  However, almost a year later I have come to a different conclusion: every campaign setting needs two maps.

The first should be more or less what I described above.  I'd prefer a true hex map, but different configurations are possible.  The ultimate goal of such a map is to display distances and to help determine what random encounter charts the referee needs to roll on.*  If it can also be pretty that's cool too, but utility is far more important.

The second map is the setting's equivalent of a mappa mundi.  For those unfamiliar with the concept, a mappa mundi is a type of highly symbolic map used throughout the middle ages.  The one pictured above is particularly famous for its detail, but simpler designs also exist.  Mappa mundi  are not meant to get you from point A to point B.  Instead, they are meant to convey ideological information.  The most simple ones show how the sons of Noah spread across the three continents, and more complex ones can tell the entire story of man from the Garden of Eden to the Apocalypse.

For gaming purposes I mean something a bit more like this:

This map doesn't do a terribly good job of telling you how far the Gates of the Moon are from Runestone but does tell you something about the character of the place and the people who live there.  This is often difficult if not impossible to achieve with a typical hex map.  Plus, this style of map is just more pleasing to the eye.

A good example of a setting that uses both is Harn.  First, we have Harn's hex map:

While not a true hex map in the way Erin of the Welsh Piper uses the term, one can still uses this map to figure out how much time it will take to get from one point to another and to generate encounters over that period.  One also gets a sense of how much farmland is present, which is a rare thing for a gaming map to do.  

Now the mappa mundi:

This map is much better for giving Harn a sense of place, even if it lacks the utility of the earlier version.

Sadly, my talents are much better suited for the more hum drum sort of maps, even if I do admire mappa mundi.  I may attempt one anyway, but my cartoony style will likely be a poor fit for the tangled forests and squalid cities of the Dark Country.

Unfocused Thoughts After Skimming WFRP 1e

Today was the first day I was able to look over the new copy of WFRP 1e I got for $5 off of amazon.  I've only previously dealt with 2e -- which I love -- and I believe someone on G+ wanted me to say what I thought about 1e once I got it.  I've only skimmed it a bit at this point, so here are the things I noticed just flipping through the pages.

• Holy shit! This is awesome!
• There doesn't seem to be the same kind of unified mechanic that exists in 2e, which kind of saddens me.
• The monster list is much more robust than the one found in 2e's corebook.  
• Wait... WFRP rules for random encounters and treasure? I'm in love.  Does anyone know if they port over well to 2e?
• There's a lot of... stuff in here.
• The more I look at it, the angrier I get at my 2e book.  I think I like 2e's system better, but the amount of material in 1e makes 2e look like crippleware.
• The art ranges from mediocre to evocative, and I absolutely love the cover.
• There's a Jabberwock on the monster list.  I approve.
• There's also an entry for boars.  Some may find this boring, but boars are fucking mean.
• I like how the careers are divided up into types.  SBVD does this too, and I may make new tables for 2e that incorporate the materials from those two games.
• There is a certain irony in the fact that my copy of 1e is less beat up than my copy of 2e; however, since it's a softcover I doubt that will last long.
• There is a lot more info on the different states in the Old World.  It'll be interesting to read over Bretonnia to see how it's different.  From what I've heard, I think I'll enjoy the 2e version better.
• Alignment?!
• The organization seems a bit... off, but it's nowhere near as bad as the DMG.

That's it for now.  I'll make a more complete report after reading through it some more.

ConstantCon SuperWorld

Inspired kinda sorta by Grumpy Old Troll, I have an idea for a project that's probably of no use to anyone but amuses me.  I want to stitch together all the wilderness maps from various judges' ConstantCon campaigns into one big map.  It would probably look something like this  only done in Hexographer.

It's probably too much of a headache to work out, but that doesn't mean I'm not stupid enough to give it a few attempts.

Thoughts on Maps and the Dark Country

After doing some math,* I've come to the conclusion that the Welsh Piper Hex Templates are the best thing ever.  I was already fond of them, but I more or less used them while wishing I had a bad-ass Judges Guild map to use instead.  However, my sloppy number crunching revealed some things to me that might make me prefer Erin's.

First, the "continent" level is just big enough to hold the areas of France and Britain combined.  There is also some room left over for the channel, but you'd probably have to move parts of Scotland off of the map to really get the amount of water that surrounds Britain.  The point is that it easily fits two fairly large kingdoms who can slug at each other constantly, or perhaps even more smaller ones.  But it doesn't end there.  The "regional" level maps are only a tiny bit smaller than the estimated size of the Duchy of Normandy.  Each one of these represents either a powerful magnate's demesne or a smallish kingdom.

Whether or not this was intentional, it provides a great deal more structure than using Wilderlands maps.  I can guesstimate** their size now that I know how large Erin's templates are, but I don't really have as good of an idea of what a single map represents.  Also, the Welsh Piper templates happen to match up to the sizes of areas I'm familiar with historically, so it's a bit easier for me to figure out how many cities and castles they should contain.  I'll still have to rely at least somewhat on other methods, but that certainly helps.

If one thinks about the number of cultures that existed in both Britain and France in the Middle Ages, one can easily see that an "atlas" level map is probably large enough to last any DM the entirety of his or her career.  Admittedly, this does not incorporate flights of fancy that might make him or her want to run something set in a totally different kind of milieu, but as long as he or she is content with whatever kind of setting he or she set up in the first place it should provide a framework for innumerable campaigns.

With this new information under my belt, I'm going to try and remap the Dark Country.  Longtime readers will know that I am constantly tweaking every map I make -- which is part of the fun -- but this is going to be a major overhaul.  I want the "atlas" map to include large parts of the West, the entirety of the Dark Country, and small slivers of Zenopolis and Novgova.  Those are the four areas I'm most interested in running campaigns in, and it makes a kind of rough sense that they would be next to each other.

I'll be doing the mapping by hand because I've become enamored with colored pencil maps like these two.  Since I don't have a scanner, you're not likely to see these in the immediate future; however, I do hope to be able to present them at some point.

One last note unrelated to maps:  I've more or less decided the rough historical date for the Dark Country would be the first half of the 14th century.  This is a bit outside of my normal time frame, but the Sword Brothers represent the Teutonic Knights c. 1250, and I want them to be in the past.  I'm a bit more comfortable making a fantasy setting move at a glacial pace than I would be if this was a historical setting, but I do think that settings need to change over time.***

* I'm really really really bad at math, so if I'v made a mistake let me know.

**Chrome's spell check recognizes guesstimate as a word.

***Not necessarilly published settings.  I hate metaplot as much as the next guy, but if every campaign in the same setting resets to status quo ante bellum, then it starts to feel too artificial.  These changes are for the individual group to make, and it is best if they are created by player action.

More Unfocused Thoughts on the Hell-Caverns

• One of the entrances to the caverns will be an archway in the dungeons of the local castle.  The castellan's ancestor who built the edifice stole a number of stones from the ruins nearby and even some inside the caves.  At certain times of day, the doorway -- which is made entirely out of stones from the caverns -- turns into a portal to some deeper level.
• I picture the monster list as a mixture of lost world fare, mythos booglies, more traditional looking demons (with extradimensional origins), and radioactive mutants.  Those last guys look like this:

• The rules would definitely be LotFP, but I'd draw from Realms of Crawling Chaos and the Dismal Depths as well.  The Black City is also a big inspiration.
• I'm refining the elevator pitch to '"The Black God's Kiss" meets the Shaver Mystery.'
• I might be able to cannibalize some of my Uz material, particularly deros.
• In case it isn't obvious yet, the Hell-Caverns aren't entirely made out of caverns. Depending on whether or not I use Dave's Mapper this could mean that theres an even mix of caves and dungeon or it could mean that the various Saturday Night Specials are manufactured complexes and are connected by natural caves and tunnels.
• The magic items and dungeon specials are as likely to be technological as they are magical.  Since the characters are High Medieval knights, clerics, and magicians I don't think this will matter all that much to them.  It's all deviltry.
• Mole people.  There will definitely be mole people.
• You will find few more staunch opponents of Erich von Daniken than I, but his fantastical bullshit makes good fodder for D&D.
• I bet I'll be using the Random Esoteric Creature yadda yadda quite a bit.
• Despite the name of the dungeon, I'll be taking a slightly more atheistic attitude towards the metaphysics of the setting.  I'm not sure where clerics get their powers from yet.  The Malleus Monstrorum for CoC -- an awesome book btw -- I think says Jesus might be an avatar of Yog-Sothoth.  While that offends me on some small level, I suppose it's kinda neat if I'm also throwing von Daniken in the mix.
• When I settle on a specific location I'll change the name of the dungeon to The Hell-Caverns of X.
• I think the Hell-Caverns of Narbonne sounds good, but the Hell-Caverns of Conques could explain where the vivid depictions of demons on the Cathedral of St Foy come from.

An Alternate Play Report Method

I just remembered the Ryth Chronicle presents a considerably more truncated sort of play report than the ones more commonly found in the blogosphere.  Fore example, my last Google + session would have looked something like this:

A: Group of 4 player characters and 1 henchman descended down the steps in the North Tower on two separate expeditions.  Lost 2 in a berserker ambush and were forced to retreat with little treasure.  Purchased several dogs and recruited 2 new characters and attempted a second expedition.  Lost no characters and gained 400sp and some leather armor made from human, but lost all of the dogs and failed to push beyond the dungeon entrance.


This form only represents the first few reports in the Chronicle, but I thought it might be a neat way to do a quick session report.  Still, I like the idea of the players sharing their experiences, so I'll likely continue to use my current method for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps I can use this form when none of the players has the time to make their own reports.

Another idea, though one I imagine would be quite difficult, would be to put out a ConstantCon newsletter that included a list of the active characters and the expedition reports from the various dungeons.  That could be pretty sweet and I know I'd read it.  Maybe DMs could through in a short article or two about their dungeons/campaign worlds.

I Don't Think My Players Would Agree

Lawful Good Human Cleric (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength- 9

Dexterity- 9

Constitution- 10

Intelligence- 14

Wisdom- 13

Charisma- 15

Alignment:

Lawful Good- A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment when it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race:

Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:

Clerics- Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron's vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity's domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric's Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Whatever Happened to Greyhawk?

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted a play report or even a musing on Greyhawk and its accompanying castle in about a month (I'm too lazy to check the exact time).  There are several reasons for this, but I'll focus on two of them.

First, my group usually meets on Tuesdays, and while that day has been good for me the majority of the time I'd been with them in recent weeks my Tuesdays had gotten a lot more hectic.  This is due entirely to graduate school concerns, which I will not bore you with.  Since I've been unable to play with them the last few weeks I've turned over my DM responsibilities to one of the players (the one responsible for Verbobonc on our campaign map). I believe he started the Village of Hommlet on Tuesday and I look forward to joining them next week.

So why haven't I talked about Greyhawk while I wasn't playing it?  The chief reason is that it doesn't excite me the way it did when the current campaign started.  While I liked working on some of the city bits, the dungeon just didn't have the same Evan-ness that Nightwick Abbey does.  The Dark Country is the best expression of what I want D&D to be like and while I may occasionally be lured by something more "vanilla" or tongue-in-cheek, it is the setting that has the most traction with my otherwise Gamer ADD addled mind.  Handing off the shield to another player and then setting up for the G+ game has allowed me to avoid smashing the campaign against the rocks.  I heard the sirens' call, and I handed the rudder to someone with wax in their ears.

On a tangentially related note, I haven't posted on my Traveller blog for essentially the same reasons.  I hope to pick it up again in the lull between semesters, but only time will tell if that happens.

Treasure: What Hommlet Tells Us

Yesterday I discussed one possible solution to the problem of slow advancement due to small amounts of treasure in AD&D.  As I mentioned, this was a problem that particular loomed over my Nightwick Campaign.  I found this somewhat odd as I was generating treasure more or less by the book, so I decided to look into it. Yesterday's solution focused on increasing the amount of xp a single gold piece provides.  Today I'll talk about the method I'm actually using in the Greyhawk campaign: increasing the amount of treasure.

This method is not without precedent.  Quasqueton at EN World was kind enough to do some of my work for me.  Since it is a starter module written by Gary Gygax and designed specifically with AD&D in mind I'll be primarily focusing on T1: The Village of Hommlet.  According to Quasqueton's figure, whcih I sadly have not had time to confirm, the total value of the treasure in the module is 30,938gp. 

A large sum, especially when compared to the amounts suggested for a first level dungeon in the DMG.  In total, the moat house consists of 35 rooms, well below the hypothetical 100 I used for yesterday's example.  It somehow manages to provide ten times the amount of treasure that would be allowed using the DMG's method.  How do we square this?

It's likely that Gygax was aware of the slow pace of advancement with the above system and that he inflated the treasure to compensate.  The method I used in my version of Castle Greyhawk provided a similar amount of treasure.  Obviously that's a much bigger structure, but there is quite a bit more empty space in it than there is in the moathouse. 

This method works best if one maintains the other rules as they are.  Upkeep and training are designed to take away this excess coinage so that the players don't screw up the campaign economy -- which is different from the economy of the milieu.  It strikes me that Gygax likely sought to solve the new problem created by training costs rather than changing everything over to a silver standard.  I'm not sure what his motivation would be, but I've more or less replicated his fix so I can't complain too much.

Now to put a fly in the ointment.  Yesterday, -C commented "I thought AD&D changed the rules so that you recieved 1xp per 5gp, so that you would accumulate more money between levels, allowing you to pay for things like training."  This makes some sense; however it wouldn't solve the bigger problem of the pace of advancement.  If you use the rules in the DMG as is, it would take even longer to level up because each PC would still be only getting 600gp on the first level.  Now they only have 120xp from gold.  Even the inflated amounts don't hold up to this metric.  The moat house would only give a total of 1,031xp for treasure, which isn't even enough for a thief to level off of.

Ultimately, I think it's best to use whatever works for your campaign and your group.  If you're looking for a more realistic economy, then increasing the xp from gp is probably the way to go.  If you prefer piles of coins to realism, then it's probably better to just use the rules as is and up the treasure substantially.

Treasure, Experience, and the AD&D Economy

For some reason, perhaps it is my reinvestigation into Harn as a setting, I've been thinking about the AD&D economy quite a bit lately.  I can't remember where, but there was a thread on some forum that discussed a comment from Gygax saying he might have changed experience for treasure to a 5xp to 1gp ratio.  A commentor stated that they believed this would be coupled with a switch to a silver system, which would actually mean an overall reduction of xp.*

Assuming for a minute the two do coincide, I don't think it would actually mean fewer xp.  When one looks at the Standard Hirelings Table on page 28 of the DMG, the monthly costs for most of them don't go above 5gp, with the notable exception of Limner.  So a tailor would make 18gp in a year.  This is less than the PCs would make in even an unsuccessful delve.  The general economy would likely be powered by sp.  The high prices for weapons and armor are reflective of the pseudo-medieval/early modern society that AD&D seeks to represent.  Gold hoards are found in dungeons because they're the remnants of the golden age that made them.

So let us assume that the 5xp/1gp ratio is designed with the current economy presented in the PHB and DMG in mind.  One thing I noticed using the treasure rules as written for Nightwick Abbey was that after 25 sessions (c. six months) only one PC was level 3.  This strikes me as an incredibly slow rate of advancement, especially if one remembers Old Geezer's tale.  Granted that's a different system than AD&D, but they're obviously related.

For the sake of argument, let's see what this new ratio does to a hypothetical dungeon.  Based on the stocking chart in the DMG, a 100 room dungeon should have 20 rooms with treasure in it.  Using one possible reading of the rules, which will skew high, treasure is determined entirely by the level of the dungeon and not the monsters present.  Using Kellri's  Old School Encounters Reference, our hypothetical dungeon has about 3,600 gp on its first level.  A party of 6 would only get about 600xp from clearing out all of the dungeons treasure.  Now I don't have to tell you that's barely a drop in the bucket on an Prestidigitator's path to becoming an Evoker.  If you assume 5xp for 1gp though, the total xp available becomes 18,000 on the first level.  That's 3,000 a pop for our hypothetical party of 6.  If we assume a high number of 8, that's still 2,250, which is a much bigger boon to that aforementioned Prestidigitator.

The problem then comes with Training Costs.  If that Prestidigitator managed to get the 3,000 experience from clearing all of the dungeon, he still would only have 600gp to spend.  Ignoring upkeep, he still can't pay the training costs to level up.  This brings up the ultimate question: what is the pace of advancement supposed to be in AD&D?  Even with the inflated xp advancement is just as glacial as it was in the Nightwick campaign.  It would possibly be even slower. 

Somehow, I don't think this is the goal.  It could be a function of Gygax's game meeting more often than most modern groups or it could be that I'm a relentless powergamer for my belief that it shouldn't take six months to get to level three or the system could just be poorly thought out.  A the end of the day, I'm still not sure what to think.  While I won't adopt it for my current Greyhawk campaign -- instead I chose to inflate the treasure -- the 5xp to 1gp system is very attractive, if only because it allows me to use the treasure rules as written. 

The training costs strike me as highly unrealistic.  In a world where a light-footman makes 12gp in a year, it would seem unreasonable that his sergeant must pay 1,000gp just to train for a few weeks.  I imagine it's a way to get gold out of the players hands, but if you're only getting 604gp each dungeon level, that doesn't really strike me as game breaking.

Attention CRPG Fans

You can grab Ultima IV for free from Good Old Games!  I'm sure that can't last too long, so get yours today!

My Merit Badges

You can find the proper means of interpreting them here.  I should note that the Scary and Disturbing Content ones probably need an asterisk by them since, for the most part I run a fairly silly game.  I've been known to go a bit overboard on monster descriptions sometimes though.

Edit: Forgot two

Jon Hodgson is a cool guy

I was reading a thread on RPG where some people were making a character for the One Ring system to try it out.  Then about two thirds of the way down this page Hodgson posts a drawing of the character.  He then offers to draw a number of them based on the thread.

You know... cause he can.

Question for those of you well versed in D&D history

Does the old Castles & Crusades society map that Gary and Dave supposedly built their games around still exist?  I've always wondered what it would look like.

The Great Dice Divide

I've noticed a number of my players (read: all of my players) don't like GameScience dice.  They claim that they always roll terrible.  I know a number of OSR types swear by them, and I certainly own more than my fair share, but I was wondering if anyone else had met people with a similar reaction.

Thoughts on My Recent Poll

It's been very interesting to see my poll change over the past month.  At first it appeared as though Name Level NPCs wouldn't get any votes, but in the last leg they got several with lower level classed NPC rulers just barely edging them out.

This is a question that I'm still unsure as to what my answer is.  The idea for the poll came to me while skimming the Cook expert set which pretty firmly states that NPC rulers must be name level or higher.  Since this was really my first exposure to Cook, this struck me as odd.  It shouldn't have.  The random castle inhabitants results for OD&D create rulers who are above name level, though it never states that these same rules should be used for determining town officials.

The reason it struck me as odd is that my first real experience with "old school" was Necromancer Games' version of the Wilderlands.  That setting introduced me to sandbox play, hexcrawling, and broke me of my earlier rail-roading habits.  One of the things that most intrigued me about them was the ability for player characters to carve out their own bit of land from either the wilderness or the cruel despots that currently possessed it.  In it, a town might only have a fourth level fighter to look to, and a castle might have a sixth level wizard in it.  Of course some of the NPCs are in fact higher level, and the CSIO is infamous for its high level blacksmiths and beggars.  Neither the 3.5 version of the setting nor the original incarnation follow the name level rule.

I've more or less followed that example in the Dark Country.  I can think of three name level NPCs on my wilderness map off the top of my head, one of whom is more or less a monster anyway.  Based on my poll I would think many of you have designed your worlds similarly.  So I have a question for you: what made you decide to ignore that particular rule?  Were you similarly following that example, or did you just think the rule got in the way of the players?

For those of you who do want your rulers to be named level, why?  Aside from the fact that there is a rule on the matter is there some philosophical principle that helped you make that decision, or do you just think NPCs should follow the same rules ans PCs?

Hey... Wait a Minute...

I never noticed this until now:

1983

1986

This is dumb, stupid, and pointless.

Bit of non-gaming news: they've decided to get rid of the Oxford comma.  There are not words for how angry I am over this ridiculously silly thing.

Whatever Happened to the Dark Country?

I'm sure many of you have noticed that there has been a considerable slowdown in Dark Country and Nightwick Abbey related posts that aren't play reports.  The reason for this is quite simple: I've described it already.  Obviously there are things I haven't thought of yet, but my players haven't encountered them yet either so I haven't had a reason to develop them.

Aside from revising the overland map constantly, I haven't really added all that much since session 1.  The party has yet to descend to the second level of the dungeon and much of the first level remains unexplored.  Hell, I added several sections to the first level because I was worried it was too small but they have yet to go beyond the bounds of the original map.

I've stopped doing Monster Monday posts because the monsters I'm using have either already been described or are close enough to their implementation in D&D to make it pointless.  This is also partly why I haven't discussed doing some kind of download or product related to the setting.  It's too reliant on AD&D and Labyrinth Lord and you guys all have access to those books already.

What I'm ultimately saying is that I haven't lost interest in the Dark Country and replaced it with side projects. It's still my baby and theres a reason I haven't started running a campaign of something else.  It's not going away, but I do need some more time to get the creative juices flowing again and to let my players bump into things I haven't described in Dark Country terms yet.