Where Dark Things Sleep

Welcome to In Places Deep, a blog about old school D&D by a man who is discovering it for the first time.  I intend to use this space to outline my creative processes as I design, pitch, and run an OSD&D campaign.  I should note that this I am not "experimenting" with the old school.  I've already run Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord and I find that this style of gaming is the one that best meshes with the way my brain works.  The reason I'm starting a new campaign is that I have just moved into a new area, and will have to start a new group from scratch.

On that note I think I need to explain a bit of my background.  I started playing D&D in 2000 with 3rd edition, run by a very frustrated DM who was used to the Rules Cyclopedia.  Later I gathered together my high school friends and future wife and started a game about the time 3.5 arrived on the scene.  Some of my old group loved 3.5.  Most of us (including myself) hated it.  One peculiar influence on me during this period was Kevin Hendryx.  Many of you may know him  as a former  TSR employee, and he was (and is) a close family friend.  Our discussions about D&D turned my thoughts to games like Castles & Crusades, and settings such as the Wilderlands.

I should also note that I am an (aspiring) historian.  I tend to throw myself into the history of any activity I engage in and I soon found myself eating up the early history of the Hobby.  My last year in my home town I started a (fairly brief) Swords & Wizardry game, whose setting I wish to expand and use in my new location.

Thats enough about me.  I'll be posting a kind of summary of the setting later today.