Uz, the Underworld, and other Updates

I'm probably going to stop developing Uz and it's surrounding territories.  This was a hard decision for me because I enjoy the ideas quite a bit, but the Ugarit project at Sword +1 is so similar that I don't want to steal his thunder.  I started working on Uz after he started his work on Swords of Abandon so I'm the late comer.

Of course the problem is that Uz filled a niche in my brain-space, one that was left empty by my many conceptual problems with the Underworld.  For lack of a better, shorter term I call this niche Sword & Sorcery Science Fantasy.  It's one part Hyboria, one part Zothique, one part Shaver Mystery, and one part Harryhausen movie.  Mix well, serve hot over rice.  But I haven't figured out the right admixture that works without any mental dissonance in my own noggin (or hasn't already been thought of by someone whose doing a perfectly good job already).  So I'm left to wander in search of an appropriate project to act as a funnel for those urges.

Thats more or less why I'm not doing the April Alphabet thing.  I was going to use it to express some of my thoughts on Uz, but now I'm without a project.

There are two reasons you haven't seen Dark Country material as much lately.  First, and most importantly, most of my time spent developing the Dark Country is spent stocking dungeons and making sure I'm ready for the next session.  Theres less high conceptual stuff I need to get out of the way.  What does need to be dealt with usually gets dealt with in play, and thats the way it should be.  The other reason is that I'm feeling a bit of ennui in regards to that setting, for reasons I may discuss in another post.  Still, it's unlikely to go anywhere for a long while.

It's unlikely I'll be able to do my one page dungeon version of the abbey.  The way the Abbey is structured in my notes is just too different from the format, and I'd essentially be creating a wholly new dungeon.  Since that  more or less defeat's the point of using the abbey the project is effectively dead.  It's also unlikely that I'll seek another form to publish it in because I rely too heavily on monsters which aren't available in the OGL.  I can't imagine Nightwick Abbey without Mites for example.

I hope to work on the community megadungeon some more, but just as I was finishing my level, cola got spilled all over my map.  I'm going to try to redraw it so that it looks nicer, but there will obviously be a delay.

Updated Region 1 Map and Minor Updates

Click to Enlarge

The above is the current iteration of Nightwick Abbey's surroundings.  I abandoned my earlier model for settlements and replaced it with a random one loosely based off of the Hex Based Campaign design system from the Welsh Piper.  Instead of doing it on a big hex by big hex basis, I came up with figures that represented the whole area mapped and then rolled some dice.  The distribution is based on where I felt like things should go, which is my typical manner.

I still have a few more areas to add, including a settlement of town or city size.  The settlement in 1011 (Lichegate) might get upgraded to a full blown city, but I'm not sure yet.  If it remains a town, this one region -- 1/4 of the total area of the Dark Country - will contain 3 of the Seven Cities.  I find that spread a bit odd so I may have to play around with it a bit.

The last session of Nightwick Abbey was canceled due to heavy snow making it a full month since the group last met.  Hopefully the wait will be worth it but we'll see.  I have a bit of stocking/restocking to do in the dungeons.  Once I've caught up enough to not have to worry about how the next week is going to go I'll start on the OPD version and post it here.

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog.  The lethargic state I entered into during winter break has only recently shuffled off.  My output should increase in the weeks to come.

Plans for the Year

Sorry that I've neglected the blog for a bit, but the holidays will do that to you.  I don't have the ambitions that some other bloggers seem to have, but here are my meager goals for the year anyway.

Paint Some Minis: I have quite a few unpainted miniatures and I'm looking to acquire more.  I haven't painted in a while but the wife and I recently bought some primer and other mini painting supplies so I'll be able to renew my tangentially related hobby.  I'll post the piss-poor results here.

One Page Dungeon Project: The vote went overwhelmingly in favor of Nightwick Abbey so I'll try to render a version of my megadungeon for the masses.  Nightwick Abbey wasn't made with the one page format in mind.  What I will most likely do is develop one page dungeon maps that have places to put the specials and monsters that are in my home version of the Abbey.  As a test case I'll be making a sub level of the abbey into a one page dungeon and posting it up here.  If there is still interest after you've seen it, I'll continue with the project.

Examining the Rules Cyclopedia: I won't be doing anything along the lines of a "Cover to Cover," but I'll most likely have thoughts and questions related to my most recent OS acquisition.

For the most part I'll continue my rudderless ad hoc approach, but I had these on my mind and I thought I'd post them.