Recent Reviews and Coming Content

Sorry for the ham-handed alliteration. I've had lots of coffee this morning and feeling cheeky. I've been hard at work on a few things so I haven't had a chance to post much recently, particularly after the marathon blogging run for the Hurricane Dungeon. A few things to mention, though...

Judging is wrapping up for Coldlight Press's third-annual Adventure Site Contest and the winner(s) should be announced soon. Reviews for my Ophidian Temple submission were mostly positive, though JB applied his well-honed perspective and brought up several points I didn't consider while writing. I (politely) disagreed with some of his points in the review comments, and after some additional discussion, he graciously improved my score a skooch. There are no real stakes in this contest, but the goal is to improve as a designer. If one can meet and exceed JB's demanding criteria (which I 100% appreciate), then you know you've accomplished something.

Speaking of demanding criteria, Bryce over at tenfootpole.org reviewed my recent published adventure, Bergummo's Tower and awarded it a prestigious "The Best" ranking. I was pleasantly surprised that he had even reviewed the adventure, much less put it among some really heavyweight awesome adventures in that short list. I won't lie, it feels good. I don't crave validation, but it's always nice to receive.

What's coming up? I have a second adventure nearly ready for publication called "Aethelberd's Tomb," a fairly straightforward exploration of a crypt below the ruined keep of an ancient warlord. It's a nice little expansion of a dungeon I've run several times now, and was even a One-Page Dungeon submission some years ago. I think it's a solid delve. All that's left is to finish the cover illustration, which I am currently blue-lining. Here's a sneak preview...

After that, I have about a dozen adventures in the queue to format and publish over the next months and couple years: Some are old dungeons I'm pulling out of mothballs to refresh and retool; others are fairly new in my repertoire, designed with my rediscovered love of the classic methods and principles of adventure gaming.

Upcoming titles include:

• "The Haunted Chapel" (a dark secret beneath the ruins of a holy place).
• "Bugspittle's Hive" (a spiritual sequel to my ASC 1 entry, "Etta Capp's Cottage").
• "Fire Forge" (a high-level mission to assault a fire giant's caldera lair).
• "Oleg's Problem" (classic dwarven-miners-digging-too-deep dilemma).
• "The Drowned Gates" (a cavernous kilo-dungeon).
• "The High Ice" (a travail to the glacial lair of an ancient white dragon).
• "Owlbear Hill" (a full(er) version of my ASC 2 submission that didn't make the cut).
• "Isle of the Dead" (my too-long-delayed Mythic Greece-inspired adventure, which is 95% done). 

After "Aethelberd's Tomb" is released, "The Haunted Chapel" will be next, as I'm nearly done formatting, but still working on pieces of the content and redrawing the map to my house style. I'll feel good if I can get half the bullet list finished and uploaded.

I also intend to keep posting here as frequently as possible. Cheers until next time!