[Gencon 2026] The FOE Program for Gencon

It's Gencon Season already. Today, I finalized the Gencon program for FOE and submitted everything to Gencon.

At this time, I have two adventures ready to roll already and am moving on to the next ones.

The Regular Adventures...

Legacies: Heart of Decisions

By Bill Church

The heart of a colossus has been found. Mytenian forces must rush to obtain it before the Titans. A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the Greece-inspired Olympia. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

Legacies: Fiends of Dreams

By JP Chapleau

Not All Men Seek War/ It Looms Over Sazame/ Som' Have dark designs A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the Japan-inspired Ozaka. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Ready for Playtest

Legacies: The Mirror of Basat

By Brandon Alspach

A prophetic vision leads where desire shapes reality–but some secrets were never meant to be seen. A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the Egypt-inspired Akhamet. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

Legacies: What the Titans leave Behind

By Brandon Alspach and JP Chapleau

Appease a few gods, steal war riches from the Titans–what could go wrong? A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the Greece-inspired Olympia. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Expanding Outline

Legacies: Bleeding Hearts

By JP Chapleau

The trees bleed when cut. Blood-soaked knights vs desperate loggers. Is the forest crying for help? A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the byzantine world of Tarsyn. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Ready for Playtest

Legacies: A Stolen Daisho

By Chris Ketchum

A stolen daisho/ A vital chess piece taken/ Sails away slowly A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the Japan-inspired Ozaka. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

Legacies: Sifting the Sands of Obscurity

By Matt Adams

You wake to find that you have been buried alive with little to no memory of how you got there save for some scribbled notes torn out of a journal that resembles your own party's handwriting. You must use these clues to solve your own attempted murder. A 3rd-level 5e 2014 adventure set in the Egypt-inspired Akhamet. Part of the Legacies Campaign.

Status: Outline

And the Epics!

Legacies Epic: Friends We Make

By JP Chapleau

Invitations sent
All Smiles and Diplomacy
Sharp Tongues and Swift Blades
A 5e 2014 multi-table epic adventure. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

Legacies Epic: To Find an Enchantress

By JP Chapleau

Mytenian forces won a great victory at Emessos, but the Titans are not beaten. A 5e 2014 multi-table epic adventure. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

Legacies Epic: Battle of Shiro Azaki

By JP Chapleau

First diplomats speak
Then the armies assemble
And the blades come out
A 5e 2014 multi-table epic adventure. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

Legacies Epic: River Run

By JP Chapleau

At the start of the Rainy Season, the rivers swell and the Church of Khem organizes a friendly competition. Friendly but deadly A 5e 2014 multi-table epic adventure. Part of the Legacies Campaign

Status: Outline

[Rant] What Paizo got right (and I got wrong)

It's not often that I admit that I was wrong. But the more I work at writing and expanding my own game settings, the more I have to give it to the people at Paizo. Now, don't get all excited (Chad). I have not played Pathfinder in years and just have no intention of doing so - mostly because I don't want to put the effort into organizing it.

I got into Pathfinder when it first came out, in 2009 and really liked what I saw of the rules. The game is solid and well-tested. I played it with great enthusiasm until 2017 or 2018.

I remember looking at the Golarion Setting Book. Multiple times. And every time, I kept getting the impression of something missing, like I was drinking a Kool-Aid drink into which there was too much water. Sure it TASTES like something, but the full flavor is not there. Like everything was in there, but that it lacked some meat.

For years, I kept that impression.

Then earlier this year, I decided to give a new look. And won't you be surprised, I found the book to be extremely well written with just enough material to make it viable. And therein lay its genius: the razor's edge upon which it thread. Just enough.

Could it use more? Yes! For most of the nations in the book I find myself wanting to learn more about them. There is just enough to tease my taste buds. Just enough for me to create an adventure there. Having since written multiple settings (Akhamet, Olympia, co-wrote Rhym, and soon Ozaka), I found myself in awe of the Golarion setting book for its simplicity.

So what did I get wrong back in the day? How did I come to this impression of incompleteness? Of water-down Kool-Aid? I mean the book is the same. How could I have changed so much?

On the one hand, clearly experience. With more writing, I could appreciate it more.

On the other hand, I guess the issue was that I could not find good hooks for the stories *I* wanted to tell. That while good, nothing reached out to me. The light flavor of historical elements with fantasy elements just did not feel like it went deep enough. While this latest impression remains, I have to review my thoughts on the rest of it.

This is a solid product that deserves the praise it earned in the past and the accolades it garnered.

Gencon Finale... Coming to an end... Finally!

The I have been writing furiously for a few months now, trying to get everything ready for Gencon. I am nearing the end... as I now work on the final encounter of the finale... I have gone bigger than I ever have before. I mean literally!

I will admit to being a struggle to complete it because while I know WHERE I wanted to go, all the paths I envisionned were too contrived and obvious. Such as giving the Artifact of Evil (AE) to the Holy Order of the Good Guys or to the Demon Cult with a promise they won't use it...

To get me out of my funk, I wrote different things - such as Beyond the Door for Call of Cthulhu, played and GMd non-Gencon games.

In short, I tried to rattle the cobwebs. Nothing really came out. It felt flat. It felt like something we'd have already done during the weekend. Not a blank page, a bored page.

So... how did I shake my funk and find something exciting to close off Gencon?

I changed the approach. Instead of approaching the problem from a "How do I end Gencon with a bang?" to the more open-ended "What would be a great writing prompt for next year?" And then the way opened! I was not looking for an end to a story, but the closing of a chapter, something that hinted at the next one. Not a teaser per se, but a way to end the story but leaving the subject open. Not EVERYTHING needs to be resolved immediately.

The FOE Mini-Campaigns at Gencon should relate to each other - and indeed two specials continue and expand the plot line started in 2021.

All right. Enough slacking. Back to writing...

Wherein I invoke Calliope for help

You know what is terrible for a writer?

Waking up at 5AM, convinced that your adventure is completely missing its mark. That while fun, it is nothing more than a re-hash of what you wrote previously.

That's when you must confront yourself, give a good analysis of yourself, and find a remedy. Well, here I am, blogging at 5AM staring a another Word document trying to find a plot twist that would ease my mind and allow me to sleep.

There are times when being a writer is great, when inspiration hits and words flow. Reminding me of the Rush song Losing It... I find myself looking at the page with tears of rage.

Okay that's a little extreme.

Not really.

What to do now? How will I get through this? How will the idea that resolves everything come to me? Will a beautiful woman comes to me and whisper the answer? O Calliope, Muse of epic poetry come to me!

So this will not be an easy win. It will take blood, sweat, and tears (of rage) to get this one done. All right, I time to go to go back to writing instead of complaining about it.

Adventure Design Fail: Writing for myself

So as a special holiday treat, I decided to run a D&D game and offer the game to locals. I had an idea, a plot, a villain, and an something I wanted to accomplish. It was set in Olympia, which can just tell any story.

So I wrote all that down.

Created a stat block, a map, and embellished the story with a few interesting setting insights.

Then this morning, I woke up thinking. "There is not one unique, fantastical element in this. It's the most historical adventure I ever written." Now, there were fantasy elements: magic and unique races, but really, nothing stood out to me. As a one-shot, there wasn't much to do. It was really something for me, the writer/ GM/ setting man, but not for the PCs.

So what does a dumbass author do? He decides to re-write everything because he had another idea! Now this is not lost work... I believe the re-write puts the star and main decision in the hands of the PCs. So I will run with that...

So getting ready for the game right now... I think this will be much more interesting for THEM.

Will I succeed? That's still to be determined.

FOE writing update Oct 2021

It's been a while since I posted a writing update. So here goes. These are the bigger products FOE is actively working on.

- Olympia Adventures With the success of Olympia, I plan on releasing some of the adventures I used as I playtested the campaign world, and the two original Gencon adventures, part of King Kreon's Woe series. Expect those starting in November.

- Ozaka Campaign Add-on This is an idea that germinated as I was putting the finishing touches on Olympia about a place inspired by ancient Japan that could be dropped into any campaign setting. Not a full setting by itself, but something to throw a curveball to your players.

- Princes a race book for 5e that complements Princesses with Ibsen-Z we have been arguing over "what does THIS prince do?" for a while now. Fun stuff.

- Service is Eternal (Redux) When I first published Service is eternal for Pathfinder, I was still very new at this and when I returned from Gencon, I looked over the book and... well I did not like it. FOE products have really improved since then. Not only in the quality of text and format, but especially in the quality of art. That book is an expansion of the First Ones so they are less tied to the world of Saggakar and more of the universal threat they have been in (almost) everything FOE published.

- Witches of Pikemaster A campaign for levels ~3-10 I have been inflicting on my group for a few month now. Witches + Inquisition type of story, with influence from Hammer movies, Salem witch trials, and classic D&D. This is going to be a big campaign (over 120 pages). Prepare to meet some very classic characters, travel the planes, and decide the ultimate fate of Pikemaster...

- Gencon Specials and adventures Yes, we are already working on Gencon material for next year!

Patreon: FOE Adventure Board

I posted a picture of the work board for the upcoming "Witches of Pikemaster" on the Patreon. If you are interested in learning part of my process for producing adventure content, check out the FOE Patreon.

[Old Pro Tricks] Historical Campaign and Setting Writing

I am mentoring a guy I met on Facebook, Paul-O. He is creating a campaign setting based on a historical period I find fascinating. We started talking as my experience in such things could help him deal with some of the pitfalls of doing this. Part of his latest round of question yielded experience I thought could be useful to all.

He plans on publishing his setting in the future, something I will look forward to seeing.

I scrubbed the name of the people and locations to keep his idea private.

[Paul] What makes for better storytelling: having the characters start somewhere on the [Sea], which is the trade route crossroads and at the border of the approaching destruction of the [Historical] war machine? Or, start the players inside the ruthless [Historical] empire, potentially as displaced conquered people, rebellious citizens, or loyalists on a quest?

This is where you need to change from thinking as a GM and thinking as a setting writer.

As a GM you decide what your players will do: kill the orcs, conquer the city, destroy the evil god. This is where you decide what happens. As a setting writer, you must separate yourself from those concerns.

IF D&D were a play, the setting writer paints the set and the decor. Where is this? Why here and not there? Who are the big players? The adventure writer is the director working from his own script.

Since YOU will not be at every table, the plot of things at your table and at mine will be different, but set in the same place. You may decide the [Historical] are the bad guys whereas I may decided I want the PCs to fight against the [Historical II] rebels in my city. Both plots are equally valid and the more grey/ open to interpretation to set that line, the more adventure potential you open. Monsters are bad guys and few PCs bat an eye at going and killing beasts or fiends. However, killing many other humans is something different and should be see as such.

So your [Historical] could be aggressive and militaristic with a penchant for heavy-handed tactics but their empire is crumbling from internal pressure. The [Historical II]s are on the rise but many think they are [Historical] 2.0, the [Historical III] may use dirty tactics in war and hate both, and the [Historical IV] are officially allied to the [Historical II] but sell secrets to the [Historical]. This give a GM more pieces to play with.

True the rulers of [Historical] may be evil and those of [Historical II] good, but even if the leader is of a given alignment does not make the whole country like that. One may be good but a zealot for [Historical God] and another may be evil but concerned mostly with the creation of defenses. A good-aligned leader may hire assassins to protect his people. This makes the character relatable, interesting, and complex

There are VERY FEW historical people you can qualify as "pure good" (Jesus and the Apostles) and more as "pure evil" (Hitler and Stalin). I firmly dislike the current attitude that if someone does something bad or stupid one time, that person needs to be shunned and outcast forever. I did some stupid things as a kid and changed my ways.

A character that is pure as snow (as we now see too much on TV) or with blemishes that are meaningless are not interesting. You don't want perfect people, you want them to have inner conflict. One person hates his spouse, another is broke but no one knows about it yet, and another plans to abscond with another man's wife.

That create conflicts: within the character and in the setting. And conflict is what leads to adventure. Alignment should not be the only factor in determining what an NPC does. One of the best NPCs ever: Lancelot. By all account, a good and true knight. When given the opportunity, he slept with his king and best friend's wife.

So I ask you, does "Lawful Good" tell you everything about Lancelot?

Origins and Gencon: Two Specials Completed

I was beginning to wonder myself when I would finally dig myself out the massive hole of writing I dug myself in with Origins and Gencon. I spent March and April in a writing funk but today, I can breathe a lot easier for I finished not one, but TWO of the special adventures, called Battle of Farelis, parts 1 and 2.

Part 1 is set in the Tyrants of Saggakar setting and opens the story in a kinda set up for what is to come. In many ways, Part 1 explains what is happening and allows the players to experience how things god that bad... Because yes, they are bad...

It has been a while since I wrote for the Tyrants of Saggakar, which I took to like a fish in water. I really like this setting because it has everything I would love to play in a setting: bad guys with motivations, the potential for good deeds, and endless possibility for adventure.

Part 2 is not a sequel, at least not for the characters. In part 2, adventurers from a variety of game world deal with what happened in Part 1. I do not want to explain too much at this time but it is pretty cool, I think.

So in the weeks after Origins, I will be running all these adventures as Slot Zeroes for my GMs (Will, Florent, Florence, and Randy), and it is very likely I will post a few additional seats if you are interested/available.

The format idea was something I envisioned way back when I started FOE and began to lay the groundwork for Saggakar.

I thought I would post the covers here as an added teaser.

Writing Tricks: Writing Music

Every writer has his own tricks, his own way of getting the creative juices flowing. Surprise! I have mine too.

I have a number of songs I put on that put me in the mood for telling a story. It is not really something about the lyrics (what the song is about), the beat, or the artist, that get me going. I compiled a short list of five songs that whenever they come on, my fingers start flying on the keyboard and new material appear before me.

Band	Song	Genre
Avalon	Land of New Hope	Prog Rock
The Gathering	Liberty Bell	Prog Rock
Genesis	The Cinema Show	Prog Rock
Lost Horizon	Cry of a Restless Soul	Metal
Rush	Hemispheres	Hard Rock

Short Fiction Contest Announcement

I have been thinking about this for a long time and think this might be a great time to launch this effort. I would like to launch a series of short fiction pieces set in Saggakar. These could be pretty much anything. During my many classes, I have found it fairly easy to come up with shorter stories than long ones and have been reading some really good ones.

Through this, I would like to meet new writing talent! This is your chance

Contest parameters

- All fiction should be original: written by you and not already published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

- The story must deal with themes of Saggakar: oppression, memory loss, slavery, redemption, and heroism against the odds.

- The story should be "traditional" fantasy (no sci-fi, no fanfic)

- Seven hundred to two thousand words for each submission

- An author can submit as many pieces of fiction as they want.

- All participants will be contacted shortly after the contest end.

- Submissions will be considered unedited drafts

- If your submission is not a winner, all rights will revert to you.

Prizes

- All participants will receive a unique Legacy Record granting them a unique bonus usable in the game.

- Winners will receive a copy of the final anthology and credit.

- Winners will receive a PDF copy of the Tyrants of Saggakar Player's Guide (5e or PFRPG).

- A grand prize winner will have their likeness (or someone of their choice) used for an NPC in an upcoming Tyrants of Saggakar product.

Does that seem fun? Pass the word, I'm thinking of running this for the month of March. (1-31st)

JP

Musings and wonderings

I firmly believe that variety is the spice of life, and try to apply this to every level of my life. I currently take classes in archaeology, history, writing, along with technical programs on new Visual Studio methods, Scrum methodology, and cloud technologies. As you all know, I am always evaluating and looking into the world of gaming and organized play in particular, seeking to make my own play experience better, more exciting. I play the following games more-less regularly: Arcanis, D&D 5e, Legend of the Five Rings, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds (Space 1889), Shadowrun, and WitchHunter. I GM Pathfinder mostly.

What I take away from this is the firm belief that playing more than one system makes me a better GM, and more importantly, a better writer. Just as playing in various games system makes me understand the RP-gaming industry better because I not only get in touch with more and different styles of play. It allows me to think of the products I write in a different light.

I'm not talking about knowing the rules perfectly for all of these system. To be honest, I am terrible at knowing the rules for Shadowrun, in spite of having played the same character for over 6 years... How magic works for summoning is still somewhat nebulous to me. So I don't do too much of it.

This post was prompted by my running of Arcanis adventures at Origins. When I received them, I waited a few days to read them (life and all). When I did, I was surprised and could not stop laughing. You will remember this post where I posted how not to write adventures... Well Henry transgressed a few of the points I made. Not to say that he's wrong but it made me think back on my own evaluations and my points.

First off, Henry is much more successful than I am (based on the number of players playing Arcanis vs. Tyrants of Saggakar). Next he has much more experience than I (as a writer). So... how can I make myself more successful using the lessons learned from Arcanis? I have a lot of soul-searching to do to make my products better and reaching out to more people. Lucky for me, I do have a number of friends I can reach out to, including Henry, LPJ, Steve, and the guys who work with me on FOE (James, Randy and JD) to pick their brains. But also to my players whose minds I constantly raid for ideas.

Yeah, I have a lot to think about.

Improve my product. Improve my writing. Improve myself. That's my 2016 goal...

JP

[Old Pro Tricks] Five ways not to write an adventure

There are quite a number of things that will drive me nuts whenever I look at a published adventure. Whenever I see those things, I immediately think that the author is trying to beef up his word count. I have held myself on this side of going full rant, though there is some ranting here in. See for yourself whether this warrant the rant tag.

5- Passive voice

The room has already been plundered by bandit or The animals have all been chased away from the castle. The passive tense is acceptable when making something lyrical or prosaic. Adventures are neither.

Always think of the GM when he has a table full of players bombarding him with questions about this or that. Finding what you are looking is quicker with simpler language.

4- Boxed Text duplicating maps

This is something I have grown to be much more annoyed by, particularly with PFS. Room descriptions that end up with a long paragraph describing where the door are (and the doors rarely matter to the adventure anyway).

Describe what is important and let the GM run the game.

3- "Nor Crystal Falls"-syndrome

VTF3-01 Nor Crystal Falls was a Living Greyhawk adventure, the first of our meta-region (the Velverdyva/ Tuflik/ Fals trade route, occupying the western routes of Greyhawk and the Baklunish West). The adventure was fine, when I played it, it went pretty much like this: "You are in this Crystal Tower. You enter a room, there is a priestess of water there, roll initiative. You enter another similar room, another priestess or water, initiative." I thought it really sucked as an adventure.

Then I read the adventure and prepared to run it. WOW. This adventure had a lot of flavorful background on EVERYONE of these NPCs, about half a page IIRC detailing why they joined the cult, who they liked, who they disliked, etc. All this background was nothing more than garbage and junk. It was useless and though I wanted to try and share it during the adventure, players rightfully understood that killing priest of Elemental Evil/ Tharizdun was a much safer option...

So all this writing was just junk, too bad because there was adventure potential there, and it would turn the adventure from a three-part combat into something more.

This adventure has really molded me as an adventure writer: anything that's not essential to the adventure, leave it out. This is something I later learned was called "Chekhov's Gun". I wasted so much time reading and thinking how to portray these cultists, when it would've been much more rewarding to merely have them charge across the room brandishing their weapons.

2- The Novelist

Adventures are not the place to showcase your wordsmithing skills. Keep the flowery text to a minimum. It is fine to provide some neat prose, but keep boxed text to an absolute minimum.

Beyond the introduction/conclusion, no boxed text should *EVER* tell the PCs how they think or feel about something. Even passing comments like "The biggest man you ever saw" are fine in fiction, but in RPGs... Provide a reference "as tall as a bear" or "smaller than a lap dog" gives reference without assuming of the PCs' experience.

Next in this section... Do not for the PCs into a course of action. "You meet with the king who offers you a post, which you accept." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. NO. NO. NO. A simple test for this is to assume the following: I play a character who always says no to everyone and everything (such a character being a complete jerk, and be unplayable, but is perfect for the purpose of the exercise). If that person would immediately start screaming "NO WAY! I'm not doing that!" Then change your text.

Finally, do not write whole pages of boxed text, broken only with "give the PCs a chance to agree."

Oh and Braziers are not Brassiere...

1- Future tense

This one share a number of points with passive tense. It is rarely found in boxed text but all too common in GM-text.

After defeating the monsters, the PCs will find a map. They will follow the clues to the treasure. This is one of those things that once you notice, it becomes EXTREMELY annoying, almost like it is trying to assault me, punching me in the face. This one really makes it hard to find important words in a paragraph because "will" appears every sentence and our brains love to find repetition and pattern.

Write your adventure in the present, active tense. It will make for a lighter, faster, more dynamic read and facilitate the GM's job when players are in his face asking for the color of the African swallow.

Back to School!

For years now, I have been an amateur writer, writing stories and adventures for fun and as a way to get me to think about other things. Plus, I will be honest, I like to write. It is the most precious gift I was given as a young child.

This year, around New Year-ish, I decide that I should perfect my craft and expand my horizons and learn connex skills to adventure writing. I joined a group of creative writers. "Just for fun" and without any specific goal in mind.

The at the beginning of March, they offered a class on mystery writing. It was inexpensive and consisted of a number of one-week assignments. Nothing to worry too much about. Plus I do enjoy a good mystery.

The first adult mystery book I read, was one my sister had. Finding the cover intriguing, I began to read. And read. And read until the final, climax and reveal. Hercules Poirot masterfully solved the murder.

It was the first time I read a true "adult" fiction book and one that would keep me reading Agatha Christie for a long time. I even bought a few anthologies of short stories when I moved to Kentucky and re-read a number of the stories I read as a child. Since that time, I always have had an affinity for mystery, whodunit, and tales of suspense and mystery.

So it is with a lot of excitement that I started this new class. I hope to have more to report soon. For now, all I have is a single scene depicting a crime. It may - or not - become part of the final work. I will anxiously await the next assignment and keep on writing.

Who knows I may soon become a true mystery writer!

Oh the excitement!

JP

Arcanis: Back on the road

So after axing my Arcanis adventure with a delightful blow to the head (and torso, and arms), I took the pieces, pulled out some new duct tape and brought it all back together! This time, I like what I came up with and the adventure is back.

So what was wrong with it? You ask, not wanting to write an adventure I dislike. The answer is not obvious, and touches on a lot of intangibles.

First, the PCs' motivation. As written initially, the PCs had no motivation to do anything in the adventure. The PCs were to investigate something without any real reason to do so.

Second, since the PCs had no reasons to investigate, they had reason to make a choice one way or the other. If you don't care about A or B, what difference does it make? Why pick one over the other.

Third, the events felt forced, or rather, completely random instead of having a logical flow. Those who know me, know the importance I place on the flow of an adventure, that the encounters feel natural and logical. This one didn't have any flow. It was just flat.

Finally, I could not come up with a good climax, the adventure did not build towards anything. It had no real timeline.

So we had a story where the PCs were tangential to the actual plot, had no reason to care. That bugged me like crazy. The more I tried to work on it, the more I confounded the problems. In short, I was digging myself deeper into a hole.

So what to do?

When I posted the axe to the head post, I really took the plot and chopped it into small pieces.

I thought of my basic set up. And worked up from there. So I started on the introduction, working up from Cody's comments. With this new set up, I was able to put nearly every one of the elements back in the adventure, because the new set up made them relevant, instead of forced in. Once I redid the start, the rest came together really quickly, like when you have something you know is good and exciting.

So the adventure is back with my reviewer, hoping he will like it as much as I do! I'll keep you all posted as to what happens, but I guess it will be very quick from writing to production...

JP

Arcanis gets the axe

Well it had to happen. After putting a few more hours into my Arcanis adventure. I decided to give it the axe. I will not write it because it bored me.

And like most of you, I have neither the interest nor time to write something I am bored with. New adventures should be exciting and fun. What I have now is neither.

So what does that mean? Simply that I am dropping my current script and restarting from scratch. Sure I may pull some ideas from the original but what I have now is pretty much bound for the scrapyard.

The underlying theme will remain, but where it goes from there will differ.

A lot.

As of this morning, I have already have the story back on track. I think only the NPC "names" and roles survive (the NPCs are names XvD, YvD, R1, R2 for now). And I think the adventure will have a better flow and be much more fun to run and play, while staying the feel of Arcanis

JP

PS: You did not really think by the title that 1- Arcanis was going away and 2- that I would stop playing it did you? Because neither are true.

[Old Pro Tricks] The Taldor Test

Now I have been pulling what few hair I have left to come up with a solution to my rut on my Arcanis adventure. The adventure has a clear path, the reason for the antagonist to do what they do is reasonable, and the interesting elements abound. So why then do I think it is flat?

Because it fails the Taldor test big time.

So what is the Taldor Test?

Taldor is one of the nations in Paizo's Golarion. It is a nation that I would consider to be generic med-fan. It has a little flavor of its own, but is not overly unique, especially when compared to say Ustalav (Gothic horror), or Rahadoum (anti-theist paradise). The Taldor test is something I came up with after I played a few adventures of Pathfinder Society, and gripe about how little of the setting they actually used in their adventures. Most would take place in an interesting location, then would take you away

To pass the test, an adventure must require major changes to set it in Taldor. This means that the setting of the adventure is important. Though there are a number of elements that come into play when determining whether an adventure passes the test, an obvious way is to see if the party has to change something in how the game is played. "When here, you must hide your holy symbol" or "This is enemy territory so avoid letting people know you work for us" or "While in this town, don't mess with the gelatinous cubes". Removing these unique conditions would make the adventure lose a LOT of its flavor.

Passing or failing the Taldor Test really tells you nothing about the adventure itself other than how important its setting plays into it. I personally favor adventures than pass the test, because I love it when the setting is a drive for adventure. I'm not talking just about an opening story about it, but a plot that uses and becomes better because of it.

Here are a few PFS examples. The first part of the Heresy of Man passes with flying colors. It uses local flavor as a vessel for adventure. The other two parts, however, fail miserably.

The test runs on the main elements of an adventure rather than the artifices around it. Early PFS (Seasons 1-4) usually fails the test. Pathfinder adventure paths and modules usually pass the test with flying colors.In contrast, the hard points of the Arcanis campaign rarely fail. (The soft points are a mixed bag). For

So why am I stuck on the Arcanis writing? I fail the test. Miserably. I need to find something that will make my adventure both please the PCI folks, and make me happy so the adventure takes, draws, and thrives from its location and surroundings. It becomes better because it is Arcanis.

This morning I woke up with a strange idea of a plot device that might accomplish everything in one swoop. A plot twist like M Night Shyamalan... But it makes sense and makes the adventure be more like Arcanis... I will keep working on this see where this latest idea takes me and whether it makes the adventure pass the Taldor test.

Back to work...

JP

Christmas Break List

I think it would be a good idea to set a few goals for myself during the Xmas break this year. I know the break has already started, but it is nevertheless worth putting it down so I can then re-read it. There are so many ideas clashing in my head right now that I decided to organize everything.

A previous boss who I respect a lot (shout out to you, Roland-P) recommended to me that I make list when I had a lot of things I wanted to do. In the almost two years since I last saw him, I decided to take his advice and found myself surrounded by lists and post it notes. I must say that my personal productivity increased a lot.

So here it is. JP's holiday list.

1 - Finish writing ToS1-07 Sailing Down the Kiflan

2 - Get my Arcanis outline into something that can be accepted by PCI (they didn't outright refuse the first draft, but I have a number of issues to work on)

3 - Play at least three games of Frostgrave with the kids

4 - Play at least one game of Pathfinder during the hols (hopefully Chad's RoW)

5 - See Star Wars The Force Awakens with ActionMan

Bonus points

- Play a game of Warmachine

- Outline the Saggakar special for Gencon

- Take both girls to Star Wars

- Expand my outline for ToS1-08

JP

Writing Funk

It seems strange to say but following the release of the Tyrants of Saggakar Player's Guide, I find myself in something of a rut. I have a number of things in the works. But I don't really wanna work on any of them. Not because I don't like the ideas.

If at least that was it.

I must be in something of a post-partum funk. When I start working on something, I only think of other product. Then when I change, I draw a blank.

The good news is that I have a lot of things started: adventures, encounters, locations and notes on npcs. But noting I can get through or make great progress on.

I looked over a few old adventures I wrote back in the day and thought I found the perfect remedy. So I wrote an adventure background and got through the introduction and the employment meeting in a flash. I thought finally I'm done with this funk.

Then nothing.

Empty paragraph.

So I contacted the Arcanis folks to see if they had a half plot they wanted to develop. Within an hour, I had an interesting idea before me and I began to put notes and encounters to an investigation. I thought it was it.

But after this initial burst, I looked at the notes for where I wanted it to go and said "Wow that sucks!" It simply had no pop. It was bland and flavorless. Players would only go from one encounter to the next without any real excitement.

Painful.

So I picked up an old work trying to shake the old brain. A Gostor product I have playing with for the longest time. Did some editing and reformatting. But it again as you guessed it. Nothing to add.

I did some uninspired painting. Five Horses trolls, a carnivean, fifteen ElDorado musketeers, and prepared more Frostgrave minis.

A lot of partial work but nothing to get me excited...

Perhaps work on the Pony adventure I promised myself I would do? Nah I don't really want to do that.

I tried reading some random RPG product: I looked at the rules for 5e again. Not really finding anything there to tickle my fancy. No real gems.

I played hockey and drew with ActionMan to try and come up with alternative

Randy's questions and inquiries about our next work together seemed to be the only thing that has any traction. But Randy is really the one doing most of the work there, I backseat drive and provide guidance.

That's a good things but I can't say I am the one doing it.

I think it may have to do with a project that was a true pace changer for me that fell through (my partner went with another writer). No harm done, but still sad and a big bummer.

So I guess I could write a long blog post that details all of it. One that would cover like a million things I have not been finishing.

Maybe it will shake this funk off.

JP

Five people who influenced my adventure writing

I have been thinking about a lot of things recently, and one thing I kept thinking back to were a number of people who have greatly influenced and changed the way I write. I have been looking over old Living Greyhawk adventures I wrote in 2003-07, I have to say that my writing style has greatly evolved over the years, from "Burned Flour in High Dough" to "Whose Cuisine Reigns Supreme" to "Encounter at Ramat Bridge" and now into my latest Saggakar adventures, my style has definitely evolved.

I consider these five people to hold an important place in my personal development and I value their contribution to my craft a lot, whether it is because they did things right or did things wrong. I was able to grow from their work.

This article focuses on my organized play adventures.

Eric Menge Back in 2004, I took a trip to Quantico VA for RaptorCon. I was, in those days a fairly new triad and had yet to travel much beyond the borders of Quebec (for LG). While I had heard stories of "other regions", I thought everywhere resembled our region: a well-hidden convoluted plot that was hard guess and where players had little to do with what happened. Then I went to RaptorCon. Eric' masterful storyline was exactly what I wanted to do with Tusmit. It relied on known NPCs, important plot points, unique adventures, all things I wanted to bring to the players of Tusmit. That weekend, I slept about 4 hours across three nights. But it was worth it.

KF Cole I met KF later, when I was in Colorado. He and I hit it off. He really enjoyed the stories and plotlines I worked on with the County of Urnst. Then after the death of LG, he contacted me and asked me about creating a new world, based on an organized play campaign. Start small and grow from there? Sounds familiar? Though I admit that at first, I was lukewarm to the idea and my involvement in the early project my not have been as good as we both wanted, I still think a lot of good material happened. To this day, we keep in touch and I sent him a (very early) draft of the Tyrants of Saggakar Player's Guide.

Louis Porter Jr Did you really think I'd skip LPJ? Though LPJ did not influence HOW I wrote, he did influence me in the way I go from idea to document. If you've never worked with him, he is a man of ideas (sometimes he's got too many). Ideas taken from a variety of sources, and he likes to take a trope, flip it on its head, then give it a few spins and see what happens. This way of playing with the tropes has been central to the creation of both Saggakar and Legacies. He also got me back into the world of comics. I have been reading a lot of comics from the 60s to the 90s (the more modern stuff I don't like very much).

Bradley Fenton (note that I have nothing against Brad, I disliked HOW he planned things, and this criticism is about that methodology, not the man) Brad is an influence in how NOT to do things. Brad is the man who got Living Greyhawk started in Quebec, getting us the nation of Tusmit. His original proposal for a 5-year storyline was awesome. It dealt with the return of the previous Pasha, which is exactly what we did in the end. How we got there was very different but the plot was solid. What I disliked was how he wanted to do it. Rather than having a series of major plotline adventures, he had planned out every adventure with great details, perhaps too much so. With each revelation integral to the plot (a good thing), but spread out thinly over 3 years... Without any room for anything that was not related to the core storyline. From him, I learned to define the overall idea the "points A and B" but to let things evolve between those points, to work with stories at a granular level and advance the plot that way. Perhaps it is just me. Okay it is VERY likely just me.

Lady D'Anne Goldstein How can I write such a list and NOT put down D'Anne's name? She stormed and beat up really bad on so many "great" ideas I had over the years and she has been a springboard for ideas. She did go over a lot of my stuff, and forced me to improve and make things better, avoiding contractions, numeric values and colloquialisms while writing. We took a nation in transition (the previous story arc had ended and no major plot line had yet started) and within a year turned it into one of the most vibrant regions in the west.

Of course, I owe all of them a big thank you, for putting me on a the path I am now and allowing me to avoid pitfalls. So from me to you: a big thank you!

JP