tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post1362511733709215249..comments2024-03-28T08:50:57.015+01:00Comments on Beyond Fomalhaut: [REVIEW] Fractious Mayhem at Melonath FallsMelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-55355449995512911722022-04-02T21:55:50.130+02:002022-04-02T21:55:50.130+02:00'Fraid not. Castle Xanadu was mostly a thought...'Fraid not. Castle Xanadu was mostly a thought exercise created c. 2006 in an attempt to do an "old-style" megadungeon a la Greyhawk or Blackmoor and most of it only ever resided in my head - I mapped 4 (non-sequential) levels and parts of a few others and the keys were minimal shorthand notes supplemented with tons of at-the-table improvisation. There were Campaign Journal threads at Dragonsfoot about the sessions I ran at SCMC1 (2008) and another game day we held in a restaurant a year or two later but not long after that I shifted back into "AD&D mode" and haven't done anything further with it since then. If I shared the maps and keys they wouldn't look like much of anything, which was kind of the point - proving myself that "module-style" presentation wasn't needed to run fun games.Trenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01889179660165006042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-72137459697219446202022-04-02T01:42:50.829+02:002022-04-02T01:42:50.829+02:00Hi Trent!
I'm curious, is there anywhere one c...Hi Trent!<br />I'm curious, is there anywhere one could read "Castle Xanadu"?Shahar Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02634595916850412548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-45180791340505890982022-03-31T20:21:23.275+02:002022-03-31T20:21:23.275+02:00SoCal Minicon was more than decent and I would hap...SoCal Minicon was more than decent and I would happily run a session or two of this there (the same way I ran my Castle Xanadu megadungeon, The Abduction of Good King Despot, the Tomb of Rahotep, and Garden of the Plantmaster). Alas, the final SoCal Minicon was held in 2012. After the guy who handled most of the organizing and promotion moved to the east coast the rest of us sadly let it fizzle away...Trenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01889179660165006042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-78230968280404187002022-03-31T10:33:44.168+02:002022-03-31T10:33:44.168+02:00The rating is well deserved. As usual with 1s and ...The rating is well deserved. As usual with 1s and 5s, I spent some time thinking about it, and decided I'd rather give a high score to something genuinely excellent with some flaws (like Broken Castle), than something that ticks all boxes but doesn't have a core that is really a cut above the rest. The contest entries have all been pleasant surprises, but even among them, this entry has stood out (next to <b>The Temple of Hypnos</b>, a very different kind of excellent). And the problems, which are light in any event, are something that can be fixed with some underlining and minor notes. If you ever produce a high prodution values revision, I'd suggest a "this is what you see" illustration handout, perhaps even as the cover image.<br /><br />You might have a successful test game at one of the few genuine old-school convention (I heard SoCal Minicon was decen?), even if it would necessarily mean only a part of the location could be explored. I actually wanted to run it for my ongoing campaign (it would fit surprisingly well), but Chomy, who plays our M-U, read the reviews and contest entries, so it will have to wait for a different occasion. Fairly similar to what happened with Welleran's <b>Forgotten Grottoes of the Sea Lords.</b>Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-35211471118647297172022-03-29T23:53:35.895+02:002022-03-29T23:53:35.895+02:00Wow. 5 stars? That's one more than I was even ...Wow. 5 stars? That's one more than I was even hoping for, so I'll take it. Thanks!<br /><br />I still haven't had a chance to actually run this yet - several close calls haven't quite materialized. Scheduling is hard! Ironically, now that it's been out for a few months it's likely someone else will end up running it before I do (but if that's happened I haven't heard about it yet). <br /><br />One problem is that I'm wary of running it as a one-off, both because I think dropping a set of new players who aren't used to my style and aren't used to working together as a team into this is likely to make it more of a meat-grinder, but also because I don't think a single session will be enough to do it justice - one session is enough for a careless party to get wiped out for sure, but I feel like to effectively explore the place probably needs more like 3-4 (or more) sessions. <br /><br />However, trying to run it in the campaign-context in which it was originally envisioned presents its own challenges - both that I'm still working on writing the lower-level material that's supposed to lead up to it, and also that starting at level 1 means several months (at least) of play before they'd be ready for this one, and as hard as it's been to get together even a one-off session I'm pretty sure that's asking too much both of me and the prospective players. <br /><br />Still glad you liked and appreciated it, even with its acknowledged rough edges. I like to think that in a perfect world I could have handed this manuscript over to a third-party editor and graphics/art team who could have transformed it into something that looks/feels fully "professional" but in the context of Prince's contest that wasn't going to happen (and of course if I did hand it over to such a group I assume they'd insist on owning all rights and all I'd get would be some lump-sum pittance of like $100). We'll see what happens when/if I finish writing the larger-scale campaign set from which this was extracted...Trenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01889179660165006042noreply@blogger.com