Chaotic Henchmen Productions

Publishing #4: Font Size, Margins, and the Benefits of Lower Page Count

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sat, 26 May 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Pull out your Dungeon Masters Guide – the 1e version – and flip to the Introduction on page 9. Can you read that text comfortably? The page contains more than 1500 words using a 6 point Futura font (or thereabouts), yet it's still quite readable. Admittedly, the DMG has tiny margins, and the font size could cause problems for a small handful of readers, so consider some more typical examples:

D&D Basic (Moldvay edit), p. B29: over 1100 words
D&D Basic (Holmes edit), p. 5: around 1000 words
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, p. 2: over 1200 words
S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, p. 13: over 1200 words
XL1 Quest for the Heartstone, p. 8: over 1100 words
Dragon Magazine #100, p. 12: about 1200 words

… and the list goes on. TSR-era Dungeon Magazine, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Middle-earth Role Playing (Iron Crown Enterprises), Stormbringer (Chaosium), Villains and Vigilantes (FGU), Lord of the Rings RPG (Decipher), Castles & Crusades (Troll Lord Games), and many other products both old and new use small fonts and/or tight margins in order to fit at least 1000-1200 words on dense pages of text. Even the Lamentations of the Flame Princess modules, which are A5 format (approximately digest size), manage to fit 900 words on full pages!

If your product fits less than 1000 words on its full pages of text, then your product wastes space, paper and money!

Consider the following comparision...

On the left: The aforementioned Introduction page from the DMG, containing more than 1500 words. On the right: Page 22 from DF27 Red Tam's Bones (a Dragonsfoot module), which fits only 600 words on its dense pages of text!

Side-by-side with the DMG, the enormous font and expansive margins of Red Tam's Bones gives the appearance of an early-reader's book!

Red Tam's Bones contains 53 interior pages. Does it seem reasonable to print out 53 pages for a module with about the same word count as a vintage TSR module? I don't think so. If Red Tam's Bones used appropriate font sizes & margins, it could have easily fit into the 32 page module format used by TSR.

Goal: 1200+ words on the dense pages

While a 1000+ words goal is acceptable, 1200+ words is better. 1000 words is actually the low end for typical products. As exemplified by the DMG, 1500+ words is not uncommon. Shoot for the middle of that range to get a comfortable result.

Does a product need 1000-1200 words on every page? No, of course not; illustrations and gaps between paragraphs limit the potential word count on many pages. And of course, if your physical product is smaller than 8.5" x 11", adjust the goal accordingly. But if your font & margin choices don't allow at least 1000-1200 words to fit on an 8.5" x 11", no-artwork, dense page of text, then you're wasting resources.

Admittedly, the examples above all use fairly minimalist visual designs. If you want to use a more elegant, elaborate design, go for it! Feel free to add border images, embellishments, headers, footers, or other design flourishes. Even with those niceties, you can still choose fonts, sizes, and margins that can fit 1000+ words on a full page.

Use 8 or 9 point fonts and 1/2-inch margins

Please don't blindly accept your word processor's (or layout program's) default font, size and margin when you create a new file for layout. Many word processors default to a 12 point font and 1-inch margins. Instead, crank your main body text down to 8 or 9 point, or smaller if the font is still readable. Consider 1/2-inch margins. For professionally printed products (including print-on-demand), the margin can even be smaller, because the presses used by professional print houses don't have the same sort of minimum margin requirements that home printers have.

Of course, not all of your text needs to be 8 or 9 point. Headers and titles should use larger point sizes, as should any main body font that's physically smaller than its point size suggests. Similarly, you might have good reason to use larger margins on one or more edges. For exampe, F3 Many Gates of the Gann uses a 0.63-inch margin on the outer edge to provide a bit of extra room for notes, but still uses 0.5-inch margins on the top, bottom and inside edges.

To determine whether you chose good font sizes & margins, print out a test page and compare it side-by-side with a number of professional gaming products. If your body text is about the same size, you're on the right track. Otherwise, keep adjusting and comparing until you have a good result.

Advantages of lower page count

By making good font size & margin choices, you reduce the final page count of your product. As mentioned by the Writing Style Tips article, you can also reduce the final page count by trimming some of the "verbal fat" from your manuscript – perhaps as many as 10-20% of the words. All of this page count reduction benefits publishers and/or consumers in several ways:

Lower printing cost. Whether the product is destined to be printed at home, at a professional print house, or via a print-on-demand service, fewer pages costs less to print than more pages.

Lower shipping cost. Fewer pages means lower weight, and shipping costs are often computed by weight.

Lower art cost. Fewer pages generally means fewer illustrations to commission.

Ease of layout. Layout problems are less frequent, and easier to solve when chunks of text (that need to be all one one spread/page/column) are physically smaller. (More on this in a later article.)

Better-looking full justification. Smaller font sizes & margins give you more words per line. Higher word-per-line counts make full justification work out better.

The first three benefits translate directly to cash-in-hand. Either the consumer receives the product for a lower price (compared to the same gaming content laid out in a suboptimal way), and/or the publisher keeps more profit. Both are fine with me. As a consumer, I'm paying for content, not page count. I'll happily pay $12 for a 20000 word module in 28 pages. If the publisher wants to save himself some production costs and squeeze the same content into 20 pages, I'll still happily pay $12, thus putting more money into the publisher's pocket. But I don't want to pay $20 for the same content just because the publisher used big fonts & margins and ended up with a 56 page result.

Publishing #3: Editing

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:16:00 +0000

"Editing" represents a variety of tasks that serve slightly different purposes. Some of these tasks ought to be the author's responsibility. Some are best performed by a person other than the author. In a couple cases, the author and editor collaborate to complete a particular editing task. When you work with an editor to improve your manuscript, tell the editor specifically what sort of help you want at the moment; don't make the editor guess, otherwise he might waste his time proofreading, when you really want a peer review. Of course, if the author doesn't make his needs explicit, the editor ought to ask.

Review (collaborative)

Reviews (sometimes called Peer Reviews) are typically performed on non-final drafts, when the author wants someone to look over a manuscript for significant issues: Organizational flaws, lack of worth (i.e., it's just not useful, relevant or interesting), logical shortcomings, and areas that need clarification, expansion, or pruning.

Reviewers should also point out chronic stylistic issues, such as overuse of passive voice or too many "to be" verbs (see the Writing Style Tips article).

And don't forget to point out areas that are good!

Ideally, authors and reviewers should have a conversation about the manuscript. The feedback helps the author understand whether the manuscript is on the right track, or whether it needs some kind of course correction.

Reviewers are not expected to make corrections as part of this task. Instead, authors must incorporate the feedback and make any appropriate alterations as they revise the manuscript. Indeed, authors may need to make considerable revisions after receiving the feedback -- possibly even a complete rewrite!

Authors take note: If you show what you believe to be your final draft to someone, and they find significant issues with the manuscript, your next step should not be publishing; your next step should be revision!

Revision (author's responsibility)

After considering feedback from reviews or proofreading, or after simply reading the manuscript himself, the author should make changes to improve the clarity, utility and strength of the manuscript. The effort might be anywhere between rewriting a few sentences, to rearranging paragraphs, to adding a subsection, to starting over again from scratch!

This step is where the author prunes all his unnecessary uses of "will," and replaces his "to be" verbs and unnecessary passive voice with more expressive language.

Spelling & Grammar Checking (author's responsibility)

Most word processors include powerful spelling and grammar checking commands, so authors really ought to handle this task on their own. Don't ask someone to proofread a nearly-final draft unless you already ran a spelling & grammar checker tool on the draft. Proofreaders should not be asked to catch the author's missing periods, his sentence fragments, and his misspellings of "the" as "hte."

Spelling and grammar checkers sometimes make mistakes, especially on gaming products that use many special terms and monster names, so consider each suggested correction carefully before allowing it.

Proofreading (by others; author can help too)

This is the step where people catch the sort of mistakes that computers can't catch, such as the use of a wrong (but correctly-spelled) word, like "parley" vs. "parlay," or "rogue" vs. "rouge." This is also where people check creature stat blocks for correctness, make sure situations make sense (i.e., did you really mean to include 10,000 g.p. in a belt pouch?), ensure various game/mechanical effects are described properly, and look for incorrect room numbering and other mismatches between the map & the text.

Additionally, proofreading should ensure the relevant parts of the manuscript adhere to the publisher's standards for things like:

- Order of information in creature stat blocks. Publishers ought to provide a desired "template" for stat blocks.

- Number usage; i.e., using "1" vs. "One." These guidelines are likely complex.

- Describing hit points & damage; i.e., "6 hp" vs. "6 hit points."

- And more. I plan to write another article or two covering these sorts of things in more detail.

With luck, a proofreader's feedback will contain only minor, easily-corrected issues. But sometimes the feedback will indicate that the author should make another significant revision and produce a new major draft.

For my own gaming projects (whether as an author or an editor), I maintain a cheat sheet of troublesome and commonly-misused words. When I'm in the proofreading stage, I use my word processor's Find command to search for each of the troublesome words, and ensure the correctness of every instance. I have a hard time using the various forms of "lay" & "lie" correctly, so my cheat sheet includes usage examples of about a dozen different variations of those two words. I thought I was pretty well covered as I began work on F3 Many Gates of the Gann, but my awesome editor found a mistake and schooled me on the use of "Lain." I didn't know that word even existed! I added that one to my cheat sheet so I can avoid the mistake next time.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Any of these steps can (and should) be repeated until the author or publisher is pleased with the result. For example, the first peer review may lead to a major rewrite, a second review, and a revision. Then the author may reread and revise a couple times on his own, perhaps based on issues found during playtesting. After using some spelling & grammar checking tools, the author may ask a proofreader to look it over. If this reveals a couple sections to revise, those sections (only) would need another pass from spelling & grammar checking tools, plus another proofread. And after one last proofread that aligns the manuscript to the appropriate standardization & consistency guidelines, the manuscript would finally be ready for layout!

Summary

Editing is not just looking for spelling mistakes. Authors that only want typos corrected are doing a disservice to their manuscript. Editors that provide less help than a computer's spelling checker are doing a disservice to the author. Yes, a complete review, revision and proofreading cycle takes a good bit of effort, but your manuscript will thank you for it!

For more good editing insights, check out these posts on the Gothridge Manor blog:

http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2011/01/editing-gaming-products-part-1.html

http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2011/01/editing-gamping-products-part-2.html

http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2011/01/editing-gaming-products-part-3.html

http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-editing-advice.html

Publishing #2: Writing Style Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:23:00 +0000

If you're like me, evocative writing doesn't exactly flow effortlessly from your mind onto the page; evocative writing requires time and thoughtful revision. Sure, you can probably produce clear & competent text, but if you're trying to publish your manuscript as a labor of love (because big bags of cash aren't waiting for us at the end of a self-publishing rainbow), why settle for mere competence? Go the extra mile and make your language great!

Here are a few pointers on how to achieve powerful writing, with an eye toward pitfalls common to modules, supplements and rulebooks:

Limit the use of passive voice

Passive voice is a sentence structure that puts the recipient of the action before the person or object performing the action. Example: "The handle was cranked by the monkey." Sometimes passive voice even omits the person or object performing the action, as in, "The handle was cranked."

Although passive voice serves as a useful tool in certain situations, many people overuse it and fall into a habit of painting incomplete or disjointed pictures with their words. Passive voice is also less concise than its opposite (active voice). For these reasons, use passive voice only when necessary. As you revise, look for places where you can switch to active voice without the eroding the utility & clarity of your descriptions.

So to revise the earlier example of passive voice into active voice, you might end up with: "The monkey cranked the handle."

For more detail on passive voice vs. active voice, and when it's best to use one over the other, check out the following articles. But keep in mind that game modules, supplements and rulebooks are akin to technical manuals, and therefore can benefit from passive voice more frequently than narrative prose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_passive_voice
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/citation/passive-voice

Limit the use of "is," "are," and other "to be" verbs

This is best shown with an example. Which of the following sounds most evocative?

1) "Three goblins are in this room. They are eating from ceramic bowl of gruel that is between them all."
2) "Three goblins kneel near a ceramic bowl of gruel, hungrily consuming their meal."

Clearly the verbs in the second sentence paint a more vivid picture. By making efforts to replace "to be" will more powerful verbs, you force yourself to think more visually, which naturally draws out other bits of detail from your imagination. You end up with a double win for surprisingly little effort.

For more information about avoiding "to be" verbs, check out the following article:
http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/avoid-verb-5678/

Avoid "seems" and "appears"

Those two words are frequently used in gaming products as stunt doubles for "to be" verbs, and they're just as bland. You don't really need them when describing things from a PC's perspective; simply describe what "seems" to be as though it's actual fact. From the point of view of a player-DM exchange, perception is reality, and vice-versa.

Instead of, "the door seems solid," use something like, "the door holds well against the strongest shove."

And instead of, "you search, and the hallway appears safe," use something like, "you search, but gain no new information about the hallway."

Avoid the word "will"

When describing triggerable actions, "will" only functions as a space-waster. That is, you should generally prefer present tense over future tense. For example, "Pulling the lever will raise the portcullis, which will in turn alert the nearby bugbears," can be improved by simply removing the two "wills": "Pulling the lever raises the portcullis, which in turn alerts the nearby bugbears."

As another example, "The carrion crawler will attack anyone who approaches the debris," is better as, "The carrion crawler attacks anyone who approaches the debris."

Go through your whole manuscript, looking for "will," and its various contraction forms ("he'll," "they'll," etc.); I bet you can safely remove 90% of them.

Avoid explicit room emptiness

Too many modules begin room descriptions with phrases like, "This room is empty, except for (some stuff)," or, "There is nothing here other than (some stuff)." Worse, modules occasionally contradict themselves about emptiness: "This mound is empty. There is a broken sarcophagus here decorated in bas relief …" (From Barrowmaze, p. 10 – Greg, sorry for picking on you.)

Explicit emptiness wastes the reader's time. Only describe notable emptiness, such as a single empty chamber within an otherwise cluttered and overfull dungeon. If a particular emptiness begs for explicit mention despite the presence of a small number of objects, use phrases like, "A single terra cotta urn stands alone near the north wall," or, "A solitary dwarf prisoner lies on the floor, overshadowed by the vastness of the chamber."

As an adjunct, don't write keyed descriptions for completely featureless and empty rooms. Empty rooms in a module indeed serve a useful purpose; by all means, please include empty rooms on your maps! But don't give them room numbers, and don't waste words on a description that doesn't describe anything.

Don't assume the party takes all the actions

Avoid phrases that assume "the party" or "the PCs" are the ones acting in the environment: "If the party opens the chest, (bad stuff happens)," or "The trolls pursue any fleeing PCs to the entrance of the dungeon." Other dungeon dwellers (NPCs, other monsters) may open that chest or interact with those trolls, so the text ought to allow for it. Good revisions might be, "Opening the chest causes (some bad stuff)," and "The trolls pursue anyone they fight, but not beyond the entrance of the dungeon."

Eliminate pointless conditionals

"There are five saddles that can be used for flight-fungi, if the characters think of using them as flying mounts." (Demonspore, p. 56)

Wh–huh?! As written, those saddles only exist if the characters think of using them in the particular way!

More commonly, this pitfall catches writers describing the contents of chests: "If searched, the chest contains 300 gp and a potion of healing." No! This is not Schrödinger's chest! The chest contains 300 gp and the potion whether or not it's searched, so drop the "if (blah)" part of those kinds of descriptions.

Limit the description of former purposes

Avoid excessive exposition about former uses of rooms & objects, especially when the former use is no longer relevant, or impossible to discern. If the particular facts are of little/no benefit, they just waste space.

If a former purpose is important, try to imply it via trappings or other detail, without explicitly stating it. Another way to indicate a former purpose is by incorporating it into the room/area title. Good room/area titles are hard to come up with, and this technique can help you with some of that hurdle. But don't make this your default technique; unique, evocative room/area titles are generally better than always naming a room for its former purpose.

Summary

When used appropriately, these guidelines foster powerful language, and generally also reduce word count. Conciseness is important for the obvious reason: Speedy comprehension. Less obviously, conciseness reduces page count (which directly affects printing cost & final cost to the buyer and/or profit for the publisher) and simplifies the layout process. By taking the time to generate an improved linguistic product, you indirectly improve the eventual visual display of the product! More on that in a future article...

The next article covers Editing.

Publishing #1: Introduction and Order of Tasks

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:36:00 +0000

Producing modules and rulebooks requires a diverse skill set. The process begins with creative writing, then quickly moves into revising, editing, layout, art orders, illustration & map rendering, graphic design, communication with print houses, prepping print-ready files, uploading, order fulfillment, and more. Phew! Fumbling a couple of those parts can hamstring a great manuscript, and reduce it to a mediocre, hard-to-use product. Most of us have had practice with the writing end of the process, but gaining expertise in the rest of the steps usually requires plenty of trial & error.

This series of articles aims to impart a bit of expertise in a broad range of publishing steps, so you don't have to learn everything the hard way. I have outlines for future articles covering editing, layout, and working with artists, plus some notes on map design and working with local print houses. Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see covered.

Disclaimer: I don't have formal training in most of these publishing tasks; I gained most of this experience while producing a handful of modules, plus a few other personal, non-gaming items. There are multiple ways to handle most of the tasks, so don't take these articles as gospel. Feel free to share any alternative methods or ideas in the comments.

Part 1: A Publisher's Order of Tasks

Because of the prevalence of easy-to-use word processing & layout tools, new publishers can get a little bit ahead of themselves in the production steps. Fostered by exuberance, publishers sometimes jump too early into the art commissioning and layout processes, and either end up with a less-than-ideal result, or spend time and money redoing some of the steps. It happened to me when I published F1 The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies; because of my stumbles, I now know an ideal order for handling the major parts of publishing:

General Order of Tasks

1) Write the manuscript. Get all the way to the final draft. A draft isn't really final if you're expecting to make changes based on playtesting.
2) Edit
3) Layout
4) Commission Illustrations
5) Final assembly (put the illustrations into the spaces reserved during layout)

To elaborate...

Don't do layout until after the manuscript is absolutely finished and edited. The best layout decisions depend on knowing exactly how much space is taken up by various sections of text. If you're still changing text, you can't know the exact size of that block of text. (But it's okay to do experimental layouts, to get a feel for the visual of how the finished pages might look, such as to help choose fonts, spacing, sidebars, etc.)

Don't commission illustrations until after layout is finished. In addition to helping the reader visualize the text, illustrations serve a subtle secondary purpose of filling up precise amounts of space. This allows the surrounding text to break nicely, with even tops & bottoms of columns, and with strongly-related pieces of text together on the same column/page/spread.

Later articles will give more justification for both of those keys.

The next article covers Writing Style Tips.

Now Available: F3 Many Gates of the Gann

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:01:00 +0000

Dungeon Module F3 –

Many Gates of the Gann

Buy F3 Many Gates of the Gann at FRP Games.

You can also buy F1 The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies at FRP Games if you don't have it yet. Or ask for either of them at your local game store. If necessary, let your game store know they can order them from WarPath Games, a hobby gaming wholesale distributor. www.warpathgames.com

Barbarous hyena-men who raid villages and kidnap girl-children? Bah! Unremarkable in our world! But when these raiders retreat safely past ancient sculptures that vaporize intruders, into heretofore unopened vaults believed to hold a weapon of primal terror, and past the gates that guard ancient treasures never beheld by man? Aye! Now these are rumors worthy of adventure! What bold souls will dare pass into centuries-old chambers protected by the Many Gates of the Gann?

Many Gates of the Gann includes complete descriptions and maps for a three-level adventure site, and is easily adaptable to most campaign settings. It is the latest in a series of modules designed for either independent or interconnected use.

System: For use with 1st Edition AD&D, and largely compatible with 2nd edition, the Basic game, the Original game, as well as the various clones and simulacra.

Format: 28 pages, saddle stitched. Retro-style detached cover with maps on the cover interior.

Author: Guy Fullerton

Artists: Stefan Poag, Andy "ATOM" Taylor, Zhu Bajie, John Larrey, Jason Sholtis

See previews and additional info.

AD&D is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, and is used without permission.

Chaotic Henchmen Productions and its products are not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

F3 Proof Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:11:00 +0000

The first proof was ready on March 21 as expected, but there were some color and trim issues, so I had to make a couple small tweaks and re-send the digital files to the print house. The second proof was ready yesterday, and it turned out perfectly! F3 is now officially in the printing stage; I will be picking up the first print run next Wednesday (March 28) and it will be available for purchase shortly after that ... probably as soon as March 29.

Here's a look at the proof. The images are intentionally small, to help avoid spoilers. Even so, some MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW...

The retro-style detached cover and the interior 28 page module booklet. The front cover artwork is by Stefan Poag, and the title page illustration is by Andy "ATOM" Taylor:

Page 2 includes a brief Introduction (background), Notes for the Dungeon Master (with 7 rumors/seeds), and General Features describing the mundane and special physical features of the "dungeon." Page 3 begins the Key to the Upper Level, and has a sidebar describing the Servitor Apes.

Pages 14 and 15 describe areas 62 through 72, including the "Lodge for Erstwhile Cannibals," and "Scriptura-Morphu." Two of these illustrations are by Stefan Poag, with one by Jason Sholtis.

Page 26 describes the last two keyed areas (119 and 120) and features a super-detailed illustration by Zhu Bajie. Page 27 is the New Monster description (Zerpanax), with an enormously cool illustration by Stefan Poag.

The inside of the detached cover for F3 Many Gates of the Gann has the maps for the Upper Level and Middle Level. Portions of the maps are obfuscated in order to avoid spoilers.

Grainy (sorry!) closeup of a portion of the Upper Level map on the inside of the detached cover.

Grainy (sorry!) closeup of a portion of the Middle Level map on the inside of the detached cover.

F3 in the Proofing Stage, plus Previews!

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 05:12:00 +0000

It's been a while, but it's time for some news, plus another preview. First, the news:

Artwork is finished (woo!), and F3 Many Gates of the Gann is in the proofing stage. The print house has the digital files, and the first proof should be in my hands tomorrow! If the first proof looks good, I'll place the order for the print run, which means the module might be available for purchase as early as next week. (Fingers crossed!)

Earlier previews already showed off some of the cool illustrations by Stefan Poag and Andy "ATOM" Taylor, but the module also features the awesome talent of three other artists: Jason Sholtis, John Larrey, and Zhu Bajie. So here's a preview of those three in action...

First is an illustration by both Jason Sholtis and John Larrey. Or rather, just part of an illustration. What are these guys stalking? And hey! Did that one just look at me?

Second, here's one of the super-detailed illustrations by Zhu Bajie. That dude on the iron throne can't see, can he? His gem-studded helm has no eye slits. Wanna fight him? I'm sure you can beat him ;)

F3 - Many Gates of the Gann PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:47:00 +0000

Dungeon Module F3 – Many Gates of the Gann is moving forward nicely. Editing and layout are finished, and I've begun commissioning interior artwork, so it's time to start previews...

Stefan Poag did the awesome front cover illustration :D

For a better look at the front cover, check out his blog.

Here's the front cover blurb:

System: For 1st Edition AD&D, and largely compatible with any TSR-era A/D&D, plus the clones & simulacra.

Format: 28 pages, saddle stitched. Retro-style detached cover with maps on the cover interior.

Author: Guy Fullerton

Artists: Stefan Poag, Andy "ATOM" Taylor, and at least one other artist that I'm trying to line up.

I'm shooting for an early spring release. It will be going into distribution the same as F1, so will be for sale at FRP Games, Noble Knight, and various other places.

AD&D is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, and is used without permission.

Chaotic Henchmen Productions and its products are not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

F1 is Back In Stock!

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:00 +0000

Dungeon Module F1 –

The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies is Back in Stock!

The second printing is available now at FRP Games, and it's at the distributor, so it should show up at other stores soon.

Buy it at FRP Games

(If necessary, let your game store know they can order it from WarPath Games, a hobby gaming wholesale distributor. www.warpathgames.com )

Proofs for the Second Printing of F1

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:04:00 +0000

Just picked up the proofs for the Second Printing of F1 - The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies. If you look closely, it says "Second Printing, January 2012" at the bottom of the title page, and there's a similar note on the back cover. I asked the printing house to make one production tweak, but otherwise this is ready to roll.

Barring any delays at the printing house, this should be available in January!

Writing finished on F3 – Many Gates of the Gann

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:09:00 +0000

I finished the final draft of F3 – Many Gates of the Gann earlier today and sent it for editing!

Yes, this means that unless things go horribly wrong with F3, it will come out before F2. That's okay from one sense because F3 stands by itself. It's not okay from another sense, because I'd really like to put F2 out there to fill in the big gap revealed by F1 ... but F2 is nowhere near ready. I'm thinking about releasing F2 in some kind of Alpha format: A very minimal work up of the material I've already completed, but with only sketchy notes and ideas for the other parts. This wouldn't preclude a more fleshed-out release of F2 at some point.

Also: When I get F3 printed, I'm also planning on another print run for F1 (with a couple minor errata fixes) for folks that were unable to get a copy before they ran out.

And wow, it's been 2.5 years since the last post!

Two modules for $15 + free shipping!

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:16:00 +0000

Thanks to an arrangement with RC Pinnell (aka Thorkhammer on the Dragonsfoot forums), I'm happy to offer a special two-module combo of RC Pinnell's GS1 Sanctum of the Stone Giant Lord plus my own F1 The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies at a very special price of $15 (US) with FREE shipping to anywhere in the world! (So in a way, this is a better deal for non-US buyers than it is for US buyers.)

The only way I can offer the modules at this price is by handling the sales & shipping myself, and I don't have enough spare time to handle that forever, so this is a limited time and limited quantity offer. There are only 20 combo available at this price, and the offer will only be good for 2 weeks. As soon as the 20 combos are sold or two weeks have passed (whichever happens first), the offer is over.

US orders will be sent by USPS Priority Mail in a Priority Mail flat-rate envelope. Non-US orders will be shipped in a 8.5" x 11" manilla envelope via First Class international mail.

Update: Combos are Sold Out! Thanks very much to everyone who purchased a combo!

(Plenty of copies of F1 are still available at FRP Games at normal price, and GS1 is still available at RC Pinnell's Lulu storefront.)

Now Available: Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Dungeon Module F1 –

The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies

by Guy Fullerton

24 pages, saddle-stitched, with retro-style detached cover and maps on the cover interior.

Buy it at FRP Games

Or ask for it at your local game store.

(If necessary, let your game store know they can order it from WarPath Games, a hobby gaming wholesale distributor. www.warpathgames.com )

For other purchasing inquiries, feel free to contact Guy Fullerton via the email address listed in the profile to the right.

See previews and additional info.

F1 at the Printers

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:36:00 +0000

I approved the final proofs for Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies yesterday, and the first print run is now in progress!

It took a little longer than I had hoped to get through the proofing process, which means it won't have a February release. On the bright side, the print run will be finished very early next week, and I should be accepting orders and shipping at that time.

If all goes well, the next post here will include details on how to order!

Proofs!

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:56:00 +0000

I picked up the proofs for The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies today! It was pretty exciting to see production-quality physical copies of the module: Three sets of the interior pages, plus a half dozen covers in a variety of different coatings.

I finalized the pesky cover stock & coating details that were plaguing me last week, which is great. Unfortunately, the proofs revealed couple things that need to be fixed before the final copies are printed. (I should say, "fortunately," because that's what proofs are for: Finding the unforeseen layout or production issues before you print a ton of product. So the proofs did their job.)

Because of the holiday, I won't be able to get new proofs (to verify the fixes) until the end of next week at the earliest, which means the final printing can't begin in earnest until the week of February 23rd, and that assumes I won't need a third cycle of proofs.

So The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies is still on track for a February release, but only just barely.

In other news, I'm investigating what it will take to produce content for another roleplaying game that is neither a flavor of D&D, nor a clone or simulacrum...

F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies (front cover)

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:21:00 +0000

Peter Mullen's front cover illustration looks amazing! Click on the cover image above for a larger view. The release of Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies just got a lot closer. I'm still talking with the printers about a few details, but I hope to have printed copies in my hands next week (knock on wood!), and I'll start to take orders shortly after that. Stay tuned...

I want to help you Self-Publish!

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Do you have a module or dungeon you'd like to self-publish? Do you want it to have an authentic old-school cover that reminds you of S4, B1, or G1 (mono)? Do you want an impressive, clean and functional interior layout?

I am looking for old-school gaming content to produce. If you have modules or supplements that need editing, layout, or high-quality cartography, please contact me.

I can produce great-looking, professional results in a variety of formats that are ready for immediate customer download as well as print on demand. Samples available on request. If you are trying to generate professionally printed product, I can help facilitate that too, by getting stuff printed at the local print shop – the same one I use for the physical product that Chaotic Henchmen Productions will soon be selling.

I'm interested in helping with both free and for-profit products. For free products, in exchange for the work, I ask for credit (to both myself and Chaotic Henchmen Productions) for any work done, as well as right to advertise the product on the Chaotic Henchmen Productions web site. You keep the copyright. My rates for profit projects are flexible based on need.

F1 – Cover Art Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:37:00 +0000

This preview for Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies is another preliminary illustration, this time a full-color cover illustration by Peter Mullen. When it's finished, it will be filled with more gorgeous color, and Peter may make a minor change or two as necessary.

I'll have to let the picture do the talking this time, because a blurb from the room description would be a spoiler. The warrior in green better watch out; he's about to be surrounded by giant scorpions! I hope the magic user's spell is potent!

F1 – Art Preview #3

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:46:00 +0000

This art preview for Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies is a preliminary illustration by Andy "ATOM" Taylor; the final version of the illustration in the module may have a minor change or two, and it will be cleaned up and inked.

"A 10 foot tall yellow and white marble statue of the sun god dominates the room. It stands near the eastern wall and looks toward the western archway with its face gazing downward and arms outstretched in a pose that suggests both grandeur and kindness. Although the ceiling does not contain any light shafts, the room is still quite bright and warm, for the statue’s eyes beam radiant sunlight into the center of the room. Carved murals on the walls convey esteem for growth, agriculture, and life."

F1 – Art Preview #2

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:32:00 +0000

Here's another art preview from Dungeon Module F1 - The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies, again by Jason Braun:

"A marble sarcophagus lies at the center of the room. Its sides are inscribed with imagery of palm and papyrus trees, and its lid shows a nondescript humanoid with a featureless face. In front of the sarcophagus is the fallen corpse of a half-orc female. Lying next to her are a crowbar, a footman’s mace, and a burnt torch. Completely filling a semicircular alcove at the back of the chamber is a 12 foot tall iron statue of a jackal-headed man wearing foreign garb that accentuates its musculature."

F1 – Art Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:53:00 +0000

The first interior art preview from Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane Of Poisoned Prophecies is an illustration by Jason Braun:

"Here, a startlingly pungent smell and a camphoraceous odor unsettle the senses and speed breathing. The smells waft upward from a variety of wicker and glass vessels set at the flanks of a squat granite altar whose sides are covered with blood-red hand, ear, and mouth prints, many of which appear to be made by children. Behind the altar stands a 5 foot tall whitewashed stone statue depicting a bald, androgynous human wearing only a tunic. The statue covers its eyes with its hands, and its mouth is open slightly as if to speak. The walls are densely packed with runes, symbols, and other writing..."

F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies (back cover)

noreply@blogger.com (Guy Fullerton) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 06:48:00 +0000

Our first product is Dungeon Module F1 – The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies, a 24 page 1st edition AD&D® module for character levels 4-6. From the front cover:

For years, lords and warriors have delivered riches to the remote Sun Temple in exchange for prophecies from the mysterious oracle who dwells within. But of late, the oracle’s advice has soured.

Some say the oracle has gone mad and lost her powers. Others believe she has forsaken her allegiances and seeks to collapse the kingdom. Rogues whisper of enormous piles of gold and jewelry within the Sun Temple – perhaps no longer guarded. Wealth, power, and surprising secrets await those who dare explore the Sun Temple and beyond!

The back cover (click on the preview above) features a color illustration by Jason Braun, who is also one of the interior artists. Look for more art previews later in the week.

Although it contains a backstory for the DM to use (or not!), The Fane of Poisoned Prophecies doesn't foist a plot on the players. The adventure environment allows for a wide variety of possible character motivations and goals, so the "plot" of the module is whatever the characters make of it. It offers the potential for fighting, exploration, interaction, puzzle solving, and more, so it should provide just as much fun for Chaotic Evil characters as it does for Lawful Good ones. It's written with many old-school sensibilities in mind, but it can be easily adapted to new-school play styles.

Like any 1st edition AD&D® module, it is largely compatible with 2nd edition, the basic game, the original game, as well as the various clones and simulacra.

Details: 24 pages, saddle stitched, with full-color cover and black & white interior

Author: Guy Fullerton

Availability: February 2009

AD&D is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, and is used without permission.

Chaotic Henchmen Productions and its products are not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.