The Campaign Builder's Guild

It's been slow here.  I see you dudes and dudettes lurking, so I know you know - and I want you to know I know that you know.  Or whatever.

What's everyone up to?  I know we're all super busy; I'm genuinely curious.  What's going on in your life?  What writing and gaming projects are you working on?  How are you and your kinfolk?

Hectic life, not much time for creative writing/reviewing.

Doing a career change into web development. Enrolled in a school and starting in 20 days. Lots going on.

Sometimes I hop by, hoping Republic Reborn miraculously returned. Or somesuch.

I am in graduate school to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, so also pretty busy.

I am also, in my own time, working on a setting inspired by somewhat by biblical apocrypha and Steerpike's Tempter. The basic premise is that there's a powerful, vengeful god that humanity manages to kill by building a city tall enough to reach the heavens. It's just a notepad with a bunch of bullet points, but it's something at the back of my mind.

That sounds dope as hell, Weave. Like the Tower of Babel if it were a warmachine.

I've just finished a term of teaching. I'm working on various creative projects, some gaming-related (one potentially may be published), some not.

Drew this recently, working on notes for my players:



[spoiler=Delirium Castle, Full Resolution][/spoiler]
Also working on finally getting Apltraum into a playable state.

Quote from: Magnus Pym
Hectic life, not much time for creative writing/reviewing.

Doing a career change into web development. Enrolled in a school and starting in 20 days. Lots going on.

Sometimes I hop by, hoping Republic Reborn miraculously returned. Or somesuch.

I've been coaching a friend of mine through learning web dev. It's probably the most friendly coding route to go for those with more creative bents. Let me know how it goes.

Quote from: SteerpikeThat sounds dope as hell, Weave. Like the Tower of Babel if it were a warmachine.

I've just finished a term of teaching. I'm working on various creative projects, some gaming-related (one potentially may be published), some not.

Drew this recently, working on notes for my players:

That is a wicked graphic. What is going on in Delirium Castle? Is it a megadungeon of sorts? Lots of mad knights and maniacal sorceresses?

My life has gotten pretty swamped lately - full-time work, part-time MASc in Electrical Engineering, plus more than a few projects of my own, one of which is looking for work that's a little more fulfilling (i.e. embedded systems, telecommunications, and space stuff). The lab work for the MASc has spawned three projects itself: a control automation tool for the lab equipment, a synthesizer program for generating numerical representations of Fourier Series (think something akin to waveforms you see in audio visualizers), and another I'm not allowed to talk about. If someone wants to see me scramble through bug fixes and features, you can see my GitHub [link=https://github.com/threexc]here[/link].

I'm itching to get back here and continue the last Haveneast game, and to run some sci-fi too, but for now I'll have to settle for playing The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne in the random hour I get here and there.

Quote from: HoersThat is a wicked graphic. What is going on in Delirium Castle? Is it a megadungeon of sorts? Lots of mad knights and maniacal sorceresses?

Thanks! So it is a megadungeon... in the middle of the main city. Here's the background:

[ic=Delirium Castle]Delirium Castle looms above the worst parts of Hex: the rotten tenements of Corvid Commons to the east, the eldritch desolation of the Midden and the mildewed slums of the Zymotic Ward to the west, the stinking corpse-markets of Shambleside to the south. A sprawling edifice of ancient stone, the Castle occasionally rearranges itself overnight, sometimes sprouting new spires, turrets mottling its walls and towers like tumours, entire wings spasming into existence in a viral bloom of teratomatous architecture.

The Castle was constructed seven centuries ago by the mad dictator Zachariah Soulswell, a wizard of tremendous power gleaned from his time in the Old City. Zachariah magically mind-controlled many of those in high positions of office and gradually assumed control of the city, eventually proclaiming himself Emperor, using his arcane prowess and artefacts to maintain his brutal reign. During this period, Soulswell dominated many of Hex's neighbours, gathered additional artefacts of great power, and enforced a series of bizarre, nonsensical edicts – for example, insisting that all sentences be spoken and written backwards on Stardays, or banning the eating of eggs.

His vicious rule last for thirteen years, during which time many of Hex's other powerful wizards lived in exile. They would eventually return to Hex with an army of mortal mercenaries and conjured troops, the latter purchased through a deal with the Chthonic Gods promising them the damned souls of Hex – a deal which would also lead to the construction of the Infernal Basilica. The Hexian Civil War would culminate in a siege of Delirium Castle which has technically never ended: the invading army forced Soulswell into a retreat, but found taking the Castle too difficult. The result has been a seven-hundred-year stalemate. Soulswell's crazed laughter still echoes over the city on certain nights, and lights are often glimpsed in the ruinous Castle's variegated spires.

The Castle itself is a shifting maze of illusions and secret doors, designed by the magus himself. While most objects in Delirium Castle are cursed, Zachariah gathered to himself treasures of unthinkable value, bought, stolen, or seized from distant realms. These reputedly include a Pocketwatch of Time Dilation, the legendary Infinite Nesting Doll, the hideous Mace of Madness whose blows shatter space and sense, the Planar Puzzlebox, and the Shrunken Kingdom of Xsach, contained in a dome of glass. The Castle also contains a vast and disorganized library rumoured to be kept by demons, Fair Folk, and stranger things, summoned by the wizard to protect the valuable tomes from thieves. Many of the arcane universities in Hex would sorely like to recover some of these volumes, but the agents they send into Delirium Castle in search of these grimoires rarely return.[/ic]

I'm going for a sort of Labyrinth meets Gormenghast vibe. The wizard's servants were mostly goblins who he magically modified to serve specific functions (for example, a sweeper-goblin subspecies with a broom for a tail, duster-goblins with incredibly long arms to reach hard-to-dust corners, sentry-goblins with gigantic eyes and ears to detect approaching foes, kitchen-goblins that grow symbiotic mushrooms on their skin, smithing-goblins who are resistant to fire, etc), who have now run totally amok through large sections of the castle. Lots of deadly whimsy, like armouries full of animated weapons, and funhouse-style rooms that connect via complicated portals. For sure insane knights, who might be ogres or animated suits of armour or undead.

I guess it's unfair to solicit information without reciprocating.

I'm finishing up my second year of law school (one more to go!).  My wife gave birth to my daughter about a month and a half ago.  Also, I just started a new job - so I've been super, super busy, as you can imagine.

Gamewise, I've been able to run a series of one-shot games over the last few years between semesters, which has sort of coalesced into a loosely connected campaign.  To keep things simple, I built out a microsetting called the "Empire of Sorrows," centered on a Melnibone-esque civilization called Gran Desaar.  It's all a lot of flash and style-over-substance, but they're newbies so they don't know any better.

I have also intermittently continued the endless 7-year project that is the novel I will never complete, set in the Red Valor universe.  At this rate I might be on the second book by the time my daughter goes to college.

So that's me!

Quote from: Masque of OblivionMy wife gave birth to my daughter about a month and a half ago.

Congratulations!

Quote from: Masque of OblivionIt's all a lot of flash and style-over-substance, but they're newbies so they don't know any better.

Substance is overrated. Sounds like an interesting setting.

Quote from: Masque of OblivionI have also intermittently continued the endless 7-year project that is the novel I will never complete, set in the Red Valor universe

Writing is hard, I have several unfinished novel drafts at this point. Hope to read yours when it's done!

Writing, writing, writing, always writing... and sometimes getting paid for it.

I''m deep into my novel based on my setting kernel "Last Song Of A Dragonnish Piper". It's somewhat inspired by "The Glass Bead Game", except that stuff happens in it.

Also watching the CBG from the shadows like a creepy little nerdpervert.

Well blow me down, I can't believe this place still exists!  I was just searching for some old Tasothilos-related material on a google search and up popped a link to the CBG.  I'm absolutely delighted.

I was I believe member #3 or #4 back in 2006 but vanished in late 2007.  Undergrad was a rough time for me, and I started and abandoned far for projects than I care to remember.  (And ugh looking back at some of my posts from that era... I was more than a bit of a know-it-all prat.)

In the past 10 years, I've more or less given up gaming - I was for much of my 20s a serial starter of games that fizzled after two sessions, and finally figured out it was because although system design was interesting to me, and setting design likewise, "playing" was as much a chore as a pleasure.  But I still casually pick away at Tasothilos, the setting which you can find way-way-way back on the board here, and I've lately been toying with the idea of a novel.

In the personal sphere, I'm getting married in a month, and four years deep in a doctoral program in late antique Christianity  (prospectus is being written.)  Not exactly where I saw myself being when last I posted here in (eek!) 2007, but it's been good.

Quote from: Kalos Mer
Well blow me down, I can't believe this place still exists!  I was just searching for some old Tasothilos-related material on a google search and up popped a link to the CBG.  I'm absolutely delighted.

I was I believe member #3 or #4 back in 2006 but vanished in late 2007.  Undergrad was a rough time for me, and I started and abandoned far for projects than I care to remember.  (And ugh looking back at some of my posts from that era... I was more than a bit of a know-it-all prat.)

In the past 10 years, I've more or less given up gaming - I was for much of my 20s a serial starter of games that fizzled after two sessions, and finally figured out it was because although system design was interesting to me, and setting design likewise, "playing" was as much a chore as a pleasure.  But I still casually pick away at Tasothilos, the setting which you can find way-way-way back on the board here, and I've lately been toying with the idea of a novel.

In the personal sphere, I'm getting married in a month, and four years deep in a doctoral program in late antique Christianity  (prospectus is being written.)  Not exactly where I saw myself being when last I posted here in (eek!) 2007, but it's been good.

Welcome back (you might remember be as WitchHunt, MadApe19, or some variation of Troll). We've slowed down quite a bit since you were last here (I think peak activity was sometime around 2010), but there are still some people kicking around. Congratulations on the marriage! You're definitely not the only one whose gaming activity has dropped off over time - lots of us are doing graduate work and/or just have been absorbed by other parts of life. You may find that one of the biggest changes is that there's a whole lot more discussion of systems other than D&D here compared to what it used to be.

Alright, well I just graduated with a GA Bachelors of Graphic Design on Monday. Somehow that doesn't feel as big a deal as I was hoping it would be.

Quote from: Kalos Mer
Well blow me down, I can't believe this place still exists!  I was just searching for some old Tasothilos-related material on a google search and up popped a link to the CBG.  I'm absolutely delighted.

I was I believe member #3 or #4 back in 2006 but vanished in late 2007.  Undergrad was a rough time for me, and I started and abandoned far for projects than I care to remember.  (And ugh looking back at some of my posts from that era... I was more than a bit of a know-it-all prat.)

In the past 10 years, I've more or less given up gaming - I was for much of my 20s a serial starter of games that fizzled after two sessions, and finally figured out it was because although system design was interesting to me, and setting design likewise, "playing" was as much a chore as a pleasure.  But I still casually pick away at Tasothilos, the setting which you can find way-way-way back on the board here, and I've lately been toying with the idea of a novel.

In the personal sphere, I'm getting married in a month, and four years deep in a doctoral program in late antique Christianity  (prospectus is being written.)  Not exactly where I saw myself being when last I posted here in (eek!) 2007, but it's been good.

kaloooooooooooos
I've missed you, brother

I miss this stuff when I'm not working on it, to be honest.  Good to poke in around.  (I did confirm I was #3, after Ishmayl and ElDo.)  I'll try to be less of a stranger than I have been the past... decade...

This has still been my homepage for the longest time. I've been super busy with work. I'm gone like 13 hours of the day, so life has been commute, work, commute, and sleep.

I haven't gotten to play a game in a while. I've started a few since moving to Washington State. Played on Roll20 some (still paying for a membership actually). It's tough to keep groups together in adult hood.

It makes me happy that the group is still here.

OH! And in the last five years, there has been one huge change in my life: new name, new gender, same Xeviat.