Adam wrote the journey as a part of the Bizarre Tales Shadowdark Recreation Jam. Shadowdark participant characters of ranges 5 to seven go in the hunt for wonderous golden masks with a scrap of a map taken from a useless man.
Charlie Dunwoody (CD): Adam, thanks for sending me your journey and for speaking about it with me and for being a Group Supporter of EN World. Why did it must be snakes? I discover it attention-grabbing that the three covers you took inspiration from did not characteristic snakes. What was your inspiration to have an journey centered round snakes and was it at all times snakes or did the journey mutate from one thing else first like some monstrous serpent shedding its pores and skin because it grows in energy?
Fenris-77 (F7): I’ll blame this completely on Indiana Jones. It began with the Home of the Golden Masks cowl, which made me instantly suppose ‘temple’ after which the Ooze cowl, which made me suppose ‘jungle’. As a toddler of the 80’s the imagery of Indiana Jones is deeply embedded in my reminiscence banks. The 2 earlier concepts mutated into ‘jungle temple’, at which level Indy simply sort of took over and crammed in a whole lot of the blanks. Even the strain cooker theme is at the very least in some half a love letter to the opening scene of Raiders of the Misplaced Ark. As soon as I had ‘jungle temple’ my pulp sensibilities made the straightforward leap to mad scientists within the jungle and the entire tough define of Black Masks had taken form. On the level I simply leaned arduous into the snake factor to see how far I might take it in an attention-grabbing means.
CD: How did you envision GMs utilizing the serpents? As straight monsters, maybe one thing a bit extra horror centered, or one thing else?
F7: I attempted to present GMs a few completely different doable approaches on the snakes factor. The bottom method is the Indiana Jones “why did it must be snakes” method the place you play them fairly straight as monsters with only a trace of snake phobia across the edges. Nevertheless, you even have the alchemy and mutation angle, which you’ll be able to hack about with for a extra horror/bizarre science kind of method. The final cease on the creepy practice is to lean into the amorphous snake goddess and head proper for full on Horror. Shadowdark has some robust instruments in its pacing and torch timer to assist extra horror themed play, and I needed to supply choices in that path. Personally, I would begin off fairly straight to start with after which begin ramping up the bizarre and horrific as soon as the gamers enter the Temple Under (which the place a few of the different horror parts are anyway).
CD: What GMing recommendation would you counsel for GMs working your journey?
F7: I would counsel buzzing Underneath Strain by Queen continuously. This journey works finest when all the assorted countdowns are pushing the gamers arduous to make tough selections. So, for instance, you’re taking the Viperian reinforcements arriving topside and ensure the gamers know they’re there and coming down. Do not simply go away them sitting round having a picnic and ready to be a gotcha once they social gathering will get again up prime. Within the temple beneath the encounter desk goes up a notch and the GM has wandering Ooze Zombies that they will freehand to maintain the social gathering on its toes. As soon as the gamers unlock the puzzle and (maybe) begin the ultimate countdown it ought to all get very sticky, very quick. A caveat, at the very least one I comply with, is that the quicker I am asking the gamers to suppose, the extra beneficiant I in all probability must be giving their intelligent concepts full weight.
CD: The concept of an RPG jam (with some proceeds going to charity) primarily based on Bizarre Tales covers is wonderful. How did you uncover the jam and what made you determine to affix within the course of of making this journey?
F7: I spend, ahem, reasonably a whole lot of time on Discord. The jam was introduced on the Arcane Library (Shadowdark) Discord and I believed it was cool thought. I has additionally simply began to show myself tips on how to use Affinity Writer and the jam appeared like a superb excuse to develop some expertise on a enjoyable undertaking. I heard in regards to the jam actually late although, so as an alternative of the month that I might have had, I really solely had three days to get the undertaking from idea to structure, which was a problem. Top-of-the-line elements was how mutually supportive and engaged a whole lot of the designers had been on the Discord. Plenty of the primary jam individuals went on to take part in a Knave recreation jam, and we ended up spinning off our personal little Discord for mutual design assist and appreciation. It has been a heat and alluring group of oldsters to spend on-line time with: The Jammers on Discord.
CD: You could have glorious maps and structure together with a succinct and fascinating writing type. Any insights into the design course of itself? What was essentially the most difficult a part of creating this journey for publication?
F7: On this case it was the structure and maps, particularly due to the time crunch. Typically the writing course of itself is the manky bit, however Black Masks virtually wrote itself (thank goodness). Good structure is about getting a whole lot of little particulars right: from typeface, to font, to grid layouts, to, properly, you get the concept. There are a whole lot of balls within the air and it could actually appear overwhelming to somebody new to that finish of the sport. One of many causes I remastered Black Masks was to repair a whole lot of the wobbly bits from the jam launch with a considerably extra sturdy talent set on my half. The maps had been executed on Dungeon Scrawl, which is a good free mapping program with minimal cognitive overhead for the brand new person. On the writing finish I write what looks like enjoyable on the time. Within the final couple of months I’ve additionally written a Knave journey, an historical-ish journey set in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai Japan, and I’ve began in on a Monster of the Week undertaking. I am very a lot a magpie drawn to no matter is at present shiny.
CD: Vac Fits and Duct Tape is your subsequent RPG undertaking coming quickly to Drivethrurpg. Possibly we will discuss extra about it quickly, however for now what’s the coolest factor or your favourite a part of VSaDT?
F7: To choose one factor to start out I want to present a shoutout to the artist I labored with, BrotherFel (they’re on Instagram). They went means, means, above and past on the artwork facet and I could not probably be happier, or luckier, that my first purchased artwork was such a supply of superior sauce.
CD: Anything you want to share with the readers of EN World?
F7: Nothing particularly. ENWorld is a good neighborhood and they need to carry on taking part in video games and being superior. Effectively, maybe this – if you happen to suppose you wish to write and design, simply go forward and do it. It is value discovering out if it’s one thing you are going to love.
Charlie Dunwoody participates within the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and the Noble Knight Video games’ Affiliate Program. These packages present promoting charges by linking to DriveThruRPG and Noble Knight Video games respectively. In the event you just like the articles at EN World please think about supporting the EN World Patreon.
