5 Things I learned in putting together my 1st Kickstarter

My first ever Kickstarter is now in Pre-Launch (click here) and I have to agree with everyone who said “It’s a hell of a lot of work to get to the starting point, and then the real work begins.”

Back in February when I was putting together Wondrous & Perilous Treasures Volume 1, I debated doing a Kickstarter for it. The truth was I hadn’t released a new book of 5 years, I was still battling anxiety and depression, and I wasn’t mentally in a place where I felt I could take it on. I decided in March to do a pre-order with some pushing to a few Facebook forums for Old-School Essentials and OSR TTRPGs. To my surprise, a lot of people signed up - a lot more than I thought. Then for the next two months, it sold better than I could have hoped for over at DriveThruRPG.

In June, I released the 5e conversion. I wasn’t sure if it was needed, if there would be an audience, and I discovered that - yes there was. Did it need its own independent cover? Probably not - that I will chalk up to over-thinking and fear of confusing people.

As Volume 2 started to come together, I was determined to take another run at doing a Kickstarter. I tried to enlist one person to help me, which didn’t work, then another, which didn’t work - and then I just pushed through. Using the same strategy as I did for putting Volume 1 together, I just chipped away at it.

Many hours on weeknights and weekends blurred past as I tweaked graphics, wrote pledge tiers or stretch goals that seemed okay only to then be torn down and re-written - but I could see it coming together. I’d been following and researching Kickstarters in the TTRPG space for about a year and a half - and I could see some of the benefits of having done that.

If I were to give advice to myself from several months ago, I would have helped his anxiety by breaking it down to the following:

1. What are you trying to do? (My friend Josh emphasized this too). Are you trying to get your physical book in people’s hands for them to play it? Are you trying to get the digital version in people’s hands? The tighter you make that purpose, that goal, the easier it makes to evaluate whether some pledge tiers and stretch goals make sense. For example “I’m trying to get my book into people’s hands, to build a brand, so that I can make more books like this as well as adventures and world books. I want my supporters to find these books really imaginative and engaging.”

2. What’s important to your potential supporters? As an author with a back catalogue of published books, it would be easy for me to make my books part of higher pledge tiers - but my books don’t have anything to do with my current project. What is important to them? What could be valuable to them? Signed copies? Sure. Some art postcards? Yup, good idea. T-Shirts, etc? Maybe in the future but not right now for me. At the top most tier, I added my books because that’s an all-out, they are in it for everything level. I did make my books available as add-ins.

3. Funding target and stretch goals. If there’s one thing to potentially drive you around the bend and back again, it’s thinking, thinking some more, over-thinking, and then throwing it all away and starting again - it’s stretch goals. I decided that my initial funding should just be $500. I’ve self-funded before, I would just like people to participate AND I have never done a Kickstarter before, so I don’t know what I don’t know. Stretch goals… I think I went through four versions of them, each one getting better and each time tying back to points number 1 and number 2. I had to balance delivering things that would add value to the potential supporters and wouldn’t be full-on Kickstarter-worthy projects on their own (careful not to take something that I was certain I could deliver and rocket up the difficult level to an anxiety-inducing impossible level).

4. Doing my homework paid off. I’d been following Kickstarter forum on FB for about a year and a half, and I’d been reading Kickstarter’s in my same space for two years - looking at their goals, their material they posted, etc - and supporting way too many of them (I’m building another bookshelf this weekend). That homework allowed me to have some idea of what steps I needed to go through, though I missed the off-ramp for wiring up BackerKit it seemed… didn’t realize that had to be before the Pre-Launch. Next time.

5. Get Feedback. Once you think you have a draft that you can live with, get feedback. I posted to a forum and asked for feedback and it was invaluable. Some things I thought were crystal clear weren’t to some folks, one thing I’d backed off of but then put up were two very limited top tier pledge levels because enough folks pointed it out that I should. In the end, it was a great exercise to shake the tree and see what fell out and what didn’t. One of the things a lot of writers say to those asking for help, me included, is that the worst draft is better than the most wonderfully sculpted tale that’s trapped in your head. The same is true for Kickstarters and getting feedback.

Who knows what’s going to happen, but the pre-launch site is up, the date is set for Friday, November 3th (runs for 15 days), and all that’s left to do is the other 90% of the work :)

If you’re reading this before November 18th, check it out here: Link.

Picking an OSR system to build upon

If you’ve been following me on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok, you’ll know that I’ve been working on my first supplement for Old School Essentials (tm) and other OSR systems. It’s going to be the first in a line of books called Wondrous & Perilous(tm). Along the way, I’ve been reading a lot of different systems over the past 3 years (a few given a quick review below) as I try to find a system I really like or one that’s close enough to what I need for the world books I’m working on to come to life in the way that I want. What systems am I leaning towards? What effect did the OGL-explosion have? Find out below. First, here’s a preview of the cover.

Coming soon

More than 100 magic items, plus some story plots, to spice up your OSR games and designed for Old-School Essentials(tm) (and maybe one other system? See below).

Some Quick Reviews

Over the past several months, I’ve read several systems and thought rather than giving each one it’s one full review I’d give them a paragraph or two.

Tiny Dungeons - 2e

I was intrigued enough by what I read of the reviews, and the summary, that I bought the physical 6x9 version of the rulebook. The book-formatter and publisher in me was not disappointed in the quality as it’s well laid out, small touches that I really appreciated that made it easy to read for this dyslexic. Also the art really connected well with the tone, keeping you engaged as a reader who is wondering if this is going to be meaty, or light-weight, enough for you.

Mechanics and Ease of Play? Honestly, at first I thought it was going to have too little to really get my interest, but I was wrong. It has a number of elements from real OSR games like all weapon damage being 1d6 and other simplifications, but then presents what to do if you want to play a bit more advanced. The book and ruleset are pretty complete and fun.

One of the things that I really enjoyed seeing was a few unique races with subtle but meaningful abilities. I really liked the Treefolk who can’t be magically healed but can be healed by sunlight, and I just loved the idea of playing the Karhu - bears.

Worth it? Yes. If you’re looking for a system that feels light, is well thought through, and isn’t falling into any tropes like many other games - give this a serious look. While I won’t be building upon this for my supplements… I can’t help feel like I have to say “for now” because there was so much that I liked about this unexpected treasure.

Hyperborea

This RPG is in that family of games that tried to find a middle ground between OSR and 5e, while putting forward their own world (in this case, particularly and self-described as weird). The game is well written, and introduces a few subtle mechanics as early as showing the ability bonus/penalty charts for each state - like the chance of success for a test of Strength and for an Extraordinary test of strength (most stats have this test and extraordinary test concept).

Hyperborea sets the stage very simply for the new comer by stating there are 4 principal classes - Fighter, Magician, Cleric, and Thief. Then from there, it proceeds to offer subclasses (6 for Fighter) and what I find interesting is there is clear effort to make each of the subclasses there own thing - including having some that are a combination of classes like the Warlock (Fighter subclass). I liked these. It showed effort and a designer’s intent to keep things simple and clear while offering flexible play. The classes also keep the OSR concept of “Lordship” at 9th level, which is a nice nod and all classes end at 12th level.

It also makes a good effort on defining Adventure Actions, rules around attribute checks and climbing, etc. Unlike many similar games, Hyperborea really makes the effort to be complete. There were also some magical items that (particularly given my upcoming book) were fun to see.

Worth it? Yes, but (oh oh - no, it’s not like that) — but, this game really comes across as having a very strong setting feel which made it hard for me to imagine running it outside of its own world. If you’re looking for something that’s a blend of OSR and 5e, and that’s got an indie feel to it, give it a shot. Some of the art took me back to old school times and I kept getting a “Thundar the Barbarian” vibe from it.

In my search for a new gaming system that really clicks with me, and in the aftermath of the OGL, CRACK showed up on my radar. It’s by The Merry Mushmen who put out KNOCK (for the Zine lovers like me out there).

Firstly, I have to say that reading CRACK was a ton of fun. It’s got a lot of cheek to it, and I loved that. The intent is for this to be a framework, a loose cobbling of OSR type rules that other games could be based on. It’s like if you took the 5e SRD, but for old-school, and then boiled it down until it was a thin broth. And sadly, that was the problem for me - the broth was too thin.

I think had the OGL situation gone a different direction, for example there being no SRD, no OGL anymore, and if we’d needed a framework that used similar words and captured those familiar concepts, this would have been something more intriguing. But instead, it’s something that if you aren’t used to defining your own thing (I’ve been writing homebrew RPGs and materials since I was about 10 years old… then wrote novels, now I’m back at age 50 to bring those two worlds together) then I get it.

Worth it? I’d say yes, if nothing else than to remind you of the commitment that this group of Merry Mushmen & Friendos have AND it will be the basis for their following Knock! works, so I’m sure we’ll see this evolve.

Five Torches Deep

I’ve seen 5TP come up A LOT on Reddit, and a bit in the Facebook groups I’m on. Whenever someone was looking for a blend of 5e and OSR this invariably gets mentioned, usually after Knave.

While it’s got more modern art (which I appreciate), the layout was the first thing to make me mad. It’s got a 3 column per page style, which as a dyslexic whose brain doesn’t like linear order of reader to start with, I had to zoom in and out on my iPad to read it. It’s one of those ‘too clever by half’ type experiences. They do have a Mobile version of the PDF) but it doesn’t have the same art - which was disappointing.

In terms of the game mechanics, this came across as being overly focused on dungeon exploration, and after having read Hyperborea, really let me disappointed. The "SUP” concept, which is a supply mechanic that allowed you to have a measure of food, torches, etc. Interesting, but made the game feel even more overly focused on one style of play, and missing anything to build off of for more role-playing elements. I was also not a fan of healing being harder as there didn’t seem to really be a reward for it.

One of the things that bothered me was that it makes reference to you drawing on your favorite OTHER systems for making items and creatures. It has a section on building monsters and then has 6 as examples. That’s all the creatures it comes with, 6.

Worth it? Honestly, there are very few systems I’ve bought that I felt any amount of buyer’s remorse, but this was one of them. Compared to Hyperborea, it is greatly lacking. It’s not complete, so you can’t just start with 5TD and go - you’d have to buy books from some other system and then would be concerned about doing conversions for the techniques and strength concepts. So in brief? No, not really worth it.

What am I leaning towards?

In the aftermath of the OGL-pocalyse, I went back and re-read the 5e SRD (official CC edition), but I just see too many issues with 5e’s mechanics. Character creation is too heavy, game balance breaks down around 9-10th level versus Pathfinder, for example. I have been reading Pathfinder, and while there’s a lot that I’m liking, it’s heavy as well.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether to build what I want for my world books on top of Old-School Essentials which is great for what it is, but I feel like I’m going to have to fill in too many of the blanks. This then has me wondering ‘would it still resemble OSE much?’? Do I base it off a lightened PF2? Maybe. AND THEN…

Then I was getting some notes together for this post and I re-read my Castles & Crusades notes, then re-read the posts, went through the PDFs and… well, MAYBE I just sent an email over to Troll Lord Games asking a question about their 3rd party license.

I was supposed to read C&C’s Monsters & Treasure book for a review a while ago. I think with this published, I’m going to start reading it. I have a funny feeling the system that I may be fitting best with is right in front of me. We’ll see.

Don’t be surprised if you end up seeing that Wondrous & Perilous - Treasures vol.1 has a “Compatible with C&C” sticker on it… just saying.

Active on Tiktok and Instagram

Just a quick mention to say I’m ACTUALLY being active on Instagram AND I have put out my first Tiktok video.

I’m figuring a few segments/themes out. The first is Writer Mentor Moment.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamdreece

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adamdreece

Anything in particular you’d like to see me post about?

Review of PX1 Basic Psionics Handbook

First, a nod

Yes, I’m making it a habit to thank those who have the determination to take an idea and bring it to life. Whether you’re releasing material as an indie author, or building up a new gaming company with others, it takes a LOT to get it out into the world. Thanks again to everyone, like the author of this material, for their contributions to the community.

What is the Basic Psionics Handbook?

Written by Richard J. LeBlanc Jr and released by New Big Dragon Games Unlimited, PX1 Basic Psionics Handbook brings the mental powers and abilities that many of us grey-haired gamers likely first encountered in the AD&D Player’s Handbook (aka 1e) to the B/X world (i.e. Basic Dungeons & Dragons, Old School Essentials, and the family of B/X retro-clones).

Note for the curious, psionics were first introduced in the 1976 release of OD&D’s Eldritch Wizardy, cover shown here:

PX1 is a re-write of the psionics rules and powers, with a few additions like the introduction of chakras to both group powers and provide a manner for allowing access to some and not others, allowing you to limit them for a class, race, etc. It also has two character classes introduced (both with psionic abilities): the Mystic and a Monk variant.

The Basic Psionics Handbook does a good job starting out with an overview and allowing you to get a basic understanding of what psionics are, how they aren’t magic, and how they can work. There’s clear effort to keep things both simple (as per Old School style) and be faithful to the original material. Here’s an example of how the powers are grouped into a Chakra:

For those unfamiliar with the term Sciences and Devotions, this ties back to the original material (in the 1e PhB at the very least).

The supplement then goes into details for each of the abilities across the six charkras as well as the attack & defense modes (i.e. standard mental attacks and defenses, think of it like ‘swing a blade’ and ‘block with a shield’ respectively).

There’s a section explicitly on Psionic Combat, which does a good job of breaking it all down, even updating the standard Combat Sequence to show where psionics would be included, as shown here:

The coverage for psionic combat is complete and a handy chart is provided to show the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of one particular attack mode versus a particular defense mode.

So, is it worth it?

If you’re interested in psionics, yes. It provided me with the clearest understanding of how psionics work, factor into combat, etc. I took a few minutes to go through my 1e Player’s Handbook and my 3e Complete Psionics Guide, and confirmed that PX1 Basic Psionics Handbook really does do a good job of staying true to how it was “first” released without borrowing much from later revisions.

Sometimes, I just have to share some of my shelfy materials.

So it is a recommended buy? IF you’re interested in psionics, yes. For me, at the end of it all, I’m left with a great understanding of a game mechanic that I never used, and honestly, am no less interested than I was before buying it. However, and this is important (to me at least), it’s a solid supplement, ready to be used, at a good price for the material that’s in it, and feels absolutely fitted for an Old School Essentials type campaign. Add the art, the simple writing style, and (as silly as it might seem) giving it an official reference tag like PX1, and you’re going to feel right at home with it.

Where is it available?

You can pick up PX1 Basic Psionics Handbook at DriveThruRPG.

WAIT! How does this compare to Planar Compass’?

Planar Compass is an Old School style zine with classes, astral-adventures, and more. They introduced a lighter weight version of psionics in issue number (here on DriveThruRPG). I picked it up when I was doing psionics research a few months ago, along with PX1 and some other sources. I’ve read through the Planar Compass material twice originally and went through my notes for it.

The Planar Compass version left me a bit lost. The material’s good, and there’s tremendous overlap between it and what you get out of PX1 (as expected, they are both leveraging existing material rather than really creating anything new). I have to say that whereas Planar Compass’ psionics (for me at least) gives you enough to get playing their adventure, you have to be willing to do the Old School “fill in the gaps as you go with your own rules and ideas” versus PX1 which fills more in. That all said, I see no issue being able to leverage what’s in PX1 with the classes and materials from Planar Compass. And for the record, I like the Planar Compass zine and materials. Might be worth reviewing zines…hmm, let me know what you think.

Review of Old School Feats

First, a Nod to Fellow Indie Authors

While it is easy to criticize works put forward by others, just having the steely will to sit down and take something from an idea to putting it out there takes tremendous strength. As an indie author myself, and soon to be releasing my own gaming materials in addition to the 12 books I’ve indie published, I know what it takes. So before going any further, hats off to folks like Eric Diaz for putting forward material in the genuine spirit of making our gaming experiences better.

What is Old School Feats?

Old School Feats is a 22 page contribution seeks to bring the 5e style Feats to Old School Essentials (OSE) by Gavin Norman. OSE is a popular retro-clone of the Gygaxian / Moldvayian Fantasy Role Playing Game Which Cannot Be Named (red lawyer eyes peer out from the bushes of the dark forest). While on the surface, it would be quick to dismiss this as someone else trying to bring something that’s not in the Old School movement into it and “missing the point of Old School”, there’s a bit more to it. Having played the Old School games when they were the only school (OD&D, then BECMI, then 1e, 2e…), there are certain plays inherent in it that for some folks, like me, really start to bother you after a few gaming sessions.

Old School Feats seeks to bring some more options and flavor, particularly for Thieves and Fighters, allowing for greater differentiation. It also has general feats as well as ones for Magic-Users and Clerics. The idea is once every few levels, the player would get to select one and that would add more uniqueness. If you think about it, in the Old School world of play, if you ran into a 10th level Fighter or Thief, you know everything you need to know about them because they are all the same (excluding if you’re using weapon specialization rules).

The author states in Old School Feats that his purpose is to also provide a way to avoid having additional classes like splitting Magic-User versus Sorcerer or having some classes that have minor versions of skills and abilities from other classes. A noble feat, one might say (and I’ve hit my dad joke quota for the hour).

The Feat of Feats

There are 10 general feats, which any character class (or class-race) can take. Then there are 12 Cleric-specific ones, 20 Fighter-specific ones, 12 MU-specific ones, and finally 20 Thief-specific ones. For example, there’s Resilient (general), which allows the player a choice between lowering all of their saving throws by 1 point or lowering three of them by one point and the last one by two points. There’s Aura of Courage (for Clerics) which gives all allies within 30’ a +1 to saving throws against magic and fear and a +1 to morale.

Some of the feats provide the character with the abilities of another class, like the Dilettante Cleric, which allows the ability to cast clerical spells and turn undead as if the character were half their level in Cleric (so an 8th level Fighter with this feat would also effectively be a 4th level Cleric), and also limits them to a maximum of 3rd level spells.

Missing Balance

In having gone through all of the feats in detail, I can see significant imbalance between them. In addition, some of them are However, in my opinion, there’s significant imbalance between the various feats. Here are some examples.

There’s a general feat called Ability Improvement. This allows the character to raise one of their ability scores by 3 if it’s currently lower than 14, by 2 if it’s below 16, and +1 if it’s higher. There’s a caveat stating that this usually is topped out at 18.

Now, let’s take another generate feat, Linguist. This allows the character to add 3 to the maximum number of languages they can learn and gives the character a 50% chance of reading unknown languages like a thief.

Then there are the feats that allow those class-like powers. In addition to allowing Clerical or Magic-User abilities, there’s Predator, which is a fighter feat. This grants the character the ability to backstab (+4 to hit, double damage), climb walls, move silently, and hide (but halved if not in wilderness).

While the author has some disclaimer statements about how this could imbalance some games, it’s hard to imagine players picking the less powerful, more rarely used feats over the more powerful, “use it all the time” feats. Some of the ideas provided at the end of the supplement around adding 10% XP cost if allowing feats comes across as not having been play tested and going against one of the key ideas stated at the beginning of trying to avoid additional book keeping / accounting.

Anything else?

There are some additional pages of content, bringing it up to the 22, about optional rules and other small items around creating balance, for example bringing up the idea of unified XP (i.e. all classes require the same amount of XP to get to level 2, like in 5e) and how you could allow some feats for the classes like thief to balance things out.

So, is it worth it?

There are the RPG supplements that you can just take and use immediately. At the other end of the spectrum are those supplements that give you ideas but you can’t directly use because maybe they’re for a different edition of the game or have things that seriously conflict with homebrew rules or norms.

For me, Old School Feats is more on the “good ideas” than the “immediately useable” side because of the imbalance. It’s further complicated by the Advanced rules of Old School Essentials when you have assassins, rangers, paladins, and the like. That said, for those who enjoy a lot of the simplified mechanics of the Old School world, it can provide you a good starting point for bringing in feats provided that you find a way to keep it balanced. Otherwise you’ll have a fighter who can cast magic spells and acting like a thief for an XP cost that’s unfair to others.

Price. Is it worth $4.99? When I picked it up, it was $0.99 (promotion week) and for that, I thought it was good value. Comparing with other supplements that are at the $4.99, I think it falls short. Maybe pick it up for a $1.99 or $2.99 sale if you’re really eager to get your hands on a starting point for 5e type feats in the Old School world.

Where can you get it?

Old School Feats is available on DriveThruRPG

Review - Castles & Crusades - Player's Handbook

Castles and Crusades Player’s Handbook - 8th Edition on the left, 3rd edition on the right

Setting the Stage

I’ve heard about Castles and Crusades for years, in the background, whispers and rumours, but never run into anyone who actually played it. Before the holidays, I was at my local gaming store ( Sentry Box ) and was going through the RPG content on their massive wall of gaming books. My eldest son was with me, watching what I was looking at, hoping to find a hint of what dad might like as a gift.

I noticed they had a copy of an old edition of Castles and Crusades’ Player Handbook, and I pointed it out to him. It’s a thin yellow book, a third printing. On Christmas Day, surprise surprise, I was the proud owner of C&C ‘s PH and read it. It had a few nuggets that intrigued me, so I went to the Troll Lord Games site and ordered the Player’s Handbook (8th printing and WAY thicker), the Castle Keeper’s Guide (aka GM’s guide), and the Monsters and Treasure book.

Side note - unfortunately due to terrible shipping circumstances, the books I ordered directly from Troll Lord Games (makers of C&C) arrived very damaged with the M&T book completely destroyed and the others warped and badly damaged but okay enough for me to read and provide this review. There was water pouring out of the box, it was just…gah… international shipping can be a nightmare. I want to say that the TLG team ended up doing right by me - which says a lot today, because I’ve had plenty of places making a shipping problem my problem. Though, TLG gang, can you align with the others out there and offer the PDF with the hardcover when people buy directly from you?

What is C&C?

Like Pathfinder, Castle and Crusaders came from the era of d20/3E Open Gaming License games. I believe it was first published in 2004, and there’s a history in the C&C Player’s Handbook (C&C PHB from here on out) that’s a fun read. While I usually skip over that type of stuff in a book, I didn’t and something really important came across. In reading it, I came away with a sense of a sense of driven passion and love for the original game, supported by a dedicated group of gamer-friends, that levelled up from home-brew to something, in many ways, their own.

I have to say that C&C really feels like a superior successor to AD&D than the official 2nd edition was. I hope when I read the Caste Keeper’s Guide next, it furthers this feeling. I say this as someone who spent many years playing AD&D (aka 1e) as a kid and teen, and then moved on to 2e for a while before adulting happened and made gaming a rare thing - though over the past few years has been loving engaging about it, and playing a bit, with his kids.

The Notable and Noteworthy

There’s a lot of “D&D Clones” that are the same, bordering on identical, with nothing to really offer. They took the Open Gaming License (OGL) content and basically rewrote existing content. And it’s easy to misread that in what C&C has to offer, but here’s a few things that really caught my eye. Note that I’m not claiming these are unique to C&C, but I don’t recall running across these in other systems, and definitely not together

Cleaned Up Mechanics

It’s clear that rather than C&C taking the lead from 3e D&D, it really comes across as taking the best from 1e and modernizing it. It’s also clear that C&C has matured over the years, but here’s a few things that I appreciated, and I’m sure this came as a result of resolving fights with players or resolving those philosophical debates that could accidentally nullify an attempted gaming session.

The armor rules are really clear and simple, and it doesn’t prevent a Wizard from wearing armor, but rather it clearly defines the impact of doing that. Same with a Rogue (Thief) who wants to wear plate mail and try to sneak across that open courtyard.

Primary and Secondary attributes (aka primary stats) have clear meaning, so if two characters have a strength of 18 but one has selected to have strength as a primary state, and the other doesn’t, they have different base challenge ratings whenever there’s a strength check (12 versus 18). This is the idea that someone may be strong but someone else may know how to use their body better.

Throughout the C&C PHB, there’s clear attempts at using simple language to explain something and it makes all the difference. The highly experienced gamer who’s gone through multiple editions will note “oh wait, that means you can’t do this… but actually, that’s a good thing.” There’s the saving throws breakdown and explanation, which I liked, that also falls into this area. Then there’s the touch of additional content to help new players and CKs (aka GMs) like the Typical Knightly Virtues and Code of Conduct on page 49.

Whether you were new to the “D&D family” or moving over from another edition, you’d be in good hands with C&C.

High Level Classes

The description of every class (Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Wizard, Illusionist, Rogue, Bard, Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Knight, Assassin) is well laid out, with two distinct parts. The first covers levels 1 to 12, the other covers 13 through 24. The descriptions are broken into two sections, the first dealing with levels 1 to 12, and the second dealing with the more epic levels.

Rogue high level table

In going through the high level content for each class, you see intent, passion, and game-play experience showing through in order to allow players to take their characters to truly epic heights.

Illusionist

It’s easy to miss how much effort has been put in to making the Illusionist a peer of the Wizard, instead of a second rate magic user. I almost felt like there were debates over changing the name to something like a Phantasmer or something else to denote how it’s not about illusions, but rather about truly changing reality, maybe just momentarily, for whomever the spell effected - think of the Doctor Strange movie and you’ll know what I mean. Cast a spell and have a character climb a rope that others can’t see, heal a wound with the power of mind over matter, and what note.

Rather than just stating this with words but offering up the same-old same-old Illusionist spells and abilities, C&C brings it home with new spells that make all the difference. Part of me smiled at this, thinking of how it’s almost like taking the “Schools of Magic” parts of 2nd edition, boiling it down, refining that, and then filtering through the lens of a better 1st edition. Really well done. It’s the type of thing to make me want to find SOME hole in my schedule that would allow me to game again.

The Ugh and the Ignoble

While nothing’s perfect, and only a villainous savage would call out little things, there’s very little to be negative about. There’s a few descriptions here and there that deserve to be revisited, probably having lasted too many editions, and as a result feel clumsy compared to the rest of the material, but that could be said of any work. There’s one thing but it only relates to the hardcover, and I mention it below.

Thinking of the GM as the CK (Castle Keeper) gets some getting used to, and if you know your religious history, the term crusades can get under your skin a bit, but the game is not castle-centric and there’s no invading of people’s homelands to extinguish their culture. It’s a classic open fantasy game with a name that related to fun and adventure. The marketing part of my author-side wonders if the game could benefit from a branding reboot to reposition it, but that’s not what this review’s about.

Is the Hardcover worth it?

I intentionally wanted the hardcovers because I wanted to decorate my shelf, it’s unfortunate what happened and even more so that I can’t get them from my local gaming store Sentry Box. But in a word, yes, it’s worth it. Even my damaged copies were enough to make that clear.

As an author of 12 books, I have to give major kudos to anyone who goes down the road of writing and publishing a book. Regardless of what the book is, tip of the hat. A physical book? Double tip of the hat, heck, honestly, maybe giving them the hat. For the books I’ve published, I fret over every aspect of their physical manifestation - weight, feel of the cover, feel of the page, transparency, overall look, size, readability, etc. Think of Steve Jobs maniacally obsessing over a new potential product to launch in Apple’s hay day, and that’s what I think I’m like.

So when someone produces a physical RPG book that gives me a sense of quality and invokes some of the feelings from the old days of having nothing to worry about other than ordering pizza and making sure enough of my players were going to show up, it means something to me. The Castles and Crusades Player’s handbook did that.

That said, there’s a few things that made me twitchy. The main one, and it bothered me almost every page, is the header and footer. These lined up with paragraphs or sections, but it didn’t relate. Because of the size, color, and paragraph justification of the header (and footer), my brain kept going “What, what? That’s not what this is about.”

Example of the header “Classes” being aligned and too close to the content, which was part of the Bard’s Legend Lore ability description.

Final Word

First impressions of C&C provided by the Player’s Handbook is one that gives a big thumbs up. The mechanics are clear, the classes and races are well described and look fun, and rather than tilt toward too much complexity, it tilts away from that giving that feeling it would not overwhelm new comers and satisfy experienced gamers.

UPDATED Sept 24, 2022 - I really appreciated the comments and emails I got about this, as well as the CastleKeeper’s Guide review. It prompted me to pick up Monsters & Treasures and have an improved view of the game.

Upcoming RPG Book Reviews

The Passion - The Purpose

Over the past year and a half, I’ve been working on a new book series (at a pace that a tech startup allows) and working on an RPG supplement to accompany it. Along the way, I’ve also done some gaming with my kids, introducing them to the classic Dungeons and Dragons via the Rules Cyclopedia for a BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortals) flavour vs the 5e they are used to.

In doing that, I started reading other systems and collecting them. In part, I’ve been looking for simple and clean approaches to fantasy gaming while still allowing for sophistication, and in part looking for unique takes on things - particularly things that could get easily overlooked. While I haven’t had the opportunity to do much gaming over the past 20 years, the amount of time I spent the decades before that still keep everything fresh and wondrous in my mind’s eye.

A Shelfy with some my favourites from the past and present.

As I’ve been reading particular systems lately, and following conversations on particular FB groups, and being an author knowing how valuable reviews can be, I thought I’d start sharing my 2 cents on what I’m reading and collecting. These are what I call “Armchair” reviews for the most part, meaning I’ll have read through them but not played them, but when I have the opportunity to play them I’ll be providing an additional review for that.

Right now, I’m reading Castles & Crusaders, Tiny Dungeon, Old School Essentials, and a few others. Being a dyslexic, having 3 kids, and working at a startup, these are not going to be frequent - but I hope you find them enjoyable.

Tackling anxiety and sharing my latest projects

It would be easy to just point at the tech startup (Sparrow Connected) that I’m the CTO for and say that THAT is the reason you haven’t heard from me. The reason why since around September 2018 I have been rather quiet and have only managed to publish one book (5 Critical Things), but it wouldn’t be completely true. More importantly, it wouldn’t be true about the most important part.

Throughout 2016, I felt part of my inner machinery rattling. In 2017, it started to become louder and some inner vibrations started. And then by mid-2018, the things started to feel like they were shaking. In 2019 it got even worse. In mid-2020, I finally started dealing with what was going on.

For those that know me, I’m a passionate, high energy person. Sometimes I could come across like a super-ball having been thrown by the Flash, shooting around, doing mental gymnastics, and seeming to have an endless fountain of energy to get things done.

When I was a teen, I started having an issue that frustrated and terrified me. Sometimes my thoughts would all cram together, trying to get spoken but I’d have an eight car pileup in my mind and the words would lost. I’d sometimes shake, trying to get them out, and I felt stupid. I hid that shame from everyone.

In early 2020, I started talking with my doctor about my anxiety. I wanted to keep track of it, see what was happening and see if it was affecting me. From there we were able to identify that I have ADHD and potentially an anxiety disorder as well. I started taking medication and the world started to get better. It’s been a few months now, and the dosage is too low, but it has already been making a difference.

The medication started to change a number of things for me, for one I was able to start enjoying doing some role-playing games with my kids. I stopped trying to write every spare moment I had. There was a pressure in my chest every minute of every day for me to write, to get one of the dozens of unfinished projects (some novels 90% done including a new Yellow Hoods series, Wizard Killer #4 and 5, Legacy of the Unknown Dragon, Tilruna, and more). For the first time, with the mediation, I felt like I could stop for a minute instead of being forced. It was like the noise got cut in half, and that was enough to let me look at things differently.

I’ve been able to ignite in my eldest son a love of Dungeons and Dragons, and while he plays the latest edition with his friends (online of course), I’ve been running a family adventure that uses the classic edition I first played as a kid. And from that shared passion, my son and I started playing with some ideas that has turned into my latest passion project.

When I was seven and a half years-old, I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons by some older kids at a park. The chief storyteller, the DM, needed to tell SOMEONE, ANYONE, about the adventure he had planned and I was that someone. Playing the game with my kids (and of course, my wife Jen) has been great, and taking the world of the latest series I was working on, Legacy of the Unborn Dragon, and turning it into a World book for Classic Fantasy Gaming has been a blast. I’m able to tackle parts in small chunks, dealing with anxiety flare ups in bite-sized pieces, and bit-by-bit, I’m seeing it come together.

So if you’ve been wondering if you’re ever going to see more Wizard Killer or anything from me, yes you will. I’ve reached the point in my healing process where, despite the anxiety writing this is causing me, I can manage it and I’m focused on that.

With this post, I break too long of a silence. I look forward to sharing some articles, ideas, and snippets on whatever I’m working on or whatever comes to mind. Keep writing and stay human ;)

CalgaryExpo 2019

Once again, it’s that time of year! I’m back and this time, I’ll have pre-release copies of my latest book 5 Critical Things For Successful Book Signings! as well as all of The Wizard Killer, The Yellow Hoods, the Man of Cloud 9, and The King’s Horse!

Where will I be? At corner booth #712 in the main, aka BMO, building.

5 Things from 2018 - What worked, What didn’t

The last year was fraught with unexpected twists and turns. Along the way, some ambitious plans failed to launch, while others happened just before the clock ran out on the year. Let’s break them down.

1. Life - Twist and Turns - Family

In the early part of the year, a family issue came up that I cleared the deck for. This derailed the release of my book, The King’s Horse, by a few months. Thankfully, everything ended well from a family perspective. I debated holding the release of The King’s Horse until the fall, but started to fear that if I didn’t get it out, I never would, so I released it without a plan in June.

What many don’t know is that The King’s Horse is the first book I wrote since cutting my asthma meds by more than half. This dramatically reduced the amount of steroids in my system which have been a part of me since 2009. This threw off my writing voice, my confidence, etc.

2. Life - Twist and Turns - Job

With my youngest kid going into grade 1, I was faced with a choice. It has been 3.5 years since I worked in IT (software), and my resume was collecting the amount of rust and dust that makes it very hard to come back to if I needed to at some point. Another reality is that this economy where we live isn’t great, and while I’ve been home with the kids and writing for the past few years, my wife’s lost her job a few times. Some financial stability would be great. So I decided to go back to work, and landed a good job. As it turns out, that was a brilliant move because just before Christmas, once again, my wife lost her job.

This also curtailed the idea of launching a Patreon account, as I wouldn’t have the additional time to produce content. 

3. Failed Podcast - Along Came A Time Crunch

While I’d tried to get videos going as a regular thing at the end of 2017 and early in 2018, I then decided to pivot to doing a podcast. In May, at CreativeInk, I recorded 10 podcast interviews that I could use to launch my show, Along Came a Podcast.  As I was gearing up to launch the show, the Family Twist and Turn happened and my priority shifted. As that started to let up, the idea of returning to the job force crystallized and so I focused on getting a technical certification to help strengthen my resume (which was a sound move). At that point, I was now in September and realized I wasn’t going to be able to get ahead of everything. I was struggling just to find time to write, which I knew I couldn’t compromise.

4. Emotions can Derail Me - Causing a Story Stockpile

My stories come from deeply emotional places, so when there’s a significant change in my world, I can lose my grip on a story. Experience has taught me that unless I want to permanently ruin that story, I need to put it down for a bit. Keep playing with it, and I’ll end up with a car wreck of words. Leave it for too long, and I’ll lose my connection to the story. I went from writing The King’s Horse #2, to ODIS Prime - Season One, to Anny Pocalypse - Book 1. All of these got to the 80% point, where fine tuning and mental space was needed.

I was working on Anny when I started the new job. We also got a puppy at this time, which meant my daily routine was dramatically changed and I was being robbed of sleep (puppies are sooo like babies, I’d forgotten about that). With my mind constantly in a consulting space (I work for a consulting company), I was able to return to another project of mine that had been gathering dust: my non-fiction book, based on my popular presentation/workshop about having successful book signings. To my joyful surprise, I finished it, got it to my editor, and am now half-way through the preliminary edits. In a week or two, it should go out to beta-readers.  It’s called: Five Critical Things To Know For A Successful Book Signing (5CT for short).

The closer 5CT is ready to go out to betas, the more I’m thinking about Anny. I can feel I’ll be able to start going through my backlog with renewed strength and excitement.

5. Regrouping - Pull Back, Strategy Forward

When I cut my meds back in mid-2017, I also cut my travel and book signing schedule. In 2018, I did the fewest appearances I’ve done in quite a while. Health wise, and family wise, it worked out well. In terms of writing, my plan had been to go from 2 to 4 indie releases for 2019, but the problem was I know I need to extend my reach, and that means giving a book to an agent.

Taking the job and striking events from my schedule allowed me to really get behind the strategy I need for the next year: 1 indie release, 1 book for an agent, 1 non-fiction, and then see where things are at. 5CT is the non-fiction, Anny is the book for an agent, and ODIS Prime or Wizard Killer 4 will be the next indie release.

Prior to taking the job, I felt trapped by my 2 indie releases a year (April and September). I was trying to grow from there, but at the same time, felt that my family’s needs and my schedule couldn’t easily support it. I was pushing myself, but that was burning out my creativity and playing havoc with my emotions. Taking the job, giving my family financial certainty, helped me across the board.  

6. Perspective (Bonus thing)

Every time I start saying that this hasn’t been a productive year, I’m reminded that I released Wizard Killer #3 as well as The King’s Horse #1. I also released 3 audiobooks, with a fourth that was recorded and I benched because I’m not certain I want to release it as it. On top of that, I was at two great writer conferences, and on top of panels and talks that I offered, I did my first keynote which was a rocking hit. I built up some great new friendships, and reinforced others. 

When I launched my indie career, I went hard, learning everything as I went. This year was about downshifting to climb the hill that was before me. I didn’t stop, and I knew I couldn’t keep going the way that I was. Instead, my relationship with my writing, my kids, and my wife are all at the best they’ve been. Even with a new job, I am not tempted to ‘leave my writing and focus on my career’ because author and speaker is my primary career.

Having great people around you helps bring perspective, and the further we go, the more important they are. I was never someone to feel like I was a part of something. I always found myself excluded or abandoned for some reason, but the writing community and the friends I have today are very different. 

Summing It Up

This past year was my worst for sales, and it didn’t matter. I shelved several stories that were SO CLOSE to being done (I haven’t forgotten about Tilruna - for those that had read an excerpt a year+ ago), and that doesn’t matter. What this year represented was shifting a lot of things so that my family was where we needed to be, and getting myself off the treadmill of writing more to write more to write  more, and getting myself to start being strategic once again.

Oh, and on top of everything I forget to give myself credit for, I built this new website. Let me know what you think: Adam.dreece@ADZOPublishing.com