A Brief Note on Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent and other musings

I have not been as constructive with my blog posts lately as I’d like to be. It has quite a bit to do with all of the projects that I’m working on. That is not a bad thing, it just limits the amount of time I have to post more than just a few passing notes. In that vein, I just wanted to say that I recently received my copy of Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent today by Jeffrey P. Talanian and North Wind Adventures. I eagerly flipped through and so far, I’ve been highly impressed. For a small press endeavor, the production values are very good. I particularly enjoyed the artwork by Ian Baggley. I think the cover depicting the sightless serpent is suitably creepy and conveys the feel of the module. While I’m only a few pages in, the descriptions are flavorful and extremely well done. This weekend, I’ll make a more thorough read through and give a complete review. I really appreciated Jeff’s handwritten note of thanks. I’m really excited about Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. I think 2011 promises to be a watershed year for the OSR and hobbyist game developers. It seems that instead of just doing pastiche of 70’s and 80’s D&D stuff, we are now seeing some really creative ideas and I think Jeff and the gang at North Wind are going to have some really cool stuff in store for us.

Back to the project front, I’ve been crafting a small two or three level adventure for my son Bear’s new Halfling adventurer and friends to explore. I’m really wanting to play to the halfling’s strengths to make this a fun adventure for him. Bear has been enjoying the Hobbit immensely. Something I’d like to convey to my son in adventures is that bashing in the door and slaughtering everything in sight isn’t necessarily the best approach. Sure, there are some folks that play that way, but I’m not really into playing that way with my six year old. What I really want to stress is the wonder of exploration, problem solving, and critical thinking (and a few combats). I’ve put in some tricks and traps, hidden passages, and that sort of thing. I’m pretty excited to run Lightning Bolt the Halfling through it.

Basalt Keep has been getting some of my attention as well. It is a bit slow going writing out the room descriptions and encounters and this is a big adventure (160 keyed areas). So it’ll probably be a little bit before I get all the way through it. But it’s enough that I’m actually working on it and it will get done.

Well, that’s it for now. Happy gaming!