After the PDF is off-line, we will update it based on play testers’ feedback. Then in a couple of months time, we will be launching the 2009 Winners PDF combining both Sanctum and our new adventure Gold Strike!. All the profits from the sale of this PDF will go straight back to the two winning authors. We also hope to have a hard copy version available.

Monday saw a preview of our Dark Trolls and an associated article about Making Monsters Different.

Tuesday was an easy day, because I had a guest post with the self-explantory title Five Things I Learned Writing a Competition Winning Adventure

If Tuesday was easy, Wednesday was hard as we had the official launch of our New Miniatures: Heroes Or Villains range with an associated post on Are They Heroes or Villains?.

Thursday saw the overdue release of the Free Quorakon Supplement PDF and the announcement of a New Theme for the Adventure Writing Competition which might just be related to the launch of the new miniatures.

Finally Friday was the release of Gold Strike! PDF as a free download as part of our Open-Playtest.

Probably on of the busiest weeks we have ever had on the 6d6 Fireball blog. A lot of effort but a lot of fun as well. This is why I love running a games company.

The winner of the autumn round of our Adventure Writing Competition, Gold Strike! is ready to download. This low to mid-level D&D adventure, sees the party on the trail of lost miners in an abandoned dwarf mine. But this is no simple rescue mission as the characters discover hints of the mine’s dark history and an ancient evil that is breaking free of its eon long imprisonment.

The PDF is released as part of our on-going Open Playtest. You can download the free PDF and if you send in your feedback (good or bad) we will send you a free electronic copy of the final product. This will be in a couple of months time and final (non-free) PDF will combine both Gold Strike! and our summer winner, Sanctum of the Fiery Ladder, in an extra large module.

Mitch, writer of Gold Strike!, is a native of Michigan, USA and his gaming life started with the gift of an AD&D boxed set. He now works in IT and is developing his writing skills on a number projects including the Internet Zombie Movie.

The full (2.2MB PDF) adventure can be downloaded by clicking here and don’t forget to send us your feedback. If you aren’t among the thousand or so people who have download our first winner, Sanctum …, do it now. It will be disappearing in the next week or two do this is your last chance.

Many thanks to Mitch for all his hard work in creating the adventure.

Heroes or Villains

Yesterday we release a new pack of character figures, our ‘Heroes or Villains’ pack and the new theme is to simply incorporate one or more of these distinctive miniatures into the adventure. They can be NPCs helping the party, the big-bad-boss of a dungeon or a minor encounter along the way. We don’t mind how you include them, just as long as one or more of them are in the adventure.

Drax the Chain

He’s human, he’s called Drax and he has a chain. Using aggression and agility to gain the initiative, he uses his reach and numerous opportunity attacks to deadly advantage.

Kiris, the World’s Biggest Gnome

What do say about a gnome who is almost twice as tall as others of his race. He is a freak and outsider everywhere he goes. That has given him a real attitude problem and he enjoys nothing better than cutting other people down to size.

Corvell

Don’t let this fresh faced young wizard fool you. He may seem like a novice adventurer but he is already delving in the some of the darkest areas of magic and has an unnatural fascination with the undead.

Celebhinth, Troll Hunter

A half-elf loner who is happiest when on trail of a troll. An expert tracker and devastating in combat with either his bastard sword or his bow, he is not to be messed with. But his hatred of trolls drives him ever further and he allows nothing to get in his way.

Starting Points

The character sketches for each figure are just starting points for your adventures. Push their story, either individually or collectively, in which ever direction you want to take it. We want the best possible adventures so there are no limits to how you incorporate the figures.

Writing Your Adventure

Writing an adventure for publication is a very different experience to writing one for your own game. It is hard work and takes a lot longer because all those ideas and details living in your head, have to make it down on to the paper. See Five Things I Learned Writing a Competition Winning Adventure for advice from someone who has already been through the process.

To help make this as easy as possible, we walk you though the process, giving you as much help and advice as you need. Start by outlining the plot of your adventure in ten or so sentences and sending it to Competition [at] 6d6Fireball [dot] com. From this first step, we work together to create a winning entry.

Rules and Stuff

See the Adventure Writing Competition page for full details but here is quick run down: You write an adventure, we pick the best ones to publish, you get all the money from the sales. The only rules are that the adventure must include the theme figures and you must not already work for a games company.

The Quorakon, like this chieftain on the left, are fierce mountain dwelling creatures. They only use primitive stone tools but their ability to use four at once (or two bows!) makes for a deadly creature. Like the Dark Trolls in Monday’s post Making Monster’s Different, these novel creatures can wipe a smile off any party’s face.

The quorakon are also very adaptable as foes. A single juvenile (CR2 / 2 HD) makes a good challenge for a 1st level party. Whereas a quorakon village with a chief, several veteran warriors, some ice lynx and a powerful mystic can pose a real challenge to moderate or high level party. But quorakon are not just for fighting. They have a rich culture with plenty of opportunities for adventure hooks and role-playing.

To download the PDF of the supplement, click here. Please note it is formatted to work as an A5 booklet so some assembly will be required. (Hint: Print the odd pages, put them back in your printer, print the even pages).

A free hardcopy (complete with staples!) is included with any order of either the the Quorakon War Party or the Quorakon village packs.

Drax the Chain

Raised up in the roughest part of Dayspring, Drax is a born street fighter and always the first to resort to violence. But he is no simple street thug, he is a man with goal. He believed his Grandfather’s stories about how the family was descended from the old line of kings. A bloodline that was betrayed and almost wiped out. Those that survived fell to the very bottom of society and Drax has taken it on himself to restore his family to the throne, no matter what the cost.

Kiris, A Giant Among Gnomes

Nature likes its little jokes and what could be funnier than the world’s tallest gnome? Towering over everyone in his clan and every other gnome he has ever met, Kiris was a freak in the gnome mines and clan halls of his people. In the outside world, life was little better, no one believed he was gnome. Being an outcast, a freak, an object of ridicule can do very strange things to the mind of young gnome.

Corvell the Young Wizard

This young man is the cousin of Drax and definitely the brains in the family. He knows Grandfather’s stories were just the ramblings of an old man. Real power lies in arcane knowledge and there is no limit on what can be done to acquire the darkest, most powerful arts. Though still little more than boy, this fresh faced man is already drawn to magics straddling the borders between life and death.

Celebhith, Troll-hunter

What drives a man to dedicate his life to hunting and killing one type of creature? Maybe it is because he is half-elven. Trusted by neither race, growing up alone and wandering the harsh countryside can teach a young boy some very hard lessons in life. What happened to him that he dedicated his life to hunting and destroying trolls is a secret he alone keeps. But so much anger and fear in one man is not healthy and it is only a matter of time before it poisons his soul.

Heroes & Villains Pack

All four heroes or villain are available either as individual miniatures or as a special pack that saves 15% on the purchase price.

Available from today, the new Heroes or Villains pack of character figures incorporating four distinctive designs from Rob Grimley. These figures are perfect for heroes who stride forth and smite evil but they are just as effective as evil doers, agents of the darkness who will stop at nothing to reach their goals.

From left to right: Corvell (young human mage); Drax (human warrior with chain); Kiris (the world’s tallest gnome) and Celebhith (half-elven troll hunter).

Cast by master craftsman Garry Parson and his firm Toolshed miniatures, his twenty years experience Skytrex, Citadel, Asgard, Foundry and S.A. Bridge in France has really brought out the detail in Rob’s designs. Especially in the delicate chain links of Drax’s chain.

All four figures are available separately at £3 each but the pack price including all four figures is £10.

6d6 Fireball is a small role-playing game company based in Nottingham with a track record of producing distinctive, even idiosyncratic, 28mm fantasy miniatures such as the Quorakon range. The figure range provides the basis for the Adventure Writing Competition that helps young writers take their first steps in the RPG publishing business.

6d6 Fireball’s 28mm Catalogue: http://6d6fireball.com/rpg-miniatures/catalog/

Close up of Drax the Chain

A Guest Post from Joshua ‘Sanctum of the Fiery Ladder‘ Kitz.

Back in June, I won the 6d6 Fireball Adventure Writing Competition. Since then, I have spent a fair bit of time mulling things over and learning some new things as well. So here are a few tips and thoughts on the process, and a thing or two I might change.

1. Review A Grammar Guide

This may seem a little trite, but it is critical. If you want your writing to be clear, evocative, concise and more importantly correct you need to review some basic rules and know what kind of English your editors / publishers prefer. Getting this from the start is really helpful. Having to go back and alter things is hard, annoying and you are bound to miss things. Reviewing grammar guide is a huge help as it reminds you to focus on quality from the beginning and helps you kick some of those bad habits.

For ‘Sanctum…’ I had done a fairly detailed rough before looking at a Grammar / Writing Guide and it certainly would have helped to do it earlier.

There is plenty of good material out there (some of which is quiet exhaustive). One that is geared to RPG writers and is relatively short and free is the Writers Guidelines by Polymancer Studios. (currently not available online) Perhaps the first thing to ask a publisher / editor is if they have a Writer’s Guide (and read the darn thing). Have it on your desk (be it physical or virtual.)

2. Design Notes

If I was to do it again, I would put in some design notes. Setting them aside somehow in the text (maybe a different colour). Whether this gets included in the final product isn’t so important. It helps to remind you of some of the reasons for the decisions that you’ve made. It also helps the editors figure out what your doing, and there’s sure to be a time or two that and editor will say “If that’s the case, you need to make it clearer in the text itself.”

3. Not All Editor’s Are Created Equal (and sometimes your reader/editor just won’t get it)

From my experience working on magazine articles after doing ‘Sanctum…’ it is obvious that all editors are not created equal as with everyone they operate in their own particular fashions. Sometimes it can be difficult to get responses, particularly to that one question that you really wanted answered in your last email with five questions . . .

I was fortunate with 6d6 Fireball in that they often gave me quick and detailed responses and kept me posted on changing plans (and even gave me some input). The suggested changes and such where usually quite detailed and well explained.

Its also important to have a friend and/or family member look over your writing. It really helps to get an additional set of eyes to give you some feedback. Even non-gamers can give you some important feedback – it really makes you look at clarity, and realize how much gaming jargon is in your text.

For myself, I always print out a copy of the text. I simply find it easier to catch errors, find inconsistencies and such. The ability to instantly switch from page 5 to page 22 (and look them at the same time) is pretty important.

Having discussed the above, it brings me to an area that’s hard to give good advice on. Sometimes your reader/editor just won’t get it. Often this is because your writing isn’t clear, but sometimes it is due to differing life experience and philosophy, some of your readers will get it, but some won’t. You need to decide how important this is to you and your vision.

Usually you can make these elements a little clearer. Sometimes you need to fight for these things. When you say “Its important because…” many a good editor will just shrug and say “alright”. Of course you can’t do that to all of their suggestions, they do after all know what they are talking about.

4. Everything Takes Longer Than You Think (especially 3.5 stats)

Yeah it will only take me a day or two, or an evening…

It always takes longer then you think. Everything takes longer then you think, probably
weeks longer. This is especially true when ‘real life’ gets involved. From writing a first page, doing revisions, or making stats everything takes longer. In fact stats and revision / expansion / editing is where you will probably spent the majority of your time.

[Shudder] 3.5 stats (oh for the simplicity of earlier editions!) even with some great little tools like Dingle NPC Generator this is takes some serious time. Part of it is that making the stat blocks isn’t really that creative, it is the grunt work part. Which is critical but it does drags.

5. Emphasizing Change in Pacing (perhaps a pacing curve?)

There are a couple of particular instances in the adventure, particularly when the dungeon crawl starts where I want to emphasize the change of pace. The final dungeon section may feel like a bit of a combat grind and the opportunities for Roleplaying that do occur need to be highlighted. In ‘Sanctum …’ there are a couple of encounters with survivors and prisoners to provide relief from the relentless attacks by Bearded Devils and mad cultists.

In fact I almost feel that something akin to the grade school ‘plot curves’ might be used to highlight this. Pointing out the desired periods of high action, and intriguing or intense roleplaying.

Finally

Be willing to ask for advice, from anyone willing to give you their opinion and thoughts. Input always helps, even if they don’t quite ‘get it’. Overall, I really enjoyed the whole experience of writing an adventure. And I’m looking forward to the places that my imagination is
going to take me next.

Joshua Kitz

Sanctum of the Fiery Ladder is currently available as a free download as part of our open playtest, but not for much longer. Get it whilst you can.

However coming up with a new monster, or at least a new monster that makes sense, is hard. Just by flicking through some of the stranger creatures in the monster manual you can see how easy it is to create a completely rubbish monster that no one will ever use. But don’t worry, There are two good tricks to creating monsters that your players will respect.

Have a Story

Monsters do not just appear out of thin air. Natural monsters will have evolved to fill an ecological niche and this gives them certain strengths and weaknesses. Monsters that have been bred or magically created by someone, for a specific purpose. This will define their mix of abilities as strongly as evolution ever did.

As a GM you need to know the story of your new monster species. A creature created to guard a wizard’s dungeon will be very different from a predator evolved to feed on wild cattle on a vast plain.

Turn Things on Their Head

This is a good trick for any form of creativity but it works exceptionally well with new monsters. Take the player’s expectations and reverse them. Stupid monsters become smart, slow monsters become fast, weak monsters gain deadly poisons. Coupled with a good background story, this is a sure fire way of creating a new, interesting monster.

For example, the film 28 Days later took the traditional idea of a slow moving zombie and made them fast. This worked so well because there was also a backstory that made sense (in that world anyway).

A Lesson in New Monster Design

One of the masters of new monster design is Adrian Wood, creator of the four armed Quorakons (watch out for Quorakon news later in the week). The latest of Adrian’s monsters to make it into metal is our new Dark Troll miniatures.

Starting with the basic ideal of the classic, stupid, claw-claw-bite D&D trolls, he turned the concept on its head. Dark Trolls could be considered to normal trolls what Ogre Mages are to normal Ogres, smarter and far more magical. However, without a backstory to explain why they exist and why they are so much more than ordinary trolls, they would just be a fun encounter. Like delving deep into a dungeon and discovering a dragon in a locked room. Its great until someone starts asking questions like “How did it get here?” and “What does it live on?”.

By building a backstory, it ensures the new monsters have a credible place in your world. In Adrian’s campaign, Dark Trolls are “pure” trolls and originate on a strange and dangerous distant plane. Other, lesser troll types (common ones) are a debased hybrid of Dark Troll blood mixed with other creatures (possibly hill giants for example). Where common trolls are big, brutish and lacking in magic, Dark Trolls are highly intelligent and powerful users of evil magic.

Dark Trolls are 8-12 ft tall and up to 140 stone in weight although they can alter their form at will and hence can vary their appearance quite a lot. Their skin is black and mostly smooth; their eyes are red, teeth are black and nails pearly white. They are pure evil and usually involve themselves in big evil conspiracies although their motives are rarely very clear. It is like they just enjoy doing evil things for their own sake. They are brilliantly intelligent but often flawed in their thinking. Most seem to be insecure and hence they keep a low profile and hide themselves away in dark places.

Their twisted genius often results in strange obsessions and so their appearance, equipment and methods can vary a great deal. Our first troll miniature favours armour although his helmet and arm guards are made of strange and unearthly insect parts. The second, larger one, is more typical in wearing less and collecting “bling”.

Dark Trolls seem to favour domination, change and destruction magic over other types. They also use curses to great effect. A number of powerful Dark Troll-made items have been discovered, all of which were dangerous or corrupting.

Because they hide themselves and their motivations, Dark Trolls might work for other dark powers (evil gods or demi-gods) but would often draw minions to them to do the running around. Agents of Dark Trolls might be orcs, gnolls or other, lesser trolls so they make a great end-of-dungeon boss fight.

A Richer, More Distinctive World

With a few short paragraphs, the Dark Trolls have developed in to a challenging monster and a rich source of adventures. The novelty and fear generated by the first encounter with a new monster will wear off, but time investment is your monster backstory makes the whole campaign world richer.

“Good God, They’re Massive”

Was my reaction the first time Rob showed me his prototypes for the new Dark Troll figures. When he told me about them several weeks earlier I had imagined something a little bit larger than our Quorakon chieftain. Instead, Rob has design two figures twice the size of our previous record. Don’t Believe me? Here is Dark Troll number one with our Celebhith the Troll Hunter Figure.

For reference, Celebhith is a perfectly sized half-elf figure, 28mm from base of feet to the eye line.

Making larger figures is not just a matter of sculpting a larger master. The molds and casting machinery are simply not big enough to cast that much metal as one piece. Instead these are multi-part figures. This has have set a number of technical challenges both for Rob and our ever-patient master mould maker Gary Parsons but this has its advantages as well. As a result, both Trolls have separate arms that join at the elbows with concealed joins that allow the figures to be more dynamically posed.

Neither Troll is in production yet. Dark Troll number one (with the helmet) is ready to go into production however number two has a problem. Rob has expertly disguised it these photos but one of the feet has twisted during the mold making process. This will require a new master and a new mold to be made before we can release them.