Four Dollar Dungeons's page

Thank you, Thilo, once again :-)

All the best

Richard

They're Three Dollar Dungeons for one more day only!

http://paizo.com/companies/fourDollarDungeons

Richard

(and I meant "sale" not "sales" :-|)

Thanks for the promotion - much appreciated!

Richard

This week, Dance Macabre became the 6th Four Dollar Dungeon to hit 100 sales.

And, yes, it really does have a dinosaur in it wearing a top-hat!

You know, it's funny, but when you look back at the stuff you wrote some years ago, you realise all the strange issues that were kicking about in your head at the time. Last year when I wrote Seven Sinful Tales I was definitely having a go at the middle classes. Dance Macabre is an unashamed attack at the wealthy.

Twisted Bridge is a town where people are so well off they'll do anything for entertainment. The Dance that gives the module its name is a real high for them - a sort of mixture of The Wicker Man, Venetian Masquerade Balls, the Day of the Dead and some real edgy danger to the dancers themselves. If I had lots of money and no morality I'm sure I'd love it!

Otherwise, the way the adventure runs is as an investigation / rescue mission very much like The Wicker Man. Check out the reviews and the free preview here too if you like.

All the best

Richard

Oh, this is not good.

So tempted to just go nuts on purchases.

I cannot in good conscience take advantage of what appears to be an error with the systems. It would be taking advantage of Paizo and the other 3PP's good natures.

Not gonna.

Soooooo tempted.

Sometimes being Lawful Good sucks.

Ok - now you're making me feel guilty.

People have taken advantage of this off me as a vendor, though. Actually, I don't mind - so anyone who wants to buy Four Dollar Dungeons at this discount is welcome to do so, but Paizo, if you're watching, I don't want this to continue for a whole month!

I'm going to have to think about whether I should exploit this as a buyer.

Richard

It is basically Golarion, so Inner Sea Gods (or here, excluding the Green Faith).

The Servitors all come from chapter four of that book. There's one per Inner Sea God - hence 20 of them.

The terms of the 3pp licence means I cannot refer to the gods themselves by name as a publisher - but you can, of course, when you're running it :-)

I always imagined Holy Island would be a great introduction to the Golarion pantheon.

All the best

Richard

... for non-Paizo products.

Hadn't seen it publicised anywhere.

I've no objection to it as a vendor - it just took me by surprise.

Richard

Thanks all. Most of them have actually played rpg's. About half have played Pathfinder and the other half DnD (4th and 5th ed). I'd like them to be around 5th level. Enough to have some fancy abilities to play around with.

The Four Dollar Dungeons look very cool. I'll check out the other suggestions too.

Feel free to ask any questions you like about them, either here or on their individual discussion threads.

All the best

Richard

... is now available here:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9p9y?Worlds-End

and, like all Four Dollar Dungeons, there's a free preview available as well.

All the best

Richard

The other factor that prevents this from being an accurate view of even most popular product is that it assumes time spent on the top Ten list = most sales over lifetime of product.

But certainly I have had some things that never hit the top 10, but have sold fair numbers month-in, month-out, for years and years and years, which means they were bought by more total people than many of my top-ten recipients that then had a normal dropoff to lower sales after 90 days or so.

Just not all at once.

But it's still INTERESTING data.

That's what happens with me too. 10 people bought Horn of Geryon in the GM's sale this week even though it's been out for over 3 years.

Richard

This is a 5th level adventure consisting of seven short stories linked together by a number of themes.

You can find it here:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9kbu?Seven-Sinful-Tales

When seven 13 year old kids inadvertently summon the PCs over to their land by simultaneously making a wish in the middle of a stone wishing circle, the PCs have to figure out what those wishes are and sort them out in order for them to return.

As they soon discover, each young person has been let down by their parents in some way relating to one of the seven deadly sins. Sorting out all seven problems takes the PCs into troll-infested woods, hunting hippos on a raft, breaking into a pyramid in the desert, infiltrating a city's drug den, and so on - i.e. there's plenty of variety here.

Hope you enjoy it.

All the best

Richard

I'll recommend a couple of my own which are currently on sale.

Dance Macabre (http://paizo.com/products/btpy99xg?Dance-Macabre) is more macabre than horror.

Reign of Terror (http://paizo.com/products/btpy9g47?The-Reign-of-Terror) is proper horror (IMVHO).

Each has some reviews for you to look at too and they also have free previews.

Richard

Please do, guys. They're very appreciated.

(And like PDG said, very happy to provide review copies to reviewers.)

All the best.

Richard

Oh, and I hate to be a burden, but I have a question for those people for whom I've done reviews... do you want me to post to D20pfsrd? Some have note said, while others have asked and I have forgotten. I got some time in which to finally put reviews from Paizo to OBS, but I want to make sure to get those to D20PFSRD for those who want it.

While I would just do it automatically, D20pfsrd is a pain due to their word limit, and I usually just put a link in the review to somewhere else (sometimes my blog).

Please let me know, and I will be more than happy to take that extra effort.

That's very kind of you, if you don't mind. It all helps.

All the best

Richard

Thanks for the replies - I'll send a few PMs

Anything I can do to help / pass on my own particular experiences / mistakes just PM me.

I've been going for 3 years now, BTW. I'm also in the UK so obviously some of my experiences relate to UKness.

All the best

Richard

Just an update, I posted the following reviews to dtrpg.

Trio of Taverns, Holy Island, and Guide to Lycanthropy.

I should have more reviews very soon!

Much appreciated.

All the best

Richard

I'd just like to repeat the invitation that I made on another thread on this subject that if anyone would like to review one of my adventures then please drop me a PM and I'll send you a review copy.

Many thanks and all the best

Richard

I think there's a difference between prepping a plot and a situation. In a game the plot is really only identified after the fact. The situation is what is prepared before the fact.

Motivation for villains, likely reactions to defenses being tested and the various events that are likely to happen if PCs aren't introduced to the environment are absolutely valid to prepping a situation. The plot is what happened once the PCs got there and wrecked everything... Er I mean, adventured!

Plots have protagonists, situations unfold.

+1 to all this, and to Ross and thejeff.

I've been wondering for a while though whether to include a type of read-aloud text - something that encompasses the invariant parts of a location as a shorthand for GMs. It would not be written from the "You" point of view, however - that sort of thing rubs me up the wrong way as a GM because it feels like the writer is addressing my players and that's not his job. It would also only cover some parts of the encounter, so the GM would then have to look at the text beyond this in order to decided what else needs to be described.

Richard

I think it's a matter of degree.

Although I think it is perfectly possible to produce good plot-less adventures (all of the MERP and Rolemaster stuff tends to be along those lines, for example), my preference is to have a plot going on which draws the players into it without it being so fine grained that it assumes room by room what the PCs are going to be doing.

In fact this naturally falls out of the way that I design adventures, which is first of all to construct a situation and plot which has no reference to the PCs at all, and then to add in the plot hooks and elements which draw the PCs into the story.

That spider example I gave earlier is a case in point. There is "plot" there, even in such a small description, because there are creatures living there and interacting with the world around them, and you can imagine a broader environment like a dungeon or a temple or something where things are going on and progressing in a PC-less plot. Then you hook the PCs in with some motivation which will eventually take them into that particular room to explore the altar, collect spider eggs, or what have you, and presumably put them in conflict with the plot's protagonists. If the spider's room has two doors into it, however, you don't have to assume which one the PCs will use. You don't have to assume room by room where they'll go, what they'll kill, what they'll befriend, how long they'll take over it, and so on. The plot holds the setting together and integrates it with the PCs without being any more prescriptive than that.

Like I said before, though, that's just one approach to Pathfinder and it may not be the most popular, but it's the one that I prefer as a GM and therefore the one that I prefer to write.

Richard

I'm actually in the DeathQuaker camp - I don't believe in read-aloud text at all.

I would write something like this:

"Four giant spiders live in the room. The ceiling is covered in webs. At any one time one of the spiders is likely to be concealed by the webbing as they scutter about, requiring a Perception check DC 12 to spot, otherwise their presence is pretty obvious as they weave and re-weave their webbing in an attempt to construct the perfect fly-trap.

Not that it's done them much good - they haven't had a decent meal in a fortnight and are now more than likely to attack anything that comes in here even if it's wrapped in plate armour."

And so on.

The key thing about this approach is that it makes no assumptions about the circumstances under which the PCs will encounter this situation. PC action could result in them all clattering in here at the same time, or one of them creeping by himself, or perhaps they chase a goblin into this room, may be one that's carrying a torch. Alternatively the GM might decide that some of the spiders are going to go out hunting, or perhaps something else in the dungeon will come and hunt them.

With this sort of approach to writing, you're providing the GM with the information that she needs in order for her to run it in her own way. You're explaining why things are the way they are, rather than presenting a karaoke-style set of instructions. Clearly some people prefer the latter, perhaps most people, but this alternative does exist, and it's in fact how things used to be back in the very early days of D&D (I remember how shocked I was when read-aloud text first appeared in module A1).

Richard

I absolutely LOVE how 4DD present encounters. Now, bear in mind that I only have a single adventure as an example (must get more), but every room has a simple encounter/treasure chart as part of the room details. The bit where it fell down was that there was a fair amount of what seems to be descriptive text, but mixed in were GM directions, which caused a few "gotcha" moments while playing it. If those are split out (and I understand that later adventures done by 4DD are improvements), it would be a damn near perfect example of how to do it right.

What I did with Dance Macabre, where this sort of thing happened a lot, was to use BOLD to separate out GM directions from descriptive text.

I wasn't sure whether this worked or made it messy.

I didn't use it for the next two adventures, because I felt the degree of admixture wasn't so great, but I'm constantly looking for ideas.

Richard

Four Dollar Dungeons wrote:

Duiker wrote:

Here you go: Osirian Map and Adventure List

If that's my Holy Island that you've re-written to use the Osirian Gods, is there any chance you could post up your conversion notes? I would really love to see what you've done with it.

All the best

Richard

It is! I didn't do the adaptation yet, because the party went in a different direction entirely, so I think I'm going to hold it and adapt it later to a much higher level but keep the core conceit of all the gods, the artifact and the role play. Might make that island that I named "Malinki Island" which is the little one on the Osirian maps right next to the big one off its southeastern coast near the border with Katapesh.

I'll post the mapping of the gods when and if they get there and I adapt that.

That's excellent, thank you, I shall look forward to that.

All the best

Richard

Here you go: Osirian Map and Adventure List

If that's my Holy Island that you've re-written to use the Osirian Gods, is there any chance you could post up your conversion notes? I would really love to see what you've done with it.

All the best

Richard

(if you find yourself reading this post in many places - my apologies, but it is a significant moment for me)

This month The Horn of Geryon passed its 200 sales mark, which by general 3pp standards classifies it as a "hit".

2 1/2 years on people are still enjoying this "treasure island" type tale that begins with an innkeeper asking the PCs to find his daughter's missing rabbit.

(which was inspired, incidentally, by my daughter and her stuffed toy rabbit - called "rabbit" - which at the age of 23 she still goes nowhere without)

Anyone who loves Dr Who might also have noticed the strong connection between this adventure and the Dr's first encounter with the Daleks back in 1963 (Snakero -> Skaro, etc). I'm a big fan of the classic series and my adventures are full of references to the old black and white stories.

So in conclusion I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you very much to the 200+ people that have bought this PDF, as well as the other adventures that I have written.

And as a general note - purchasers vote with their wallets. Your support of the 3pp scene encourages, inspires and guides the material that we produce. Buy the things you like, and you'll make sure that more of what you like gets written.

All the best

Richard Develyn

http://shop.d20pfsrd.com/collections/four-dollar-dungeons,
http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/5369/Four-Dollar-Dungeons, and
http://paizo.com/companies/fourDollarDungeons

An insightful and thoughtful review by Pathfinder's most prolific and well respected reviewer.

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9dhm?Holy-Island

Richard

Now available here:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9g47?The-Reign-of-Terror

All the best

Richard

Shameless plug:

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/f/fourDollarDungeons

Richard

We are using this time to inform other 3PP and fans of 3PP what we are doing and how we can make this one of the most influential and successful kickstarters of 2016. Plus a $10 PDF reward level where you get all the threshold goals from numerous 3PP is pretty awesome.

Consider me informed :-)

Were you expecting those of us to whom you haven't spoken so far to pitch in ideas or proposals or something?

Richard

5th Ed is popular, yes, but it also doesn't have an Open Game License, and likely never will.

THAT may be a near death-sentence for 5th Edition, but still likely not; 3rd-Party support is one of the key qualities of both 3rd Ed/3.5 and Pathfinder, and Paizo being even MORE generous with it's Pathfinder Reference Document than WOTC ever was with its SRD has led to multitudes more, and higher-quality, 3rd Party products out there, creating a thriving environment for the whole community.

5th Edition not allowing 3rd Party support means that there will be fairly limited interest in it from other games manufacturers and even players; meanwhile, Pathfinder making ALL their Base Classes and (non-Golarion-specific) hardbound books Open Content means that publisher pay attention to them, and fans of those publishers in turn pay attention to Pathfinder.

I also think HeroLab plays a very important part, and other software such as http://combatmanager.com/

IIRC, WotC screwed the licence for software vendors - totally shafting the equivalent of HeroLab for 3.5 (forget its name). Total madness, IMVHO.

I think 3pp support is very important.

Richard

Hey - not that brief! :-)

I believe the 3ppT crew are planning on running it in May (http://www.somnambulant-gamer.com/).

I'm really looking to seeing how they get on.

Richard

This is the first time I've seen a review spill over onto the Product Discussion page!

I reckon pretty soon your reviews are going to be longer than my adventures :-)

All the best

Richard

Review of Dance Macabre is now available here: http://endzeitgeist.com/dance-macabre/

Four dollar dungeons. Endzeitgeist has done better reviews for these than I ever could. Read. Buy. Play. Repeat. Especially Marina and the upcoming holy island.

Many thanks :-)

Holy Island is out now, BTW:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9dhm?Holy-Island

Richard

If you want to wait about 4 months for the next adventure I'm writing, currently called Isle of Gods, this is set on an island that looks very much like Lindisfarne (which is not far from where I live, funnily enough) ...

Richard

And here it is:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9dhm?Holy-Island

Richard

If you'll excuse a bit of self-promotion I would suggest you look at The Horn of Geryon.

Read the review and look at the free preview to see if it appeals to you. The main advantage to a beginning GM is that all of the rules you need to run it are provided in the appendices.

Richard

If any of you guys fancy reviewing one of my adventures I'm more than happy to provide a free copy.

(I'm not sure how you do that here, having said that, but I can do it through drivethru).

Just PM me.

All the best

Richard

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/f/fourDollarDungeons

One thing I definitely discovered though; Michael Allen's Twin Crossings has seriously raised the bar for me on what I want from an adventure module. The flow charts, inserts, organization, and tables have seriously spoiled me, and it's hard not to be a little disappointed by almost anything else.

Assuming you are going to do Dance Macabre next, that's quite a challenge!

I hope you enjoy it as much!

Richard

Thilo sets the quality that we all aspire to, so as well as providing a bridge between publishers, particularly small ones such as myself, and customers, he also pushes up standards.

He also puts in an amazing amount of time and care in his reviews which make them great to read for publishers as well. As writers, we all reach out to the community with our thoughts and ideas, and Thilo is fantastic for answering us back.

I always look forward to reading his reviews of my products, and I too use his reviews of other people's products to inform my purchasing decisions.

Richard

Ultimate PSionics (http://dreamscarredpress.com/dragonfly/Store/product/pid=126.html) is very good and I'm incorporating it in my next adventure.

The Mythic Monsters series (http://www.makeyourgamelegendary.com/products-page/mythic-plug-ins/) are also very good and I intend to use them later on next year in a mythic-themed adventure.

Richard

It's central to what I write.

Richard

Weirdly I was JUST talking to Rob McCreary about this a couple of weeks ago. while it's not official, the conclusion we came to is that dopplegangers have gender, that gender does not limit what genitalia they can form, and while most dopplegangers have a gender identity they prefer to present as but A: It doesn't limit their actual options and B: it's likely on a spectrum at least as wide and varied as humans.

This is broadly speaking the approach I took in Journey to Cathreay. Since Dopplegangers are principally interested in infiltration, seduction is going to be a powerful tool, and why limit yourself to only one of the sexes.

Richard

If you want to wait about 4 months for the next adventure I'm writing, currently called Isle of Gods, this is set on an island that looks very much like Lindisfarne (which is not far from where I live, funnily enough) ...

Richard

Ditto!

I thought for once I would announce this here.

Here's the link:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy99xg?Dance-Macabre

This is an investigative adventure, mainly set within the bounds of an opulent town called Twisted Bridge. After the initial wilderness parts during which the PCs gather their first set of clues, the adventure turns into a sandbox-style investigation within the town itself (i.e. there is a PC-key to the map of the town which you can give to the PCs with the map whilst keeping the GM-key to the town for yourself).

There are plenty of RP opportunities without being RP dependent. The PCs have real freedom to do what they want whilst at the same time you as GM can take control of the pace of the adventure by deciding when the climax should take place.

And, indeed, there are plenty of macabre elements here which I hope you and your players will find both interesting and amusing.

All the best

Richard