Grant Boucher's page

I'm a Grant Boucher fan, but it's unfortunate that some hardcore Star Wars fans attribute the history of the Five Mile Fallacy to his him.

He's a great writer, he just had his warship technical dimensions wrong.

Hi everybody! Grant Boucher here.

I came across this today because of a random search term and decided I would raise this thread from the dead. :)

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Baron.

I checked my original and published drafts of Star Wars Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope for the offending issue.

It's not there. So, that one's NOT my bad, ladies and gents.

Since the website linked talks about a product that would have amalgamated my work with that of other writers and WEG editors, I assume the dimensions problem originated at WEG as they tried to make sense of it all in those early days.

Not that it matters anymore, but let the record be clear that I'm not the one responsible for mislabeling that mighty ship. :)

PS I can't believe so many wonderful folks still care about my work from so many years ago. It's become canon not only for Lucasfilm at the time but also now for the Disney era -- as a lot of these races and names I was given the chance to create have recently showed up in The Mandalorian series. Unbelievably wonderful.

re: Into the Fire (spoiler free?)

You could easily shorten the "journey up the mountain" part to save time for a live play session. The keys to the tale are the mystery at the beginning, a few red herrings in the middle (specifically the tower), and the side exploration of a cave nearby...BOOM!

The ending boss was very carefully keyed to 2nd edition with the way his big trap works and the timing/race of that final encounter. With the new Pathfinder creature rules (which are scaled VERY nicely!) I'm not sure what the actual CR of that battle would need to be to work "correctly".

The higher level characters that would now appropriately face such a legendary creature would have MANY more options and one major alteration in the rules regarding the main attack of the big boss materially changes the way that trap/race would play out now.

Yet, lower level characters would necessitate reducing the power of the ending boss to a point where the epic nature of this surprise encounter might feel somewhat anticlimactic given the rich rewards at the end. :(

I guess the easiest solution might be to make the ending boss "special" such that his "main attack" happens per the 2nd edition rules so that this moment of the adventure can proceed as originally planned?

Has anyone out there ran "Into the Fire" in the Pathfinder gaming era? I'd sure like to hear what modifications to CR worked and what didn't.

A little necromancy goes a long way. ;)

Thank you for your kind words, W E Ray.

A bit of legend lore behind "Into the Fire":

It was originally a region inside a much larger adventure, submitted to Roger E. Moore for Dragon Magazine. He politely asked if I could split the adventure apart, because it was too damn big. The first part became "Into the Fire". The second part became "The Plight of Cirria" which saw the light of day in Dungeon#9.

I still have the handwritten letter wherein Roger told me A) he wanted "Into the Fire" for the cover feature of the first issue of a magazine he was going to edit (aka Dungeon), and B) he was going to commission a painting by my favorite artist (re: Keith) based on my dragon and his horde. Since this was the first creative writing I had ever done, that letter remains one of my most treasured possessions. :)

Of course, the most important aspect is that it was always a dragon adventure that no one knows is a dragon adventure until it's far too late...

PS I typo'd above (and can't seem to edit the post now, doh). It should indeed say 30 years instead of 20. Thanks for catching that :P

Apologies if this is considered off-topic, but I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the players, editors, and designers who've so fondly remembered the works my brother and I created for Dungeon Magazine some 20 years ago.

To find out that "Into the Fire" (Dungeon#1) and "Out of the Ashes" (Dungeon#17) had not one but two anniversary sequels created over the decades (in Dungeon#100 and Dungeon#200) and that "Trouble at Grog's" (Dungeon#4) was reprinted in the Best of Dungeon collection...I'm just stunned.

So many stories have been written by so many great designers over the years, to have some of ours remembered is humbling beyond words. Never underestimate the power of the Internet.

Well, sorry for hijacking the thread for a moment. But, speaking for my late little brother David and myself, thanks again for remembering.

Grant Boucher

PS Someone even kindly mentioned the all too cheesy "Wererats of Relfren" (Dungeon#14). :)