W. Jason Peck's page

ehb1022, hey, I'm glad you guys got so much from that simple character that appeared in such a short adventure. Really, I think that's great. I'm pretty amazed actually. With that list of adventures -- all great classics -- Stanton was sure standing in fine company.

SirMarcus,

I'm glad your players liked the adventure. I had always wanted to create an underwater adventure, as I felt most of those that I read in that environment were lacking. I really wanted to give the whole thing a feeling that the characters were not in their element -- to really focus on the alienness of the undersea. I hope that I captured those aspects well.

My brother has run To Walk Beneath the Waves twice, for two seperate groups, so I figure he liked it. :-) It amazes me that both his groups were surprised by the giant crab in that adventure -- I had thought that I made it pretty obvious there was something there. Hmmm...

SirMarcus, if you don't mind, can I ask a couple questions? What exactly do your players complain about concerning underwater adventures? And given this, what made them feel differently about To Walk Beneath the Waves?

Later,

Jason

Well, my favorite non-linear adventure, that springs to mind anyway, was "Jacob's Well." Great, horror, Alienesque adventure that is really evocative and really works. When I ran it back in the day, it had my players jumping at every shadow and their skin crawling...

I loved it.

ehb1022,

Sorry, got distracted by life there for a minute. Well, while I'm happy to share my ideas on Stanton, I want to stress right off that I only created the first appearance -- from the sounds of things he has really become your character. I mean, look how far he has come in your group? 11th level? Bedeviling players for years? Hey, that's great. But with all that mileage, I'm sure he has evolved plenty beyond my first creation.

Still, you asked, so here goes. I really don't see Stanton being a member of the BoneHeart -- he's just too cowardly. Sure, he'll be great at faking otherwise, but I think Iuz requires his highest agents to be really serious combantants too. Besides, I think he would just grow board with the whole groveling before an evil god incarnate thing.

On the other hand, I can see him as one of Zeech's advisors. (The Prince of Redhand was a pretty cool adventure, wasn't it?) I see him at that level becoming something like a high-end weapons dealer, kingdoms-wide blackmarket guildmaster or something similar. A real mover and shaker in a continent-spanning criminal underworld. But all the Age of Worms things, or cultist, etc. would just not be his thing. I see him as just too self-centered and shifty, all that cult/destiny/ etc. stuff just requires too much faith and dedication for him. But regarding the Prince -- that's definitely a guy he'd like to know and assossiate with.

Of course, and again, all this is just my opinion. He's your character now. Let Stanton follow thw path you choose.

Later.

ehb1022,

Hey man, you really made my day there. I'm very happy to see someone out there getting a lot of use out of my creations. I'm really fired up now! Gotta start polishing those four primary ideas I've had on the back burner for a long time.

Hey, anyone know what the response time on inquiries is right now? That last one I sent was pretty killer ... I forgot about it myself for a while. :-) Ha!

Thanks again for the input.

Farewell,

I know, I know...I'm a sick guy. Actually, for me, playing and writing are pretty much the same thing. I'm almost never a PC -- I'm the pertetual DM. Which is cool, really, as for me crafting the world and the adventures has always been the most fun. Still, being a PC has always been fun too. I do have some really memorable characters from over the years.

There is also the matter of me having moved away from my group. I guess I'm waiting for my son to get old enough to be my new group. Of course, looks like that's gonna be a while. Man I miss my buddies too. :-)

Matt,

Ha! That sounds great. He actually ate one of the snails without any coxing? Well, that's a barbarian for you. Yeah, evil campaigns can be a lot of fun. One of my most memorable campaigns was back from high school, an evil campaign ran in the shadow of Bone Hill. All my players broke down into three factions, several were anti-paladins (who struck up a deal which the wraith in Bone Hill!), one was a double-agent for a good kingdom and they all mistrusted each other. It was amazing that they got anything done -- but they did. Great fun. Played for a long time and they all reached around 7-9th level.

Eventually they were almost all smoked by a wandering beholder. So many great lines and moments came from that campaign. We still reference them today when talking.

ehb1022,

Became a dino farmer did he? Cool. My group loved that adventure. My dad was a wild mage, and had a search spell that created a feeling hand go haywire. Basically, it created a big hand that floated through town feeling everything up. :-) The next day the people kept saying there were really four loose monsters, and one got away. Therefore, the PCs were thought of as not being totally successful by the populace.

Great stuff guys. Thanks. I love hearing stuff like this.

--Jason

So, I've been away for a while. In fact, since my son was born two years ago, I just haven't played D&D much. But, ya know, I've recently drifted back. Since I never let my subscription lapse -- I've been distracted, not crazy -- I decided to see what's going on. So, I picked up and read Issue 132 completely. A lot of good stuff in there. And I got a really strong nostalgic feeling. I really, really miss D&D. I guess until that moment, I didn't realize just how much.

So, I'm stoked. I'm seriously thinking about trying to get published here again. It ought to be loads of fun and I have a bunch of ideas all ready to pursue. But before I really get going, I thought I'd drop in here and see what the community is up to. And while I'm here, I thought I'd ask a quick question -- namely, do any of you guys remember any of my previous stuff, and if so, did you like it? If so, I'd love to hear any stories you might have concerning the adventures. Nothing tickles me more than hearing that someone really enjoyed my work. Oddly, aside from my brother -- who has run most of them -- I've heard very little in this regards.

And just to jog the memory, here's my Dungeon credits: "Wild in the Streets," "Priestly Secrets," "To Walk Beneath the Waves," and "Valley of the Snails."

Okay, sorry for the self-serving post. Hopefully you'll all forgive my little indulgence.

Off to see what else is going on in here.

Erik,

Hey, thanks for the swift response. I guess I'll go get started on those other ideas I got brewing.

Later.

Hey guys,

While I learned long ago to pretty much just move on to the next project to keep my mind off the wait, I recently realized it had been like 6 months for the first of my pending proposals. Since I also received no responses to follow-up queries, I came here. I was a bit surprised to see this post, though somewhat relieved too (I'm hoping this means that I have not been singled out for the blackball treatment). Anyway, I guess these guys must really be busy over there... It's definitely not like the old days. I suppose this was the inevedible result of going monthly. The yin and yang. Still, I do appreciate everything the Dungeon guys/gals do. It must take a lot to create the best RPG magazine out there.

Still, I'm a tad confused. With all the talk about the internal meetings they were going to have concerning proposals, should I have been at least turned down on my first pending proposal? Any help? Anybody?

James, thanks for the info. I appreciate it. I'll get on it then.

Thanks.

Okay, question for the editors. I've got an article concerning a group of inter-linked (background-wise) new magic items that I'd like to submit, but I'm not sure to which magazine to do it. The problem is that these new magic items are rather sinister in nature and are probably better suited to NPC villains and the like as DM story tools than they are for PCs. Combing through the new guidelines to both Dragon and Dungeon, it certainly seems that the magic item articles in Dragon are meant primarily for PCs and there doesn't seem to be a really good fit for the listed ones for Dungeon. Is there a way I can propose this article to one of the magazines? If so, which one?

Any help in this regards is much appreciated.