I am flicking back through all my old issues of Dungeon to see what ones I need to order through backstock and run upon this doozy. What a collection of adventures in 37! "Serpent of the Sands" (an amazing Yuan-ti adventure set in the desert), "A Wizards Fate" (a nice little side adventure), "The White Boar of Kilfay"(easily Willie Walsh's best effort), "Their Master's Voice"(nice little side trek)and everybody's favourite, "The Mud Sorceror's Tomb". If you are looking for the quintessential Dungeon magazine, this one comes highly recommended.
Willie, great to see you still tune in. You went a different direction in your adventures which I give you credit for. The Celtic overtones are great (look at my last name) and added flavour and impact with your character development that no one else was doing at that time in Dungeon Magazine. You are a forefather of Dungeon Magazine. Quit your day job and write again!
I have already been speaking to Wolfgang Bauer on Paizo's Book messageboard. Now if only I could get Paul Culotta to write in...
Just another big Willie Walsh fan adding a voice to the chorus of praise- your adventures were favorites of mine (and my whole group) for years. We've played through many of them. I think your adventures do a great job melding mystery, interaction, and an interesting setting.
I listed you as one of my favorite Dungeon magazine authors (with Ted Zuvich and W. Baur) in the survey from a few months back.
Like Paul, I'd sure love to see your 22nd adventure appear in Dungeon some day.
"The White Boar of Kilfay"(easily Willie Walsh's best effort)
I think you are forgetting Old Man Katan and His Mushroom Band. That is definitely Willie's best.
It'a a matter of opinion. I'm not much for comedy in Dungeons and Dragons although Old Man Katan is well written and a good plotline. Whatever floats your boat.
I have to say that while Comedy adventures are fun to read, I've never had one work out well in play. Players either miss the humor, or find it to be silly to the point of destracting.
ASEO out
Mr. Walsh, I second, (and third, and fourth,) your return to Dungeon. Hopefully, you shall see fit to grace these pages once again.
While I never ran Old Man Katan... I laughed the whole way through. Absolutely hysterical... just the thought of these singing mushrooms makes me smile, even to this day. (For that matter, there's a picture of a talking mushroom in the latest issue of Dungeon, and what did I think of? Old Man Katan!)
You are an excellent author and dungeon writer. Your return would be greatly appreciated. (Not to mention a big selling point for the magazine!)
Squid
I believe that Old Man Katan (and his Mushroom Band) is the creation of Ted Zuvich, not Willie Walsh.
I actually ran the adventure through, and the players had a blast. I had taped myself singing as the Campestris in a high pitched voice, and then sang a duet with myself as Old Man Katan. I don't sing very well to begin with, so much humorous torture ensued.
My vote for best Willie Walsh adventure would be 'Mightier than the Sword' a very fine low level urban mystery.
I deleted my last post (thanks Greg). Ted James Thomas Zuvich? Why not throw a Frank and a Joseph in there as well.
Just some historical facts for you, Greg. The paint used in Braveheart is up for historical debate. Some say the Scots dipped their bodies in blue dye before battle while others say it was their clothes they dipped. Anyway, there was some kind of law passed where they weren't allowed to do this because it made them look too terrible and fearsome in battle. Good call, Mel, including it in the film.
I got another one for you, Greg. The word "Berserker" does not refer to any Celtic warriors but Scandinavian. It originated from the words "bear sark" which means bear shirt that these warriors used to wear.
The origin of blue dye came from the woad plant which the Picts used to use in battle. It is also been tied to the Britons who would tattoo themselves from this dye. Maybe this is why the bards wore blue. Or could be the Scots used to wear it to peeve off the British because of this law they passed. The natural colour for those opposed to the British to slap them in the face was to portray them in blue.
Okay... now I'm embarrased. I praised an author for a work they didn't write. I am so sorry. However, I do stand by my statement of wishing to see Mr. Walsh write again for us.
Please? Pretty please, with little tiny goblin sprinkles on top?
Squid
You certainly churned them out, Willie. All completely different settings too. You must have just got an idea and ran with it. Someone's brain must work overtime.
21 Printed adventures x 5 Ideas = 105 outlines submitted to Dungeon
Busy man, Willie. You must have got sick of writing or burned out. You must LIVE fantasy. How did you turn away from it after writing for so long?
I'm compelled to put in my vote for Whitelake Mine. My PCs ended up down in that diving bell being attacked by the giant pike, and it was one of the few times DMing where the situation really contributed to building tension and fear. The players felt a certain amount of helplessness, while at the same time not being able to blame the DM. After all, they volunteered to go down there with no effective underwater action capabilites!
Great experience that I still remember to this day, and only one PC ended up drowning / getting swallowed whole after all that build up.
I second that notion.
Chief Technical Officer
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If you're interested in reading descriptions of Willie's adventures, or purchasing back issues containing them, try this search:
http://paizo.com/search?q=dungeon+by+willie+walsh&x.x=26&x.y=9
In-stock issues appear first.
-Vic.
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Actually, Willie, you and I share a strange connection... (insert eerie music here)
If I remember correctly, "Cauldron of Plenty" was the module where the PCs had to retrieve a large magic cauldron from a giant's lair. The catch was that they couldn't harm the giant in any way... otherwise they couldn't retrieve the cauldron. Well, a very good friend of mine, Bob Giadrovich, (I think I spelled his last name right,) illustrated that particular module, as well as several others for Dungeon. I even got to see the originals. I think he may have done more than one of yours, since he ended up illustrating several modules with a Celtic theme.
Strangely enough, I remember most of your modules not by name, but by location or idea. The aforementioned "Csuldron of Plenty", "Fraggart's Contraption", "Pyramid of Jenkel", "Huddle Farm", "Roarwater Caves"... these I remember for various reasons. So, if nothing else, know that your work has been fondly remember for over 15 years, and, in turn, has inspired countless others.
Squid
Really glad Huddle Farm got a mention, its not every adventure that features green cows...awesome.
The most difficult part of the writing process is, I think, reading the rejection letter. The second hardest is learning from it. It was (and presumably still is) the policy at DUNGEON that ideas which didn't suit were accompanied by a letter outlining the reasons why...
Unfortunately, this is apparently not still DUNGEON policy. I got a rejection letter in the second half of last year from James Jacobs which apologized for the fact that the magazine no longer has the staff time to accompany rejections with suggestions for improvement or the specific reasons for the rejection. That was more disappointing to me than the rejection itself, actually. Oh well...I'm developing a new proposal anyway.
If you are looking for the quintessential Dungeon magazine, this one comes highly recommended.
Absolutely agreed. Throughout the years, I haven't had much of a chance to run a lot of Dungeon adventures, due to other continuing storylines IMC. I do have a full collection, though, and I've now been able to slowly work my way through all my Dungeon mags doing the basic updating to 3e (recording all the ELs and making any small modifications necessary); then adding them to my Adventure Database (Excel spreadsheet).
I just recently finished #37, and it brought a smile to my face. Those were some killer adventures, what with The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb, plus adventures by Willie Walsh and Chris Perkins. What a great issue, and still very playable to this day... I can't wait.
(If it included Wolfgang Baur and Steve Kurtz on top of all that, my head would have exploded.)
Check out #42 as well, Arnwyn. It has my favourite author, Paul Culotta with "The Price of Revenge" and a host of other good adventures including "Lady of the Mists." Talk about your dark and gothic feel to this one. Even the Sidetrek in the starting pages is one of Dungeon's best.
Check out #42 as well, Arnwyn. It has my favourite author, Paul Culotta with "The Price of Revenge" and a host of other good adventures including "Lady of the Mists." Talk about your dark and gothic feel to this one. Even the Sidetrek in the starting pages is one of Dungeon's best.
Heh, I just finished going through that one a couple of days ago. Indeed, another good one.
"The Price of Revenge" was particularly fun converting, because of 3e's nifty Vampire template (especially those for the Nosferatu found in the 3e Ravenloft monster book). [Didn't Steve Kurtz do the "Price of the Revenge"?]
"Lady of the Mists" was definitely another good one. For some reason, I think there's a sequel in some (much) later issue. Am I dreaming?
You have good taste in modules, Paul McCarthy.
Does anyone remember a time when TSR Inc had materials translated into Japanese...?
It was around that time. I actually own the Japanese D&D DM Screen. Very colorful, and the art is in the Japanese 'anime' style. I love it.
Thank you,, Arnwyn. The module you are talking about is "My Ladies' Mirror" written by Christopher Perkins in Issue #52. It was written as a prequel to the "Lady of the Mists". Dungeon was at it's best from issues 35-55, some masterful adventures being produced.
There is a listing of the top ten Dungeon Adventures somewhere on this board. Although after reviewing my editions again I found that I would change some of these around. How about you?
(A) "The White Boar of Kilfay"(easily Willie Walsh's best effort)...
(B)..."The Mud Sorceror's Tomb". If you are looking for the quintessential Dungeon magazine, this one comes highly recommended.
(A) My vote is for Huddle Farm...that was a riot.
(B) Yeah - this was brilliant.
I think you are forgetting Old Man Katan and His Mushroom Band. That is definitely Willie's best.
I found this on a fantastic adventure to read...certianly in one of the top spots to in terms of entertainment in that department. But I was never able to get it to work with a group - I was looking at it for a conversion to 3.5 the other day and was just stumped.
That actually got me wondering where all the humour went? 3rd Edition is great but some where in all the materialism the place for humour seems to have been lost. Or maybe I just can't figure out how to get it back in there.
I have to say that while Comedy adventures are fun to read, I've never had one work out well in play. Players either miss the humor, or find it to be silly to the point of destracting.
ASEO out
I found that it seemed to depend on what kind of humour was used...that said I can't really put my finger on exactly what the catagories of functional versus disfunctional humour was. I can sort of point to the extremes - The NPC without a clue who keeps trying to pick up the pretty female fighter with terrible one liners every time they return to their favourite inn(which serves as home base). This works - the NPC just seems to fit...Gags like singing Mushrooms seem much more difficult maybe because it strikes at the suspension of disbelief that the players and the DM have created. Huddle Farms Leprechaun worked because he did more then just paint the cow green so ones players could be both stupified and still manage to buy that this was in fact more then pure silliness.
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Creative Director
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Check out "Devil Box" in issue #109. That adventure had me laughing out loud when I first read it.
My Opinion: Humor is the hardest thing to write, and that's why we don't see many good humorous adventure proposals. I'd love to print more humorous adventures. That said, I don't intend to print any parody adventrues, or adventures that are "funny" because they're fundamentally silly. Humor works best in D&D when it's all in context of the game world, not when it depends on knowlege of the real world to work. If the PC wouldn't get the joke... chances are said adventrue won't see print.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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#36 Jul/Aug 92. Asflag's Unintentional Emporium (3-7)
Hi Willie,
I was wondering if you could tell me the proper pronounciation of Asflag. I ran the adventure about a decade ago and pronounced it (w/o thinking) as "Ass-Flag." Despite referring to him as "Az-Flag" for the rest of the session, my players continued to rag on me about the name. ("Does he have a banner w/a butt on it flying above his tower?") To make matters worse, I had intended to have Asflag return as a lich (IIRC, he had died in the adventure leaving his tower behind), so the comedy of his name was that much harder to live down.
Anyway, that's a great body of work. Pronounciation snafus aside, I enjoyed reading or playing a number of your adventures.
Sebastian
Kobold Press
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If you are looking for the quintessential Dungeon magazine, this one comes highly recommended.what with The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb, plus adventures by Willie Walsh and Chris Perkins. What a great issue, and still very playable to this day...
(If it included Wolfgang Baur and Steve Kurtz on top of all that, my head would have exploded.)
If I point out that I was an Associate Editor on issue 37, can we at least see your eyes pop out?
just popping in to include my props (proper respect for) for dungeon 37.
and willie knows from other boards how much i love other adventures he's done.