The Alexandrian

June 21st, 2008

As part of my prep work in designing the manor house in Winterhaven, I needed to stock the store room. So I cracked open my 4th Edition Player's Handbook...

... and discovered that all the non-adventuring equipment has gone M.I.A. Even stuff that has obvious utility for adventurers is gone.

Ink and parchment? Gone. Chalk dust gone? Gone. Caltrops? Gone.

The 10-foot pole? Gone.

Was the 10-foot pole really one of the sacred cows that needed to be slaughtered on the altar of 4th Edition?

Another fun one: On the first page of the Equipment chapter, they tell you to look in the "Adventuring Gear" section for flasks of oil. Guess what isn't in the Adventuring Gear section? Guess what isn't in the book anywhere at all?

So I did the only thing I could do. I went back to the 3rd Edition Player's Handbook and found what I needed. This is something I've been doing with rather ridiculous frequency as I repeatedly encounter areas where the 4th Edition core rulebooks aren't delivering the same basic functionality as the 3rd Edition core rulebooks.

| | Link

June 22nd, 2008

REMIXING KEEP ON THE SHADOWFELL

PART 10: THE RUINED KEEP

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read it. And if you're in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn't be reading it.

THE RUINED KEEP

FEATURES OF THE AREA:

Rubble: With the exception of the cleared path leading to the trapdoor, the ruins are filled with rubble. These squares are difficult terrain.

Rubble Piles: Where indicated there are larger piles of rubble. These require Athletics checks (DC 15) to climb at one-half speed.

AMBUSH: This ambush is set 1d2 days after the PCs wipe one (but not both) of the kobold barricades. (If they wipe out both barricades, there are no kobolds to perform the ambush with.) The kobolds here are drawn from encounter A1 in Keep on the Shadowfell.

1 kobold skirmisher (K)

3 kobold dragonshields (D)

1 kobold wyrmpriest (W)

TACTICS: The kobolds wait until the PCs reach a point even with the southernmost dragonshields and then attack as described below.

Dragonshields: The dragonshields simply move out from their hiding places, converging on the PCs.

Skirmisher: The skirmisher is hiding just behind the peak of a pile of rubble. He has taken the time to soak the pile with oil, making it slippery and more difficult to climb (Athletics, DC 20). When the ambush is launched, he will stand up and begin making his ranged attacks.

Wyrmpriest: The wyrmpriest is actually perched on the thick wall behind the central tower. He can move along the top of the wall to the wall of the tower itself. While perched up there he grants combat advantage. The walls is 20 feet high at that point.

| | Link

June 23rd, 2008

LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS

A few days ago, I promised a large announcement regarding the future plans of Dream Machine Productions. I was waiting to receive a signed contract from a cover artist so that I could legally show the cover we had designed for that product. Now, with that contract in hand, I'm proud to announce Legends & Labyrinths.

3RD EDITION LIVES!^TM

COMING JULY 15th FROM DREAM MACHINE PRODUCTIONS!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q1: WHAT IS LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS?

Legends & Labyrinths takes the most popular fantasy roleplaying game and strips it down to its most basic components. It removes everything non-essential, leaving behind a simple, fast-and-loose, easy-to-use system.

Legends & Labyrinths is based on a simple belief: Not only is 3rd Edition the most popular gaming system on the planet, it’s also one of the best. Its designers created a small, elegant set of core mechanics, resulting in an extremely flexible system. They then used those core mechanics to implement a wide array of carefully research and thoroughly playtested guidelines and supplementary rules. The result was possibly the most robust and detailed system ever created.

Legends & Labyrinths, on the other hand, was created with a simple methodology: If it’s not a core mechanic, it’s not in the game.

The result is a slick, tight, elegant system that doesn’t get bogged down in the details. Legends & Labyrinths jettisons the rules and guidelines which make 3rd Edition so robust, but it leaves behind the simple and flexible game which lies at the system’s core.

For experienced gamers, Legends & Labyrinths is a fast-and-easy game that jettisons the baggage of 3rd Edition. For new gamers, Legends & Labyrinths serves as the perfect introduction to roleplaying games -- simple enough to learn in an afternoon, but also a complete game that can be played for years without ever needing another supplement or rulebook.

Q2: WHAT ABOUT 4th EDITION?

Legends & Labyrinths was actually one of the first products put into development by Dream Machine Production at the beginning of 2007. The original plan was to release it in the fall of that year. However, when Fourth Edition was announced in the summer of 2007, development of the game was put on hold (along with almost all development at Dream Machine Productions). We thought it prudent to wait and see how 4th Edition developed before making a decision about our future.

We have now come to believe that 4th Edition is a significantly different game from the series of games that culminated their development in 3rd Edition. The fundamental play and design of the game has been altered to a point where it no longer feels like the same game. As a result, we have a strong desire to continue playing 3rd Edition -- and we feel that this desire is echoed widely in the gaming community.

As a result, the decision was made to put Legends & Labyrinths back into production as a game 100% compatible with 3rd Edition.

Later, in a separate decision driven primarily by the terms of the GSL, Dream Machine Productions determined that they would not be doing any development work for 4th Edition.

Q3: WHAT DOES "100% COMPATIBLE WITH 3RD EDITION" MEAN?

It means that any stat block or mechanic usable in 3rd Edition can be used in Legends & Labyrinths without conversion. It also means that any character created with Legends & Labyrinths can be used in a 3rd Edition game without conversion.

Got a 3rd Edition adventure? It can be used with Legends & Labyrinths. Got a book full of new monsters? It can be used with Legends & Labyrinths. Got a supplement of new spells? They can be cast in Legends & Labyrinths.

It also means that you can incorporate any core mechanic from 3rd Edition into your Legends & Labyrinths games without any difficulty. For example, Legends & Labyrinths features a stripped-down combat system. But what if you really like the detailed combat rules of 3rd Edition? Well, all you have to do is use them. Legends & Labyrinths is 100% compatible with 3rd Edition.

On the other hand, what if you really like all the different character creation tools 3rd Edition gives you (allowing you to tweak your character just the way you like), but you feel that the complexity of the rest of the system chokes the life out of your roleplaying? Well, all you have to do is use the full character creation rules to create your PCs and then play them using Legends & Labyrinths. The game is 100% compatible with 3rd Edition.

In other words, you can think of Legends & Labyrinths as being the streamlined foundation of the game: It's a complete game all by itself, but you can also add whatever additional functionality you want whenever you want to.

This is one of the reasons Legends & Labyrinths can be an ideal way of introducing new players to your existing 3rd Edition game: It gives them a simplified set of rules to learn and use, and then you can gradually add complexity to that foundation until they've learned all the bells and whistles of your full 3rd Edition campaign.

Q4: WHAT IF I LIKE MY CORE RULEBOOKS THE WAY THEY ARE? WHY SHOULD I BUY LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS?

Actually, if you like having all the bells and whistles of the existing core rulebooks, there's no reason for you to buy Legends & Labyrinths. A streamlined, fast-and-loose, easy-to-use system is not what everyone is looking for in a roleplaying game. The robust and detailed nature of the existing core rulebooks may be exactly what you're looking for.

If that level of robust detail is what you're looking for, however, you might be interested in Dream Machine Production's line of Rule Supplements, each of which expands the depth and detail of your game.

Q5: WHAT ABOUT PAIZO'S PATHFINDER?

Paizo's Pathfinder RPG is being designed to replace the void left by the original 3rd Edition rulebooks going out of print.

Dream Machine Productions feels strongly that this is a void that needs to be filled, and we champion Paizo's efforts. In the fall of 2007, when it became apparent that 4th Edition was going to be radically divergent from the design traditions of 3rd Edition, we began exploring the idea of re-tasking Legends & Labyrinths as a replacement core rulebook to fill that void.

In March 2008, however, when Paizo announced their plans for Pathfinder, we scrapped those plans. We feel strongly that 3rd Edition gaming should continue to be supported, and we feel equally strongly that this can't be accomplished if our collective efforts are diluted through unnecessary competition.

However, Legends & Labyrinths was not originally designed to compete with the 3rd Edition core rulebooks, nor do we feel that it competes with Paizo's Pathfinder. Rather, Legends & Labyrinths complements those products and serves a unique niche in the market. Think of it as the red box Basic Set for 3rd Edition.

Q6: WHAT TYPE OF SUPPORT WILL THERE BE FOR LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS?

Because Legends & Labyrinths is 100% compatible with 3rd Edition, when the game is published it will already be the best-supported roleplaying game in print. Dream Machine Productions will also be continuing its development of Adventure Supplements and City Supplements, compatible with Legends & Labyrinths and all 3rd Edition games.

We tend to think of mechanical support for a roleplaying game in terms of depth and breadth. Depth support increases the complexity and detail of the game. Breadth support, on the other hand, increases the number of options (without increasing the complexity of any given option).

If you want to add depth to your Legends & Labyrinth game, you will immediately be able to tap into the 3rd Edition core rulebooks and hundreds of supplements to provide that depth.

Legends & Labyrinths: Expert Expansion, on the other hand, will expand the game's breadth. It will feature additional classes and races, alternative magic systems (and psionics), chases, social duels, vehicles, and warfare. All of these options, however, will be designed with the same streamlined design ethos as Legends & Labyrinths itself.

Q7: WHAT IS THE SRS?

Legends & Labyrinths will be using the Sidebar Reference System originally developed for Dream Machine Production's line of Rule Supplements. Using this format, rules are presented exactly when and where you need them.

For example, page 8 of Rule Supplement 1: Mounted Combat deals with the rules for mounted movement. The rules on that page reference the rules for jumping; prone characters; mounted reach modifiers; kneeling and sitting; penalties for squeezing; and tumbling. Some of these rules are located in the PHB, while others are found elsewhere in the same book.

In most rulebooks, you would have to start flipping pages to find all the relevant information. But with SRS, the relevant rules are printed right in the sidebar on the same page. And even when a rule is too lengthy to include, a specific page reference is given -- not only making it easier to reference the rule you need (since you're being told exactly where to look for it), but also keeping those page references and other unwieldy repetition out of the actual body of the text (which makes the explanation of the immediate rule being discussed smoother and easier to use).

You can see a sample, here.

It's a fairly basic concept, but in practice it makes for the easiest rulebooks you'll ever use.

| | Link

June 25th, 2008

REMIXING KEEP ON THE SHADOWFELL

PART 11: KALAREL'S RITUAL AND THE DRAGON BURIAL SITE

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

A4. THE DRAGON BURIAL SITE

This encounter will largely play out in the same way, but we're going to change the nature of the artifact (to have it tie directly into Kalarel's ritual) and expand the information Douven Stahl has to impart.

THE ARTIFACT: The artifact they’ve dug up is a small stone idol of Orcus. It can recognized on a successful Religion check (DC 15).

DOUVEN STAHL: Douven Stahl can tell them everything on pg. 210 of the Monster Manual regarding the cults of Orcus. Then he will continue with a description of local cult activity:

“Two hundred years ago, this entire region south of the Cairngorms was a stronghold of the cult. The cult deliberately created a gap between this world and another realm – the Shadowfell. Although not inherently evil, the Shadowfell is fraught with dangers, and through the gap between worlds the cult brought forth skeletons, zombies, and even fouler creatures.

In those days, fortunately, the Empire of Nerath was still strong. A legion was dispatched to quell the threat. They destroyed the undead, sealed the rift, and built a keep to keep watch over the location and contain the threat. Today, however, that keep lies in ruins.

I came here merely to study history. But now I fear that the cult has returned, and seeks to open that gap between worlds once again. If that were to happen… without the Empire to respond…” He shudders.

If asked, Stahl can also tell them about the ritual:

“The worship or Orcus revolves around the practice of human sacrifice. But these sacrifices are not merely about death, they about the collection and distribution of a victim’s blood. Cult rituals often revolve around filling a skull with blood, drinking it, and then filling it again for Orcus and pouring it over his idol.

If these cultists are trying to reopen a portal to the Shadowfell, then they must be attempting to tap into the ancient magic that first created the gap between worlds. There will be a sacrifice of blood and an idol of Orcus.”

If Stahl is shown the Orcus idol:

“This is an ancient idol, but you can see by the markings along its base that it is merely part of a larger set. When brought together, these multiple idols intensify each other’s power. By capturing this idol, you will have delayed whatever ritual they’re preparing for… but not prevented it.”

FOLLOW-UP: Douven Stahl will return to Winterhaven and lodge up with Valthrun. He can be found in Valthrun’s tower if the PCs need to ask him further questions.

THE KEEP - AREA 18

CRUCIFIED ANGEL: Hanging above the altar in this area is an angel of protection (Monster Manual, pg. 14). It has been pinioned to the wall with multiple adamantine spears. A wall of arcane magic surrounds the angel and can only be penetrated if the ritual in Area 19 is disrupted.

ANGEL'S BLOOD: Blood flows from the angel's wounds, over the Orcus-pledged altar, through the wall of arcane magic, and down into the pit below. Corrupted by the mystic energies of the altar, it is serving as a crucial material component for Kalarel's Ritual.

THE KEEP - AREA 19

THE FANE OF ORCUS: The pit in the center of this room is, in fact, 60 feet deep. Standing in this pit is a 60' tall statue of Orcus the Demon Prince. This is the Fane of Orcus. Through the fane, Orcus is able to manifest some portion of his will upon this world. It is an important part of Kalarel's Ritual.

THE IDOLS OF ORCUS: The four grates depicted on the map are, instead, sunken depressions in the floor. In two of them, the Idols of Orcus have been placed. (If the PCs failed to disrupt the activities at the Dragon Burial Site, three of them will be occupied.) Blood flows up out of the pit and towards these depressions. (See Kalarel's Ritual.)

KALAREL'S RITUAL

Level: 25

Category: Travel

Time: 120 days

Duration: Permanent

Component Cost: Special

Market Price: n/a

Key Skill: Religion

Kalarel’s ritual will open a permanent connection between this world and the Shadowfell. Once the ritual is one-quarter completed, the Thing in the Portal manifests (see module).

Special: Kalarel is able to perform a ritual so far above his normal level because this specific ritual is bound to the Fane of Orcus.

The smaller Idols of Orcus are also being used to help focus the ritual, reducing the amount of time necessary. Each idol added to the ritual reduces the remaining time of the ritual by half.

TIMELINE

When the PCs first arrive in the valley, 30 days have passed since Kalarel started his ritual. Kalarel had also already recovered two of the Idols of Orcus, reducing the remaining time for the ritual to be completed to 45 days.

If the PCs don’t interfere with Kalarel retrieving the Idol of Orcus from the Dragon Burial Site, it will be installed and whatever time remains will be further reduced by half.

REVERSING THE RITUAL

Kalarel is working from a reconstructed and partially translated text known as the Scrolls of Hamasatra. This text is located atop the altar in Area 19 of the keep. The skill challenge for reversing the ritual is based, in part, on an article available at WotC's website.

Level: 6^th

Complexity: 3 (8 successes before 4 failures)

Primary Skills:

Arcana (DC 22): As a standard action, you can call upon your knowledge of magical effects and rituals to study the ritual book and determine the next step in unbinding the ritual. The first successful Arcana check also allows the character to figure out how a Heal check can contribute to undoing the ritual. A failed check indicates that the energy of the ritual attacks you: +10 vs. Will; 1d6 + 4 necrotic damage.

Endurance (DC 18): As an opportunity action, triggered when an adjacent ally has just failed an Arcana or Religion check to reverse the ritual, you can allow the necrotic energy flowing through the ritual to damage you instead of your ally. Success at this skill use aids the party, but does not count as a success toward completion of the challenge.

Heal (DC 18): As a standard action, you can make a Heal check and spend a healing surge to send positive life energy into the necrotic ritual in order to help disrupt it. In doing so, you automatically expose yourself to the energy of the ritual, which attacks you: +10 vs. Will; 1d6 + 4 necrotic damage. This approach to undoing the ritual can be determined on any successful Arcana, Religion, or Insight check.

Insight (DC 18): A character succeeding at an Insight check as a free action, triggered by observing the ritual, can figure out how a Heal check can contribute to undoing the ritual. Success at this skill use aids the party, but does not count as a success toward completion of the challenge.

Religion (DC 22): As per the Arcana check.

Success: The ritual is undone. The angel in area 18 is freed, but collapses into unconsciousness. (However, nothing stops Kalarel from starting the ritual afresh. If the Scrolls of Hamasatra are destroyed or the angel escapes or Kalarel is killed, however, the threat has passed. In that case, reward the adventurers a major quest reward of 750 XP.)

Failure: If the skill challenge is failed, the magical energy of the Shadow Rift stabilizes. Necrotic energy surges through the ritual book and the altar, striking all of the characters attempting this skill challenge. Each of these characters loses a healing surge and is attacked by the necrotic energy: +10 vs. Will; 1d6 + 4 necrotic energy.

The ritual isn’t complete, but the partially opened rift remains as such until either Kalarel is killed or the ritual is completed.

| | Link

June 27th, 2008

REMIXING KEEP ON THE SHADOWFELL

PART 12: THE THREE CLUE RULE

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

THE THREE CLUE RULE

At the beginning of May I wrote a lengthy essay on the subject of scenario design and the Three Clue Rule:

For any conclusion you want the PCs to make, include at least three clues.

Basically, the idea is that every chokepoint in your adventure design (the points where the PCs must do X or be unable to proceed) are all potential points of failure: If the PCs fail to do X at any one of those points, the adventure will grind to a frustrated halt.

There are two ways to deal with such chokepoints: Either you can railroad your PCs through them (a "solution" that I find drastically unappealing) or you can design alternative paths through the adventure. And in my experience, designing three alternatives results in a sufficiently robust design so that the players will never find themselves clueless.

Probably the most common problem with published adventures are their chokepoints -- they're usually riddled with them, creating countless pitfalls for the DM to overcome. So the first thing I typically do when looking at a published adventure is to track the flow of the adventure: How do the PCs get from one point in the adventure to the next? Once I've identified the chokepoints, I'll start designing alternative paths until I've satisfied the Three Clue Rule.

The flow of Keep on the Shadowfell was particularly baffling for me. For example, as the name of the adventure might suggest, the PCs are supposed to eventually go to the Keep. But there are only three ways that will happen:

(1) You can use the adventure hook which basically tells the PCs "you're coming to Winterhaven in order to investigate the Keep". But, if you do that, it's very likely that the PCs might decide to ignore the kobold threat and go directly to the Keep... which is designed for higher level play and will prove rather deadly for 1st level characters.

(2) The PCs can succeed at a Religion check to identify a holy symbol of Orcus, conclude there's a cult active in the area above and beyond the kobold tribe, and then... rewrite the adventure so that the PCs can learn that the Keep was once a site of Orcus worship without first asking a specific character about the Keep separate from the Orcus worship.

(3) The players read the title of the module and conclude that they should find out about this Keep.

Similarly, there's encounter A4: Dragon Burial Site. As far as I can tell, the only way the PCs will ever go to the dragon burial site is if you use the "Missing Mentor" adventure hook. If you don't use that specific hook, the PCs will never have any reason to look for Douven Stahl -- which is the only reason they would ever go looking for the dragon burial site. (Which isn't much of a loss, admittedly, since in the original adventure there is no useful information to be gained at the site.)

So these problems needed to be fixed. In addition, I had a desire to remove the CRPG-like quest-givers in Winterhaven, which meant that I would need a more robust Three Clue Rule design for the kobold sections of the adventure, too.

REVELATIONS

Although this is one of the last remix essays I'm writing for Keep on the Shadowfell, it's actually describing the first steps I took in revising the module. And the very first step I took was to identify and list the revelations the players would need in order to move through the adventure.

First, there are three location-based revelations. The adventure basically takes place in three locations: The kobold lair; the dragon burial site; and the Keep on the Shadowfell. The PCs need to (a) identify these as places they should go; and (b) go there.

Second, there are two revelations which allow the PCs to figure out what's going on: They need to know what the cult of Orcus is and they also need to discover the existence and purpose of Kalarel's ritual. These revelations are less important because the adventure can continue even if the PCs aren't entirely sure what's going on -- in other words, these aren't actual chokepoints -- but my players get a big kick out of discovering hidden lore. And, also, knowing these facts will help raise the stakes of the adventure.

Starting tomorrow I'll break down how I applied the Three Clue Rule to each of these revelations.

To be continued...

| | Link

June 27th, 2008

RICHARD II - OPENS TOMORROW!

As I mentioned back in May, I will be performing in Shakespeare & Company's repertory season this summer. In Richard II I'll be appearing as the traitorous Henry Bolingbroke. And in As You Like It I'll be appearing as Oliver Du Boys, the villainous elder brother.

Both shows are being performed, along with Servant of Two Masters (which I am not appearing in), by Shakespeare & Company on their permanent outdoor stage from June 28th through August 3rd. Bring a blanket. Bring chairs. Bring a picnic basket. I understand some people are even bringing bottles of wine.

FUN FACTS

Stu Naber, who's playing Mowbray in Richard II and directing As You Like It, killed me onstage in Theater in the Round's production of Henry V. In Richard II, we're reprising the locking of our swords with a massive duel that roams all over the stage and frights the ladies in their fineries.

Richard II and As You Like It will be my third and fourth consecutive shows with Lucas Gerstner, who also appeared as Orleans in Henry V (TRP) and as Edward in The Hollow (Starting Gate). Lucas is appearing as Richard in Richard II and as Orlando du Boys in As You Like It. As Lucas notes, our theatrical relationship appears be to deteriorating. We started on the same team (the French in Henry V); then I suspected him of murder (in The Hollow); and now I'm trying to and/or killing him. This bodes ill for a 5th show.

This is the second time I've done As You Like It. In college I played Jacques du Boys, the youngest son of old Sir Rowland. Now I'm playing Oliver du Boys, the eldest son. So if I ever do the play again, I figure I'm a shoo-in for Orlando, the second son.

Shakespeare & Company has now become a family tradition. My mother, the historical mystery author Margaret Frazer, previously performed with Shakespeare & Company in the mid-'90s. Her Joliffe mysteries, set around a traveling theater company in 15th century England, are inspired in part by her many years as an actress.

SCHEDULE

Saturday, June 28th - Richard II
Sunday, June 29th - Richard II

Friday, July 4th - As You Like It
Saturday, July 5th - Richard II
Sunday, July 6th - As You Like It

Friday, July 11th - Servant of Two Masters
Saturday, July 12th - As You Like It
Sunday, July 13th - Servant of Two Masters

Friday, July 18th - Richard II
Saturday, July 19th - Servant of Two Masters
Sunday, July 20th - As You Like It

Friday, July 25th - As You Like It
Saturday, July 26th - Richard II
Sunday, July 27th - Servant of Two Masters

Friday, August 1st - Servant of Two Masters
Saturday, August 2nd - As You Like It
Sunday, August 3rd - Richard II

Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:00 PM. Sunday shows are at 6:00 PM.

| | Link

June 30th, 2008

COMPUTER MALFUNCTION

Urgh.

On Friday evening I came home from our final tech rehearsal for Richard II. Long story short, about fifteen minutes later my main computer had completely crapped out on me.

I still haven't managed to actually figure out what went wrong. The initial symptoms were a severe system slow down -- I would wiggle the mouse and, half a minute later, the cursor would move on the screen. Ditto for keyboard input. Eventually I was forced to power the computer down. When I tried to bring the computer back up, it wouldn't boot up.

I futzed around for a bit and eventually the computer did boot up (although not as a result of anything I had actually done). However, two of my five hard drives had gone missing in action: The C, E, and G drives were showing up. The D and F drives were gone.

This was bad news. My D drive is where I keep all of my creative files. I do regular back-ups, but -- predictably -- the crash had happened only a couple days before my next scheduled backup (which meant the potential loss of data was about as bad as it could be and I was faced with the prospect of trying to reproduce about a hundred hours of work).

However, the fact that two hard drives had simultaneously disappeared -- along with detection delays during the boot-up sequence -- left me with some hope that the real culprit was a bad hard drive controller. (Althogh that would mean that my motherboard was fried and the computer was seriously screwed, that type of loss is just a matter of money. Lost creativity can never be regained.)

After a few more reboots, the F drive reappeared -- although trying to read any data off of it proved almost impossible.

So I spent most of the weekend -- when I wasn't busy opening Richard II -- backing up all the data I could off the hard drives I could still see. Then, last night, I began disassembling my main computer: Loading the hard drives into an external hard drive enclosure and trying to read them on my laptop.

That's when things got weird. Of the five drives in my original computer, one was a SATA drive (which, if memory serves, is my original G drive). The external enclosure I was using wasn't SATA compatible, so I wasn't able to read that drive.

That's not the weird part, the weird part is the other four drives: From the external enclosure I could read the C, D, and F drives. The fourth hard drive didn't work -- instead emitting a very disturbing noise and refusing to respond.

I can't make any sense out of that: On my original box the C, E, and G drives worked. But not either the E or G drive was bad and the D and F drives (which had disappeared) were working just fine.

So my next step is to re-assemble the original computer with just the boot drive and then I'll begin adding hard drives one by one to see what happens. (To make matters more complicated, my computer has two completely separate hard drive controllers -- both on the motherboard.)

But the good news is that, with the D drive working in the external hard drive enclosure, I was able to backup all of my creative files. Nothing was lost that can't be replaced.

The bad news is that the only computer I can currently work on is my laptop -- which was previously only setup for word processing. So, in addition to trying to rebuild my original computer (which is probably going to end with the conclusion that, at the very least, I need a new motherboard), I also need to get my laptop setup with the wide variety of programs I need to continue doing my creative work.

For example, I didn't have an HTML editor or an FTP program installed on the laptop... which made updating this website rather difficult. (Obviously, this has now been solved.)

My next goal is to get the suite of software I use for Dream Machine Productions installed -- Adobe Photoshop, Dundjinni, and Quark. And I need to figure out how I'm going to hook the laptop up to a color-corrected monitor and mouse so that my work with some of those programs can be productive. This isn't particularly onerous, but it is time-consuming. And until it happens, work on projects like Legends & Labyrinths and the next City Supplement have ground to a halt.

The good news is that, starting tomorrow, I'll be able to start posting the last of the Keep on the Shadowfell remix material I was originally going to post over the weekend. I'm looking forward to finishing that up and then moving onto some playtest reports

| | Link

JUNE 2008:

PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3 - PART 4

RETURN TO THE ALEXANDRIAN - SUBSCRIBE