TrollsZine 4

[sligo]

Aug 20, 2010 14:53:51 GMT -5 mgtremaine said:

"I counted more than 20 that describe your character's death"... uhh Exalt

-Mike

Thanks... When this solo gets published, I fear I'll be receiving a few smites for being so evil and cold-hearted...

[mgtremaine]

There's no crying in T&T.

-Mike

[trollfactor]

Is there a list of art requests somewhere? I might be able to scribble a drawing or two.

[zanshin]

Sounds great Trollfactor. PM me and we can exchange emails - I'll let you know what I need stuff for.

[dekh]

Aug 20, 2010 15:35:47 GMT -5 trollfactor said:

Is there a list of art requests somewhere? I might be able to scribble a drawing or two.

Erm...

www.gristlegrim.com

Feel free to illustrate any of the Trollgod's rooms or monsters!!

[quoghmyre]

And we are happy to reuse any of the illustrations that are also for gristlegrim ;D

[sligo]

Hmm... I can thing of some artwork for this solo. Here are some suggestions if you want to give it a stab:

1. A big padlock being picked using a small, steel shard. The padlock is holding two ends of a chain. One chain is connected to a loop on the floor. The other chain is threaded through a series of shackles that are holding a bunch of prisoners.

2. The prisoner (the one who picked the lock) sneaking around a corner in an underground hallway.

3. The prisoner, being held by a bunch of guards, bowing before the Death Goddess (you know, the one in Arena of Khazan)

4. A group of guards leading two large wolves (dire-wolves, specifically) toward you down a tunnel. Two of the guards have self bows. The rest have swords. All are wearing a uniform over leather armor.

5. A guy using a sword to lever open a sewer grate on the floor.

[sligo]

.... Just finished the first play-able draft of "Beneath the Arena", the new mini-solo for TrollsZine. It's 98 paragraphs, and is 17 pages. I hope it's not too long! I'm not sure what I can do to shorten it, either.

Anyway, I'm going to do some play-testing and editing over the next couple days. If anyone is interested in play testing it, you'll need the 7.5 rules, and at least Arena of Khazan. The adventure calls for Naked Doom and TERRoR (Trollgod's Exciting Random Rooms of Ruination), but those aren't actually needed to playtest this. There are just a couple opportunities to enter into those solo's from this one.

If you are interested, send me PM with your personal email, and I'll send this to you straight away. There's no artwork - just straight text, but the paragraphs are all shuffled and it's ready to play.... Though I really doubt the survival rate on this will be very high.

Thanks!

[quoghmyre]

I think this idea is very creative and quite brilliant!
Just a thought for the future if we're linking out to other solos, perhaps the ones you can buy online would be a better choice. AoK is very popular and still in print but for most of us weeks to delivery, but Naked Doom is right there ready for download, a few clicks and we can continue playing.

[dekh]

It would be easier to proof and playtest if the paragraphs weren't shuffled.

You could include an alternate line "if you don't own TERRoR then you find yourself ..."

[sligo]

Aug 24, 2010 2:41:39 GMT -5 dekh said:

It would be easier to proof and playtest if the paragraphs weren't shuffled.

I'm not going to un-shuffle them... I created a computer program that shuffled all the paragraphs and gave me all the new link pointers. I'm very happy with the results, too. To me, part of play-testing is making sure the links are all correct, so to play test before shuffling wouldn't help as much.

Aug 24, 2010 2:41:39 GMT -5 dekh said:

It
You could include an alternate line "if you don't own TERRoR then you find yourself ..."

I could... but I'm at 98 paragraphs and 17 pages already. I don't want to add more if I don't have to. TERRoR is part of Delver's Pack, so it's not like it's unavailable.

[sligo]

Okay... First full edit pass is done. I've made numerous corrections (word choice, grammar, spelling, etc.) I'm ready to send it off to some play-testers and editors for feedback (before submitting it to Dan for TZ).

If you have the 7.5 rules and Arena of Khazan, and you're able to give it a few run-throughs before the end of this weekend (Aug 29), send me your email (or a trollmail from Trollhalla) and I'll send you the pdf.

The adventure calls for Naked Doom and TERRoR, but you don't actually need them to playtest this adventure.

Thanks!

[mahrundl]

By the way, Rick has just informed me that Flying Buffalo are out of Arena of Khazan, but he hasn't updated the webpage yet. Not sure if the Corgi version is still available - I was only asking about the Flying Buffalo one.

[andrew]

Have you noticed the spine on Corgi's Arena of Khazan? Take a close look. Yes, it's a typo--Area of Khazan. One of the many reasons I was never too thrilled with the Corgi editions.

[sligo]

I'm thinking Arena needs to be updated for 7.5 rules anyway... It's one of the most popular of the original FBI solo's, and if updated for 7.5, new options can be added and the magic item rewards list revised (i.e. all new magic items that take advantage of the newer ruleset.)

That's my opinion, anyway