The Release of How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and the Isle of Pyade

The Release

With the successful conclusion and fulfillment of my Kickstarter, I am releasing How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and The Isle of Pyade to the public on Friday, April 12th, during the livestream of the Random Party Generator at 8pm EDT. Special discount coupons will be available for those joining the live stream, along with a live drawing for at-cost print copies of both Blackmarsh and at-cost hardbacks of both books. The discount coupons will be active for one week after the show.

Until they go public during the live stream you can monitor the Bat in the Attic storefront on DriveThruRPG.

Livestream of the Random Party Generator 

Bat in the Attic

Special Thanks

I wish to say a special thank you to the 908 backers of my How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox Kickstarter. Your generosity not only made this project possible but also allowed me to upgrade the production values beyond my previous expectations. 

Also, a shout out to my wife, Kelly Anne, who not only supported me throughout the project but also contributed two pieces of art to the book. This marks her debut as a professional artist. 

Thanks to Joethelawyer, Tim of Gothridge Manor, and my friend Josh, whose support and advice were instrumental in making this project a success. 

Finally, thanks to Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern who is hosting the Random Party Generator. 

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox

Preview

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox!

Starting in 2009, I wrote a series of 24 posts on the Bat in the Attic Blog covering the different aspects of creating a hexcrawl formatted setting.  Now that the blog posts are completed, I combined and rewrote these posts into a single book.  In addition to advice about creating your setting, the post fleshs out the Isle of Pyade into a small setting that you can drop into your own campaign.

What is a Hexcrawl-formatted setting?

This type of setting starts with a hex grid placed over the map with each hex numbered.  The hex locations of the various locales, such as lairs, are noted and arranged into an index.  This format provides a convenient way to reference detailed local information within the setting.

You can look at the map, see the hex number the location is in, and then look it up quickly in the book.  It works in reverse as well.  You can read about a location in the book, with its hex location noted in the text.  Then, look up where it is on the map quickly.  This format allows easy access to dozens of detailed locations scattered across the setting map, if not hundreds. 

Hexcrawls and Sandbox Campaigns

Sandbox campaigns are distinguished by the fact the players drive the campaign forward by their choices.  In a sandbox campaign, the players may decide to head west instead of east in pursuit of their goals.  The ease of looking locations up makes the hexcrawl-formatted setting a valuable tool for the referee trying to keep ahead of their players while running a sandbox campaign.

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox will teach you how to make a hexcrawl-formatted setting and explain what details are essential to include to handle the different types of sandbox campaigns. 

The Isle of Pyade

Preview

A thousand years ago, this island emerged from the Cataclysm as a bare expanse of rock and soil. Whatever existed here prior was obliterated in the chaos. It took a hundred years for it to transform from a barren expanse to a weed-choked landscape and finally back to its original wooded condition. During that time, survivors, both humans and animals, found themselves washed up on its shores. They established several fishing hamlets in and around East Bay. Despite the chaos of the time, they managed to carve out an oasis of tranquility due to the island's isolation and the great fishing in the Midland Sea.

This was all shattered when scouts of the Lich Tavaras discovered the Isle of Pyade. Tavaras decided to claim Pyade as his own. The lich and his undead army landed on the shore of the Bay of the Dead with his undead army. He quickly subjugated the fishing hamlets and enslaved the populace.

Within the Caves of Mount Devon, Tavaras decided to establish his stronghold. On the North Downs, Bone Keep was established at the center of several latifundia, which were developed to feed the growing slave population.

Tavaras ruled Pyade as his personal domain for nearly 200 years. He survived the fall of the Dark Lord and the collapse of the Dark Empire. His downfall came with the arrival of crusaders from the United Church. Their forces besieged Tavaras' stronghold, breached the mountain and brought down the Lich Lord.

After the downfall of Tavaras, the island was liberated and made part of the Eainian Empire. When the empire collapsed amid civil war and anarchy, the island was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Isle and granted to the Gevon family five hundred years ago.

Over the centuries the Gevon invited halfling families and dwarven clans to help settle the island and exploit its rich lands and resources.

Bone Keep and the other ruins from the lich Tavaras rule remained abandoned. The wars that liberated the islands did not leave much time to cleanse the island of Tavaras' evil taint and abominations. To the present the northern half of the Isle of Pyade remains dangerous to the unwary.

Today, the Isle of Pyade is starting to emerge from relative obscurity. The new Empire of Po threatens the independence of Pyade and the Kingdom of the Isles. Ancient evils are beginning to stir again in the depths of Mount Devon. Once again, the island has become the center of attention, providing opportunities and wealth to those willing to brave its dangers.

Blackmarsh, Digest Edition

Rob's Note: The PDF on DriveThruRPG is free to download. So, no preview is needed.

In the days when man knew only the working of stone and fought for their existence against the orc and the goblin, the sky turned to ash and down fell the fiery mountain onto the land. The world tore open and the grey waters rushed in. Those who survived the impact were lost as boiling clouds rushed out in all directions leaving a wasteland in its wake.

The Mountain That Fell left a gift; magic. Near and far, those of learning and strong of heart discovered new powers to shape the world. In the desolation around the Smoking Bay the adventurous found viz, magic in physical form. And there was more, scattered amid the landscape were strange artifacts and stranger creatures that survived The Mountain That Fell. For a time men, dwarves, orc, goblins, and other races braved the dangers and fought each other in the wastelands. Then the elves came into Blackmarsh expelled the feuding races, drove the monsters out, and healed the land.

In the present day, many come to Blackmarsh to harvest viz, kill monsters, or seek the strange artifacts left by The Mountain That Fell. The only force that stands against the wilderness is the Blackmarsh Rangers. Anyone who is willing to defend the land and its people are welcomed into their ranks. Powerful kingdoms outside of Blackmarsh are beginning cast a covetous eyes toward the land's riches. Will the adventurers of your campaign become wealthy and powerful? Or will their bones join the many that have sunk into the swamps?

Blackmarsh is a complete, ready to run setting for your campaign. It can be run as its own setting or an expansion of your existing world. Contained in Blackmarsh are 17 geographical entries, 78 described locales, and one detailed town; Castle Blackmarsh. Each entry provide one or more adventure hooks to use in your campaigns.

Rob's Note: If you can afford it the hardcover print option comes with two blank pages in the front and three blank pages in the back that you can use for handwritten notes. The inside covers are also blank. The printing process for hardcovers wraps a heavy paper protector between the covers and the first and last pages of the book

Update!

The books have been released for the public links in the titles.

Blackmarsh in print again.

The print version of Blackmarsh is now available again both in softcover and hardcover feature cover art by Richard Luschek. Many of you will know him from his work on various Harn products available from Columbia Games. The books are using the new digest size layout.

The full map of Blackmarsh is still inside the book and the book fold has been taken into account for its presentation. 

Softcover Digest edition - $6.99

Hardcover Digest edition - $11.99

Again appreciate the support of all of you have given me over the years and the kind words in your reviews.

The proposed OGL 1.1 is not an open license. Fight for your hobby.

 Today Wizards of the Coast on DnD Beyond released an article called OGLs, SRDs, & One D&D. It talks about Wizards plans for a new version of the OGL. 

The recap the OGL stands for the Open Game License. According to Creative Commons, an open license means the content is free to use how you want it. In practice, this has meant that content was shared to let people use the content in any way, including commercially, the main requirements being that there is proper attribution of the original content used, and that any modifications are released under the same license. With the author listed as the creator of the modification.

The current two versions of the OGL v1.0 (3.X) and v1.0a meet the above criteria except for specific elements. 

• You are allowed to designate part of the work as product identity which basically saying I am not releasing this part of my book as open content. This is often used for licensed IP like Lord of the Rings or Star Trek. It is sometimes used when the author doesn't want to share their setting but wants to use and modify a popular system.

• You also explicitly agree to give up your right to cite compatibility to a trademarked product. This is something that you normally have the right to do when releasing a work when it is your content. I could have done this with Blackmarsh as I mostly used common monster names rather than anything specific out of the DnD editions.

The Changes

So what are the proposed changes?

First, we’re making sure that OGL 1.1 is clear about what it covers and what it doesn’t. 

What OGL 1.1 will cover are electronic files like PDF, and printed books this right off mean that OGL 1.1 is no longer an open license as it restricts how you can use the open content. As the definition of open content means you can use it in the manner you see fit.

The next change

Second, we’re updating the OGL to offer different terms to creators who choose to make free, share-alike content and creators who want to sell their products.  

They list a number of requirements that amount to you having to report any sales of any products licensed under the OGL 1.1 as well as a description of what it is you are selling.  And if you make over a threshold ($750,000) then you will be expected to pay royalties by 2024. 

Wrapping it up

This will further bifurcate the third party publisher market. OGL 1.0 and OGL 1.0a content can't be used with OGL 1.1 content as a result of Section 12 of the current OGL.

12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Material so affected.

Right now the world of 3PP is divided into those who use open content like Pathfinder, Cepheus, OSRIC, Old School Essentials, and those who publish in community content programs like the DM's Guild.  In fact, I predict there will be three major 3PP communities for Dungeons and Dragons, the ones that continue to use the OGL 1.0a license, those who use the OGL 1.1 license, and those who use community content programs.

I realize there is a lot of speculation and criticism out there that are made because OneDnD is the news of the days. I limited myself to what the article said. At various times in the history of open source and creative commons, unscrupulous companies and individuals tried to put out their own licenses including ones with terms very much like the above. Each and every time this has not ended well for the bad actors and their licenses. Either they reverted back to a traditional commercial license and ceased their use of the open content. Or they came into compliance. 

If you value your freedom to produce and more commonly share the content you create for Dungeons and Dragons then let Wizards know that you find these proposed terms unacceptable. Let them know that the community has the tools right now to fix the issue on their own and will do so as shown by what happen with DnD 4e, the GSL, and Pathfinder.

This is your hobby and your game now. Don't let Hasbro try to take that away from you.

Fight On!

Update

I added some comments on Section 9 of the OGL which appears to be a point of attack by the Wizards' legal team to shut down the OGL.

Section 9 of the OGL

Concerning Bat in the Attic Games, Steady as She Goes and further thoughts on the OGL

For those who are new.

I have long been an advocate of open content released under the open license. Blackmarsh is free for any of use in any manner you see if. Likely the entire content of the Basic Rules for the Majestic Fantasy RPG is open content. 

Some past posts.

You are free now so go enjoy it.

An OGL Primer

A tale of two OGLs

Zweihander, Open Content, and a reply to Daniel Fox.

Ryan Dancy on the Open Game License

Finally some practical effects of making Blackmarsh open content. I would not have had the time or skills to do any of these projects but now folks who read Spanish, French, Italian and Hungarian can enjoy Blackmarsh in their languages as well as fans of Heroes and Other Worlds. 

And because these were solely the work of their respective author who put the work into making a version of Blackmarsh, they get to reap 100% of the financial rewards. Something I am fine with when I shared Blackmarsh as open content.

Blackmarsh in Spanish!

Périlleuses contrées: Fangenoire (Blackmarsh in French)

Italian version of Blackmarsh

Blackmarsh in Hungarian!

Blackmarsh for Heroes & Other Worlds

Blackmarsh in Spanish!

When I released Blackmarsh I made the entire text and map open content under the open game license. When fans of systems like GURPS, Hero System, etc pointed that made it difficult for them to use in conjunction with the permission SJ Games and other companies gave, I added a creative commons license as well. Meaning that you can release Blackmarsh material using the OGL or the Creative Commons license.

The Blackmarsh SRD

I did this because Blackmarsh was meant as a easy to use introduction to a hexcrawl formatted setting like the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. At the time I wrote Blackmarsh, the WoHF Boxed Set was $70 which was a pretty big ask for a hobbyist not familiar with a setting formatted as a hexcrawl.

My use of open license had a benefit that I didn't foresee, namely a giving a pathway for hobbyists in other countries to translate Blackmarsh into another language. A few years back a group translated the setting into Hungarian.

Now the company La Marca del Este has adapted Blackmarsh for their Marca del Este (Eastmark) setting and translated it into Spanish.

They gave me a PDF link to share.
Marjalnegro

They also had their cartographer do their own version of my maps which looks great. Note they stated with my expanded map which incorporated Wildlands from Points of Light.

Black and White Map

Color Map

Finally a color version of the above incorporating Blackmarsh into their Eastmark setting. Lots of added details. I particularly like how they added in coral reefs.

Map of Blackmarsh in Eastmark

A job well done to Pedro Gil and the rest of the La Marca del Este team.

More work on the Wild North

Working through the last of the terrain entries for the Wild North. It is a bit of a challenge to try to summarize dozens of square miles in a few sentences and make it a useful inspiration for a campaign.

One reason I added terrain entries is that during the Necromancer Games Wilderlands project I saw how useful they were to summarize an area of the map that would otherwise be a series of separate hex entries.

So after this I will have to go through the text and correct any obvious editing mistakes as well as consistency. Finally I will pick out a few locales and draw small local maps in the same way I did Castle Blackmarsh in Blackmarsh.

Finally I will able to get this edited and into the layout process. Below are some of the latest samples from the text.

The Frostgrims (Hex 0428)
Snowcapped spires reach into sky fencing ice filled valleys. Amid the shadows, Remorhaz (HD 6 to 13) tunnel beneath the ice and snow. Frost Giants (HD 10+3) dwell in castles built on the stony crags. They consider Remorhaz to be a great delicacy and hunt them alongside packs of Winter Wolves (HD 5).

Throughout the mountains are the ruined towers of Thules, Outposts established to harvest crystalline shards of viz that freeze out of the air in the early morning before dawn on the highest peaks (Hexes 0226, 0228, 0328, 0329). The Thules had to act quickly as they would melt an hour after the sun rises.

Searching for Viz
Typically 1d6 viz will appear 1d3 hours before dawn. Each viz takes 1 hour per person with arcane knowledge to find. A serious danger is the thin air, without magic characters have to make a saving throw every hour or pass out. It typically takes two hours of climbing to reach the peaks. The Thules used magic carpets or the fly spells to cut down on the travel time as well as using a lost variant of Control Winds to thicken the air in order to breath properly while searching.

The Great Glacier (Hex 0320)
Once covering nearly all of the Wild North, the Great Glacier is still slowly retreating to the northwest. It southeast face is riddled with crevasses and subglacial caves where icy cold streams emerge. Calving ice sheets are also a danger as in some areas the glacier’s edge forms a cliff 10 to 20 feet high. Travel on the glacier’s surface is also hazardous due to the numerous crevasses and moulins. A moulin is a sinkhole up to 10 feet in diameter that in a few cases reaches down to the bottom of the glacier.

Aside from the dangers of the terrain, the glacier surface is relatively free of animal life or monsters. A few small Remorhaz (HD 6 to 8) lair in the southern third. The white dragon, Rekokardek, is known to lair somewhere in northern third of the glacier (Hex 0215). The glacier’s flat surface makes surprising her almost impossible.

More common are the ruins of the Thules and the occasional Frost Giant castle (Hex 0421) found amid the nunataks jutting above the glacier surface. The ancient Thules used their towers on the glacier as a bastion from which to rule their fallen empire. They experimented with magic involving water and ice, some of which still remains undiscovered beneath the gravel and snow.

An update to the Majestic Fantasy rules

I hope everybody had a good holiday. To start the new year off, I am posting a small update of the Majestic Fantasy RPG rules which are based on and compatible with Frog God Games' Swords and Wizardry RPG.

I added some missing spells notably Magic Missile, but it left me with three blank pages. After looking through my draft of the full rules I added sections on Horses, and Dogs. Along with selected hirelings useful for level 6 or lower, Animal Trainer, Man-at-arms, Porter, and Servant.

You can download Revision 10 from here.

Bat in the Attic News
I am still at work on the draft of the Wild North. Currently I am finishing up the terrain notes. After that is finished, I will draw some maps of the main settlements along with some notes similar to Castle Blackmarsh in Blackmarsh. I am shooting for a first quarter release.

This will include a separate poster map option so you don't have to hunt down a printer to print the maps. I can't combine them as DriveThruRPG keeps their card ordering system (which posters use) separate from their book ordering system. The maps will be grayscale similar to those in Blackmarsh.

Remember this version of the Wild North will adjoin the northern edge of Blackmarsh as shown below.

Click you will see the full size map.

Been working on the Wild North

Been working on the updated Wild North. A small snippet of something I just wrote. The map is the same style as Blackmarsh and has been revised to adjoin it to the north.

Niveny River (Hex 1516)
This river is the traditional border between Orenberg (Hex 1313) and Suzdal (Hex 1720). The river valley has long been a debatable land between the two cities and is currently dominated by Orenburg. Regardless of which power is dominate a thousand gold pieces are given as an offering to the Vodyan (10 HD, Triton) every year. The offering is given after the first thaw to the river king is to appease him so river travelers are left unmolested during the summer season.

Points of Light Borderlands and the Scourge of the Demon Wolf

Recently I was asked this question about combine two things I written, the Borderland setting from Points of Light and Scourge of the Demon Wolf.

Hey Robert, I've been reading Scourge of the Demon Wolf and it occurs to me I might want to attach it to a side of the Borderland setting from your Points of Light book. Do you have a quick thought about how you would staple the two together?

The Borderlands
For those you don't know Borderlands is one of four hexcrawl formatted setting in Points of Light. It depicts a time period when the Bright Empire was torn apart in a religious and political civil war. A conflict between factions supporting Sarrath the God of Order (Lawful Evil) and Delaquain the Goddess of Honor and Justice (Lawful Good).

In the setting the civil war has been going on for a few years. Parts of the region are divided between the faction, parts are devastated, and parts are neutral just trying to hang on.

The Scourge of the Demon Wolf
The Scourge of the Demon Wolf centers on a manor village terrorized by a pack of wolves. To adapt it for Borderlands I drew a map and recommended the following.

1416 is the Beggar Camp
1615 is the sacrifice site
1617 is the Bandit Cave in a bluff overlooking Cailly River and the swamp.

Instead of the Baron of Westtower as giving the mission I recommended that role be given to Count Travlin of Darcion. Instead of the baron's huntsmen in the stocks, it's Sheriff Melan of Saurton in the stocks

The Church of Mitra in Kensla would now be a Ecumenical Imperial Church of the four Gods with the statue of Delaquain removed. The personality of the priest remains the same. The bailiff that was killed was an agent of Divolic and an adherent of Sarrath and there is little love for him in the village.

As an added wrinkle Count Travlin is looking for leverage against the Mages of Order of Thoth in the Golden House in order to enlist their aid for Duke Divolic in the civil war. However would be more of a bonus as Count Travlin is not aware of the supernatural nature of the Demon Wolf or even the Demon Wolf exists. If made aware of the full circumstance Count Travlin would provide a handsome reward as the information would provide considerable leverage over the mages.

An alternative start is that a cleric or paladin gets a call from Veritas, Thoth or Delaquain. From the call the party starts with knowing that it has something to do with the Sheriff Melan of Saurton being thrown in the stocks in Darcion. Since the stocks are in the public square the party could question the sheriff which will lead them to Kensla and the adventure.

Once again the party will have to decide what to do with the information about how mage are connected to the Demon Wolf. Except this time they are nominally the "good" guys.

Finally a start I didn't mention earlier was that the characters were sent by the Duke of Stoneburg to Darcion to investigate why Sheriff Melan was thrown in the stocks. It would be similar to the above but without the religious overtones. Since the Duke has the support of the remnants of the old imperial church and the still loyal priests of Thoth and Veritas. The resolution of the adventure could be the foundation for an alliance between the Duke and the mage of the Golden House.

Click to Expand

Wrapping it up.
As a general note, all the Points of Light setting and Blackmarsh are part of the same loose background. Although set in different time period. Borderlands is the earliest time period depicted set during the civil war that ripped the Bright Empire apart. Wildland represents the aftermath after the collapse of the empire. While Southland and Blackmarsh are set in later centuries during the rise of the Grand Kingdom.

The settings of Points of Light II are also set during the Grand Kingdom period. They focuses on the expansion overseas to the New World of the setting and the colonial rivalry between the Grand Kingdom and the Ochre Empire.

Blackmarsh Updated

Several years ago, I added the option of using the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license to Blackmarsh to make it easier for people to use it for RPGs that don't have open content. This was done with version 3.0. Since then Creative Commons updated to version 4.0. One of the major difference is an explicit waiver of moral rights.

In copyright over the past couple of decades there is the idea that in addition to rights to profit and control how the work is copied that there is a set of moral rights that protects the following.

1) the right of credit or association
2) the right of integrity
3) the right of anonymity or context

The grant or transfer of economic rights (i.e. the right to copy and use) is separate than a waiver of moral rights. To make it clear that my intent is for anybody to be able to use Blackmarsh for whatever purpose they see fit I updated the Creative Common license to version 4.0 which waives my moral rights in the text and maps for Blackmarsh.

In addition several publishers have introduced third party publishing programs that don't use open content licenses. Since my intent to share Blackmarsh as widely as possible and to make it easy to use for one's own work. I removed the Non-Commercial and Share-alike requirements. Now only attribution is required.

To be clear dual license means you can choose to use either license. Either as open content under the Open Game License or the Creative Commons BY Version 4.0. Use whatever one works best for your project.

You can download version 11 either from my website. Or from RPGNow if you obtained Blackmarsh there. If you bought a print copy there is no need to get a new one as the text remains the same.

That vague setting behind Points of Light and Blackmarsh

For those of you with both Points of Lights, and Blackmarsh know that there are common elements like the Grand Kingdom, the Ochre Empire, Delaquain, etc throughout the different setting. While never spelled out in detail they are all could be considered part of the same setting. In the first Points of Light each of the three lands (Southland, Wildland, and Borderland) are also separated in time that when put together open a window into the larger history.

+Ethan Gundry asks whether has anybody had any success merging all the Points of Light settings, along with Blackmarsh? A while ago I combined the Blackmarsh and Southland map along with the work I done with the Wild North merge with Blackmarsh. The result was this.

But do I have a "master" map that combines everything? Do I have a master document like the old Greyhawk Folio? Yes I now have a master map, no I don't have a Greyhawk Folio style master document. Keep in mind the focus on the Points of Light/and Blackmarsh is usability. That each individual setting stands on it own as a useful backdrop for a campaign. Making them into the equivalent of region supplement defeat that purpose. But still I want the option to exist to combine them so I keep the few background elements I write about consistent.

So what the deal with the master maps. Well I drew a lot of maps over the years and I have a bunch that not part of the Majestic Wilderlands or any other setting. For example this giant map I made for what I call the Eastgate region.

At the heart of which is the City State of Eastgate

Both originated in 2008 before I got my license from Judges Guild. I took all the content I made for the Majestic Wilderlands and stripped out the Judges Guild IP which included drawing new maps. I started writing the initial draft of the Majestic Wilderlands when a fortuitous set of circumstances led to me to securing a license to use enough of the Judges Guild IP to publish the Majestic Wilderlands supplement. Having that license meant I could use my original notes as is saving me a lot of work.

But the above work didn't go to waste as I used some of what I created for Blackmarsh.

So back to Ethan's question about combining the maps. A year ago I was sketching out some map on paper to get a feel for how mountainous and hilly regions really looked like based on Earth's geography. I decided to draw a outline map as an experiment to see how real I can make it look. The result was this.

And I figured if I am spending the time doing this I might as well incorporate the Points of Light/Blackmarsh maps use the above as a future reference.

Here is the annotated version of the above.

At this time I am not going to flesh out all the blank spots as I want to leave the possibilities open for further Blackmarsh style projects. The thing I am currently working is the circle marked Beyond the Borderlands basically my answer to the question of what lies beyond the Cave of Chaos in B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

I am also working on the tweaks to the Wild North to make it fit along the north edge of Blackmarsh. This is the map for that. Basically everything below Row xx26 has been tweaked while everythiing above is pretty much the same as the version from Fight On #3.

Hope this answers your question Ethan. Appreciate asking it as it gave me the idea for this blog post.

Blackmarsh and ACKS

Koewn over on the Crowbar and Brick blog is writing a series of post on using Blackmarsh with Adventurer, Conqueror, King.

I pointed out that I have this Map available if he needs more room. If you use Dwimmermount swap out the southland rectangle out for the Southland of Dwimmermount.

Click for full size

Wild North Progress

While priority has been getting the Wilderlands maps done, I have other projects going on. Namely my next Bat in the Attic product a revamp of the Wild North. The idea is to update the Wild North to the standards of Blackmarsh and my other hexcrawl settings. And to rework the southern edge of the map to work with Blackmarsh.

I did a preliminary version of the southern edge in the combined Blackmarsh map I made.

Then during my vacation I used my laptop to edit the original Wild North map. The laptop isn't up to the task of editing the massive Wilderlands maps so I brought the Wild North files. I was able to get the map reworked to where it match Blackmarsh both in geography and presentation. Still needs some work but it is basically done.

Now I can start working on the text.

Print copy of Blackmarsh is now $4,99

After reading some sales data provided by OneBookshelf (RPGNow, DrivethruRPG) I have decided to permanently drop the price on the print copy of Blackmarsh to $4.99.

You can read the blog post about pricing here.

Blackmarsh, Southland, and Wild North combined!

It took me a while but I finished up the combined map of Southland (from Points of Light), Blackmarsh, and Wild North (from Fight On #3). While the Wild North was originally designed to dovetail with Map 5 (Valon) of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, the southern edge will be redesigned for version 2 and overlap with Blackmarsh instead.

The map shows the relationship between all three maps plus added territory. I know there no hex numbers but I decided to leave the Blackmarsh and Southland numbers untouched. The rest is left blank. If you decided to detail it yourself just give each entry a code on a copy of the map and in your notes.

Eventually I will expand the sides out to Blackmarsh letter sized maps and those maps will have proper hex numbers.

Like Blackmarsh this map is open content and dual licensed under the Open Game License and Creative Commons (Sharelike, Attribution).

Click you will see the full size map.

Some brief notes.
Province of Vasa
The province of Vasa was recently conquered by the Grand Kingdom about 50 or so years ago. It is the strip of land between the Westwall and the Grey Sea. It is the home of a Viking culture now under the heels of late medieval western european style kingdom.

The Ring Islands
Perhaps the Mountain that Fell left debris scattered around the Grey Sea. Perhaps it something else. Maybe you need to ask the denizens of the Ring Tower about it.

The Great Glacier
Once it covered the Wild North but now is in retreat. Or perhaps the malign power that sleep underneath has awaken and is beginning to stretch it's cold claws across the world once again.

The West
Blackmarsh lies on the extreme northwest edge of civilization. What lies beyond the Pendar and White Mountains? Is there an end to the orc infested Blood Forest?

Have Fun!

Blackmarsh in Hungarian!

I just got word from Adam Borbely that the translation and layout of the Hungarian version of Blackmarsh is finished. It is stated for Hungarian retroclone RPG called Adventurers and Catacomb (in English)

This is really cool and I am ecstatic that a group of RPG gamers get to enjoy Blackmarsh in their native language.

Thanks Adam!

Again if anybody want to translate Blackmarsh for their own country's gaming community, you are free to do so as Blackmarsh is 100% open content for the text and cartography. I include a art free text files in the download of Blackmarsh to make reuse and conversion easier.

Blackmarsh exceeds 4000 copies!

Tenkar's reports on the downloads of the Free Swords and Wizardry Complete PDF reminded me that I forget to post that Blackmarsh exceeded 4,000 copies. I didn't make much money ($250 to date) but that wasn't the point. With the Heroes and Other Worlds version, the Hungarian translation, and numerous campaign reports from blogs, Blackmarsh has achieved the goals I set out for it. To have a straightforward high quality hex crawl setting for people to use and to reference.

At the current rate of downloads (about 75 to 125 a month) I expect 5,000 downloads will be reached in late 2014. And don't forget that the print copy is only $7 plus shipping.

Finally I would like to say that that if anybody wants to translate Blackmarsh into their native language, I am open to have it included in RPGNow download packet. Of course the translation will be credited. Feel free to email if you have question on the meaning of any placename or term you are not familiar with.

Solving the Tenkar's Dilemma, the Wilderlands plus Southlands plus Blackmarsh

Tenkar is facing a choice about what to do with his proposed campaign.

Having a bit of involvement in the boxed set Wilderlands as well as being the author of Blackmarsh and Southlands. This would be my "official" opinion on the matter of combining them.

Of course there is no desert along the northern edge of Map 9 (New Map 1) Elephand Lands but there are plenty of blank hexes east of the Land of Beasts to pencil one in.  My Grand Kingdom of Blackmarsh/Southland doesn't exist in the Wilderlands but there is a rather large bit of white space to the east where it could be placed. Also I consider the Elephand lands to be the most DnDish of all the Wilderlands map as it is a polygot collection of village of different races in a forest land.

As a bonus you can see how I meant for Blackmarsh and Southland to be fit together.

One of Blackmarsh's map edges lines up with Hungary

I stumbled across to Adam Borbely's RPG blog in Hungarian and apparently he is translating Blackmarsh into Hungarian. Plus, if Google translate is accurate, also expanding it to support another RPG system.

This is one of the advantage of releasing a product under a open license. As a small publisher it is highly unlikely that I could arrange for the translation of Blackmarsh into any other language. But because of the open license Adam is free to do just that and also convert to use the system that he feels that it would be the most useful . Much like what happened over at Heroes and Other Worlds.

One interesting part of his post is where Adam talks about trying to come up with an equivalent name for various locales in Hungarian. The example he gives is Strangeholm, a name of a halfling village.

I used an archaic definition of strange where the word refers to a far away place. Holm is an archaic term used in Middle English to refer to an island in the middle of a river. The literal translation is Far away Island. However the village is built around a prominent hill so why Far way Island? It is a play on words. The Far away part is literal. The village is a halfling colony in Blackmarsh. However Holm/River Island is play on words due to the fact that the hill is an isolated geographical feature rising out of the lowlands. The founders found it mildly humorous to think of their hill as an "island". Hence the name Far away River Island or Strangeholm.

Hey! people used stranger rationale name their village.

Long Distance sighting rules for Blackmarsh and 5 mile hexcrawls

I would incorporate the following sighting rules for sighting terrain for 5 mile hexes. This based on the calculation of the horizon distance.

Clear Terrain
Clear terrain (Standing) = the hex in which the party is standing
Clear terrain (40 ft tree) = the terrain in the six surrounding hexes.

Hilly Terrain (assume 200 ft difference in elevation)
Hilly to Clear = Any clear hex within a three hex radius with no intervening mountain or hill hex.
Hilly to Hilly the same as clear.

Mountain Terrain (assume 1000 ft difference in elevation)
Mountain to Clear = Any clear hex within a seven hex radius with with no intervening mountain hex.
Mountain to Hill = Any clear hex within a six hex radius with with no intervening mountain hex.
Mountain to Mountain = the Same as Clear (tree) This is assuming in the hour of trying to sight terrain that a crag or summit is used to gain 40 ft of elevation.

Note that this the reverse is true, that standing in a clear hex one can see a mountain up to seven hexes away.

Trying to sight terrain would be a task taking about an hour probably cause at least one wandering monster check as the party roams the hex looking for vantage spots.

Swords and Wizardy Reference Updates

Both Blackmarsh and my Majestic Item Creation Rules have been added to the Swords and Wizardry Reference site. Thanks to John Reyst for his hard work.