• Dungeons & Dragons,  Kickstarter,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea

    Raiders of the Serpent Sea – Product Page

    Hello all As those of you who backed our successful Raiders of the Serpent Sea RPG Kickstarter campaign know, I have been quite busy getting the books written, printed, and now… soon… shipped to customers! I’ve used this blog in the past to keep everyone updated about the project and will continue to do so–albeit more sparingly. That’s because there’s a new home for Raiders of the Serpent Sea… and, hopefully, a new landing page for lots of RPG content from me in the future. As we transition into the new phase of things for Raiders, look to https://runictales.com/ for updates, freebies, and other cool stuff. Also, here’s a pic…

  • Dungeons & Dragons,  Kickstarter,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea

    Raiders of the Serpent Sea Metrics

    This post is a short summary of my experience using Kickstarter to fund the roleplaying campaign, Raiders of the Serpent Sea (print & PDF). I am on the verge of the first phase of fulfillment — the PDFs release next week! I decided to take a break and get these thoughts down before I forget them. I’ll start with a breakdown of the costs (simplified) and end with a discussion about some of the challenges around creating a campaign that spans levels 1-16 and beyond… in a reasonable number of pages. The Cost of Making Raiders of the Serpent Sea With over 200 pieces of art spanning 3 separate books,…

  • Dungeons & Dragons,  My Life,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea

    One Adventure Ends & Another Begins

    As many of you know, over the past few years I have been running a D&D campaign for my kids and their friends, using the Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign. We just completed session #55 — and it looks like there’s only 2 remaining sessions and we shall be done. It has certainly been an interesting experience. We started playing a bit before COVID (so in person) but we transitioned into using Roll20 during the pandemic and haven’t played in person since — though I’ll try to get everyone together for the final session. But it was nice to have a regular event that remained constant throughout the pandemic and…

  • Dungeons & Dragons,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea

    The Beastborn

    Since my last few updates on the Raiders of the Serpent Kickstarter page, I’ve had a few requests to see more details about the new player race, the Beastborn. I did a quick copy/paste from the actual player’s guide to make this short PDF. Feel free to check them out and let me know what you think. And yes, preorders are still open!

  • My Life,  Video Game Design

    A Dragon Age: Netflix?

    Sorry for the long quiet, I have been intensely focused on getting Raiders ready for page layout. But I saw the news last week that Dragon Age and Netflix have teamed up for an animated series — Dragon Age: Absolution. Lots going through my mind at that news. I mean, it seems incredible. How many years ago did we first chat at BioWare about building our own fantasy IP? I still remember debating what elements to include and what to avoid and then it is impossible to forget the years of iteration both on the world design and on Dragon Age: Origins itself (I start chatting about all that in…

  • Dungeons & Dragons,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea,  Runic Tales

    In Way of Updates and Such…

    I hope all of you are well, or as well as you can be given the current state of things. This is primarily an update regarding Raiders of the Serpent Sea (which I generally update via my Kickstarter) but I figured I’d provide an overview here while I prepare the next, more formal update over there). I am still deep in the race & class design for the player’s handbook portion (so that I can get that into playtesters hands sooner than later). Once complete I’ll resume writing on the game master’s guide (which I’ve still poked at while working on the player details) and will continue with the other…

  • Dungeons & Dragons,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea,  Vikings

    Thank you, Raiders!

    The Kickstarter for my 5e D&D campaign, Raiders of the Serpent Sea, wrapped up on the weekend. I very much appreciate the support from all of you! For those that backed I am hoping to get an update out today or tomorrow on Kickstarter with some clearer ideas of timelines. And other than that I am busily building a final project plan and restarting those art pipelines that have been on pause while we waited on the new funding. Then it is back to writing & designing. This is my first Kickstarter and though I leaned heavily on the lessons that others learned (thanks, Stonemaier Games, Enworld & all the…

  • Dungeons & Dragons,  Raiders of the Serpent Sea,  Vikings

    Don’t Eat the Burger

    I’ve mentioned the trip I took to Iceland a few times in the past. It was just me and my kids and we had a very fun trip, though I wish we had spent two weeks there instead of just the one. . We did all the standard tourist things, though I did go out of my way to make sure I ended up on a very special street.. So all in all it was a very fun trip and it helped launch me towards Raiders of the Serpent Sea. I was surrounded by all of this natural beauty and history and it was all very inspiring. And 90% of…