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

    Working Backwards: 50 Years of …

    Recently I released the final deliverable for my Raiders of the Serpent Sea Kickstarter campaign (The Raiding Seas!) As I wrap up several years of work on this TTRPG campaign it has led me to reflect on the huge impact Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has had on my life. Even as I wrap up work on Raiders, I am currently busy as a contractor doing fun things on another exciting roleplaying project (and the reason I have this work is because of my previous work at BioWare). This project is likely what I’ll be busy with for the rest of the year and is sure to lead to new opportunities…

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

    Raiders of the Serpent Sea – Physical Copies

    Hello, again. This will likely be my last post about the original Raiders of the Serpent Sea RPG project over here as we have fulfilled most of the Kickstarter commitments and print and digital copies for those who are not backers, are now available! More details here, including links to the products available at the various Modiphius stores: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcanumworldscanada/raidersoftheserpentsea/posts/3976412 And these are links to the extra Raiders content on DriveThruRPG, separate from the campaign and player guide: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/21008/Runic-Tales-Inc I’ll try to keep this blog more centered on the creative and behind-the-scenes stuff work leading toward projects like Raiders. Promotion will tend to happen on our Runic Tales website instead. There…

  • 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!

  • 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…