SCOTT FITZGERALD GRAY (SFG):Mystery at Millwarren is a 5th-level D&D adventure for new, young DMs (age 12 and up or so), and a standalone sequel to last year’s young-DM starter adventure, The Hidden Halls of Hazakor. Written by me; illustrated by the amazing Jackie Musto.
EGG: What system are you using, and why is it the right one for this game?
SFG:Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, because it’s an especially good gateway RPG for young players.
EGG: What is the reward that is the best value?
SFG:The All-Around Adventurer (combo PDF/print book) is a good deal; but for people whose budget it fits, getting original art from Jackie Musto as part of the Eternal Hero tier is pretty sweet. (And those sold out pretty quickly last time…)
EGG: Assuming there are stretch goals, which one are you most excited about?
SFG:All of the one-shot adventures will be pretty cool, because I have some awesome writers lined up if we reach that level.
EGG: What other projects have you worked on?
SFG:In addition to The Hidden Halls of Hazakor, I’ve been privileged to have been working on D&D as a freelancer for Wizards of the Coast for over 15 years now, from the three core rulebooks to the Acquisitions Incorporated book, to a bunch of stuff people will hear about in coming months that I can’t talk about yet.
EGG: Where can fans learn more about you and your project?
“An RPG adventure for new Dungeon Masters and 5th-level characters — Written for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons“
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ABOUT BOILERPLATE INTERVIEWS.
Sometimes schedules keep me from performing in-depth interviews with RPG creators. When I can’t do a proper interview, I still like to give space for creators to share their projects. To that end, I conduct boilerplate interviews, short and generic but still an outlet for creators. If you have a product you would be interested in participating in a boilerplate interview, reach out here.
“A ‘Vikingesque’ campaign setting designed for use with the 5th edition and version 3.5 of the world’s most popular RPG.
Greetings explorer, welcome to our domain! The On the Shoulder of Heroes campaign setting is designed for use with world’s most popular roleplaying game. It is inspired by old school roleplaying games, traditional fantasy, Germanic and Japanese mythology. It is based on the idea that the world was built by the deeds of great people – both good and evil.
Most of the artwork (including the cover) is done by the talented Eoghan Kerrigan
Content
The book is close to 230 pages divided in 9 chapters. It is beautifully illustrated in grey-scale by 4 talented artists and is bound in a sturdy hard cover. We’ve uploaded some previews for you here.”
Introduction, Races and Classes
Egg’s Thoughts:
I covered the first version of it here and those thoughts still apply. This one’s major addition is that it will also be for 5e as well as 3.5e which answers my question in the first article.
To support their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
“An RPG adventure for beginning Dungeon Masters and 1st-level characters — Written for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons
Every Young Hero Needs Somewhere to Start
The Hidden Halls of Hazakor is a fully illustrated, 64+ page starter adventure for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons — and written with a special focus on young, beginning Dungeon Masters.
Hidden Halls of Hazakor
Created by designer and editor Scott Fitzgerald Gray, The Hidden Halls of Hazakor is a perfect introduction to classic dungeon-crawl adventuring for young DMs of ages 12 and up. In a friendly and straightforward fashion, it demonstrates some of the ways a good fantasy RPG adventure can be put together, and talks about some of the tricks and knowledge that all good DMs learn through the experience of running games — but which aren’t always instinctive for a young player sitting in the DM’s chair for the first time.
(Character concept art)
This adventure builds on the rules and information presented in the D&D core rulebooks and the D&D Starter Set, and on the first-time DM’s experience of having previously been a player in the game. A beginning DM running the adventure will learn to think about the ways in which the story can go in different directions based on what the characters do — and how to not be scared when it does. They’ll practice bringing NPCs to life by way of interesting quirks, to help the players engage with and remember them. They’ll get tips on running fun combat sessions, building from an initial slate of simple, single-foe encounters to more complex fights. And they’ll learn to use humor as a tool to make the game interesting and memorable, especially for other younger players.
The adventure’s approach to humor fits perfectly with the work of artist and comic creator Jackie Musto, whose full-color illustrations will bring The Hidden Halls of Hazakor to life. (And if you’d like the young gamer in your life immortalized as their very own RPG hero, Jackie will be doing a limited number of original illustrations as part of the Kickstarter campaign’s “Eternal Hero!” reward tier.)
In the vein of many classic starter scenarios, the adventure features a fully detailed local keep, where the characters meet and learn of the legendary lost ruins in the nearby wilderness. Those ruins then present a classic dungeon crawl in nine parts, featuring fifty different areas to explore, fun physical puzzles and daunting traps, a host of classic monstrous foes — including not one but two dragons — and other challenges that will bring the characters to 5th level… assuming they survive the threats of Hazakor’s lost halls.
This isn’t a stripped down or simplified adventure scenario, and there’s no reason why experienced players and veteran DMs won’t also have a good time running it. But The Hidden Halls of Hazakor has been designed and written with young DMs firmly in mind — helping them break down the processes of running an effective RPG session, creating a fun and dynamic world in the dungeon, and sharing that world and its stories as only roleplaying games can.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
It’s an all-ages 5e DM’s toolkit and adventure. For more details on it, I interviewed the creator, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, on Open Gaming Network here.
To support their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
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Redshirts, Vol. 2: A Starfinder Comedy A.P. for levels 4-6 byHappy Gnome Publishing
Ends on .
“Redshirts: Adventures in Absurdity Vol. 2 is a Starfinder adventure path guaranteed to make you laugh so hard you’ll pee your spacesuit
REDSHIRTS: ADVENTURES IN ABSURDITY, VOLUME 2!
What is Redshirts: Adventures in Absurdity?
Glad you asked! It is a Sci-fi/Comedy Adventure Path that is 100% Starfinder compatible. We launched the first volume on Kickstarter in August, and opened the PDF to the public in December. Within 6 days it was the number 1 hottest Starfinder product on DrivethruRPG, and earned their “Best-Seller” status. The entire Adventure Path, which revolves around surviving a deep space exploration mission with a dysfunctional command crew, will be 4 books and take Players from Level 1-12.
How do critics describe it?
It’s been called “The Office Meets Survivor…in space.”
What is the tone of the game?
Absurdist humor mixed with low-brow puns. It’s great for fans of Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Futurama, or The Orville.
What Can we expect in Volume 2?
Chapter 4: When a ship of undead creatures kidnaps a Confederation Ambassador, the Redshirts must find a way to rescue her and destroy the vessal, before joining them in undeath, forever.
Chapter 5: When a routine visit to Plushy Prime, the happiest place in the Universe, goes wrong the Redshirts must unravel a mystery hidden away for thousands of years.
Chapter 6: When the Captain accidentally gets married again (to the Slurmolian Emperor) only the Redshirts can be trusted to find the one creature in the Universe that can perform the annulment before anyone finds out.
20+ new monsters
New Equipment to kill your enemies with
5+ new playable races:
Slurmolians: A race of underground dwelling slimy creatures. While normally friendly, their appearance and backwards cultural beliefs can be a turn off.
Soulcage: Robots who go against there programming to do something so selfless and heroic, that they gain a soul from the universe itself.
Za’Rootyn: These tentacle-clad people worship their Sun, and follow the rule of the individual that the Sun chooses. They are powerful warriors, loyal friends, and vengeful enemies.
Fungoids: The Fungus based people see the world in a unique way with a paranoia unbeknownst anywhere else in the universe.
Val’hooligans: Ancient undead Viking warriors who were worshippers of Loki. Their incessant, never ending pranks and parties got them sent back to the world of the living, stuck between life and death, but still ready to party!“
Egg’s Thoughts:
I covered the first volume here. This Starfinder project is expanding on the ideas and jokes of the first volume and, if that’s perfect for your gaming table, it’s worth checking out.
You can see examples of Happy Gnome Publishing work at DriveThruRPG here.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
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Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
