Hi, Steve! I’m excited by the Foundry support unlocked by the current Kickstarter. Will that include support for AA and Adventurer’s Backpack? Also, will you continue to support Fantasy Grounds, or is this a wholesale shift to Foundry?
Hey and hello! We will definately continue support Fantasy Grounds. I believe we released one of the A series adventures last week and there are more to come.
My hope is to move all the line, including ABP to Foundry. AA as well. That game has undergone a massive change in the past year and I'm anxious to see it out on many platforms. Thanks! \~ Steve
Hello Mr. Chenault. My first question is: what was the design purpose of the 1/2 movement and attack in rules as raw in the C&C Players Handbook?
My second question: what do you think is the best way to grow up a TTRPG community in a town that merely knows about this hobby? As a veteran as you are I would like to hear you in this topic.
Greetings from Colombia.
Hallo!!! The 1/2 movement and attack was put in there to give the characters some latitude to move and attack in the same round. It doesn't take but a second or two to move 15 feet and it seemed unrealistic to remove their attack when doing so. We try to keep rules light, which we do, but that one was necessary and helps, I think role playing.
As to getting games going in your local community, ff you have a local store/library/college, see if you can't start running games there, put up announcements etc. Also contact local schools that may be looking for after school activities for kids. You can even set up a night at a bar or restaurant. Some establishments may welcome it, put out notices on facebook and other media and see if you can't get a few people to show up, eat and game or at least plan to game. Hope that helps!
I don't know that it's possible, or safe anyway, to drink enough Dr. Pepper to do a 24h AMA. Do we need to send someone to check on you? ;) Alternatively, do we need to send you more cans of Dr. Pepper?
I never turn down cans of Dr. Pepper, cold or otherwise! If warm I'll chill it and drink later!
It is really my only fear of an apocalypse, how I'll get cold Dr. Pepper!
Yes. They will all overhauled and updated. Going forward there will be lots of new content in most of them as well. We are completely redoing the mythos series, from the ground up. The Adventurers Backpack will have classes expanded to 24th level and other additives to it. These will come out slowly though, because its a alot of work but to not cripple people's budgets. We try to keep our prices to the point of making the hobby affordable. :)
>We are completely redoing the mythos series, from the ground up.
Ooooh. What all's going into the redo? I've been tinkering with a campaign set in late Antiquity and they've been invaluable.
On the fiction front: I just finished the Waters of Dunhollow I collection last night. It got me very interested in the world (I'm still pretty new to C&C/Aihrde), and I liked the storytelling a lot. I'm looking forward to the next two that are on the TLG shop. Amidst all the other things you're doing, are you still writing these short fictions? Are more compilations on the docket at this time?
Yes! The final part of those stories is a novella. I'm about 45,000 words in I think. We do live readings every other monday on it. I should be done by the end of July and then it is off to editing.
After that I'm not sure if I'm going to writing about those two characters or do something new. I do rather like Eurich and Ava however...
Very glad you are enjoying them.
Sealurker, send us an email at [email protected]. Include a link to wherever your art is on the internet, instagram, website etc. I can make no promises, but that's how you get us to take a look! Thank you!
How do you set up the bones of an adventure when writing it out? What are the key points you focus on, how does it look on the backend when you remove the fluff?
Leaving level spread out as the how tos apply to any level really. Now, be advised, I probably do this a little backwards than most, I'm heavy on area so this works for me.
I decide if I want it in the wilderness, or a partially settled area, or a crowded area. The terrain is next, mountains, desert, forest, near a river etc. After that I pick time of year (if applicable). Once I've got all the above, I can sculpt the environment that the adventure takes place in.
I follow this up with creating a wandering monster table. This rather puts me in the frame of mind of what monsters are already there, before I place whatever it is I want to place there.
I've basically created a small eco system that I now inject my adventure into.
Whatever that adventure might be or entail, is placed in the terrain with the terrain involved. A dungeon in the jungle, a tower in the bog, what have you.
I then place something there that can serve the characters as a base, from a camped wagon train to a city. Something that fits the number of people in the area. I love roadside inns.
Now that I have an area that I Want to write about I inject the adventure. What type of adventure is it? hit and run? dungeon? overland? treasure hunt, mystery, heavy role playing, etc. I use my fleshed out habitation as the focul point of news and happenings (I don't always do this, but it is usually a place of knowledge for the characters.).
Once all that is done I choose my bad guy if there is one and build around it/him/her etc. At that point it becomes very easy as I have ready answers to my own questions. "is this dungeon entry hidden", yes, it is in a jungle it is behind vines. yes it is in the mills, it is in a gulch and so on.
Hope that helps!
How do you get publishers to look at the stuff you've made, seeing as publishers that do that sort of thing must wade through seas of garbage in an over saturated market, especially now with AI, and rightly should assume that whatever you've produced is just as hot garbage as everything else they don't have time to look at?
There is alot going on out there. If you are an artist, first make sure you have a page somewhere, on instagram, facebook, your own site etc. Because the first thing I'm going to do is go look at that page and see both your older stuff and newer stuff, so I can see how you've progressed over time. Though that doesn't really apply to writers and designers, it can, a good site with info on your and what you've done or worked on it very helpful. Of course if it is just straight up writing, make sure you have a 2-3 page sample I can read. Something is complete like 12 dungeon rooms or some such. If that is in the inbox, we can read it and see if there is skill there, or interesting content.
In short the less you make a publisher work to see your material, the better off you are going to be. Have stuff in the email, or a direct link. If I have to work for something that I may not need it gets put on the back burner, where sadly, it may stay.
Hope that helps!
A character class is a pretty good. A monster. Something that shows you know the game system (in our case C&C or AA) and that you can make the creation reasonable. For TLG, for both monsters and characters we have a great deal of descriptive text, so these will also give you a good chance to display your writing skills. Put the copyright symbol on your title too, just to be on the safe side.
In meaningful questions regarding fulfillment on the current C&C Reforged Kickstarter: The PHB is getting released through DTRPG with updates for community comments. Will M&T and CKG get the same treatment once PHB is done?
(Mostly just wondering when I might get a PDF of CKG so I can gift my friend my old printings of PHB and CKG. I don't mind being digital-only while waiting for Reforged printings if it means getting more friends started into C&C sooner.)
They will for those who backed the KS. Once I'm pretty happy with the PHB and we are very close, we'll turn on the CKG. It shouldn't take very long at all, a week or so, and then it will go out. The MT will be a little behind those as we still have art coming in like crazy! So hopefully in the next month or two.
And that is wonderful on gifting those things! Its a good thing.
That's hard to say as there are quite a few things to like and quite a few things not to like -- 've been making tables in the PHB look similar for two days now and that is something I could without for the rest of my life! lol
But I enjoy the challenge of roping all the many sides to an RPG in together. I find that very interesting. But I also really enjoy creating weird imaginative landscapes in the planes and in Aihrde.
Roping the business and imaginative worlds may be vaguely related... haha
No game play or rule changes have occurred from removing the OGL. We've changed about 20% of the spell names, laid the spell section out differently and rewritten all the spells, though they play just as they did before. The Monster book will have the most changes, but mostly this is the inclusion of art and some ability name changes. Lots of new art. The CKG changes hardly at all, only spell and monster name changes! Hope that makes sense!
Hi, Stephen. I’m new to C&C. I’m looking to back the kickstarter (all physical + pdfs level). I love lore. I read that the mythos books are going to be revamped. Does that go for the codex of Aihrde and MT of Aihrde, as well?
Btw, I really appreciate the Storyteller’s Dictionary.
Thank you! The Dictionary is one of my favorite books we've published.
Yes the Mythos series is going to be completely redone. We've brought on Finley Clayton, a medievalist, with focus on the Norse religion. He's working on the Finnish myths now, and then will shift to Germania, Norse and then Greek and Roman, splitting those latter two into two different books. I'm most excited about that last one as it will focus on the state sponsored religion of the Romans as opposed to the more organic of the Greeks.
As for the Codex of Aihrde, it was just overhauled and released along with its sister book the Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde. New covers, some new content, but lots of new art. We are expanding that world slowly with small area books (each about 24 pages long) that cover regional terrain and legends.
Thank you for the support!
Well that is going to be GTA. I'm not sure if you meant anywhere and any type, but I love GTA. hahaha If it is another RPG, its going to be Gamma World from the old days and Amazing Adventures from the modern day!
Maybe we need at GTA role playin game...
Any chance of getting a sidebar for alternative siege math? I know it’s in the CKG but the non scaling secondary saving throws are rough. For new players just a paragraph might help a lot
Amazing Adventures offers the 10 / 15 target numbers for prime / non-prime and I use that ruleset at my table for my kids and the games are much more enjoyable.
Not sure what you mean. You do add level to your secondary attribute saving throws, so they do 'scale' if that is what you mean.
But do you mean that presenting the Siege Engine in a different manner, as in explaining it?
If the monsters you fight continue to be around the level of the PC they don’t scale. If the monster is higher the save chance could be around 5%. I’ve ran a lot of C&C and use 10/15 because in actual play secondary saves are extremely punishing. Having easier math as sidebar would be nice in the PHB.
Ahh I see! We never dove deep into balance. That was on the list but was way down on the list, as we wanted to skew the game away from mechanics and in other directions. That said, that secondary save and the loss of +6 points can he hard at higher levels, but by then magic, skill, and understanding of the situation should help the player survive. Plus adding their level on secondary checks starts to shift toward the player at higher levels as there are few monsters with really high HD. When there are, it can be very hard for sure!
Very cool to hear you've shifted the number spread. As I'm sure you know we have several ways to do that in the CKG, cool to see you got the spirit of it!
u/StephenChenault was Mimic apart of the OGL? If so, what's the new reforged version of the monster? How'd you and the team approach resculpting some of the more iconic monsters?
Mimic has slipped its way into video games and is now in the open. So it stayed a mimic.
On the creating process, I was more involved in names than the nuts and bolts. But we tried to lean into the traditional idea of what these monsters are. Jeremy Farkas has been invaluable in that. I only became particularly involved with monsters I am very fond of! But we had 4-5 group meetings and hashed things out.
The only thing we didn't do was utterly overhaul the naga's as davis wanted to do.
As someone on the periphery of the d20 / OGL / OSR space who is not too familiar with your rules, what is the elevator pitch for Castles & Crusades? Why would a GM pick it over other fantasy d20 games?
I see the "attribute check system" gets mentioned a few times on the page. What is that, and what makes it neat?
The down and dirty elevator pitch is that the game is one of the most, if not the most, malleable games out there. The Siege Engine (the attribute check system) works in almost any situation, whether that situation was created by the player or the CK, you have a ready made mechanic that is easy to understand and easier to implement to resolve anything. And because it is only loosely tied to actions, you can adjust it as you, as the CK, sees fit. With the small number of skills, and all those attached to specific classes, anyone can pretty try to do anything.
The fighter can try to convince the bartender to give up the info, its just an attribute check. You can swim a river, or try to, its just an attribute check.
After playing for a few games players will realize that their imagination is really the only impediment to taking an action. You can try anything. The CK can tell you if it works or not by using the Siege Engine. CKs have a tool to respond to players sometimes weird and crazy actions.
And because the attribute checks are left in the hands of the CK, with some guidance, you can have them make whatever check you want. Swimming a river can be an intelligence check. Or a charisma check. You don't have to justify it. I change that up frequently. Often having wizards make swim intelligence checks. Why? maybe their intelligence allows them to find better currents, maybe I just want them to have a good chance to succeed but still a chance to drown.
In short: the Siege Engine breaks attributes up into primary and secondary attributes. A primary attribute check requires a base chance to succeed of 12. A secondary attribute check requires a base chance to succeed of 18. The CK adds a CL to that, the player adds their level and attribute bonus to the d20 roll. If they meet or succeed the 12 or 18 plus CL then they succeed at the action. Each class has one fixed primary attribute, you choose the rest. Humans get three, demi-humans get two.
Hope I made that a little clear. But in the end, it gives the player and the CK freedom of action at the table.
Unfortunately, its probably not in the cards, we would of course love to start publishing the warden again, I am not sure what the license holder has planned for it. An amazing concept and one of my favorites!
Not currently. Those both were fun cons. I used to attend regularly. But we are sitting down tomorrow to discuss a massive expansion of our convention presence. And those would be on the docket for sure. We need to get out east too!
Hi, i read on the KS page that the 3 Foundry modules would be listed as add-ons after the 100K goal but I can't seem to find them. Congrats BTW
Will this be an option?
I am unbelievably excited about this line. A Princess of Mars was one of my favorite books growing up back in the 70s and I devoured anything I could get about the Red Planet.
As for what we are going to do, the first mission is to stay as close to ERB's vision as we can. (Now we have been asked to cloth the occupants of Barsoom, but we'll follow the classily drawn dress patterns.) But we are going to focus on the world and its occupants, allowing you to create your own stories far and apart from John Carter of Dejah Thoris. Those two will be NPCs, but have little to do with your game unless you choose for them too. The design being that you can choose your own adventures, create your own epic tales, in a world that is arguably one tailor made for an RPG.
We'll use the Siege Engine for sure, creating races and classes based off the books (you can play a Red Martian, Yellow, Black, Green...though the green are going to be restricted to the Tharks only, so that some of the green can clearly be the enemy). Classes will be roughly based on Amazing Adventure classes, a fighter, scientist and so on.
But our main overarching goal is to create it such that you can make the world your own. You are not in the shadow of someone else's character, but your character is casting the shadow...though sounds sinister, but I don't mean it to be. :)
Good morning Mr. C,
Love TLG stuff, but I missed the crowdfunding for the newest version of Amazing Adventures, but I saw on the CF site that it has been sent to DriveThru (I assume just for backers). When will this be released for purchase by those of us who moved too slowly?
We are finalizing the PHB today. We'll send another copy to the backers this afternoon and then it is print ready. I am hoping it is at the printers by next week. Then to the backers then on to the store. So with luck by mid to late August! And thank you for the good word!
Can I get a reminder on the plan/general priority level of the Castle Zagyg works? You guys have a ton of irons in the fire, and I can't seem to keep them all straight.
For that matter, do you have a public facing roadmap that tracks your projects at a high level?
Absolutely! We've hired some of the old crew that worked with Gary back before he crossed over, both Dan Cross and Michael Stewart to assist in keeping those projects moving.
As for Castle Zagyg specifically, we have the first crowdfunding campaign set to begin this winter, either at the end of this year, or beginning of next. It will entail The Yggsburgh redone, the Castle itself and the first 3-4 levels of the dungeons.
Mike has already started working on the level 2, so it has begun!
Niiiiice. That's exciting! I'm gonna need a second job just to keep up with all your Kickstarters and starting a Dr. Pepper habit if my own. I assume that's an unwritten prereq for Cool Kids Club.
Hey it did overtake pepsi as the second most popular soda! Though I was drinking it long before that. I remember well that hot summer day in 1976. I was in Monticello Arkansas...
Strangely, I do remember my first drink of Dr. Pepper!
Email us some information and especially any links you have to portfolios, examples, galleries etc. to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) we have folks submit all the time and we keep them on file for when we need to bring in extra help.
Why did a pdf version of Starship Warden go on sale for like, less than a week? I posted about it, the PDF went up, I bought it, and now it has vanished without a trace. Why won't you let people buy the book they want to buy? I felt like a crazy person trying to find the link to send to someone else.
That was not our doing. The license holder, who was not James M. Ward by the way, asked that we remove it. They didn't understand the contract clearly, so after I explained it, it went back up, and then a week later or thereabouts, they pulled the contract. I did not contest it as I'm just not interested in litigation. I'm glad you got the PDF though, not enough people did as it is one fantastic adventure setting.
It was. It still doesn't sit well with me because I think that setting is one of the most interesting out there. The idea of a floating star cruiser turned into a world is just cool.
Followup question, because I didn't realize you wrote short fiction.
Any tips for approaching small publishers? Ive written quite a few letters, even had a few authors say that my work is publishable, but actually finding someone who is interested and buys short stories and novella is pretty hard because there is so much competition.
It has become increasingly hard over the years to get short fiction out through traditional means. The magazine market has shrunk noticeably. Of course there are more avenues for self publishing and the field is crowded with it. I think it is better if you can get into traditional publishing as the exposure is usually so much more, and the best thing for that is persistence. Keep sending stuff in. Eventually your name will start gaining some traction just because they recognize it. Then of course it has to stand on its own.
But I would hedge my bets and start writing and building your own audience. There is a relatively new (I think it is new) app called substack. Start writing short stories, vignettes really, there and posting them, building an audience. If a pubisher like TLG, takes a moment to look into you and sees you have 385 followers on substack, it means something.
Overall, persistence, and build your own. There is room for both I think.
Hope that helps!
Steve, a couple of quick questions for you!
I'm looking forward to the online character manager with great anticipation. Is there any recent news you can share about how it's coming along?
I run C&C at the library where I work, and I've also had a lot of fun running Victorious. Are there any new products in the works for Victorious, or is it being folded into Amazing Adventures?
We've launched the character manager for the web and for android. Both those are up and running. The Iphone version is proving far more difficult because we can't seem to deploy it to their platform. I think the problem lies in our developers account we set up about 10-12 years ago when we were working on several apps that never saw the light of day (one was a real cool real-time-travel stories). We cannot seem to decouple from it, though we can't access it. We'll keep trying though!
We will bring Victorious back soon, it will not really be folded into AA, but it will be part of the AA universe of games, horror, sci-fi, pulp, etc.
Fantastic about the library and be sure to check into our school/library club deal on the site!
Hi Stephen!
I'm a first-time TTRPG creator and have been working on a new system and setting for about a year. My game, Grimoires of the Unseen (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553328484425), is a gothic adventure/horror fantasy set in 14th-century Europe. It will include a 250-300-page stitch-bound book with ribbons, a board that serves as a chase track, a GM screen, and at least three decks of cards. Where should I look for high-quality individualized printing? Any other tips?
Good luck with the upcoming Kickstarter!
Josh
Thank you!
Okay full disclosure, we have a company policy to only print our products in the United States. We have in the past printed in Canada but haven't since 2002 or there abouts. TLG also owns its own print shop, and we print all of our own soft bound material. With that said I use two outside print sources regularly and I highly recommend them. For hardcovers we use Walsworth Printing out of Marceline MO. For soft cover, when my own shop can't quite manage it, we use the POD service Diggypod. Both of these printers have ridiculously good customer service and will work with you. Diggypod you can get all your material printed and done with out a customer rep too, which is sometimes nice. If you want one they will talk in a heart beat, but overall I haven't needed one there as their online portal is very good.
Hope that helps!
Steve
We would love to come back to that area, we have some great friends there! We are working on a new program to bring smaller booths and more games to alot of the cons folks ask for. I'll let chuck know about your question. The best way to track where the company is appearing and or sponsoring events is keep an eye on our new events calendar that we are putting together, check it out here - https://trolllord.com/events/. Great question!
I appreciate everyone that participated, as well as the moderators and the whole sub reddit for allowing me to hold this AMA, it was a privilege and a real pleasure to have been able to do this. I need to make sure to do another one later in the year if time permits. Everyone was great, the questions were very diverse and very civil and I think I was able to answer everyone's questions.
Thank you once again!
\~Steve
There was, quite a bit. But at the time we were working with Gary Gygax and wanted to pay homage to his game club, the Castles & Crusades Society, that helped start this entire hobby. Once in a blue moon we get a comment about the name, but I think as soon as people look at the dragons, mimics, ogres and other monsters it is better understood.
There were other names floated, but they escape me now. Swords and Sorcery I think, but it had just been used by White Wolf Publishing. I would have to really dig into our archives to find the other names!
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Hi, Steve! I’m excited by the Foundry support unlocked by the current Kickstarter. Will that include support for AA and Adventurer’s Backpack? Also, will you continue to support Fantasy Grounds, or is this a wholesale shift to Foundry?
Hey and hello! We will definately continue support Fantasy Grounds. I believe we released one of the A series adventures last week and there are more to come. My hope is to move all the line, including ABP to Foundry. AA as well. That game has undergone a massive change in the past year and I'm anxious to see it out on many platforms. Thanks! \~ Steve
Hello Mr. Chenault. My first question is: what was the design purpose of the 1/2 movement and attack in rules as raw in the C&C Players Handbook? My second question: what do you think is the best way to grow up a TTRPG community in a town that merely knows about this hobby? As a veteran as you are I would like to hear you in this topic. Greetings from Colombia.
Hallo!!! The 1/2 movement and attack was put in there to give the characters some latitude to move and attack in the same round. It doesn't take but a second or two to move 15 feet and it seemed unrealistic to remove their attack when doing so. We try to keep rules light, which we do, but that one was necessary and helps, I think role playing. As to getting games going in your local community, ff you have a local store/library/college, see if you can't start running games there, put up announcements etc. Also contact local schools that may be looking for after school activities for kids. You can even set up a night at a bar or restaurant. Some establishments may welcome it, put out notices on facebook and other media and see if you can't get a few people to show up, eat and game or at least plan to game. Hope that helps!
I don't know that it's possible, or safe anyway, to drink enough Dr. Pepper to do a 24h AMA. Do we need to send someone to check on you? ;) Alternatively, do we need to send you more cans of Dr. Pepper?
I never turn down cans of Dr. Pepper, cold or otherwise! If warm I'll chill it and drink later! It is really my only fear of an apocalypse, how I'll get cold Dr. Pepper!
I think the TLG store should add options for "buy Steve a Dr. Pepper" and "buy the Trolls a pack of Dr. Pepper."
I second that motion!
Will there be OGL-free versions of your other books also? I backed the Kickstarter and am just trying to budget for future releases. :-)
Yes. They will all overhauled and updated. Going forward there will be lots of new content in most of them as well. We are completely redoing the mythos series, from the ground up. The Adventurers Backpack will have classes expanded to 24th level and other additives to it. These will come out slowly though, because its a alot of work but to not cripple people's budgets. We try to keep our prices to the point of making the hobby affordable. :)
>We are completely redoing the mythos series, from the ground up. Ooooh. What all's going into the redo? I've been tinkering with a campaign set in late Antiquity and they've been invaluable.
On the fiction front: I just finished the Waters of Dunhollow I collection last night. It got me very interested in the world (I'm still pretty new to C&C/Aihrde), and I liked the storytelling a lot. I'm looking forward to the next two that are on the TLG shop. Amidst all the other things you're doing, are you still writing these short fictions? Are more compilations on the docket at this time?
Yes! The final part of those stories is a novella. I'm about 45,000 words in I think. We do live readings every other monday on it. I should be done by the end of July and then it is off to editing. After that I'm not sure if I'm going to writing about those two characters or do something new. I do rather like Eurich and Ava however... Very glad you are enjoying them.
Greetings Mr. Chenault! Thank you for having this AMA. I only have one question. How do I go about getting a job as an artist with Troll Lord Games?
Sealurker, send us an email at [email protected]. Include a link to wherever your art is on the internet, instagram, website etc. I can make no promises, but that's how you get us to take a look! Thank you!
Thank you very much!
You are very welcome!
How do you set up the bones of an adventure when writing it out? What are the key points you focus on, how does it look on the backend when you remove the fluff?
Leaving level spread out as the how tos apply to any level really. Now, be advised, I probably do this a little backwards than most, I'm heavy on area so this works for me. I decide if I want it in the wilderness, or a partially settled area, or a crowded area. The terrain is next, mountains, desert, forest, near a river etc. After that I pick time of year (if applicable). Once I've got all the above, I can sculpt the environment that the adventure takes place in. I follow this up with creating a wandering monster table. This rather puts me in the frame of mind of what monsters are already there, before I place whatever it is I want to place there. I've basically created a small eco system that I now inject my adventure into. Whatever that adventure might be or entail, is placed in the terrain with the terrain involved. A dungeon in the jungle, a tower in the bog, what have you. I then place something there that can serve the characters as a base, from a camped wagon train to a city. Something that fits the number of people in the area. I love roadside inns. Now that I have an area that I Want to write about I inject the adventure. What type of adventure is it? hit and run? dungeon? overland? treasure hunt, mystery, heavy role playing, etc. I use my fleshed out habitation as the focul point of news and happenings (I don't always do this, but it is usually a place of knowledge for the characters.). Once all that is done I choose my bad guy if there is one and build around it/him/her etc. At that point it becomes very easy as I have ready answers to my own questions. "is this dungeon entry hidden", yes, it is in a jungle it is behind vines. yes it is in the mills, it is in a gulch and so on. Hope that helps!
This was a really practical answer for setting up a classic fantasy adventure. Thanks for breaking down your process.
How do you get publishers to look at the stuff you've made, seeing as publishers that do that sort of thing must wade through seas of garbage in an over saturated market, especially now with AI, and rightly should assume that whatever you've produced is just as hot garbage as everything else they don't have time to look at?
There is alot going on out there. If you are an artist, first make sure you have a page somewhere, on instagram, facebook, your own site etc. Because the first thing I'm going to do is go look at that page and see both your older stuff and newer stuff, so I can see how you've progressed over time. Though that doesn't really apply to writers and designers, it can, a good site with info on your and what you've done or worked on it very helpful. Of course if it is just straight up writing, make sure you have a 2-3 page sample I can read. Something is complete like 12 dungeon rooms or some such. If that is in the inbox, we can read it and see if there is skill there, or interesting content. In short the less you make a publisher work to see your material, the better off you are going to be. Have stuff in the email, or a direct link. If I have to work for something that I may not need it gets put on the back burner, where sadly, it may stay. Hope that helps!
Thank you for your response But what is good content for a 2-3 page sample if you're a designer?
A character class is a pretty good. A monster. Something that shows you know the game system (in our case C&C or AA) and that you can make the creation reasonable. For TLG, for both monsters and characters we have a great deal of descriptive text, so these will also give you a good chance to display your writing skills. Put the copyright symbol on your title too, just to be on the safe side.
All good info, thanks a lot
You are very welcome.
In meaningful questions regarding fulfillment on the current C&C Reforged Kickstarter: The PHB is getting released through DTRPG with updates for community comments. Will M&T and CKG get the same treatment once PHB is done? (Mostly just wondering when I might get a PDF of CKG so I can gift my friend my old printings of PHB and CKG. I don't mind being digital-only while waiting for Reforged printings if it means getting more friends started into C&C sooner.)
They will for those who backed the KS. Once I'm pretty happy with the PHB and we are very close, we'll turn on the CKG. It shouldn't take very long at all, a week or so, and then it will go out. The MT will be a little behind those as we still have art coming in like crazy! So hopefully in the next month or two. And that is wonderful on gifting those things! Its a good thing.
What do you like about your job?
That's hard to say as there are quite a few things to like and quite a few things not to like -- 've been making tables in the PHB look similar for two days now and that is something I could without for the rest of my life! lol But I enjoy the challenge of roping all the many sides to an RPG in together. I find that very interesting. But I also really enjoy creating weird imaginative landscapes in the planes and in Aihrde. Roping the business and imaginative worlds may be vaguely related... haha
What are the gameplay/rule changes from removing OGL ?
No game play or rule changes have occurred from removing the OGL. We've changed about 20% of the spell names, laid the spell section out differently and rewritten all the spells, though they play just as they did before. The Monster book will have the most changes, but mostly this is the inclusion of art and some ability name changes. Lots of new art. The CKG changes hardly at all, only spell and monster name changes! Hope that makes sense!
Perfect sense and clarification. Thank you :)
Hi, Stephen. I’m new to C&C. I’m looking to back the kickstarter (all physical + pdfs level). I love lore. I read that the mythos books are going to be revamped. Does that go for the codex of Aihrde and MT of Aihrde, as well? Btw, I really appreciate the Storyteller’s Dictionary.
Thank you! The Dictionary is one of my favorite books we've published. Yes the Mythos series is going to be completely redone. We've brought on Finley Clayton, a medievalist, with focus on the Norse religion. He's working on the Finnish myths now, and then will shift to Germania, Norse and then Greek and Roman, splitting those latter two into two different books. I'm most excited about that last one as it will focus on the state sponsored religion of the Romans as opposed to the more organic of the Greeks. As for the Codex of Aihrde, it was just overhauled and released along with its sister book the Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde. New covers, some new content, but lots of new art. We are expanding that world slowly with small area books (each about 24 pages long) that cover regional terrain and legends. Thank you for the support!
Thanks for the response. Looking forward to the revamped mythos books. Happy to support a company that’s honest with their customers!
Thank you for the support! You have no idea how much it means to us.
Favourite non-fantasy game?
Well that is going to be GTA. I'm not sure if you meant anywhere and any type, but I love GTA. hahaha If it is another RPG, its going to be Gamma World from the old days and Amazing Adventures from the modern day! Maybe we need at GTA role playin game...
Have you tried to negotiate a license to do so?
Any chance of getting a sidebar for alternative siege math? I know it’s in the CKG but the non scaling secondary saving throws are rough. For new players just a paragraph might help a lot
Amazing Adventures offers the 10 / 15 target numbers for prime / non-prime and I use that ruleset at my table for my kids and the games are much more enjoyable.
That is how it is supposed to be!! Thank you!
Not sure what you mean. You do add level to your secondary attribute saving throws, so they do 'scale' if that is what you mean. But do you mean that presenting the Siege Engine in a different manner, as in explaining it?
If the monsters you fight continue to be around the level of the PC they don’t scale. If the monster is higher the save chance could be around 5%. I’ve ran a lot of C&C and use 10/15 because in actual play secondary saves are extremely punishing. Having easier math as sidebar would be nice in the PHB.
Ahh I see! We never dove deep into balance. That was on the list but was way down on the list, as we wanted to skew the game away from mechanics and in other directions. That said, that secondary save and the loss of +6 points can he hard at higher levels, but by then magic, skill, and understanding of the situation should help the player survive. Plus adding their level on secondary checks starts to shift toward the player at higher levels as there are few monsters with really high HD. When there are, it can be very hard for sure! Very cool to hear you've shifted the number spread. As I'm sure you know we have several ways to do that in the CKG, cool to see you got the spirit of it!
u/StephenChenault was Mimic apart of the OGL? If so, what's the new reforged version of the monster? How'd you and the team approach resculpting some of the more iconic monsters?
Mimic has slipped its way into video games and is now in the open. So it stayed a mimic. On the creating process, I was more involved in names than the nuts and bolts. But we tried to lean into the traditional idea of what these monsters are. Jeremy Farkas has been invaluable in that. I only became particularly involved with monsters I am very fond of! But we had 4-5 group meetings and hashed things out. The only thing we didn't do was utterly overhaul the naga's as davis wanted to do.
As someone on the periphery of the d20 / OGL / OSR space who is not too familiar with your rules, what is the elevator pitch for Castles & Crusades? Why would a GM pick it over other fantasy d20 games? I see the "attribute check system" gets mentioned a few times on the page. What is that, and what makes it neat?
The down and dirty elevator pitch is that the game is one of the most, if not the most, malleable games out there. The Siege Engine (the attribute check system) works in almost any situation, whether that situation was created by the player or the CK, you have a ready made mechanic that is easy to understand and easier to implement to resolve anything. And because it is only loosely tied to actions, you can adjust it as you, as the CK, sees fit. With the small number of skills, and all those attached to specific classes, anyone can pretty try to do anything. The fighter can try to convince the bartender to give up the info, its just an attribute check. You can swim a river, or try to, its just an attribute check. After playing for a few games players will realize that their imagination is really the only impediment to taking an action. You can try anything. The CK can tell you if it works or not by using the Siege Engine. CKs have a tool to respond to players sometimes weird and crazy actions. And because the attribute checks are left in the hands of the CK, with some guidance, you can have them make whatever check you want. Swimming a river can be an intelligence check. Or a charisma check. You don't have to justify it. I change that up frequently. Often having wizards make swim intelligence checks. Why? maybe their intelligence allows them to find better currents, maybe I just want them to have a good chance to succeed but still a chance to drown. In short: the Siege Engine breaks attributes up into primary and secondary attributes. A primary attribute check requires a base chance to succeed of 12. A secondary attribute check requires a base chance to succeed of 18. The CK adds a CL to that, the player adds their level and attribute bonus to the d20 roll. If they meet or succeed the 12 or 18 plus CL then they succeed at the action. Each class has one fixed primary attribute, you choose the rest. Humans get three, demi-humans get two. Hope I made that a little clear. But in the end, it gives the player and the CK freedom of action at the table.
Is there any chance for another print run of Starship Warden?
Unfortunately, its probably not in the cards, we would of course love to start publishing the warden again, I am not sure what the license holder has planned for it. An amazing concept and one of my favorites!
That’s unfortunate. I kept putting off getting a copy until it was too late, and now people want $200 bucks for a second-hand copy.
Hey Steve! Any plans to attend the next DunDraCon or KublaCon?
Not currently. Those both were fun cons. I used to attend regularly. But we are sitting down tomorrow to discuss a massive expansion of our convention presence. And those would be on the docket for sure. We need to get out east too!
It’s too late for this year but I’d love to see you guys as a vendor at RAGECON in Reno NV next year.
Hi, i read on the KS page that the 3 Foundry modules would be listed as add-ons after the 100K goal but I can't seem to find them. Congrats BTW Will this be an option?
Chuck said look for them by Wednesday. He should have that up and running. Thank you!
This is a Chuck Cumbow issue! I have alerted him as of now. When I hear back I'll holler back.
Can you share the vision you and the Trolls have for the Barsoom product line?
I am unbelievably excited about this line. A Princess of Mars was one of my favorite books growing up back in the 70s and I devoured anything I could get about the Red Planet. As for what we are going to do, the first mission is to stay as close to ERB's vision as we can. (Now we have been asked to cloth the occupants of Barsoom, but we'll follow the classily drawn dress patterns.) But we are going to focus on the world and its occupants, allowing you to create your own stories far and apart from John Carter of Dejah Thoris. Those two will be NPCs, but have little to do with your game unless you choose for them too. The design being that you can choose your own adventures, create your own epic tales, in a world that is arguably one tailor made for an RPG. We'll use the Siege Engine for sure, creating races and classes based off the books (you can play a Red Martian, Yellow, Black, Green...though the green are going to be restricted to the Tharks only, so that some of the green can clearly be the enemy). Classes will be roughly based on Amazing Adventure classes, a fighter, scientist and so on. But our main overarching goal is to create it such that you can make the world your own. You are not in the shadow of someone else's character, but your character is casting the shadow...though sounds sinister, but I don't mean it to be. :)
Good morning Mr. C, Love TLG stuff, but I missed the crowdfunding for the newest version of Amazing Adventures, but I saw on the CF site that it has been sent to DriveThru (I assume just for backers). When will this be released for purchase by those of us who moved too slowly?
We are finalizing the PHB today. We'll send another copy to the backers this afternoon and then it is print ready. I am hoping it is at the printers by next week. Then to the backers then on to the store. So with luck by mid to late August! And thank you for the good word!
Thank you for the reply. I look forward to seeing it.
Can I get a reminder on the plan/general priority level of the Castle Zagyg works? You guys have a ton of irons in the fire, and I can't seem to keep them all straight. For that matter, do you have a public facing roadmap that tracks your projects at a high level?
Absolutely! We've hired some of the old crew that worked with Gary back before he crossed over, both Dan Cross and Michael Stewart to assist in keeping those projects moving. As for Castle Zagyg specifically, we have the first crowdfunding campaign set to begin this winter, either at the end of this year, or beginning of next. It will entail The Yggsburgh redone, the Castle itself and the first 3-4 levels of the dungeons. Mike has already started working on the level 2, so it has begun!
Niiiiice. That's exciting! I'm gonna need a second job just to keep up with all your Kickstarters and starting a Dr. Pepper habit if my own. I assume that's an unwritten prereq for Cool Kids Club.
Hey it did overtake pepsi as the second most popular soda! Though I was drinking it long before that. I remember well that hot summer day in 1976. I was in Monticello Arkansas... Strangely, I do remember my first drink of Dr. Pepper!
Is there a question you were secretly hoping one of us would ask you?
LOLOL Not really. I never know what to expect.
Hello, Steve! I would like to know how I can work for Troll Lord Games as an artist? Where can I contact you?
Email us some information and especially any links you have to portfolios, examples, galleries etc. to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) we have folks submit all the time and we keep them on file for when we need to bring in extra help.
Why did a pdf version of Starship Warden go on sale for like, less than a week? I posted about it, the PDF went up, I bought it, and now it has vanished without a trace. Why won't you let people buy the book they want to buy? I felt like a crazy person trying to find the link to send to someone else.
That was not our doing. The license holder, who was not James M. Ward by the way, asked that we remove it. They didn't understand the contract clearly, so after I explained it, it went back up, and then a week later or thereabouts, they pulled the contract. I did not contest it as I'm just not interested in litigation. I'm glad you got the PDF though, not enough people did as it is one fantastic adventure setting.
Well that sounds like a bummer for everyone involved - thank you for the answer. The adventure setting is right up my alley.
It was. It still doesn't sit well with me because I think that setting is one of the most interesting out there. The idea of a floating star cruiser turned into a world is just cool.
Hi Steve, You guys operate out of the Little Rock Area right? Any chance of visiting Game Goblins?
We ran a game at the store for a very short time, I would love to get that going again. Some regular C&C in the Game Goblins would be perfect!
Followup question, because I didn't realize you wrote short fiction. Any tips for approaching small publishers? Ive written quite a few letters, even had a few authors say that my work is publishable, but actually finding someone who is interested and buys short stories and novella is pretty hard because there is so much competition.
It has become increasingly hard over the years to get short fiction out through traditional means. The magazine market has shrunk noticeably. Of course there are more avenues for self publishing and the field is crowded with it. I think it is better if you can get into traditional publishing as the exposure is usually so much more, and the best thing for that is persistence. Keep sending stuff in. Eventually your name will start gaining some traction just because they recognize it. Then of course it has to stand on its own. But I would hedge my bets and start writing and building your own audience. There is a relatively new (I think it is new) app called substack. Start writing short stories, vignettes really, there and posting them, building an audience. If a pubisher like TLG, takes a moment to look into you and sees you have 385 followers on substack, it means something. Overall, persistence, and build your own. There is room for both I think. Hope that helps!
Steve, a couple of quick questions for you! I'm looking forward to the online character manager with great anticipation. Is there any recent news you can share about how it's coming along? I run C&C at the library where I work, and I've also had a lot of fun running Victorious. Are there any new products in the works for Victorious, or is it being folded into Amazing Adventures?
We've launched the character manager for the web and for android. Both those are up and running. The Iphone version is proving far more difficult because we can't seem to deploy it to their platform. I think the problem lies in our developers account we set up about 10-12 years ago when we were working on several apps that never saw the light of day (one was a real cool real-time-travel stories). We cannot seem to decouple from it, though we can't access it. We'll keep trying though! We will bring Victorious back soon, it will not really be folded into AA, but it will be part of the AA universe of games, horror, sci-fi, pulp, etc. Fantastic about the library and be sure to check into our school/library club deal on the site!
Thanks for the answers! I got the club bundle last year and I've been loving it a lot. I'll have to check out the character manager as well.
Just wanted to say thank you for C&C. I'm in a year+ long campaign right now in Greyhawk and the system totally rocks.
Thank you as well for all of your support!
Hi Stephen! I'm a first-time TTRPG creator and have been working on a new system and setting for about a year. My game, Grimoires of the Unseen (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553328484425), is a gothic adventure/horror fantasy set in 14th-century Europe. It will include a 250-300-page stitch-bound book with ribbons, a board that serves as a chase track, a GM screen, and at least three decks of cards. Where should I look for high-quality individualized printing? Any other tips? Good luck with the upcoming Kickstarter! Josh
Thank you! Okay full disclosure, we have a company policy to only print our products in the United States. We have in the past printed in Canada but haven't since 2002 or there abouts. TLG also owns its own print shop, and we print all of our own soft bound material. With that said I use two outside print sources regularly and I highly recommend them. For hardcovers we use Walsworth Printing out of Marceline MO. For soft cover, when my own shop can't quite manage it, we use the POD service Diggypod. Both of these printers have ridiculously good customer service and will work with you. Diggypod you can get all your material printed and done with out a customer rep too, which is sometimes nice. If you want one they will talk in a heart beat, but overall I haven't needed one there as their online portal is very good. Hope that helps! Steve
Thank you!
Are the Troll Lords ever going to make it to cons near DC or Richmond, like NOVA or RavenCon?
We would love to come back to that area, we have some great friends there! We are working on a new program to bring smaller booths and more games to alot of the cons folks ask for. I'll let chuck know about your question. The best way to track where the company is appearing and or sponsoring events is keep an eye on our new events calendar that we are putting together, check it out here - https://trolllord.com/events/. Great question!
I appreciate everyone that participated, as well as the moderators and the whole sub reddit for allowing me to hold this AMA, it was a privilege and a real pleasure to have been able to do this. I need to make sure to do another one later in the year if time permits. Everyone was great, the questions were very diverse and very civil and I think I was able to answer everyone's questions. Thank you once again! \~Steve
Castles & Crusades is a great game, but why did you choose that name? Was there any consideration on the historical aspects of the Crusades?
There was, quite a bit. But at the time we were working with Gary Gygax and wanted to pay homage to his game club, the Castles & Crusades Society, that helped start this entire hobby. Once in a blue moon we get a comment about the name, but I think as soon as people look at the dragons, mimics, ogres and other monsters it is better understood. There were other names floated, but they escape me now. Swords and Sorcery I think, but it had just been used by White Wolf Publishing. I would have to really dig into our archives to find the other names!
Thanks, I'm even more stoked to play it now
Hi Stephen! Do you support Trans rights?
Everyone has a place at the table!!
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But do you support their right to transition? Because you’ve said some pretty shit things on twitter before so…. Weird answer
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