Wilderlands Cool Rules of the Week; UPDATE 3/3/08

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Wilderlands Cool Rules of the Week; UPDATE 3/3/08

Post by jamesmishler »

Starting Monday, March 3rd, and every Monday thereafter, I will post a new Wilderlands Cool Rules of the Week column on the Adventure Games Publishing website.

These rules will include optional methods of using existing Race Abilities and Class Abilities, Variant Classes, New Classes, new Special Abilities, new rules methodologies, new equipment, new spells, new monsters, new treasures, new traps, and special tables and charts (like the rules found in the Ready Ref Sheets and in most Judges Guild products), and so forth. Maybe even an NPC or three.

Each weekly entry will consist of one or more such rules, depending on the time I have available and inspiration.

Some entries will be materials dropped from works in progress due to space consideration; some will expand on articles in the Journal; others will be ideas that just don't fit elsewhere.

This weekly column will take the place of Games of the Week, which unfortunately never really had any appeal. I may revisit Games of the Week down the road, especially when more games are being released and I myself am in a better position to buy more of them...
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Post by moriarty777 »

SWEET! More Wilderlands goodness in 4 days!

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Post by Omote »

Looking forward to seeing what goes up on the site. AND, it is a nice way to promote the AGJ.

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Post by jamesmishler »

The first Cool Rule of the Week is up!

10-page PDF with guidelines for creating sorcerers, with 20 new spells, 2 new demons, and a new magic item, plus other needful bits.

As always, please let me know what you think!
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tacojohn4547

Post by tacojohn4547 »

jamesmishler wrote:
The first Cool Rule of the Week is up!

10-page PDF with guidelines for creating sorcerers, with 20 new spells, 2 new demons, and a new magic item, plus other needful bits.

As always, please let me know what you think!

Heading to AGP website now...

...downloading the file...

...working....

...working... (that's what I get for being too tight to spring for high speed hookup)

...almost there....

...and Bam! Got it. The Cool Rules #1 looks good, James. Really good. I'll have to read through it soon!

Thanks,

Jon

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Post by jamesmishler »

tacojohn4547 wrote:
...and Bam! Got it. The Cool Rules #1 looks good, James. Really good. I'll have to read through it soon!

Thanks Jon! I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the awesome review of XXXI, by the way. Most appreciated!

James
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Post by Tadhg »

W00T!. Thanks, I'll have a read-through tomorrow!
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Post by tacojohn4547 »

jamesmishler wrote:
Thanks Jon! I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the awesome review of XXXI, by the way. Most appreciated!

James

James,

You're most welcome! My review, and XXXI for that matter, speak for themselves.

tacojohn4547

rabindranath72

Post by rabindranath72 »

James,

first class material!

I would like to make a donation, but when I click on "donate", I am redirected to the pdf

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Post by jamesmishler »

rabindranath72 wrote:
James,

first class material!

I would like to make a donation, but when I click on "donate", I am redirected to the pdf

Thank you for your kinds words, glad you enjoyed it! Your donation is much appreciated!

I think I fixed it now... there was a bit of code missing at the end of the PDF link that bled over into the button code. I didn't notice it for some reason as it still worked for me... weird.

But just in cast, I'll add a note there for those for whom the button still does not work. If the button does not work for you, you can send donations via PayPal by logging in to PayPal, clicking on the "Send Money" tab, and sending the money to:
[email protected]

Click "Service/Other" then on the next page in the message include a note that it is a "Wilderlands Cool Rule of the Week Donation: AGP00300".

Thanks!
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Post by Geleg »

very cool stuff. I always like magic fueled by dark pacts. Very S&S. Thanks!
My C&C campaign journal: Hard Times in Narsileon http://www.trolllord.com/forums/viewtop ... 22&t=11032
My OSRIC/1e campaign journal: Expedition to Arden Vul http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... 26&t=59080

rabindranath72

Post by rabindranath72 »

Ok, went directly through PayPal!

Aw, I forgot to write that it was for the freebie
Cheers,

Antonio

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Post by Treebore »

Very nice James. I like how you worked out the pact powers and the ranks of evil, plus I like several of the spells. It reminds me of how much flavor such spells can ad to a game.
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Geoffrey

Post by Geoffrey »

James, will these rules updates stay on your webpage indefinitely, or will each new one "bump" the previous one off the page?

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Post by jamesmishler »

Geoffrey wrote:
James, will these rules updates stay on your webpage indefinitely, or will each new one "bump" the previous one off the page?

The Cool Rules will all stay up on the site. The latest Cool Rule will go up at the top of the list, and the previous Cool Rule will drop down below the Donate button. So they should remain available for some time.

Once I get around to it, I'll also have a "Core Cool Rule" PDF available that will have the core short rules bits that are central to my vision of the Wilderlands of High Adventure. One that I'm thinking of adding later this week is my rule on multiclassing in detail, even before the regular Monday schedule, as an added bonus. Depends on how things go with getting the first Campaign Installment done.... we'll see.

Also, after several months I'll look over the downloads and see what was most popular, and then take those rules, expand on them, then release them as a print book, I think. Again, we shall see what time permits...
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Post by tenkar »

James... if each cool rule runs 10 pages you are basically doing an extra 40 pages a month w/o compensation. You are either extremely generous or out of your mind
Nice work on it tho... might have to work this in as a reoccurring NPC at some point. Looking forward to your take on multi-classing.

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Post by Treebore »

I think doing this whole thing as a one man show proved months ago he is out of his mind.

Just proves its good to have insane people around.
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Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

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Post by moriarty777 »

tenkar wrote:
James... if each cool rule runs 10 pages you are basically doing an extra 40 pages a month w/o compensation. You are either extremely generous or out of your mind

Well, I think being a bit crazy is a requirement to work in the gaming industry.

James... I read this during the course of the afternoon yesterday. It got my mind off certain things and helped put me in better spirits. That said, it's quite fantastic and you've outdone yourself once again!

When you first announced this -- I was very excited. I figured that it would be smaller document... no more than 2-3 pages tops. Wow. I was *really* surprised when I downloaded it yesterday morning. It's been said before but you are a writing machine!

I think the first edition of the Cool Rules feature to be very well executed but, if you continue doing this much (in terms of material) -- I'd be just as happy if this became a monthly feature instead of a weekly one. Mind you I won't complain if it remains a weekly installment

The idea of the donation button is also a very good one. The material is definitely worth something for the effort. Thanks again James!

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Post by tenkar »

James, you twisted my arm... I just ordered XXXI... between the premier issue and your freebie I find a need to complete my collection... I'm glad I have a sub... beginning to wish I had jumped in with 2 feet and opted for 6 issues instead of just 3... it is "that good".

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Post by moriarty777 »

tenkar wrote:
James, you twisted my arm... I just ordered XXXI... between the premier issue and your freebie I find a need to complete my collection... I'm glad I have a sub... beginning to wish I had jumped in with 2 feet and opted for 6 issues instead of just 3... it is "that good".

You won't regret "XXXI" -- I liked it so much that I recently ordered a second copy (one to preserve as a collector's copy and the other to use). I'm in the same boat with my subscription... I got the 3 issue and not the 6. I imagine when I renew, I'll be do so with the full 6 issue deal.

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rabindranath72

Post by rabindranath72 »

jamesmishler wrote:
The Cool Rules will all stay up on the site. The latest Cool Rule will go up at the top of the list, and the previous Cool Rule will drop down below the Donate button. So they should remain available for some time.

Once I get around to it, I'll also have a "Core Cool Rule" PDF available that will have the core short rules bits that are central to my vision of the Wilderlands of High Adventure. One that I'm thinking of adding later this week is my rule on multiclassing in detail, even before the regular Monday schedule, as an added bonus. Depends on how things go with getting the first Campaign Installment done.... we'll see.

Also, after several months I'll look over the downloads and see what was most popular, and then take those rules, expand on them, then release them as a print book, I think. Again, we shall see what time permits...

James,

will you continue to produce Cool Rules which are "generic" enough to be used in campaigns different from the Wilderlands? I already have my own campaign and do not plan to start a Wilderlands one, so any material which is generic enough (both free and not) would be interesting for me.

Thanks,

Antonio

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Post by jamesmishler »

rabindranath72 wrote:
Will you continue to produce Cool Rules which are "generic" enough to be used in campaigns different from the Wilderlands? I already have my own campaign and do not plan to start a Wilderlands one, so any material which is generic enough (both free and not) would be interesting for me.

Antonio,

Most of the Cool Rules will be generic in that they can be used for Castles & Crusades and for any campaign, however, now and again there will be some specific materials, just to keep things interesting and to keep the focus on the Wilderlands. For example, one of the things I'm planning to release are encounter charts for each of the classic Wilderness books (Custalcon, Lightelf, Sea Rune, Hagrost, and Witches Court Marshes), with encounter tables for each of the hexes in the set. These are pretty specific, but the included unique encounters and NPC and Monster data can be used in any campaign. There will be other releases that are Wilderlands-specific and not so much rules and "cool stuff," as well, but with minimal effort can be adapted to just about any campaign setting. That's the beauty of the Wilderlands is that material designed for the setting is readily useable in just about any campaign.

James
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Post by jamesmishler »

moriarty777 wrote:
Well, I think being a bit crazy is a requirement to work in the gaming industry.

All too true...
Quote:
I think the first edition of the Cool Rules feature to be very well executed but, if you continue doing this much (in terms of material) -- I'd be just as happy if this became a monthly feature instead of a weekly one. Mind you I won't complain if it remains a weekly installment

Yes, I did go a bit all-out, didn't I?
But I wanted to start the series with a bang.

The plan will be for the first release per month to be ~10 pages, the other three will be ~3 to 5 pages. And then on the rare Fifth Weeks probably something quite grand, but that will depend on available time in the schedule...
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Post by Zudrak »

jamesmishler wrote:
All too true...



Yes, I did go a bit all-out, didn't I?
But I wanted to start the series with a bang.

The plan will be for the first release per month to be ~10 pages, the other three will be ~3 to 5 pages. And then on the rare Fifth Weeks probably something quite grand, but that will depend on available time in the schedule...

Wilderlands Recipes, perhaps?
Great stuff, James. Like Antonio, I do have my own campaign but want to collect your work because 1) I would like to try something different down the road and 2) it really is exceptional. I look forward to more!

Happy gaming,

Michael
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Post by Omote »

Yeah, this free 10-page .pdf is AWESOME! Just look at the 5 page crap that sells for a couple of bucks on RPG NOW and Drivethru. James, this is some sweet, sweet, mullet (a good thing).

-O
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Post by jamesmishler »

Sorry folks, this week's Cool Rule is delayed a day, maybe two. It will be on the site tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.
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Post by moriarty777 »

jamesmishler wrote:
Sorry folks, this week's Cool Rule is delayed a day, maybe two. It will be on the site tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Thanks for the heads up!

M
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Post by Treebore »

jamesmishler wrote:
Sorry folks, this week's Cool Rule is delayed a day, maybe two. It will be on the site tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Since you were at Gary's funeral I figured you would be late, or just cancel it.

I am guessing what your going to do will involve some kind of tribute to Gary?
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Post by jamesmishler »

Treebore wrote:
I am guessing what your going to do will involve some kind of tribute to Gary?

I had considered that, but I am going to save that for a Fifth Week, one of the Big Ones, or simply release it separately, possibly even as a print product. I have an idea for a tribute product that would take rather more than a day or two to start and complete...

If it ends up a PDF, I'll set up a special donate button for Gary's favorite charity; if print, a percentage of proceeds will go to the charity.
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Post by Treebore »

jamesmishler wrote:
I had considered that, but I am going to save that for a Fifth Week, one of the Big Ones, or simply release it separately, possibly even as a print product. I have an idea for a tribute product that would take rather more than a day or two to start and complete...

If it ends up a PDF, I'll set up a special donate button for Gary's favorite charity; if print, a percentage of proceeds will go to the charity.

Very good.
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Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

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