Topic: Random Updates from Terry Amthor

[Terry K. Amthor]

Meanwhile, on my second pot of Earl Grey (hot of course), I am bouncing between the Gryphonburgh adventure and Emer II. I am doing NPC stats and adventure text, neither are my favorite thing, but they need to be done.

[egdcltd]

Still, a small 'overview' book of the whole continent might be nice.

There was mention that future Player's Guides would cover individual continents. That would probably work here.

[Terry K. Amthor]

I'm simultaneously working on the Eidolon revision, the Emer II revision, and the new Green Gryphon Inn super adventure module (it's up to 55 pages, eek!). I wish I could concentrate on just one and get it out, but I just don't work that way. Plus, Eidolon and Emer II are so inter-related... yeah, let's go with that...

[Terry K. Amthor]

Adventures for Gryphonburgh module now actually going along swimmingly ("yes, I'll have a coffee refill, thanks!"), with breaks to work on Emer II. I keep seeing cool pics on the interwebs that are inspiring for Shadow World places. Here is one, Kylemore Abbey, which could be a castle in Reandor, on the western shore of the Lake of Glass from this pic. Anyone else inspired by pics they see online or in books?

[RandalThor]

Oh yeah, all the time. Check it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/91320784@N07/

[B Hanson]

check out Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Even has huge carved lion paws reminiscent of Dragons Citadel.

[egdcltd]

I think I tend to be more inspired by what I read, rather than what I see. When it comes to images, I'm usually looking for something specific for an existing idea.

[markc]

I liked looking at Sigiriya, thanks for the info.
MDC

[Terry K. Amthor]

Waiting for the caffeine to kick in. It's great spring weather here in VA; cool and rainy (we need the rain) but spared the terrible storms of the deep south. I even have the windows open, as the pollen is a bit lower.

I wish this forum had a 'like' button to show you enjoyed someone's post, as in FaceBook and some other forums I've seen...

Meanwhile, perhaps somewhere in Hæstra, amazing landscape and ruins of the Emerian Empire?

[Terry K. Amthor]

Still all over the adventures... trying for a mix of action mingled with some mysteries and a little intrigue.

Meanwhile, what lore do you know (and use in your campaigns) about undead/demons/other evil creatures crossing running water? The river and the Bridge are an important barrier in the Gryphonburgh adventure module.

[markc]

I use the info from White Wold and their Vampire setting. In that book it is a myth but you can take the flaw of not being able to cross running water. Their system treats Vampires as more than just simple monsters and more as more complex pc's but this can be radical departure from the average RPG's depiction of Vampires.


I think the myth came from the purity of running water and that is why they can not cross it.


BTW, I also love their Werewolf book as well as Mummy which also deviate a lot from your average RPG game. I do not have the 20th anniversary edition of the books but a friend does and really loves them. Also their Mage game can be very very powerful compared to the others but is a fun read and mind exercise about the possibilities.
MDC

[Terry K. Amthor]

(Have Gryphonburgh and Emer II files open...) Just a note about my 'process' in case people are curious. I tend to jump back and forth between books/topics (one reason I am excited about Spacemaster Imperium, and maybe why I was writing Spacemaster modules and Shadow World and editing/writing Middle-earth so prolifically at ICE back in the day) is that I seem to get only so far writing on one topic before I get stalled, but can be inspired to work on something different. Meanwhile, somewhere in my subconscious are ideas stewing about, and I come back to the previous project with thoughts on how to improve it. First drafts often get many revisions, expansions and improvements. Does that make sense? I do envy those who can just plop down in front of the keyboard and hammer out thousands of words, but it's a rare inspiration when I can do that.

[egdcltd]

I tend to write pen and paper jottings, then start on the computer with section titles, notes and sentence fragments, then come back later and expand on them, into proper sentences and paragraphs. If I leave it too long, the fragments tend not to make sense though.

[craggles]

I tend to jump back and forth between books/topics

I'm the same way. ...but for illustrations.

[Terry K. Amthor]

I tend to write pen and paper jottings, then start on the computer with section titles, notes and sentence fragments, then come back later and expand on them, into proper sentences and paragraphs. If I leave it too long, the fragments tend not to make sense though.

I do some of the same things. Actually while working on one project (or watching a movie or TV show, or reading) I get an idea and jot it down (I have notepads in every room), though also sometimes I have trouble remembering (or reading) my scrawl and what I had in mind at the time.

And yes even in Word (or Adobe InDesign; I am composing Gryphon right in InDesign) I will type some ideas/notes all through the text, with '' to search and come back to later and flesh out.

[RandalThor]

(I have notepads in every room)

Wow, I thought I was the only one... (I guess in a world of 7 billion+ people, no one is the "only one" for just about anything.)

I have several notebooks filled with different stories, background info, etc... with several ideas scattered around in different notebooks. It is typical of my to start on idea in one, and then the next day or days later, after working on different ideas, get back to the first one but have to use a different notebook. Soon I will be attempting to consolidate my ideas and put them on the computer - though I am somewhat loathe to do so for "security" reasons - just so I can get better organized.

[egdcltd]

I also have things on Dropbox, Evernote and OneDrive, which means that at least everything is backed up and accessible from several devices.

[Terry K. Amthor]

A little story about how I became ensnared in RPG. I was a first-year at UVa and a dear friend Anne convinced me to try a game based on the Lord of the Rings. I was 17, a naive kid suddenly at univeristy, and I thought this sounded stupid. Oh, my god. As soon as Pete, the charismatic GM, allowed me to roll up a character (Agonar) I was sucked in. I was intimidated, because almost all the other players were older than me by a few years (and this was UVa, my dream school, and I was still pretty star-struck), but the rest is history.

Many years later, Pete was playtesting a new game, Dreamtime, where we would flip between several realities. I got to really roleplay then, as there was a near-future where I was a scientist for the National Geographic something, and I had magical glasses that looked like the yellow NatGeo rectangles. But most fun was as a Pierson's puppeteer in the far future. I made some styrofoam eyes and made sock puppets, my little LARP. My favorite was having the heads look at each other, because the humans did not know if we were having a private joke or not.

[DragonReborn]

Hey Terry, just leaped back into the thread and saw the cover for Eidolon. Awesome!!! Can't wait to get my hands on the finished book!

Oh, and btw. It's those charismatic GMs that make the difference. Got sucked in by one of those, myself. Even today I remember those first nights in a new world...

...and how fatal those nights proved for my rogue ;-)

[Terry K. Amthor]

Here's a random artifact for you... a poison case disguised as a book. Love the latches!