I recently received some reviews from Age Of Dusk on the blue baron series. As well I received a review on one of the last ever recordings that I made (in my professional life). I'd like to thank Prince of Nothing for reviewing both of the baron releases!
An invitation from the blue baron review:
https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/review-an-invitation-from-the-blue-baron-blueholme-too-many-cooks/
Excerpt: The style, theme, format and content of each room is an incoherent mess that could have been averted by giving everyone clearer guidelines by which to hand in their submissions.
Shane's thoughts: Absolutely! I suppose I could have done a bit more editing on the whole thing. Everyone of the writers in both adventures were able to see what each other were writing. (not quite sure if that's a point per se....)
Return of the blue baron review:
https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/review-the-return-of-the-blue-baron-blueholme-second-times-the-charm/
Excerpt: There are two irritants. The room numbering is, begging Mr. Ward’s pardon, utter dogshit, with players entering in room number 3. and rooms with only one number apart being found on opposite sides of the dungeon. The decision to simply start at the left side of the map and then number rooms in rows from left to right makes it harder to get a feel for what rooms belong in what area. Numbering should go by proximity.
Shanes Thoughts: I normally number this way. I agree that it's a good point about putting rooms together that are "connected" as far as story is concerned. At least as far as the text goes. When we started this, I basically put the 2 maps in google drive and people started picking rooms and went to town. Technically speaking I could have sat and edited rooms and moved them to different places (re numbered) as far as thematically similar rooms, or ones that were connected story wise. Whatever the case that's good information to know.
All in all I've very happy with both reviews, they point out all the good points, bad points (things to work on) and that IMHO is gold.
You can grab "the invitation from the blue baron" here. and "The return of the blue baron" here. and the POD here.
Check out Goblin Henchmen's throwback post about G+ and writing for the baron series here.
Speaking of reviews and throwbacks, here is the Swords & Stichery reviews of the baron series:
http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/2017/03/commentary-on-free-osr-adveture.html
http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/2018/08/osr-commentary-review-on-free-adventure.html
MUSIC
Review of D.B. & The Deadbeats album "Don't tell nobody":
http://ohjusteatit.ca/album-review-d-b-the-deadbeats-dont-tell-nobody/?fbclid=IwAR3YH8uEdFtgeBV8mebNLYqE-GAyywoCTSt0MNBiMd9AbznuhmMQQjA6NjA
I have a few thoughts on this, but I'm holding my tongue. Simply put, this is one of if not the last recording I'll ever do, no sense getting upset about a review right?
You can check out the album here: https://dbthedeadbeats.bandcamp.com/releases
MAPPING
I've been working on a few forest maps and colouring them in. I currently have 2 and have to draw 2 more. I've been playing around a little bit with shading etc, lots of fun. Here's map 1, and then a screen shot of me putting map 1 and 2 together. I have no idea if this will see the light of day at all.
The map looks something like B5
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool comparison!
DeleteI agree that the Baron 2 map numbering is weird, but in the end, players and characters don't crawl trough numbers but through rooms, they don't say: "We are in room 3, should we explore room 4 or room 7 now?", ever.
ReplyDeleteGiving a linear numbering would suggest railroading, would imply that "this is the right order the rooms should be explored". We are so used to always start in room 1 that Baron 2 is a little shocking or annoying in that regard, but once one understands it starts in room 3 (it should me mentioned beforehand, though), the reading flows smooth.
I'm going to have to re look at it just out of curiosity. What i took from the review was that rooms that were similar thematically should have been numbered closer together.
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