So if you listen to my podcast you probably already know that earlier this week I announced that I am probably going to start wrapping it up and close the doors. I will still publish the recorded interviews and discussions I have plus a few more episodes so the last episode will probably be at the end of April or possibly May. This blog on the other hand is going no where. 

I have waffled a little on doing Gygax75 here because I did not want to post ideas where players might see them. I have rethought that and will just put in alternate answers for things I want to be secret in the campaign. So if you end up playing in a future game based on this be warned that not everything you read will be true in the actual game. 

So with that out of the way …

The Gygax 75 Challenge Week One

This challenge, popularized by the amazing Ray Otis, is drawn from an article written for Europa, a wargaming newsletter, in April of 1975 by Gary Gygax. You can download Ray’s challenge which includes the text of the original article here: https://plundergrounds.itch.io/gygax75

Ray has put this up as pay what you want, I hope you can donate at least a dollar to him but even if you are not able to please download the PDF as I am not going to reproduce his work here. My weekly entries will make more sense if you read the pamphlet. 

Week One: The Concept

The tasks Ray sets forth this week are:

Get/create a notebook. I’ll be using the blog as my notebook.

Develop your pitch. List three to seven well-crafted bullet points that will both communicate and “sell” the world to your players.

Gather your sources of inspiration. List no more than seven sources and provide a sentence or two explaining what each source brings to the setting.

Extra Credit:

Assemble a mood board. 

Practice your pitch!

My Concept

There is a floating dungeon that moves from location to location. It was designed as a test to find the bravest and most competent adventurers. Who created it? Once they find the adventurers what do they want them to do? Are the player characters up to the challenge of finding out? 

The Pitch

1) Prophets and doomsayers are reporting the end is near

2)  A floating dungeon that teleports to a different location every 24 hours has appeared  

3)  Traditional fantasy world but more science fantasy type tech might be introduced later on

4) Players will have a chance to save the world and engage in multi-planar shenanigans 

Sources of Inspiration

1) Ken St. Andre’s Gristlegrim Dungeon. Ever since I first heard about this I have been enamored with the idea. If are not familiar with it this thread on the RPG Pub forum goes into some detail: https://www.rpgpub.com/threads/gristlegrim-t-ts-equivalent-of-castle-greyhawk.5722/#post-236099

In brief the idea is that there is a floating dungeon with randomized rooms for adventurers to test their mettle in. 

2) The Beast’s teleporting fortress from Krull. I love the idea of a location that randomly moves around. Can the heroes can crack the code of where it will go next?

3) Mortal Combat, at least the movies, where the contestants are being groomed for a competition and the other team is interfering by attacking the heroes before the actual tournament. At first the heroes will not know they are being groomed to represent their world in a competition so adding enemies that just show up out of nowhere will introduce another mystery to the mix. Especially if those enemies are unlike any they have encountered or heard about before.

4) ICRPG 2E particularly the art and the hint of the way the worlds tie together

What do you think? I am going to allow comments, hopefully they will not be overwhelmed by the bots! I will also open up the comments on previous posts.

That is all for this week, next week I will be back to map out the surrounding area. Until that time please be excellent to each other!