Hero’s Journey

I think I might have mentioned this a while back, but I can’t be sure. Either way, I am in the process of writing my own Retroclone. I’ve been looking at others such as 2013 Ennie Award-winning Mazes & Perils, Blueholme, and Swords & Wizardry. And I got to thinking that I could do something like this.

Of course, the first question is, why? Well, mainly because I can. It costs me nothing but time and typing to do it. I know most of these kinds of rules and games backwards and forwards, and I have been tinkering with D&D rules for years upon years. So, why not put my own stamp on the Retroclone movement?

As of right now, it’s titled Hero’s Journey (though I have a feeling that will eventually change…no doubt someone has written some RPG or supplement with that name). As of today, it’s probably about halfway done already, perhaps a bit more, and I have only been working on it for a few weeks. A lot of the initial work just flowed right out. Races, classes, and other character generation issues were cranked out pretty quickly.

Combat and other encounter rules are in-process, and about 2/3 done. The biggest part ahead of me will be the lists. I have copied/pasted lists of equipment and spells from the SRD for now, but I will be whittling those down quite a bit. I’m going for a B/X vibe, and I really just don’t need to have THAT many items on each list. But, they’re holding places on my working document for now.

Then there’s treasure lists, monster lists…a lot of lists. Chances are, everything but the lists will be done in a couple of weeks. And then those will take another month or two. So, I’m looking at somewhere in mid-winter before I have a workable game. And that doesn’t include any setting information, should I choose to include that. I mean, Moldvay and Cook didn’t, so I may forgo that part, and just leave it setting-generic.

In other news, both Life of Rage – OSR and Basic Arcana are doing ok at RPGNow. I’m leaving all of the royalties in place for now, and will cash them out at the end of October. These will be my funds for Gamehole Con.

By the way, if you have bought, or intend to buy, either one, please leave a short review at RPGNow, or anywhere else you like. Not only does it help sales by getting the word out, but it lets me know what people think of my stuff. And be honest. I won’t be (too) hurt if you hate it.