Haunting of Larvik Island

The Sorcerer's good friends at Thick Skull Adventures have released The Haunting of Larvik Island at RPGNow. Check it out!

Slogging away...

Work-work has kept my productive hours occupied of late, so progress has been slow on the Sunken City. I'd hoped to have the proof copy off this weekend, but I'm still battling rounding out the final text and formatting the extra content. Hopefully I will complete it this week, but I have a number of competing projects that need to get finished first.

In an attempt to make headway in diagnosing some of my health issues, I've been enduring an 'Elimination Diet' for the last week to determine whether I have any food allergies to gluten, or dairy, or sugar, or... well basically anything worth eating. ;)

The novelty wore off after the 2nd day, and now it's a real slog. Rice Chex and bare chicken, washed down with water. No condiments. No dressing. No cheese. No butter. No bread. No citrus. No eggs. I never want to look at another grape or almond. At least there's only another week to go, and a part of me is thrilled I'm not feeling any better. :)

Onward and upward!

Thanks Everyone!

The Crawler's Companion took the Silver Ennie in the Best Software category. I'm gobsmacked!

Thanks to everyone that voted. :)

OK, I'll focus on writing...

I think I'll forgo the preorder. Hopefully I'll finish up the writing this weekend. :)

Making Excellent Progress...

The additional content for the Sunken City Omnibus is moving along swimmingly. Two more solid days of writing should see things completed! I can't wait to get this thing off to the proofers.

Polishing off the color version of Perils of the Sunken City is taking more time than expected however. Its release was going to kick off the pre-order, but I'm seriously debating whether it's worth the time getting it ready (along with the pre-order) while I'm working to finish the Omnibus and the inaugural Sunken SideTrek. My initial poll gauging interest for the pre-order showed modest interest. So here's your final chance to help me decide. If folks show enough interest for a pre-order in the next few days while I finish things up, I'll make it happen. Otherwise I'll just focus my full attention on writing and getting the major titles out the door. Thanks everyone!

[yop_poll id="9"]

On The Web...

The very fine folks at Modiphius.com (the creators of the equally fine Achtung! Cthulhu) have posted their first podcast, and graciously have some very nice things to say about DCC and the Crawler's Companion in the "What's on Your Table?" section.

Check it out, if only to bask in Chris Birch's sonorous mastery of the Queen's English. ;)

http://www.modiphius.com/modiphius-calling.html

Crawler's Companion at Nook Store

The Nook Store now has the latest version of the Crawler sporting the recent minor updates. So all the Android sources (Google Play, Amazon, Nook) now have the latest version.

An updated iOS version will likely not arrive for a bit. It's a much more time-consuming and lengthy process to work with iTunes, and I'm contemplating moving to a 'major release' only strategy for the iOS version. I've recently had to recreate all the certificates and other gobbledygook that makes publishing to iTunes possible, so I'll have to carve out some hours to get everything configured and tested. (By comparison, I can post Android updates in about five minutes.) So hang tight iOS users, when something important (like the Demon, Dragon, and Sword Generators) is added to the Crawler, I'll do what I have to do to make it available. I just don't have the time currently to do it for the minor releases. :)

Primitives for the O-Level Party Generator

To get everyone prepared for the awesomeness that is DCC #79: Frozen in Time, the 0-level Party Generator can now spit out primitives constructed by Michael Curtis to meet the challenges of the frozen waste! Just select 'Frozen in Time Primitives' in the Occupation Source drop-down. The characters would also work well for any campaign needing a dollop of rampaging neo-cavemen!

(And pre-order the adventure from Goodman Games today, it's a blast!)

Help the Sorcerer Decide...

*** Update 2: We have a winner! New school wins out this time, but if I run another test sale, it will involve Perils of the Sunken City. :)

Update: Ooh, it's neck and neck as we approach the finish line! I'll cut off the voting in less than two hours, so if you have a preference, let me know!

And why is there never any love for The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk? I can understand the 'first in the line' vs 'the most expensive' conundrum for Perils and Gathering, but still... Ooze Pits rocks and has some of my favorite situations and personalities. Middle child syndrome? ;)  ***

The Sorcerer was pleased by the sales numbers during the Christmas in July sale, but he needs to know whether it was the increased traffic at RPGNow that accounted for the boom or simply the bargain prices.

So, I think I'll run my second ever sale on one of the adventures during normal traffic to see what happens, and you dear readers will decide which one goes on the block! Select one title from the list below, and this evening I'll put the leading title on sale for a day or two to see what transpires. :)

 

Crawler at Amazon

Wow, the App Store at Amazon has really upped their game: I submitted the newest version of the Crawler last night and already got a successful device test report for six different categories of Android devices back within hours. Cool stuff, and the newest version should now be available for all our Kindle Fire users. :)

Spellburn Podcast

If you haven't been listening to the Spellburn Podcast, you'll want to check it out: It's an awesome, entertaining resource for all things DCCRPG!

In the latest edition, the Three J's (Jim, Jobe, and Jeffrey) have the inestimable Harley Stroh on as their guest. Well worth your time.

Crawler's Companion Minor Update

To shake the programming rust off, I've updated the Crawler's Companion with 2 new small updates:

The app now remembers your last choice between roll mode and lookup mode on the dice rolling screens, and chooses that mode for all the dice screens on your next launch. So if you're a lookup mode person, the app will honor that each session.

I've also added a third 'blood red' die set.

The update is now available at Google Play, and also on the web version. It should arrive on the Amazon and Nook stores within a week. iOS being iOS, it could be a few weeks before the update shows up on iTunes. ;)

All Good Things Must Come To An End...

We've entered the last day of the Christmas in July sale at RPGNow and our local store. If you'd like to take advantage of 25% off each of our adventures, now is the time to act!

Thanks to everyone who has purchased something during the sale: we've seen 4x our normal weekly sales, which is very gratifying!

Perils of the Sunken City in Color

Wrapped up the color version of Perils of the Sunken City and shipped it off for a quick look from the usual suspects. I think it looks quite nice. :)

So shortly I'll be launching the pre-order for the Sunken City Omnibus and Guide. You'll be able to order either hardcover or softcover versions of the book, in either premium or standard color. My biggest concern has been how to deal with the various shipping costs depending on where you're ordering from. I've decided to create order buttons for the most common locations, and for more exotic international locals, I'll create a 'base international' order button: if you order using this option I'll simply contact you with the additional shipping costs based on your location that you can make up with PayPal.

Everyone who pre-orders (and all Crawler's Companion Kickstarter backers with the Sunken City in their reward package) will immediately be able to download the color version of Perils of the Sunken City. As soon as the PDF version of the Omnibus is ready (likely 2-3 weeks after the pre-order begins) everyone who has ordered will be able to download the digital versions of the book while I go through the back and forth of the print proof process. (Digital versions will include desktop, large tablet, and small tablet formatting, with the possible additions of ebook and text versions!)

Once the print version is available, the PDF will go on sale individually, and there will be a discount available to folks who have purchased all four adventures previously. (In addition, these loyal customers will receive the first Sunken Sidetrek for free as well. I hope to have that ready mid-August.)

Thanks to one and all for your support!

Active Military?

PDF versions of all Purple Sorcerer adventures are free to active military personal who are running things for fellow soldiers. Just send me an email and I'll get you set up.

If any visitors have DCC loving friends in the military, be sure to let them know. :)

Christmas in July Sale

We're participating in the Christmas in July Sale at RPGNow, with good deals on everything in our product line!

The sale prices are also reflected in the Purple Sorcerer Store.

This the the first sale we've ever participated in, so act fast. ;)

Ennie Award Voting is Now Open...

If you'd like to support the Crawler's Companion, please vote for us in Best Software category. Thanks!

Thinking we know what others know...

This evening I mentioned to a friend online that the blank upper-level character sheet is form-fillable, which elicited a 'how the bleep had I not heard about that?' kind of response. :)

It made me ponder once again that when we're wrapped up in our own projects, it's easy to assume that everyone is just as aware of what's going on as we are, but that's almost never the case! Our one brief announcement about a new development (that we assume everyone sees) is easily missed in the massive stream of data that each of us swims in every day. So I thought I'd do a quick rundown on what's available here at purplesorcerer.com, eventually integrating the information into the 'about us' portion of the website.

Background
For those new to the site, welcome, my name is Jon Marr. By day I work for a large corporation as a graphic designer and web developer. At night, I create adventures and utilities for the Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game from Goodman Games as Purple Sorcerer Games, an an official DCC third party publisher. (Which means everything we publish for DCC goes through an approval process from Goodman Games to get the 'Compatible with DCC' logo.)

My son Benjamin assists with the graphic work, and as he matures is contributing more and more to what we do. (He's about to turn 14.)

Our main presence is this website, but we can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

The Website
The Purple Sorcerer Games website is broken into two broad areas. The original site houses most of the static content about our adventures, as well as the launch pages for most of the tools. The News section contains most of the dynamic content, and has grown of late to mirror much of the content of the original site, as well as house the new storefront.

You can also sign up for our newsletter, which was recently relaunched with renewed vigor, and is occasionally the source of cool offers and goodies.

The Adventures
I've created four adventures for the DCCRPG: three funnel, or 0-level adventures, (Perils of the Sunken City, The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, and A Gathering of the Marked) and one first level adventure (Lair of the Mist Men). Each are set in the crumbling ruins of a great swamp known as the Sunken City, designed to easily integrate into your existing campaigns to get your DCC campaigns started.

All of the adventures can be purchased directly as PDF's from this site, or from RPGNow or the D20pfsrd store. Additionally, Perils of the Sunken City, and The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, can be ordered in print from RPGNow.

My adventures are known for being a bit warped, with the darkness and brutality of the environments being offset somewhat by the often whimsical characters the players encounter. Perils of the Sunken City is now a 'Popular Electrum Pick' on RPGNow, putting it in the top 2% sellers there all time. Ooze Pits is a silver pick (top 8%), and Lair of the Mist Men is a copper pick (top 20%).

A staple of the adventures are the battlemaps and paper miniatures that come with each, available either with the adventure or as separate free downloads from the adventure pages. I've created a couple of short videos on how I go about preparing and using the miniatures.

I'm currently working on a combined 96 page print omnibus of all four adventures, The Sunken City, that will be available for pre-order in the next week or so. In addition to the adventure, it will contain a patron write-up, adventure seeds, gameplay advice and more! It will be available in both hardcover and softcover formats. The solo print version of A Gathering of the Marked is being prepared along with the Sunken City. Lair of the Mist Men is only planned in print as part of the omnibus at this time.

When the Sunken City is complete, I'll continue work on the first of the M-Series adventures, Against the Vortex Temple. The M-series will consist of five loosely connected adventures that will rise from first to fifth level. How quickly they are released will depend largely on how well the series sells. I hope to complete one every 3 months.

In addition, I'll be releasing a number of 2-4 page 'Sunken Sidetreks' as time goes by designed for sandbox style play. The first should be available mid-August.

Tools and Utilities
We've created a number of free utilities for DCC that have proved quite popular. :)

0-Level Party Generator
The 0-level Party Generator spits out a PDF containing 4 random characters ready to be sacrificed to DCC's awesome funnel. As time has gone by, I've added additional customization features. You can now choose from multiple lists of background occupations, and change how the hit points are rolled at zero level. You can also download a blank version of the sheet to fill out by hand with your own rolls. Finally, if you are a judge, you can create your own list of occupations and trade goods, so that the generator can spit out characters unique to your campaign. Click here for instructions.

At last check, the generator has created nearly half-a-million characters.

Upper Level Character Generator
The upper level generator allows you to enter a class and a level, and the generator does the rest in creating a basic character for you. In addition, you can download a blank version of the sheet that can be form-filled out on your computer.

I have many enhancements planned for the upper level generator, including smart magic item acquisition, stat progression or regression, and more!

The Crawler's Companion
The Crawler's Companion is a computer and mobile device utility, that provides funky dice rolling, chart and rules referencing. and combat management. The latest version allows you to create an account through the Purple Sorcerer website, so that you can create your own adventure/encounters, and player parties that can be referenced from within the Crawler. Other enhancements are coming soon. It has been nominated for an Ennie Award in the best software category for 2012.

Last august, a successful Kickstarter made it possible to acquire the equipment to bring the Crawler to iOS devices, and the Crawler works well on many iOS and Android devices.

The Crawler is free, and will always remain so. This spring, a successful fundraiser raised enough to cover the costs of the robust hosting required to handle the new Crawler data tools, as well as the yearly iOS fees. Thanks to one and all for your support!

I've created a series of short tutorial videos that are absolutely the best way to learn about the Crawler and it's features. Each is only 2-5 minutes long, and will teach you everything you need to know to get started!

O-Level Charts
I've compiled a single-page PDF of charts and tables, that when combined with the 0-level character sheets give your new players almost everything they need to get started on their first funnel experience.

Supporting the Free Tools
You can support our tools in a number of ways, by purchasing an adventure, buying a t-shirt, or donating directly. Links to all three can be found on the support page.

I have many new exciting things planned for the future, so stay tuned. I really enjoy working on our gaming projects, and truly appreciate the wonderful support we've received in our first year. If you enjoy the things we produce, please share the word with your gaming friends, and be sure to review our products at RPGNow and other venues. The larger our audience grows, the more time I'll be able to devote to creating new things. Believe me, nothing would make me happier!

Where are your gaming dollars going?

I'm assuming there will be lots of 'other' responses, and I'll add many of them to the list as we go along. Let me know what you're playing. :)

[yop_poll id="7"]

Thanks for the feedback...

I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to answer the various polls I've put up. The results are interesting, and helpful.

Expect more in the future!

Opossumen Fever!

Things have moved a bit slowly in the Purple Tower as I recover from our family trip, but progress is being made. The color layout of Perils of the Sunken City is complete, and I'll be sending it off for some quick proofing in the next day or two. I'm still working out how I want to approach the pre-order of the Sunken City, chiefly on how I want to handle the variable shipping amounts. So I've got until Perils is ready to make a decision. :)

For the additional features included in the Sunken City, I've completed a race write-up for the Opossumen, for which I've actually had numerous requests! I've added some fun new merchant tales from Honest Orkoff (first encountered in Crawl #2). I'm adding a selection of delightful new magical oddities, since additional magic items were a popular request in our recent poll. And I've formatted and have begun doing some quick editing on IronWolf's great write-up of the patron Malloc. I can't wait to wrap things up so we can get this into everyone's hands!

2013 Ennie Awards

 The Crawler's Companion has been nominated for an Ennie Award in the best software category! How cool is that?

 

Quick Poll: How do you view your gaming purchases?

[yop_poll id="6"]

Tomorrow we start the drive home...

Wish I had something new to put on sale. ;)

Had a fun vacation, but haven't gotten any writing accomplished. I'd like to think i'll return home tan, rested and ready, but the vacation is actually much more demanding than home life! Oh well, it's been great to see family, especially my two little grand nephews.

And my Bones miniatures await!

A couple more traveling test deals...

Updated: And thanks to those who took advantage of today's deals! I've arrived in distant lands, and this is one exhausted Sorcerer. ;)

All of the bonus adventures should have arrived. If not, let me know!

Hey, who wants a bogo free adventure?

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Store Test sale! Things seemed to go pretty smoothly. :)

New Online Store

To make many other fun things possible, I needed a new storefront: so last night I implemented one.


Of course, you can still purchase everything through RPGNow or D20PFSRD, but having our own store provides lots of new flexibility. (And more of your support dollars end up with us as well, which is cool.)

I've updated all the 'buy our adventure' links to point to the new store page, which also has links to the other stores. Check it out and let me know if you notice anything strange! :)

The Question of Pre-Ordering the Sunken City

Update: Thanks to everyone who quickly answered the pre-order poll! I think I can surmise there's excellent interest, but not enough bodies in addition to the Kickstarter backers to merit changing up how I was going to do the printing.

Regardless, since I've set up the store to handle things like pre-orders, I'll be following through with something to reward both folks who wish to show their support early and our Kickstarter backers. I'm working out the details, but it will probably involve getting the color version of Perils of the Sunken City (currently not available anywhere!) when you pre-order, and the PDF and e-book formats of the Sunken City Adventure Omnibus & Guide as soon as they are ready. (Which will mean you'll get them 4-8 weeks earlier than the rest of the world as I'm not planning on releasing the digital versions until the print version is live.)

So keep your eyes open, and feel free to let me know in the comments if you're excited about a pre-order. :)

What extra stuff should I include?

The Sunken City Adventure Omnibus and Guide is a 96 page hardcover compilation of all four Sunken City adventures, with some extras thrown in! In the limited space available for extras...

[yop_poll id="4"]

 

Act quickly: I'm moving forward on this with wild abandon! ;)

Thanks everyone.

Combined Sunken City Covers

And here's how the two look together:



Onward and upward! Now it's time to finish the additional content, including a patron write up (with an assist from the awesome Iron Wolf), a concise bestiary, conversion notes for running the adventures at game stores or cons, funnel tips... and maybe a few magic items and adventure seeds thrown in.

The book will be 96 pages long... I'd better get working. Well, sleep first, then working. ;)

Sunken City Front Cover...

Here's the draft, I think we're pretty close.

Sunken City Omnibus Back Cover

Here's the draft I whipped up this evening. :)



Monday I'll start in on the front cover... I've already got something pretty neat sketched out in pencil.

First Stage of Conversion of Perils Complete

Perils of the Sunken City has been completely converted and integrated into the master document for the Sunken City Omnibus!

Now all the fiddly bits begin: tweaking and polishing everything into a unified whole, completing and integrating the new content, and deciding on the cover. ;)

It's going well.

Sunken City Omnibus

So far, the compilation/conversion process is going very smoothly for the Sunken City Omnibus, which combines all four Sunken City Adventures into a single hardcover tome.

Here are the updated Perils of the Sunken City maps in color:

Now that's a horde...

Tried to take a picture tonight of a complete batch of the paper minis that come with A Gathering of the Marked on one of the battlemaps. Well, you couldn't see the battlemap, and I think I need daylight to light them all. At least I'm set for my next session. :)

Battlemaps for A Gathering of the Marked

I've finished cranking out the 13(!) battlemaps for A Gathering of the Marked, and they can be downloaded for free on the adventure page.

Thanks to everyone that has purchased Gathering... we're flirting near the top 15 sellers list at RPGNow, which is always a nice thing! (Being near the top keeps the adventure on the home page, which is always cool.) So why don't you grab a copy today and see if we can move up a few slots!

A Gathering of the Marked is Away!

21,000 words... 60 new images... (including nearly 100 paper miniatures), 6 fairly elaborate maps... and I'm not sure how many battle maps because I'm still finishing them to add to my website. ;)

Regardless, the mega-cruiser that is A Gathering of the Marked, the final 0-level Sunken City Starting Adventure, has rolled into port and is available for download at RPGNow in all of its 48 pages of goodness.

I've added a tablet-friendly mobile version to the mix that I think is quite cool and useful.

(If Gathering was part of your Crawler's Companion rewards package, your code has been sent. If you don't receive it in the next couple hours, let me know!)

I hope everyone enjoys it, and if you do, please take a moment to rate the darn thing on RPGNow. ;)

Everyone's support is, as always, appreciated beyond words. Thank you!

We're done...

... almost. ;)

A Gathering of the Marked is complete: proofed, prepped, ready to go. I'm tempted to just publish it now, but I've decided to include all the paper mini's and battlemaps at launch, and I'm still wrapping those up. But all the heavy lifting is complete!

And this thing is a beast: 24 pages of text, and the appendix stuffed with rumors, handouts, pre-gens, images, paper minis and battlemaps adds an additional 24+ pages. Wow! I believe it's a pretty nifty adventure too, so I can't wait to get it out to everyone.

Most likely I'll finish up the maps tomorrow, depending on how fancy I want to get. Hopefully it will go live before dinner tomorrow, but regardless, Gathering will be up before the weekend.

Here's a few of the friendly locals you can expect to meet:

The Newsletter is Back!

Err, what newsletter, you might ask? Only the lamest, most intermittent bundle of nothingness every to grace our fair hobby! But that is soon to change. With new releases on the horizon the Sorcerer is in a mood to blurt with gusto. So sign up, because when I send the the 'roll over, it's alive!' newsletter with the arrival of A Gathering of the Marked, everyone will get a free goody. (Have to reward the long-suffering souls who signed up ages ago, and waited, and waited some more, never to hear from their sorcerous pal. Nardgrog is ashamed.)

Also if you do sign up, let me know if things go smoothly, as I'm trying out a new service for managing the emails. (If you signed up before, don't worry, I've transfered everyone over.)

Subscribe link to the right ---------------------------------------->

The text of A Gathering of the Marked is done...

Finito, completed, wrapped up, bagged and tagged. ;)

I'll package things up tomorrow and send it off to my proofers. Hopefully it will be in stores in about a week.

(And I love healthy stretches: had one feel-good day where I knocked off almost 4000 words in one evening! By way of comparison, Perils of the Sunken City is about 10,000 words long. If I could keep that up I could push out a full-sized adventure a month...)

A Gathering of the Marked is about 20% longer than The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, and over twice as long as Perils of the Sunken City. Didn't see that coming. :)

Health News

Some of you have asked questions about how I'm doing physically. Traditionally, this has been a very difficult topic for me to discuss, as my role in life has always been that of peace-maker and trouble-soother: I don't like raising additional difficulties and hate to be the center of anyone's attention. :)

But as I've aged I've grown a bit wiser, and have begun to be a bit more open about things. I've been writing up a 'so you want to create a Kickstarter' style article for a while, and it's made me think about my recent struggles, so I feel comfortable sharing a few details/ideas.

(So be warned, the following text details my recent health issues, so if you're just looking for game news, scroll down quickly!)

About two years ago I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. I'm a big guy, but this was still something of a shock. No one in my family has ever had diabetes, and I'd been tested many times before and showed no signs of the disease. But I'd been experiencing numbness and tingling in my feet for a while, combined with a general feeling of cruddiness before the blood tests finally indicated that my blood sugar levels has risen into diabetic range. I immediately made some diet changes, lost 25 pounds, and got my A1C (long term glucose levels) under control. Within four months I was telling folks that if I hadn't been diagnosed, you would never have known I'd had the disease in the first place! I was wrong.

Last spring/summer, I got really busy. I'd launched Purple Sorcerer Games, and completely coincidentally, work-work suddenly picked up with some extremely important and high-profile months-long projects. Also, a family move was approaching, and during the height of the madness, I decided to mount the Crawler's Companion Kickstarter, thinking it wouldn't require that much time to pull off. (!)

I'm approaching 50 years of age, and the days where I could sustain 80-90 hour work weeks are looooong gone. But sustain them I did for nearly 3 months leading up to our move, after which my body crashed, and crashed completely.

I don't even remember much from last September and October. Somehow I managed to complete all my work-work (which I do from home remotely) but basically outside of that my life involved hobbling from my bed to the bathroom and back. Looking back at my messages during that time reveals a black hole. Truly, I can't remember much of anything other than the pain I was experiencing.

Over the past six months though, we've slowly started to get a handle on things. The first step was going on powerful painkillers to help manage the pain. This is something I had strenuously resisted, as I don't like the way they make me feel. I've never drunk or done any sort of drugs, and was uncomfortable with taking anything that altered my mood in any way. But we finally realized that the pain was so bad that it was already clouding my thinking to the point that functioning properly was impossible. We've reached a good compromise where I take the minimum strengths required to keep me on my feet, and many days I'm able to work mostly normally.

We're meeting with a specialist, and diagnostic-wise it seems I'm suffering from four things simultaneously: Diabetic Neuropathy, which irreversibly causes pain and numbness in my feet (and recently, and disturbingly, hands), gout (high levels of uric acid in the blood) which can cause severe pain in specific joints), nerve damage in my knees and elbows, and a form of arthritis related to auto-immune system issues.

It sounds horrible, and really it is, but I am feeling better as time goes on and we're looking into new treatments. I have a great specialist and I'm confident that we'll figure something out. On days when I feel like myself I'm able to produce tremendous amounts of work, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of those days!

Now obviously, the up and down nature of my health impacts my ability to make accurate predictions about how much I'll be able to do during any particular period, and it frustrates me to no end, as I've always been a 'meet deadlines or die' kind of guy. But I hope you'll humor me and allow me to make one poor prediction after another - because they help me.

When I'm feeling particularly lousy, it seems that often only a deadline (even self-declared) can motivate me to push through the discomfort and continue working. I'm confident that as we move forward, I'll be able to have a more predictable schedule, but for the meantime, please continue humoring me. We're getting there.

And finally, if you're approaching middle age, especially if you're a bigger guy, get your glucose checked regularly. As I stated, the damage caused by Diabetic Neuropathy is at this time irreversible. Once you lose feeling, it's never coming back. So stay on top of things and make whatever lifestyle changes are necessary to avoid such troubles. My symptoms were very subtle for a very long time, and I never had test results that indicated a major problem - so you have to listen to your body very, very carefully.

So that's my story for the last year. I'll let everyone know if I undergo significant shifts in either positive or negative directions health-wise. I truly appreciate everyone's support, and I'm glad I'm slowly feeling better. I'm learning how to manage the creative process from within the boundaries set by my health, and I look forward to creating lots of fun new stuff for decades to come.

Take care,
Jon

Thank you... and News

A generous donor pushed us over the top so that we've now raised enough in our inaugural Tools Pledge Drive to cover the server costs and development fees for the next year! Thanks to one and all for your support.

In addition, Awesome Dude Harley Stroh will be donating some super cool stuff for next year's drive. His generosity is amazing, and I encourage everyone to seek out Harley's stuff: I've never read one of his adventures that I didn't love. Top notch adventures from a top notch guy. :)

The text of a Gathering of the Marked is about a day away from completion. Unless something strange happens, the final draft will be going off to all the important parties tomorrow evening or on Tuesday. It's (somewhat surprisingly to me) turned out to be the longest of the three Sunken City adventures, and hopefully you will find much to enjoy in its pages!

Convention Season Approaches!

The organizer of Storm-Con in Summerville South Carolina will be running up to three sessions of Dungeon Crawl Classics at the convention. I've created special character sheets for the event, a tip sheet for running a Sunken City adventure at a convention, and everyone who participates will also receive a code to download a free copy of Perils of the Sunken City! It's coming up quick (July 12-14) so if you're a gamer down South, check it out. Looks to be a fantastic event.

Also, if you're running an event at another upcoming convention, let me know if you'd like to do something similar at your event. I'm debating putting together similar digital packets to help introduce folks to the joys of Dungeon Crawl Classics. :)

Thank You One and All

During our inaugural free tools pledge drive we raised nearly enough to cover all the server/publishing costs for a year! Thanks to everyone that participated.

Everyone should have received codes to download your free adventures. (Rick who gave through Dwolla, shoot me an email with your email address, it doesn't seem to be included in the Dwolla info I have!)

I'll be contacting those shortly who are in the running for special prizes.

Thanks again everyone! (And if you didn't participate, but would still like to support the free tools, the tools support page is open 24/7.)

Greetings from the Grotto

Wow, past the middle of May already? Good grief time sails. The draft of A Gathering of the Marked is complete, and I'm doing the 'post-final-playtest' re-write to touch everything up before sending it off for final proofing. It's taken a bit longer than expected to get to this point, as 'work-work' (the kind that keeps the lights on in the Sorcerous Grotto) has been busy, and my health has unfortunately been a bit sketchy. But we're getting there. I truly appreciate everyone's support!

Like most small publishers, I work on the adventures and tools in my spare time, and it's often a personal battle of wills to keep pushing on in the wee hours of the night to see things through to completion. But then someone will send me a message about how much fun their group had with one of the adventures, or how useful the tools are, and it really does fire me up. I hope everyone embraces the new adventure, it's been fun to write/test.

The Future
I've been doing lots of research/planning on the next batch of projects. The M-Series of adventures is going to have a cool new look/format/feel, and I can't wait to clear the decks to really start production. I'm also going to be creating a series of 2-4 page 'sandbox' style resources called Sunken Sidetreks that will largely be system neutral: A fun map, a cool locale, some interesting personalities and rumors... I really need something like this that I can crank out quickly to fill the spur-of-the-moment creative bug while I'm working on larger projects.

I also have something ambitious brewing in the hidden recesses of my mind, but the work-load involved will require spreading the effort about a bit. As things firm up I'll offer details. :)

The Tools
On the tools front: if you have not done so, please join in with other loyal tools supporters on the pledge drive! We've raised enough to pay for 9 months of our reoccurring costs to host and publish the tools, which is awesome and much appreciated! But I'd love to be able to avoid having to revisit this anytime soon, so the more the merrier. Awesome dude Harley Stroh might be providing some fun stuff on the rewards side, so I'll probably be extending the close of the drive for a few days to give folks more time to participate. The generators have churned out over 370,000 characters over the past 2 years, and over 3000 happy gamers have installed the Crawler's Companion... if just a tiny percentage of users participate, we'll basically be set for years.

In the coming months, I'll be completing the initial feature set of the Crawler's Companion: adding in the demon/dragon/sword generators, the character generator, and a few extra dice sets. And exploring the possibility of sharing dice rolls between Crawlers, which would be real cool indeed!

Farther out, I have a number of new very cool features in mind for the Crawler, as well as entirely new gaming utilities. As I get closer to production I'll have more details to share.

As always, thanks to one and all for your support!

Thank you for your support: and I've added some rewards!

The inestimably wise Harley Stroh made a fun suggestion about how to encourage and reward folks who give to the Purple Sorcerer Tools Fund Drive: unique rewards that are cool, but won’t require a bunch more work while I’m slaving away finishing the latest adventure!

So I'm adding some rewards, and here is how they'll work:

Everyone who has donated so far, and donates at least $5 in the future will receive a free copy of Lair of the Mist Men. I know many of you already have it, so feel free to forward your code onto a friend, or use it as a prize for something on your blog, etc.

If you donate at least $10, you’ll receive Lair of the Mist Men, and your name will go on a permanent Purple Sorcerer Tools Supporter page. Also, send me a name and it will find its way into an upcoming Purple Sorcerer Adventure! I’m going to be releasing a number of 2-4 page Sunken Sidetreks beginning this summer that are designed to work with a variety of systems in a sandbox style, and they’re the perfect place to throw in a reference to your favorite character or gaming buddy you wish to ‘honor’.

If you donate at least $20, you’ll receive a code to download the Lair of the Perilous Pits bundle which contains Perils of the Sunken City, The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, and Lair of the Mist Men. Finally, your name will go into a random pool to possibly receive a special item. If your name come ups, one of the following ‘treasures’ will be mailed to you, mounted (if appropriate) in some simple way, along with a signed note of authenticity and thanks. ;) If you're a fan of the Sunken City Adventures, you'll hopefully find these goofy, but cool!)

The cave of unique wonders includes:
(Click on any pic to see a larger version)

• 
  The original hand drawn map of Madazkan’s Court and dungeon from Perils of the Sunken City. This actually pre-dates Purple Sorcerer Games, and I’d forgotten I’d even drawn it. There’s also what I believe to be the stain of a chili bean I dropped that rolled across the page. Magic!
  
  
  
  


• The original sketch of Slither’s End along with a page of very early notes about ‘The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk”. Much of the information was later changed, but it’s fun to see how the original ideas evolved.
  
  
  
  


• A very basic sketch of the Lair of the Mist Men map, along with the scribbled notes from the first playtest, including directions that my kids need to make their beds and pick up all their clothes. (No idea…)
  
  
  
  


• The original printed proof of Perils of the Sunken City, where the artwork on the maps was way too dark! Still perfectly usable, and a unique one-of-a-kind item.
  
  
  
  
  
  


• The original printed proof of The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk. Looks lovely, but there was a white strip down the center that I wasn’t happy about. Again, perfectly usable, flawed, but unique.
  
  
  

If you are an international donor and your name comes up, to avoid dealing with international shipping I’ll just re-roll, but you’ll receive a free PDF copy of “A Gathering of the Marked” when it comes out.

If you donate $50, I'll also send you free PDF's of both A Gathering of the Marked and the Sunken City Omnibus when they come out. (And you'll get to see the final pre-publication versions of both before they go live.)

Again, thanks to everyone who has given to help support our free tools. I feel very blessed to be able to create stuff for such an awesome community: the kindness everyone around here demonstrates makes it a pleasure to keep designing.

Your Help Can Keep Nardgrog From Ever Making This Face

I'm launching a short-term funding drive to help offset the reoccurring costs associated with hosting the character generators and publishing the Crawler's Companion to iTunes. As they say, many hands make light work, and I appreciate everyone who has already given!

The Purple Sorcerer's needs are small: if the average number of visitors who use the character generators in one week contributed just $10, we'd be covered for the next 7 years. That would be incredibly awesome, as I've got many more apps and utilities in mind, and securing reliable hosting and setting aside funds to insure we'll always be able to cover annual fees would totally rock.

Finally, keeping a despicable sorcerer from needing to beg is a cause we can all get behind. :)

Thanks all.

http://purplesorcerer.com/support

While I'm finishing Gathering, a Call to Action

While I continue to polish up A Gathering of the Marked after the final playtests, I'm also working on the layout of the Sunken City Omnibus, which will combine all three Sunken City adventures and Lair of the Mist Men into a single hardcover, full-color book. One question still being mulled over is how much extra stuff to add to the book, and whether the extra material will go into the printed book, or just into the PDF version that will come free with the printed version.

Over the months folks have shared some wonderful 3rd party material they've created to enhance the adventures. If you've created something you're proud of relating to one of the adventures, such as a patron write-up, monster details, local description, or variant versions, I'd love to hear about it, as I'm thinking about putting together a 'community expansion' of all the best stuff to release along with the Omnibus, perhaps even adding some of the material as an appendix to the Sunken City PDF.

So here's the call to action:
1) If you've created something fun related to the adventures that you're really proud of, and you want to take part in the community effort, show me what you've got! If enough folks participate to make creating a community expansion worthwhile, then everyone who has material included in the expansion will receive a free PDF of the Sunken City Omnibus!

2) What sort of extra material would you like to see included in the Omnibus itself beyond the adventures? And does it make a difference to you if that material is included in just the PDF, or would you prefer to see that information in the printed work as well, understanding that it would raise the cost of the book (roughly an extra buck for each 10 pages of material) and would require a small amount of additional production time?

Thanks everyone for your support and interest in the Sunken City!

Gathering: Almost There

Had a wonderful playtest session earlier in the week for A Gathering of the Marked. We'll be finishing up testing tomorrow evening, and the draft will be going out for final proofing this weekend. I think you're going to enjoy this one, we've sure had lots of fun testing it. :)

***

Also, the full lineup of Purple Sorcerer Adventures are now available through the d20pfsrd store in addition to RPGNow. If you're a Pathfinder player you're probably aware of the fantastic SRD site they host, but they're now branching out to become a full-fledged PDF merchant, as well as broadening their focus to include lots of OSR offerings as well!

And since they provide a larger percentage of the sale price to publishers, we're able to knock a bit off our already low, low prices. (Always wanted to say that.) Check it out!

A Gathering of the Marked: None shall pass, all are grass, crush your bones like ruby glass...

A Gathering of the Marked: Things have gotten a little dark in Haven's Fall...

Why not kick your feet up and enjoy a little chin-wag with Ol' Gustav and Commodore Teak?

(Still hoping to wrap up the third Sunken City adventure by the end of the month. Then on to the hardcover omnibus!)

Free Map

Well, others are putting up cool free maps for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, so here's a blank regional map I created last night on my iPad testing some new techniques. Use it any way you wish: add titles, 'hexify' it, whatever! Let's get creative.

Expand Your Swords & Wizardry Toolbox with the DCCRPG

OSR? 
Old School Roleplaying.
Old School Renaissance.
Oh S***, Run! 

Alas, despite gallons of electronic ink spent attempting to explain OSR gaming, it seems we can’t quite define what we are. But I think it’s fairly clear what we love: gameplay that places no limits on the scope of our imaginations: gameplay capable of triggering jolts of wonder when we encounter something truly unexpected, mysterious, and cool. I began gaming in the late 70’s, so the ‘restatement’ of that milieu by Swords & Wizardry from Frog God Games takes me back to a very familiar place. I remember well that blank canvas, when everything was new, and ‘balance’ was only considered important when dashing across a mile-long chain suspended over the heart of a fiery volcano!

So we seek to rediscover that fabled land. (Or at least to follow the maps of others who have gone before and who tease us with tales of its wonder!) The Swords & Wizardry rulebook, combined with a healthy imagination, contains everything you need to achieve this goal. Scores of gamers can attest to the soundness of its design. So when Erik from Tenkar's Tavern began discussing Swords & Wizardry appreciation day, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to discuss how introducing elements from the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Rulebook to your S&W campaign can help you build on and maintain that sense of wonder we’re all seeking.



Dungeon Crawl Classics
For those new to the system, the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is a kind-of old school RPG from the fine folks at Goodman Games. It’s kind-of old school, because while the DCCRPG attempts to recreate the feel of old school games, unlike S&W (which strives to ‘restate’ the classic rules with a touch of modern smoothness) DCC introduces many new gameplay elements that are ‘outside the cannon’ as it were. These include the character funnel, extensive critical and fumble charts, tables for every spell result, a predilection for ‘unique’ monsters, and much more.

At Purple Sorcerer Games we create adventures for DCC, as well as utilities like the 0-Level Party Generator and Crawler’s Companion that help tame aspects of the bookkeeping. So of course we love it and encourage everyone to give it a shot. But even if you never plan on running a single DCCRPG adventure, the rulebook should still be part of your old-school gaming arsenal. Because when you gather together all the unique elements of DCC, you’ll find you have a bubbling cauldron of random goodness that can bring uniqueness to YOUR campaign without changing any core S&W mechanics!

Artwork
First off, before I even get to the gameplay elements, I would recommend the DCCRPG rulebook on the merits of its art alone. It’s a work of old-school art. There are simply hordes of images in the massive tome by many of the greats of classic gaming illustration. If your imagination isn't fired up thumbing through the (488!) pages, you just might be in the wrong hobby. ;)

The Character Funnel
I believe others will be discussing this in more detail on S&W Appreciate Day, but the funnel in DCC only uses a small subset of the rules, and it is simplicity itself to promote funnel survivors to 1^st level S&W characters. 0-level characters begin with the barest of essential details: A name, an occupation, a spread of usually lousy stats, a handful of hitpoints, and virtually no possessions. In fact, you usually run 4 to begin with as the mortality rate is so high! (You can spit out a full sheet using the 0-level Party Generator in moments. And all the basic charts for 0-level play can be found here.)

But something magical happens as your plucky serfs run the gauntlet: players become attached to their desperate charges, and an amazing amount of character development and shaping occurs almost effortlessly. And as mentioned, once the survivors have been winnowed down, just modify the simple 0-level stats to something appropriate for your S&W campaign as you ‘elevate’ the characters to first level. I think the funnel is a fantastic way to get the ball rolling in any campaign, and to encourage folks to give it a shot, I've provided Tenkar's Tavern with 10 free Purple Sorcerer 0-level adventure PDFs (5 copies of Perils of the Sunken City and 5 of The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk) to reward bloggers participating in S&W appreciation day!

(And even if you skip the funnel, the handy occupation and birth sign charts in the rulebook are a great way to add flavor to your beginning characters.)

Corruption Tables
Corruption acts to balance spell casting in DCC. A mage must think twice before casting spells willy-nilly: many spell can go terribly wrong and the tables of bad outcomes are filled with horrors that range from humorous annoyances to devastating maladies.

But if we disconnect all these juicy corruption tables from spell casting, you’ll discover you actually have some wonderfully detailed matrices of eldritch calamity that you can use for ANYTHING. Imree the thief stumbles into the caustic ooze surrounding the alter of Zigritz and fails her save? Roll on the minor corruption table. The dreaded Ogrilich Sharzican manages to lay his decaying claw on Bob the Cleric? Roll on the major corruption table.

With little or no modification most of the corruption results can be seamlessly utilized in all sorts of situations to add instant personality to your S&W game, and for special circumstances the results are much more interesting than another mundane 1d10 in damage.

Critical and Fumble Charts
S&W discourages piling on extra damage with a natural 20, but the charts can still be useful. Add some zip to a marquee foe by using the crit charts as part of their attack. Again, as an alternative to an extra 1d6 damage, a random roll on one of the critical chart (with a variety of charts available to match the power of the foe) can be a fun alternative for special enemies.

The fumble table is quite generic, and can be used as is to add some spice to those pesky natural ones rolled during combat.

Deity Disapproval
Swords and Wizardry doesn't emphasize the question of alignment and piety, but the DCC Deity Disapproval charts add a dynamic way to address common issues that arise for Clerics and Paladins in almost every campaign. As they say, with great power comes great responsibility, and if your holy (or unholy) party member is straying from the faith, remind them of their duty with a roll on the charts. Or perhaps the effects could be part of geas or quest laid down by some mighty power to influence a character’s actions.

The Spell Charts
Oh yes, the glory that is the DCCRPG spell charts! 175 pages of individual spell casting table goodness, each with its own listing of results, misfires, corruptions and manifestations! As I was integrating the spell charts into the Crawler’s Companion, I nearly gave the whole thing up 1/3^rd of the way in, because it involved so much work converting the data over. And then it struck me that Joseph Goodman and minions had actually had to CREATE all of those tables! Amazing.

And the wonder of the tables is that everything I said about the Corruption tables can be applied to the spell tables times ten. Need some unique damage for a fire trap? Roll on the Burning Hands table. Need a really nasty fire trap? Use Fireball. The players do something truly appalling while attempting to contact the fabled Ghost King of Blarg’s Nob? Roll a corruption result for the Consult Spirit spell. The possibilities are endless.

And the tables also make wonderful ‘magic item filler’. If you want a unique, unpredictable magic wand, just use one of the spell tables as the source of its power once per day. The very fact that it isn't anything like a normal S&W spell makes it unique and memorable, and if you add in the possibility of triggering corruption results on a natural 1, it’s self-balancing!  Browsing through the huge list of spells will likely result in ideas for all sorts of distinctive artifacts you could sprinkle throughout your campaign.

Conclusion
There’s lots more in the rulebook I’m not covering, like tables for creating unique demons, dragons, magical swords, familiars, names and titles, but let it suffice that each in its own way can add to your ‘pool of possibilities’.

As a long-time GM I've slowly built up a library of cool content/charts/scraps of wisdom that I can draw from to help me quickly put together memorable adventures for my players. The DCCRPG rulebook is a wonderful addition to my toolbox, and I believe it can be for you as well.

Thanks for listening, and happy S&W’ing!

Jon
Purple Sorcerer Games

A Gathering of the Marked...

Here are a few more images from the upcoming A Gathering of the Marked:

Meet some of the Friendly Locals...

Furiously engaged with  A Gathering of the Marked, the 3rd full Sunken City starting adventure. Here's some of the local color:

New Adventure Bundle

To celebrate the release of Lair of the Mist Men, I've created a new bundle at RPGNow: Lair of the Perilous Pits!

Get Perils of the Sunken City, The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, and Lair of the Mist Men, all for $8.99. (Saving you almost 30% over buying them individually.)

 

Version 1.1.4 of the Crawler available on iOS and Amazon

This minor update fixes a bug in the critical die select, and adds a sound toggle to the options screen. Download and enjoy!

New Battlemap

If you've downloaded/purchased Lair of the Mist Men from RPGNow, I've updated the battle maps file with a new map for the Mist Men Ambush outside the cave. :)

We're currently hovering about #10 in the top sellers. Thanks everyone for your support: it's always nice to see DCC stuff on the charts. (And if you've been thinking about supporting our free tools by picking up an adventure, getting a copy of Lair of the Mist Men is an inexpensive way to do so! )

Version 1.1.4 of the Crawler's Companion is off to the App Stores

This version fixes a bug in the critical die selector, as well as adds a sound toggle to the options screen. It should be available at Google Play within the next few hours. iTunes, Amazon, and Nook depends on the folks at those stores, and could be anywhere from 2 days to a week.

Dare you enter the Lair of the Mist Men?

Lair of the Mist Men, our first mini-adventure set in the Sunken City, is available now at RPGNow. If you were a Crawler's Companion Kickstarter backer, you should be receiving your download code at your contact email very soon!

Lair of the Mist Men is a short adventure designed to be run in a session or two for 6-8 1st-level characters. The Mist Men were first introduced in Adventure SC-2: The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, but ownership of that adventure is not required. The initial battle with the Mist Men found in The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk has been reproduced in this adventure for those who wish to introduce the Mist Men to their campaign without also including Slither’s End and its environs.

Features of Lair of the Mist Men

• Gonzo mind-bending fun compatible with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games (easily convertible to your favorite 'old school' system.)


• Battle the savage Greyfolk, guardians of the Sacred Rock to reach the Lair of the Mist Men!


• Experience sanity-stretching environments inside the Lair, and confront creatures too terrible for peasants to imagine!


• Uncover an entirely new threat that you can use to plague your adventurers for years to come!


• Full-color maps and art throughout all 11 pages.


• High resolution battlemaps and paper miniatures for those who want to see the action unfold. (Nearly 50 figures, including livestock!)

Crawler's Companion v1.1.3 Now Available for iOS and Nook

I'm pleased to announce that the new version of the Crawler's Companion is now available in all four of our targeted app stores:

• Apple iTunes Store


• Google Play


• Amazon App Store


• Nook Store

If you haven't tried out the new version, I encourage you to do so: it's loaded with fun new features. The video tutorials have also been updated to cover all the new functionality.

(And if you use and enjoy the Crawler, take a moment to leave a rating in your favorite app store!)

Lair of the Mist Men is Done!

Finished! Finito! Completio! Can you tell I'm happy? For what seemed such a small project compared to my larger adventures,  this has been quite the deal to complete. I hope everyone enjoys it, and I'm thrilled to be able to focus now on finishing the 3rd full-sized Sunken City Adventure: A Gathering of the Marked. It's shaping up to be pretty killer. ;)

The document for Lair of the Mist Men is now in the hands of the man himself, Joseph Goodman from that awesome bastion of quality gaming at Goodman Games. The moment I have his OK the download links will go out: The RPGNow page has been created. The download codes are prepped. I'm working on the free battlemaps and paper miniatures as we speak. (Type?)

So stay tuned, because the next few months are going to be very busy ones for Purple Sorcerer Games.

Tenkar's Tavern S&W Appreciation Day

I'll be doing something for Erik's Sword and Wizardry appreciation day. S&W is a fine OSR system with lots of cross-pollination possibilities with the DCCRPG.

Whatever I do will involve giving away free adventures, so stay tuned. :)

Getting things prepped for publication...

...and it looks like I'll be sending links to Lair of the Mist Men tomorrow.

I'm also hip-deep in creating the 3rd Sunken City Adventure: A Gathering of the Marked as well as formatting the hardcover Sunken City Ombibus. (Which largely involves converting Perils of the Sunken City to lovely color.) AND I've begun work on the Dragon/Demon/Sword generators for the next Crawler update.

Folks are beginning to use the adventure and party creating features of the updated Crawler's Companion. If you haven't done so, please explore this cool new feature and let me know how things go! Unlike the apps on your devices, I'm able to refine things as I go with the web stuff, so every bit of feedback is much appreciated, and fixes/updates can be applied immediately!

And the silver medal in our App Store competition goes to...

Version 1.1 of The Crawler's Companion is now available at the Amazon App Store as well. Download and enjoy!

And the fastest App Store award goes to...

Google Play, where you can now download version 1.1 of the Crawler's Companion. :)

Lair of the Mist Men

Our first level mini-adventure will (at long last) be going up on RPGNow on Saturday. Prepare yourself for some strange, strange fun. :)

Crawler 1.1 on its way to the approval gods...

Version 1.1 of the Crawler's Companion with a boatload of new functionality is on it's way to the various app stores: iTunes, Google Play, Amazon App Store, and the Nook Store. Depending on the store it will likely be a few days to a couple weeks before the new version pops up. (I'm looking at you Apple!)

I've also recreated all the video tutorials at Screenr.com in non-flash formats so you can actually view them from within your mobile device. Imagine that! (But as this was my 3rd go-round recording myself, I can now officially no longer stand the sound of my own voice... consider honoring my pain by watching the videos.)

http://www.screenr.com/user/PurpleSorcerer

Crawler's Companion Beta 1.1.3

The beta of the Crawler's Companion version 1.1.3 has gone out to our testers, but you can preview the web version at:

http://purplesorcerer.com/crawler/crawler_1_1_3.html

This is a major update that allows you to create your own parties and adventures online that you can access from within the Crawler, along with many more new features. Check out a brand new series of quick tutorial videos at:

http://purplesorcerer.com/crawler/help

The new version runs great on all the devices I have to test, so I will be submitting it to the app stores in the very near future unless I'm trapped under an avalanche of nasty beta test report!

(Also, the web version can access party and adventure data you create online, so watch videos 3-5 on the help site, create an account and start building your own parties and adventures! They'll be waiting for you when then the new Crawler hits the app stores.)

Change is a foot... a troll-sized foot of extra creamy server goodness!

We're in the process of moving all of our web resources over to a much more robust web host! Everything should run faster and more reliably, but expect some hi jinx over the next few days as we get all the bugs worked out.

Crawling in the Mist

The response to the Crawlers Companion continues to be strong in the App stores - thanks to everyone who has taken the time to rate the app!

My goal is to have version 1.1 wrapped up this week. I'm continuing to pore many hours into getting the 'back end' ready to handle user accounts so you can store and create your adventure/party info online. I've even purchased some more robust hosting to handle things and I'm in the process of migrating sites over. Migration is always a fun task, but I think the improvements in speed and reliability will be well worth it!

My secondary goal is to get Lair of the Mistmen pushed out in the next 7-10 days so that I can apply my full attention to finishing A Gathering of the Marked! Both adventures should be a real blast and I can't wait to share them.

As always, thanks to one and all for your support.

FIllable Version of the Upper Level Character Sheet

I've had lots of requests for a fillable version of the character sheet, so I finally whipped one up: You can download it here, or from the upper level generator page by clicking on the 'blank sheet' link: http://purplesorcerer.com/create_upper.htm

Sadly, there isn't going to be a fillable version of the 0-level sheet. Acrobat is an absolute nightmare dealing with that many fields: buggy, auto-sorting the tab order based on what it thinks is best... I saw an entire evening go down the drain trying to get it to work. To the outer planes of eternal cold with it! :)

Punjar, We Have Lift Off...

I'm very pleased to announce that iOS version 1.0 of the Crawler's Companion is now available in the Apple App Store!

A big thank you specifically to all of the Crawler's Companion Kickstarter backers who's generous support made it possible to purchase the equipment necessary to make an iOS version possible, and to Goodman Games for creating such a fantastic game with the vision to encourage 3rd party tools like the Crawler!

And this is just the beginning! Version 1.1 with a host of new features including the new batch dice roller, hitpoint/initiative tracker, multiple dice sets, enhanced navigation options, and overhauled quick start guide is about to begin beta testing.

Again, thanks to one and all for your fantastic support!

Crawler's Companion: It Begins to Trickle Forth

Version 1.0 of the app is now available in the Amazon App Store and the Google Play Store! Hopefully we'll hear from Apple and the Nook folks soon.

At the pace things are going, the new 1.1 version might be ready before Apple says OK on version 1. :)

The upcoming version is packed with new goodness, including the before-mentioned batch dice roller and initiative/hit point tracker. There is also a new options screen that allows you to adjust certain settings, including the ability to increase the height of items in the scrolling lists, which is a much requested feature for folks using smaller-format devices. You will also now be able to select from a list of new dice colors!

If you have a 'tall-thin' format device like the Motorola Droid, you might have noticed some graphic quirks in the vertical layout of the beta and version 1.0. After much hair-pulling, this has been fixed in version 1.1.

I'll send an email to all beta testers when version 1.1 is ready to be run through its paces for both Android and iOS.

Compatibility Forecast: On a final note, I just found at that Adobe Air is supported on upcoming Blackberry 10 devices, and Air support might be coming to Windows 8 mobile in the first half of 2013. Early days, but there's a chance that the Crawler will be creeping into new territory in the coming year!

Here are a couple screen caps featuring the new turquoise die set and the options screen. As always, thanks to everyone for your support.

While the Dark Powers Ponder in their Sinister Towers...

As I wait to hear back from both Apple and Amazon about the Crawler's Companion going live in the app stores, I've been making some progress on the new features. I have the batch roller about wrapped up and I'm now locked in mortal combat with the 'battle master' initiative and hit point tracker.

It's been lovely to experience a bit of creative energy again as my health improves. :)

Here's a screen cap of the new batch roller screen.

Emerging from the tomb...

Hello fellow Crawlers! As I've begun sharing on the various DCC forums, the lack of noise from the Purple Sorcerer in recent months is the byproduct of having to deal with some fairly serious health issues related to my diabetes. I appreciate everyone's kind words, and am cautiously pleased to report I'm slowing getting back into fighting, writing shape. :)

I hope to have a number of progress reports ready on both our electronic tools and adventures very soon.

Thanks to one and all for your support.