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 ToolsYou 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!
