Crawler Data

I've made the difficult decision that the current method of accessing user party and encounter data will not be coming back. My health has limited my productive 'extra hours', and the worries of maintaining a database of 3rd party data that needs to be up 24/7 is a bit too much at this point. I'll be making updates to the Crawler and site to revert to a simple copy/paste method of letting folks streamline their encounters.

I'm bummed because building the current system required many, many hours, and I'm sad to see it go. But reality bites. :)

I'll provide more details about the new method as it develops.

As always, thanks to everyone for your support.

Crawler User Party/Encounter Data Not Available

Unfortunately, because of the Wordpress database issues I had last night, I've had to shut down all DB access on my server. Outside of the news, most folks won't notice a difference, save for the plucky few who are using the user party/encounter data in the Crawler's Companion. I'm so sorry such data is currently not available, and I'm not sure when that functionality will be restored. :(

Strange Goings-On

I was unable to sleep this evening, which sucks, but it did allow me to do some timely browsing: while visiting the Sorcerer Speaks I was greeted by a flurry of strange pop-ups in iOS when I clicked on the links in the right hand column: apparently good old Wordpress was hacked. (Despite having the newest version installed...)

So I've spent the last 3 hours basically rebuilding the blog up from scratch, which seems to have taken care of the problem. I'm finally off to bed, but if you notice any continuing strangeness, let me know!

I'm just not up to this sort of crap anymore. ;)

News and Notes

Things have been quiet of late as I've struggled through a particularly bad health stretch. But things are still moving forward:

Tools

Added a Black Powder/Black Magic occupation list to the 0-level party generator. (Nathan Panke formatted the list: Stormlord Publishing always does cool stuff, and their Zine Vault Kickstarter is in it's last days!)
* http://purplesorcerer.com/create_party.php
* http://stormlordpublishing.com

Noah Marshall pointed out that the 'same as cleric' wizard spells were missing from the Sorcerer's Grimoire, and this led me to discover a few more that hadn't been included since they didn't originally make sense to include in the Crawler's Companion. (I used the data from the Crawler as the foundation for the Grimoire spell list.) So 11 new spells have been formatted, and I'll be adding them to the Grimoire in the next day or two.
* http://purplesorcerer.com/grimoire.php

I've had the latest Crawler's Companion update almost ready to go for months now, but have been too busy or ill to whip up the energy to do the app store publishing tango. Soon... soon. (I'm contemplating paring the app stores down to Apple and Google Play. Anyone still using the Nook store or Amazon App store instead of just side-loading?)

Adventures

The priority is still completing The Carnival of the Damned. David had a great time at NTRPG, and we're adding a few refinements from his playtest experiences. It's gonna be awesome.
* http://purplesorcerer.com/carnival.php

As soon as The Carnival has departed, I'll complete Against the Vortex Temple. The art and design are finished, I just need to polish off the text. I'd hoped to make more progress by this point, but it seems my creative writing is impacted by my health more than anything else. We'll get there!
* http://purplesorcerer.com/m1.php

Once these two are in the bag I'll likely have another fun announcment to make!

Thanks to everyone for your continuing kind words and support.

Adventure Updates

We're making excellent progress on The Carnival of the Damned! David has created an extraordinary amount of useful content, but with great word count comes great responsibility, and the sheer volume of text has required me to keep my editing nose to the grindstone. Happily, the major initial editing pass is now complete.

Now that I've poured over every word, I'm more convinced than ever that judges will find it a useful toolbox of ideas for their campaigns. Yes, there's enough content for days of tournament play, but it's trivial to carve out your favorite bits to fill whatever time window you have available. David's final task is to compile tips and tricks for utilizing the adventure in a variety of circumstance: knowledge that could only be picked up on gritty battlefields like GaryCon and DragonCon. I think judges will find the information very useful.

Finally, David has just signed up to run The Carnival at GenCon under the Purple Sorcerer banner! Now I'll have another reason to be depressed while watching all the fun in my Google+ stream. He hopes to see as many of you there as possible: the goal is to have print copies available at the event.

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One reason I'm excited to get The Carnival of the Damned into the proofing and printing stage is that I'm itching to complete Against the Vortex Temple. The graphics, cover, and page designs are all complete; all that remains is to finish writing the darn thing! All my recent editing has fired me up to get back to writing myself. I have a good feeling that things will come together quickly.

I'm looking forward to an exciting summer!

Everyone Needs a Little Smile Now And Then...

I'm thrilled to announce that Purple Sorcerer Games will be publishing David Baity's twisted The Carnival of the Damned, a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure designed for both 'next serf up' tournament style play and as a traditional 0-level funnel!

Players who have experienced the adventure at conventions like GaryCon and DragonCon know it's packed with surreal horrors: characters find themselves trapped in a mist-shrouded carnival in the dead of night, tasked to rescue scores of village children who vanished after returning home from a magical day at a seemingly innocent carnival. Nightmares come to life as players move deeper into a mad environment ruled by a dark power, struggling to survive corrupted versions of carnival oddities like the Hall of Mirrors and Tunnel of Love.

For judges, the adventure can fill many needs: David has crafted over 30 intricately detailed encounters and dozens of random threats. There is enough content for days of tournament play, or judges can select a smaller collection of favorite dangers for a quick funnel session. For sandbox-style play, judges have the option of extracting individual encounters whenever a twisted challenge is needed. There's even a haunting backstory for those looking to integrate the adventure into an extended campaign. 

Illustrated with a host of creepy images from artists Todd McGowan, Danny Prescott, Stan Reed, and Simon Todd, the 96+ page digest-sized adventure has entered layout and final editing and should be available in print and PDF this summer. I think you'll love it!

And there's clowns. Lots and lots of clowns.

(You can learn more about the adventure, David, and tournament style play by listening to the latest episode of the awesome Spellburn Podcast.)

It is finished...

...at least the images and maps for Against the Vortex Temple. I love the sepia look on the maps but will be reverting to b/w to match the print version: I'm not that gassed about maintaining different sets of images for screen and print. :)

Now off to finish the text: setting phasers on maximum creepy. Barring craziness with work/health I hope to be playtesting in 2-3 weeks.