Mid July Progress Report

The next true article is coming!

David Foxfire

Jul 16, 2022

Trigger Warning

Mid-July Progress Report

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Ever had a whole article slip by without you thinking of it? It happened to me.

I know I talked previously about an entry in the Inspiration Series about how I will set up villains here in Tales of Penumaria, and as an example bring you Wintersplinter, the bad guy druid in Sunken Fortress, which will supply material for the setup documents I also mentioned earlier. I even had it mind mapped and outlined as well.

But then my parents got two animals and needed me to petsit every other day which slowed me down here, and while I do what I can to keep up on the articles here, not only did I run out of articles and suffer the kind of bottleneck cargo ships on the supply chain could appreciate, I also managed to forget that I even have to work on this particular article and at times my brain thought I’ve already published it.

Picture me smacking my head.

At least in here, there’s nobody hovering over me with a Wooden Sword of Damocles waiting with bated breath for me to fall off the ball. And for that, there are no words to describe how grateful I am. Let me tell you the parable of the Light Bulb one day. I don’t have to worry about catching hell for fsking up like what I just did. I can simply pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back on the ball. And with some modicum of grace and dignity.

I have this Villain article fast-tracked on my creative process, which you will see in this progress report. I’ll start with the three articles in the planning, mind-mapping, and outlining stages before the first draft and progress through the steps:

In the Planning stages

Spelljammer. When Wizards of the Coast announced that they will bring back Spelljammer, I knew I had to incorporate it into the Penumaria setting, especially with how Gaia and The Realms relate to each other.

To fully appreciate the draw of Spelljammer, understand that the setting itself can be described as nautical-themed D&D in outer space. If you have ever seen a school folder of a dolphin floating in a starscape, that is what Spelljammer resembles. It originated as part of 2nd Edition D&D, and Wizards is dusting it off to modernize it into 5th Edition. I intend to work on a hybrid variant with the best parts of both variants with some harder science thrown in.

I already have an example of this with how I implement Crystal Spheres. In 2nd Edition, a Crystal Sphere is a diamond hard cover for the entire and single solar system a setting is in. You need to find a way to go through this solid and hard shell in one way or another, either by spell or constructed portal or opening, to enter or exit a Crystal Sphere. In 5th Edition, it’s a softer border and you could easily go in and out just by sailing through. (Yeah, the majority of Spelljammer ships look like sailing ships or marine animals turned into sailing ships. You…just need to read it for yourself.)

How would I implement a Crystal Sphere? Granted, a Crystal Sphere can contain a solar system, which remains the default setting for a Crystal Sphere, but Crystal Spheres can be larger and contain an entire galaxy, in the form of The Realms (I’m talking about a Milky Way type of galaxy where all the settings—Realmspace, Grayspace, Krynnspace, Critspace—I’ve yet to hear what Matt Mercer would call Exandria’s solar system at this time—all occupy a single solar system but are part of this galaxy; and this whole galaxy is contained in its Crystal Sphere;) or in the case of Gaia, the entire Universe and not just the part we can observe even with the James Webb telescope. (We’re talking an infinite number of Galaxies and who knows how many solar systems and planets, the total amount of it would succeed in blowing Carl Sagan’s mind. All made by a single deity may I add…Okay, Yeshu’s a trinitarian deity, but I digress.)

In the Spelljammer Worldbuilding Document, I’ll describe not just these two Super Crystal Spheres, but also how Penumaria is set up Spelljammer-style, and other items that touch a place near to not just my heart, but in some of my friends as well. Such as Spelljammer Trains. A hint: The titular Spelljammer can match Eagle 5 in a race. A Spelljammer Train can blow the doors off Spaceball 1.

Swifttail Rulebook, Vol. 1. You’ve noticed by now that I write D&D differently than Wizards of the Coast. An earlier article talked about the Swifttail OSR D&D 5th Edition system, and I wish to have the basic rules of Swifttail alongside the Sunken Fortress—and even inside the Campaign OneNote for that matter—which warrant me to revisit the basic rules for this backward compatible variant of Fifth Edition. Eventually, it’ll become a rules compendium set in four Volumes. Volume 1 will be this document, which contains all the rules on how to play. Volume 2 is for the spells, volume 3 is for the magic items, and volume 4 would be for Stat Blocks, be it for creatures, vehicles, variants, and so on. Swifttail will have no section for Character Creation because it’s not needed. All of the character options in the Wizards of the Coast sourcebooks will work in Swifttail.

I started making Swifttail as a rewrite of Wizards of the Coast’s rules out of necessity. My eyes got lost too many times paging through all those rulebooks. It’s not that I’d say that Wizards wrote their rules bad; they made it easy for people to read and understand. But on the table, you’ll need to get at the important stuff right away, and so I rewrote nearly the entire System Reference Document in an easy-to-scan style that would draw my eye to where I want them to be on the text. I need to get to that dice roll, difficulty class, ability, check, feature, or whatever without must problem, which was the true purpose behind Swifttail. This is why you see a whole lot of bold, italics, and underline in things written in Swifttail’s style, and there’s a small amount of jargon—with nearby reminder text—taken from previous editions, including 4th Edition. (Choke on all the bile you want, there is a very small list of items from 4E that were actually good, and I brought all of that short list to Swifttail.)

However, as I progressed with Swifttail, modifying this concept (such as Legendary, well, everything, in a stat block) and replacing that mechanic, (such as replacing rolling on tables with a deck of playing cards,) I found out that Wizards of the Coast and myself are taking Dungeons & Dragons onto two different paths philosophical level. So much so that I’m seeing Swifttail D&D becoming less of a remixing of 5th Edition and more of a hard fork of 5E. (I’ll still make sure that it’s still backward compatible with Wizard’s version.) Even if you take out the politics involved, and you’re quite welcome on that, the division is still present. Wizards of the Coast wants to modernize D&D and make it look more like Critical Role and draw in more general audiences…and cater to those who believe Twitter is the real world and would never buy your product no matter how much you kowtow to them, but I digress…while I wanted a more back-to-basics Old School Renaissance (or at the least OSR-like, I know purists like the RPG Pundit would mock Swifttail) type of gameplay with a rich and deep wealth of pre-existing lore that is taken seriously, (and never for once even consider to reflect ‘the real world,’ because to the setting, they are the real world.)

I’m not saying that Wizards of the Coast is doing it wrong. Perish the thought. Just like I won’t say that Swifttail is a more ‘right’ way to play D&D. We’re merely taking the game on different paths, taking it in different directions, and applying different philosophies to the game. But I’d like to believe in good faith that we’re still playing Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, and that we’re still following the spirit of D&D 5E if not the letter. It’s why Swifttail’s full name is “Swifttail Old School Renaissance Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.” The two of us are seeing A differently, but A is still A.

Swifttail Rulebook Volume 1 will be the next document to go to the first draft, mainly because I’ve already got plenty of material for it.

Oh, and just to let you know; there may be some items that are mentioned in multiple locations on this assembly line (Planning, First Draft, Proofreading, Second Draft, and so on.) This is to show that there was some progression by the time you read this. They may even be cases where a document is split up into pieces and they’re at different locations on the line. It happens that way at times.

Universally Preferable Behavior. And while I’m on the subject of philosophy: I do enjoy a good philosophy book or video or online lecture even today. I like to see some people’s well-thought-out arguments and the diversity of thought, especially when it comes to sciences, ethics, and spiritual matters. (You can assume what my thoughts are on Social Media. I’d like to walk up to the God-Emperor and show him TikTok and Twitter and tell him he can subject my world to Exterminatus at any time.) Some of these philosophers might be controversial, but if the idea or theory can be implemented in the game, and the person promoting it is not calling me inherently vile and sinful, I’d show interest in it.

Such is the case of Stefan Molyneaux, from Freedomain.net and odysee.com. Whatever you think of him—you’ve gotta have a pretty narrow Overton Window to find him offensive—one of his ideas drew my attention, not just as a philosophy buff, but also as a campaign designer.

I’m referring to his idea of Universally Preferable Behavior. I’d describe UPB as, “A set of ethics and morals that generally exist in the world regardless of culture, religions, ethnicities, societies, governments, and so on. If something’s right or wrong under UPB, it’s right or wrong across the entire board…unless they’re the people who’d do such a thing, but that’s why we have Evil alignments.”

As you can expect, UPB has plenty of distractors and critiques, and I for one would want to see context be kept into account during its practice. Sure, walking up to someone and hacking off their head because you feel like it is frowned upon, but what if you see three assholes charging at you with bad intentions? The most appropriate action you could take in that situation is Standing your Ground. While it’s admirable that you’d do it while not killing your attacker, defending yourself is not only permitted, but encouraged and even expected of you. And no town guard, magistrate, or newspaper reporter will even bat an eye during the act.

There are a lot of other acts of kindness, codes of valor, and mores of decency that would make life more tolerable in a D&D setting, but what would that be? And how do I encourage the characters to follow them?

That is behind the Universally Preferable Behavior Worldbuilding Document I’m planning. In this document, I’ll make a first description of what UPB would be like in a D&D world, and how to implement it under D&D rules. This is where I’ll be describing what I’ll call UPB points that the Storyteller would keep track of behind the screen, and the party gets more and more good things if the UPB is high, and they would find their lives difficult or they’re not even welcome in some civilizations if their UPB is low. The Sunken Fortress will even experiment with UPB in some areas.

Of course, this is just an experiment right now, pre-alpha you might call it. I’d like to talk about this more with others—especially Stefan himself if that’s possible—which will help me improve this mechanic. Even if I couldn’t get UPB to work, at the least I can have a productive discussion or research on implementing morality and ethics in D&D.

In the First Draft

At this time, the Villain example: Wintersplinter is almost finished with this draft. I just need to make an example lair map. I’ll put the rest of it into a proofreading stage (Yes, I tend to split some parts up into different places in this assembly line, it happens.) After I put this article out, it’ll then supply material for The Sunken Fortress.

As mentioned elsewhere, after this is the Swifttail Rulebook, Vol 1.

In the Proofreading Stage

I have two documents here which I have printed out and have taken/will take my Bic 4-Color pens and highlighters to it; as they are going through the first proofread:

Oakhurst Worldbuilding, which will also add to the Sunken Fortress. Even though they will become material for the campaign, I will still use the Four-Dimension Spreadsheet format of People-Places-Things-Other for the initial worldbuilding documents. That’s so that I can gather my notes and thoughts and put them into a workable format for later. After I put his document out there, any future revisions will transfer over to the campaign files.

Amber of the Woods, Episode 3 is next for the pens and highlighters, and I know it’s a long time coming. And of course, Villain Example: Wintersplinter is coming up on this list as well. It might skip Amber of the Woods due to its length.

In the Second Draft

At this point, the document can go into three paths:

Path 1: The document is nearly ready to be put out there; all that’s needed is a little polish. Sunken Fortress part a is going along this path, which will be in the next article.

Path 2: The document is ready to be sent to an editor, so I hand it to them and then use the feedback I have for a third draft. Oakhurst Worldbuilding will be heading to this route, once I get the proofreading keyed in.

Path 3: This path could irritate some people including myself. This route is for documents that I don’t have an editor for nor feel comfortable enough bothering the editors I have with it. There’s a character they’re sick of, some tangent I can’t get rid of, a scene that I have to dredge through and get behind me. The documents in this path are the ones that I’m going to keep working on until I’m either satisfied with putting them out or get too sick of working with them anymore. Tablelake Arisen, Episode 1 is on this route. I’m still working on it, but it’ll take some more time. I don’t know when it’ll come out, but it will. Eventually.

In the next article

But I do know that the next article is Sunken Fortress part a, where I will also relate to you how I will package and share the finished campaign. It’s more than just a PDF, I should let you know. There is also a Microsoft OneNote book as well as the Vault. And I have to warn you in advance that there’s going to be some assembly required beforehand. I’ll let you know more about it in the article.

I’ll probably keep you abreast on the progress of future articles in the following entries, it’ll give you a good view of how things are going. I didn’t want to have this long of a lull in Tales of Penumaria, and I felt that all I was doing up to June and July was just delaying the inevitable. So putting up a little article just to show that I’m still alive is better than posting up nothing at all.