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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Barrowmaze Complete goes live on Indiegogo (OSR Megadungeon and Miniatures)


Barrowmaze Complete went live on Indiegogo earlier today. Barrowmaze is +Greg Gillespie 's megadungeon and originally appeared separately as Barrowmaze and Barrowmaze II (if you look in Barrowmaze II, "Teknar's Pole" is a bit of a shout out to the Tavern).

This time, Greg is making the two parts a coherent whole with some additional content AND the option to support at a level that includes miniatures.

Personally, if I had to choose between Rappan Athuk and Barrowmaze, I'd probably go with Barrowmaze. It's the more accessible of the two, as it's parts stand much easier on their own - you can isolate section and remove them from the megadungeon structure and they'll play out just as well on their own as they do as part of the greater whole.

I'll be in for this project, as +Greg Gillespie 's projects are always on time or damn near so and communication has always been excellent. The question is just: "do I go for the minis or not?"

From the Barrowmaze Complete Indiegogo site:

The Plan: Barrowmaze Complete

Barrowmaze I and II need to be combined into one definitive volume: Barrowmaze Complete. In addition to combining the two books, this campaign will facilitate the introduction of 1) New Content, 2) New Art, 3) New Professional Layout and Cover Design.

1. New Content:

The village of Helix, the starting point for the campaign, will be detailed in full to provide a threshold to the adventure. The focus will be on NPCs to create role-playing opportunities to balance the emphasis on dungeon crawling. Locations like The Brazen Strumpet Tavern (with a random patron generator), as well as the Shrine of St. Ygg (and many others), will be laid out. Numerous sub-plots will be added for the PCs to pursue both in town and to piece together information gleaned from Barrowmaze. The town will include a map of the various locations. My goal is to bring Helix to life through interesting NPCs (all with illustrations) and create a vibrant and intriguing gaming environment.

Additional Barrow Mounds (especially mid-level) will be added, as well as dungeon rooms, map additions, rumours, rival adventuring parties, monsters, magic items, and spells. There will also be further revisions to the plot line surrounding the Pit of Chaos and role-playing opportunities in the dungeon.

Although I can encapsulate everything into a concise paragraph or two, the above constitutes a substantive amount of work.

2. New Art:

I am thrilled to announce that Erol Otus will illustrate the colour cover and the frontispiece of Barrowmaze Complete. I must admit, I am very excited about Erol's involvement. He is my favourite TSR artist and think his otherworldly oeuvre fits Barrowmaze perfectly. I had the opportunity to meet Erol at the NTRPGcon last June and he was keen to take part in this project.

I am also very excited to announce that Timothy Truman, another Ex-TSR artist from the early days of the hobby, will provide new interior illustrations including a full page illustration of Barrowmaze II baddie Lord Varghoulis! This is an exciting development for the OSR, as I have yet to see Tim's work return in the context of the old school movement.

In addition, Cory Hamel, Stefan Poag, Zhu Bajie, and others will all return to provide new illustrations.

As you may already know, I am absolutely committed to providing the best classic fantasy art possible for this project. Barrowmaze will celebrate the art of classic fantasy role-playing games.

3. New Professional Layout and Cover Design:

Cory Hamel, the Barrowmaze II cartographer and artist, is a professional graphic designer for a firm in Vancouver. Cory will facilitate the layout and create the new cover design. The new layout will include header illustrations and commentary by me in the outside margins to help facilitate play for referees.

What are the Official Barrowmaze Miniatures by Otherworld?

Alongside the Barrowmaze Complete book, this project includes the creation of a new Boxed Set of Barrowmaze monsters developed in concert with Richard Scott of Otherworld Miniatures (Richard has also run a successful campaign on Indiegogo).The Barrowmaze boxed set will be modeled after the sets of Dungeon Adventurers currently available on the Otherworld Website and include art by Victor Corbella.




17 comments:

  1. The timing on this was pretty good for me. I've been planning on picking Barrowmaze I and II up. Backed with miniatures.

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  2. The lateness, ongoing still, of the Otherworld minis may be problematic for him.

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  3. Thanks for the heads-up, I'm going to back it's production as well. No really interested in the mini's but I'd sure enjoy a hardbound version of it as well. The promo video is pretty freaking awesome.

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  4. I'd also love to go in for the miniatures for this one but as Joe K said, Otherworld's delivery issues make me VERY hesitant to back for minis. It's a shame because I think their miniatures are really cool.

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  5. I don't know. I have Barrowmaze I. If Barrowmaze Complete funds, I'd pay $35 for a copy on Indiegogo. It feels like I'd be able to get a copy of II or Complete for less than $35 in the long run. So that makes it likely that I will pass on it.

    I love Barrowmaze - I really need to review it on my blog, especially since I did a small section of my megadungeon as homage to it. But $35 is a lot for II plus a superceded copy of I. So it's a tough sell.

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  6. $80 for a book? $35 for a PDF? This is Frog Gog territory and too rich for my blood...

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  7. Did it mention how many pages the book would be? Maybe a pull out poster map? It would have to have some really nice features to be worth $80.

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  8. I'll agree with a couple others on here. I'd really like to support this as Greg does great work. However, I already backed and own Barrowmaze I and Barrowmaze II and I have yet to run either one. Having just bought 400+ page PDFs of games like Numenera on RPGNow for $10, $35 for a PDF is a tough sell. I'd like to get the hardback but already owning the PDFs, $80 is tough to swallow just for hardcopy. I wish him the best but the numbers are just too high considering I already own most of the material. Honestly, even if I didn't, $80 for the hardback is just high. Is it full color?

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  9. I'm disappointed he's using IndieGoGo and not Kickstarter. I just like the functionality and options on Kickstarter more. Other than that, I'm in, delving into the Temple of Orcus once I can scrounge those gold coins together.

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  11. The teaser video was awesome BTW. How much per mini is the pricing working out to? It's hard to tell from the reward levels, but it looks to be more than $6 per mini. I suppose that this is in-line with other crowdfunded ventures for metal miniatures?

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    1. It's actually pretty cheap for Otherworld - their prices are criminally high.

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  12. Hey look,more really expensive stuff that will never likely see play.


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  13. I doubt that, there are 3 barrowmaze games going on Google+ that I know of. One of them, mine that has been running for quite a while.

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    1. Yes, screw that social media service where all the best gaming conversations and long distance games between people who've never met are all taking place.

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  14. I have already pledged at the $190 level.

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