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Monday, August 3, 2015

Kickstarter - Ernest Gary Gygax Jr.'s Marmoreal Tomb Campaign Starter (1e)



I've been so distracted by negative events with certain Kickstarter projects (Ken Whitman can take numerous bows and curtain calls for this) that I've managed to miss some recent well respected Kickstarter releases.

So, here's the first post rectifying that :)

Ernest Gary Gygax Jr.'s Marmoreal Tomb Campaign Starter is a huge megadungeon and setting. What exactly is it tho? Is it old? New? Does it harken back to the days of the hobby's beginning?
THE HOBBY SHOP DUNGEON is an adventure game setting originally created by Ernest Gary Gygax Jr. in 1978 while working as a clerk for the fondly-remembered Dungeon Hobby Shop of Lake Geneva, WI. Inspired by the many games and campaigns he played with his father and many friends, and aided by incomplete maps initially drawn by Terry Kuntz, Ernest came up with a large sprawling dungeon complex that could be used to run games at the store. Since then, more than a thousand players have explored its depths, as remembered by Ernest, including TSR alumni, family members, customers and gamer friends, up to 22 players per sitting! It has been played in a variety of venues including Margaret Weis’s and Don Perrin’s Game Guild, in California’s Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment division, as a special event for game conventions and many more besides. 
This is the entire dungeon and setting around it that GP Adventures wants to bring to publication via its Hobby Shop Dungeon game line, starting now with the Marmoreal Tomb Campaign Starter.
It does have history, which is exciting. What's even more exciting to me is that +Benoist PoirĂ© has been drawing the maps. I love Benoist's style of mapping.


The project is already funded ($29k with a goal of $20k) and has nearly a month left to run. I expect a ton of stretch goals will be hit. Thus far, some have been add ons and some have added to the base reward goal.

The most recently achieved stretch goal is the add on Sci Fi Conversion, to be written by none other than +James Spahn of White Star fame:
We just zoomed past our $27,500 stretch goal, and that means James Spahn will help us flesh out the optional Science-fiction/Science-fantasy customization document we have now added to our list of Add-ons to this Kickstarter project.  
If you would like a copy, add $5 to your pledge, and you will get a digital (PDF) document detailing how to use the Marmoreal Tomb and its Expansions in a sci-fi campaign, along with a sample adaptation described using the White Star: White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying game.  
Next up are Pathfinder and 5e conversion documents.

I'm in. Probably at some ungodly amount. Need Wilderness and Underworld expansions. Player's Guides would be cool too. Damn it!

13 comments:

  1. I'm going to wait on this until the whole thing is done and collected in one book, eg, Barrowmaze Complete.

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  2. Thanks Erik for spreading the word, and thanks for your support!

    Jason Bossert: we have no plan to collect everything in one single book at this time, but, as hinted at in the video of the Kickstarter project, there's the possibility with this Kickstarter to unlock a box to hold the Main Module, Expansions and everything else. We'll see if or when we get there!

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    1. in at $125

      time to make some overtime ;)

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    2. This is in great hands and its an exciting time to loved some old school. Benoist has a great series of posts on mega dungeons floating around out there that is required reading.

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    3. Erik: Fun fun times ahead! ;)

      Mike: Thanks! I think if you just google "Benoist advice megadungeon" you'll find the series of posts somewhere, either OD&D Discussion boards, RPG Site or wherever. These were posted in a bunch of places.

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  3. I know I'm a perennial gloomtard, but this one has the potential to be sunk without trace by its own success and stretch goals.

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    1. I think that's a fair assessment from the outside, looking at the kickstarter as it stands now. What I can say is that we're very conscious about the challenges an increase in popularity for the kickstarter project will naturally generate. We can't think of everything, and as always with these sorts of projects there might be delays and obstacles along the way, but we've prepared ourselves for it, and are surrounded by allies ready to help in case anything goes wrong. Enlisting James Spahn for instance to help us flesh out the Sci-Fi customization guidelines for the Marmoreal Tomb will speed up the process. We are intending to address the full conversions for 5th edition and Pathfinder the same way. That will allow us to concentrate on those elements that participate to the content of the main module and its expansions, and from there fulfill in a reasonable time frame.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Sorry I first read this as "Gary Gygax Memorial Tomb" and before I started actually reading was already wondering if interring Gary in a replica of the Tomb of Horrors was really a good idea.

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    1. Ah ah no, probably wouldn't be the best idea ever. ;)

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    2. Oh man.... thats really a cool idea though.. it would take the very most determined and skilled D&D'ers to actually survive a visit to the Memorial Tomb! :)

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  6. Still not finished or delivered, no updates in forever, and now Ernie resurfaces doubling down on Benoist’s poor attitude towards their customers in the comments. What a train wreck of a KS.

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  7. Can you do some updates on this disaster?

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