Kickstarter - Dwimmermount PDF Proof in Hand!

Yep, it looks like Autarch is just about ready to finally bring Dwimmermount to the finishing line. The PDF clocks in at just under 400 pages (398 to be exact).

I'm surprised to find myself actually excited by the prospect of actually holding a hard copy of Dwimmermount, and I can tell from the size that this was a project that could easily overcome the folks behind it. Will I run it? You know I have to run the first level again :)

The layout is pleasing to the eyes with none of that annoying "watermarking" and such and it was nice to find some "easter eggs":

If any bring a printed page from the proof with The Grumpy Dwarf quote, I'll be habby to give it a scratch at NTRPG Con ;)

Dwimmermount - Labyrinth Lord Version is Essentially Complete - Golf Claps Please

No, not the cover for the Dwimmermount Kickstarter, this is the cover of "what almost was"

Now, I say "essentially complete", as there is still proofing, spell checking and layout to do, but Alexander Macris says the Labyrinth Lord edition of Dwimmermount is complete.

I do not doubt the effort that has been used to get this monster of a Kickstarter completed, but I suspect the hands of three very different creators are going to have a bit of a "Frankenstein" effect. I could be wrong. Hopefully I am wrong, as I invested a pretty penny in this cursed project. It's good to see there will be some closure soon, no matter what the end product finally is.

Here's the first paragraph of the backers only update that was sent out late this afternoon:

Hello Dwimmermount backers. I'm pleased to report that I've just uploaded three huge word documents to the backer dropbox: Chapters 1-7, Chapters 8-20, and Appendices A-G. To put it bluntly, the writing of the Labyrinth Lord version of Dwimmermount is complete. 

It's still in .docx format and multiple files. I'll wait for the "maybe ready for prime time PDF" before I spend any time pouring over this.

An Update From Alex - Dwimmermount Update # 69

I really like the rough layout version - it looks like something drawn at the gaming table

The following is Alex Macris's update for Dwimmermout from earlier tonight. If you don't know who Alex is and what kind of cred he has, it will be explained below. I've run ACKS, and even though I'm not running it now, there is a bunch of stuff from it that I've stolen borrowed for my S&W Campaign. Give the man a chance to get his sea legs before y'all try to throw him overboard ;)

Hello, everyone! This is Alex Macris writing today's update. If you read Tavis's last update, you know I'm now actively working on Dwimmermount.

Who Am I?
I had a somewhat painful realization (by way of Tenkar's Tavern) that many of you don't know who I am, having never backed any other Autarch products or visited our forums. A short introduction seems in order.

I'm the co-founder of Autarch and lead designer of its all internal products - Adventurer Conqueror King System, Player's Companion, and Domains at War, as well as the upcoming Lairs & Encounters and Auran Empire Campaign Setting. Over the past 2.5 years I've written over 500,000 words of old-school D&D-style content for Autarch. I've also been intimately involved in Dwimmermount since the beginning, having been the one who first wrote James about publishing his dungeon, before handing it over to Tavis. Since the design portion of my last project, Domains at War, is complete, it has freed up time for me to work on Dwimmermount and I will be carrying the development and editing through to completion.

What Work Am I Doing?
I am going through each chapter and appendix of the book and finishing what is called in industry parlance "development" (as compared to "design"). This is the process of fleshing out ideas that the original designer left incomplete, reviewing the material for inconsistencies or imbalances (and correcting them where they occur), and polishing the draft.

Whereas Tavis and the team had previously focused on developing the material surrounding the dungeon, I have begun with a focus on the dungeon itself. At present I am completing development of one dungeon level every two days, to date including The Path of Mavors, The Laboratory, The Reliquary, The Hall of Portals, and The Reservoir. I see no reason that this pace will not be sustainable, so I anticipate having all the dungeon levels developed on February 24th.

As each level is completed, it will be handed-off for proof-reading, then made available to you as word documents so that you can offer feedback in real-time to me about the decisions I've made. If for whatever reason I make a development decision that displeases the majority of the backers, please be assured I'll address it. Those of you who have worked with me on the other Autarch products know that I am willing to work very interactively with backers to make sure that expectations are met. (See the changes to the city mechanics in the original ACKS as an example).

What Comes After the Development of the Dungeon Levels?
Once all of the development work on the dungeon levels is complete, I will do final development on Dwimmermount's introductory chapters and appendices, to make sure that the material in the dungeon levels matches what's in those chapters. The chapters that I'll work on, and the duration I expect each to take, is noted below:

Chapter 1: Introduction (1/2 day)
Chapter 2: Setting of Dwimmermount (5 days)
Chapter 3: Adventuring in Dwimmermount (2 days)
Chapter 4: Vicinity of Dwimmermount (1/2 day)
Chapter 5: Muntburg (1/2 day)
Chapter 6: Overview of the Dungeon (2 days)
Chapter 7: Factions Within the Dungeon (2 days)
Chapters 8-20: Levels 0 - 9 (covered above)
Appendix A: New Magic Items (1/2 day)
Appendix B: New Spells (1/2 day)
Appendix C: New Monsters (1/2 day)
Appendix D: Rival Parties (1/2 day)
Appendix E: The Four Worlds (1/2 day)
Appendix F: Azoth (2 days)
Appendix G: Secrets of Turms Termax (5 days)
Appendix H: Tables (1/2 day)
Therefore it will take another 22 days. That would put completion at around March 18th. I know that I have personal and business travel coming up that will prevent me from working on this each day, so realistically I will push this back to March 30th. Each step of the way I'll be releasing the word documents so that you can see what's being done.

Once all of the development work is done, it will pass to the rest of the development team to lay it out and bring it to print. On every other product I've worked on, the writing got done before the art and maps were finished, but in this case the reverse is true and I expect a very quick turnaround. I will, however, leave it to those more expert in that side of the business to speak to the specific timeline when it gets closer.

That's all for now. Back to work for me.

And I Say Unto Thee - Dwimmermount, What Have We Wrought? (Spare 2k Coppers Gov-nuh?)

Sometimes, you just don't find what you are looking for where you expect to find it. I certainly didn't expect to find the latest Dwimmermount updates over at the RPGSite, so color me surprised when I was told to look there for the latest. I did, and it seems Alexander Macris, who has taken the reins from Tavis, who in turn took them from James Mal, posted to the Dwimmermount thread on the RPGSite recently.

The underlying problems of Dwimmermount all arise from the fact that it is the product of an improvisational Judge with a knack for using random tables and in-game imagination. This shows up in (a) how blandly certain rooms are described, (b) how treasure and monsters appear, and (c) most of all in how the weave of the dungeon ties together (or rather doesn't). 

There is plenty of fun, playable, interesting material for a game table. I agree that a team of independent editors could surely have filled in the gaps in the individual levels (problems A and B) and made each one a more fun experience. But I don't think anyone but an "auteur" (I use that word for lack of a better one) can tie it all together (problem c). 

Anyway, I'm actually drafting at about 3 times the pace I expected - I finished 3 chapters in a week - and am optimistic in what I'll deliver.

A and B and yes, even C were problems in our aborted playtest way back when. Heck, that was 2,000 coppers ago and a few dead rats t00.

It's not that I'm trying to impose my philosophy (that's a forlorn hope) I'm trying to impose coherency. So, for instance:
-- Chapter 7, Factions, clearly states that the Spawn of Arach-Nacha has given the Mad Dwarf the power to create kobolds.
-- Level 1 says that the Mad Dwarf is just mad, and the Spawn of Arach-Nacha is lying. 

Or, for instance, James will say that the Elemental Planes are actually alien worlds lush with a particular element (so like Fire is actually a volcanic world, Water is an ocean world) and then in another place he'll say the opposite.
Etc., etc., etc. 

People who don't care about such things already have a playable draft of the dungeon; many people have already run entire campaigns in Dwimmermount. So the real hold-up is what goes into the pretty book for time immemorial.  

I guess I'd rather be Blizzard, and ship in when it's good, even if it's late, then EA and ship it still borked.

The thing is, even Blizzard ships at some point.

and from the Dwimmermount Kickstarter page's comments from a few days ago (also from Alex)

Some of you might wonder "what problems and plot holes is Alex referencing and why would they require consideration before getting to the real work of writing?" To that, I suppose I have be honest and admit that I am constitutionally opposite J.Mal. in that I'm a preparer and systemizer rather than an improviser. So I'm speaking of issues such as:  

- Why would the Terrim keep the Sleeping God on hand as a deterrent weapon of mass destruction if its activation is controlled by the Great Machine, which is in the hands of their enemies?  

- Why would the Lawful-aligned Prison which has ensnared Turms Termax be under the control of the Chaotic Sleeping God?  

- If Gods such as Typhon are Lawful, why would they create the Eld if doing so would represent a turning away from Law? If they aren't Lawful, what is their relationship to Law and why do they grant Lawful spells?  

- If the Secrets of the City of the Ancients are so amazing, why would a 9HD Dwimmerdragon have stopped the Eld, Thulians, and Termaxians from invading?
And on and on. In the process of answering these sorts of questions, I believe that I will deliver a dungeon to you that will ultimately be a much more satisfying product to read and run. We of course expect Judges to make up their own answers, but at least you can improvise from a coherent framework that fits together.

I never realized how screwed up this mess actually was.

I've ceased to look forward to this except for idle curiosity.

Delving Into Dwimmermount - A Look at Last Night's ACKS Session From a Player's Perspective

Yes, I actually got to PLAY in a session of Dwimmermount. If all goes as planed, I'll be playing in many sessions of Dwimermount with my ACKS Wonderworker (pretty much a M-U/Cleric hybrid class), which is a bit of a change for me as I tend to not go for the classes that have d4 for HD and no armor ;)

I was surprised to find out I wasn't the only Wonderworker and even more surprised when the other Wonderworker cast a Magic Missile spell with 4 missiles. At least 4th level, I suddenly felt like a one-trick pony, but that's later in the story.

Rathman and the other party members - a crazy cleric, a dwarven fighter, a halfling fighter / theif, a thief and the previously mentioned wonderworker comprised the party. I also brought along Grud, my protector and shield bearer. Grud was the only chance I'd actually get to roll some dice in combat ;)

My mission, if I chose to accept it, was to say a prayer in the room with all of the rats, which, come to think of it, we may have found.

You see, when we got to Dwimmermount, there were rats with a mission carrying coins clenched in their mouths heading up the stairs to Dwimmermount. Old coins of Ancient Dwimmermount in nature. I suspect we were watching the restocking of the dungeon. Still, right off the bat, we had rats with coins, so I felt right at home.

On the way up the mountain we encountered some dwarves that had a nicely secured base. They were there to observe comings and goings on the way to Dwimmermount. We knew we had found a good place to retreat to when the night was over.

After nearly deciding to open a glowing door in the mountain but deciding it was just too dangerous, we continued following the rat parade to an iron door that someone had propped open with a statue.

The first room inside was ankle high in rats, who seemed to stop here to get their bearings before moving on to later destinations. There was a soft glow of light coming from behind a closed door which some of the rats were able to pass beneath. Upon peeking, it was revealed there was the sheen of oil on the other side of the door, so out halfling rolled a lit flask of oil under the door to light the slick - hilarity ensued (and just reinforced my previous observation that players setting fires).

Behind the door was another group, so I summoned Berserkers (it's my one useful trick) and set the quartet to kill.Other players also attacked, as did my henchman, but it was the assortment of berserkers that stole the show in my humble opinion ;)

After the combat the party questioned a survivor and found out they were there to oil up a talking head and ask it questions about Dwimmermount. We then took turns buffing the head and asking questions before trekking back to the dwarves (and killing some kobolds along the way).

All in all, a great time with some excellent players and an amazing DM. +Tavis Allison , +Jason Paul McCartan , +Joe D , +Miguel Zapico and all the rest - great game! Looking forward to next week :)

Dwimmermount Update 53 - Scaling the Mountain (and Adventuring Dark & Deep in the Domains of War ;)

What's the status of the Dwimmermount project?


We are making the final approach to the mountaintop. We've:

-sent the drafts, discount codes, and sample layout to backers by individual email
-taken stock of the Dwimmermount material, including drafts, illustrations, maps, and Grognardia posts assembled our team for the remaining stages of editing, development, and layout
-pinned down our best options for printing and the timeline required
-gained play experience with prototypes of the mega-dungeon tracker and vinyl wilderness map
-received further design input and assistance from James Maliszewski
-made some conceptual breakthroughs into how to publish a mega-dungeon
-set up an internal schedule of conference calls and deadlines

We are on track to have the Labyrinth Lord version of Dwimmermount available for backers to pick up at Gen Con this summer and the Adventurer Conqueror King System version in time for this year's holiday season. With the support of our backers and a lot of perseverance, this project is really starting to take shape. It's an exciting thing to be part of!

Individual Backer Emails

At this point, all backers should have received an email at the address you used to register with Kickstarter and/or the address you gave us in the reward survey. In some cases, you may have received it three or more different times over the last three days, perhaps from three separate email addresses! Updating the backer spreadsheet was straightforward, but using it to do a mail merge with Gmail proved to be a different matter.

If you didn't get the email, please let us know at support@autarch.co. Here's what to look for in your mailbox:

The title of the email was: Your Dwimmermount coupons and downloads from Autarch
Email batches were sent on 5/14, 5/15, and 5/16.
The sender was always Tavis Allison, but when unexpected repeat emails ran up against Gmail's limit of messages sent per day I used my email accounts tavis.allison@gmail.com, barnar.hammerhand@gmail.com, and tavis@adventuringparties.com.
Please check your spam folder; the message contained a number of links.
Don't hesitate to reply with COUPOFF (or send a message with this subject line to support@autarch.co) if you don't want to receive further emails as new opportunities to use your discount coupons become available.

Other Worthy Mountaineers

Thanks to a crossover bonus goal with Joseph Bloch's first Kickstarter for Adventures Dark and Deep, Dwimmermount backers received an adventure, The Treasure of Welthorp, providing a unique side trek to which a map found in the Laboratory might lead.

If you enjoyed the new classes, spells, and systems showcased inthis adventure, you'll be glad to know that the Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary is using Kickstarter to publish the final piece in BRW Games' fascinating exploration of the question "What would AD&D have looked like if Gary Gygax had stayed at TSR in 1985?". The project is already funded, so (given Joe's excellent record with Kickstarter) you can be sure of getting 900 creatures to use in your game, including almost all those from the original three monster books, finally collected in a single volume, plus scores of new creatures. Your pledge now will help provide illustrations for as many of these bestiary entries as possible. The campaign closes on Saturday, June 1st; as a backer, I'm hoping we reach the $24,000 needed to see each one of them come to life on the page.

Another Kickstarter with ties to Dwimmermount, Domains at War, is also ending soon; its campaign wraps up the afternoon of this Saturday, May 18th. Like the Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary, Domains at War is also fully funded and usable in any of the systems you're likely to be playing Dwimmermount with. If you're planning to use one of your Autarch discount coupons toward the Domains at War, your pledge will help create more resources for mass combat in your game. The next bonus goal is an Old School Scenario Pack, including a new way to use the wilderness vinyl map you may be getting as one of your Dwimmermount rewards.

Domains at War features in one of the conceptual breakthroughs mentioned above. Re-reading the Dwimmermount session summaries from Grognardia, a central theme in the original campaign started to look like a nail that the tools for strategic campaign play provided by D@W could really hammer home.

During the adventures of the Fortune's Fools, they learned that part of their enemies' scheme to to lower the arcane barrier that prevents access to Dwimmermount's deepest secrets involved gaining control of a ley line nexus at the Temple of the Moon. Although James took this idea in a different direction in his drafts, the original concept was that Dwimmermount's arcane barrier was related to the convergence of energies from a number of these nexuses in the nearby wilderness. In the final session summaries, it becomes clear that these sites will become the focus of a conflict between the forces of Law, the fifth column of Termaxian cultists in their midst, and an invasion force from the Thulian successor state of Volmar which may be marching overland as well as emerging from within the mega-dungeon's House of Portals. It is hard to imagine a more perfect set-up for the kind of wide-scale struggle that Domains at War is designed to bring to the tabletop.

Backing the Domains at War Kickstarter isn't necessary to unlock this aspect of Dwimmermount. You can wait until the complete mass-combat supplement is in stores, or use the Free Starter Edition to allow players to command armies, build fortifications, lay sieges, and lead heroic forays in the campaign to bring down (or keep up) the arcane barrier. However, this will will need to wait for the Adventurer Conqueror King System version of Dwimmermount. The assumptions about the equation of personal power and political power on which ACKS and Domains at War rely are at odds with the situation described by James' Labyrinth Lord stats for the settlements surrounding his mega-dungeon. It will certainly be possible to use D@W to play out military campaigns using the setting as presented in his drafts, but as long as we're committed to an ACKS conversion in any case it makes sense for us to focus on developing D@W options specifically for that version.

New Team Members

Logan Knight's winning map in the Tomb of the Rocketmen contest is so amazing that it's hard to believe it was his first foray into cartography. I'm glad to say that he and his collaborator Rose will be contributing the cross-sectional map of Dwimmermount that will be a key insert into the mega-dungeon tracker and create some eye-dazzling two-page spreads within the hardcover and PDF. The sheer scope of Dwimmermount means that this cross-section won't be able to accomodate the same degree of three-dimensionality as the Tomb, but I'm nevertheless very excited to see what Logan and Rose come up with. Their blog, Last Gasp, is well worth checking out but not safe for work.

Jonathan Bolding is an editor at The Escapist and a backer whose epic Dwimmermount campaign stretched over more than 50 sessions and delved all the way to the City of the Ancients. I am grateful to add his expertise to the development team, and his assistance is going to be invaluable as we realizing the vision that's emerged from our recent re-reading of the Dwimmermount drafts and Grognardia posts and been clarified through new emails from James.

Timeline and Internal Scheduling

Jon and I will be having weekly conference calls with editor Matthew Pook as we prepare the Labyrinth Lord manuscript for publication. There are three months until we will have that hardcover to backers at Gen Con and mail it to those who want the LL version but can't make it to Indianapolis. The last of these months will be devoted to printing and shipping, and Richard Iorio will be doing layout of the text in the second month, so we'll be staying on top of the remaining work of development, editing, and proofreading during four of these morning conference calls. I'll plan to do these backer updates on those afternoons so as to combine the work of summarizing our internal discussion and keeping you informed on our progress.

We have seven months to deliver the Adventurer Conqueror King System version. One of the things I'll do with this time is to continue the Harlem Dwimmermount campaign whose early sessions suggested some of the other conceptual breakthroughs I won't be able to fit in this update. My plan is to run weekly sessions both here in NYC (dates to be determined) and online via G+. The first of these hangout games will take place next Thursday, May 23rd, at 8 pm Eastern Daylight Time. If you're interested in playing, use the character builder at the Autarch site to have a set of stats emailed to you, then forward them to me at tavis@autarch.co. Should we have more potential players than G+'s bandwidth will allow, I'll let the dice choose from the emails I've received by the night of Monday the 20th.

Thanks for making this project possible, and I look forward to sharing the fruits of all the hard work that's gone into it - especially since some of that work is the awesome kind that involves playing games with old friends and new.

(as an aside, I will probably be joining Tavis in either the face to face group or the G+ group. I rarely get a chance to play as a player these days. besides, I've experienced Tavis' DM'ing skills first hand - he's top notch. oh, and if you like OSR style Monster Books, the Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary should be top notch. the fact that Joe Block is an all around nice guy doesn't even factor into the equation ;)

Playing "The Domains at War" - Subtitled: How to Fuck Up a Playtest

Last night I participated in a playtest of Autarch's Domains at War. It shows much promise but we did our very best to prevent any actual testing of the rules in question.

Let me explain. We were divided into two groups or armies. Each group of 3 to 4 players sat on opposite sides of a nice size conference room. The set up rocked. Each side had it's own map and it's own referee. Yep, we were playing a multiplayer double blind wargame. I was having flashbacks to my own college days.

The goal was to get to Dwimmermount while securing your supply lines and gaining allies while preventing our opponents from doing the same. We went with light and fast troops and no siege engines to slow us down. We quickly made an ally of Muttontown or Nutterburg or whatever it is right outside of Dwimmermount. All the while using our skills and spells to spy out our enemy.

When we found them, they were seeking allies in a fortress full of undead. The thing is, at that point we had found Dwimmermount and proceeded to loot the first level before encountering some difficulties in the second level. Never did see the rats with their stacks of coppers damn it!

The funny thing is, both sides were working off an overall strategy of securing one's positions and the two armies never did engage, which is a shame. We almost attacked our enemy in the last turn played, but they were secure behind their fortress walls and undead allies. So, we never actually tested the combat rules, but we did get to try out the double blind system, which I suspect will work much better in cons and less so at the kitchen table, but your mileage may vary and the rules are still under revision.

I had a blast, even without getting into mass combat. I explored part of the second level of Dwimmermount and lost a level to a wight. Yes, Virginia, there are wights in Dwimmermount. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I'm happy I'm a backer of this kickstarter, but I'll be using the mass combat rules on a smaller scale I suspect, and the double blind won't be needed as it will be the PCs against the world ;)

Dwimmermount Was Originally Scheduled For a 1st Qtr 2011 Release? I'll Be Damned!

The latest Dwimmermount Kickstarter Update is up and can be read here. It talks about drafts and using one of your coupons towards the Domains at War Kickstarter. Which is all interesting, but I never realized James Mal had intended for Dwimmermount to be released early in 2011.

Heck, there's even a mock cover:

I had no idea how long the development time actually was on this project. 

Dwimmermount Project Update #50: Labyrinth Lord Version Restored, Release Schedule Set

FAQ

What's the current status of the Dwimmermount project?
We are on track to deliver all the promises of this Kickstarter. In the last update I reported that Autarch would not be able to fulfill the Labyrinth Lord version of Dwimmermount, but this was due to miscommunication between James and I. We now have his approval to publish both the LL version and the Adventurer Conqueror King System version.

We'll use the LL version to present James' original vision for Dwimmermount. Working with his draft and notes on editing, and our conversations about further development, the LL version will present the dungeon according to the plan which would have led to a March release if personal issues had not intervened.

As discussed in the last update, the ACKS version will be driven by fans inspired by James' writing but adding further development and playtesting. To help with this, I've reached out to Michael Curtis, whose Stonehell Dungeon was described by Grognardia as "probably the best megadungeon published to date in any form". I'm glad to say that Mike will be lending a hand, and hope to announce some additional contributors in future updates.

When will rewards be delivered?
We will have the Labyrinth Lord version hardcovers and PDFs in time for Gen Con, on August 13, 2013 - you can pick them up from us there or have them shipped to you. The Adventurer Conqueror King System version hardcovers and PDFs will be delivered by Christmas, December 25, 2013. We expect that all the physical rewards - the separate map booklet, megadungeon tracker, and wilderness mat - and the illustration booklet bonus goal will be ready to ship along with either version of the books. The other bonus goals should be complete by the end of 2013.

What's new this week?
A guide to choosing between the two versions; a discussion of our approach to each one; and our responsibilities to you, this project, and the Kickstarter Terms of Service.

Which Version Should You Choose?

If you're at any reward level other than the $5 Henchman, you'll be getting the PDF of both the LL and ACKS version automatically. The need to choose between them only applies to hardcover rewards. Some of you pledged extra to get both versions, and we're glad we can now give 'em to you! If you later decide you want both versions but didn't pledge for it before, we're setting up a webstore at the Autarch site to process orders outside the Kickstarter system.

When you filled out the backer reward survey you already specified which version of the hardcover you wanted. This choice isn't binding; we've received plenty of requests to switch from LL to ACKS and visa versa. I will check with backers individually when each version is ready to go to the printer to confirm whether it's the one you want.

If you just get one version in hardcover, you might choose the LL version if:

you're already playing Labyrinth Lord, or a game in which platemail is AC 3 and leather is AC 7, and you don't want to use the LL conversion guide in the ACKS version
you want the version of Dwimmermount that's closest to James' original vision
you want your hardcover reward sooner rather than later

You might choose the ACKS version if:

you're already playing with the Adventurer Conqueror King System and don't want to use the ACKS conversion guide in the LL version
you're playing a game in which platemail is AC 16 and leather is AC 12, and want to make it easy to convert by just adding 10 to the ACKS AC
you want a version of Dwimmermount that reflects the ways fans inspired by James' writing about the megadungeon have adapted his draft to suit their needs in play
you don't mind waiting a little longer for that development and playtesting

How Do the Systems Differ?

Both Labyrinth Lord and Adventurer Conqueror King are inspired by what's often called B/X D&D - the Basic and Expert set versions of the original Dungeons & Dragons game, edited by Moldvay and Cook respectively.

LL is the older of the two systems, which the old-school renaissance reminds us should never be mistaken for "less good". Having been around longer means it's easier to find players for Labyrinth Lord, and the system is simpler and closer to the roots. ACKS is a "second wave" or "neo-clone," meaning that it owes a great deal to prior open game content (especially LL) but adds new material, including an economic framework designed to tie characters into the setting as they gain wealth and power.

Here's the description of a randomly selected room from James' original LL draft:

47. Map Room

This circular room contains mosaics on the floors, walls, and ceiling depicting the Thulian Empire at its height, with special emphasis given to forts and other military locales, with Dwimmermount being located prominently in the center of the floor. The room is currently occupied by 6 orcs, who come from Level 2A to explore. In their possession is a large sack containing 2000 gp and the some gems: two rhodochrosite (50 gp each), rock crystal (100 gp), sardonyx (75 gp), and a star rose quartz (100gp). Orcs (6) [AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 6, HD 1, hp 8, 7, 6, 5 (x2), 1, #AT 1, D 1d6, SV F1, ML 8].

Mechanically, this room description is little different in ACKS. ACKS AC is 9 - LL AC, so the orcs are AC 3. ACKS morale is a modifier equal to 8 - LL, so the orcs get +0 to their morale roll. Their statline in ACKS would also give their attack throw as 10+, meaning that they hit an unarmored foe on an unmodified d20 roll of 10 or better; this is functionally identical to looking it up with the LL combat tables or using a THAC0 system.
On the LL Version

We'll be able to publish the LL version sooner because the draft James completed in December is written for LL and it's at least 90% of the way to being a finished product. The remaining work to be done is editing (i.e. "and some gems" instead of "and the some" in the above room description); filling in some holes like the incomplete factions section; and doing the further development that I know from our conversations James intended to add, like statistics for the rival parties at higher levels and goals they would seek to pursue in the dungeon. James has agreed to pass on the playtest notes and editing work he's done to date, which will guide us going forward. We'll also use his actual play reports from Grognardia as guidance, and his designation of these posts as open game content means that we can incorporate NPCs and other details given there into the LL draft.

I know that many backers want to see Dwimmermount the way James would have done it, and I think right now Autarch is in the best position to deliver that. As we sorted out the misunderstanding reflected in the last update, James wrote that publishing his own version of Dwimmermount using LL "isn't something I have any plans to do soon (or perhaps at all)". We can't count on James' supervision as we carry out his intent for the last steps in the LL version, but as one of the next steps we agreed on in early December was to bring in a freelance editor, the plan was never for James to do it all himself. Most professional RPG projects benefit from having editors and developers who are separate from the author, because the original vision is often easier to see with the aid of some extra pairs of eyes.

On the ACKS Version

Although the mechanical conversion from LL to ACKS is straightforward, there are many places in the draft where it makes sense to bring in elements unique to ACKS. When I ran the map room in the example above for the kids in my ACKS afterschool class, they wondered where  these exploring orcs found the gems they were carrying. I decided that they had been encountered in the process of picking the shiniest bits out of the mosaic, and the kids wanted to complete the job. The ACKS merchandise tables let me define this loot as a load of semiprecious stones.

One of the design intents for these tables is to use player greed to get them interested in the setting, as having merchandise to trade encourages visiting different marketplaces in pursuit of favorable exchange rates. James' LL draft tells us that both Yethelreom and Muntburg have markets, but the ACKS conversion will need to provide demand modifiers using its mercantile trading rules to determine where these gems will fetch the best price. Determining these necessarily involves inventing details that go beyond James' text. Our goal for the ACKS version is to embrace this process.

The hand-written notes James created for his original campaign, as seen in the first bonus goal, were only meant for him to use in play. As he expanded these notes to create his LL draft, he made judgement calls about what additional information other people would need to know to run the dungeon. In the ACKS version, we'll run this process through one more iteration. During its extra development time, we'll be drawing the experiences of those who've used his draft in play. Our goal for a more far-reaching edit of James' text will be to focus on the elements that proved most useful at the table, and our aim in adding new content will be to integrate aspects of the existing draft in ways that create choices for players. To use the map room as an example, we'll create an illustration of the mosaic, extrapolating the map of the Thulian Empire from details James provided in the Wilderness section. Parties who thought to make a copy before looting the mosaic of its semi-precious stones (unlike my afterschool group) can use this handout to guide their wilderness explorations. To further enable player skill, the richest Thulian site will be marked by the area of the mosaic which used the most valuable stones; reaching this location will require reassembling that part of the map from the gems the orcs looted first.

In update #45, I said "In a scenario where a project has undergone substantial delays, the victory condition is to ultimately deliver something so much better than was originally promised that the people who stuck with it feel like winners for having stayed in the game." For me, being able to present these two different versions of Dwimmermount - one reflecting James' original approach, one showing how the OSR community has been inspired by his work - feels like a win. Which one you'll prefer is a matter of taste, but I'm glad to be able to offer both, and the fact that Dwimmermount will be entirely open content means that others will be able to pursue their own ideal versions .

On Responsibility

In the last update, it seemed that we wouldn't be able to fulfill one version of the rewards despite our best efforts. Autarch's responsibility as a Kickstarter creator led me to offer refunds, as per their page on accountability: "Kickstarter's Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill."

Now that we are in a position where we can fulfill all rewards and have a schedule for their delivery, we're no longer required to offer refunds. Although I'd like to continue doing so, my first responsibility has to be to deliver the cool stuff you pledged for. We gauged how much cool stuff we could produce based on the pledges we received, and an ongoing refund policy would threaten our ability to do so. To make up for the delays to date, Autarch will be providing backers with coupons for twice the value of your pledge and fulfilling the additional Domains at War bonus goal. We're confident that we won't incur any further delay and can meet the Gen Con and Christmas schedule announced in this update.

Because I also have a responsibility to live up to my word, refund requests received up to now will still be honored even though the circumstances no longer apply. Kickstarter's refund policy says "We hope that backers will consider using this provision only in cases where they feel that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill," and in the interest of protecting our ability to make the cool stuff we promised, that's my hope as well.

Yours,

Tavis

(So - LL and aCKS versions, LL summer release and ACKS winter release and of course, no further refunds but previous request will be honored)

For Those Wondering About the Funds Left to Publish Dwimmermount...

The answer is here, from part of the contract posts by the Autarch guys on therpgsite:

Royalty. Creator shall be entitled to a royalty of 10% of net revenues of Company from the distribution of the Product ("the Royalty"). The value of the Coupons redeemed shall be deducted from the Royalty owed to the Creator. The $8,000 of the original Kickstarter Revenues budgeted to the Creator and kept by him following the Transfer of Production Funds shall be considered a recoupable advance to Creator against the Royalty. 

So, James got paid $8k for his work on Dwimmermount and gets a 10% royalty of net revenues of future Dwimmermount sales made by Autarch.

But wait, redeemed coupons, you know, the ones Autarch is giving away to those that don't ask for refunds valued at twice the amount pledged into the Kickstarter, get deducted from those future royalties.

But wait, there's more! That $8k is considered an advance against future royalties.

So, between these two mechanisms, it's pretty clear James made $8k on Dwimmermount and is unlikely to see a penny more. I suspect Autarch is going to take a loss, especially considering the numer of folks that have reached out to me to let me know they were going to ask for a refund from Autarch. It seems to be a combination of excessive time, the general fiasco and the LL version's viability.

So, winners? Losers

James made some cash and took a torpedo to his rep.

Autarch has improved their rep vastly, but at an unknown dollar cost.

Purchasers  / Supporters of Dwimmermount will finally get a product, greatly delayed and not James' "pure" vision. As I understand it, the "Rat & Copper Room" will remain intact, and that's simply a win for everyone.

Time to "Open" a DwimmerTavern?

With the news that Dwimmermount is going to be released under the OGL as a whole has gotten me thinking. For those that don't know, thinking is a dangerous thing in my hands at times.

Folks will soon be able to pick and choose their "flavor" of Dwimmermount - most probably with and without 9 rats and 2,000 coppers. The tweaks will be small and large. Free and for profit. It leads to an interesting thought.

We're used to rules being OGL in the OSR but not settings and supplements, at least not beyond their "rule like pieces". Blackmarsh is about the only other such product that comes to mind - make it your own and even sell it if you want to. Amazing stuff.

Which turns into "if my current project progresses as a Swords & Sorcery setting, do I publish it, and if I do, do I go to the deep end of the OGL pool with it?"

I think the answer is to release it fully into the OGL when it's complete, but with the way I progress with projects, James will probably have his "Director's Cut" of Dwimmermount done by then.

I'd probably have to serialize it if I go that route.

Eh, just thinking aloud. Dwimmermount being released fully under the OGL opens up a crap-ton of potential and makes for an amazing precedent. I'm truly interested to see how this plays out.

Maybe I could replace the 9 Rats and 2,000 Coppers room with a surly dwarven bartender. That's an idea. A single Dwimmermount room release for plug and play into the megadungeon itself.

Or maybe I just need some sleep ;)

The Road to Dwimmerhell is Paved With Best Intentions

Yep, when Dwimmermount was first Kickstarted, Autarch gave James Mal both the rights and the monies to the project, but were themselves saddled with the responsibility of completing the project. Nice thoughts, very bad business practice.

After James Mal resurfaced, he signed a contract giving the monies and the Dwimmer-rights to Autarch, keeping the right to exclusively publish for Labyrinth Lord to himself.

Except he now says he didn't exclusive rights, he wants Autarch to publish the LL version based on his notes. Which makes sense, as why wouldJames want the pressure of having to put out an expected project when he currently can't handle the pressure.

This is a nightmare that never ends.

Latest From Tavis:

"I am just about certain we'll find a way to fulfill the LL version of Dwimmermount. Once I have the details nailed down I will reply to refund requests. I don't think it is realistic to expect that James will return to work on the project in a substantial way during our time frame for completion, so I'll be looking to be sure that we're refunding backers who would not be happy with a version of the dungeon that hasn't been overseen by James from start to finish, but not those who will be satisfied with a LL version once I can be sure how we'll be able to do that. 

I uploaded our amended contract with James to the Dwimmermount download area. The relevant clause is "8) Labyrinth Lord. The Company agrees not to publish a version of the Product using the Labyrinth Lord rules, leaving this option open to the Creator as a vehicle for publication of his final creative vision, and will cooperate in good faith to promote any such efforts in future." Because Dwimmermount will become 100% open game content upon its publication by Autarch, despite this clause we could partner with another company who isn't bound by this agreement and can publish the LL version for us to distribute along with the other rewards. I wouldn't normally try to make an end run around James' intent as I understood it on the phone and tried to reflect it in the contract I drafted, just as I normally wouldn't assume that someone would tell me they were going to review this draft with their lawyer and still wind up signing a document that doesn't reflect their intent. However I trust Dan Proctor (Goblinoid Games) and if he says that James meant for Autarch to fulfill our LL version now as well as promote his LL "director's cut" later, that lines up with my responsibility to the backers and I'm eager to find a way to make it happen. (reposted from KS comments)"

Dwimmermount Project Update #49: Last Hurdle Cleared, Looking Toward the Finish Line

(original update here - copied below for your convenience)

What's the current status of the Dwimmermount project?
Autarch now has all the rights necessary to fulfill the backers' rewards and bonus goals as well as make them available for sale to people who missed out on the Kickstarter, thanks to an amendment of Autarch's contract with Dwimmermount creator James Malizewski. The terms of our agreement will create some changes in the way we move forward, but this is great news and I'm very excited to be back on the rails.

When will rewards be delivered?
A new schedule of estimated dates will be posted in the next update; our general priorities and strategy are discussed below.

What's new this week?
An overview of what the transfer of rights makes possible, examples of our goals for developing James' drafts, and thanks for some of the people who got us here.

What Rights Autarch Has And Why

When I re-established contact with James last week, his preferred solution to the impasse was a full refund to backers. He felt that the Dwimmermount draft fell short of his vision for the mega-dungeon, and one of the stresses he'd been suffering from was the conflict between wanting to do it justice and the mounting deadlines for completing the project. What he suggested was to give everyone their money back so that he could take as much time as he needed to achieve his creative goals for Dwimmermount without pressure.

I agreed with James that it would be better to do a mandatory refund than to continue without setting deadlines. However, I felt that the vast majority of backers would rather have what they pledged for, even if it's not perfect, instead of getting their money back.  Autarch can't release the dungeon exactly as James envisioned it, but I argued that as fans, we could use the publication rights to make a version fans will be happy with - or at least allow people the individual choice of a refund.

The compromise reflected in yesterday's contract is based on the two versions of Dwimmermount that were already established. Since Labyrinth Lord was the system James used in his original campaign, we agreed to reserve the LL version of the mega-dungeon as the vehicle for James to potentially release a "director's cut" at some point in the future. Our contract gives Autarch the right to develop and publish a version of the dungeon using the Adventurer Conqueror King System. This will be derived from the ACKS conversion of James' draft we've already been working on, but we'll take it in our own direction and strike a reasonable balance between avoiding further delays and investing the time necessary to develop a product we can be proud of.

What this means is that we'll be using the Kickstarter funds to create just one version of the Dwimmermount hardcover and PDF. This will be written with statistics for ACKS, although we'll include a conversion guide to make it easy to run the dungeon using Labyrinth Lord. If you were a backer who requested the LL version of the dungeon, we hope you'll accept the version we are able to provide instead. However, we'll also gladly provide you with a refund, which you may later be able to use to purchase a version with LL stats. You may also want a refund if you want to wait for James' own version - or if you just don't want to wait any further at all. If so, just send us a message through Kickstarter letting us know whether you prefer check or PayPal and the address we should use in either case.

The O in OSR is for Open Game License 

Another implication of Autarch's contract with James is worth mentioning. Our agreement gives Autarch the perpetual, exclusive right to publish Dwimmermount. The way we left open the possibility of James later publishing his own "director's cut" was to stipulate that everything related to Dwimmermount will be designated as open game content, available for him or anyone else to use through the Open Game License. Since the Old School Renaissance is just one example of the communal creativity made possible by the OGL, I'm eager to see what gamers will do with this fantastic public resource. Commercial publication of remixes like Devilmount is one obvious possibility, as is conversion to other rulesets.

More good news is that James also agreed to designate his Grognardia posts about Dwimmermount as open game content. This was the writing that inspired Autarch's enthusiasm for Dwimmermount, and I think that being able to incorporate parts of it into our version will help us stay true to that inspiration. I'm also very excited by the possibility of combining the session reports from James' original campaign with his original notes to do some really cool stuff with the first bonus goal.

Strategy for Schedule and Development

In my next update, I'll provide a new schedule for when we expect to deliver the backer rewards. Our general approach will be to focus first on getting you the things you need to start playing. The wilderness mat, the mega-dungeon tracker, the separate map booklet, and the illustration booklet are all things we can complete quickly. It'll be a great feeling for me to get these into the hands of people who pledged for them (and to make them available for sale to people who didn't). More importantly, having these play aids out there will facilitate the playtesting that'll help make the later release of the hardback as good as we can collectively make it.

Hardcover printing and shipping is the single most expensive line item in the budget. It's the reward that the greatest number of backers will be receiving, and the publication on which Dwimmermount's reputation will ultimately rest. Although it is the most anticipated item for these reasons, I feel it's also the one that we need to take the most time to get right.

For people who are eager to start playing, one of the things I'll be looking at is the feasibility of doing an earlier PDF playtest edition - including illustration, maps, and functionality like bookmarks, but without waiting for all the planned development of James' draft - with a print-on-demand option for those who want an inexpensive perfectbound softcover copy at the gaming table.

In future updates I'll also talk more about the plans for development of the draft. Me and Alex at Autarch will be taking the lead, since we are the people we can best trust to do it right. Opening things up to community input and providing opportunities for feedback by players and GMs will be a key part of our method. I'll also be looking to get other designers involved - I have some ideas in this regard, but I welcome suggestions for people who you think would bring something special to the project.

I don't expect Autarch's development will be a radical re-envisioning of the draft. I see the first half of our job as identifying the essentials that made Dwimmermount speak to all of us in the first place. The second half will be to fill in the gaps that gamers will need to bring this vision to life in their own campaigns.

As an example of the first, the inserts for the mega-dungeon tracker will include each level of Dwimmermount rendered in one-page dungeon format. Creating this hybrid between the sparseness of James' original notes and the detail of his draft will be a key  step in laying the foundation for Autarch's final text.

As an example of the second, when I run Dwimmermount I like to roll for the possibility of wilderness encounters whenever the party travels between Muntburg and the dungeon. In the Brooklyn Strategist game, this generated a group of bandits who were charging a toll on adventurers seeking to enter or leave; at the ACA/PCA conference, the largest source of XP for the night was an unlucky encounter with a skittering maw on the road home, defeated by first-level PCs thanks to archery, frantic retreat, and lucky encounter distance roll. In order to play out these situations, allow them to be recurring features of a campaign, and also make connections within and without the dungeon like "what tribe do the Path of Mavors kobolds belong to?", Autarch will develop a local map of the region between the town and dungeon. This will be similar in scale to the one in B2: Keep on the Borderlands, where an entry might mark the hut of a single mad hermit, and will zoom in on a few of the six-mile hexes of Rob Conley's existing wilderness map. Adding this local scale will allow for the development of an "Upper Works" to the megadungeon that I think is rich in possibility.

Thank You and Good Night

I owe a debt of gratitude to all the backers who have made it possible for us to be where we are now, but there are a few people I'd specifically like to acknowledge.

First and foremost, of course, is James Maliszewski. His vision of Dwimmermount and his dedication in sharing that vision through his writing and blogging is what brought us together in the first place. My role in resolving the crisis on this project has been little more than trusting in James' honor and integrity to use the funds entrusted to him responsibly, and I'm glad he's trusted Autarch in return to carry on the torch.

I'd also like to thank Wesley Marshall and the other backers who joined him in exploring legal options. I'm grateful to y'all for being proactive, and willing to publicly stand up for your positions and discuss controversial issues reasonably and without hostility. I'm also glad that none of the potential scenarios you researched wound up coming into play!

Finally, my hat is off to backer and RPG.net moderator The Wyzard, whose reaching out with friendly advice and expertise in contracts could not have come at a better time.

I'll look forward to posting here again next Friday, and in the meantime I'll be glad to answer questions at support@autarch.co, at the Mages of the Mountain community on G+, by cell phone at (917) 749-6938, in person in Reno, NV until Monday and New York, NY after that, or in the comments here.

Yours,

Tavis

The Resurrection of Dwimmermount is Complete - Autarch Has The Rights Necessary to Fulfill the Kickstarter Obligations!

+Tavis Allison posted this on the Dwimmermount Community over on G+ (current draft and monies to pay artists, rewards were transferred last week):

"We signed a contract with James earlier today giving Autarch the rights we'll need to fulfill all the Kickstarter rewards and bonus goals as well as making them available for sale to folks who missed out on the KS (or have since decided they want to add things). I'll hope to do a full update soon but wanted to share the good news!"

I'm glad to see that the Kickstarter gods have blessed Autarch with the powers of resurrection during this holy week. Shame they can't pull that off with the Axes and Anvils (and associated Kickstarters) mess, but it isn't theirs to fix.

Dwimmermount Update #48: Good News Emerges from the Dungeon

I'm very happy to announce that this afternoon, James Maliszewski transferred to Autarch the Kickstarter funds necessary for us to complete the Dwimmermount project and pay the artists who haven't been compensated for their work.


The next step will be to negotiate a transfer of the rights we'll need to develop and publish James' draft and use the contributions of the artists whose work was done under contract to him. The details of this agreement will take a little while to iron out, but we're confident that a happy arrangement will be reached. James has clearly demonstrated his intent to do the right thing and we've received some invaluable assistance in drafting a proposed contract that we feel is fair to all parties.

This transfer of IP is the last barrier to progress. Once it's lifted we'll begin working out a new estimate of when we can deliver the remaining rewards and bonus goal items. Some of these, like the wilderness mat, are very close to being ready to ship. Others will take longer to finish polishing, but in every case I have no doubt we'll be able to do justice to the vision of Dwimmermount and fulfill the promises of this Kickstarter.

I know backers have waited a long time already, and although we're moving forward again we're still a ways from the finish line. Autarch remains committed to the offer of discount coupons described in the last update as a way of making restitution for our role in the delays; we'll have those ready soon. However, if at any point you feel that you've waited long enough or lost faith in our efforts to deliver on our promises to you, I'm glad that we've now reunited Autarch's responsibility and ability to offer a full refund on the Dwimmermount pledge of any backer who chooses this option.

I hope that you'll continue to stand by your investment in this dream, and even if not that you at least got more out of the experience than if you'd invested your pledge in the stock market instead. Whatever your decision, I want to thank you for having helped get us this far. Game on!

Yours,

Tavis

(Holy Crap! Good news indeed)

I Finally Have Dwimmermount - er, I Mean "DEVILMOUNT" in Hand ;)

Dwimmermount may never see the light of day as a printed product, but it's dark and twisted doppleganger appeared on my doorstep today when I was out eating some Fish & Chips for St. Pat's weekend.

With DEVILMOUNT, I may not even miss the original. I'll certainly miss the money I apparently have pissed away on the fucker, but that's a whole different story.

On a very quick scan, I failed to find 9 rats and 2,000 Coppers. I'm not sure if that makes me happy or sad.

I may well run the first level of this using the Swords & Wizardry rules sometime in the next few weeks. If I do, I'll put out the recruitment call for players.

Wayward Kickstarters - The Dimming of Dwimmermount and Little Further on Far West

Two of my most overdue Kickstarters that I've supported and at significant levels (over $100 each) had updates this week.

Neither were all that promising.

Lets start with Far West, (which my wife affectionately refers to now as "Far NONE!") the Western/Wuxia Mashup adventure game.

"I wish I had more progress to report this week, as we'd had a few really good ones in a row and got a LOT done, but I was nailed by the flu from Sunday through Wednesday, which (as you might imagine) slowed us down considerably."

Let's look at how those previous 4 weeks:

Feb. 22, 2013
Back at the office after working the convention in L.A.
Now that we're so near, to make it clearer how close we are to done, I'm only listing the material that still requires work. If an item is at 100%, it's no longer on the list. Here we go:
Chapter 6: Pilgrims on the Dust Road: 90% (Editing)
Chapter 7: Swords and Sixguns: 95% (Editing)
Chapter 8: Cog Science -90% (Editing)
Chapter 9: Furious Action - 90% (Editing)
Chapter 10: A Fistful of Bastards - 85%
Layout: Unchanged. Page template is designed, as is cover. Still need to drop in finished text and place art, as well as design character sheet, and do index once pagination is complete.
Art: Portraits: 95% (75 done, 4 to go). Incidental Art: ~60% (need to do another 20 or so, as needed, during layout)

Mar. 01, 2013 
Howdy folks! Neither 20 inches of snow, nor illness (both myself and my wife coming down with colds) shall stay your tireless designers from their appointed tasks!
Here's this week's progress:
Chapter 6: Pilgrims on the Dust Road: 95% (Editing)
Chapter 8: Cog Science -95% (Editing)
Chapter 9: Furious Action - 90% (Editing)
Chapter 10: A Fistful of Bastards - 90% (Editing)
Layout: Character sheet design has begun! In fact, I've got a couple of design ideas -- what I'm thinking of doing is putting them together and asking you fine folks which you prefer. I'll be in touch about that in the coming week or so.
Art: Portraits: 95% (75 done, 4 to go). Incidental Art: ~60% (need to do another 20 or so, as needed, during layout)

Mar. 08, 2013   
Here's this week's progress:
Chapter 8: Cog Science -95% (Editing)
Chapter 9: Furious Action - 95% (Editing)
Chapter 10: A Fistful of Bastards - 95% (Editing)
Layout: Work proceeds on the character sheet -- I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped to, so we're not ready to show you designs to choose from quite yet. As per a comment on the forums, however: The design that's chosen will appear in the book, but the alternative designs will be available as downloads on the site as well.
Art: Portraits: 95% (75 done, 4 to go). Incidental Art: ~60% (need to do another 20 or so, as needed, during layout)

Mar. 15, 2013 
I wish I had more progress to report this week, as we'd had a few really good ones in a row and got a LOT done, but I was nailed by the flu from Sunday through Wednesday, which (as you might imagine) slowed us down considerably.
Chapter 8: Cog Science -95% (Editing)
Chapter 9: Furious Action - 95% (Editing)
Chapter 10: A Fistful of Bastards - 95% (Editing)
Layout: Continued development of character sheet ideas yesterday. Trying to find a good balance between cool design (but not at the expense of readability) and ease of use (but without falling into the decades-old character sheet cliches -- stats arranged vertically on upper left quadrant, etc.).
Art: Portraits: 96% (76 done, 3 to go). Incidental Art: ~70% (did a few more of these.)

So, after 4 weeks of updates we've knocked off:

10% of Chapter 6's editing
5% of Chapter 7's editing
5% of Chapter 8's editing
5% of Chapter 9's editing
5% of Chapter 10's editing
10% of incidental art
1 portrait (1% progress)
2 colds
1 flu
1 con
20" of snow

Just think, at this rate it has an outside chance of releasing nearly 2 years late:

The Limited Edition hardcover of the Adventure Game, as well as the Ebook, Kindle and PDF, will be available in December 2011. Electronic versions will be sent to donors at the same time the book is sent to the printer. (I'd be impressed with a Summer 2013 release)

Then we have Dwimmermount, for which I previously posted the latest update here. Whereas Far west is 15 months late and still moving at a snails pace uphill in a blizzard, Dwimmermount is a mere 9 months late, with the additional bonus that it's creator is MIA and not even communicating with his supposed business partners, nor has he paid some of his artists that submitted work before he closed himself off from the world.

Tavis is trying to work miracles, but the reality is this project is probably done unless James signs it over to those that have the will and ability to complete the project.

A month of no communication while having to deal with a family illness / death in the family (unclear) is extreme and would not be acceptable in a real world work environment. We are nearing three months without a change in the situation.

I don't need to know about James' personal life. That is his business, and he can share of it what he wants or not share at all. The $49k that was raised for this project is of interest to over a thousand backers. If James can no longer commit to the project, he should pass the responsibility (and the funds needed to pay for art, layout, printing and other backer costs) over to someone that can.

There is no shame in admitting your heart and will is no longer in something, but having accepted payment for it, James needs to do what he can to make things right by those that put their faith and funds in his hands. Time to pass that torch, James.

As for Tavis - keep your coupons. They will do Autarch more harm as a company than they could ever do right by me. This project should be a lesson plan on "How not to fund a Kickstarter for a creator not covered by Kickstarter's residency rules".

In hindsight, I think Barrowmaze would have been the better Canadian megadungeon to have backed, as it released on time (well, I did back it on Indiegogo, but imagine how much better the funding would have been if it had been on Kickstarter).

Dwimmermount Project Update #47: Domains at War, Discounts, and Possible Resolutions

I'll save my personal comments for the end of this post:


FAQ

What's the current status of the Dwimmermount project? 
Dwimmermount’s creator James Maliszewski signed a contract with Autarch that transferred the money we raised on Kickstarter and the responsibility for delivering the promised rewards to him. We understand that James is grieving for his father, but we have to confront the fact that he is currently not living up to this responsibility and discuss what Autarch can do for backers to make good on our own responsibility to you.

When will rewards be delivered?
When Autarch started talking with James about helping him use crowdfunding to publish his megadungeon, he told us to set the estimated delivery dates as June 2012 for the PDF and August for the physical items. After it was clear he would not be able to meet his original date, I worked with him to project a revised schedule for delivery of the PDF in March 2013 with hardcovers due in April. We agreed on a structure of weekly conference calls to create accountability and transparency for his progress toward that goal. As of today, it has been three months since James has taken part in these conference calls. The March date is now past and it has not been possible to establish a new schedule because James has been avoiding direct communication with us since his last email on 12/19/12. We still have faith that his honor and integrity will lead him to address his responsibilities on this project, but we can’t predict when that will be.

What is Autarch doing to make things right for the project’s backers?
We understand that what you’d most like to have is the Dwimmermount rewards you selected in exchange for pledging to this Kickstarter. Fulfilling the key rewards depends on James, but there are many good options he could take to complete the project with little further effort on his part. Autarch's role at this point is to keep making progress on those areas we can without James, while continuing to make efforts to communcate with him. The goals of this communication will to be sure he understands his options, the urgency of taking action, and the potential consequences of inaction.

We also understand that you would have liked to have these rewards on the date they were promised to you. Since that’s no longer possible, we recognize the need for restitution. I’ll discuss how we’ll be doing that below.

Ongoing Efforts

In update #45, Autarch decided to give the backers a bonus goal we didn’t reach in the original campaign, a mass-combat scenario for Dwimmermount using our Domains at War rules. The first installment toward that goal – a look at how the fortress of Muntburg could resist a siege if the denizens of the mega-dungeon rose up against it – is now available for download at this link if you’re a backer with an Autarch account configured for access or through the webform. The scenario will be playable with the Domains at War starter edition, which is free for anyone to download at this link.

Working on the Domains at War scenario has also generated progress on an aspect of the basic Dwimmermount project that can be worked on in James’ absence, the Adventurer Conqueror King System conversion. The ACKS spreadsheet has been updated to include information on Muntburg’s garrison and economics, as well as corrected stronghold construction values; it’s available to backers at this link or via webform.

Autarch Discount Offer

As a further way to make things right, Autarch is planning to give Dwimmermount backers a discount on any of our products based on the value of your pledge to this Kickstarter. You’ll be able to use this discount on our existing Adventurer Conqueror King System and ACKS Player’s Companion in PDF or hardback; apply it to any of the reward levels in our upcoming Domains at War campaign; or use it for the Auran Empire Campaign Setting or any of the other releases we have in the pipeline, which we’ll let you know about ahead of their release. We started Autarch to create cool stuff for your gaming table, and want this offer to be a way to get back to doing what we love.

We know that because many of you already have everything Autarch has put out so far, or contributed more to Dwimmermount than we currently have to give you in return, you may need to wait to take full advantage of this offer. To make up for that delay we’d like to give you twice as much in discounts as your original pledge, rounded up. If you put in $25, you’ll get coupons worth $50; if you were in for $132, you’ll get $270 in coupons. We’re expecting to get these to backers via individual email by the end of the month, after taking some time to answer questions about the plan and make adjustments based on your feedback or factors we haven’t considered yet.

Each coupon will be redeemable for a $10 discount. Initially, we’re going to limit it to one coupon per product. Planning to cover costs as a publisher is always difficult, and we need to keep the coupons from being an unpredictable factor that breaks the bank. Knowing that each single product won’t be discounted for more than $10 lets us be certain we can afford to honor this offer. Once a project reaches the point where we can replace projections with real numbers, we may be able to accept more of your coupons for the specific thing you want. If it turns out we’ve got nothing on the shelves or on the slate that interests you, you’ll be able to trade or sell your coupons to other people looking to get a good deal on Autarch’s current and future catalog.

Using these coupons in no way affects your right to receive the Dwimmermount rewards you pledged for. Fulfilling those is James’ responsibility, and only he has the funds to do so or to offer a refund if he can’t. We remain eager to help him do that. Autarch is not washing our hands of this project, just making the discount offer as something we can do for the backers with our own resources.

Potential Next Steps 

Many of us have experienced how grief and stress can make it difficult to muster any sustained mental effort. Fortunately, James has a range of options that would quickly restart progress on fulfilling the Dwimmermount rewards.

His work in writing the draft is done, and from our weekly conversations I have a good understanding of his vision of how the draft should be developed and polished into a final product. If he transferred the remaining funds to Autarch and licensed us the copyright to Dwimmermount’s text and art, I’m confident we could complete and release his megadungeon in a form he could be proud of, incorporating as much or as little of his further effort as he wants to invest. We’ve made this offer to James and prepared a simple contract that we think requires little review or discussion.

If he mistrusts his own judgement under his current circumstances, he could just as quickly appoint a trusted representative who could take all the time necessary to negotiate an arrangement that addressed James’ interests and concerns.

If James doesn't want to work with Autarch for whatever reason, I’ve offered to put him in contact with other publishers wanting to pursue a similar transfer of funds and copyright so that they could release the rewards.

If he wants to release Dwimmermount through his own Grognardia Games, James could minimize the weight on his shoulders by hiring an editor, developer, and/or project manager – or accepting the help of volunteers like myself - who could keep the delivery of the Kickstarter rewards on track.

Why Hasn't James Taken Action On These Options?

Speaking plainly, when people do things that hurt themselves and others and contradict their normal values we say they are out of their mind. When we add that someone is out of their mind with grief or out of their mind with stress, it helps us understand and sympathize with where they’re coming from while still recognizing that they are being irrational. We can also use the opposite language to talk about when people have been or will be in their right mind.

In the period of taking stock after James stopped returning my calls or emails, it became clear that he never paid cartographers Rob Conley and Chris Hagerty for their freelance contributions to Dwimmermount. Rob's maps were completed in the fall of 2012, Chris's in December. James' failure to pay artists for their work harms them and their families; harms his reputation and ability to undertake future projects; and goes against the values he demonstrated when we started planning this project.

All of us had worked as freelancers, although he had a much longer list of credits than everyone else put together and had even worked for Alex before in his role as publisher of the Escapist. That went smoothly, but every freelancer hears about or encounters jobs that don’t. Prior to launch, I recommended that James should commission some art done to use in the campaign. He was concerned that commissioning work before the money was there could lead to artists not getting paid, so I fronted their payment out of pocket in the confidence that the campaign would be successful, and he repaid me personally once he had the funds from Autarch.

The James I knew then was concerned with making sure fellow freelancers were treated well. I feel it's not like him to withhold payment from his artists indefinitely, given that he has the backers' funds in hand and a mandate to turn it into awesome stuff to give to them in return. When I say that I trust in his honor and integrity, I mean that sooner or later James will be in his right mind again and will do the right thing.

Over the last three months Autarch has been seeking advice from other publishers, lawyers, gamers, and friends; we're lucky to know some people who are all of these at once! Based on this input, we believe that the best next step is for me to visit James and see if meeting in person will help resolve the impasse.

As always, we welcome your feedback and input. In addition to leaving comments and sending messages through the Kickstarter site, you can request an invitation to the Mages of the Mountain community on G+ if you're not already a member; send me an email at tavis@autarch.co; or call me at (917) 749-6938. I will be leaving for GaryCon tonight, and although I may get the chance to talk to some of you there I may not respond to online communication until after the weekend. If you'd like to send a letter to James, you can mail it to me at Tavis Allison , 541 W. 113th St. #2E , New York, NY 10025  and I will forward it to him unopened:

Yours,

Tavis

Alright, back to me.

We are nearly 3 months without direct communication from James. While each week that passes leaves me with lowered expectations for a successful Dwimermount completion with James' actual further involvement,  I'm more concerned with James' mental and physical health. Shutting oneself off from responsibilities for this length of time is not in the nature of James Mal. Not paying freelancers that completed artwork is surprising as all hell, and some work was obviously submitted before James shut himself off from the outside world. The longer he shuts out the outside world, the deeper his personal darkness must be.

Hopefully, James decides the right thing to do is to sign over the project to someone that can complete it successfully. I suspect James' is running on empty and was experiencing a lessened desire to work on this project even before he shut himself off. No shame in admitting that real life has thrown some bad shit his way and he desperately needs help to get Dwimmermount completed.

As for the coupons... nice try Tavis, but I'd rather see this project get completed than get $10 off my next 27 purchases from Autarch. That's about 10 - 15 years worth of releases ;)

Some Dwimmermount Rewards Are Shipping - Labyrinth Lord HCs and ACKS

Labyrinth Lord rulebooks (both Core and AEC) as well as the Adventurer Conqueror King System rulebook were offered as rewards during the Dwimmermount Kickstarter. The publishers of these products have taken it upon themselves to ship these out now, and not wait on the unknown progress of the rest of the Kickstarter, which I think is an excellent way to provide customer service.

From Dan Proctor, writer / publisher of LL:

"For those interested, I just want to confirm that all hard cover copies of Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion that were ordered through the Dwimmermount Kickstarter shipped today. The PDFs were delivered several months ago. I also want to make sure people know that James Maliszewski did in fact pay me for all of the orders. I asked him to deliver the money for this long back, well before his personal difficulties arose, because I wanted to ensure that I would be able to deliver the books in case anything unforeseen happened. At the time it seemed unlikely there would be any snags, but I was sort of looking ahead in a paranoid fashion I guess, and we now know that snags did in fact arise. Although I have every confidence James will eventually complete and deliver Dwimmermount, it is now clear that Dwimmermount may not be fulfilled for some time. In light of this, I want to take care of my supporters and customers by fulfilling this one component of the Kickstarter that I have control over. I did take some hit due to unforeseen shipping expenses associated with this, but I did not take an overall loss. That's why even though some customers very generously offered to pay for the additional shipping, I have declined those offers. As a supporter of Dwimmermount myself I know many people already have a lot of money invested in the project."(I did the bolding to point out what a stand up guy Dan is)

As for ACKS, from Tavis' update on 2/22 on Dwimmermount:


A number of backers added to their Dwimmermount pledges to receive copies of the two rules systems the mega-dungeon is written for, Labyrinth Lord (and its Advanced Edition Companion) and the Adventurer Conqueror King System (and its ACKS Player's Companion). Those who pledged for the PDF versions of these books should already have received their copies. Email support@autarch.co if you didn't receive them and I'll help resolve it for you.

Our original plan was to combine shipping on the print copies with the Dwimmermount hardcovers, but Dan Proctor at Goblinoid Games and us at Autarch have decided to go ahead and send our books separately at no additional charge to the backers. I believe everyone who pledged for the print copies has now been sent an email confirming their shipping address, and that the LL books are on their way. I sent Game Salute the addresses for the ACKS books earlier this week but haven't gotten confirmation that they are in the mail; I'll reply to the individual email threads as soon as I have more information.

(Update from 3/1 via G+ from Tavis Allison)

I don't have confirmation yet from Game Salute that the ACKS books have shipped - their warehouse guy has been out sick - but we're doing the same thing (and taking the same hit).

Dwimmermount Update #44 - Video Link and Summary

(The video update recorded Thursday night was supposed to alleviate the need for a huge weekly update this week, but Tavis touched on enough new stuff that this week's update is a pretty sizable recap of the 45 minute video - I'm going to highlight via italics and bold what I feel are the major points of this week's update - Erik)

Where We Stand

For a lengthy discussion of where the Dwimmermount Kickstarter is at, you can check out the video record of a G+ hangout with myself and backers Erik Tenkar, whose blog Tenkar's Tavern often acts as a watchdog for Kickstarter projects, and Miguel Zapico who is working on the MapTools framework for running Dwimmermount as a virtual tabletop. The video is attached to this update, and can also be viewed at this link.

Next week I'll be doing another hangout and taking questions from backers. The hangout will be scheduled via the Google community Mages of the Mountain. If you're not already part of this community, please provide us with your Google+ username using this form - you can also let us know your Minecraft username and I'll add it to the Dwimmermount server whitelist.

Here's a summary of things discussed on this video:

Through his friend Victor Raymond, Dwimmermount's author James Maliszewski has shared the news that his father is very ill and not expected to live much longer. Autarch understands his needing to take some time to deal with this difficult situation, and we trust in his honor and integrity to fulfill his responsibility to the Dwimmermount backers as soon as he's able. We feel that the best way to support James, and to uphold our own responsibility to you as backers, is to keep working to realize his vision of the Dwimmermount mega-dungeon.

X and Y Challenges

The difficulty Autarch faces is that our contract with James transferred to him the funds we raised on Kickstarter, along with the responsibility for fulfilling the Dwimmermount rewards. James maintains copyright to his work and the rights to the use of the art he commissioned and paid for. In the video, I assigned these two issues - money and copyright - to the x and y axis of a chart. (In future updates I'll hope to have a graphic of this chart to embed in these updates). Placing the different rewards and bonus goals into the four quadrants of this chart helps determine which aspects of the project need to wait on James, and which we can make progress on in the meantime.

The upper right quadrant is rewards that need both copyright and funding. Things in this zone will have to wait on James' return. The hardback is furthest out in this quadrant; it is costly to print and crucially relies on his copyright. The map booklet is closer in. As a print reward it needs funds to produce but is less expensive, and its IP situation is more nuanced.

The upper left quadrant is rewards that need copyright, but not funding. Things in this zone may be produced as fan and community efforts, but can't be published by Autarch. The PDF is at the edge of this zone. Professional editing, development, and layout would require some funding, but the lack of hard printing and shpping costs makes it feasible for fans to create for their own use and sharing. The PDF's dependence on IP means this is something Autarch can't do while remaining within the law. 

Many rewards in this upper left are already finished, or well on their way. James' draft of all sections of the Dwimmermount text is complete and available for backers to download. Miguel's MapTools framework is largely complete; work is proceeding on levels 7 and 9, but all the other areas of the mega-dungeon are available to run online with an integrated dungeon key and sophisticated features like lighting and fog of war. The Minecraft server is up and running and making progress; we have large sections of Dwimmermount levels 1, 2A, and 2B excavated, including some dungeon dressing. (The server would benefit from minimal funding; right now it is hosted by my home PC and is vulnerable to household outages.) Another bonus goal, to share James' original notes, is partially complete - some existing materials like character sheets have yet to be scanned. Progress can be made on sharing the existing scans at the Play-Generated Map and Document Archive, but preserving the original papers and adding more scans will need to wait on James.

The lower left quadrant is rewards that need neither money nor copyright. These can be done by anyone, whether it's Dwimmermount fans, backers, or companies. The main reward in this quadrant is backstage access: the chance to watch the process of realizing a mega-dungeon. This won't be complete until everything else is, but progress here is good; the Mages of the Mountain G+ community is a recent advance.

The lower right quadrant is rewards that require funds to produce but don't need copyright. These are things achievable by a company rather than a collective effort of fans. Two rewards in this quadrant are the megadungeon tracker and the wilderness vinyl mat. Both are concepts that Autarch set up and haven't been contracted or paid for, so copyright remains with the artists and cartographers. These are physical items that cost money to produce and ship. Autarch could plan to cover these expenses by making these products available for sale to backers who didn't originally pledge for these rewards and to the wider world of gamers, since these items would be useful not only for Dwimmermount but for other dungeons and kinds of RPG play.

My idea here is that, by offering for sale to the general public, Autarch would be able to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of delivering these rewards without having to wait for James' return. (The costs would be eventually invoiced against the original pledge funds). Dwimmermount backers who pledged for the wilderness mat and mega-dungeon tracker would have these items shipped to them. Everyone at the Zealot-Phantast level and above would get the electronic versions, and could apply this as a discount on the physical items if desired.

Proposing New Kickstarters

I think that the megadungeon tracker and wilderness vinyl mat are sufficiently viable as commercial products that their general sale could cover the cost of fulfilling these Dwimmermount rewards. However, Autarch doesn't have the money on hand for the production necessary to have items to sell. To get around this limitation we'd be looking at launching new Kickstarters to create these items, with the expenses of fulfilling existing rewards factored into the funding target. This is a controversial and risky proposition, which is why I want to get community feedback before we go ahead.

Last week I met with Luke Crane, Kickstarter's Games Project Specialist, to discuss these plans. (Luke is also the co-designer of FreeMarket, a game in which characters engage in radically futuristic economic schemes, so this conversation was a little like being lost in a dungeon and getting the chance to to ask Dave Arneson about best practices for dungeoneering.) Luke said that there is ample precedent for this move. His recommended approach to handling it is consistent with Kickstarter's recent requirement to disclose risks. People backing any new project Autarch crowdfunds should know that we have outstanding unfulfilled rewards on Dwimmermount, so that they can take this into account before deciding to extend their trust on anything else we do.

The wilderness mat is the reward that I think can most immediately be fulfilled by a second-order Kickstarter. I'd like to use crowdfunding to get these rewards into the hands of the Dwimmermount backers who pledged for it. My feeling is that we'd all benefit as a result, regardless of whether you pledged for the wilderness mat, because having this cool play aid will encourage playtesting which makes the ultimate Dwimmermount release more robust and suited to the actual needs of gamers. I think this new Kickstarter could succeed by learning from the mistakes Autarch has made in the past - or, at least, be set up in such a way that if it succeeds in reaching its funding target it is likely to succeed in delivering its rewards on time. In the video, I explain some of my reasoning; unfortunately if I'm going to keep my commitment to post these updates on Friday, I don't have time to write these out before midnight.

Autarch is also considering launching a Kickstarter for Domains at War, a project we have in hand but don't have the money to produce. I fully understand that people who feel burned by Dwimmermount may feel like we're rubbing salt in their wounds if we take money for another project while this one remains unfinished. It may help to explain that Autarch is divided between two cities, NYC and Durham, with accordingly separate resources. As I've been spending time on Dwimmermount things like writing these updates, the Durham crew - with the assistance of many volunteer readers and playtesters - has been finishing the Domains at War manuscript. It's now at the point where the only thing it needs to be finished is funding for illustration, layout, printing, and shipping. Domains at War is a key piece of what we created Autarch to do, and I'm confident that by supporting our growth its Kickstarter will enhance rather than detract from our ability to deliver the rewards we've promised our Dwimmermount backers.

One of the bonus goals we proposed for the Dwimmermount Kickstarter was a scenario for Domains at War that would use its mass-combat system to play out the ancient battles between the Thulians and Red Elves seen in pedestal-visions on the Path of Mavors. We didn't reach that funding level originally, but as a token of our continuing dedication to doing right by our Dwimmermount backers we'd like to offer you this bonus goal as part of our Domains at War launch. The essential rules for mass combat in D@W, similar to the War Machine in the Rules Compendium, will be released for free. Your enjoyment of this Dwimmermount-exclusive scenario won't depend on your having to buy Autarch's new thing, because that would be lame.

There's a Jack Vance story in which Cugel is lured into a monster's cave and can only escape by tricking other people to enter. I really don't want Autarch's continuing use of Kickstarter to be this kind of situation, so I need your help to avoid such a fate: Cugel may be clever but every GM knows that many heads are easily able to outwit one. In the comments to this update, and at the Mages of the Mountain community, please help me identify the flaws in what seems to me like a good idea so that we can fix them and move forward together.