SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ok folks. Here it comes.

I'm going to have my hands more than full with the various Ruins of Undermountain projects we have going (RoUIII, RoUIV, etc), plus a side adventure or two such as The Curse of Lemora. I literally cannot devote any time to any other projects.

So...

Unless someone can step up to the plate and lead the development of the Complete Illusionist Handbook, I think I'll have no choice but to close that project down and delete it.

I never envisioned the BIP Project with me overseeing each and every project on every level. I always pictured each different project being done by various "development teams".

I really enjoyed seeing Caves of Sydwall developed because PaSquall wrote it, Brannon did the art, Varl proofed it, and Traveller edited it and formatted it. In other words, I didn't need to be involved in every step. I just proofed it a bit. That left me free to work on Undermountain.

I was hoping that the Complete Illusionist Handbook would end up with a driven creative team, but it never seems to happen.

I'd hate to see it dumped, but it's been sitting idle for over a year now. It makes no sense to keep it up and to keep referring to it when in truth it shows no sign of ever becoming a reality.

So...does anyone want to become the Project Manager for the Complete Illusionist Handbook? What this would entail is overseeing the development of the project. You would help recruit site members who want to work on it, set goals for finishing each chapter, and overseeing content. In other words, you'd be the head honcho of the project. I have some material to contribute to it (such as Brodeen's magical deck of cards, for which nobody has yet figured out my inspiration ), and can sit in on some discussion and help move things along, but I couldn't "run it" so to speak.

Well, I hope some brave, confident soul steps up to do it. It would be a fantastic addition to the BIP material, from what I've seen.

[Zherbus]

I could see the materials being shelved. I am fine being a developer on it, but there's a ton of time required to actually drive the project.

There are three major issues I have right now:

1) My time is in flux. I am clearing up, but real life does happen. I had a project that lasted from October to May 20th. If I commit, I commit though.

2) There's not much staffing on this project to bounce ideas off of. I have finished a number of elements on this project, but when I dream up new stuff there's no one but good ol' Hal to bounce ideas off of. I really need more people for a think-tank because not every kit I make is going to be as awesome as The Painted One right off the bat.

3) There's a motivational thing. I didn't dream up the idea for an Illusionists Handbook, I kinda just came into it. I really wouldn't ever assume there'd be enough material just based on Illusionists alone. I really think most of what Illusionists consist off is mostly thought up already either by existing TSR rulebooks or stuff we did here. My creative juices reach a dam when I have to limit myself to Illusionary stuff.

What I could definitively find more ideas for and work on is a more branching out. Why not make a more versitile product? Why not add other class kits? Priest spells? Monsters?

It could be: The Rules Companion to Undermountain or something.

Class Kits/New Classes (we already got Illusionist stuff, I can dream up a ton of others)
New Spells (again, already got Illusionist stuff)
Monsters (ditto)
Magic Items (ditto)

Other sections could include:

New Poison Types
A Trap Section (I can see this being a ton of fun)
A Hall of Fools (like Hall of Heroes, but detailing about 4 adventuring groups who went in, and never came out. Open the door for DM's to insert survivors, undead, corpses, etc)

If you agree to change the project to THAT, I will have the motivation to lead it. Otherwise, I think it might just be best to archive the shit for later use.

Also, if someone took my Temple of Moander and prettied it up with better maps and layout, it'd be another notch on the belt of BIP releases. It's done, just needs a face lift!

[Zherbus]

Oh, and if you think my direction is feasible I wanna try to work Minstrel in with me. I always bounce stuff off him and he's never afraid to one-up me on ideas or call my bullshit.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Well we definitely want Minstrel involved, that's a given!

I know what you mean about time. I struggle every day to find a block of time to work with. And yes, we need more developers to bounce ideas off.

I do think an illusionist handbook is feasible, much as the necromancer one was so well done. I see your point about sticking to one thing though. I find it hard myself to deal with just illusions.

As for the Rules Companion to Undermountain, the idea or concept excites me. But there's one problem. The various Ruins of Undermountain projects themselves feature all that. We have at least a good two dozen new spells, monsters, and magic items (each!) going into Ruins of Undermountain III. The dungeon cards will also feature new traps and new poisons, etc.

So in a sense it'd be like duplicating what's in the (new) box sets.

The Hall of Fools idea is sheer genius! Very useful too!

You know, we might even be able to do something like "Secrets of Undermountain", which would detail stuff like the Hall of Fools and stuff like that. Perhaps it could detail "lost" info from Undermountain, ie spells that are now lost to time, artifacts, lost rooms, etc. Hmmm.

[Zherbus]

Or even make it multi-volume and include stuff in BIP Undermountain releases.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Another thing to consider on this...

We have a very heavy bias towards FR material. We have RouIII, RoUIV, and then RoUII being re-done. Plus the Temple of Moander. That's a lot of FR stuff. It's a turn off for people who don't like the FR (and a lot of people don't). I'd hoped to have a lot more generic stuff. So for example, a Complete Illusionist Handbook could be used in any generic/homebrew campaign, it could be used in the FR, it could be used for Greyhawk, etc.

If most of what we do is FR-oriented, we lose a lot of interest because so many 1E and 2E gamers don't like the FR.

[Zherbus]

Ok, then we can disconnect it from UM and brand it more generically.

[Varl]

Between trying to dedicated as many hours as I can to get a fledgling online business off the ground, work, life, family, actually playing AD&D live, some online gaming, painting minis, the house work a single person has to do, and who knows what else, I don't think I have any time at all left to me. I should prioritize what's most important to me, but all of it is. Heh.

As far as the illusionist's handbook goes, I suggest we shelve it and allow anyone interested to take the information and try and create their own illusionist's handbook, and then perhaps submit their work. I absolutely don't want to see the information lost or unused. At worst, it should be given openly to those interested in developing it further in private (something I may be more able to do).

[Minstrel]

I'd be glad to get involved to the extent that Zherbus was suggesting in any project. I'm always available for feedback and brainstorming, although active production time is much harder to come by.

I'm in much the same situation as Zherbus and Varl. I'm leaving this job in the late summer/fall for something lower intensity while I get ready to go back to school, but for the time being it's just one thing after another and 2 hours of commuting doesn't leave much time for family + hobbies.

In addition to running my review site and the resurrected adndcampaigns forums, I'm hoping to be able to fit in one development-side project. The Hall of Fools idea sounds terrific, as does any sort of "drag and drop" dungeon accessory book. I could also see a small plot hooks section helpful - reasons and ways to go to Undermountain (or a generic dungeon) and reasons to keep going back, other than the obvious lure of treasure.

[McDeath]

I can almost put 100% of my time into ROU developement. I know I threw out some ideas for the Illusionist book so maybe you should put me on any/all the dev teams so I can toss in an idea here and there between pondering ideas. In fact you just gave me an idea to list a bunch of illusions for the Dungeon Dressing Cards (the ideas haven't come to me but just an additional section called "Random Illusions"; not that there aren't enough current sections on the cards that need to be filled).

I refuse to think of the Complete Illusionist Handbook as a failure as I think it could blossom into a great finished project. It just might need to be put on a back burner on simmer atm. Perhaps we need more influx of people to join the site.