UPDATE 5/18/16

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Good news!

Working on the sub-level, which has 23 core rooms and 12 areas of interest. It's all done except for 8 rooms, and of those 8, there are 4 simple rooms - a library, a treasury, a food storage and a lab. They're not difficult rooms to write, being pretty standard. I will, of course, make them interesting and unique. But they will be fast writing - those sorts of rooms are pretty easy to do.

Of the other 4, 3 are fully designed and planned, needing simply to be written into final form. The other one is planned.

So, the sub-level should be wrapped up and done in the next week!

Then I can finish Level 8, which is partially written (many rooms planned, several rooms written into final form).

It's looking better by the day!

[Tawnos76]

Thanks for the update it is always good to hear Good news.

[Beowulf]

Sounds good!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Glad to see the enthusiasm is still there!

I'm pissed about one room though, on the sub-level. I wrote it as a demi-plane, a small pocket dimension that exists inside a room on the sub-level we're doing that branches off Level 8. I had extensive notes and writing about it and guess what? The damned notes got misplaced (and probably trashed) during my move last September.



It was only one room, but I really liked what I had written. I remember most but not all of it. So I have to re-create that room. I hope I can remember all the details. I remember almost all of it, except for what the obelisk in the center was for. Time for some hypnotherapy to go back and remember the details!

Either way, it'll be good. I really hope I will have the sub-level finished this week. The closer we get, the more excited I become. God, I need to find an artist ASAP!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

BINGO! While doing some re-organizing of the home office, I came across the lost notes for the missing room!

Now here is a question...

There is a 30' x 30' room on the sub-level that is actually a pocket dimension, i.e. its own demi-plane. Walking through the misty doorway takes you to this demi-plane. However, it's designed to be a relatively small demi-plane. Maybe a mile square or so. Think of this room like a Dr. Who Tardis. So...when one reaches the edge of the demi-plane, what's there? I had originally planned on having the edges be the actual walls of the room. Imagine traveling across a mile in each direction only to discover you're inside a room where the walls are a mile apart!

Does that make sense though, to have the walls as barriers to mark the edge of the demi-plane?

[Tawnos76]

I think that is a perfect idea. It would be a surprise to the players to find the end and it be a stone wall just like back in the dungeon.

[Beowulf]

That's pretty ingenious! I like the idea of them being walls, just miles apart.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Thanks. I kinda like it myself. Imagine the players trying to map that room!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

This room was quite a challenge to make work. The sheer scale of it seemed unwieldy. I scaled it down to 800' x 800' inside, which is huge (I compared it to a park near my home - good lord, that's a massive area!). Man is this room deadly! A bog-like environment, carnivorous plants, swarms of giant insects, a pillar that causes slow petrification, and a couple of very deadly monsters as well. And no treasure!



It took me all night to get this room right (it happens like that sometimes), but I still think I'll have the sub-level all wrapped up this week. That means all that's left is Level 8, which is partly done and with extensive notes on the rest. Things should speed up significantly at this point!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Of the 8 rooms left for the sub-level, two down tonight, 6 left to go. And those are relatively easy rooms and already mainly designed. Yes!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Whew! Five of the 8 rooms done. Only 3 rooms left. One is an apprentice's study, the second is a lab, and the third is a rather large room, which is almost entirely planned out. This may be finished in a few days!

Then all that's left is Level 8, which is partially written and even more extensively planned. Should be picking up more and more steam at this point!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

If there's anything I freaking hate, it's writing laboratories. How do you make laboratories interesting? I find that to be one of the biggest challenges. But I finished both that appear on the sub-level. So what's left?

A temple room to a certain loathsome god. It's designed and all that. I just have to finish writing up the actual room description ("This room is magnificently designed, albeit in a dark, depraved manner. The floors are made of black jet, while numerous pillars of deep green malachite line the room. Each of the four pillars is engraved with runes and symbols. All four radiate confusion in a 10’ radius as per the spell."). Lots of descriptive language needed. But this room is merely a matter of pure writing. In other words, it's done. No traps, monsters, or riddles to design. It's all thought out and detailed (i.e. which monsters appear, what's in the room and where, etc). It just needs to be written into its final, graceful language and wording.

And so that leaves just one room - the huge room around which the rest of the sub-level is centered. It's an awesome room, and I'm excited about writing it. I have all the essentials done, now just a need to write it out and plot it (what happens if the PCs go here, or do this, etc).

So really, only one more room and the sub-level is done. I should have this completed by tomorrow night. Then it's on to polishing off Level 8, which already has a fair amount of work done to it. I can easily see this being released this fall, perhaps as early as summer. The maps need very little work, so Govi won't be overburdened or crushed by time restraints.

Govi is also going to try handling the conversion to PDF format. I think he's really good at it. So that issue is solved.

Really all we need is art. I'm going to bite the bullet and start spending time online trying to requisition an artist who I will no doubt have to pay. I don't care at this point. This is more a project of pride for myself, a memorial to Doirche, a gift to those of you who never gave up hope, and s slap in the face to those who ridiculed the project. Money is of no importance compared to that.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Level 8 has 21 areas of interest, of which 14 are completely finished and written, with two others planned and noted but not totally written. That leaves 10 areas of interest to create/design/write.

Of the core rooms (of which there are 42, with some being "complexes", i.e. #37A - #37E), there are 8 rooms totally finished and written in final form. Another 17 are planned/rough drafted.

At this rate, finishing by sometime over the summer is extremely likely.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ok...the temple is done! Good gods, that was a ton of intense descriptive writing! So, now I am about to start the last and final room of the sub-level. Tonight I hope to finish it. At that point, both Level 7 and the sub-level will be finished. All that's left then is to finish the remainder of Level 8.

[Beowulf]

Just out of curiosity, how many man/hours do you figure you have in the Project by now, Hal?

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ummm...six trillion? Feels like it!

Oh god, really, I can't even begin to estimate it. Even if we whittle it down exclusively to the hours spent on actual designing and writing time (i.e. not research, map tweaks, proof reading, etc), the total would still easily be in the high hundreds of hours, maybe a thousand or more. All told, the actual time spent (research, mapping, map tweaks, designing, writing, proof reading, re-writing, etc) would be in the thousands of hours, literally.

Even if I could charge for this thing and it was a massive best seller, I'd still probably only average out to minimum wage.

[Beowulf]

It will all be worth is once it's finished!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Good news!

THE SUB-LEVEL IS DONE!

I have to detail a treasure hoard (more on that in a moment) and place a clue (more on that in a moment as well!). But basically, the sub-level is finished. Every room and area of interest has been written out and proofed. It's on to Level 8, which is already started!

So far, the page count looks like this (using Verdana font size 8 with 1" margins):

Level 7 = 45 pages (Rooms + Areas of Interest)
Sub-Level = 40 pages (Rooms + Areas of Interest)
Level 8 = 17 pages (this is only a small portion of the writing)

That's 107 pages so far. When Level 8 is done, it will likely clock in at about 60-70 pages, at least. So that brings us to 145 to 155 pages just for the room descriptions. Keep in mind there are another 36 pages of monsters (36 new monsters, at least one page each), another roughly 16 pages dealing with the 32-36 new magic items, and at least another 16 pages detailing the 36 new spells.

That brings us to 213 - 223 pages. If you add in the auxiliary stuff (details of gates in and out, basic background, NPC descriptions, etc.) that will easily add another 30 pages or more. So now we're looking at 243 - 273 pages. And then there's the adventures booklet, which will clock in near at least 30 pages.

So, the grand total will finish between 273 - 303 pages!



The original Ruins of Undermountain boxed set clocked in at 158 pages (main book plus adventures booklet) and another 16 pages of monsters for a total page count of 174 pages. We're going to almost double that number!

I'm not counting the dungeon cards or maps. We'll have the same number of each.

But my god, this is going to be a massive, massive product!

Putting this into further perspective, we're going to have a total of 36 new monsters, 36 new magic items, and 36 new spells. None are "variants", but rather new, unique creations.

The original Ruins of Undermountain boxed set had 27 new magic items, 9 new sells, and 10 new monsters (plus one variant).

So yeah, this is going to kick royal ass!

[Beowulf]

Vely nice!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Thanks!

We have a handful of cool NPCs being developed for RoUIII as well.

Nadrun the Artificer (who is mentioned in both the original Ruins of Undermountain box set and in Dragon Magazine #106) will be developed, as he creates many of the magical doors in Undermountain.

One of Halaster's original apprentices (one of "The Seven") is being revealed/developed, but he is TOP SECRET for now.

Onthalus is a high level wizard mentioned in the original box set, so I figured I'd develop him as well. He's listed at 28th level. That's damned high for a character mentioned only in passing. But I like the name, so...

There's a handful of new NPCs as well, including the apprentices of some of Halaster's apprentices. And some other surprises.

Lots and lots of new material. Good lord, 300 pages easily.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

The spells chapter is finished. The new NPCs chapter is almost done as well. All the monsters are written up. We're moving at light speed lately!

[slade88green]

It sounds like it's going to be amazing!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Slade, if it goes over half as well as I hope, it'll be a hit.

So...I just did some calculating and the expected final page count (counting the main book, the adventures booklet, and the Monstrous Compendium sheets) will be about 294 pages.

The sub-level took 39 pages, Level 7 ran 45 pages, and Level 8 should average just about 50 pages (best estimate).

Considering there are a good handful more NPCs to write up, that should break the 300 page mark. Almost double what the original had. That's not counting the maps or Dungeon Dressing Cards.

It's gonna be a big download!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Got 3 rooms written up so far tonight, for Level 8. Making great progress! God is Level 8 deadly!

[McDeath]

Well, it brings my spirits up to know the project is alive and kicking and the site isn't dead. BIP is on my hotbar for quick-links amongst a few other sites.

Great Job... keep the engines burning full steam.