November 14, 2012
My third freelance project for Paizo Publishing, the Pathfinder Society scenario 4-07 Severing Ties, was released several days ago. It received surprisingly few changes in development, which I take to mean that I've turned over solid work that needed little by way of rewriting--good news, as I love working for Paizo and look to do more of it.
One observation about my Paizo adventures: I've already run Severing Ties more than my other two Paizo adventures. I ran my first adventure, Tide of Twilight, in a pre-submission playtest (playtesting is a critical component of adventure design, which basically allows players to shine spotlights on glaring holes in your carefully-crafted work) and once after its release. I ran my second adventure, The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment, only for the playtest; I haven't yet run the released version. But I've run Severing Ties twice already (three times if you count its playtest), and plan to run it again soon.
It's a little bit disconcerting to run one of my adventures post-release, because at that point I can't fix any of the nagging bits that I see. These nagging bits--or at least, a general description of them and what it means for adventure design--will probably show up as a future blog post.
Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
October 31, 2012
For anyone looking to run a great Halloween-themed game, many Run Amok adventures will serve you well on this spooky day! Teeth of the Storm is the most overtly horror-movie adventure we've released, but The Six Griffons Haunt is a haunted house/murder mystery that plays in about 4 hours--perfect for gaming on a Halloween night!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
October 19, 2012
I've made a few updates to the .pdf version of the Emergency Character collection. Primarily, these are .pdf-focused changes and not print-worthy changes, so I'm not planning to update the print versions. The updates include:
- Providing two separate layouts for Vinkia the druid: the original version with her animal companion statistics on the same page as her statistics, and a second version with the animal companion separate from her statistics.
- Including nested bookmarks.
- Providing stats for Lu...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
September 20, 2012
I wasn't exactly sure whether producing a free excerpt from
The Emergency Character Collection was a good idea. However, in the last week, the free excerpt has more downloads than all of my other products put together. So people are grabbing it, and although there aren't yet any reviews (or even much chatter) about
The Emergency Character Collection, I'm sure I can attribute at least some of my sales of the full product to the popularity of the free excerpt.
So, free excerpts seem to sell prod...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Hints and Teasers
September 12, 2012
The .pdf version of The Emergency Character Collection is now out, along with its FREE sample version. You can get it at RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com now, and at Paizo.com soon!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
September 11, 2012
As the first non-adventure product for Run Amok Games, I've adjusted my usual process a bit for The Emergency Character Collection. First, I workshopped it, asking a fairly large group of friends to evaluate the layout, find errors, and give feedback on the art (and there is a LOT of art here). Second, I've decided to produce a free product, to show off two of the 13 PCs and hopefully drive more sales by letting people know what they can get.
I needed to revise the cover art at the last minut...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
August 2, 2012
Print and .pdf are both now available for Teeth of the Storm. Enjoy our third adventure, a chilling tale of gothic horror for 1st level PCs!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
July 18, 2012
As a quick heads-up, here’s the status of the three “in the works” products:
Teeth of the Storm is fully through writing and editing. All of the art is in. I'm just finishing layout this week. I plan to release this in print and .pdf at the same time. Some of the illustrations, while great, may be a bit too dark, so I’ll be scrutinizing the print proof before approving this for public sale. Expect Teeth of the Storm near the end of July.
The Emergency Character Collection is fully w...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
July 5, 2012
I had someone point out just the other day that my “Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment” for Paizo Publishing http://paizo.com/products/btpy8qq1?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-321-The-Temple-of-Empyreal-Enlightenment is the highest-rated Pathfinder Society Scenario ever—it currently has 10 five-star reviews. Other PFS scenarios have had exclusively-five-star reviews, but none have so many. The Paizo forums have given an awful lot of praise for this adventure, for which I’m very grateful and...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
July 3, 2012
My adventure "Dark Waters Rising" for Raging Swan is now available here:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tga?Dark-Waters-Rising. Creighton Broadhurst of Raging Swan has been great to work with, and a real exemplar of third party publisher interaction. He was open to my pitch of an adventure idea, suggested tie-ins to his existing products that I could use, and provided clear direction for how he wanted the final product to look. Creighton gave me a document template with the appropriate styles...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
June 25, 2012
I've been fortunate to do a lot of work for Headless Hydra Games already, but a big project that's been in the works for a while is now coming to the surface. The Viridian Legacy adventure path will soon be released in its installments, and the Viridian Legacy Player's Guide is now available at RPGNow.com and Paizo.com. I put together the skeleton of the adventure path and wrote the player's guide and GM's guide, but it's neat to see how Axel at Headless Hydra Games has really put a professio...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
June 5, 2012
I've announced a new product, "The Emergency Character Collection." It's the first non-adventure product Run Amok Games has produced, and I'm a bit nervous about its reception. I've been really lacking a stable of pregenerated PCs, either for my games or in other people's games (RIP Daremo the halfling rogue, who was eaten by a hezrou). However, lists of pregenerated PCs rarely seem to be a viable (or interesting) product on their own. I decided that my ideal pregenerated PC product would hav...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
May 31, 2012
Now available is my second Pathfinder Society adventure, "The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment," which you can get at
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8qq1. This is a creepy Stepford Wives-type investigation adventure, where all is not as it seems in an isolated temple to a benign god. Check it out!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
May 30, 2012
I've been working with Headless Hydra Games quite a bit, and most recently in connection with developing an adventure path for them. This adventure path has about a dozen chapters, a few of which I'm writing. I just turned in the final updates to Chapter 1--which was begun by the talented Tom Baumbach--so that should be available in the near future.
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
May 7, 2012
Rite Publishing just released the next issue of their free Pathfinder RPG 'zine, Pathways, which includes the first part of a three-part adventure I've written for them. Called "Scattered Sheaves," this adventure details the PCs' quest for stolen pages from a magical tome. In each of the three parts, the PCs investigate a different location to recover the missing pages. The three parts and be run in order. This is very tight location adventure design for me, and is a good exercise in packing ...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
April 28, 2012
I've already received some really great reviews and comments on The Underdelve Menace. It's now available in print at Paizo.com, RPGNow.com, and DriveThruRPG.com. If you want the print version, I recommend getting the print/pdf combo. It's only $2 more, and you'll get the .pdf file including the full-color printable encounter maps too. Enjoy!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
March 29, 2012
The Underdelve Menace is now available! Availability comes in stages, though: right now, you can get the .pdf at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG. The .pdf should be available at Paizo.com in the next day or two, print versions at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG in a week or two, and print version available at Paizo.com in the week or so after that.
I considered whether to delay the .pdf release so that print and pdf are available at all site simultaneously. I decided to get the "Underdelve Menace" .pdf out so...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
March 21, 2012
I've finished with layout of The Underdelve Menace, and I already have all the cartography--only a few more pieces of art to come in, and this rural investigative adventure will be ready to release!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
March 14, 2012
I've been juggling several products for other publishers that should see print in the next few months. I've written another Pathfinder Society adventure, "The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment" for Paizo Publishing (no, not *that* ToEE), and I'm writing a tense rescue-type adventure called "Dark Waters Rising" for Raging Swan. Look for these soon!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
February 17, 2012
I've received the first art piece for the upcoming gothic-horror themed
"Teeth of the Storm" adventure, and I'm quite pleased with it. Chaz
Kemp's art nouveau style isn't typical for fantasy RPGs, but will definitely
give the art in this adventure a unique style!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Hints and Teasers
February 14, 2012
My short mini-adventure "Moso's Bluff" in Pathways #12 by Rite Publishing just got a great review; I spent a lot of time crafting that mini-adventure and working in Yakuza-themed elements, and it's rewarding to hear good things about it.
Also, I'm midway through layout of the second Run Amok adventure, "Underdelve Menace," and hope to have that out in early March. I'll also be adding a few site updates in the next few days.
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
February 1, 2012
The Six Griffons Haunt is now in print at Paizo.com, so it's now in print from anyone that sells it online. You can also get the print and .pdf as a bundle together--I recommend this, so you get the printable full-color maps for your gaming table as well as the print adventure itself.
I also have print copies for sale at Chicago-area game stores: Chicagoland Games and Games Plus, but others to come!
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
January 13, 2012
I've finally negotiated the RPGNow.com print process, and you can now order "Six Griffons Haunt" in print, to hold in your very hands:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=96249. It'll be another few days before I get print versions available at paizo.com as well, but that's coming soon. Now that I have this figured out, the lag between product .pdf availability and print availability of all of our products will be much shorter.
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
January 8, 2012
I developed a new mechanic for an adventure I wrote for Headless Hydra Games (
Wreck of the Keening Crone) called "Haste Points." The adventure is fundamentally a race, and the faster the PCs hustle in early encounters, the easier they find the later encounters to be. I thought this mechanic could be generalized as a useful tool for GMs designing time-pressure adventures. I proposed it as an article to Open Design and they accepted it for their Kobold Quarterly magazine. It's called "Make Has...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
December 18, 2011
I'm working through my two upcoming projects (The Underdelve Menace and Teeth of the Storm), and I'm considering which product to dig into after that--either another short adventure, or a long project that's been brewing for quite some time. I was generously given a great, flexible set of stock maps from Raging Swan Press and I'm thinking they would work quite well with a very high-level (17th or 18th level) adventure I've been kicking around in my head. I know that high-level events appeal o...
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Hints and Teasers
December 2, 2011
I've just been published in Pathways #10 magazine from Rite Publishing. I provided them with a short article called "The Fleshgrafter's Foe" that introduces a helpful NPC, a gruesome new magic item based on Rite Publishing's "30 Fleshgrafts" product, and a combat encounter. Quite a lot to pack into a short article, and worth checking out.
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Work with Other Publishers
November 13, 2011
I'm working through the process of getting a print version of The Six Griffons Haunt available. It looks like it'll be about a week out or so; I'll drop a message here when it's available.
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Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
November 2, 2011
Posted by Ron Lundeen. Posted In : Announcements
