On Making Up The Canon...

 I was contacted the other day by someone trying to reconcile all the lore in the Rosewood Highlands. I'm honored (and a little bit intimidated, to be honest) that someone is enjoying things I've written so much that they are studying the connections. 

My problem is that I'm a "pantser." That is, I write "by the seat of my pants." While I do outline everything I write, I rarely "fact check" it against anything else I've written - never mind some of the many throw away details. What are all the various saints patrons of? What are the southern lands and western lands called? Well... ideas evolve over the years. The broad strokes of the Rosewood Highlands go all the way back to 1983 or 1984. Almost 40 years... Dang.  I have a whole filing cabinet filled with dungeons, adventure notes, maps (oh so many maps - I mean, they're terrible, of course, but I have maps by the folder full...). The general shape of the continent of Daen-Ral (the Midlands, at least) has been relatively unchanged since the late 80s, though the nations and peoples have evolved. 

Around 2010 I started codifying things and writing my first adventures - The Shrine of the Fallen Angels and the Hall of the Gnome King and the barest seeds of what became the Chantry of the Deepflame were those first adventures. Then I set those aside for some time to put together the Northern Tier as an experiment in a regional setting. Looking at the Tier now, it's pretty crude and incomplete, but it was a giant leap forward for me in adventure writing. Slowly, I populated the Tier with various adventure settings (Blackfalls Hall and the Sepulcher of the Burning King and the others) and added a few unexpected adventures (The Keep of the Broken Saint came in a flurry of writing over about three weeks, Goblin House in just a few days and The Ghost Downs, while it took some time to complete, began as a generic, ten page "quick adventure" location that might be dropped in anywhere). 

So that's how the Highlands have come to be - or at least some of the highlights. I've had a couple people aske me specific questions about details of the Highlands and I've done my best to answer those questions consistently. But I think now is the time.

I need to set other things aside and put together the "Setting Bible" so that as I write, I have an accurate frame of reference for the adventures and various other setting products I write. Or, at least I can try to devote the time and energy to the endeavor. 

So - Thanks Eloy! You've given me a ton to think about and lots of great notes on the inconsistencies in the Highlands. 

I'll try to keep things updated!!

 

More Maps

 Been working at too many projects... I don't seem to get any of them done. I'm pretty stoked about what I'm working on now, though

Song of Chaos and Eternal Night 

A Campaign/Hexcrawl in the Untamed North/Endless Mountains. 

Just finished sketching out the Guildhall in Newtown (based on St. Mary's Guildhall in England)

Finally Back At Work!!

 I have a dozen (or more!!!) partially finished projects... but I felt the need to jumpstart my creative process with a simple dungeon...

And then it grew. And it grew. And I added the upper ruins. And there will yet be a small regional map...

But I'm writing again. Hopefully this WILL jumpstart the creative process again and I can get some more of the Rosewood Highlands out the door.

The Rosewood Highlands

 So here's a map of the Highlands - mostly unlabeled - at 24 miles per hex. It's a big area, but not too unwieldy (I hope!).

The Untamed North is, of course, the northern half of the region...

Here's a draft of the continent which contains the Rosewood Highlands...

Managing the Untamed North

The region of the Rosewood Highlands that has the most traditional adventure opportunities is the Untamed North, fey and undead haunted woods where monsters roam freely, where brave souls stand and fall amid the chaos of wild borderlands, where civilization ends at a village's palisade wall or at a castle gate. Ruins abound, Goblin-kin raid, bandits hide out and strange and previously unseen creatures call the Untamed North home. 

We will be updating the blog a little more regularly (I hope!!) as we work through some of the details of the Untamed North and the Upon the Face of the Deep Campaign, with an eye toward making the Rosewood Highlands come more alive as a campaign setting.

As we did with the Northern Tier several years ago, material may appear on the blog that will be used in the final product(s), but it is likely to be incomplete and inaccurate (according to the "official" final versions that we publish). Additional material that doesn't make the cut for publication may also appear here, as well as some other special tidbits. 

As 2020 Ends - THANK YOU!!

As 2020 comes to a close, the Everything 2020 Bundle at Drivethrurpg will disappear in about 3 days.

There's been a little buzz on Dragonsfoot and Bryce Lynch's reviews at https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/ have been generally positive and supportive (we have several "the best" entries - which is awesome!)

So there's been a bit of uptick in bundle sales.  I'm so appreciative of every single order. I've rolled a fair amount of the money made back into stock art for future products as well as purchases to support other small press folk on Drivethru.

THANK YOU to everyone who has supported Rosethrone Publishing in any way. We can't do it without you.

Some Titles In Print

 This has been a long and frustrating journey, but I think I'm figuring out the ins and outs of print on demand at Drivthrurpg.

Finally got my proofs for the four most recent adventures. The larger books - the sandbox adventures that clock in at about 100 pages each - work much better as perfect bound books than the shorter - 32-36 page - adventures. I'm exploring how to do the saddle stitched option - it means that the book is "premium color" which I guess just means they can charge more? I'm okay with that as long as the end result looks and feels good. 

So here's the four proof copies. I'm only comfortable releasing the larger ones into the world at large - and I might wait until after the holiday anyway - releasing a larger group (maybe the whole collection?) and/or some omnibus editions...