(Re-)Introducing…Adventures Dark and Deep™: Old-School Basics!
What a wild ride the last year has been.
The Adventures Dark and Deep: Basic Player’s Guide was supposed to be out last winter, and it almost was. It was hovering at about 90% done when the last minute decision was made to change it entirely. It was decided to change its scope and expand it severely: instead of just being a player’s reference for Adventures Dark and Deep it has now become its own full-fledged game similar to the early “basic” game by J. Eric Holmes.
It asks the question, what if Adventures Dark and Deep–a speculative interpretation of what Gary Gygax’s “2E” would look like–was used as the basis to make a “Basic” version of fantasy role-playing?
This more than doubled its size. Besides causing tweaks to things like character creation and combat, it added an entire second part to the book which contains fresh old-school GM’s advice, a curated list of monsters, and a full mini-mega-dungeon for beginners. Not easy tasks to do. Especially not easy tasks when life throws obstacles in your path whenever it can. Life, uh…finds a way, and all that.
There was one last tricky thing, though…with the expanded scope of the game: what do we call it? It’s original name didn’t fit it anymore since it was more than a player’s guide, but is still based on Adventures Dark and Deep.
Hence, we now present:
Adventures Dark and Deep: Old-School Basics
Why this specific subtitle? Because it combines the two concepts we want to get across to potential players:
1) It is geared thoroughly towards “old-school” play. Parts of it were even specifically “devolved” to feel more like what players in the early-’80s would experience. Old rulebooks were re-read for the first time in decades and many a binder of houserules was consulted. We hope users of the book will get a sense of what it was like to play pure dungeon-crawling fantasy role-playing back in the beginning of the hobby.
2) It is simplified. This doesn’t necessarily mean it is for beginners, however. Old Grognards who want to cut down on the number of tables they need to consult will find much value in the book, as will any “5e” player who wants to really feel the history of the hobby. Anyone who has tried to run a game with the original Player’s Handbook knows that Gygax’s rules are often incomprehensible and incomplete. Our book provides a clean exposition of rules to fix that.
So, now that we claim that an end is in sight, where are we now?
Writing-wise the only things left are the things that have been partially “outsourced”, which are some extra examples of play and some more GM’s advice. Beyond that, layout has now started and another round of art commissioning has begun.
So, when will it actually come out?
We hesitate to put an actual date on it again, so the answer is whenever we hear back from the artists and freelancers plus the time to assemble it.
Another concern is Action! System 2.0 is finally coming. While there is only so much time in the day to spend on work that doesn’t pay the mortgage, the two projects are distinctly separate so work can continue on one without affecting the other.
We hope this excites you as much as it does us. We can’t wait to see you at the table!
