Saturday, October 24, 2020

Deep Madness Board Game - Tour Guide of scenarios, book, campaigns

Deep Madness Scenario Chronology v8

UPDATED Aug 2021
21 total scenarios (canon) 
+ 1 fan campaign (4 scenarios)  + 1 fan-made expansion set (7 scenarios)

Seth (S.E) Lindberg and Phil Blake

Starting place for Deep Madness:
·       (optional) Read the Shattered Seas novel by Byron Leavitt
o   Many key characters (People of Interest) in the novel are colored purple in the table

·       Note: the Chronology Table below is not necessarily the suggested order of play
·       For newcomers, the suggested playthrough order of Expansions is:
o   Drowning in the Depths (tutorial scenario, provided in Faces of the Sphere/Profundum)
o   Core Box (scenarios 1-8)
o   Endless Nightmares (3 scenarios, any order) & Uncounted Horrors (1 scenario)
o   Other scenarios/campaigns

 

Chronology Table Scope:

The original intent of the table was to organize the chronology of the canon scenarios to further narrative gameplay.

We include a representative fan made campaign (Premonitions of Despair led by Phil Blake and Fabio Faletti) to highlight the community involvement which included feedback/support from Diemension Game (Byron Leavitt sourced PDFs from their master files, DG gave permissions to use their art, and DG encouraged them). Check out the Facebook group, link below.

Exalted Blasphemies: Fans created expansions focused on the Epic monsters (colored red in the table) that did not have scenarios. (Phil Blake championed this and played a role everywhere; graphic design by Fabio Faletti, includes cover art by Chang Yuan, several stories by Seth (S.E.) Lindberg and Sam Parsons to complement Phil Blake’s writing; Oscar Bok and Mark Turner got kudus for playtesting. This was made available for the public Aug 2021.

 Versions of this will be posted in:


Chronology

Expansion Game Title

Chapter/Scenario

Epic Monster  Person of Interest

Character Focus (or those come with the expansion)  Person of Interest

Prequel

Shattered Seas (complements novel of same name)

1: Shattered Worlds  (requires a game tile from Uncounted Horrors)

Lucas Kane (marine biologist)

Pre-Core Story

 

Rise of Dagon

1: Rite of Bile

Ward Phillips (novelist)

Regan Waite (cultist)

Meredith Waite (executive)

2: Virulent Whispers

3: Dagon Rising

Premonitions of Despair

Fan-Generated Campaign

1: Malfunction

Christopher Dalton (mystic)

Lisbeth Gibson (hacker)

Charles Ryan (heavy miner)

Jacob Clarke (relief expert)

Dakota Johnson (officer)

Sophie Brigman (diver)

2: Mutilation

3: Hallucination

4: Exit Wounds (Cthulhu sculpture)

Profundum/The Faces of the Sphere

1: Drowning in the Depths (tutorial)

Same as core story

Core Story

Core Box of Deep Madness

1: Crawling Asphyxia

Arthur Weyland (engineer)

Felicia Armitage (doctor)

Jared Drake (soldier)

Randi Carter (researcher)

Roman Asimov (biochemist)

Samuel Smith (captain)

 

Oracles Betrayal:

Hannah Cobb (little girl)

John Murdock (detective)

Dr. Clarence Branom (psychiatrist)

 

2: Last Shuttle to Hell

3: Bathphobia

4: Through the Looking Glass (William West)

Oracle’s Betrayal

1: Trimming Victims (William West)

2: Collecting Tissue (William West)

3: Lobotomy (William West)

Core Box of Deep Madness

5: Madness Within

6: Lost in the Mist

7: The Horror Beneath (Edgar Kayce)

8: The Substance of Terror

“True Ending”

to Core Story

Uncounted Horrors

1: Another Dawn

Core story characters, plus:

David (pilot)

Pris (secretary)

Dakota Johnson (officer)

Stephen Cooper (physicist)

Charles Ryan (heavy miner)

Jacob Clarke (relief expert)

Amanda Weaver (quartermaster)

Sophie Brigman (diver)

Jon (cat)

Post Core Story

Profundum/The Faces of the Sphere (cross-over to Dawn of Madness board game)

1: Faces of the Sphere

Same as core story + Hannah + Ward Phillips + Jacob Clarke (Visages of them!)

No fixed timeframe

 

Play at anytime

Endless Nightmares

1: Fathoms Dark (Unbound)

Christopher Dalton (mystic)

Emma Kruger (special agent)

Franklyn Christie (navigator)

Amanda Weaver (quartermaster)

Isaiah Wiesenthal (prophet)

Lisbeth Gibson (hacker)

Sophie Brigman (diver)

Scarlet Romanov (special agent)

2: Fevered Dreams (Obscure)

3: Expectant Terror (Nest)

 

 

Exalted Blasphemies

Fan Made Expansions

1: Dimension Sickness (Dimension Rift)

Edgar Kayce (Dimension Sickness)

2: Wisdom of the Mad King (Drifter King)

3: Hunger Pains (Omega Ravenous)

4: Devoured (Devourer of Worlds)

5: Infected Memories (Insidious)

6: The Dreamlands (Spawn of the Sleeper)

7: Purgatory (Penitent and Forsaken)

 

Friday, October 23, 2020

Nov-Dec Groupread: Charles R. Saunders Tribute and Sword & Soul









 


For the Nov-Dec 2020 Sword & Sorcery groupreads, the topic will be Sword & Soul in honor of Charles R. Saunders's passing (by royal decree). So Saunders will be a focus, but the sub-Genre he championed is all fair game. Including the works inspiring an HBO series for the Asuna works (Sebastian A. Jones) and all of Milton J. Davis's work too. Please join us! Discover and rediscover Sword & Soul!

Link: Discussion Folder for Saunders/Sword&Soul 

Link: Poll used as a means to declare which book you intend to read (and see what others are choosing!) 

Banner Credits: Saunders and Sword & Soul Groupread Banner. Cover artists for Charles R Saunder's works:
- 2013 The Quest for Cush cover art by Alain Brion
- 2011 Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology cover by Natiq Jalil
- 2008 Dossouye cover by Mshindo Kuumba



Friday, October 2, 2020

Sword & Sorcery Writer's Track at Bride of Cyclops Con - sharing from Goodman Games

Goodman Games just post a wonderful Update on Kickstarter (ostensibly for Tales from the Magician's Skull campaign) that advertises the Sword & Sorcery Writer's Track at Cyclops Con.

I wasn't sure if non-backers could see this (link) or not, so I spread the news here (yes, I simply copy and pasted).  Looks like they are broadcasting the panels via Twitch. Coming in two weeks!


Goodman Games writes: 

Sword & Sorcery Writer's Track at Bride of Cyclops Con

Bride of Cyclops Con is our upcoming online gaming convention, scheduled for October 16-18. Among many other things, we'll be broadcasting a sword & sorcery writer's track to our Twitch channel! There are four seminars that will air from October 16 to October 18. If you're a sword & sorcery fan, mark your calendar. You'll want to check these out!

“The Best Sword & Sorcery Stories of the 20th Century” – Friday, October 16, 6:00 pm-8:00 pm EST

Six sword-and-sorcery fans and scholars compare notes about the important works in the genre, starting with foundational fiction and moving on to more recent times. This panel will talk details, not just an author’s name, but why a particular story or novel is worthy of note.

Panelists:

  • Brian Murphy, author of Flame & Crimson 
  • Dr. Jason Ray Carney, author of Weird Tales of Modernity, editor of Whetsone and co-editor of The Dark Man 
  • Bill Ward, Online Editor for Tales From the Magician’s Skull 
  • Howard Andrew Jones, Editor Tales From the Magician’s Skull 
  • Jeff Goad, co-host of the ENnie nominated podcast Appendix N Book Club 

“Finding the New Edge for Fiction Writers” – Saturday, October 17, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm EST

Seven modern crafters of heroic fiction and sword-and-sorcery sit down to discuss how they plot stories and create characters.

Panelists: James Enge, John C. Hocking, Violette Malan, Clint Werner, Nathan Long, Adrian Cole, and Howard Andrew Jones

“Getting Sword-and-Sorcery into your Role-Playing Game” – Saturday, October 17, 4:00 pm-5:00 pm EST

Four veteran game masters talk about tips and tricks for getting your game sessions to feel more like a rip-snorting sword-and-sorcery tale.

Panelists: Michael Curtis, Harley Stroh, Joseph Goodman, and Howard Andrew Jones

“Behind the Scenes with Publishers of Heroic Fiction” – Sunday, October 18, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm EST

Where can you find heroic fiction in the modern age? Well, at least five of those places are represented by the members of this panel, who’ll be talking about trends in the industry, how to get your story ready for the editors, and related topics.

Panelists:

  • Adrian Simmons, Publisher and Editor of Heroic Fiction Quarterly 
  • Christopher Paul Carey, Director of Publishing at Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
  • Douglass Drass, Editor of Weirdbook 
  • Milton Davis, Publisher of MVMedia 
  • Joseph Goodman, Publisher of Tales From the Magician’s Skull 
  • Howard Andrew Jones, Editor of Tales From the Magician’s Skull