I was once accused of digging holes so deep I could not get out of them. This literally happened once. I was on a dig (when I was an archeologist) and stayed all day in a deep hole excavating and excavating. I was pretty handy with the shovel then and was flinging scoops of dirt out of this 8-foot-deep hole and into a wheelbarrow. Unbeknownst to me, the dirt was landing on one side of the wheelbarrow. It eventually came crashing down on top of me. Someone had to stick a ladder down the hole so I could get out, bruised and battered. Such is the story of my life and my writing.
The best aspect of being able to write for Troll Lord Games is that I get to write. I get to tell stories. Most of the modules I write are really just the stories of dozens of individuals or monsters. The adventure occurs when the players' characters interact with them. Playing an Adventure is like finishing a story I created all the moving parts to but have no idea where to take it. Not having anywhere to go forward with the story of these peoples, leads me, often, to go back. Stephen and I both have a knack for doing the same thing. We wander our stories backwards and not forward.
Going Back is the Best Way Forward
Stephen has a degree in history and I in archeology. Both are, coincidentally, studies of the past. We were backwards then and are backwards now. Backwards facing that is, not backwards as in incapable of tying our shoes or even knowing what shoes are. We both bring this to our writing and all the products produced for Castles and Crusades. There is a backstory and history for nearly every character, kingdom, local, or even objects in Castles and Crusades. The magic weapons often have histories. We like the past and imbue all our writings with a past. True depth exists in our settings. Don’t ever ask, because both of us will go one and on and on and on and on…. You get the picture.
Outside of the simple rules, I think this is one of the more spectacular elements of our product line. Both Stephen and I have our predilections and tastes, manners of delving into the past and bringing it forward. Stephen’s is more linear. He has timelines and histories and years and events. He was a historian and dates matter. My histories are more amorphous and muddled. I was an archeologist trying to make sense out of a pile of dirt. The way we view the past is evident in our descriptions of it. Both, though, have depth and meaning. Big events and small items have a place and reason for being.
It would be absolutely remiss of me not to give a huge nod to Brian Young, another waybacker who has made true to his profession and combs human history for source material. He has produced the absolutely phenomenal line of Mythos books. Birds of a feather I suppose.
But Maybe that’s Too Much Information
Is it even possible to have too much information? Yes, yes, it is. Too much information disallows for those gray areas anyone running an adventure needs to plug in their own stories. The modules and setting material are collaborative efforts of storytelling. The scaffolding is provided in the adventures and setting material. The Castle Keeper and players complete the edifice. The A series is a perfect example of this. There is enough information, a tenuous skeletal framework, provided in A0 through A12 to propel the character forward to the Gates of Aufstrag and entree to the massive palace of a long dead god, but the process of getting there should take the characters on many adventures hither and non and unrelated to those published.
That lastly, would be my hope. I hope that everyone continues to buy our product line, of course, but more, I hope everyone who does so takes it as inspiration to build their own world, generate their own histories and own mythologies. Stephen and myself have a vast pool of inane knowledge to pour into our world settings. Maybe, hopefully, you can take the threads we start with and use them to....
Weave your own tales.
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