Citadel on the Wilderlands in March
This month has been a challenge. For some reason, the words for Citadel on the Wilderlands have not flowed as I wish they would. I’ve hit my target every day—to do otherwise would be madness—but on many days, getting where I need to be has taken longer than I would have liked.
It’s important to remember, I remind myself, that every project goes through ups and downs; such is the way of things. If it was easy, everyone would do it!
I have made decent progress, though, on Solonor Isle itself. I’ve now completed principle design of the island’s three main settlements—the village of Nemeton, the Citadel at Nemeton and the town of Bleakhaven. I’m now starting to flesh out the important folk of Bleakhaven.
I’ve come to realise, also, that this book is going to be bigger than I had anticipated. I’m at 120 pages already with virtually no art and no stat blocks. From one point of view, the book doesn’t really require that many stat blocks—it is primarily a setting book, and the characters are unlikely to fight or mechanically interact with most of the folk on Solonor Isle. That said, stat blocks are handy things to have, and not including them limits what the GM can do with the book.
Before I make a final decision on stat blocks, I’m going to design the fluff and flavour of the Bleakhaven NPCs. One thing I also need to decide is which NPCs “deserve” a full writeup and which ones do not. That will depend on which NPCs are likely to get sustained “face time” in a normal campaign.
So, I have a lot to think about!
I’ve made no progress on the Monastery document since last month. That’s fine. It makes sense to get a first draft of Solonor Isle done before moving on to the wilderlands and the adventures therein. And as you may recall last month, I found that working on both parts of Citadel at the same time put me behind in many other Raging Swan Press jobs. I’m still playing catchup and while I may do another design sprint in the future, I probably won’t until May at the earliest.
In other news, I’m also eagerly awaiting the map of Nemeton village from Tommi Salama. When I have it in my clutches, I’ll be sure to post it here.
So that’s where Citadel on the Wilderlands stands at the moment. Got a question or comment? Leave it below!
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Citadel on the Wilderlands is my love letter to B2 Keep on the Borderlands and B5 Horror on the Hill. I'm writing 500 words every weekday for a year.
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