Pacesetter Games: Islands of Peril

Cover of the standard edition

Islands of Peril is the latest adventure from Pacesetter Games written by Bill Barsh based on the 1970s maps and notes of J. Eric Holmes (with permission from the Holmes estate).  This follows last year's Things Better Left Alone dungeon adventure; read my post about that one here. I contributed a Foreword to this one, where I give an overview of the original maps that it is based on. Note that this one is a sandbox wilderness, and is the first of a two-part series of island-based adventures.

The adventure was released last weekend at North Texas RPG Con, where Chris Holmes is a regular attendee. To quote Pacesetter's announcement: 

"This year we bring you Islands of Peril: Book One. This massive island (wilderness) adventure includes five fully-detailed islands within Holmes' home campaign. Designed for Classic D&D using character levels 1-4, there are numerous sandbox style adventure locales on each of the islands. PCs can explore the Crying Cyclops Isle, Shadow Island, Isle of the Creeping Doom, Barrow Island, and Isle of Ash. Each features unique adventures and encounters within this first installment featuring the maps and notes from Dr. Holmes, the father of Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

We have three versions to choose from; softcover, hardcover, and special edition hardcover. In case you missed Things Better Left Alone last year, we have brought it back into print (it sold out last year at NTX). Available in both softcover and brand new hardcover edition.

Lastly, but most importantly, Chris Holmes, the son of Dr. Holmes, is attending the convention. Find him at the con or at our booth and have him sign your copy! Not only did he provide us with the original hand-drawn maps (included in each book), he contributed his artistic talents to the illustrations in each book.

If you cannot make it to the convention, look for the books at pacesettergames.com."

Find three different hardcopy versions of Islands of Peril, as well the PDF version, here on the Pacesetter games website:

Pacesetter Games: Islands of Peril

Pacesetter Games: Things Better Left Alone

 

Things Better Left Alone. Cover at by Wonkee.

Things Better Left Alone is an adventure written by Bill Barsh and published by his company, Pacesetter Games, based on four original dungeon maps drawn by J. Eric Holmes, as well as the associated keys, which are mostly written directly on the maps but also include one additional page of notes.

These maps include the areas which Holmes drew on for his novel The Maze of Peril. I wrote about the correspondence between the story and these maps back in my Tales of Peril Book Club (sadly unfinished); specifically, see Scene 6 and Scene 7. If you'd like a copy of The Maze of Peril to read along with the adventure, the publisher is still selling copies from the original print run on Amazon.

This adventure was authorized by the Holmes family and includes art by Chris Holmes and Wonkee, as well as scans of the original maps and notes on which it is based, as well as modern renderings of the maps.

The adventure went on sale today in conjunction with the North Texas RPG Con. Print copies can be purchased directly from their booth at the con, but are also available on the Pacesetter games website, where there are two options: Print + PDF plus PDF alone. The PDF can be downloaded directly after purchasing. Find it here on DriveThruRPG:

Things Better Left Alone in Print or PDF

The Forgotten Smugglers' Cave: Draft Map

Draft Map. Click for a larger, clearer view that you can drag to your desktop

Above is my draft of a complete map for the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave adventure, showing entire complex, Areas 1-25. North is up, and each square is 10 feet. Area 16 is cut off at the bottom because the entire chamber is 300 feet in length, north to south. 

This map was made in Excel (it's a spreadsheet!), with a grid set to 10 squares per inch. I hope to make another version in Inkscape once I have some time to reacquaint myself with the program. But for the time being, I'm using this draft version to play test the dungeon, and hopefully it will be sufficient for anyone else to run it, should they wish. 

Click on the preview image above to see the larger image, which should be much clearer. You can drag that image to your desktop and print it out. When printing, set to "Print Entire Image" or 63%, which should scale it to fit on a single page.

Note that some of the descriptions in the areas may not match the map right now; I plan to go back and edit the room descriptions to match what is shown on the map.

Evening Update:

I've already updated the map twice since originally posting it. I've noticed a few errors, and added a few more features, a title & a compass, and made the numbers more prominent.

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus: Updated!

Attention all: The Ruined Tower of Zenopus has been updated!

Today, I uploaded a revised version (designated Version 2.0) to DMs Guild. As with the last update, the updated pdf should be available to anyone who previously purchased the adventure. In fact, DMs Guild should have sent you a notification that the product has been updated.

Two pages have been added, bringing the total to 20 pages. The new pages are:

(1) A full-page illustration by J. Eric Holmes' son, Chris Holmes...!

I commissioned this fantastic new work from Chris (who has his own website here) and it depicts the octopus from Room M battling a party in one of the pirate rowboats. Here is a thumbnail sneak-peak; see the adventure for the full-sized illustration:

(2) A Printer-Friendly Dungeon Map. Back in May, I added two separate dungeon map files to the product, drawn using the application Gridmapper by Alex Schroeder. I have now revised the PDF itself to include a version of this DM's Map. I removed the black background and redid the lettering to improve legibility. Again, just a sneak peek here:

Find the updated adventure here:
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMs Guild

Click here to read reviews of the RTOZ by various bloggers

A Dungeon Map is now included with the Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMs Guild!

Screenshot of the new Dungeon Master's Map for The Ruined Tower of Zenopus

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus now includes a map of the dungeon!

Yesterday I uploaded two separate dungeon map files to the Ruined Tower of Zenopus page on DMs Guild (as previously teased). These should be available for download by anyone who has already purchased the module, and for any new purchases. If you go to your account on DMs Guild there is a section near the top that says "Updated Files", which hopefully will show this product as updated on May 26th. 

This map is derived from the map I made in Gridmapper a few years ago and posted here.

The two maps are variations of the same map; the first is a Dungeon Master's Map, a preview of which is shown above, and the second is a Player's Map. In addition to being labeled differently, the Player's Map has the room letters removed, along with the secret doors and corridor between Rooms S and F.

Each map comes as a png file with a size of 8400 pixels by 8190 pixels, a large size that is optimized for use in Roll20, but is also printable. See the notes for each use below. Each file is a little over 4 MB. 

Each square on the map(s) is 10' wide, as in the original. A few corridors are not to scale due to the limitations of Gridmapper (or perhaps my lack of skill in using it). The secret corridor between Rooms S and F should only be 5' wide, and the rat tunnels should only be 3' wide (I noted the latter on the map). 

Using in Roll20:

-Create a New Game. The Zoom should be set to 100% by default, but set it to that if not.

-Click on the Page Toolbar icon. There should be a Page called "Start". Hover your mouse over it and a gear will appear to the left titled "Page Settings". Click and a "Page Settings" menu will open. Change the Settings as follows: 

-Under "Page Size", set the Width to 60 and the Height to 58.5. Under "Cell Width", change the size from 1 to 0.5. 

-Leave the Page Toolbar by clicking on the page called "Start". Now go to the toolbar on the left, and click on the "pin" icon (second from top). A menu will open. Change from Objects and Tokens to "Maps & Background". If you don't do this, your map will import as a token and the grid will not overlay the map.

-Again confirm Zoom is set to 100%. Drag the map file (the DM's or Player's Map) from your desktop (or folder) to the Roll20 Page workspace. This will import the map. In the workspace, drag the map until the upper left corner of the imported map is exactly aligned with the upper left corner of the workspace. This should line up the map exactly with four 5' squares inside each 10' square on the map.

-You can change the color of the grid in the Page Toolbar if you'd like the 5' squares to be darker or lighter (you can even set them to white so they are invisible).

-Note if you are using the Player's Map, you will need to add the Secret Passage between Rooms F and S if the PCs find it. This can be done either by drawing it on the map using the Roll20 drawing tools, or I think you can cut and paste the corridor from the DM's Map and import it into Roll20 and overlay it on the map in the appropriate spot.

Printing the Map: The map can be printed on a sheet of paper, but be warned that since the background is black and fills the negative space, it will use a lot of black ink or toner. The map file is only 75 dpi but is so large it should print at a fine resolution when shrunk to the sheet of a paper. I tested this and it printed fine using a "Shrink to Fit" setting, which was about 7% of the original size.

I hope to make a more printer-friendly option available in the future.

Product Link:
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMs Guild

Click here to read reviews of the RTOZ by various bloggers

Player Map for Zenopus Dungeon

Player Map - click for a larger view and/or download

Above is a Player Map for my Return to the Tower of Zenopus game (now retitled In Search of the Brazen Head of Zenopus) that I ran this past June at North Texas RPG Con. I took the original manuscript map drawn by J. Eric Holmes and removed the letters and the secret passage. Also note that this map doesn't exactly correspond to the dungeon as published, as the TSR cartography added a few empty rooms and rearranged some corridors. In game, this can reflect the inaccuracy of the mapper who made it.

You can use this for the original dungeon, perhaps with brand new players who have never mapped before or if you have limited session time. Or with any sequel or other dungeon using the same map. In my con game it represents the efforts of earlier adventurers, 40 years prior.

Sample Dungeon in Gridmapper

Click here for a larger view

I recently became aware of a browser-based mapping tool called Gridmapper by Alex Schroeder. It looked easy & fun to use, so I tested it out by making a replica of the Sample Dungeon map (original by J. Eric Holmes, Basic rulebook version probably by David Sutherland. See them side-by-side in this post). Above is my current draft. 

Alex recently added the cave wall icons ("grotto"), which is essentially for this map, which mixes dungeon and cave walls. However, Gridmapper doesn't allow for water in the same square, or for partial water squares, hence the blockiness of the water areas. 

I added the thaumaturgist's tower, which is described in the text but not shown on the map.
Where icons were available, I've also added some notable features for various rooms; for fun I'll let you figure them out for yourself. 

(Just noticed I left the compass direction off the map)

A Dungeon Map

Dungeon Map by Zenopus Archives. Click for a Larger View

Above is a draft of a dungeon map I've been slowly working on the last month or so. I finally finished the final layout/walls, so I thought I'd post it. I hope to turn it into a stocked Holmes Basic/OD&D Dungeon. This isn't necessarily the final draft as I may add more features to particular rooms once I thinking more about the room contents.

Current features (clockwise from left), which I added for variety while drawing:
-Entrance double doors on left. Next to the doors are 'peepholes' that can be used to spy in or out of the rooms on either side of the doors.
-Room with tentacles that extend from walls
-Room with 20' x 20' square pit
-Room with chasm with waterfall at end and river running through it
-Room filled with rubble
-Room with five alcoves
-Two-way chasm extending through room and walls
-Room with three 'closets' - doors resemble rock walls so can be treated as concealed
-Room with wall in middle full of arrow slits
-Staircase up to room with weird tentacle statue.
-Room with rectangular pool - magical, of course
-Room filled with gas
-Large central/final room with "viewing area" surrounded by metal bars (denoted by dots), and "maw" on west wall.

Monster Face Mountain

Another map illustrated with monster faces, similar to the last one, but here it's a "cross-section of levels" ala Skull Mountain:

Click for a Larger View

Monster Face Dungeon

A dungeon map that I drew today. As an experiment the 'rock' (blank space) is filled with the kind of monster faces that I so frequently scribble in margins:

Click for a Close-Up View