Sweet merciful bloodstained Gods! It’s done, and just in time for the Yuletide!
It is with no small amount of relief that I am pleased to report that the latest version of the Castle of the Mad Archmage is now ready and available for download. As usual, it’s free, and available as a 3+ MB pdf file.
This was a really difficult level to write, for a variety of reasons, but one of the chief ones was the fact that it is in fact really 40 or so mini-dungeons, all working off a central core. Trying to keep things from being too repetitive was a challenge, as was trying to keep the pendulum from swinging in the opposite “every encounter is a weird bat$#!t thing you’ve never seen before!” direction. I hope I’ve struck a nice balance.
I must especially thank my co-conspirators; Joe Bardales for his as-always terrific mapping (and dealing with seemingly endless revisions and corrections, mostly my own fault) and Steve “Honorary Joe” Rubin (because everyone working on this project must, of course, be a Joe) for catching scores and scores of errors, continuity glitches, and other flubs to elevate the whole thing to something much more professional-looking. And both as volunteers. My congratulations and profound thanks, gentlemen.
As always, comments, questions, observations, and the like are more than welcome. Feel free to trumpet the news hither and yon; CotMA is once more blessed (?) with a new level, and there are more to come. Hopefully Level 8: THE LESSER CAVES will come much more quickly than this one. I’m shooting to get back on my monthly schedule. And bonuses! Oh, man, do I have extra stuff planned… But more details on that when the time is ripe.
Awesome! Thanks for doing this.
It looks great – I think everyone will agree it was worth the wait! The extra time between releases gave me the opportunity to put together something I've wanted to include for awhile now – a map key! It's been a real pleasure to be part of the process and to work with Joe Bloch. I'm always looking for new ways to improve the quality of the maps (new and existing ones), so expect them all to keep getting better as we work our way through deeper and deeper. 🙂
I particularly like the circular door symbol that Joe and I came up with to denote the entrances to the individual crypts on Level 7. As Joe mentions in the text, if the DM wants to indicate that the crypt has been broken into already, just fill in the circle with a pencil like you would on a standardized test. A #2 pencil is optional… 😉
Yes, LOLTH, there is a Savant-Scribe of the Mad Archmage.
He exists as certainly as love of role-playing and generosity and devotion towards fellow gamers exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its strong feelings of excitement and terror. Alas! how dreary would be the multiverse if there were no Savant-Scribes. It would be as dreary as if there were no LOLTHS. There would be no sense of creative play within the theatre of the mind's eye then, no legends, no dashing heroic tales of bravery facing insurmountable odds, no spirit of adventure to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which gaming fills the world would be extinguished. But have no fear, for the torch of hope still burns bright as ever!
And that Savant-Scribe is you, Joseph! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
May your Yuletide be as bright as the spirits you have ignited with your valiant efforts.
Ciao!
Grendelwulf
Sweet! Looks like Christmas came a little bit early!
Gracias, senor!
Looking forward to going through it! The perfect Christmas gift!
You're so thoughtful!! ;o)
Thank you for your work on this. I've made a donation in time for Christmas. Felt good to do so.
RM
Looking forward to it! Sadly, all the free download slots are taken right now.
Thanks for the gift. I've donated once more time!!
Mind if I say wow?
WOW!
Thank you.
Hey, Joe – just posted a mini-micro-review of WG13 (or at least my PCs' first experience through it) on my blog. (Finally got to use it! Good stuff, m'man.)
-DYA
As of this post, the PDF is no longer on rapidshare. Is it on RPGNow.com? Is there a new home for this?
The free version of CotMA is no longer available. A complete published version will be available later this year by Black Blade Publishing, which includes all the levels in the free version plus the surface and level one.