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From across the vastly reaches of deep space and elder time, I heed the call and avaunt from out my twisted realm unto once again the firmament of Men, and heed their orders, cruel and dire, to impart knowledge unfit for any mere human soul.
The Candlewick Adventures...
Is a setting/toolkit for Monsters and Other Childish Things presented in the form of discrete game-ready chunks. Over sixty characters, each with the needed stats, hooks, and motivations, as well as links to other characters. Thirteen monsters. And forty odd associations and places. Each broken out for quick use in play.
The tone of creepy and mysterious... Twin Peeks meets A Series of Unfortunate Events meets Courtney Crumrin.
Characters are woeful and creepy Orphans of a most unadoptable sort, brought from outside Candlewick Vale (the geologically and geographically unlikely valley where the game is set) by the uncanny Dr. Candlewick to live in Candlewick Manor, recently converted (for some mysterious and possibly sinister purpose) into the Candlewick Home for the Unfortunate and Unloved.
The Valley has mountains, foothills, forests, a bog, a shale pit, abandoned mines, sea cliffs, wharfs, mysterious caves, and a town inhabited by shiny happy smiling people many of whom, at heart, are a bunch of insular vipers who despise change.
There are some differences from M&OCT...
Orphans have no past. No backstory. You create them as they are right now, at this moment, standing before the great stairs of Candlewick Manor about to go inside for the first time.
They have no Relationships, as their better loved and better nurtured comrades from Monsters do, instead they have Echoes.
Mechanically, they work the same, but an Echo is an image or a scent or a vision or a theme or a motif which runs through the Orphan's life, and when she recognizes it during a conflict (which is to say, when her player choses to tap it for dice), it adds to a pool called Illumination. When Illumination is rolled, it can cause Revelation which transforms an Echo into a Relationship with one of Candlewick's inhabitants. The Echo foreshadowed the meeting... or hinted at a forgotten past.
Gradually, the Orphans grow more and more connected to the Vale as they uncover more Relationships.
Which of course just means they'll be getting into more trouble.
Orphans don't begin play friends with monsters, though they are out there waiting to be encountered and befriended... instead, there's actually a little something a bit monstrous about them. Something odd... uncanny... unsettling... creepy. This is handled with Creepy Skills- strangle little quirks and abilities which right-minded folk want nothing to do with.
For example, the iconic character I've had in mind since this idea crept in on tippy-toes and set up housekeeping in my brain is Edward Pinkermine. A dour boy, skinny, with skinned knees. He wears big over-size sweaters and a ratty fur coat also too big for him. Sprouting from his back are four long weirdly-jointed spider's legs. In the image in my head, one is holding a half eaten apple near his frowning face.
-B
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Scoundrel... Libertine... Monster... Patriot?
The Empire grows strange, and so Her guardians must be strangers - singular individuals of unsettling puissance, cast aside by a Society which would judge them harshly.
So it is good these unseemly heroes have a place of their own, where none may judge, for here all are marked with the same sins and might.
Welcome friend, to...
Bailywoof, that just made me squeeee like I had a BOING!
Is it up for ransom yet? Or still oozing out of your subconscious? Inquiring minds and all...
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Theremin-playing ambassador to fantastic realms far from our Earth! of the SotC Pack.
One of those fantastic realms: my take on the Iron Kingdoms, through the lens of SotC!
Laugh point: TheMouse!
Bailywoof, that just made me squeeee like I had a BOING!
Is it up for ransom yet? Or still oozing out of your subconscious? Inquiring minds and all...
I completed the major writing last night, and gave it a first-pass edit this morning. There a couple of supplementary items to work out (a couple of one-roll gadgets), but the big bulk is complete.
I'm going to start working with Shane to get it in fighting shape for publication.
I can't say for sure on the ETA though, but not too awful long.
-B
__________________
Scoundrel... Libertine... Monster... Patriot?
The Empire grows strange, and so Her guardians must be strangers - singular individuals of unsettling puissance, cast aside by a Society which would judge them harshly.
So it is good these unseemly heroes have a place of their own, where none may judge, for here all are marked with the same sins and might.
Welcome friend, to...
I completed the major writing last night, and gave it a first-pass edit this morning. There a couple of supplementary items to work out (a couple of one-roll gadgets), but the big bulk is complete.
I'm going to start working with Shane to get it in fighting shape for publication.
I can't say for sure on the ETA though, but not too awful long.
-B
How large is it (in words)? How long did you have to work on it?
It sounds excellent. I'm imagining grey, gloomy skies, and CS Lewis-esque children looking for things to do on these dull dreary days at Candlewick Manor.
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How large is it (in words)? How long did you have to work on it?
It sounds excellent. I'm imagining grey, gloomy skies, and CS Lewis-esque children looking for things to do on these dull dreary days at Candlewick Manor.
With Monsters.
I'm not sure how large- its spread over several files right now- but quite a bit longer than I'd intended when I began. I've had a few starts and stops as more critical bits of writing needed attention, but I've been writing for-serious on it since... oh, the start of the month or thereabouts.
Imagine the Chronicles of Narnia as directed by Tim Burton, with Alt-Narnia chopped up and squeezed into the cracks around the valley. Based on concept art by American McGee.
-B
__________________
Scoundrel... Libertine... Monster... Patriot?
The Empire grows strange, and so Her guardians must be strangers - singular individuals of unsettling puissance, cast aside by a Society which would judge them harshly.
So it is good these unseemly heroes have a place of their own, where none may judge, for here all are marked with the same sins and might.
Welcome friend, to...
Linear Mode
