Interview: Andy Edmond's The Sorcerer Returns

The Sorcerer bids you welcome

Andy Edmonds first popped onto the DCC indie creator scene with The Sorcerer’s Fate. That project funded during ZineQuest earlier this year and has already fulfilled. Now Andy is back again with a follow-up adventure, The Sorcerer Returns! I recently had some time to chat with Andy about this project, which is currently funding on Kickstarter! Check out his project and enjoy the interview.

The summons to the sorcerer Verrückter’s villa must be a cruel joke—he was killed weeks ago when one of his wild experiments went horribly wrong. There is, however, a treasure trove of valuables in the manor if one is inclined to dig through it and brave enough to try.

"The Great Verrückter requests your presence. It is a matter of great urgency. There will be cake."

This 1st-level adventure zine, compatible with Dungeon Crawl Classics, contains horror and intrigue. The poor village rejects are in for a few surprises as they venture out into a new and frightening world.

I love it when starting adventures provide a village or community that needs the PCs help The Sorcerer's Fate and The Sorcerer's Return provides the village of Rükstau as a central location. What did you do to make the village a great place to start a new campaign?

My goal is for the gameplay and the narrative to be logically consistent. Rükstau is a tiny, insular, secluded village where not only does everyone know each other—they're probably cousins. With each adventure, the players and their characters learn more about the world around them and slowly increase their agency. However, as each adventure begins and ends, in the safety of Rükstau, the characters find themselves straining against the rigid social structure in which they are at the bottom, and players and characters alike start to see Rükstau from a different perspective.

They can also buy stuff like torches there. :)

You describe the adventure and setting as "grimdark". How do you find the balance between making it feel that way without being off-putting?

Honestly, I'm not sure I don't want it to be a little off-putting.

For me, the term "Grimdark" invites players who enjoy the balancing act of being invested in their characters' success while also reveling in their failures. They want actions to have consequences, boons to have nefarious strings attached, and cleverness to be at least as important as power.

The fairy tales I read as a child were brutal—the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel's parents leave them to die in the woods, and if you want to kill a giant the way Jack did, you dig a pit trap and puncture its skull repeatedly with a pickaxe. Things were different in the 70s. These unvarnished folk tales reflect how people living in communities a lot like Rükstau understood their world. It seems like a natural vibe for adventures with sorcerers, demonic plants, and forgotten gods—especially when those adventures are compatible with Dungeon Crawl Classics.

It's all done with a sense of humor, albeit a dark one.

Since this is your second zine, I'll bet you're implementing some lessons learned from the first one, especially since you do everything except the editing on these! What's changed in your process for writing, illustrating, layout, etc?

I plan to do all the writing, illustration, and layout again. I enjoy all of it too much to give any of it up.

One lesson I learned was that I needed an editing phase between the first draft and the initial layout. I didn't do that for The Sorcerer's Fate, which added a lot of extra work and pushed fulfillment back. This time, I'm getting the content as close to final as possible before starting the layout. I’m also getting a head start on the illustrations. During the last campaign I waited until the layout and editing was final before I started.

You mention that you intend to make a series of adventures that go up to 5th level? Any hints about the future?

Well, I can tell you that the Sorcerer Verrükter has a laundry list of quests he needs undertaken. In The Sorcerer's Return, the Rükstau rejects are sent to fetch an essential ingredient for him. Future excursions will put players in the middle of a labyrinthine puzzle box and in the dreams of the sorcerer himself. That's all I'll say right now, but the story has been mapped out through its thrilling conclusion in the sixth chapter.

Thanks for sharing with us! Anything else you'd like people to know about?

Thanks, Stefan. I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss my project, and thank you for all you do for this community!

The goal is to release six total adventure zines from 0-level funnel through level 5 that tell the story of The Sorcerer Verrükter and the Rükstau rejects. In addition, I have a couple of other projects in the works. If anyone wants to learn more or get in touch, please check out the Nerdronomicon AllMyLinks page. There, you'll find links to sign up for the mailing list, join the Discord, find Nerdronomicon on all the socials, and join the new Nerdronomicon Patreon - The Nerdropatreon.

What’s the wildest quest a sorcerer ever sent your group on? What do you want to see out of future adventures in this series?

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