The Wanting Wizard
The first Inkslingers collab
Putting together a polished TTRPG product is not the easiest thing so a few of us have banded together to share the load. Myself, Matt Gullet, Eddie Bartlett, Lou Hoefer, and John Watson are the Inkslingers (cool logo pending). The Wanting Wizard is our first collab project. I think Lou has come up with a fantastic way to do hexcrawl travel through an “Expedition Die” and we’ve all come up with some really awesome stuff. This zine is going to be a perfect “starting ground” for new campaigns. It has its own adventures and encounter tables, but is varied enough that you can easily insert some of those yet-unplayed adventures that you assuredly have on your bookshelf.
Anyway, we all wanted to share how proud we were so here you go:
Bottled Out by Lou Hoefer
Dubious to say the least...The Wizard has entrusted to the party a stoppered bottle containing a shifting mercurial form. They are told that it is an imprisoned being the The Wizard mistakenly drew into the realms during a failed experiment. The task burdens the PCs with taking this vessel into the heart of an unforgiving wasteland, where the fates themselves claim it can be buried in a ceremony, such that it will never come to harm this world. The voyage is rigorous and the ritual must be precise... perhaps The Wizard is mistaken for selecting such untested accomplices!
The Haunted Lands by Eddie Barlett
This is our first project as the Ink Slingers. I've got to say I'm fired up to work with this crew. They are all authors that I admired and then became friends with, and also Matt is here. I'm anxious for this work to get out into the world and see how it is received.
My portion is the first more creepy, scary style work that I've done. I'm a huge Ravenloft fan, and really glad to finally get something like this written. My adventure sends our protagonists out to investigate a haunted battle site. It should be challenging for lower level characters. There's plenty there to keep them on their toes. I really like the encounter tables that I created and hope that you will use them in your home games whenever you need to add a bit of paranoia and dread to the gaming atmosphere.
The Water’s Beloved by Stefan Surratt
I’m real excited to be working directly with my friends. Plus, I love getting to see how they refine their adventure and encounter tables through multiple drafts! It’s really cool seeing how others create in a very practical sense. Anywho, my adventure is actually inspired by a visit to Doc Holiday’s (supposed) gravesite in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I liked the idea of a “hero’s grave at the springs”, though I certainly changed things to make it more fantastical.
Doc Holiday’s life is very much romanticized so I also ran with that. Jeremiah Crenshaw was a halfling poet, now dead and buried near Lotus Lake. The water spirit that lives in that lake so loved the poem that he wrote about its beauty, that she loves him still in dead. Heavy rains washed his grave into the waters and she now demands that all travelers, fishers, etc. give them a wedding gift! Not bringing a gift isn’t really an option if you want to stick around and keep being alive. Hope your players have fun solving that problem!
The Earl’s Bones by John Watson
It's been a true pleasure be one of the designers to create the Wanting Wizard. When we were dividing the sections, I quickly called the mountains because of one reason - I could make a dwarf themed encounter area, the Jagged Mountains.
I've always liked dwarves since I first l played DnD as a kid in the late 90s. So making encounters where you could run into dwarves and dwarves cultural bits sounded like a blast! I hope you all enjoy playing it as much as I did writing it. And I'll drop one hint before I close this, find a gem before venturing into the Jagged Mountains. You'll thank me later!
Wicked Ritual at the Stone Circle by Matt Gullett
I’m stoked to be working with so many super talented authors on this project. Soaring with eagles! Anywho, for my part the encounter is a collection of megaliths forming an ancient druid’s circle. Wicked cultists are attempting to awaken something ancient and bind it to their will and the fell purposes of their dark god (duh!), the stakes are high, but the prizes are worth it. The nearby woods offer a richly detailed encounter chart that I can’t wait for you to experience it and its many surprises!
Who’s cool enough to join the Inkslingers? Got any suggestions?
What Else Is Going On?
The Conquest of Chaos
A levels 0-5 campaign path for Dungeon Crawl Classics! Six adventures inspired by the classic GDQ series take the PCs from humble beginning to fighting the primal forces of chaos and saving their world from certain doom!
The World Well (And Friends)
I am doing editing on Brass! A rules-lite game about giant robots fighting aliens. It’s one of three incredible zines in this cool Kickstarter campaign.
