Showing category "Work with Other Publishers" (Show all posts)

Into the Dungeon!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I recently contributed to an awesome project that is Kickstarting now. The Book of Dungeon Encounters is a collection of system-neutral dungeon encounters you can drop into any dungeon setting. If you like creepy, cool, fun, puzzling, or challenging dungeon encounters, don't miss out on this! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/philipreed/the-book-of-dungeon-encounters-for-use-with-fantasy-rpgs/
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Behold the Alien Codex!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, March 14, 2020, In : Work with Other Publishers 
In the frenzied run of projects at the end of last year, I added even more fun to the pile by jumping in and providing some Starfinder development work for Legendary Games's mammoth Alien Codex. It's right here!

Now, I only saw piecemeal bits of this massive book, developing a few parts of a few chapters. I didn't see the whole thing in its entirety until just a few days ago when I got my contributor copy. And it's really neat! I already knew there would be fun toys for players, like the Overw...
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Mother of Monsters Super-Adventure for 5E D&D!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, August 16, 2019, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've had the privilege of contributing adventures to an exciting upcoming product: an entire adventure path for 5E D&D called Mother of Monsters. This is a fantasy Greek-themed adventure path set in a vibrant world with a lot of adventure opportunity. It's Kickstarting now, and you can back it right here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zagoragames/mother-of-monsters-the-awakening-of-naehurdamia

Several things really impressed me from the beginning with the way Adrian set this up. He'd ob...
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Horseshoe Calamity Reviewed!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, February 22, 2019, In : Work with Other Publishers 
My adventure for Legendary Games, The Horseshoe Calamity, just received a four-star review from epic reviewer Endzeitgeist. Check it out right here.
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Bargain-Style Flying

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I'm working on a faction of monsters for an upcoming project where, conceptually, they can all fly. But slapping a fly speed on a monster is often too powerful, particularly for low-level monsters. I instead had to do some thinking about what kinds of abilities give the theme of flying or aerial maneuverability, but are more limited in scope. In relative descending power order, here are some ideas:

* gains a fly speed; this is the most powerful option, especially if its fly speed is very fast
*...
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The Horseshoe Calamity is Legendary!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, October 24, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
My first adventure for Legendary Games is the 7th-level Pathfinder adventure called The Horseshoe Calamity. You can get it here. I'm quite proud of it, and happy to have suggested one of my favorite artists, Marco Morte, as the cartographer for it.

It's written to plug into the Reign of Winter adventure path, but it's also a GREAT plug-in to the Kingmaker adventure path, as I just described on the Paizo forums as follows:

How much, if any, of this adventure could be appropriated to fit with the...


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City of Seven Seraphs is Closing

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, September 7, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
The kickstarter project for which I'm doing some exciting writing is closing in just a couple of days! If you haven't already, take a look at (and back!) the City of Seven Seraphs kickstarter here!
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City of Seven Seraphs Kickstarter

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, August 28, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've agreed to participate in an exciting project Kickstarted by a long-time friend of mine, Christen Sowards. It's a vast, unique planar metropolis with several exciting factions, rules, and adventure opportunities. I'm humbled by the great cast of freelancers that have also joined in on this project--Christen knows a lot of people with a lot better writing chops than me, so this will be phenomenal!

You should check out (and back!) The City of Seven Seraphs here
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To the Stars!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, April 26, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
It seems like it's all space-themed RPGs these days! From some development for the Legendary Planet adventure path, to receiving the gorgeous Aethera book, I had more than enough space fantasy to go around--but now I'm writing for Paizo's Starfinder setting, too! More details on that later, but I wanted to drop a note to say I'm keeping my head in the stars!
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Development Reflections

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, April 12, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I had a heavy load of RPG development for a few different companies recently (development is taking an author's turnover and ensuring it's consistent in tone, high-quality, and appropriately styled to go to editing and layout), so I've been seeing a lot of great work from a lot of great authors. Here are a few takeaways from that:

* Authors plainly have strengths. Some are super tight in rules knowledge but don't have great prose; others have super evocative prose and naming, but don't think t...
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Getting Legendary!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, March 28, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I'm deep into some development work I'm doing for Legendary Games' sword-and-planet adventure path, Legendary Planet. It's neat! I think there's something of a steep learning curve for the world they're creating--learning the Accord from the Hegemony and the elali from the jagladines from the klaven from the bil'djooli--but once you get a mental picture of who's who, the themes are easy to grasp and the overall plot is strong. It's worth checking out!
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Some "Developments"

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've been a little light on the design side of RPGs recently, although I did create some additional treasures for the Ruins of Azlant adventure path that was a lot of fun. Instead, I've been doing some development work behind the scenes for a few different groups. That's basically editing, but it's the most fun part of editing--taking something that's already written and making it more awesome. If the rules aren't quite tight, tighten them up; if the words don't flow together clearly, rewrite...
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Ruins of Azlant

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, August 12, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
One of the things announced at GenCon was the next Paizo adventure path: Ruins of Azlant, where the PCs travel to the shattered, sunken continent of Azlant (the Pathfinder world's analogue of Atlantis). I'm writing a chapter set in a sunken tower where a powerful undead wizard lives. I hear you saying, "wait, wasn't that your Choking Tower in the Iron Gods adventure path?" Yes, sort of. I suppose I'm the "undead wizard's tower" specialist when it comes to adventure paths!

That makes my fifth A...
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The Power of a Good Outline

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, July 8, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've done lots of freelance work for Paizo, and in virtually every case I'm given a comprehensive outline of the entire project (even if I'm only writing a part of it). I appreciated, but didn't fully understand, how much thought and effort went into these outlines, and how much they set the tone and guidance for the whole project. The outlines are as much "don't do this kind of thing or go this sort of direction" as they are "here, do this kind of thing" (in one project about human races, I ...
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Encountering Nearly Complete!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, June 27, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've been hard at work on multiple simultaneous projects for Paizo and Wizards of the Coast. Right now, I'm finishing up my work on the Encounter Codex, one of the hardcover books announced at PaizoCon. I've been working through about 20,000 words of that, and I'm just about done--that is, I'm at about 22,000 words and I'm giving my wife the unenviable task of cutting down all my extraneous verbiage.  Although this wasn't a particularly easy project--the goals and guidance changed a few times...
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A Successful PaizoCon!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I made a quick trip to PaizoCon last weekend, and I had a great time. The events were all quite fun, and I was able to sit down an talk with many of my developers about projects I'd recently completed for them, as well as pending projects they'd like me to write.

There was also the usual series of announcements at the banquet. Most years, I have a good sense of what those will be, and I'm rarely surprised. This year, I knew that the Ironfang Invasion adventure path would be announced (I wrote ...
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Digital Has a Tighter Schedule

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, May 11, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
It's been a while since I've written a Pathfinder Society adventure, but developer John Compton reached out to me to see whether I'd revisit the site of Azlant Ridge from an adventure five years or so old. I eagerly agreed, and was assigned PFS7-27 Beyond Azlant Ridge in early April. After a lot of writing over the last month culminating in a fun playtest last night, I'm practically done with it--although I need to cut over a thousand words to bring it under word-count. My due date isn't tech...
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A Murderous Word

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've been playing around with haunts for a Pathfinder adventure I've been asked to write. Man, they can get unbalanced fast, and need to be sharply reined in to serve the story being told. Here's one that is legitimate by the rules, but can kill just about any low-level character without recourse. I absolutely promise I'm not using this one.

 Murderous Word CR 6

XP 2,400

CE haunt (a room 30 ft. square)

Caster Level 6th

Notice Perception DC 15 (to hear a short intake of breath, as though s...


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New AP away, and revisiting PFS

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Whew! My fourth adventure path is finally away. It's the second chapter in an as-yet-unannounced adventure path from Paizo (the one that follows Strange Aeons). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out: I was able to get right near the wordcount without having to add a bunch or (even harder) cut a bunch, the three new items I created turned out pretty neat, and there are four separate sections that each have their own feel and play to different character types. Crystal has been a great, respon...
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Another Milestone, and Worries Averted

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Sunday, March 13, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Paizo tapped me write a chapter in the upcoming Adventure Path after Strange Aeons. I can't say a lot about the AP itself until it's announced at PaizoCon, but I can say that I'm working with a new developer. She's developed (and written) several adventures, but this is her first opportunity to develop an entire AP line. I really want to impress her with my adventure--not only because I want her first AP to go well, but because this is my first work for her and I want to keep up my reputation...
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A Surprising Way HumbleBundle Hurts Paizo

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, February 29, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So, the last week or so has been hard for Paizo. They offered a ton of products to a pay-what-you-want charity site called HumbleBundle, and they were wildly successful. The charity is making a ton of money, HumbleBundle is getting a good cut so they can keep doing their great work. Paizo is getting a ton of new customers. 

Then everyone that bought pdfs from the HumbleBundle sale went to Paizo's site to get them, and it all came crashing down.

Paizo's download page just wasn't set up to handle...
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How to Write a Player's Companion

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, January 22, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've done plenty of writing for Paizo's Player Companion line: Magical Marketplace, Champions of Balance, Giant Hunter's Handbook, Melee Tactics Toolbox, Black Markets, and the soon-to-be-released Blood of Shadows. Although there is some world-specific flavor in these books, they're primarily aimed at giving new rules for players: new spells, feats, traits, equipment, magic items, and sometimes entirely new rules subsystems. They're very crunch-heavy.

In each case, the process (for me) goes a ...
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The New Year is Off and Running!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, January 7, 2016, In : Work with Other Publishers 
The New Year is here, and I lost the first four days of it due to a sudden illness. This puts me a bit behind for the start of the year, as I have a fifth edition adventure due on the 15th and another quick turnaround project for Paizo due on the 18th. Neither is very large--the fifth edition adventure is one of the "two hour" Adventurers League adventures and is therefore only 5,000 words, and the Paizo product is only 3,400 words, and I'm making good progress on both.

I'm also working on ano...
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A New Chapter, Nearly Complete

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, December 19, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
My next adventure path chapter, which is due Monday morning, is finally (almost) complete! I have all the text, and it's just a few hundred words (out of 36,700) over wordcount, which is just fine. My lovely wife is going to edit the whole thing--all 122 pages, with the text blown up to an editable font size for her--and then I'll be able to submit it. My only last points is to make sure all the treasure the adventure provides is sufficient. I think it might be a little short, so adding a few...
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Halfway There!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Yesterday was my "milestone" day for the adventure path chapter I'm writing. I had to show at least half of my wordcount, and also provide all of my maps (3 pages' worth: I decided to go with two full-page maps and two half-page maps). For most of my milestones, I prefer to be well above halfway through my wordcount--and if I can be 80% or 90% of the way through, all the better. This time, I was just over--I provided about 18,900 words of my 36,700 word assignment (that breakdown is a 32,500 ...
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Beyond the Outlines

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, November 10, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I turned in my outline for both my Paizo adventure path adventure, and for my Adventurers League adventure. In both cases, I intentionally went beyond the general outline expectations, just to make it crystal clear what I'd be doing.

For the Paizo outline, I was shown a previous outline for the product; it was about 2,000 words. I kept what I thought were some pretty good parts of that, filled out the rest, and expanded it all. My outline was about 6,500 words. 

For the Wizards of the Coast ou...
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It's Now Unleashed

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, October 27, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
In my last post, I mentioned a 9000-word Paizo assignment for a new project--now that the name is released, I can say it's for Heaven Unleashed. It was exciting to be delving into the motivations, lairs, and conflicts of angelic beings, and I think this will be an exciting product!

Although I could peaceably turn to my adventure path assignment and have all my writing time fully occupied, I actually picked up yet another freelance assignment: a short adventure for the Adventurer's Guild campai...
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More from Paizo! More! More!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, October 20, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I was talking with Mark, one of my developers at Paizo, last GenCon. I observed that, although I get work from a few different developers at Paizo, I only seem to get work from one of them at a time--I joked that there must be some whiteboard with the freelancers' names on it, and the developers mark them off as they're using them. This isn't the case, but it wasn't until this month that I actually overlapped on Paizo products--and how!

I was asked to contribute to an upcoming Pathfinder Campa...
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What I Wrote for Inner Sea Races

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, October 1, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I received my contributor copies of Inner Sea Races, and I have to say I'm very impressed--seeing my bare words on the printed page, with art and borders and layout and such always gives me a thrill. In this case, it's particularly exciting because it's the first hardcover book I've contributed to.

I was hesitant about stating publicly what I'd worked on in Inner Sea Races before seeing this, because I know that a lot can change in development and they might have decided to jettison some of my...
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Lucking into Inner Sea Races

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, September 12, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Paizo's latest big release is Inner Sea Races, a product that I wrote a lot for (in fact, I had my initial assignment, which I completed--and they gave me another, which I completed--and they gave me a third, which I also completed; by the end of that, I felt like I'd written half the book!). It was exciting to see a recent blog post on their site about it, showcasing "10 Secrets from Inner Sea Races." One of these is about halflings:

7. Halflings consider unexpected greetings to be an unlucky...
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Occult Bestiary is Out!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, August 25, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Paizo's Occult Bestiary is out, and I just received my contributor copies yesterday (which may be the earliest I've received my contributor copies for a product--it's still more than a week until the release date). For the curious, I contributed:

* the alter ego template
* the chyzaedu (there was very little canon existing on these, so I was very glad to be able to invent the culture, religion, etc. here)
* the feargaunt (originally called the lucid nightmare, but I see why it had to be changed ...
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Blogging for Paizo

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, August 11, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
This isn't the only place I'm blogging any more! I was asked to prepare a guest blog post for Paizo due to my extensive labors (of love) on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. You can see my guest blog post here. I'm excited to get this exposure!
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Scattered Projects, Now Focused

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Sunday, July 26, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've gotten my 5th edition writing project turned in, a guest post for another blog drafted, and Bloodlust Corsairs released. I feel like I've been able to get a lot of smaller or near-final projects finalized and out the door in the last few days, allowing me to focus on the large Paizo project I've got (which I've only been able to do in scattered bits here and there so far). It's been a bit more tiring than I'd like, but it pays off in stages--immediate response on the immediately publishe...
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Summertime Writing!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, July 17, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
It's been a whirlwind past few weeks, but I wanted to take a breath to report on all that I've had going on.

First, I talked with one of the Paizo developers at PaizoCon about a large writing project. I expressed strong interest in that, and was waiting to get an outline and some further direction. I certainly had enough work to keep my busy--I'm writing a Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition adventure for their organized play program, and that's required fine-tuning my writing to the new system, ...
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A Timeworn/Legacy Quality

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, April 28, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So I haven't yet been able to dig through my latest Paizo publications and compare them on a close basis with my turnovers. I did notice that each of the three tombs I submitted for Tombs of Golarion included a 300-word sidebar detailing the burial customs of each of the three cultures I touched on (Kellids, Yamasans, and Rahadoumi), but these sidebars didn't make the final cut. I hope they show up somewhere else, although I suppose a Burial Customs of Golarion book is not likely.

I had an int...
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Done with the new AP Chapter!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, April 27, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So, today is my turnover date for my latest AP chapter. I was told I could have another week or so if I needed it,, but I wanted to get it done and out the door. I've got yet another freelance gig that's due on the 11th, and I wanted to be able to turn to that.

What were the last few days like? Pretty hectic.

I took a look at my saved files for The Choking Tower, and that adventure had a lot more still outstanding words on the Friday before my turnover was due--I remember that weekend being a p...
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My AP Chapter At Halfway

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, March 14, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So, my "milestone" day for the new adventure path chapter I'm writing is just about upon me--that's the date I have to turn over whatever I have so far and show that I'm on the right track and about halfway done. I'll be powering through a lot of writing this weekend for that. I'm already at half my word count, so I'm not worried about being behind, but I note that much of my word count so far is already taken up with stat blocks. The adventure I'm writing is high-level, so the stat blocks of...
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The AP Adventure Diary

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, February 19, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So, as an update, I submitted a 6,000-word outline last Monday, and it took only three days or so to get feedback--feedback that a lot of what I'd done was really good, but that the second part (of four parts) needed reworking. I didn't yet have any clear ideas on how to address that part, but there was plenty of other sections for me to dig into. I actually started writing the article at the back of the AP, too, but only just found out yesterday that I was cleared to write that--good thing, ...
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Another Adventure Path? Yes, Please!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, February 9, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So, I've got some very exciting news--last week, I agreed to write another adventure path chapter for Paizo. That's all I can say right now--the name and subject of this adventure path hasn't been announced. I do want to talk in broad strokes about the process, though, since people might find that interesting.

Last Monday night, I got an email from Paizo's senior developer asking if I was interested in writing another adventure path chapter. This is the email I've been waiting for ever since I...
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Missing Boots

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, January 20, 2015, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Authors of Paizo's adventure path volumes usually write more than the adventure itself. We also write up the statistics for the two or three NPCs featured in the back of the adventure, the new magic items, and even sometimes the new monsters (in The Choking Tower, the thought harvester and the thorgothrel are both mine).

Here's one of the items that I submitted that didn't make the final cut to be included in the adventure. Partly that's because the smoke furnace needed to be included among th...
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Shield of Rannick

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, December 19, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So, I'm almost complete with layout of a full adventure path for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, using the Rise of the Runelords base set and its six adventure decks.It will be called "Shield of Rannick." I won't say much more about it here--it relies on Paizo's Community Use Policy which, as a third-party publisher, Run Amok Games cannot use. I can use it independently as an individual, though, although I plan to keep the Run Amok business and this side project separate (except that I'm ...
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December 17th is a Big Day for Products!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, December 2, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I just noticed that two Paizo products that I did a lot of writing for are both coming out on the same day. The Giant Hunter's Handbook was a lot of fun, and required finding design space for a lot of mechanics (feats and so on) as well as learning a lot about giants in the game--what their commonalities are, how big they are in relation to each other, and so on. Lost Treasures also required a lot of mechanics--as I created about half of the items in this book--but it also allowed me to do a ...
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Writing is Revising

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, October 14, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
A partner at the firm I once worked for insisted that "writing is revising." It's true, but sometimes more true than other times.

A few weeks ago, I turned in one of my larger Paizo freelance assignments: three of the tombs in the upcoming Tombs of Golarion book. I thought each of them was quite good, in its own way, with some flavorful maps. I received an email about a week ago asking for a rewrite of one of the tombs. The map wasn't large enough--and the new map necessitated several new room...
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The Choking Tower is Released!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, October 9, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
This is a quick update. My first Pathfinder adventure path volume, #87 The Choking Tower, just hit my downloads today. I'd seen a post-development pre-edit version of it, and I'd already seen some of the art, but it was glorious to see it all together in a final product. I see quite a bit of my original writing shining through, and areas where it's been changed has been to streamline my encounters or to fit the adventure in with the other chapters of the Iron Gods Adventure Path.

In all, I'm p...
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Chelaxian Halfling Slave-Chants

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, September 1, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I was proud to have an article accepted to Wayfinder #11 (the Weal or Woe article titled "Vice Rising"), which had a theme of "Cheliax," the devil-ruled nation in the Pathfinder game world. I also had a second submission that wasn't accepted, which I thought it was a combination of silly, clever, and a bit gruesome--so here it is! 

Chelaxian Halfling Slave-Chants

(excerpt from Chapter 14 of “Anthropology of the Halfling People” by Professor Julian Delphus of Absalom)
 

As has been previousl...


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PaizoCon!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, July 10, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Last weekend, I was able to make it to my first ever PaizoCon, the convention held every year in Seattle by Paizo Publishing. I was able to play in some very fun games run by Paizo employees, and attended several seminars about how to improve my writing and the state of third-party publishing. Perhaps best of all, I was able to sit down with several of my developers and talk about what they liked that I did, what I could do better, and how I can get more work from them in the future.

Also, I s...
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Lost Treasures

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, June 27, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Back in May, I mentioned a large project for Paizo where I'd taken on 13,000 words to describe several magic items with complex backstories and campaign uses. That project was announced recently--it's called "Lost Treasures", and it's more than just magic items. There are valuable non-magical items, quest items, and so forth all included. I'm excited to see how my work appears in the final product, and what other goodies the tome contains!

Link is here.
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Choking Tower Feedback

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, June 5, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I received the post-development copy of my upcoming Paizo adventure, "The Choking Tower" over the weekend. I was not at all surprised to see it more closely tying in to the upcoming technology book and Iron Gods adventure path as a whole, but I was pleasantly surprised to see so much of my work tightened up to flow better. That is, the work I'd submitted is still very visible, but improved. I don't generally see how my freelance work looks until it actually appears in print, so this "post-dev...
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Piles of Magic Items!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I just finished a recent project that I found to be exhausting, but quite fun: 13,000 or so words of magic items and other flavorful treasures. I did my best to give each its own story--we'll see how well those are received!

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In the Balance

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, May 3, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I don't think I mentioned it on this blog yet, but I wrote quite a bit of Champions of Balance, the Paizo Publishing product about how to play neutral-aligned characters. Since it's not clear from just looking at the author list who did what, I thought I'd mentioned what I contributed to it--and what I contributed to it that never made it into the book.

I wrote the chapter on Bastions of Balance (the neutral nations and the neutral planes), Neutral Organizations, the new spells (one of which, ...
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Erevos is Coming!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, April 2, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I was delighted to be approached by a company with a very interesting idea in organized play--they would take subscribers, and these subscribers would receive customized adventures that they can use to shape the world. A lot of "living" campaigns allowed some world-shaping to some degree: Living Greyhawk had special events and even adventures where the results of play shaped future adventures; even Pathfinder Society, the least "shape-able" of the big living campaigns, has gone back to set se...
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It's Official: I'm Among the Iron Gods!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
So...that big Paizo project last fall that had me all tied up and giddy with excitement was my first Paizo AP adventure, Chapter 3 of Iron Gods, The Choking Tower. Paizo just announced it right here. The Choking Tower itself is already a part of Numeria--you can read about it in the Inner Sea World Guide--but my adventure has an awful lot more to it than just the tower--including a lot of surprises.

I'm excited to see this develop, and humbled to be among such great Paizo authors!
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More Work!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, March 10, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've just been offered another project for Paizo, and it's one that seems like an expanded version of the work I did for the article at the back of #74: Sword of Valor.  I'm excited to be digging in!

This project comes at a very good time, because I'm just finishing the text of both A Lucky Morning and Perils of the Broken Road. (In fact, I'm expecting the final piece of artwork for A Lucky Morning any day.) I can run those through editing while working on this next assignment, and get those t...
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A Frantic Playtest Wraps!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, February 3, 2014, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Part of the reason I've been a bit silent recently--other than being sure I'm taking the time to work through 1,000 words a day, which is harder than I'd initially thought but keeping me very focused on writing--is that I'm also participating in a playtest of the next set of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, based on the Skull & Shackles pirate-themed adventure path. Our playtest reports are due today, and we've still got three scenarios to get through before I can make my final reports and...
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Ineligible

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, December 14, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Paizo's RPG Superstar 2014 contest just started. I've got mixed views on this contest, which you enter by submitting a magic item of your own creation. I've submitted a couple of times in the past few years, but I quit in an immature huff two years ago, after I saw the contest reviewer commentary for my item (I thought my item twisted the rules in a clever way, but the contest reviewer made some commentary that indicated he didn't actually know the rules I was bending for my item). His misund...
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41,851 Words

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, December 9, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
At last! I have just turned in my longest--by far--freelance writing project ever. 41,851 words. 73 pages. Whew.

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In the Home Stretch for a Big Project

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, December 3, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've got not quite one week to finish up my largest freelance project ever (in prestige as well as length!) for Paizo. Many thanks to my good friends who gave up part of their Thanksgiving weekend for a playtest--although I spotted more errors due to the playtest than I'd guessed there were, it was good to have them bared for me to see, so I can fix them before my final turnover deadline.

More details after this is publicly announced, of course!

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The Basilisk Still Rankles

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, November 15, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 

I keep an eye on the forum talk regarding my products whenever I can, and I recently saw a couple of one-star reviews of my Pathfinder Society adventure “PFS #4-07 Severing Ties.” A bit of spoiler territory ahead (and in the title you already read—sorry).

The thing that seems to rankle people even now is the encounter with the basilisk. The adventure covers levels 1-5, and people seem fine with fighting a basilisk at levels 3 through 5. It’s the presence of the basilisk at level 1-...


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Relic Mechanics

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, October 24, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 

This is the second of three blog posts about my first in-print article for Paizo, “Lost Relics of the Crusades.” I thought I’d discuss a bit about the process of developing the mechanics of my items. In part, this is the “meatiest” part, because the specific, mechanical effects are what the PCs apply every single time they use an item.

I had plenty of word count for all of these items. Most magic items must fit in a very small word count (such as the 300-word limit of Paizo’s R...


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Paizo's Author Listing

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, October 21, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 

I’ve done a lot of work for Paizo recently, but they seem a little erratic about when they list authors for upcoming releases. I’m listed as an author for Champions of Balance, due out in February 2014.  But I’ve also done work for three products due out before then (specifically, Magical Marketplace due out in December 2013, and both Osirion, Legacy of Pharaohs and a new monster in Adventure Path #77 Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth, due out in January 2014) that are still listed as wri...


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Quite a Weekend!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, October 16, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Although it's now early Wednesday, I'm still recovering from a monumental weekend. I not only ran my first marathon (the Chicago Marathon on Sunday), but I also completed my milestone for my longest Paizo project to date. My total project is about 41,000 words. For a milestone, you need to show progress by sending in at least a third or so of your words; I sent in about 20,000, so I've made a good start.

For this particular project, I also had to turn in a handful of completed magic items and ...
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Designing Relics

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, October 9, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 

Now that my first in-print article for Paizo is out (“Lost Relics of the Crusades”), I thought I’d discuss a bit about the process of designing magic items for that article. I’ll break this up into three parts: designing relics as magic items, developing the mechanics of the items, and developing the story lore of the items.

First, designing relics, and a bit of background.

I was presented with very little by way of an outline—just the art orders describing the five items I would ...


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Another PACG Scenario

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, October 4, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
We're still enjoying the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game at my house; here's another custom scenario I designed:

The Pillbug's Revenge scenario is intended for characters who have completed The Poisoned Pill (and may have completed all of the Perils of the Lost Coast and even some or all of Burnt Offerings). Plentiful poison damage makes this scenario challenging.

Freshly escaped from prison, the notorious poison-merchant Aliver "Pillbug" Podiker has vowed revenge upon Sandpoint! Pillbug Podiker...


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Some Simple, Good Advice

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, September 25, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
As I've mentioned, I'm doing a lot of writing for Paizo recently, which is why Run Amok Games products have slowed a bit (but some good news on that in my next update!). I recently got some great advice from Paizo's superstar freelancer Neil Spicer, who told me:

Just meet your deadline and write awesome stuff. :-)

Seriously. 


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Pathfinder Adventure Card Game - and Custom Scenario!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, September 6, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is at last available, and I was very excited to get a copy. I playtested the game pretty extensively, and it was good to see several of our group's proposed recommendations implemented. One of the strong advantages of the game is how easy it is to create custom scenarios. The first solid custom scenario I made can't yet be built--it includes cards from sets that aren't released yet, and might have changed--but here is a custom scenario I created that you can...
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Name in Print in Paizo!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, August 23, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I have four Pathfinder Society adventures out with Paizo, which are available in .pdf only. Recently I've been working on several print products for Paizo as well. Although the first of these--an article on artifacts and magic items called Lost Relics of the Crusades in Adventure Path 74 Sword of Valor--doesn't come out until next month, this month's adventure path contains, as usual for Paizo, a "Coming Next Month" page listing the contents of the next month's issue. Lost Relics of the Crusa...
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Rivalry's End is at Three Stars

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Saturday, July 20, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
My latest Pathfinder Society scenario, #4-23 Rivalry's End, is currently hitting a middle-of-the-road three stars. This seems to be an average of people who thought it was great and people who thought it was terrible. Although I read all reviews and commentary about my adventures, I'm particularly interested in why people don't like my material.

Here, the complaints seem to fall into two types: first, the scenario is too hard. Second, the "twist" ending is disappointing.

Regarding the "too hard...
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Dark Waters Rising in Hand!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, April 23, 2013, In : Work with Other Publishers 
My adventure Dark Waters Rising for Raging Swan Press came out last July, and was quite well-received. Raging Swan has only a few print products; nearly are all pdf-only, with a distinctive simple white-on-black color style.

For Raging Swan's third birthday last month (congrats on three years!), they put three of their popular products out in print. One of these was Dark Waters Rising, which I was very proud to hear!

Creighton Broadhurst at Raging Swan was kind enough to send me his print versi...
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Severing Ties is released!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 

My third freelance project for Paizo Publishing, the Pathfinder Society scenario 4-07 Severing Ties, was released several days ago. It received surprisingly few changes in development, which I take to mean that I've turned over solid work that needed little by way of rewriting--good news, as I love working for Paizo and look to do more of it.

One observation about my Paizo adventures: I've already run Severing Ties more than my other two Paizo adventures. I ran my first adventure, Tide of Twil...


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Everyone Loves the Creepy Temple

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, July 5, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 

I had someone point out just the other day that my “Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment” for Paizo Publishing http://paizo.com/products/btpy8qq1?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-321-The-Temple-of-Empyreal-Enlightenment is the highest-rated Pathfinder Society Scenario ever—it currently has 10 five-star reviews. Other PFS scenarios have had exclusively-five-star reviews, but none have so many. The Paizo forums have given an awful lot of praise for this adventure, for which I’m very grateful and...


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Dark Waters Rising Now!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, July 3, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 
My adventure "Dark Waters Rising" for Raging Swan is now available here: http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tga?Dark-Waters-Rising. Creighton Broadhurst of Raging Swan has been great to work with, and a real exemplar of third party publisher interaction. He was open to my pitch of an adventure idea, suggested tie-ins to his existing products that I could use, and provided clear direction for how he wanted the final product to look. Creighton gave me a document template with the appropriate styles...
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The Viridian Legacy Kicks Off!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, June 25, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've been fortunate to do a lot of work for Headless Hydra Games already, but a big project that's been in the works for a while is now coming to the surface. The Viridian Legacy adventure path will soon be released in its installments, and the Viridian Legacy Player's Guide is now available at RPGNow.com and Paizo.com. I put together the skeleton of the adventure path and wrote the player's guide and GM's guide, but it's neat to see how Axel at Headless Hydra Games has really put a professio...
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New Pathfinder Society Adventure

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, May 31, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 
Now available is my second Pathfinder Society adventure, "The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment," which you can get at http://paizo.com/products/btpy8qq1. This is a creepy Stepford Wives-type investigation adventure, where all is not as it seems in an isolated temple to a benign god. Check it out!
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Viridian Legacy, Chapter 1

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've been working with Headless Hydra Games quite a bit, and most recently in connection with developing an adventure path for them. This adventure path has about a dozen chapters, a few of which I'm writing. I just turned in the final updates to Chapter 1--which was begun by the talented Tom Baumbach--so that should be available in the near future.
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Free Three-Part Run Amok Adventure: Scattered Sheaves

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, May 7, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 

Rite Publishing just released the next issue of their free Pathfinder RPG 'zine, Pathways, which includes the first part of a three-part adventure I've written for them. Called "Scattered Sheaves," this adventure details the PCs' quest for stolen pages from a magical tome. In each of the three parts, the PCs investigate a different location to recover the missing pages. The three parts and be run in order. This is very tight location adventure design for me, and is a good exercise in packing ...


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Upcoming Adventures with Other Publishers: "Temple of Empyreal Enlightment" and "Dark Waters Rising"

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've been juggling several products for other publishers that should see print in the next few months. I've written another Pathfinder Society adventure, "The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment" for Paizo Publishing (no, not *that* ToEE), and I'm writing a tense rescue-type adventure called "Dark Waters Rising" for Raging Swan. Look for these soon!
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"Make Haste!" Adventure Design Article in Kobold Quarterly

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Sunday, January 8, 2012, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I developed a new mechanic for an adventure I wrote for Headless Hydra Games (Wreck of the Keening Crone) called "Haste Points." The adventure is fundamentally a race, and the faster the PCs hustle in early encounters, the easier they find the later encounters to be. I thought this mechanic could be generalized as a useful tool for GMs designing time-pressure adventures. I proposed it as an article to Open Design and they accepted it for their Kobold Quarterly magazine.  It's called "Make Has...
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Run Amok Games is in Pathways!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, December 2, 2011, In : Work with Other Publishers 
I've just been published in Pathways #10 magazine from Rite Publishing. I provided them with a short article called "The Fleshgrafter's Foe" that introduces a helpful NPC, a gruesome new magic item based on Rite Publishing's "30 Fleshgrafts" product, and a combat encounter. Quite a lot to pack into a short article, and worth checking out.

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About Me


I'm Ron Lundeen, game designer for Wizards of the Coast. Before that, I worked as a development manager for Paizo, Inc. and as an RPG freelancer. I've recently had products in print for Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, Petersen Games, and Ulisses Spiele. My opinions here are my own and do not reflect those of Wizards of the Coast.

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