As a freelance games designer, it’s always exciting to see how things you’ve written turn out in print. I’ve just received my copies of Wastes of Chaos and Tales from the Wastes from Kobold Press which I worked on from May to July last year and they look amazing!
Wastes of Chaos was a really fun project to work on. When I saw the outline, I knew I wanted to write some of the Places of Chaos in Chapter 4 and picked out eight from the list. But there was a snag – sketch maps were needed for each location ASAP but I was still working on Campaign Builder: Cities and Towns and was about to go on holiday. The solution – I wrote briefs for each location, and my esteemed colleagues Brian Suskind, Sarah Madsen, and Tim Hitchcock drew the map sketches for the cartographer. They came up with some really excellent maps that helped me visualise each location and gave me many fun ideas when it came to writing the descriptions and detailing the encounters.
I wrote the first eight locations in Chapter 4, including Rustspike, Castle of the Lord of Ruin; the Cathedral of the Black Goat (which Tim drew an awesome multi-level map for – see below); the Goblin Town of Nichenevin; and, my favourite, Nygethuaac, the Dread Colossus, for anyone who is a fan of the Dread Walkers in Midgard’s Wasted West.
Although each location is designed to stand alone, I added lots of fun connections between the different Places of Chaos. So, Mother Speaker Bonabella, priestess of the Black Goat, is urging her followers to rebel against the tyrannical Lord of Ruin, who was once the general of Svatobor the Dauntless, now the Lich King of Bleakspire, and so on.
You can use these locations in whatever campaign setting you like, but if you run a campaign in Midgard, you’ll find it easy to add them to the Wasted West or the Red Wastes. And they’ll work just as well in your own world, Eberron’s Mournland, Greyhawk’s Sea of Dust, or Anauroch in the Forgotten Realms.
I also wrote an adventure for Tales from the Wastes for 8th-level characters called Down the Gullet which illustrates the consequences of getting too close to a gargantuan toad-like, alien monstrosity plodding through the Wastes. If you run the adventure or use any of the locations in your game, please do let me know how it goes!
Wastes of Chaos was edited by Kim Mohan, my editor on the Southlands Worldbook who sadly passed away last December. He was a true gentleman and brilliant to work with – I learned so much from him.
If you enjoyed Campaign Builder: Cities and Towns, watch out for Castles and Crowns, coming soon to Kickstarter. You’ll hear more about Castle and Crowns from me soon…
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Richard Green | Game Designer 