+- Dead Letters (https://deadletters.nyc/forum)
+-- Forum: Mailroom (https://deadletters.nyc/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Episode Discussion (https://deadletters.nyc/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=6)
+--- Thread: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford (/showthread.php?tid=2)
Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - JimMonsoon - 09-05-2026
Walid it’s faun vs fawn
Also you guys should get Beau Rancourt onto the podcast (edit: or just read and respond to his work). I don’t agree with all his tuff, but he has very strong opinions on adventure writing and puts in the work for some very detailed critiques. He discusses this module in depth on his blog.
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - sam_the_bold - 09-07-2026
Hehehe you're not the first person to bring up the faun/fawn distinction. For reference, Black Wyrm does indeed specify "faun" with a 'U', suggesting it's goat boys rather than baby deer.
As for Rancourt, I think it's unlikely. I've read his blog before from time to time, but I find he's a little too "white room" analytical for my tastes, too interested in following the precise letter (or number) of the law rather than its practical applications. That, and he's too comfy praising the chuds.
We're thinking about guests on the show otherwise, though! Maybe something for a future special episode.
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - misha - 09-07-2026
(09-05-2026, 01:23 PM)JimMonsoon Wrote: Also you guys should get Beau Rancourt onto the podcast (edit: or just read and respond to his work). I don’t agree with all his tuff, but he has very strong opinions on adventure writing and puts in the work for some very detailed critiques. He discusses this module in depth on his blog.
There's some internal debate on guest appearances--I think if we had one I'd probably want a writer or designer over a critic.
I'd read Beau's Arden Vul retrospective and found it very in depth, if not always in line with my takes on the book. I checked out his Black Wyrm post and was pretty surprised at how much overlap it has with the episode--if anything he's even more hardline on legwork than we are, which is a fun change of pace.
And then I found his reddit posts from the last 24 hours (posted after you suggested him). Saying that if you wouldn't yell at someone for boosting a drunk driver you can't yell at someone for boosting a bigot (because bigotry is less of a big deal than drunk driving) is a wild take. R.I.P.
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - JimMonsoon - 09-07-2026
Ok yeah I was getting the impression he was ok with content creators and/or platforms that I’m not, but didn’t look that hard into it. I guess ideally getting Luke Gearing, Chris McDowall, etc. would be cool
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - Wall_eed - 09-07-2026
I still feel like baby deer offering me wine would be a way freakier image
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - 500poundsofnothing - 09-07-2026
The ever so brief mention of the muppets in this episode reminded me of just how fruitful evoking that as a touchstone can be. I do want to try and running through this module some time soon and using a house rule I originally cooked up for troika where you roll a d6 and on a 1 you are a human, otherwise a muppet.
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - Idraluna - 09-07-2026
I thought the topos/topography/topology discussion was really interesting. It made me want to spend more time figuring out specific techniques for de-abstracting maps -- how do you add to-scale detail in a way that is usable and readable?
When running a past OD&D campaign, I used a version of the Outdoor Survival map with pseudo-realistic hillshaded terrain. Being able to narrate very specific ridges and creeks and hills was pretty cool. But many feature of the map (PoIs, forests) we're still abstracted at the level of the 5-mile hex.
Similarly, I recently ran Tom Mecredy's D-Day WUTC hack "He Ain't Gonna Jump No More" and got a lot of mileage out of clipping real-world aerial photos of Normandy into the digital whiteboard we were using.
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - sam_the_bold - 09-07-2026
Using IRL aerial photos of Normandy is so sick.
One thing I did some experimentation with a few years ago was using a ton of colors for elevation changes, specifically in the context of underdark cave maps. I had I think a twelve or sixteen-step color gradient, which meant I could shift elevation up by ~fifty feet per step while still having a total elevation change in the hundreds of feet. In a digital context, I think vector maps are super underexplored.
RE: Ep 26: the black wyrm of Brandonsford - JimMonsoon - 09-08-2026
In theory one could utilize Google earth* api to zoom in on some remote area, delete or edit the labels to fit your setting and get real detailed.
*if this still exists