Thursday 19 June 2014

Mind Blown!

Earlier this week I received the good news that "Mind Blast!" won the EN World adventure contest. I was thrilled to hear my adventure had taken the grand prize, especially coming from such noted judges (Sean K. Reynolds, Keith Baker, and Kevin Pulp). Go here to download the adventure, and be sure to take a look at the other entries. There's some great stuff there.

As a concept, "Mind Blast!" has been hanging around in my head for a couple of years now. The basic premise - a psychic disaster on a colony world that causes personalities to be swapped - came from a Doctor Who game I worked on briefly. It never came out, but we had some fun levels planned for it.


In one, the Doctor comes across a Dalek whose mind has been swapped with the colony's cook: a teenage girl from England. The Dalek-girl escorts the Doctor through the burning colony, using her new body to help him past obstacles. When we saw the scripts for the upcoming series I discovered my idea was oddly close to one of the new episodes, so we ditched it. The idea stuck though, and I was pleased for the opportunity to adapt it to D&D. I now have an owlbear instead of a Dalek, but the basic premise remains the same!

If you get a chance to play the adventure, I'd love to hear how it worked out. Be sure to check out the pre-generated characters I made, and practice your owlbear impressions. You'll need them!

10 comments:

  1. I knew you'd win that...no concept with an owlbear baker/cook could possibly lose. I can't see an owlbear yelling EXTERMINATE! though. At least I hope not.
    White pudding for tea tonight I expect. With intellect devourer brains of course, as in the traditional Scottish recipes.

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  2. Congratulations on another win, Will! I look forward to the chance to give this adventure a whirl.

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    1. Thanks! If you do play it I'd love to hear how it went.

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    2. Will do! Also, it is eerie how similar some things are to a dungeon I'm currently working on (it contains both a murder of crows and swarms of animated books)

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  3. Hi Mr. Doyle! Congratulations on winning the EN adventure contest! I'm a huge fan of Beholder Pie, and absolutely love reading all your posts.

    Your blog is so amazing, you've inspired me to start my very own blog! It would mean so much to me if you could maybe check it out? And maybe even give me some tips and hints on Blogging? I really admire you! Anyways, my Blog is at http://minor-action.blogspot.com/

    I'm just starting out, and I'm in High-school, so anything you have to say I would love to hear! Thanks so much!

    Congratulations again, and have a great August!

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    1. Hey, thanks Kobold Kid! That means a lot.

      I'll be sure to drop by your blog, and I wish you all the best of luck! There's not really a great deal I can advise. I'm useless at keeping this blog regularly updated! However, as a reader, I generally prefer good content infrequently over average content regularly. So don't sweat the post counts!

      I like your handle, by the way. I'm writing one of the organised-play scenarios now, and it's full of kobolds :)

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    2. Sounds awesome! I'd love to see it when you've finished? Thanks so much for the tip, and it means a lot that you stopped by.

      Thanks again, and have a great weekend!

      -Kobold Kid

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  4. Love this adventure. Planning on running it next weekend for a group. I am going to run it for a group of level 7 characters so I will just up the difficulty on the monsters a bit. I know the maps were provided by the contest but they were originally published by WOTC. I am wondering if I can find a higher quality version of the map somewhere that I can use on my TV which acts as my battle map. Also, do you know the scale on the map? Those squares seem like they are larger than the standard 5ft otherwise those rooms would be super cramped. Thanks and great work!

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    1. Hope you have fun with the adventure! Sadly, the maps WotC provided for this competition were very low res, so I can’t help there. I’d make the squares 10ft to give a bit more breathing space. Enjoy!

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