Introducing Albion Adventures

Ok after a triumphant game at Furnace, I’ve sat down and planned out what I’m going to be doing with Albion Adventures in the long term.

In short Albion Adventures is going to be D101 games line of adventures in the old skool British tradition using Labyrinth Lord as its base.

System compatiblity
I’m going to be using Labyrinth Lord with the Advanced Companion. It not only suits the way I play AD&D (which is Basic with the extra options from AD&D)  but also LL is strongly branded and recognised amoungst the OSR and beyond. If people wander up to me and ask how they get the core system, I can point them in the direction of it. I got my print copy via Patriot Games which indicates its available via conventional distribution. Of course I’ll be making  it clear that you can use certain ‘1st Edition systems with it’  and Osric/Swords and Wizardry compatiblity.

Adventure Modules
I’ve roughly got the got the following planned.

AA-UK1. The Furnace – write up of the Tournament game I’ve just run.
AA-UK2. Bone Valley – my tribute to Keep on the Borderlands, through a gritty UK lens. A valley filled with old tombs and caves, and at its head Fort Boneguard, a seedy town from ancient times that has seen better days and is an adventurers hang out. A sandpit for levels 1-3?
AA-UK3. Sorceror Under Mountain.– go to a mountain to get a long dead sorceror’s treasure. What could possibly go wrong?

Setting: The Kingdom of Erun.
My initial aim is to produce an internal doc that acts as a common setting for the modules, but when its bashed into shape I’ll release it. I want to keep this short and sweet hence the focus on a single kingdom.
Inspiration is the old  Pelinore setting, which was detailed in Imagine TSR UKs 80s magazine and the shortlived Games Master Magazine,  with a dash of Titan, the world of Fighting Fantasy, (which I picked up in glorious A4 format along with Out of the Pit at Furnace 🙂 ).

So eta on all of the above? Not a clue I’ve got a few things already in the D101 production que before it, but I’m quietly chipping away at the writting at the moment. I reckon Spring 2011 is not unreasonable 🙂

8 thoughts on “Introducing Albion Adventures

  1. I’m a bit concerned that this project may take some of the steam out of d101’s work on OpenQuest. There already is an insane amount of material out there for LL/S&W/OSRIC/etc. I’ve been active in the OSR for a few years now, even writing a few things for Fight On! and Knockspell, and I can’t even come close to keeping up on everything that is available for the various retro-clones these days. It’s overwhelming! In contrast, OQ is somewhat unique, and worthy of further cultivation and support (IMO).

    I don’t want to be a wet blanket, though, so by all means follow your muse, Newt! I’ll be curious to see what you come up with. I’m just expressing my concern for the future of OQ. No doubt I’m being alarmist. 🙂

    Speaking of OQ, any word on OpenQuest Classic?

    • Ok, don’t be alarmed that this is going to detract from OpenQuest – I’ve already got HeroQuest, Wordplay and Monkey for that ! 😉

      Joking aside Albion Adventures is a fun, fun, fun project which is flowing nicely (its something for example I’ve been able to do a little bit on while I’ve been laid off sick this week with my head otherwise scrambled). The outputs are designed to be very small (around 30-40 pages compared with OQ’s 60-100 pages) and not take up much of my time to produce. While I’m aware that there is lots and lots and lots of OSR support out there, there’s nothing by us Brits that celebrates the grand masters of the 80s. Why I’m doing Albion Adventures probably deserves a post all of its own, but you can probably glean most of the detail from posts that I’ve already made 😉

      Secondly don’t ever fell like I’m going to abandon OQ, I’ve lots of folk who won’t let me!!

      OpenQuest has lots of support all lined up and ready to come out at regular intervals.

      Life and Death is in the final corrections stage, 70% done I should be makeing it available to preorder next week.

      Empires Rising is being proofed as we speak and the mighty Jon Hodgeson sent me a cracking sketch of the cover the other day, so expect a preview of the final cover very soon)

      The OpenQuester is content complete, I just need to commision art and it should be out XMAS/early New Year. I’m pretty 100% that there will be a second issue, because people are already lining up to give me content and I’ve a few bits myself (some off cuts from the Savage North for example 😉 )

      I’ve just sorted out a new adventure/setting supplement for OpenQuest with two of my regular contributors, Simon Bray and Paul Mitchener, which I’ll be revealing shortly.

      And this is before we even talk about The Company (in final layout) and River of Heaven which has just gone into internal playtesting.

      So is that enough OQ support for you ? 😛

      However one casualty of my publishing-powerhouse has been OQ Classic. I took a long hard look at the direction it was taking and I realised it was coming far too close to a D&D D100 for my liking. Also I realised I would be diluting and confusing the OQ Brand if I released it. So it hit the chopping block. What I had already written for it will be turning up either in the OpenQuester or in Albion Adventures. This one definitely deserves a bigger announcement from myself, which will be forecoming shortly.

  2. Newt,

    I think this is great news. I can’t wait to see the modules. Any idea who will be handling the art for these projects, or is it too early to announce?

    Talk to you soon,

    Shane

  3. Would Albion adventures be suitable for Dragon Warriors conversion or is it perhaps a little too D&D in terms of the setting? 🙂

  4. With Crypts & Things roaring ahead is still an ongoing project? I’d greatly enjoy a new wave of ‘UK’ modules with C&T as their home system.

Leave a Reply to NewtCancel reply