HEHEHEHEEE! The Hag Stretch Goal Unlocked + A Project I Love
over 1 year ago
– Sun, Mar 05, 2023 at 10:25:11 AM
Do you hear the sound of bubbling cauldrons? Because the hag class has now been unlocked, and once again, Monstrous Heroes grows in size! As I have covered in monster ranking videos, I consider hags to be one of the greatest kinds of monsters of all time. The have an awesome mix of storytelling, lore, personalities ripe for roleplaying, freakishly fantastic aesthetic, and dynamic abilities. So, having them onboard in this book is a major upgrade.
The hag is still very much at the drawing board stage, but she most definitely will include many magical features and the ability to conceal her true identity with illusory appearances. I have many other potential hag features slinking around in my mind, such as connections to different types of environments (sea hag, swamp hag, etc.), and perhaps a subclass or optional feature that's all about brewing concoctions.
If you have any suggestions for hag class features, drop a comment!
In other news ...
Beyond Shadowgate: A Project I Love
When I was a young boy, I was at Toys R Us one day, perusing the NES games. I stopped in my tracks when I saw a cover that was strikingly different than any of the others. A gargoyle stared out fiercely, and a bit of its stony skin was shattering off from its spade tail to reveal red flesh underneath.
I immediately purchased the game, and when I popped it in my Nintendo at home, it pulled me into an immersive dark fantasy experience like no other game I had ever seen. Truly an original for its time, instead of cartoony sprites leaping from brightly-colored platforms, it was a gritty, shadowy, thinking game, that was displayed as a first-person view in a gritty, shadowy setting. It was full of cryptic puzzles that bewildered me, and it was also a game of tension and suspense. Dreadful doom lurked around every corner, and indeed there were numerous ways to get yourself killed. Being that it was a text-driven game, the action took place within my imagination—more powerful than any onscreen graphic could ever create.
The music, the style, the tone ... it was an engrossing adventure that inspired me on a deep level. I went on to become an artist and writer, a ttrpg GM and game designer, and always lurking in the back of my mind was the eerie gift that Shadowgate had given me. In 2011 I launched a narrated D&D adventure on my YouTube channel called Eldritch Castle, which was very much influenced by Shadowgate. Then in late 2022, I launched a remake of Eldritch Castlewhich took things to the next level in terms of production quality. It is a first-person, narrated, immersive, and interactive 5e adventure, an experience like nothing else on YouTube.
Then, a couple weeks ago, I was browsing Kickstarter, and what did I find? A sequel to Shadowgate ... 8 bit and all! I nearly jumped out of my chair.
Of course I had to back it right away. I also messaged Dave Marsh, the man behind Shadowgate, and was blown away when he wanted to meet via zoom. We chatted for a bit, which was a true pleasure and honor for me, surreal in a way. I grabbed the Beyond Shadowgate demo from his kickstarter page, and recorded my playthrough of it with a couple buddies from my livestreamed D&D campaign. It promises to remain faithful to the oldschool style of the original game, while expanding things into a bigger story and setting.
I am really stoked for this game to get developed! It’s already met its funding goal and broken through a few stretch goals. You can check it out here. Make sure to tell Dave that Esper sends his regards ;)
