We're getting a new ttrpg based on Delta Green, and an excerpt from the next novel is up on https://reactormag.com/excerpts-lies-weeping-by-glen-cook/Not-so-spoiler, Arkana and Shukrat are the new annalists, w/ Croaker making a cameo. All our old friends are back and it sounds like even Booboo is coming out to play.I've been wanting to run a campaign set around The Pastel Wars for about a decade. I think I'm getting close, and plan to run it in World Without Number--I think it can do the high-lethality and magic systems justice.Be excited! The original grimdark is back in action w/ 4 more novels already-written, the first one coming out 3 weeks from today.
The Pastel Wars campaign I want to run starts out w/ the players as new recruits in the Black Company on their way North, about 200 years before the first novel. The guy who'll become the Paingod hires the Company to help him take over Cho'n Delor and the players are green recruits. At the time, the Company might be from Sham, Taglios, the people of D'loc Aloc, the Nar, swamp folks, from K'Hlata, or the folks from Dai Khomena who I've decided to portay as something like the classical Greek city-states. This is my basic 3-act campaign structure. I've got the first 6 or so ready.The players get jobs but from there aren't forced down any particular path, and the jobs are: here are maps of the place and a goal--decide how to accomplish it. Eventually I assume they'l rebel because this was when the Company was really the big evil and my players won't put up with being the bad guys for too long. So within 5 missions I figure they say "screw this" and, if they haven't done so by then, then I can give them a little push by letting them stumble on the whole human sacrifice aspect of the Company's priesthood.
I've decided that Kette refers to the area between Taglios and Howler's swamp. In addition to the things the novels say are there, I've tossed in a few locations that are mentioned but never placed in time, that seemed like they had to be between going north and reaching Beryl. Also we know that the Shadar and Vehdna are from up north, so I've positioned them as Persians into India's Taglios, functionally. It seems to more or less track with how Cook portrayed them all.
>>96755570I need to pick this series back up, I finished the first collection but keep stalling out when I try to start the next bit. Cook is a great writer.
>>96755775You should. The next series is 5 books, coming out soon.>>96755782Literally posted my RPG map and adventure structure. But thanks for bumping. More people should care about The Black Company.
>>96755782God damn fuck off you insufferable piece of shit
>>96756121>>96756910Any time pal!
>>96755570>We're getting a new ttrpg based on Delta GreenWhat a weird pick.
>>96757118Shane Ivey, the main Arc Dream guy, is a fan of the series, and I could see how the bonds system from that game could be used in regards to Black Company. Plus it's a pretty punishing system, as befits the source material.
>The original grimdark is backDo people really think this about Black Company? It never felt particularly grim to me, sometimes it was even very comedic bordering on slapstick.
>>96757434Because it never was. Certainly not now with many more edgy series out there. Everyone basically gets caught up on THAT scene in the first book and that somehow became the perceived tone level of the series.
>>96755611>The Pastel Wars campaign I want to run starts out w/ the players as new recruits in the Black Company on their way North, about 200 years before the first novel.Is the setting really interesting enough for that, though? Entire appeal of TBC is, well, the Company itself and what they go through.
neat, I love the black company
>>96757434>Do people really think this about Black Company?Yes, generally speaking. The first Black Company novel is widely credited as being the first work of "grimdark" fantasy.The important details are: It's a soldier-level perspective, morally ambiguous story. And it came out in 1984. I'd agree that it gets funny often. But I'd say it's less slapstick then, let's say, WH40k, where the Noise Marines are heavy metal warriors who use unholy guitars to blast their enemies to pieces with laser-rock.>>96757450Grimdark isn't about edge, and I honestly don't think people do get terribly hung up on the White Rose's scene. There aren't any "good guys" and it's just a buncha cruel people killing each other. That's why it's considered the origin of grimdark. Not because of how edgy it is or isn't.>>96757871>Is the setting really interesting enough for thatProbably not, no. I still wanna focus it on the Company, just with them as bad guys. There's certainly an element of fanboy-ism to my desire to do so.
