Citadel on the Wilderlands: One Month To Go
I’m in the home stretch! Whether the design will be finished or not is another matter, but I’ve only got 22 design days (or 11,000 words) to go. I started Citadel on the Wilderlands on November 1 2022, and I’m finishing on October 31 2023.
The Scores on the Doors
As it stands, the project’s word counts are:
- Solonor Isle: 95,656 (+3,951 in another working file)
- Monastery of Ineffable Evil: 48,455
- Total: 148,062
I’ve split the book into two parts as it was getting too large and unwieldy. I think it is best to keep it in two parts for ease of use at the table.
Page Counts (with virtually no art or maps):
- Solonor Isle: 158
- Monastery of Ineffable Evil: 94
Miscellaneous Musings
During the year, I missed five days of design—because Wife dragged me on holiday, and I thought it would be a “Bad Show” to sit by the pool designing stat blocks and suchlike. (Also, with all her shoes, bikinis and dresses, there was no room for my books in “our” suitcases.)
Ideally, there would be three parts to this project, as I’d love to design the Ebbur Cave dungeon as well, but that isn’t going to happen in the next 11,000 words! In particular, Solonor Isle and the surrounding wilderlands expanded beyond what I had originally planned so there was no time to design Ebbur Cave. That’s cool; I’ve enjoyed the design process immensely, and maybe, I’ll crack on and do Ebbur Cave next year.
Next Year
I haven’t yet decided what I’ll be doing about a design project for next year. Ebbur Cave won’t take me all year (unless it ends up being much bigger than I currently envision), and I have a hankering to give designing Gloamhold—or at least some of Gloamhold—a go. During the pandemic, I ran a long campaign in its depths, and I have a great stack of digital files just waiting to be dusted off and developed.
In any event, that’s for the future. Now, I’m sprinting to finish the Monastery of Ineffable Evil’s first draft.
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Citadel on the Wilderlands is my love letter to B2 Keep on the Borderlands and B5 Horror on the Hill. I'm writing 500 words every weekday for a year.
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