Week 1 Recap and Why We Chose Ghouls
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, May 17, 2019 at 07:09:12 AM
In the week since we launched, we have successfully funded and unlocked 17 stretch goals! Thank you all for your support and for sharing our Kickstarter!
In honor of this, we wanted to answer the question "why ghouls?" for a behind-the-scenes peak at some of the thought processes that went into creating the story. Long-time Kobold Press designer Richard Green worked with Chief Kobold Wolfgang Baur to create the story for Empire of the Ghouls and had this to say about the creation process.
We wanted the first 5e adventure path for Midgard to be a world-spanning campaign, taking in some of our favourite locations, and covering multiple levels. So, why did we choose the Ghoul Imperium as the focus?
Ghouls make great villains. Essentially, horrific, terrifying cannibals who want to feed on living flesh, they paralyze victims, rendering their prey helpless so it can be dragged off, ripped to pieces, and eaten while it is still alive. But they are much more interesting than other undead creatures. The highly intelligent darakhul of Midgard have built a sophisticated underground civilization unlike any other, capable of maintaining – and expanding – a dark empire of flesh-eating undead.
The Ghoul Imperium is ruled by Emperor Nicoforus the Pale who presides over a complex hierarchy of Dukes, high priests, and noble houses, all prone to backstabbing and scheming. Driven by the need to feed on flesh, the ghouls seek to expand their territory through far-reaching plots and military conquest. Their mighty legions have already conquered large swathes of the underworld, crushing the drow amongst others. Worse still, the Emperor has entered into an alliance with the vampire king of Morgau and together the undead have seized new lands in the surface realms. The darakhul are zealous followers of the dark gods and their three main religions – Death (Anu-Akma), Hunger (Vardesain) and War (Mavros) – constantly vie for worshippers and power.
These complex politics and the ghouls’ drive for conquest gave us sinister villains whose machinations inspired this wide-ranging campaign. Empire of the Ghouls visits the city of Zobeck, the dwarven Cantons, vampire-controlled Krakovar, the cold and grim Northlands, and even the deserts of the south, before heading deep below the earth to the Ghoul Imperium and an atmospheric underground city at the heart of the Empire. Meanwhile, the many-layered ghoul hierarchy lends itself to an adventure challenging player characters at multiple levels, from ghouls and ghasts to powerful darakhul nobles – and worse.
It’s been 12 years since the publication of the original Empire of the Ghouls Open Design project and a lot has changed. The ghouls have allied with the vampires but we know little of what has happened below ground in the last ten years. Nicoforus the Pale has ruled the Ghoul Imperium for 22 years, but change is brewing in the dank, fetid air of the tunnels….
Richard Green can be found on Twitter @richgreen01
Design Diary: Black Chambers of the Undercity
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, May 17, 2019 at 07:06:48 AM
Since our last update, you've unlocked an expanded drow race and three new NPCs of the Underworld. That's a total of 19 stretch goals unlocked so far! Thank you all very much! We're excited for the opportunity to create and expand more content for you!
In this update, we give another behind-the-scenes look at designing Empire of the Ghouls. The exciting first chapter, Black Chambers of the Undercity, starts with the players in the city of Zobeck where some ghouls are up to no good. This chapter was written by Christopher Lockey, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about his writing process.
What was your favorite part about writing Black Chambers of the Undercity?
I think I originally fell in love with D&D and tabletop RPGs because of the ubiquity of monsters; and the undead (in their various unholy forms) are among my absolute favorite kinds of monsters. The Empire of Ghouls is simultaneously an important part of Midgard lore and my favorite part of the campaign setting since I first laid eyes on Wolfgang Baur and Scott Gable’s Imperial Gazetteer. The chance to carve out my own little corner of Midgard’s ghoul mythology was something I didn’t want to pass up. Writing a low-level scenario featuring some of the game’s coolest baddies has been a blast, and there were plenty of opportunities to make some strong choices about the story I wanted to tell. I just hope everyone has as much fun playing the scenario as I had developing it.
Were there any specific challenges in writing Black Chambers?
When Wolfgang approached me to develop Black Chambers of the Undercity from a one-page outline into a full-blown adventure, I was thoroughly on board. But adapting an outline isn’t always as easy as it seems. This scenario features some NPCs of note that have already been detailed in an assortment of Kobold Press products for various editions of the game. I needed to accurately deconstruct these characters and comprehensively discern how they would each impact -- and be impacted by -- the story as it unfolded within (and beneath) the most detailed urban environment the Midgard setting has to offer. So, naturally, it took some time to wrap my brain around the various social and political struggles at play and how they directly and indirectly affected the timeline of the narrative. Even if these elements take a backseat for some groups or get thrown out entirely, I felt a sense of duty to the published game world that I wanted to honor with a respectful telling.
Furthermore, the Cartways and catacombs beneath Zobeck are relatively unexplored territory. Mapping them out -- even to a small extent -- was a task that carried a certain weight of responsibility. Not only did I want to do justice to a corner of a campaign setting that Wolfgang & Co. have been calling home for decades, I wanted to establish a proper and lasting tone for other contributions and developments to come. Most importantly, I wanted these fictional places to feel logical enough to exist. To me, fantasy (especially horrific fantasy) is most compelling when it encounters a world ripe with verisimilitude.
Did you pull inspiration from any particular sources to match the theme or goals of Black Chambers (such as books, movies, shows, etc.)?
With assignment in-hand, I set out to develop an urban horror mystery about duality and the precarious dangers of decadence. The pulp fiction of Robert E. Howard has persistently been one of my chief writing influences, and there was no exception when it came to Black Chambers of the Undercity with its sprawling subterranean playground of perverse and unspeakable horrors. And it (perhaps) goes without saying that the Lankhmar stories of Fritz Leiber were a major inspiration as well. Meanwhile, Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, the illustrations of Frank Frazetta, some Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an assortment of classic vampire flicks, and the Fallout series from Bethesda each provided their own inspirations (for one curious reason or another). While there aren’t many overt nods to this material in the adventure itself, I imagine some of the influence seeps through. And, as always, there’s plenty of room for your own.
You can follow Christopher Lockey on Twitter @ChrisLockey
Design Diary: Holy Robes of Sister Adelind
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, May 17, 2019 at 07:06:28 AM
Stretching beneath the surface of Midgard, the Underworld offers unique challenges and terrain just as the world above it, and your support has helped us show it! The latest stretch goal unlock (that puts us at 20 stretch goals unlocked!!) allows us to create and expand random encounter tables to include different regions of the Underworld, which means players exploring the world beneath the frozen Northlands will have different encounters than those exploring beneath Zobeck. Thank you all very much!
For today's update, we explore the design process behind Chapter 2: Holy Robes of Sister Adelind. In the second chapter of Empire of the Ghouls, the players are tasked with finding a fabled holy relic of a saint of Sif, which should (hopefully!) aid them in their quest to squash the ghoul uprising. The chapter was written by Richard Green, who gave us a peak into his writing process.
One of the perks of coming up with the overall outline for the Empire of the Ghouls adventure with Wolfgang was that I got first dibs on the chapter I most wanted to write. Since I’d written the updated accounts of the Blood Kingdom for the Midgard Worldbook, I leapt at the chance to write Holy Robes of Sister Adelind, which takes place in vampire-occupied Krakovar.
The adventure is a perilous – and fun – road trip. In their search for the magical robes of a saint of Sif, the warrior goddess of valkyries, the player characters face numerous challenges, such as acquiring powerful allies, battling ghouls in forest ruins, and outwitting enemy spies.
I really enjoyed revisiting the characters and locations introduced in the Worldbook, building on the intrigues we’d teed up, and fleshing out the details. One of the members of the Krakovan royal family plays an important part in the campaign, and I loved writing the tricky roleplaying scene where the characters must win over the exiled Krakovan court to gain their aid.
My other favourite section takes place in Krakovar. Here, the characters go behind enemy lines and must sneak through miles of hostile territory controlled by the vampires to infiltrate a castle filled with undead.
I had a blast writing this adventure, and I’m sure you will all have even more fun running and playing it.
You can find Richard Green on Twitter @richgreen01
Design Diary: The Blood Marriage
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, May 17, 2019 at 07:06:13 AM
You've unlocked two blood-filled stretch goals since our last update: a vampire lair with map and a detailed entry on the Cult of the Red Goddess! Thank you all very much!
For today's update, we explore the design process behind Chapter 3: The Blood Marriage. The third chapter of Empire of the Ghouls sees the players making a brief trip to the frozen Northlands to put a stop to a dark union, which might provide the ghouls an immeasurable boost in power both political and magical. Jeff Lee told us a bit about how he felt when tasked with writing this chapter.
When Wolfgang Baur offered me the opportunity to write The Blood Marriage, it was a real fanboy moment for me. One of my favorite Dungeon magazine adventures was his Kingdom of the Ghouls (Dungeon #70) for 2nd edition AD&D. Now here I am, able to write a chapter for the 5E version of Empire of the Ghouls. Color me ecstatic! It was both a terrible chore and a great delight to write this adventure. I strove to keep the spirit of those great past adventures that inspired me, while providing something new and exciting for the gaming groups that will play it.
Aside from Wolfgang’s Kingdom of the Ghouls adventure, I was also inspired by an unusual source when I wrote what has become one of my favorite parts of the chapter. In this chapter, the characters must travel through an area of Midgard that has been documented in the books, but the dangers within have not been detailed—at least not mechanically. I had to develop rules for these dangers without turning it into a long, grinding combat. Strangely, my inspiration came while my Pandora station was transporting me back to the 80s. “Home By the Sea” by Genesis started playing, and suddenly I knew what to do. I created what I hope is a truly terrifying and tension-building scenario, using a portion of the D&D rules that don't get brought into play very often. While I'm pleased with the work I've done for the adventure as a whole, I'm especially proud of that particular section, and the thought of players delving into that dark area fills me with glee. I hope those who play this adventure find it memorable and fun.
For more about Jeff Lee and his work, check out his patreon!
