I’ve been skimming the draft documents, and there is a lot of interesting backstory to Dwimmermount. However, much of it seems very specific to the author’s home campaign. Will there be any kind of direction given to how to include Dwimmermount in the Auran Empire setting? The Auran Empire setting also collapsed civilizations so maybe some of the antagonists could be replaced by Zaharans. Could the Eld somehow be made related to the ACKS elves?
That's a good idea. The layout will include frequent sidebars, and writing that sidebar material is part of the work for the next step. I think the LL version could have general advice about adapting it to your campaign world, and the ACKS version could provide specific suggestions for the Auran Empire. (Backers will get both PDFs, so you can always cross-compare.)
I would replace the Thulians with the Zaharans, and leave the Ancients a mystery below the surface of either setting.
In the recent updates to the KS it was mentioned that the ACKS version of DM will definitely have its own take on James’ original material. Have you determined just how far you would go in varying from the LL version?
I think it would be neat if you just flat out set the ACKS version within the Auran Empire setting. Change the history so that the Zaharans take the place of the Thulians and the Thrassians replace the Ancients. Instead of going in the direction of the Sword and Planets elements that would be in the LL version replace super science with the super weird. Instead of portals to other worlds have the portals go to times in the distant past, or if time travel is too hard to retain consistency then the portals lead to alternate realities where the Thrassian Empire survives in one alternate reality, the Zaharan Empire in another, etc. Maybe there is a reality where the deceased elven (“Atlantean”) civilization still thrives.
Just throwing some ideas out there and wanting to get an idea for how much of a variation the ACKS version will be. This does seem like it could be an opportunity to have a megadungeon that can tie into the Auran Empire setting. In the downside to doing this do you think you can do a major variation (at least in terms of backstory, many of the levels probably would not be changed) without impacting the current timelines? The backers will still have PDF versions of both visions and I don’t think it would be a major effort to convert the ACKS version to more closely match the LL version.
I’d be excited to see two very different visions of DM. I think that gives us more food for thought as to how to adapt material to our own campaigns. I adapted one of Raggi’s modules to my home Hellfrost campaign which uses Savage Worlds. Seeing something similar done with the 2 official versions of DM could encourage similar adaptation. I think the OGL is supposed to accomplish some of this, but it’d be cool (if possible) to start to see this right out of the gate.
Bump. Some reason my last post didn’t cause this thread to show back up in recent updated posts. Hopefully this will fix that.
Thanks for your thoughts! I’m still wrestling with whether to fit Dwimmermount into the Auran Empire or not.
It’s such an impactful dungeon that it dominates any setting it’s placed into. Since the Auran Empire wasn’t designed with Dwimmermount in mind, or vice versa, that means I need to either radically change the Empire or radically change the dungeon.
I likely will simply do a version that has an adaption to Auran Empire in the back (notes).
I wouldn’t think it wise to change the fundamentals of the Auran Empire setting as a whole to accomodate Dwimmermount, but I think maybe a section of notes for those who want to integrate Dwimmermount with an ‘alternate secret history’ to AE for those interested would be valuable. If the Thrassians were involved (created?) Dwimmermount in one version I think it would be interesting to have ancient/not fallen Thrassians show up from the past. It would kind of remind me of Enig the Altrusian from Land of the Lost going amongst the ruins of Sleestak city.