Hello, a gentle genius, a brief stint on the soapbox

Oh my. A blog. Guess I should introduce us. Welcome to the Greedy Gorgon Press blog and website. We write content for TTRPGs, predominantly D&D but I have a funny feeling that will change as the years roll out. I thought a blog might be nice cause it gives us a chance to write something a little more thoughtful and care less at the same time.

So in the spirit of introductions, today you’re reading Uncle Dunmore’s words. Who knows which head of the Gorgon will write the next one? One thing I’d like to put out there is our rationale, our guiding principles when it comes to writing these adventures. For us, it comes from a place of stories. We are all relative newcomers to the world of D&D, instead our expertise lies in the world of words. We are all expert readers, writers and teachers. That expertise has most definitely informed our approach to world building.

That is not to say we ignore mechanics. Quite the opposite. I think all three of us look at the mechanics of a game as the means through which story is told. And I think specifically we think how specific mechanics can radically impact the story. If you look at our first adventure, Song for the Dead, the genius thing that adventure does is pick out a spell that many may take for granted and enforce its precepts in a way that make it narratively interesting. The text of Gentle Repose has a story already built into it. The adventure just teases that out.

I think that brings us to our other key principle which is empty space. You must recognise the ‘empty space sweet spot.’ That is: enough text to create a sense of atmosphere but enough space to bring yourself into it. We like to think that our adventures provide a prompt, a framework, a hook and you supply the body, the feels and the story.

And I’m going to climb onto my soapbox now for a moment and weigh in on a debate I see quite frequently about mechanics v story. It would appear plenty think it needs to be one or the other. That mechanics need to be sacrificed at the altar of story to keep the RPG gods happy. They should, of course, serve each other. Too much of one or the other imbalances a TTRPG turning it into a video game or a novel. We want neither in this medium.

There it is. A blog post.

Take care, Uncle Dunmore.