In the beginning (Part Two)

So I decided to make my own setting. The issue for it was quite simple. Which setting? I have many floating around in my head. Science fiction. Alternate history. Fantasy knights. Fantasy vikings. Fantasy Egyptians. And so on.

I decided to go back to the first AD&D campaign I ever played in, went over the notes of twenty odd years of gaming in that setting and pulled out key elements that would work for developing a setting that didn't interfere with the campaign we had played or any future material for that world. I centered on a terrain feature, the Land Bridge, and one obscure not I had scribbled on a map in college. The Ice Tribes of Thrar.

Other references to Thrar had it listed as "Home of the Ice Kings" and other elaborate titles involving the terms Ice or Frozen. From this I decided to use The Ice Kingdoms.

Immediately it became vikings. But I wanted some Lieber and Howard, so I threw in Conan, Fafhrd, Red Sonja, Grey Mouser and more. I borrowed from Russian, Arthurian, Finnish, Irish and other mythologies and legends. Then I added a firm layer of D&D. But I didn't have a system.

I thought about just going 3E or Pathfinder. But my heart always belonged to old school 1980s/1990s D&D and AD&D. I was tempted by OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord and even by adapting my own version. But then I found For Gold and Glory. A little known clone of AD&D 2E. No real support, no real fan base to speak of. Free PDF for the rules, cheap print options. Everything I needed. FG&G would do quite nicely.

I created a Facebook page, invited my gaming buddies to join and started crafting legends, stories, tales and entries for the book. Eventually I had 40+ pages of typewritten cultural and game notes and rules. I hit the OGL content to grab some information to mold for my gods and clerics, some extra spells and monsters. I hired a few artists from Fiverr to start designing the feel and look of the Ice Kingdoms and the maps. I hired some writers, most notably Chris Lites, James M. Ward and Moses Wildermuth to shape the material into the book that eventually was produced. I had old friends and new friends work as editors. I had enough after a year of so to do the Kickstarter and here we are.

Here we are.

The Adventure Begins.