{"id":18143,"date":"2012-02-11T14:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-02-11T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=18143"},"modified":"2012-02-10T21:18:09","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T03:18:09","slug":"designers-diary-triple-ace-games-wonderland-no-more-savage-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=18143","title":{"rendered":"Designer’s Diary: Triple Ace Games – Wonderland No More (Savage Worlds)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wonderland No More<\/strong>
\n Wonderland No More<\/a> is a complete setting for Savage Worlds published by Triple Ace Games.
\nBy Kevin L Anderson, Lanse D Tryon, and T. Jordan Peacock<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to the thirty-second Designer\u2019s Diary, a regular column where designers are given the opportunity to take readers on an in-depth ride through the design and development process of their system, setting, or product. If you\u2019d like to share your product in the Designer\u2019s Diary column, send a message to aaron@roleplayerschronicle.com.<\/p>\n

The following article was submitted by three writers for Triple Ace Games. Their comments are preceded by their initials equating to:<\/p>\n

KLA \u2014 Kevin L Anderson
\nLDT \u2014 Lanse D Tryon
\nTJP \u2014 T. Jordan Peacock<\/p>\n

Description<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 Wonderland No More<\/em> (WNM) is a chance to \u201cplay\u201d in a world already created by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll), being based upon the two books Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em> and Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There<\/em>. Referees and players can read the books and immediately get an idea of how the world operates and what can be found there. \u00a0If you like, the setting has two sourcebooks both freely available on the internet!<\/p>\n

Archetypal races from the books are available: \u201cnormal\u201d Humans, anthropomorphic Animals, animated Chessmen, ambulatory Plants and the rotund Tweedle. \u00a0Magic is catered for by gourmancy (using food to cast spells), faith (some believe Alice is a divine being; others worship the Spirit of Conflict) and even witch queens!<\/p>\n

Taken as written, the book presents a situation occurring after Alice left Wonderland and leads the players into a campaign where they get to meet royalty, right wrongs, behead cards<\/span> and maybe liberate the whole of Wonderland in an eight-chapter story. \u00a0Twenty-seven Savage Tales provide more adventures, while a whole bestiary provides fearsome opponents such as slithy toves, mome raths and the terrifying Jabberwock!<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 Wonderland No More<\/em> is an exploration into the world of Lewis Carroll\u2019s books, extrapolating events years or decades past Alice\u2019s last recorded visit. \u00a0For many inhabitants of Wonderland, the two Alice books constitute Holy Scripture, and Alice herself is worshiped by many as an absent goddess. The Queen of Hearts has gone mad, and it is not abnormal for the player characters to very soon rack up prices on their heads exceeding that on the head of the White Rabbit.<\/p>\n

The boundaries between the Real World and Wonderland have thinned, and sometimes characters from either world cross over. Meanwhile, a deeper threat is stirring, and the player characters play an instrumental part in the world-changing events to follow.<\/p>\n

Purpose<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 I was going through a bit of a low time in my life and needed something to occupy my spare time. One of my friends, Dave Blewer (of Sundered Skies<\/em> fame), suggested I write something, and after some time mulling over what to write I came up with the idea of Wonderland No More<\/em>. I still don\u2019t know why Wonderland caught my imagination as I was not a fan of the books before starting Wonderland No More<\/em> \u2014 maybe it was a random particle of inspiration that happened to find a home in my head. ;)<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 It caught my imagination and I ran with it. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t thinking too hard about reasons.<\/p>\n

TJP \u2014 I\u2019ve long had a fondness for the Victorian aesthetic, but in particular I\u2019ve found Wonderland to provide a rich source for fantasy imagery with a twist.\u00a0 Some time ago, when most of the games I ran involved exploring dungeons with the possible threat of running into dragons, I had read a particular \u201cmodule\u201d that featured an adventure with a Wonderland twist.\u00a0 Having read the stories myself, I felt that I could do one better, and wrote up and ran a \u201cdungeon\u201d game heavily based upon the events of the original Alice story, kitbashing an assortment of miniatures for \u201ccard guards,\u201d a white rabbit, a Hatter, a sinister-looking Dire Cheshire Cat, and so forth.\u00a0 The players loved it, and, to my surprise, one of them was able to quote the entire Jabberwocky poem from memory.\u00a0 Later, then I was approached about this project, I couldn\u2019t help but sign on.<\/p>\n

Influences<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 Obviously the Alice books (of which I am now a huge fan). The original format of the book was based upon 50 Fathoms<\/em> and Sundered Skies<\/em>, although it warped over time into what it is now. \u00a0I studiously avoided the Disney film (the original cartoon \u2014 the Tim Burton version was released after WNM was almost finished) and the PC game American McGee\u2019s Alice<\/em> until I had the whole thing written, as I did not want outside influences to affect WNM. \u00a0Incidentally the soundtrack to American McGee\u2019s Alice<\/em> is ideal for WNM games. \u00a0I did read Alice Through the Needle\u2019s Eye<\/em> and contacted the author\u2019s agent to see if I could use his extensions to Wonderland but was refused \u2014 in hindsight, this was probably a good thing, as WNM already has two realms and a third would have made the book\u2019s publication unfeasible due to page count!<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 I read a lot of fairy tales as a child and would find myself sinking into those story worlds. \u00a0I would reread the Alice books a couple times a year throughout my childhood, and I also had a lot of night terrors during that period. Therefore, Wonderland No More<\/em>, like the Alice books, is full of things that would make sense to a child, and can tap into childhood fears if necessary. \u00a0Most of this is implied in the books \u2014 the final effect depends on what influences the players bring to the table themselves.<\/p>\n

TJP \u2014 Art-wise, the illustrations of Sir John Tenniel were the primary inspiration for my contributions, as I tried to ape his style as much as possible for a consistent look to the interior artwork (to the point of trying to make a \u201cTenniel-esque\u201d signature for my own sketches).<\/p>\n

Research<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 I kind of covered this above. I did a lot of reading of blogs and other online resources analysing the existing Alice books but eventually stayed with my interpretation of the setting and characters.<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 I deliberately avoided other interpretations of Alice in Wonderland. \u00a0I wanted my part of the project to be new and unbiased, as much as possible. I detest the Disney movie \u2014 they completely missed the point of having an intelligent nonsense book, and instead made it stupid. \u00a0I also recognize that going creepy and gory with Alice is like shooting concussed fish in a rain-barrel, with an elephant gun. \u00a0We made the decision to not go that direction, partly because everyone else was, but more so because Wonderland No More<\/em> was to be an extrapolation, not a reinterpretation.<\/p>\n

TJP \u2014 For artwork references, I looked up several of Tenniel\u2019s illustrations outside of the Alice books (particularly his political cartoons for Punch<\/em>).\u00a0 For context, my wife has a wonderful book, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition<\/em> (Lewis Carroll, with introduction and notes by Martin Gardner), full of all sorts of interesting notes in the margins that help to give historical details about much of the \u201cnonsense\u201d in the books.\u00a0 I also read samples of Lewis Carroll\u2019s other works (The Hunting of the Snark, Phantasmagoria,<\/em> excerpts from Sylvia and Bruno<\/em>, etc.) in the hopes of gaining a little more context, and further inspiration.<\/p>\n

Art Direction<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 I always wanted the artwork to be black and white and similar to the original art by John Tenniel. \u00a0When Pinnacle first talked about publishing the setting, there was talk of full color, but I was really against this. \u00a0Luckily when Triple Ace Games took over the publication they allowed me free rein for the art and Jordan was certainly up to the challenge.<\/p>\n

For the map, I wanted a certain look, derived from a map I saw for American McGee\u2019s Alice (an example can be found here: http:\/\/xahlee.org\/p\/alice\/i\/am\/ss\/Alice_Map.jpg<\/a>) and Jordan came up with the goods.<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 We made a concerted effort to use either the original John Tenniel artwork or as close as we could get with other artists. \u00a0The art was a primary influence on how I at least read the books as a child, and we wanted to recreate that same effect in our game.<\/p>\n

TJP \u2014 As much as possible, the illustrations are meant to evoke the imagery of Sir John Tenniel\u2019s artwork or, on occasion, that of Henry Holiday (original illustrator of The Hunting of the Snark)<\/em>.\u00a0 As such, the interior illustrations are in black and white, although we\u2019ve been free to use full color in much of the support material (map tiles, item cards, figure flats, etc.).\u00a0 For the maps, I started with actual building floor plans from appropriate periods (or pretty close to it) whenever possible, modified to fit the needs of the adventures, rather than just conjuring up something from scratch.<\/p>\n

Gaming Experience<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 WNM is not designed to be any sort of gaming experience; it is up to the groups playing it to create their own experience. \u00a0I guess you could say from a purist point of view that it is designed to run stories akin to those of Lewis Carroll and this is reinforced by the personalities and places the players can visit. \u00a0During my own playtest of the campaign we had moments of pure \u201cAlice\u201d when the players interacted with the royalty of the realms, mindless slaughter (mostly brought about by the somewhat unintelligent Tweedle Don\u2019t with an executioner\u2019s axe and cries of \u201cDon\u2019t cut her head off!\u201d followed by a meaty thud!) and even several Dr. Seuss moments (hiding the fox hero in a box \u2014 the classic \u201cfox in a box\u201d gambit).<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 Again, it really depends on what the players bring to the table themselves. \u00a0It could be straight fantasy with talking animals, chess pieces and cards, or it could be Cthulhu-style horror. \u00a0It\u2019s an opportunity to explore childhood nonsense and how much sense it makes. \u00a0While one of my playtest group was becoming a Conan-like animal warrior and another was developing chivalry as a Chesspiece knight, my brother and I were debating Alician theology in character and paralleling contemporary Protestant debates. \u00a0We provide a framework of internally-consistent nonsense, and let the players go where they will.<\/p>\n

TJP \u2014 I\u2019ve run games with my home group and at Necronomicon (a convention in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA), and I\u2019ve tried to explore a range of \u201cmoods\u201d the setting can evoke. \u00a0For convention \u201cone-shots,\u201d I\u2019ve treated it as lighter fare, encouraging heroes to ham it up and get into the \u201cnonsense\u201d \u2014 treating it as a \u201cdungeon\u201d game with Wonderland trappings, or taking the heroes on a strange sea voyage to visit Snark Island.<\/p>\n

For my own home games, I\u2019ve deviated a bit from the adventures as presented in the Wonderland No More <\/em>book, basing my adventures in London circa 1888.\u00a0 I\u2019ll confess to figuratively<\/em> \u201cshooting concussed fish in a rain-barrel with an elephant gun\u201d in my interpretations, since I decided to pursue more of a \u201chorror\u201d angle for my own players.\u00a0 But then, that just illustrates that the Wonderland No More<\/em> setting guide provides a starting point that a GM can adapt to his or her own style.<\/p>\n

Comparison<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2014 I don\u2019t believe there is a similar product to Wonderland No More<\/em>, or at least not one that treats the subject matter as we do. \u00a0It is very similar in format to many other Savage Worlds<\/em> products with a single core book detailing character creation, equipment, arcane backgrounds, GM material, a campaign, Savage Tales, and bestiary.<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 Again, WNM is an extrapolation, not a reinterpretation. \u00a0We tried to stick with concepts that could be rooted in the books, rather than superimposing some Alician aesthetic on a horror film or completely reworking the original premise into steampunk or whatnot.<\/p>\n

Development Process<\/strong>
\nKLA \u2013 Lanse covers our process now pretty well below so I thought I\u2019d give some of the background to the project instead. The original book was completely written by myself over several years. \u00a0Midway through I decided to \u201ctest the waters\u201d for Alice-derived products and wrote the standalone campaign The Egg of Seven Parts<\/em>, releasing each chapter for free on the internet. \u00a0At some point during this Shane Hensley (yes, he of Savage Worlds<\/em> fame) contacted me and suggested I submit the setting to Pinnacle. \u00a0After some discussion it was decided that they would first publish The Egg of Seven Parts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When Triple Ace Games was formed, Pinnacle graciously allowed me to allow them to publish my work, something Robin Elliott (of TAG) offered to do in exchange for me developing their website.<\/p>\n

During the development, Lanse read the draft of Egg of Seven Parts<\/em> on the Pinnacle forums and as he put it, \u201cI bugged you in private messages until you sent me the drafts of the players\u2019 and GM\u2019s guides.\u201d \u00a0While looking for figure flats to use in my WNM<\/em> games, I came across some artwork on http:\/\/greywolf.critter.net\/<\/a> for anthropomorphic animals for the Ironclaw<\/em> setting; I contacted the artist and asked if I could use some of his artwork. The artist was Jordan and before I know it he was very generously providing me with artwork for figure flats for all manner of things (lice and other insects, cards, chess pieces).<\/p>\n

Both Lanse and Jordan did a lot of editing \u201cfor free\u201d and kept me going through the long development process.\u00a0 In fact, if it wasn\u2019t for them, I am not sure that Wonderland No More<\/em> would be done now \u2014 especially as I was easily sidetracked by such things as writing scenarios for Sundered Skies<\/em> and the four Daring Tales of the Sprawl<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Eventually though, The Egg of Seven Parts<\/em> was done, TAG laid the document out and it sold reasonably well. \u00a0We persevered with the main setting and at long last it too was finished. \u00a0The Wonderland No More<\/em> setting book was laid-out by Jordan, which is why we could include all the \u201cspace filler\u201d illustrations amidst the text unlike a lot of books that have their pictures in strict places (usually \u00bc or \u00bd a page). \u00a0We think the final product is true to the original books as we could make it look.<\/p>\n

There was a long period between the release of The Egg of Seven Parts<\/em> and Wonderland No More<\/em> and unfortunately the rules and background information changed between the two. \u00a0This is why we decided to update The Egg of Seven Parts<\/em> and allow buyers to download the new version for free \u2014 we also changed the layout to match WNM and included a whole bunch of new maps and illustrations.<\/p>\n

LDT \u2014 Kevin is the primary author of most of the text. \u00a0I have made countless editorial passes through the text, and the overall shape of the book has been reformed at least three times during development. \u00a0After a couple years of this, Jordan joined the team and his imagination was on fire!\u00a0 He dove in and transformed the text, both in the actual text, the underlying concepts, and the layout.\u00a0 What generally happens with something new: One of us has an idea and sends it to the other two, we kick it back and forth over e-mail for a week or so, and then send it to Jordan for layout while we figure out a release strategy.<\/p>\n

TJP \u2014 Layout-wise, as noted by Kevin, being able to do art and layout together allows for a lot more freedom.\u00a0 (E.g., there\u2019s a conspicuous gap on this page?\u00a0 Delve into the public domain to see if Sir John Tenniel has something we can use \u2026 or create a custom illustration to fill the space.)\u00a0 A lot of the support material (free accessories for WNM available on the TAG web site) was originally created to support my convention and home games, and then I polished them up for general use as layered PDF downloads.<\/p>\n

Also, through the development process, play-testing was a critical element.\u00a0 Many of the changes were based upon the results of that \u2014 to clarify rules, to deal with play-balance issues, to accommodate \u201cWonderlandish\u201d character archetypes that players wanted but which weren\u2019t already covered, or perhaps just to take advantage of moments of \u201cplayer inspiration\u201d that came up during actual play.\u00a0 No adventure totally survives contact with the players, but I\u2019m confident that our setting is more robust for all the runs made through it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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