So, this was another project spurred by something said on Twitter. Two nights ago Jerry LeNeave (@DreadGazeebo) asked the following via Twitter…

Anyone know where I can find a nice high-res copy / fan-recreated map of the Caves of Chaos (aka B2 KotB). The 20+ year old scan is meh #dnd

Well, I had been looking at the map myself recently and decided to do a quick check via Google – see if I couldn’t link him to something. At a glance I couldn’t find anything and I thought… maybe I should make one!

Last night I started, and tonight I finished (I spent about 8-9 hours on it). Some quick numbers: It is high res (300dpi), 17″ wide by 11″ tall (5100 pixels wide by 3300 tall). The Photoshop .PSD file is about 760 megs and has somewhere around 400 layers. The full-sized higres JPG itself is almost 17 megs.

I want to thank @chattydm, @eldritchreverie, and @merricb for glancing over it really quick a bit ago. It’s nice to have a fresh set of eyes to make sure there is nothing glaringly obvious that I overlooked.

Download Options

Please feel free to download this and use it as you wish (even print it) I would just ask you keep credit to me in the image, and point people to this page to download it (as opposed to linking directly to an image). Each size has 2 options. The first is the regular version, the second (“No Trees”) has had the tree overlay removed, incase they get in your way.

Great for gaming use…

Large – (JPG, 479kb – slightly reduced quality – 1200×776)
Large, No Trees – (JPG, 454kb – slightly reduced quality – 1200×776)
Large, “Player” Version* – (JPG, 445kb – slightly reduced quality – 1200×776)

Good for printing…

HiRes – (JPG, 4.2mb – full quality – 2500×1618)
HiRes, No Trees – (JPG, 4.2mb – full quality – 2500×1618)
HiRes, “Player” Version* – (JPG, 4.1mb – full quality – 2500×1618)

And finally, this one is overkill unless you intend on printing it poster size, but here it is…

Full – (JPG, 16.8mb – full quality – 5100×3300)
Full, No Trees – (JPG, 16.9mb – full quality – 5100×3300)
Full, “Player” Version* – (JPG, 16.9mb – full quality – 5100×3300)

*The “Player” version of the map has no trees, secret doors, secret rooms, traps or room numbers.

Follow Me on Twitter!

At this point we have a build that let’s us do the following…

- Move around in the world (including jumping) and can explore the entire map including randomly generated caves
- Gather resources (which go into the inventory and includes a timer window indicating how long the gathering has left)
- Manage inventory (move items around, merge stacks and trash them)
- Equip armor and have it display your total armor value
- There are some crafting aspects in, but we aren’t going to go into details there just yet

Anyway, we’re very excited about it! This weekend I put up some forums so consider checking them out – come learn more about the game!

• Check out the Epic Inventor Forums!
• Follow me on Twitter!

If you don’t care to hear how we came to create Epic Inventor, just scroll down to the “Epic Inventor” heading below.

Otherwise, begin the brief history here…

Minecraft

This game blew me away when I first came to understand what it was about (and play it). I even found ways to bring it into this D&D world from time to time. Many of you have played it, but for those that haven’t it essentially drops you into a world that has been randomly generated… a HUGE world, one you can explore both above, and below ground. You can dig all the way down until you hit lava, swim across oceans, and literally craft everything you need to survive. Did I mention monsters come out at night?

I was thoroughly sucked in. The idea that you could do whatever you wanted, create what you wanted and explore areas unseen by anyone else really appealed to me – much like D&D has for years.

(Awesome Minecraft Trailer)

Terraria

When Terraria came out, I was again enthralled. This game took the elements I loved about Minecraft, but brought some of the focus more towards combat – killing monsters, getting loot, challenging bosses, etc. It was also a side-scroller which appealed to me in that “let’s play Mario Brothers again” kind of way. The possibilities were endless, but there were also goals (crafting better gear to take on harder bosses, etc).

The downside was that once you hit the end game and kind of “got it”, it was very easy to repeat that success and there simply wasn’t anything else to do. Right now, many people are finding themselves waiting for content before playing again, having attained everything they can…

…that’s where Epic Inventor comes in.

(Terraria Trailer)

Epic Inventor

We wanted something more.

In playing Terraria, a friend of mine (who is also a co-worker) had mentioned he thought he could program a similar game. It wasn’t said in a “this would be easy” tone, but rather a “this could be fun to try”. Before long, we had pulled in another friend (and former co-worker) who was also a programmer, and I was working up what the game would be.

We liked Terraria so much, we knew this would be a side-scroller and that there would be things to fight, but that was it initially.

After a few weeks (and a few ideas chosen and later discarded) I came up with the story for Epic Inventor. It’s still a work in progress, so I won’t go into that yet (and it could change a bit anyway), but the concept of the game is as follows…

You are an Inventor, and a newcomer to this world. Like Terraria, you will gather materials and craft them into items. There will be monsters to kill, caves to explore and more. But here’s where it gets interesting (we think)…

There will be RTS elements to the game. In this case what that means is that you not only will be creating standard items for yourself to use (armor, weapons, etc) but you will be building “placeable” items and structures that will benefit you much like various building types do in an RTS. For example, in Terraria you can place decorations (torches, tables, etc) but in Epic Inventor you will also place things like…

• a Lumber Mill that will generate Wood for you (so eventually, you won’t need to go gather wood)
• a Steam Engine that acts as a source of power for other structures
• an Auto-Crossbow Turret to… you know… kill things that approach
• …and many more! *salesman voice*

You will also be able to advance along a “Tech” tree, deciding in which areas you wish to specialize. Benefits from some of these “techs” could include increasing the production from a lumber mill, or decreasing the time it takes to craft certain items.

One of the key differences between Epic Inventor and Terraria is that there will not be any digging of dirt, or chipping away at stone. Resource materials (such as stone, wood, and various metals) will be visibly different than the ground blocks you walk upon. There are a number of reasons for doing this, the primary of which is that it presents us with some great opportunities in other areas (that I can’t yet go into).

Anyway, that’s the very basic run-down of Epic Inventor, but at this point it represents the most we have said about the game to date. We just put out the very first build allowing us to run around in a generated world. We could only walk around (and jump/fall), but it was amazing to see for the first time. I have a few screenshots on the Facebook page, though remember these are all very early stage ideas and screenshots. We still have much to do and many things are bound to change.

With that said, I do want to clarify that comparison to Terraria is simply from an inspirational standpoint. We do not expect to be as successful. We’re not attempting to go toe to toe with them or with Minecraft. We love both of those games, and this one is simply inspired by them! If we complete it and can get a handful of people to enjoy it, we would be very happy.

Wanna help support us?

- Follow us on Twitter @EpicInventor
- “Like” us on Facebook (so we can grab that custom url!)
- We also have a website up, but there’s not much to see yet

Thanks for stopping in!

- Weem

My official (short) answer to this question is that yes, I am playing D&D when I play Pathfinder, but I make the distinction in the event someone may want to know more about it, or wants to know what edition it is I am playing, etc. If I was only playing Pathfinder (for example) and stated, “I am playing D&D”, I think the vast majority of people would assume I was NOT playing Pathfinder, thus the distinction is made.

With that said, I posed this question to the #dnd Twitterverse recently. I have posted the responses below, not in an attempt to sway opinions, but simply to share. This is of course anecdotal data, and I am not attempting to draw any substantial conclusions from it – the range of answers is indication enough that that this is a rather subjective topic as presented. We would have to (as others have mentioned) get into the debate of what D&D “is” before really deciding what systems/games qualify as well, not to mention find a better way to poll a wider array of people, etc.

The point is, this is simply for entertainment purposes.

Okay, here we go. I asked this question via Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. Here are the results…

Is Pathfinder “D&D” to you?

Total Responses: 55
Yes: 41
No: 6
Other: 8

Yes, Pathfinder is D&D to me…

@brianliberge: #Pathfinder is #dnd as far as I am concerned, yes.

@paulbaalham: ive always thought it was

@dmfumbl: #pathfinder is as much #dnd as 3.5, 3.0, 2e, and 1e. Never understood the argument against thinking that way.

@smittyhalibut: I treat it as such, yes.

@pedr: #pathfinder is definitely #dnd to me. I far prefer 4e but playing pfrpg feels just like playing 3.5 did

@exalteddarkness: I certainly consider #pathfinder to be #dnd, most certainly in spirit if not in name/publisher.

@sarahdarkmagic: I think it is but at times it can be important to distinguish.

@samldanach: yes. I feel that #pathfinder is #dnd

@zizazat: #patfhfinder is totally #dnd to me. Started w/ red box, played 2nd and 3rd. Pathfinder continues in that tradition for me.

@dysonlogos: I feel that #Pathfinder is (a) #DnD game, yes. But I understand people who don’t.

@richgreen01: yep #pathfinder is still #dnd

@charismacheck: Yes, I do consider it an upgraded version of DnD.

@the_blind_gm: the answer is of corse yes branding has little to do with the game at it’s core

@brainclouds: I’ve never read a Pathfinder core rulebook in my life, yet I understand everything when I read a module. So, in a way, yes.

@grahamemulliss: I would say no. Can’t really explain why in 200 characters tho.

@ldcomic: pathfinder is “all but” dnd to me. In some ways, more dnd than 4e ever will be.

@brindy: yes. It’s like a software fork. It’s 3rd edition revised continued on its own path.

@lowlyminion: Definitely. If you go by Mike Mearls’s recent “what are the bare essentials of D&D” post, there’s no question.

@ObsidianeCrane: Pathfinder is a version of dnd, like BECMI and AD&D. Like 1E AD&D it is a version I don’t enjoy as much as 4E (or BECMI back then).

@neceros: #pathfinder IS #dnd. Paizo picked up the slack where WotC left off. My table uses it as the core system.

@nikonraccoon: I think of #pathfinder as #dnd 3.75.

@captcalamitous: I went back to #DnD with #Pathfinder, I feel that #4e strayed too far, that’s a personal opinion btw #asshats need not reply.

Elsbeth [Facebook]: I don’t play it, but I still consider it to be D&D

Jody [Facebook]: Quick answer: Yes

TrueBuckeye [Reddit]: When my friends and I get together to play D&D, we play Pathfinder, so yes.

Laughing_Boy [Reddit]: Pretty much have to agree (with TrueBuckeye), here. Fact is, I have one group that plays Pathfinder and one that plays D&D 3.5, and I could imagine my characters in either game, no problem.

Not_Really_Here [Reddit]: Pathfinder is the evolution of D&D 3.5. Pathfinder is what D&D 4.0 would be if they went to improve 3.5, rather than re-make the D&D system like 4.0 now does (I don’t mind 4.0, I’m just stating it’s different).

cartmanbeck [Reddit]: Short answer: yes.

rednightmare [Reddit]: Is Lamentations of the Flame Princess D&D? I say yes to both. If has all the same tropes and conventions I expect from D&D then it’s D&D.

An interesting question is how much would D&D need to change for it to stop being D&D? I think that if the class system and d20 were taken away I wouldn’t consider it D&D anymore. Sometimes I think that 4e dances along the edge of D&D-dom. Not really mechanically, but with how the iconic races and classes have kind of been swept away.

dcampbez [Reddit]: D&D is almost like Kleenex or a Xerox generic for me when telling people what I am doing Friday night:

OLD ME:

Co-Worker: What are you doing this weekend?
Me: Playing Pathfinder (Or Eclipse Phase, Mouse Guard, Traveler, Outbreak:Undead, or whatever we are getting up to)
Co-Worked: Blank Stare
Me: It’s Like Dungeons and Dragons
Co-worker: Ah!

NEW ME:

Co-Worker: What are you doing this weekend?
Me: Playing Dungeons and Dragons
Co-worker: Ah!

Moves the conversation along faster…:)

Wakefield [Reddit]: It’s more D&D to me than 4th edition is, and it sure as hell put a fresh face on everything I liked about 3.5.

ShyGuysonStilts [Reddit]: Pathfinder is D&D 3.5++

W32Badwolf [Reddit]: Emphatically yes.

jcfalia [Reddit]: The only way that Pathfinder isn’t D&D, is that it’s not allowed to put the words ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ on the cover. But c’mon – it’s just as much D&D as any other version of D&D is.

Rayston [Reddit]: Yes. As in I know automatically without looking to closely that its not for me.

bobrogue [Reddit]: Me and my friends basically consider pathfinder what DND 4.0 should have been, it cleans up alot, rebalances things and gives alot more diversity to the game we switched awhile ago and never looked back.

insanityv2 [Reddit]: With all due respect, this is sort of a bullshit question. I have never seen anyone discuss of what “real” D&D without using it as a means to try and exclude people and try to assert some sad and imagined superiority.

So yes.

ExtremeMetalFTW [Reddit]: Yeah, it’s pretty much 3.5 with some (IMO) great revisions and since my group is full of noobies they call it D&D anyways.

Strebalicious [Reddit]: Considering it was designed to be used with all the 3.5 D&D material (with a few slight changes), I’d say yes. Inf fact, I never once considered it NOT to be D&D.

SmilerClark [Reddit]: It feels and tastes like DnD to me and my friends (who have been in a 3, then 3.5, now Pathfinder) game for the last seven years, but we prefer to call it Pathfinder. Mostly its out of respect for Paizo and their product, which we are really quite fond of. Paizo should get some kind of award for the masterful way they support their product line.

d1ngo: I say 3.75

No, Pathfinder is not #dnd

@phaezen: It may not be dnd to me, but for many people it is, and who am I to say they are wrong?

@wolfsamurai: [msg 1] It’s… not. It’s got the same bones underneath so it’s close, but it’s different enough that to me it’s not D&D. [msg 1] Right now, D&D is D&D to me. Pathfinder has similar mechanics, but feels more like it’s own thing.

@aliothefool: I don’t consider Pathfinder D&D. They’re both fantasy RPGs. Names are just names.

@nightchilde: No. D&D is D&D, Pathfinder is Pathfinder. I like both.

Moe [Facebook]: I was going to say yes but then read Ari’s “Hey, do you have a D&D game going right now?” and it made me reconsider. If I was running Pathfinder and someone asked me that question I would say “No I don’t, but I am running Pathfinder which came from D&D 3.5″ so I obviously think of it as something different.

AGNKim [Reddit]: Not at all. I don’t buy into the “Edition Wars”, as its all role-playing games and we nerds should stick together, but D&D will always be AD&D 1st edition, being 16, eating Doritos and wondering how cool it would be to meet Gary Gygax. And writing run-on sentences apparently.

Neither (that, or Weem can’t call it)

@hawklord2112: it depends. To my GF all rpgs are dnd

@mandarific88: [msg 1] Often times with Pathfinder I often preface it by saying “D&D, or in this case Pathfinder” or something. [msg 2] To me it’s the difference between, like, Oatmeal & Cold Cereal – both are for breakfast, both are technically “Cereal.”

@trachalio: That’s how Pathfinder was first described to me; it’s D&D 3.75. Haven’t played 3.5 or Path yet so don’t know if description is apt

@ampthebard: Any game of fantasy roleplaying can be #dnd if it covers some basic tropes. It’s the experience that matters, not the ruleset.

@miskatonichrich: [msg 1] it is based on 3.5 and since a lot of things were made for the D20 OGL. Dnd became settings, the D20 system was almost universal [msg 2] To some playing any rpg is #dnd because that is the Icon, like BandAid or Jello. Not technically correct but you will be understood

Frank [Facebook]: It is the spiritual successor and natural progression of the game as it stood with 3.5. I was just having this conversation with the store owner I run 4e at. In many ways I saw it as a pure system, meaning it was not bogged down with all of the additional glut of material official or not.

That being said with the Ultimate Books, the 3rd party support it can look as if they are taking some of the mistakes 3.5 and wotc took and continuing them. More class options, making more base classes, more feats more spells.

While I can say no it is not D&D in some ways yes it is. All that is missing is the old second edition spell reincarnate and there you go. D&D in a different body. This is the long form response.

Ari [Facebook]: I don’t think it’s any more or less “spiritually” D&D than any other edition, since it’s basically a variation on 3.5E. I’m no less likely to play it than I am most of the other editions, and if I were involved in a game and somebody casually asked me “Hey, do you have a D&D game going right now?” I’d probably say yes.

David [Facebook]: This presents us to the tangent of would you call Castles & Crusades or any of the “off shoots” D&D. On a pitiable level no they aren’t as they aren’t produced by TSR or their successors. On a game play level, yes they are a they use base systems derived from their D&D counterparts. Overall they’re games and as long as you’re having fun why classify.

I considered doing something fun for this, but the fact is I just returned home after being away on vacation for 8 days or so. I’ve only just settled in tonight, and frankly I’m lazy anyway.

This project (theweem.com) has blown away every single expectation I have ever had for it. Whether it’s been the number of visitors to the site or a guess at how well received an article will be… or even an assumption that “those guys don’t know who I am”, I have been and am still constantly surprised at how often I am wrong. As such, this has been a very exciting year.

I call this site a project, and there is good reason to do so. Over the years I have started, maintained, and let fade so many RPG-related websites that I long ago lost count. The goals have always been the same over the years… 1) create a site I would enjoy creating content for that was also 2) related to a topic that I have at least a little expertise in (D&D) while 3) turning it into something that more people enjoyed than I could count on my two hands. I also wanted to use this effort to 4) promote the prosperity of the game and table-top gaming in general.

Since 1999 or so, I have had many websites hit one or two of these, while failing at the rest, but theweem.com has seen successful for me where all my other projects have more or less failed.

This is all sounding like big pats upon my back from my own heavy arm, but the fact is that I have been, and remain still, quite humbled by the successes. I still get excited when those “in the industry”, or those connected to it whom I highly respect take notice of my site, or share a word with me on Twitter. I’m still just a guy who loves D&D (and now Pathfinder as well!), and the awesome people who make up the community. Anything beyond that is the extra chocolate on top (sorry, I’m not into cherries).

Thank you everyone for being a part of this site and the community in general. I hope to continue promoting the game and enjoying your company for another year at least!

Anyway, I will leave you with the following link in case you are curious to know more about me or this site (for whatever reason)!

Who is Weem?

Who cares, I’ll just follow him on Twitter and find out.

Oh, and just for fun… Here are some posts I made on the day the site went live one year ago today…

1) Twitter, D&D and Tweetdeck
2) Q&A With the Man They Call Weem (Interview by Emerald Press)
3) Azeroth, the 2011 D&D Campaign Setting?

Normally, this isn’t a huge deal. After all, people come over every Sunday to watch Game of Thrones, at least.

The great thing about tonight, however, is the purpose, which is to discuss my next D&D campaign. We’ll talk possible campaign themes, character ideas and concepts as well as the system we’ll be using… Pathfinder!

This will be my first time running Pathfinder (I have played a few times), and the first time I will have run a non-4e version of D&D since 4e was released. As I have said to a few of you, it shouldn’t be anything too crazy; after all, I have played and run every version of D&D. The idea of running a Pathfinder game is very exciting to me, but almost equally exciting is the fact that I have not DM’d a game since November of 2010, so I have had the DM twitch for some time now.

I am the kind of DM who, for the most part, does not like playing when a player can’t make it… even if it’s just one. I would rather hold off and make sure no one misses anything. In this case however, that will change. I intend on playing regardless (as long as we have at least a few) and will work it out in the game as best as possible… it may be wonky at times, but it’s that or we could end up with huge spaces between games which my body seems to be rejecting.

I have played Pathfinder before, but only as a quick one-off run by my brother some 6 months ago now. It should be said that the experience was not something TOO new to me, having played a lot of 3x. It had been a while though, so it was fun revisiting the familiar aspects of the game (and there were many of course).

Just for fun I did a search for "aging ranger"... this came up.

I created my character a few days ago (a Human Ranger) and the process was a lot of fun. I found myself pouring over the feats and items, as well as the spells I would eventually be capable of manifesting once I get a few levels underneath me. Without boring you with details, my character concept is essentially an aging ranger looking to flee his life of solitude in an attempt to see the world before he dies.

Anyway, I’m pretty excited to get playing so I figured I would come blab about it here. I think I will tweet a bit during the game as we go – should be fun!

I mean, there are a few I listen to from time, but none of them on a regular “I-have-to-hear-every-episode” basis. Generally I listen to specific episodes here and there from various podcasts when the topic being discussed is one I think I will be interested in. There are a TON of podcasts out there, I don’t have to tell you that, but combine my listening habits with this fact and you have a weem who simply does not know of most podcasts out there. I can remember the name of maybe 6-7 “RPG” podcasts right now.

With that in mind, I was contacted last week by Shaun over at “Shauncastic.com“. He told me I might dig his podcast and that if I had a chance I should give it a listen. To be honest I was a bit hesitant initially – as I mentioned, I’m not a huge podcast guy – but I decided to give it a try. Why not?

Well…

I loved it.

BAM!

Shaun’s energy is awesome, and not something you see (hear?) often (at least in my experience) from an RPG podcast. He’s a funny guy, and his charisma comes right to the front in his show. It’s is not entirely RPG related, but there seem to be more of those recently – he would say his core audience relates to the “geek/nerd pop culture”, so that might give you an idea of the possibilities.

Also rounding out the other members of the show show (at least in the number of episodes I have listened to so far) are Nicole “The Artist”, her boyfriend Luke “The Flatulent” and Ben “The RPG Pile”.

The latest episode “To 4e Or Not 4e” covers 4th Edition, and why they are playing it – how they discovered it, etc.

Fair warning – I know a number of you reading this are well versed in 4e – the RPG related casts tend to explain 4e rules for the benefit of those new to 4e, so a lot of that will be old news to you – but it’s still a good listen, and even better for those newer to the game.

Anyway, if you get a chance, check out the show today!

Dwarf Ranger

For the last year or so now I have been touting Pathfinder to various family and friends who had decided 4th Edition was not for them. I had only played it once in a very short one-off, but I had played a lot of 3.0 and then 3.5 and had been following PF for a while. It has always been easy to find good things being said about the game as well, so recommending it for those looking to take a step away from 4e (but wanting to stick with D&D) has been pretty easy to do, despite my limited play time.

The last few days have had me experiencing (good) flashbacks to my 3x days. There was a lot I really enjoyed seeing again, and there were things I saw that reminded me of what I really like about 4e (at least from a DM’s standpoint) – but I am a huge D&D fan, regardless of edition, but this change of pace (compared to playing only 4e since its release) is something I am really looking forward to.

1. Weem’s Updated 4e Condition Cards
2. Matt James Launches New (Awesome Sauce) Product
3. Weretiger Blood
4. A Twitter Message (from Chris Sims) Visualized
5. Veteran of the Edition Wars (Forum Sig)