I’ve undertaken the monumental task of transferring years of old notes from paper into digital form. Awhile back, I started writing a game called Chronicles of the Green. It’s long since spun out into a monstrously overwhelming project, living inside countless google docs, paper journals, sketch books, audio recordings, index cards and so on. The idea got way out of hand and before I could publish anything, I was completely overwhelmed.

Fast forward a few years later: I feel a fire to put out books of my own! Through the Xaxa River Valley session recaps, a creator named Marquis reached out to me. Turns out, Marquis is super local to me and publishes genre-adjacent games over at https://www.shardstone.net — how crazy is that?! When you make an effort to engage in the things you find meaningful, the Universe seems to have a way of responding. Check out their game SCAVENGER.

This gives me a similar vibe to COTG. More on that later. https://www.pandemoniumart.net/ did this sweet cover art.

So, the first step in any giant project is compiling all your content in one place. My goal over the coming weeks will be to gather the scattered notes of COTG into a single, massive google doc. Once there, the monumental task of editing can commence, but for now, this is a huge first step. It’s been a ton of fun reading through crumpled scrolls & notebooks stained with unknown alchemicals.

With a plan in place, it’s much easier to make progress— you only have to take one step at a time.

Mine looks something like this:

  1. Compile content from all sources (notes, journals, docs, audio files) into one masterfile
  2. Edit everything with a fine tooth comb; apply your 2024 brain with all its experiences
  3. Break apart the masterfile into one-page adventures, small zines, social media content etc

Once caught up, I’ll be free to replicate the process with anything else I write moving forward. Still, there’s at least a year of material to get through between Chronicles & Xaxa. The COTG digital doc is well over 200 pages before any paper notes; I have plenty to keep me busy.

I keep name dropping Chronicles of the Green, so what is it? If Xaxa River Valley is science fantasy antediluvian biblical Middle East, Chronicles of the Green is science fantasy dark ages England & North America.

Wide shot photo of a valley of trees and mountains with blue skies and clouds.
Earth is covered in a world-forest called The Green.

It’s set on a far-future Earth, all of which is covered in primeval techno-jungle, the results of a terraforming experiment gone awry. This forest is collectively referred to simply as “The Green”. Humanity’s last survivors cling to life on a satellite-starship anchored to the ground by a chain, delving down to the surface in search of quicksilver artefacts, super-science machines from the past.

Of course, the Green is overrun with all manner of mutant beast & twisted creature. Pallid, sickly, elfling (cyborg ghouls) scavenge old ruins for shards of quicksilver to perpetuate their unlife. Aberrant machines silently stalk the wood distorting reality around them. Serpentine cables writhe with sentience, hunting men and beast alike.

Black pen drawing of scary monsters with deer skull and tall humanoid limbs, strange runes.
A wickerthing is what remains after an elf curses a man.

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Hand holding a green and silver hardback book with engravings.
Green and silver. I love this book.

So, Shadowdark’s physical kickstarter came in the mail recently. Back when the Kickstarter was running, there was a game jam with 116 awesome entries. At that time, I was trying to put out COTG as a Shadowdark point-crawl for that very Jam. Unfortunately, mental health got in the way and the ideas for “Silver Starchild” never moved from paper to a final, digital product.

And that’s OK! It was a monumental task trying to put out a whole 8 page adventure to showcase up all of what I want Chronicles of the Green to be. By following my process, I’ll be able to complete things and release them in little snippets through social media (Check out my Instagram and Youtube.) It’s a lot less pressure than putting together some 300+ page mega-tome as ol' Hankerin over at Runehammer would say. Shoutout to Drunkens & Dragons for teaching me how to be a DM. If you haven't seen his channel, go back and start from the beginning. It's all gold.

Words on a sketch book in ink of various colors.
"Silver Starchild" pointcrawl for Shadowdark game jam. I'll see this digitized.

The rest will be some sketches of COTG dungeons that I’ll eventually be converting to digital. Speaking of which, the iPad + pencil combo is a very powerful RPG tool! Using Procreate, a super cheap program, I can draw all my maps in digital form quite easily. The iPad is also great for running games over discord without a VTT. I log it into a second account and screen share Procreate, drawing directly onto the map. Moving individual PC tokens is fiddly but once I get good with it, I think it’ll be a mighty fine solution to a VTT. Dead easy.

Anyways, here’s some cool sketch pages from COTG.

Battle map drawing on a grid of a dungeon.
Embryonic Facility: think creepy overgrown lab scene from Jurassic Park 3 meets Metroid Prime space pirate vats growing creatures in tubes.. a pack of elfling are trapped behind glass walls. The PCs get sent here to retrieve an ancient serum.
A digitized battlemap drawn in Procreate with green doors.
& here it is digitized, at least the walls/doors. I expanded the chamber where the AI, “FOSTER” is installed.
A sketch pad with pencil writing, a map.
Silver hatches are fun “micro dungeon” entrances you can pepper around. Every time I’m out on a hike and I see a manhole that leads underground, I imagine what a dark ages ranger would think of it. It’s probably not a place you’d like to go without an electric wizard.. who knows what malignant machines might be left-over in those tunnels?
Sketch book dungeon with pencil writing and green highlighter.
Sketch books are awesome ideas to do a dungeon first pass. Work off the grid, write notes next to rooms, just go crazy with it. Mixed media sketch books are where it’s at. For prepping at least. Put your game notes in a small journal so you can actually use it at the table.
Sketch book with pen writing, pathways.
Messing around with symbols & game language for DM notes. Side note, Caves of Qud is an awesome game you should check out. I recently found it, and find the setting to be very resonant with Chronicles of the Green.
Doodle drawing and written words in pen on sketch pad.
I pretty much suck when it comes to art, but that’s OK. You don’t have to be some Picasso elder artist. It’s just D&D. Throw some doodles onto the page so long as you capture the essence of each place in words. Your players will see everything in their imagination, they don’t need pictures of everything all the time.
Ink doodle of a city in the sky.
Sky Harbor is the city in COTG. Imagine a chunk of earth sitting atop a star engine which keeps it in orbit. A great silver chain tethers the city to Earth; it passes down thru an endless sea of clouds which roll in all directions, far as the eye can see. Along this chain zips a bullet tram, which delvers board to reach the surface. The people of Sky Harbor have lived here for ages. Half the structures are timber and thatched roof medieval affairs, while the other half are techno-structures of super science built an epoch ago.