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MarkOliva
Acolyte
Germany
7 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Feb 2005 : 06:01:45
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After 12 years of development by quite a number of people, the basic "Northern Journey" adventure for D&D 3E in the Forgotten Realms has been finished and is available for free download in PDF form. I say "for D&D 3E," because we're still working on the AD&D 2E edition of the NJ Campaign Guide Version 8. Only after that's done, will NJ also be finished in its 2E version. Finishing the 2E version of the Campaign Guide is our first priority now.
The 7th and last part of NJ is called "Bloodstone." It details the Bloodstone Kingdom, consisting of Damara and Vaasa. It was designed to be adventure-neutral. That means that it contains all the information necessary for the NJ adventure, but it also was designed to allow game masters not running the NJ story line to ignore it and to simply employ "Bloodstone" as a campaign setting expansion.
"Bloodstone" has been released in three separate books in PDF-Format that include 126 color maps and dungeon plans. The decision to make a three-book release came as a result of suggestions from many alpha and beta testers. Not all game masters need all parts of "Bloodstone." By dividing this release into three books, game masters can download what they want and need, ignoring the rest and minimizing download times. The three books have the following content:
• Book 1 – "The Bloodstone Story:" 274 US letter-sized pages in PDF format. Download size: 4 MB. This volume contains the history and a map of the area, going back to the time before the Great Glacier, when the Internal Sea still covered much of the area. It also contains a map of old Narfell and Raumathar with details on this era, followed by the history of Damara, the tale of Zhengyi's years and the chronology of events that took place after TSR's FR9 "The Bloodstone Lands" through early in the Year of Wild Magic (1372 DR). Finally, the book contains necessary background and strategic information for all game masters who wish to campaign in this part
of Faerûn.
• Book 2 - "Damara:" 508 US letter-sized pages in PDF format. Download size: 14 MB. This volume contains detailed information on all of Damara, including colored maps of every city, village and other settlement and all dungeon plans. All the key NPCs at every site are described, somewhat in the style of the old Volo's Guides, and the detail goes down to the point where one knows the name of every innkeeper, what his beds cost, what's on the menu and what the prices are.
• Book 3 – "Vaasa and Beyond:" 302 US letter-sized pages in PDF format. Download size: 8.5 MB. This volume describes Vaasa in the same manner that Book 2 describes Damara. Its last section offers detailed options on how to continue on after Northern Journey, going past (or into) the drow city of V'elddrinnsshar. After that, there is a link into WotC's free PDF module For Duty & Deity by Dale Donovan (with 3E conversions), in which the PCs can free Waukeen from Graz'zt. After or instead of that, the PCs also can go through a portal to the beginning of the optional 8th part of NJ, "In the Land of the Lich Lords," or anywhere else where the game master wants to head.
• Missing from these three books are the detailed statistics on NPCs, new monsters, new spells, new magical items, etc. Because these are rules system dependent, they are detailed instead in the new Northern Journey Campaign Guide Version 8.0. The D&D 3E edition of the 8th version of the campaign guide already is available (632 US letter-sized pages in PDF format. Download size: 8.5 MB). We currently are working on the AD&D 2E edition.
For users of ProFantasy's Campaign Cartographer 2 Pro or the free CC2 reader, you can have the maps from the books in their best original quality by downloading the 126 orginal CC2 maps (in English and German).
For download information, go to the Internet address in my signature.
What are we doing now?
1. We still have to finish the AD&D 2E edition of the Campaign Guide 8.0, as mentioned.
2. We plan to do some minor revisions of Parts 5 and 6, "Impiltur" and "The Great Dale," and we plan to release the first five segments of NJ in PDF format. At present, only RTF downloads are available.
3. We plan to finish the optional 8th "after-NJ" segment called "In the Land of the Lich Lords," which will allow game masters who want to run an epic level D&D 3E game to take their epic level NJ players off to the northwest of Faerûn. It also will be written neutrally, so that game masters who've never looked at NJ can run it.
12 years ago, NJ began in Minnesota in the USA, when Greg Waters and Marv Olson developed two modules that were given away on discs at gaming conventions. These were called "Out of the Frying Pan" and "Into the Fire." NJ grew out of these modules, which eventually were eenamed "Silverymoon" and "Moonwood." Greg and Marv were in medical school when they did the originals. Time goes by. A few years ago, when they opened their own medical practices after finishing internships, they had to drop out of the project group due to time constraints.
Two other long term project group members were the Americans Stan Allard and Bill Farge. Both left us, as had been planned, when D&D 3E appreared and they departed the Forgotten Realms to return to the Greyhawk world.
In this final phase of the project, the group conists of our American author Carl Nielsen from Milwaukee, out Scottish author and project leader Trevor Cooke in Edinburgh and our Spanish illustrator Joan I. Guardiet in
Barcelona. I'm an American who lives in Bavaria.
Before signing off, some thank yous:
First of all, very special thanks to Dr. Jeffrey David Bray in the U.S. and Simon Gibbs in Australia. Jeff and Simon independently developed considerable material for the Cold Lands that fit hand-in-glove with our project goals. Both were kind enough to permit us to incorporate their work into NJ, and Simon also did considerable editing work
for us.
Special thanks to to Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd and George Krashos, who offered us extensive information, suggestions and tips as well as letting us incorporate their own unpublished ideas into NJ.
And a big round of thanks to everyone else who gave us an incredible amount of help and material. I won't list all of them here, but their names can be found on the credits pages of "Bloodstone" and the Campaign Guide.
Internet: http://www.vintyri.com
E-Mail: info@vintyri.com
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Mark Oliva
Webmaster, the Vintyri (TM) Project |
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Alaundo
Head Moderator
United Kingdom
5699 Posts |
Posted - 08 Feb 2005 : 09:12:16
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Well met, MarkOliva, and welcome to Candlekeep.
This is great news indeed, i'm sure many here are aware of this long-running project and this information will be very well received. I have personally been keeping an eye on this project for a good few years and will now fully delve into the Bloodstone lands, being an area of the Realms close to my heart 
Thank ye for sharing this information with us. If any scribes wish to comment or leave feedback on this material, please feel free to do so herein.
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Alaundo
Candlekeep Forums Head Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
An Introduction to Candlekeep - by Ed Greenwood
The Candlekeep Compendium - Tomes of Realmslore penned by Scribes of Candlekeep
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Brother Ezra
Learned Scribe
USA
268 Posts |
Posted - 08 Feb 2005 : 14:10:29
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I became aware of the Northern Journey project about 15 months ago, and my own personal opinion is that it is an incredible piece of work. Their sourcebook on Vaasa and Damara has been invaluable to me in creating my own current campaign, and I doubt that the campaign would have the richness of detail and history without their work.
The level of detail is exquisite, with information on shop owners, their prices, what kind of food the inns serve, etc. Every city, village and thorp in Vaasa and Damara is mapped and detailed, complete with several NPCs, motivations and multiple plot hooks for each location. The plots introduced are interesting, cohesive and logical.
However, as Mark Oliva goes to great pains to explain, the information presented in the Northern Journey publication deviates from canon FR in several significant ways. They've taken the Forgotten Realms, made it their own world, and shared their vision with the community at large. Bear this in mind as you delve into the wealth of material the project offers.
Hats off to the work that was done on this project. You can certainly see that it was a labor of love. Two thumbs up from this fan. 
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"Suffering is the touchstone of all spiritual growth."
-St. Sollars the Twice-Martyred |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6688 Posts |
Posted - 09 Feb 2005 : 00:31:28
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And a further two thumbs up from another fan. If I was gaming in the Realms, the NJ campaign would definitely get a run through (no doubt several times). For sheer complexity, scope and depth of setting/plot this campaign is the best I've seen. Although their Impiltur doesn't match mine (the one that dwells in my head!), I salute the hard work of these designers for putting pen to paper and making it happen.
-- George Krashos
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"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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MarkOliva
Acolyte
Germany
7 Posts |
Posted - 10 Feb 2005 : 04:00:14
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quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
Although their Impiltur doesn't match mine (the one that dwells in my head!), I salute the hard work of these designers for putting pen to paper and making it happen.
-- George Krashos
Speaking for myself alone, I still hope we get to see George's Impiltur someday. The NJ Impiltur was the majority decision of our project group. Personally, I would have preferred to have done northeastern Impiltur more down the lines that George and Ed Greenwood described. Ed, if I remember the information he sent me correctly, envisioned northeastern Impiltur as rock, rock and more rock, with monsters and outpost castles. To that, George, Eric L. Boyd and Steven E. Schend had conjured the Demon Lands concept. Our group voted to make it instead into a large agricultural area. We've seriously pondered redoing parts of Impiltur (which we now are free to do), but our inclination is to do new material rather than to keep redoing what we've already done. |
Mark Oliva
Webmaster, the Vintyri (TM) Project |
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Knight of the Gate
Senior Scribe
USA
624 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2009 : 16:27:17
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| Is this information still available anywhere? I couldn't seem to find it on the (new) site that the above link heads to. Sorry to resurrect SUCH an old thread, but I'd looooove to get my grimy mitts on this info. Thanks in advance. |
How can life be so bountiful, providing such sublime rewards for mediocrity? -Umberto Ecco |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
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Knight of the Gate
Senior Scribe
USA
624 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2009 : 17:21:35
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| Many thanks, Sage... wow that's alot of stuff! |
How can life be so bountiful, providing such sublime rewards for mediocrity? -Umberto Ecco |
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Hawkins
Great Reader
USA
2131 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2009 : 17:31:54
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| That looks really cool. I will have to download it and see about using it sometime. |
Errant d20 Designer - My Blog (last updated January 06, 2016)
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He left it dead, and with its head
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* Martial Arts Guidebook (forthcoming) (PFRPG, designer; Rite Publishing)
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edappel
Learned Scribe
Brazil
211 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2009 : 19:39:59
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I have already use it... Wonderful work...
(Somethings I just changed after reading "The Sellswords Trilogy", I've used only those citys maps, rumors, some NPC sheets, etc...) |
--- Ed Appel
*** I'm a brazilian FR fan. So, feel free to correct my writing mistakes to improve my english. |
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Knight of the Gate
Senior Scribe
USA
624 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2009 : 20:00:06
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| I've given it a first look-over... and it is HUGE! The quality is a bit uneven, but there's so very much here! |
How can life be so bountiful, providing such sublime rewards for mediocrity? -Umberto Ecco |
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coach
Senior Scribe
USA
479 Posts |
Posted - 29 Apr 2009 : 02:46:39
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i think they have their stuff on a new website now
http://www.dungeons-daring.org/daring/index.htm
not sure if you can still dowload the NJ stuff but these are the people who did that project |
Bloodstone Lands Sage |
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MarkOliva
Acolyte
Germany
7 Posts |
Posted - 29 Apr 2009 : 03:53:44
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Greetings everyone!
As mentioned farther above, we turned the rights to NJ over to Candlekeep, which is the sole authorized distributor. Because of license limitations (a fact, not a complaint) we no longer produce FR material. Last year we released the free and open RPG Dungeons Daring™, and at present we've developing the free and open Jörðgarð™ campaign setting for that game. We also are considering producing a version of that setting for Paizo's Pathfinder (3.5) RPG.
That notwithstanding, we're delighted that people still are enjoying and using Northern Journey in the FR.
Mark Oliva
The Vintyri™ Project
http://www.dungeons-daring.org
info@dungeons-daring.org
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 29 Apr 2009 : 04:18:23
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I used the 'badlands' in Impiltur from this project in the map I did of George's Impiltur - it needed some 'filler' and it worked-out beautifully.
So mine is mostly canon with a heaping of GK and a smidge of NJ. 
And one of these days I'll figure out what I'm typing wrong in GK's E-Mail and actually be able to request those corrections we've talked about.  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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GRYPHON
Senior Scribe
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 29 Apr 2009 : 11:03:41
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| Great stuff... |
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Unofficial Bloodstone released
