Done But the Work Has Just Begun

After a lengthy, lengthy journey, my second adventure in the Japanese-inspired setting of the Hamato Islands has been published on DMS Guild: A Letter Buried.

This adventure took some big twists and turns, not just due to the end of year craziness that happened in 2020, but also some logistical challenges that came with writing a series of adventures in the same setting, and the need to develop a consistent reference guide first. The amount of feedback I got from testing, both positive and negative, set me back at first, but I felt the changes were very positive in the long-run and worth the delay.

That said, I am really happy to finally have this available for people to play and enjoy.

Also, this time around, I decided to try something different: I decided to make this adventure a “pay what you want” module rather than a fixed price. After the Traveler’s Guide to the Hamato Islands was published a couple weeks ago, I was surprised how much many downloads I got, including people who still paid money despite being “pay what you want”. For my first adventure, A Good Night’s Sleep, it took me months to only get a few paying downloads, whereas A Traveler’s Guide achieved 10x that amount in a week.

As a new author, it feels a bit awkward giving away months of work for essentially free, but I realized I derived satisfaction just knowing that players across the country and beyond will be reliving over and over the raid against Lord Uekiri to find the letter and free Lord Takena’s ghost. Just having people play the setting, which began as a personal project for one of my D&D characters, is a reward in of itself.

So, if you are a Dungeons and Dragons player, please enjoy A Letter Buried. I am already working on two (hint: one involves volcanoes), possibly three more of these one-shot modules set in the Hamato Islands, and I am still making lore updates to the Traveler’s Guide as well. There’s plenty more to come! 😄

P.S. Special thanks to my wife who also contributed some nice clip art in this module. Just as I am learning to write adventure modules better (and enjoying it), she seems to enjoy contributing art here and there, and gives her a reason to stretch herself too.

P.P.S. The cover image and all the images I’ve been using for the Hamato Islands series of adventures were all taken by me over the years. Nice to finally put some of these pictures to good use. 😄