Enter the Dungeons …
Greetings, felicitations, and welcome to this, the Secret Dungeons newsletter and blog! I'm your host, T. Van Santāna, and today we're giving you a quick overview of what this endeavor is all about.
What's Secret Dungeons?
An upcoming YouTube channel by moi wherein I review role-playing games! It’s also the name of this blog and newsletter.
What's so secret about it?
Nothing really? It's kind of a cross branding effort with my novel series, The Secret of Secrets, and my other blog, Adventures in Secrecy, which focuses on gonzo speculative fiction of a vaguely science fantasy nature.
Sooo, like, what's it about, this newsletter I'm reading right now?
Dungeons & Dragons. Well, role-playing games in general, really, mostly from about 1983 on. I missed out on the first 9 years of the hobby, but otherwise, I've been around ever since. The bulk of gaming interest right now is centered on D&D, so that's where we're starting. Feedback and interest will determine where we go—just like in the games!
Do you have any, like, credentials or whatever?
I mean, I've been a DM for, like, 35 years? Does that count?
I guess so. What all am I going to read in this thing?
Glad you asked! We are just getting started, obvi, but we've got some general categories of things planned out. Those are:
DM Lyfe (advice)
Creature Feature (monsters)
The Torture Chamber (opinion)
Adventurer's Pack (tools)
Treasure Chest (items)
Fast Travel (locations)
Dungeons (modules)
Wow, that seems like kind of a lot. Are you sure you can keep up with all that?
Well, yes. I've been writing for 37 years. I kind of have it down at this point.
Whoa, that's a long time.
Sort of. If you're younger than I am.
I mean, it's still a long time.
Okay, sure. Whatever.
What should I do next?
Tell people! Anyone you think might dig it or want to know about it.
Do I get anything outta this, or …
You mean aside from my eternal gratitude?
Yeah, I meant, like, actually something. Like something, you know … real.
Fair enough. And yes! I will be publishing through Substack all kinds of useful game things, including scenarios, monsters, advice and, well, all the stuff I said a second ago.
And it's free, right?
Yes! It's 100% free! For the first year, anyway. Then we'll re-evaluate. Of course, if enough people pledge before then, I will open up a pay option to keep folks from having to deal with Patreon, but I'm not planning on paywalling material until year 2. Oh, well, wait. There might be some more explicit material that I will paywall for safety reasons. But other than that, should be free for year 1.
Year 1, like Batman?
"… I'm Batman." That's in a Keaton voice, btw, not a Bale growl. No, not like Batman. But you can imagine me in a batsuit if that makes you happy.
Would it make you happy if I did that?
I mean, maybe a little, yeah.
Okay, so if I like what you're up to here, what else should I check out?
at Questing Beast has a ferosh newsletter calledthat covers just a metric ton of OSR blogging 'tent, and his own OSR game Knave is about to launch a hardcover second edish on Kickstarter in just a sec …Whoa whoa whoa … OSR? More like WTF.
Zing! OSR stands for Old School Renaissance. Or, depending upon who you ask, Old School Revival. Basically it's a creative movement within the gaming community at large that is similar to an interpretative period in other art forms, whereby creators are returning to early versions of D&D (and less often, other older games) and rediscovering what made them fun in the first place, interpolating the rules and play style for a new generation, and making their own games based on their personal tastes. It's super cool, and undoubtedly where the creative growth edge is in gaming today. Like by a mile.
See that's the thing about nerdy hobbies. There's all these acronyms and rules …
True, but we'll do our best to explain all of them as we go. And you can always throw a questions out in the commies!
Commies? Like … communists?
No, like comments.
Oh. Right.
Anything else you'd like to know?
Not really. But if I think of something I'll let you know in the … you know … commies. That still doesn't sound right.
Give it time, and enjoy your stay in the Secret Dungeons!
Xoxo,
TVS
