Talk:Desert of Desolation

Development info

An excerpt from Dragon:

• “For three weeks after that, I didn’t see him,” Laura says with a sigh. Completely fascinated, Tracy immersed himself in the rules; within a month, he and Laura wrote and designed their first role-playing adventure — Rahasia.

• Eventually, the two decided to privately publish the adventures they had designed — Rahasia and Pharaoh. Tracy and Laura gained a reputation on a local level. Then disaster struck. Tracy went into business with an associate who went bad, leaving Tracy and Laura with $30,000 in bad checks to cover. Driven into bankruptcy, Tracy sent their modules to TSR, Inc., “literally so that I could buy shoes for my children,” Tracy adds, shaking his head.

• But disaster was actually the door opening to Tracy’s career. TSR not only wanted the modules but wanted Tracy as well. “They said it would be easier to publish my adventures if I was part of the company. So, we made the move from Utah to Wisconsin.”

Weis, Margaret (April 1987). "TSR Profiles". Dragon (#120). Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc.: 91. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

BOZ (talk) 01:27, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

WOW! - Peregrine Fisher (talk) (contribs) 02:17, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Found the citation in the Tracy Hickman article and followed the trail back to the source. :) BOZ (talk) 02:23, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Here is the original publication info. BOZ (talk) 17:29, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Are those direct quotes, or summaries we can just plunk into the article? - Peregrine Fisher (talk) (contribs) 03:40, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Those are copy-pasted from the Dragon archive CD-ROM. :) The parts in quotation marks are quotes from whom they are attributed. BOZ (talk) 21:19, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Moved from article

May want some of this later. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) (contribs) 23:40, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Several monsters were introduced in the module, including the Dustdiggers, Symbaysns, Thunder herders, and Thune Dervishes.

Progress

There's been a bunch of progress on this article, and I think a push to GA shouldn't be too far off. The reception section is rather bulky now, but the plot summary is pretty bare (especially on the last module). The review from WD #93 has some details on the plot, but I can't tell without looking at the actual modules whether that applies to the original modules or just the compilation, so I did not use that info yet. There was a review for the compilation module in Dragon #126 by Ken Rolston, which I will add some details from when I get a chance - hopefully Rolston does go into some detail on the plot.  :) BOZ (talk) 16:31, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

I'll try and do something in the next week. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 16:36, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to try and fix the three plots over the next week, or hopefully sooner. A c/e of the Pub Hist and we should be good to go. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 03:06, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Space Gamer #54

There was a review for Pharaoh in The Space Gamer #54 (1982), which I do not have. If anyone can dig up a copy, that would be really great. BOZ (talk) 16:31, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Plot

I have the following bits from Bambra's review in WD #93 that I wasn't sure what to do with. They concern the adventure's plot, but I'm not sure how (and if) they apply to the original modules, or only the new parts added in the 1987 revision.

"Great happenings are taking place: an ancient prophecy is about to come to fruition and it will change the face of the desert forever. But the prophecy involves the actions of certain outsiders, so, enter the adventurers who must struggle to overcome the great forces arrayed against them."

"From the city of Bralizzar they venture forth into the dry wasteland to play their part in the prophecy. During the course of their adventure, they journey to the sunken city of Pazar and from there to the haunted tomb of an ancient pharaoh." BOZ (talk) 16:12, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Not an RS, but this says it was changed a bit. The Acaeum mentions some changes from the Daystar West Pharaoh. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 17:19, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Some stuff

I was going to add this, but I see it's mostly already there. I'll save it here for now. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 05:07, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

John Wheeler reformatted and rewrote the three original modules in creating the Desert of Desolation combination module, trying to do so without altering the tone. He and Peter Rice spelled out some of what had been open ended in the originals, and added a variety of maps. They also designed an ancient looking alphabet for the player's maps. With the help of Jeff Grub, they expanded the story to integrate it into the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

Feel free to integrate it, that sounds like it would help mesh things together. :) BOZ (talk) 05:36, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

References

I3 publication date

It says 1982 in the text but 1983 in the info box... Drow69 (talk) 17:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

The infobox is kind of odd in the first place, since it only talks about the first module... 129.33.19.254 (talk) 20:19, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

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