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Has anyone here run The Gates of Firestorm Peak? The concept looks interesting, but I don't want to wade through a hundred pages of Cordell's walls and walls (and walls and walls ...) of text to find out if it is worth it.
 
I have not. Prince dropped glowing praise on it which prompted me to buy it a while ago. I did read it. I collect classic adventures, so I have more than I'll ever be able to run which leads me to rate modules more as reads than playable adventure aids. On that scale, this was a slog, so I think we're in agreement there. Huge explanations delivered in big, bland, square paragraphs. Few illustrations to spark the imagination. Very little bolding or highlighting to guide the eye.
I dunno, Prince and Bryce have a way of seeing through the outer fluff of a product to how it's actually going to play out at the table. I can see how maybe this one could be more fun for the players than the DM. But yeah, there's a lot to wade through there. It's very technical 2.5e AD&D as well, since he's pushing the various Players Options books, it's a little more difficult than usual to convert to your system of choice, or just riff off of like I and DP were suggesting in that other thread.
 
The1True said:
I have not. Prince dropped glowing praise on it which prompted me to buy it a while ago. I did read it. I collect classic adventures, so I have more than I'll ever be able to run which leads me to rate modules more as reads than playable adventure aids. On that scale, this was a slog, so I think we're in agreement there. Huge explanations delivered in big, bland, square paragraphs. Few illustrations to spark the imagination. Very little bolding or highlighting to guide the eye.
I dunno, Prince and Bryce have a way of seeing through the outer fluff of a product to how it's actually going to play out at the table. I can see how maybe this one could be more fun for the players than the DM. But yeah, there's a lot to wade through there. It's very technical 2.5e AD&D as well, since he's pushing the various Players Options books, it's a little more difficult than usual to convert to your system of choice, or just riff off of like I and DP were suggesting in that other thread.
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Yeah, that doesn't sound great.

I actually looked for it on Prince's blog, because I know he likes Cordell, but I couldn't find the review. I don't rely too much on his reviews, I know he liked those sahuagin modules (another thing that I could use conceptually), but I could not get through them.
 
U1-3 are a blast, man! I ran the whole trilogy a while ago as part of a U-themed Greyhawk campaign; they played very smoothly.
 
The1True said:
U1-3 are a blast, man! I ran the whole trilogy a while ago as part of a U-themed Greyhawk campaign; they played very smoothly.
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Yes, those are great. I mean Cordell's 2e sahuagin modules: Evil Tide, Night of the Shark and Sea of Blood.
 
I was looking at Bryce's latest review (@bryce0lynch , you need a keeper to vet your modules for you, I don't know how you can't see these disasters coming) and I have thoughts. But I didn't want to clutter up the comment section, and I'm not sure I'm right anyway.

For reference, the module is here, and the "rulebook" is here. There are previous for both. Both are over 200 pages. The preview of a rulebook has a ToC with no page numbers, and show no signs of being hyperlinks. Also, all the text in the rulebook appears to be center justified.

The rulebook has 1.5 stars on DriveThru, which I didn't think was possible. The module was published 12 days ago and has no reviews (seriously Bryce, how do you find these things?).

The rulebook makes no sense to me. As near as I can tell, it is supposed to be a player's guide (the "Worldcrafter's Guide" appears not to be published yet). To me, it looks like it was written by someone who understands grammar, but doesn't know what words mean. It's meant to be a supplement to 3.5/PF1, and like, I have never run either of those, but I have read a lot of 3.5 material and I just don't get it. Here is the start of the CharGen section:

Screenshot 2025-07-26 18.01.45.png

Hopefully someone who knows 3.5 or PF1 (looking at you, @The1True) can tell me if this provides any useful information or if it is just gibberish.

Both books claim to be handcrafted, i.e. not AI generated. I'm skeptical about the covers, at least. The text.... I dunno, any LLM generated text I have seen at least makes superficial sense. But the commitment that would be required for a human to write 500+ pages of this, with more to come with the Worldcrafter's Guide and the Archetype Compendium, seems like the height of hubris.
 
That's 3.5e/PF adjacent. He's talking about racial level adjustments, he's just replaced some of the WotC terminology with his own. It's almost like we're looking at point-form campaign notes? It's verging on autistic (I do not mean that as an insult). Like there's an assumption the reader knows a bunch of stuff and we're getting down to the raw guts. How that kind of writing stretches to hundreds of pages, though, is a little impressive...
 
The designer posted in Bryce'e comments. He's a real peach. Getting vibes less of autism than of narcissism. Everybody loves his product (1.5 stars on Drivethru! 18 backers for his kickstarter!), it's just too bad that Bryce wasn't smart enough to understand his genius.

I'm looking at his webpage and I'm not entirely convinced he is a real person. If he is a real person, he is nobody I have any interest in meeting. Although he is a professional DM, so I guess we could pay him money to show us his genius.
 
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I don't think he's an AI; he's come unhinged now, and AI doesn't really do that so well. His work may or may not have been written with the help of an AI (and I don't presume to guess that unless I've actually read it), but I'm confident that he's a real person. Dude needs to learn when to cut his losses and dip out, because he ain't ever going to be happy with what gets written in there. People are basically going to refuse to check out his stuff on principle at this point - his reactions are going to do more harm to his sales than Bryce's review ever could.

Also, from a marketing perspective, calling your homebrew game "The Next Step in the Evolution of Tabletop RPGs!" is just hurting him more than it helps. Cringe city.
 
I think he's a human using AI - badly - to write reviews of his product (27 five star reviews that all sound like him) and responses in the comment section. My money's on grok, given the angry defensiveness of his replies. Also, he is on xTwitter, which he joined in 2021(!).

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I was wrong, he is using ChatGPT to write replies.

Screenshot 2025-07-28 11.26.27.png
 
Lol seriously? Damn, tech really does grow at an exponential rate.

Dude's pathetic. He's getting deep into it now. Won't end well for him.
 
I wasn't sure, because in my experiences with ChatGPT it was always a better, if bland, writer than this. Like, what prompts do you use to consistently write like an angry 13 year old? And why is that your choice?

Maybe that's why his rulebook is nigh incomprehensible, he asks the bot to rewrite his notes, which on their own are incomprehensible, so the bot has nothing to work with.
 
I'm imagining his prompt sessions went a little something like this:

"Hey ChatGPT, write a scathing comment for a blog post on a negative review of my product called 'Empyrean: The Hyperfantasy RPG' - write it naturally - write like a teenager - make it angrier - insult the review author more - deflect more blame onto readers - make it sound less artificial - more angry and condescending - ensure you always include the full name 'Empyrean: The Hyperfantasy RPG' - use big concepts explained in poor form - make it sound more natural - make it about 50% more petty - make it even more angry - dumb it down more - make sure you always fully capitalize 'Empyrean' in your response - younger/dumber/louder/angrier - deflect even more blame onto readers"
 
You know, I hear people asking why you would get a LLM to do the things people enjoy doing, like creative writing and art, instead of the things we hate doing. And I just don't know what it says about someone if he needs to outsource his writing of insults and snarky comments. Like, if someone really deserves to be taken down a notch, why forego the pleasure of mocking in your own voice?

I almost posted the above as a reply to Lopez, but I decided I didn't want to be responsible for the mass shooting he seems to be working his way up to. Man, his blog is bleak.
 
Quote from Bryce's review:
This is $15 at DriveThru. The previs is six pages. It is perfect. No, that legalese does not go on for pages. That’s the adventure. Enjoy the elemental BS, and the god-beast exposition. You know EXACTLY what you are getting from this preview.
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Serious question, @bryce0lynch. If you knew what you were getting, why did you get it? Nobody who reads your blog was in any danger of accidentally buying this thing.
 
Lopez is still going strong. At first I was annoyed by the spam, but now... I gotta make some popcorn, this is great stuff. Dude will not stop digging his own grave until he reaches China.
 
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