Amy Vorpahl couldn't resist adding a cute little Pokémon to her Candlekeep Mystery. Here's more about the skitterwidgets, what Pat Rothfuss could gain from a little more magic, and how to stay motivated while writing.
Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-amy-vorpahl-candlekeep-mystery
Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio
Join the conversation: www.twitter.com/SparkOtter
Meet my guest, Amy Vorpahl:
https://www.twitter.com/VorpahlSword
https://www.amyvorpahl.com/
Music by Audionautix:www.audionautix.com
Hi there.
Lucas:This is a quick bonus episode ahead of Mondays release on Fizban's
Lucas:Treasury of Dragons with one of the cool kids, Amy Vorpahl.
Lucas:She was extremely generous with her time and offered to do a "Making a
Lucas:Monster lightning round" on the monster she created for Candlekeep Mysteries.
Amy Vorpahl:You're walking through the Candlekeep Libraries you descend,
Amy Vorpahl:down a circular staircase and you hear the, tippety- tap of metal on stone
Amy Vorpahl:and you look down and you do see a metallic, almost like a dog, but with
Amy Vorpahl:way too many legs for a dog, almost like a spider, it's kind of scorpion-like,
Amy Vorpahl:almost crab-like, but kind of cute.
Amy Vorpahl:The heads almost look like cute pit bull dog headed things.
Amy Vorpahl:And when you see two of them together, they don't look dissimilar, but
Amy Vorpahl:they're not of the same ilk either.
Amy Vorpahl:So you're kind of immediately charmed except that their tails on the
Amy Vorpahl:back, they stick straight up and a little spark of electricity sustains
Amy Vorpahl:at the end of their tail, almost threateningly like a scorpion's stinger.
Amy Vorpahl:They don't seem to notice you immediately, these two, uh, almost dog
Amy Vorpahl:sized creatures, and they do seem to be tending to their own business, but
Amy Vorpahl:also something very specific within a carved out part of the wall on
Amy Vorpahl:the opposite side of where you are.
Amy Vorpahl:They made their nest in a naturally formed cavern in the wall.
Amy Vorpahl:And they've got a couple of about a third of the size of them.
Amy Vorpahl:A couple of little, little babies!
Amy Vorpahl:They're also made of metal.
Amy Vorpahl:So how did these things reproduce?
Amy Vorpahl:I don't know, but maybe it's magic!
Amy Vorpahl:Um, and then these are even more adorable.
Amy Vorpahl:If cockroach dogs could be adorable, they sure are.
Amy Vorpahl:, but they look like really good parents actually.
Lucas:That's beautiful.
Lucas:I'm there.
Lucas:And I'm also thinking like electric in a library?
Lucas:We're going to burn the place down!
Amy Vorpahl:Yes, except, good call.
Amy Vorpahl:I ran my Candlekeep mystery, called Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion
Amy Vorpahl:spelled with all Ks, uh, for, for two different groups of people.
Amy Vorpahl:And one of them did want to, they were like, after this,
Amy Vorpahl:we're just going to burn it down.
Amy Vorpahl:And there is a clause.
Amy Vorpahl:It was Chris Lindsay and Hannah Rose who described the entire
Amy Vorpahl:Candlekeep and there is a clause in there that any fire larger than a
Amy Vorpahl:candle flicker is magically put out.
Amy Vorpahl:Because of course it is because it's a magical dang library.
Amy Vorpahl:They're not going to take any risks.
Amy Vorpahl:So yes, while electricity can cause a lot of damage, it actually will
Amy Vorpahl:not start at least not a real fire.
Amy Vorpahl:You can still cast your magical, you know, fireballs and stuff
Amy Vorpahl:like that, but a real, real fire that could actually damage books.
Amy Vorpahl:uh uh, that's not gonna happen.
Amy Vorpahl:So no
Lucas:Uh, Pat Rothfuss can suck it.
Amy Vorpahl:that's right.
Lucas:Let me see if we can do the lightning round on the skitterwidgets.
Lucas:One of the things that I love it when people tell me are
Lucas:like, it's just a monster.
Lucas:It's just like, so you can smash it and be the hero.
Lucas:And sometimes people just tell me, like, it's just cute.
Lucas:Like we just want to give you something that
Lucas:you can adore.
Lucas:Is that the role that the skitterwidgets fill or are they for something?
Amy Vorpahl:No, I, I guess it was the first thing that came to mind.
Amy Vorpahl:I guess you'd have to read the adventure, but there's a lot of kind of hints
Amy Vorpahl:at mechanical sci-fi in my adventure.
Amy Vorpahl:And so I wanted the first monster that came to mind was Modrons, which arguably
Amy Vorpahl:is my favorite monster because they are just the, they could just be totally,
Amy Vorpahl:totally innocuous and silly and dumb.
Amy Vorpahl:But also maybe they can help and maybe they're, they're like hobbits,
Amy Vorpahl:they're like stronger than you think.
Amy Vorpahl:So I love Modrons.
Amy Vorpahl:So I wanted something like that.
Amy Vorpahl:Something small that could perform tasks, but also could
Amy Vorpahl:fight if you needed them to.
Amy Vorpahl:And then I did really want them to be cute because I think that was influenced
Amy Vorpahl:by just playing a lot of Pokemon Go.
Amy Vorpahl:And I really liked, I really liked the idea of monsters being adorable,
Amy Vorpahl:and then they fight for you.
Amy Vorpahl:So they are cute.
Amy Vorpahl:I also, I don't know why I wanted them to be parents, but I did.
Amy Vorpahl:And one of their feats is Good Parent.
Amy Vorpahl:They can, uh, they can impose disadvantage on one attack, roll
Amy Vorpahl:made against a kittywidget, which by the way, the children of these
Amy Vorpahl:parents are called kittywidgets.
Amy Vorpahl:that cute?
Amy Vorpahl:They didn't change those names.
Amy Vorpahl:I don't know why they didn't.
Amy Vorpahl:Um, it's canon now.
Amy Vorpahl:I think I really wanted it to have children just so I could have the
Amy Vorpahl:name skitterwidget and kittywidget.
Amy Vorpahl:I think it was really a lexicon based decision.
Amy Vorpahl:Um, and I, initially when I was writing this adventure, I gave the
Amy Vorpahl:kittywidget a stat block and Chris Perkins said, "Amy, if you give the
Amy Vorpahl:kittywidgets a stat block, that means we're kind of allowing and almost
Amy Vorpahl:encouraging the players to kill babies.
Amy Vorpahl:I don't know if that is the right choice.
Amy Vorpahl:We should probably just make them non-combatants."
Amy Vorpahl:And I was like, "oh my gosh, totally let's do that.
Amy Vorpahl:Non-combatants."
Amy Vorpahl:So the way that this process works is a first draft.
Amy Vorpahl:Then you do a second draft after notes, uh, and then you're off to the races
Amy Vorpahl:and they either love it, or they don't, they may or may not put it in the book.
Amy Vorpahl:That was how it was, uh, clarified to me.
Amy Vorpahl:Then, then they take it and do their whole Wizards of the Coast thing.
Amy Vorpahl:They may or may not change the adventure that you wrote.
Amy Vorpahl:They're definitely gonna play test it with their own play testers.
Amy Vorpahl:And then the next time I see it, it's going to be the printed
Amy Vorpahl:version that everyone has okayed.
Amy Vorpahl:But I, I didn't have my hands on it throughout that process.
Amy Vorpahl:So when it was printed there, the kittywidgets were back with stat blocks.
Amy Vorpahl:And Chris Perkins told me it was because in their play tests, players tried
Amy Vorpahl:to kill their frickin kittywidget.
Amy Vorpahl:So I just want to say that my instincts were dead on to kittywidget stat blocks.
Amy Vorpahl:And they do canonically have stat blocks now.
Amy Vorpahl:There's also here.
Amy Vorpahl:There's also a way, they're like shield guardians.
Amy Vorpahl:They're controlled by wearing like a shield guardians controlled by,
Amy Vorpahl:its owner, having a collar and the collar wearer can communicate small
Amy Vorpahl:commands to the shield guardian.
Amy Vorpahl:In this one, the skitterwidgets are controlled by, rings and they are
Amy Vorpahl:all constructs that were built by one of the characters in this adventure.
Amy Vorpahl:So, yes, while they are canon, they're not running around everywhere.
Amy Vorpahl:Like this character is responsible for making them, I guess.
Amy Vorpahl:So if this character doesn't exist in your Forgotten Realms, the probably
Amy Vorpahl:don't exist in your Forgotten Realms, which is totally fine.
Amy Vorpahl:But boy, give it a shot.
Amy Vorpahl:My inspiration does really only come from the games I've played, like, it's less
Amy Vorpahl:from Forgotten Realms lore and more like, oh, I want this to be in D and D lore.
Amy Vorpahl:Can I?
Amy Vorpahl:And Chris Perkins was like, "Sure."
Amy Vorpahl:He's was like, "Okay, great."
Amy Vorpahl:Although my, my adventure is the only one that takes place
Amy Vorpahl:actually in the Candlekeep.
Amy Vorpahl:And I did kind of mess with the Candlekeep.
Amy Vorpahl:I had to do a page one rewrite for Candlekeep cause I couldn't wrap my head
Amy Vorpahl:around writing very finite, instructions.
Amy Vorpahl:And, and I guess, I guess I've said before, it's kind of like a
Amy Vorpahl:love letter to a dungeon master, so, and they're all mysteries.
Amy Vorpahl:So you're, front-loading the mystery you're saying, Hey DM,
Amy Vorpahl:here's, what's going on, this, this, and this, this, this, and
Amy Vorpahl:this, this will be revealed later.
Amy Vorpahl:This will be revealed later.
Amy Vorpahl:This will be revealed later at your discretion, you know?
Amy Vorpahl:And, and, uh, and it's so counterintuitive because when you're writing a mystery,
Amy Vorpahl:even if it's an adventure, your instinct is to withhold and only
Amy Vorpahl:reveal the reveal at the time of the adventure, where it should be revealed.
Amy Vorpahl:And that is not what you should do.
Amy Vorpahl:You have to tell the DM what they're dealing with immediately.
Amy Vorpahl:Writing for D&D is very different from writing Dungeon in a Box,
Amy Vorpahl:because the writing for that is a little bit more, we know you're not
Amy Vorpahl:going to play this exactly as written.
Amy Vorpahl:So here are some ideas.
Amy Vorpahl:D and D however, is, is written as if you might be playing this exactly as written.
Amy Vorpahl:I need to give you every single- exactly how it's lit, exactly the stats for
Amy Vorpahl:everything, including this door, you know, like it's, it's very, yeah, like
Amy Vorpahl:you said, it's like writing an Ikea manual and you've got to be really
Amy Vorpahl:specific and, and not only like, I guess, visual as well as, you have to
Amy Vorpahl:be the dungeon master and the player.
Amy Vorpahl:You have to also discard your ideas of what hypothetical's could be.
Amy Vorpahl:And I say that lightly, because at the end of my adventure, there are about five
Amy Vorpahl:hypothetical of how, of how it could end.
Amy Vorpahl:But in the, in the actual adventure, you can't write or plan what
Amy Vorpahl:the players are going to do.
Amy Vorpahl:You can just build the Ikea playground and hope for the best.
Amy Vorpahl:So yeah,
Lucas:If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show wherever you
Lucas:get your podcasts and rate and review because on Monday I will have a shiny
Lucas:new, full length episode with Amy discussing Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.
Lucas:We'll cover Fizban as a character, the old man voice that lives in
Lucas:all of our heads, the reason D and D source books come with guide
Lucas:characters and Amy's tips on writing.