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Who's your favourite character (either personality or to write for)? Mine's probably Corvus. He reminds me of Davos from Game of Thrones (very humble). Stacey is also great.
I like having Crosswinds barge into things. It was interesting seeing another side of them as Yvonne. I'm not sure if I've kept their voice consistent over time, but I do like the character a lot.
Razor is also a lot of fun to write for, and I think that's gotten more true as more sides of him have been revealed.
Do you have bigger plans for Swamped in the future?
I'm working on a draft of a novel. For this first draft I'm mainly just rewriting the adventure in third-person, but when I get far enough with that I might think about changing it to an entirely different story in the setting.
Although, I only recently hit the early rain in the draft, so I'm way behind the adventure in that. I may need to think about it.
Any advice you can give to a novice writer such as myself?
The most important advice is to keep writing.
More specifically, don't wait for inspiration. Swamped came about not because I had a well-designed setting, but because one night I said to myself "I'm going to try to come up with an idea for a setting and do a quick write-up about it".
Here's that write-up. Note to new readers, this spoils some significant things. If you haven't read as far as the rain arriving, definitely skip over this.
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SpoilerIt was never peaceful in the swamp.
Even now, when there was no actual fighting, the Bogknights and Marshguards lived in unease. Each expected the other side to break the truce immediately, and each planned an immediate attack once the rains stopped to catch the enemy by surprise.
But for now, Bogknight and Marshguard alike shared a common foe: nature.
The swamp was unpleasant enough in the dry season. Crocodiles lay in wait for anyone foolish enough to step into the muck; on the ground, mossbeasts hid themselves among the foliage. And of course, there was always the risk of murderflies.
But in the rain, it grew worse. Hunting was impossible - not only due to the torrential downpour, but moreso due to the ferocious rainspawn who inevitably followed it. Even if a hunter could survive them on his wits, it would be useless; there would be nothing to hunt, for the rainspawn would get to it first.
As you can see, there's not a lot of detail there. I worked out a few more things before deciding to start the adventure, but not that much. Most of what I have now was developed through the process of writing about it.
Actually, this has never been asked or addressed in the adventure, but does Marshal have a biological mother?
It hasn't come up because, in-world, it's just not an important question most of the time. In general, adopted children grow up knowing they were adopted and they don't give much thought to who they were born to.
I haven't really given much thought to how adoption actually happens in that framework, though. That's something I could stand to develop better.
As for how that relates to Marshall specifically... well, that's something that might come up in the adventure. That's all I'll say for now.
