I will continue to shill for the amazing game that is Dungeon Dwelling Creatures. It's been slamming through some stretch goals, though not hit mine yet. I'm on the hook for creating two new enemies (aka, the forces of law and neutrality) but I have a list over over a dozen enemies to pitch. If we hit the stretch goals, you wouldn't have to twist my arm too hard to get me to over deliver. But enough about that, Eddie Barlett is the co-creator of Dungeon Dwelling Creatures and has plenty to say about it's development. Keep reading and find out some of those secrets of creatures dark and deep.

So what's designing DDC been like? Are there parts where you say "that's all John" or "that's all me", or did the final design of things end up being more intermingled?

Wow, first let me say, thank you for having me back on the finest newsletter around. I look forward to each issue. Designing DDC has been a ton of fun. There are definitely parts where I say, that's all John and that's all me. For example, the Wendigo stands out as one that John always had a pretty clear vision of. My favorite parts, and the parts that I am most proud of, though, are our collaborative creations. The Grafted class is a good example. Somehow John and I were on the same page from day one without talking about it. Someone would pitch an idea, and the other says, yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, or I had the idea, but not the mechanical way to flesh it out. So, those are the most rewarding to me when someone has a good idea and the other person takes it to the next level. If nothing else, I'd like to say I put my nuts and whip on John's ice cream.

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What piece of design, such as a class or a spell, are you most proud of?

Luckily, with all the self-promotion I'm used to doing for the Long Con and The No Class RPG podcast, I'm not too humble for this question, as that answer shows. haha. I am really proud of all the classes. It's the way that a player's eyes light up when they realize a new way to use that ability, or realize how they can synergize with another player's abilities. We've also got some really cool spells coming at you. One that I know John and I both love is "Agony of the Writer." I think anyone that's written something and found themselves with writer's block can understand the horror of that one. And another one I'll mention is "Fetid Waters," in which the hag summons the fetid waters of her swampy home directly into the victim's lungs!! That's one where I said, is this going too far?, and John said, no, push it further! So, I think all of the DCC fandom will appreciate that attitude.

The original idea was more a "zine" and now it's going to be its own standalone game book. what convinced you to expand the scope and what'd you learn along the way?

Yeah, originally and sensibly, this was going to be a zine. haha. Of course, I'm a huge fan of Reid San Fillipo, and the Crawling Under a Broken Moon series, so I wanted to emulate that. Drop out some bites and see how well it is received. But I think the more we playtested, the more the ideas came and became something bigger. We weren't originally going to have a lot of new spells, which the book will have. We realized that some classes need more fleshing out, like the Dybukk's possession power could use a reference for judges, so we added that. We've also been working on this for a few years, so if it had been released sooner, a zine would probably work better, but now with all the extra time and love, we've really brewed this into its own complete system. John, having the mentorship of David Baity, probably plays a large part as well. We promise we'll keep it to one book though! haha

Thanks for sharing. Anything else you'd like folks to know?

As stated above, thanks again for doing this. One more thing I'd like to share is that our publishing collective, The Ink Slingers, (Stefan(yourself)?, Matt Gullett, Luau Lou, John, and I) have all contributed to this and have provided a spell, an adventure, or other writing to this, and I highly thank them for helping bring this cool book to the masses.

Which Dungeon Dwelling Creatures class are you most excited to play?

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