The Hand of the Demon . . . I’d managed to get involved in all three DFRPG Pyramid-specific issues – this being the third one – and I wanted to do an adventure. (For the record, I enjoy writing adventures, I just don’t see them selling or being received well, so I don’t tend to bother.) I wanted to create something that was not-an-adventure, but adventure. I wanted a string of related encounters a GM could just say “Well, Bobby isn’t here tonight so we’re doing this!” and just drop them in. The first thing I thought of was what I feel is the key element to the Hand of the Demon: Each section really can be just dropped in just about anywhere, even in the middle of another adventure. Each time you dropped a section was essentially furthering on a side quest. I felt that sort of utility was key (and is key to be honest) for adventures using GURPS. It’s what makes them so hard to write. I’ve heard some folks saw that the adventure felt “incomplete” – in a way it is. It’s supposed to be a lead up to a bigger adventure, but I doubt with the reception it got I’ll ever write it. Maybe, but probably not.
One thing I’m noticing more and more: I’ve got very little in the way of outtakes. I don’t know if that’s because I’m becoming a better writer and able to condense projects into what is exactly needed or if I’ve simply chosen subjects which do not lend well to extras.
This one took me a while to write – over 80 hours of back and forth tweaking here and there. It took me about 70 hours to edit, 7 hours of research (lo, and about 70 hours of revision. I spent a further 60 hours looking over the preliminary PDF for any issues and revising – and man, there were a lot. This one embarssed the crap out of me until I put things right.