The Dream

Giving praise to all those who helped me realize this dream and influence my works. I give my most heartfelt thanks to their patients and generosity to help me achieve this. Thank you all.

My Amazing Wife

When it comes to Thank You, I owe a big one to my amazing and loving wife! It was her words of wisdom and support that sent me on the correct trajectory when it came to the concept. It was her gut reaction to “make it free to all“… a thought that not only was beautiful but, in truth, what is needed.

My Virtual Host Provider

Dicesongs is graciously hosted on SauceServers.com. The services that they offer are all top-notch, and the Virtual Host Provider for the site. Check out SauceServers’ offerings if you require a VHP or other services. Thank you, SauceServers, for EVERYTHING!

Eric Gross

Dicesongs, the site, would not be what it is without his creative genius. I am happy to say that my dream became a reality when I reached out to Eric and ask him to make my dream happen. Eric was right there with me from the whole beginning. He understood what I wanted and made suggestions that only honed my thoughts into what you see today. Eric is an extremely talented artist in the digital and physical. Eric is a gamer, too, and shared similar woes of past bad games (we’ve all been there). He liked the idea at a foundational level, and his questions brought out the best in me when we built the site outline.

Regarding the copy across the site, Eric has been a huge help in getting what you see today. Along the way, It was obvious that Eric was invested in the dream. Aside from being a talented artist, he’s outstanding as a writer in the fantasy and horror realms (his Followers of the Pandorics is a testament to that). Eric left examples on the pages to teach me to be a better writer. Eric also taught by example by 100% crafting the Assassins’ main page copy. I love the idea of an Assassins’ Guild, but I had difficulty crafting the core story; Eric took care of it easily. From this example, I was able to craft the other pages that are affiliated with this Guild.

To be quite frank, I truly feel Eric is a co-creator of my dream, as he helped across all aspects of the development and enhancement of Dicesongs including crafting the unique names that each Guild and House reflects.

Some of these stories for my old friends who played in my games might even seem familiar, as there are bits and pieces from my former one-shot games and epic campaigns I used to run. I knew I had some work to do from Eric’s writing examples. Running an RGP one-shot or full campaign is a different animal when building a website of this magnitude.

Because of Eric’s suggestions and examples, I needed to brush up on my storytelling. I took courses in writing (both in Fantasy and RPG styles) and watched some amazing educational videos by the best storytellers I love to read (Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Lee Child). From it, the Dicesongs stories, mini-quests, and site copy improved tenfold, allowing Dicesongs to be compatible with all the popular Role-Playing games available.

Eric helped me make my dream a reality. He invested his time and efforts in creating the custom graphics, the guild house names, finding the site images of each house, and so much more; the list would be too long to mention.

The bottom line, Eric Gross was the sole reason that Dicesongs came into existence as you see it today. Eric created a stunningly beautiful website that has exceeded anything like before and set the tone for other upcoming websites; you wait and see.

There’s NOTHING like Dicesongs out there. Eric did an amazing job, don’t you agree? If you are looking for a website, artwork, SEO optimization, or other amazing abilities, check out Erin Gross’s website, the hands on workshop, for his offerings.

Sir A. Scott Perry – The Harper

Founder and Dungeon Master for the Guilds of WARP

Many of you who are veterans of the gaming community would know the Guilds of WARP, and its founder, The Harper.  Sir Perry has been most helpful from the very start, mentoring me in ways that would be far too many to list here. His insight and decades of experience were most useful with the hard questions he was eager to answer. In a way, through his lessons, his fingerprints are too folded into the foundation of what you see here at Dicesongs from a content perspective. I am eternally grateful for his friendship, kindness, and eagerness to help me, make this dream unfold.

John Burchfield

A Big thank you goes out to John Burchfield! John Burchfield runs BlueBoxRPG a Twitch streaming show similar to how I’ve run my games. They are a great crew with an amazing cast of folks worthy of checking out. John has been extremely kind and helpful in providing much-needed input to help bring Dicesongs into the Twitch and Discord arena, as well as other advice he’s given regarding Dicesongs.

I bring this up as the GM of any game is the game narrator (for those not familiar). You see, the GM is like the MC, and for that, you need a charismatic voice and personality to knock the games past the bleachers, and John Burchfield has that presence (it’s his actual speaking voice!). You want to have a Gary Owens or Wolfman Jack personality and presence. There’s a sacred cadence when it comes to storytelling, and John has it, which is refreshing in a world where it s lacking (one of the tools we’ll touch on later). John’s BlueBoxRPG and his narrations are great role models, well worth emulation.

Some people are born with that je ne sais quoi, and others have to work at it. Here at Dicesongs, all of you benefit from what I know, and I will share it with you. I bring John’s BlueBoxRPG to your attention, as he has that voice that makes you want to listen… He’s got great showmanship to his streams, and let us face it, the GM paints the world of imagination in which the players are alive. Please don’t believe me; listen to his archive videos on Twitch or YouTube.

Troll Lord Games & James M. Ward

Writing Tools, YOU all need to know what’s available from Troll Lord Games. They have this ideal Bundle: Storyteller’s Thesaurus and Dictionary. These are the two most essential books anyone should have in their collection, regardless of whether you’re trying to build a game or tell good stories. I purchased my copies from Troll Lord Games (a real must-have for any storyteller writing for personal or professional use). The key factor here is that one of the co-authors is legendary game designer James M. Ward. James’ name will be familiar if you play any Dungeons and Dragons, have read Dragon Magazine, or even played other games he’s authored. I’ve been a huge fan of James’ work since the mid-1980s. His insight is genius, and I have used both books to create Dicesongs content.

Todd Stashwick

There was a time when I was stuck on a key area of Dicesongs, and I reached out to a long-time friend, an amazing writer, extremely talented improvise and actor, not to mention a natural DM, Todd Stashwick. Todd’s insight helped me break past a serious wall of self-induced writer’s block and helped me get my compass back on track. Todd was there to lend his insight and input when I had certain gaming questions while crafting the stories. With Todd’s words of wisdom and kindness, I was able to punch through and create the copy that I am sure everyone will love to incorporate into their games, either as PCs or NPCs.

Jeff Bassetti

I can’t forget about my long-time friend, an accomplished producer, and scriptwriter, Jeff Bassetti. In times past, I’ve been there for Jeff when he needed to bounce an idea off of me or to ask me things that I knew… and when it was time for me to ask for the favor returned, he was more than happy. Regardless of where he was, he took the time out of his extremely busy schedule to answer questions and raise questions which only helped bring forth better storytelling on my part. I am truly grateful for Jeff’s insight, suggestions, and the back-and-forth we had on the storyline and character development you all will discover within Dicesongs.

Isaac Rockoff

Isaac Rockoff – a long-time and old friend, a current GM who runs games and throws dice is an amazing wealth of knowledge. Isaac’s wheelhouse is far too large to mention here; aside from being an amazing vocalist, he truly has a command of the language, a forensic scientific background, and writing know-how. Just recently, I tapped Isaac for some help with a page I was wrestling with (several rewrites later), and I have to say, Isaac was truly my lifeline! Not only did he help, but he explained the why’s and hows of the help, which will no doubt appear on the other pages. Thank you, Isaac!

Gary Gygax

I have to give a heavenly Thank You to the one who, one faithful night, not only taught me how to play Dungeons and Dragons, the game theory behind it, and how to “think” during any RPG-style game is none other than the great Gary Gygax! If he didn’t choose to give up his time after the game to chat with me about my unique and crazy ideas on how to approach Dungeons and Dragons, or any other RPG system for that matter, none of this would have been possible. Was I an impressionable kid at the time? Yes, I was, and who better to teach the game logic than the guy that co-created the game that we all love and play today? Thank you, Gary! Your gaming lessons have not been forgotten.

WToC

In light of the recently leaked draft of the re-written Open Gaming License by Wizards of the Coast, many small publishers, including myself (who publishes for free) have taken steps to remove Wizards of the Coast intellectual property from our content. As a fan of the original TRS Dungeons and Dragons, it was disheartening to do so, but given that Wizards of the Coast is the current owner of the IP for Dungeons and Dragons, it is necessary to comply with their updated OGL.

To ensure that my platform, Dicesongs, remains accessible to all, I have made reference to “Dungeons and Dragons style Role-Play Gaming” or a similar phrasing to avoid any potential legal issues. As per the updated OGL, I am required to reference two specific documents which I have included on the platform. While Dicesongs was built to be free of any specific IP, I have erred on the side of caution and included these references, until such time that either Project Black Flag is fully developed or I choose to create a new gaming system that is neutral in terms of IP.

At present, my approach to running a Dicesongs-related game involves incorporating gameplay elements from both Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, as well as other systems, but my intent is to acknowledge Wizards of the Coast appropriately and respectfully, in case there are any lingering IP concerns that I may have missed, and to pay tribute to the game that I grew up playing and still cherish to this day. You can read up on the WToC OGL 1.0a here as well as their new System Reference Document (SRD) here.

Thank You!

I wanted to thank you, the readers who are here at the Dicesongs site. This site was created for you! I’ve been a DM, GM, and RealmWeaver most of my life. There’s a lifetime of knowledge that I’ve accumulated, the good, the bad, and the strange. I cut my teeth like many of you, starting out with friends, then seeking out the local hobby shop, and onwards. The journey to Roll Dice with complete strangers turns into lasting friendships over the years, decades, and a lifetime.

There’s so much I want to share with you all, and I hope this unique format makes sense. Dicesongs was built for the new and seasoned GMs, DMs and RealmWeavers out there, to help them with new tools, ideas, and how to improve their games.

We are the storytellers, narrators, and referees of our worlds and the games we play. As the game was designed, we want our players to think, to actually “Role-Play” their characters. To have fun, experience a living story, and epic adventures, and have memories to share with others. As the players, we want to experience the wonderment of the storytelling, have the opportunity to make decisions on how the story unfolds, earn coins (or steal them), to earn bragging rights for the games your character survived…

Dicesongs offers a unique perspective never been broached before, allowing the players to train, learn, and grow as a character and the person who role-plays the character. I hope you love what Dicesongs offers; over time, more will be revealed. Just like your character will level up over time, so will the Dicesongs website.

May Luck Always Roll In Your Favor!

Your GM, RealmWeaver, and theStorycaster /aka Geoffrey Schumann