Has anyone tried doing this? Or tried writing up an idea in how to do this....and mix it more into DnD with less gunslinging and just having it be weird? Or should I use a different system? I wrote my own version of basically the bare bones of the plot and mechanics of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to make a campaign that was run at a game store by multiple people at multiple tables that was super successful...I feel like Dark Tower could work...maybe it is just wishful thinking...those books are so crazy and so much-traveling-and other worlds....maybe too many!
It's not impossible. The characters could have an obvious goal, reaching the tower, and an obvious antagonist, the Crimson King. Probably the hardest part would be replicating the feel of the books.
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A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
Definitely possible for almost any fantasy book even though I've never read that specific one. I myself am writing a Middle Earth DnD Sourcebook, which will take a year or 2 to complete. I recommend checking out Ebberon: Rising from the Last War and Critical Role's gunslinger subclass.
I think a big part would be finding your way to the next level. There would be other side quests that can provide items to help you along or information for the next gate, or even information that may not come up until much further. I would also suggest having at least a few worlds having multiple possible exits. Think sticks and bubbles if you are familiar with the term. Depending on how attached you are to the stephen king universe you could even have cameo characters or worlds from other novels or sources you enjoy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I am unsure how closely I'd stick to his Universe..I def like the idea of jumping to a world like 1980's new york or chicago....and throwing other weird literary pieces in and guardians in terms of the bear and such....just the idea of saving this mcguffin and throwing in one shots-modules from AD&D and 5e and other systems but convert it to dnd...and seeing what comes out the other end...maybe make some rollable tables and badies for like thunderclap...that city where they find the monorail or blaine...It is an idea I have wanted to use for sometime....
Don't ask me silly questions I won't play silly games...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I've always wanted to do something like this as well, but could never really think of a way to do it that wouldn't just be copying Roland's journey. One thing I've been considering is having characters end up in Mid-World similarly to how characters end up in Barovia in CoS and then building a campaign around them trying to get back to whatever D&D realm they started in.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Have an idea for a great character, but no clue how to get started writing a backstory? Let me help! Check out www.rent-a-bard.com for more.
So, I know this this topic is a little old, but if anyone has attempted to do the dark tower that would be awesome I do have a rough Idea out there and in Stephen King fashion I decided to intertwine some of the 5e adventure books. For instance in the curse of strahd I had the characters meet Walter O’Dim, and had their first experience with the crimson king and finding their first door, which they used to get back home after killing strahd.
You might also want to check out Gygax’s Loony Tunes 1e module for an example of how you might fight a very different genre into DnD. Years ago I played in a couple of campaigns somewhat like the tower, one was actually based on the book somewhat back when it first came out. Another was a time and world traveling campaign that had us visit WWII balkans, 1980’s USA and other places and times trying to catch and end the bbeg. We actually roped out having some of the characters visit us for help breaking that fourth wall in the game - that was weird, but not as weird as if they had actually showed up would have been 😳.
I mean, sure it can be done. But what are you doing? Are you actually starting with the PCs being a stand in for the last Gunslinger following the Man in Black, destined to find each other at the Dark Tower? Just using the setting .. and if so when? The Waste Lands? The Wizard and Glass era? The Dark Tower is a really rich world to mine ...
... and the challenge is it also mines a lot of real world culture, that may be lost on a contemporary audience not vested in at least 60s through 80s popular culture. I'm not talking about the Terminator references. Or the fact that "Hey Jude" has currency in Roland's world. I mean things like The Crimson King ... you know that's a riff to at minimum the work of the Band King Crimson, and I don't think it's limited just to their song "Court of the Crimson King" (I pepper my game with lots of King Crimson references, plus the Beetles "I am the Walrus"). Also "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is an important source too that needs to be mined. Heck the Waste Lands, King is trying to have a dialogue with T.S. Eliott. Some critics of King who are otherwise fans of him feel the Dark Tower series suffers from King trying to hard to participate in some larger "literary world" hence all the allusions. I've never seen that effort as problematic, and it's probably at the right level to allow a DM to port in "high minded literary ideas" into a game setting.
I guess the biggest problem with using the main narrative of the Dark Tower as inspiration is that the main narrative (and who wouldn't want to be involved in the most heroic story in the setting?) is the whole annular recursiveness time is a flat circle aspect to it. The Dark Tower is arrived at and if the PCs go through the doors written for them, they're back in the desert folllowing the Man in Black, unless you take a big step away from King's point about the world of the Dark Tower, the quest is frustratingly futile by your average D&D players sensibilities.
As far as fantasy heroes colliding with the real life world, Nick Mamatas's Sabbath is a fun read if you like irreverent and profane takes on fantasy tropes as they meet reality, that also maintain a sense of "heavy metal."
I mean, sure it can be done. But what are you doing? Are you actually starting with the PCs being a stand in for the last Gunslinger following the Man in Black, destined to find each other at the Dark Tower? Just using the setting .. and if so when? The Waste Lands? The Wizard and Glass era? The Dark Tower is a really rich world to mine...
I mean, sure it can be done. But what are you doing? Are you actually starting with the PCs being a stand in for the last Gunslinger following the Man in Black, destined to find each other at the Dark Tower? Just using the setting .. and if so when? The Waste Lands? The Wizard and Glass era? The Dark Tower is a really rich world to mine...
Actually, it’s several rich worlds to mine.
You mean ... it's a MULTIVERSE!
I actually wonder if King ever played D&D, I'm imagining his son "Joe Hill" has. Thinking it over, I'm thinking King would be a better player than DM. Now that would be some celebrity D&D I'd be curious about. Stephen King, Joe Hill, not sure who else I'd put at the table, but let's pick horror and dark fantasy authors as players and maybe a "celebriD&D" DM. Seth Skorkowsky would be an obvious choice, but he seems to mostly stream as a player than DMs live play.
I mean, sure it can be done. But what are you doing? Are you actually starting with the PCs being a stand in for the last Gunslinger following the Man in Black, destined to find each other at the Dark Tower? Just using the setting .. and if so when? The Waste Lands? The Wizard and Glass era? The Dark Tower is a really rich world to mine...
Actually, it’s several rich worlds to mine.
You mean ... it's a MULTIVERSE!
I actually wonder if King ever played D&D, I'm imagining his son "Joe Hill" has. Thinking it over, I'm thinking King would be a better player than DM.
If he didn’t I’d be shocked. He and Gygax probably bought their dru… inspirational powdered plant extracts from some of the same people at one point.
So my thought of how I’m going to set it up is I have a world where the gunslinger’s are replaced by a group called The Brotherhood. They are basically the same concept of the gunslingers I just didn’t want gun in my campaign. I’m placing almost Easter eggs throughout curse of strahd, next campaign I think I’m doing is decent into avernus. I’m also working on a campaign where it starts off like wizard and glass where they go to Hambry to find a spy. I’m going to kind of trick them into going into the caverns where they slip through to a different world. For a few levels then when they return to their world time has passed and it’s now after Jericho hill and the world is falling a part.
Currently running a Dark Tower themed campaign. Four sessions in and we've just finished the Mejis chapter. My party is now pursuing The Man in Black across the desert.
I didn't overthink it too much. My approach to adapting The Dark Tower in DND was how could I make the lore of the series fit the lore of forgotten realms. I borrowed some ideas from the Doomed Forgotten Realms Gazette and wrote an alternate Faerun setting in a world that had moved on. I set Mejis in the Lurkwood and adapted each major character in Hambry into an NPC. Rhea was easy because Hags are already a dnd monster. I am using Grazzt stat block for The Man in Black.
I personally found it pretty simple to take ideas from the books and adapt them to what dnd already has established. Currently my players are chasing The Man in Black and are about to encounter The Little Sisters of Eluria!
Thinnys are tricky...I suggest treating them like a black hole sort of vortex and have your players make wisdom saves to avoid psych damage.
A year and a half into a campaign that's equal parts Berserk and The Dark Tower! Definitely doable and TONS OF FUN. Randall Flagg has been my players favorite villain. Long days and pleasant nights, sai.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
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Has anyone tried doing this? Or tried writing up an idea in how to do this....and mix it more into DnD with less gunslinging and just having it be weird? Or should I use a different system? I wrote my own version of basically the bare bones of the plot and mechanics of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to make a campaign that was run at a game store by multiple people at multiple tables that was super successful...I feel like Dark Tower could work...maybe it is just wishful thinking...those books are so crazy and so much-traveling-and other worlds....maybe too many!
WWW.WERERATSTUDIOS.COM
DND PODCAST - THE CHICAGO TABLE -
www.thomaskiserart.com
It's not impossible. The characters could have an obvious goal, reaching the tower, and an obvious antagonist, the Crimson King. Probably the hardest part would be replicating the feel of the books.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
Definitely possible for almost any fantasy book even though I've never read that specific one. I myself am writing a Middle Earth DnD Sourcebook, which will take a year or 2 to complete. I recommend checking out Ebberon: Rising from the Last War and Critical Role's gunslinger subclass.
There is no dawn after eternal night.
Homebrew: Magic items, Subclasses
I think a big part would be finding your way to the next level. There would be other side quests that can provide items to help you along or information for the next gate, or even information that may not come up until much further. I would also suggest having at least a few worlds having multiple possible exits. Think sticks and bubbles if you are familiar with the term. Depending on how attached you are to the stephen king universe you could even have cameo characters or worlds from other novels or sources you enjoy.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I am unsure how closely I'd stick to his Universe..I def like the idea of jumping to a world like 1980's new york or chicago....and throwing other weird literary pieces in and guardians in terms of the bear and such....just the idea of saving this mcguffin and throwing in one shots-modules from AD&D and 5e and other systems but convert it to dnd...and seeing what comes out the other end...maybe make some rollable tables and badies for like thunderclap...that city where they find the monorail or blaine...It is an idea I have wanted to use for sometime....
WWW.WERERATSTUDIOS.COM
DND PODCAST - THE CHICAGO TABLE -
www.thomaskiserart.com
Don't ask me silly questions I won't play silly games...
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I've always wanted to do something like this as well, but could never really think of a way to do it that wouldn't just be copying Roland's journey. One thing I've been considering is having characters end up in Mid-World similarly to how characters end up in Barovia in CoS and then building a campaign around them trying to get back to whatever D&D realm they started in.
Have an idea for a great character, but no clue how to get started writing a backstory? Let me help! Check out www.rent-a-bard.com for more.
So, I know this this topic is a little old, but if anyone has attempted to do the dark tower that would be awesome I do have a rough Idea out there and in Stephen King fashion I decided to intertwine some of the 5e adventure books. For instance in the curse of strahd I had the characters meet Walter O’Dim, and had their first experience with the crimson king and finding their first door, which they used to get back home after killing strahd.
You might also want to check out Gygax’s Loony Tunes 1e module for an example of how you might fight a very different genre into DnD. Years ago I played in a couple of campaigns somewhat like the tower, one was actually based on the book somewhat back when it first came out. Another was a time and world traveling campaign that had us visit WWII balkans, 1980’s USA and other places and times trying to catch and end the bbeg. We actually roped out having some of the characters visit us for help breaking that fourth wall in the game - that was weird, but not as weird as if they had actually showed up would have been 😳.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I mean, sure it can be done. But what are you doing? Are you actually starting with the PCs being a stand in for the last Gunslinger following the Man in Black, destined to find each other at the Dark Tower? Just using the setting .. and if so when? The Waste Lands? The Wizard and Glass era? The Dark Tower is a really rich world to mine ...
... and the challenge is it also mines a lot of real world culture, that may be lost on a contemporary audience not vested in at least 60s through 80s popular culture. I'm not talking about the Terminator references. Or the fact that "Hey Jude" has currency in Roland's world. I mean things like The Crimson King ... you know that's a riff to at minimum the work of the Band King Crimson, and I don't think it's limited just to their song "Court of the Crimson King" (I pepper my game with lots of King Crimson references, plus the Beetles "I am the Walrus"). Also "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is an important source too that needs to be mined. Heck the Waste Lands, King is trying to have a dialogue with T.S. Eliott. Some critics of King who are otherwise fans of him feel the Dark Tower series suffers from King trying to hard to participate in some larger "literary world" hence all the allusions. I've never seen that effort as problematic, and it's probably at the right level to allow a DM to port in "high minded literary ideas" into a game setting.
I guess the biggest problem with using the main narrative of the Dark Tower as inspiration is that the main narrative (and who wouldn't want to be involved in the most heroic story in the setting?) is the whole annular recursiveness time is a flat circle aspect to it. The Dark Tower is arrived at and if the PCs go through the doors written for them, they're back in the desert folllowing the Man in Black, unless you take a big step away from King's point about the world of the Dark Tower, the quest is frustratingly futile by your average D&D players sensibilities.
As far as fantasy heroes colliding with the real life world, Nick Mamatas's Sabbath is a fun read if you like irreverent and profane takes on fantasy tropes as they meet reality, that also maintain a sense of "heavy metal."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Actually, it’s several rich worlds to mine.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
You mean ... it's a MULTIVERSE!
I actually wonder if King ever played D&D, I'm imagining his son "Joe Hill" has. Thinking it over, I'm thinking King would be a better player than DM. Now that would be some celebrity D&D I'd be curious about. Stephen King, Joe Hill, not sure who else I'd put at the table, but let's pick horror and dark fantasy authors as players and maybe a "celebriD&D" DM. Seth Skorkowsky would be an obvious choice, but he seems to mostly stream as a player than DMs live play.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If he didn’t I’d be shocked. He and Gygax probably bought their
dru… inspirational powdered plant extracts from some of the same people at one point.Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
So my thought of how I’m going to set it up is I have a world where the gunslinger’s are replaced by a group called The Brotherhood. They are basically the same concept of the gunslingers I just didn’t want gun in my campaign. I’m placing almost Easter eggs throughout curse of strahd, next campaign I think I’m doing is decent into avernus. I’m also working on a campaign where it starts off like wizard and glass where they go to Hambry to find a spy. I’m going to kind of trick them into going into the caverns where they slip through to a different world. For a few levels then when they return to their world time has passed and it’s now after Jericho hill and the world is falling a part.
Currently running a Dark Tower themed campaign. Four sessions in and we've just finished the Mejis chapter. My party is now pursuing The Man in Black across the desert.
How did you make it?? Resources you used and stuff?? Super cool!
WWW.WERERATSTUDIOS.COM
DND PODCAST - THE CHICAGO TABLE -
www.thomaskiserart.com
I didn't overthink it too much. My approach to adapting The Dark Tower in DND was how could I make the lore of the series fit the lore of forgotten realms. I borrowed some ideas from the Doomed Forgotten Realms Gazette and wrote an alternate Faerun setting in a world that had moved on. I set Mejis in the Lurkwood and adapted each major character in Hambry into an NPC. Rhea was easy because Hags are already a dnd monster. I am using Grazzt stat block for The Man in Black.
I personally found it pretty simple to take ideas from the books and adapt them to what dnd already has established. Currently my players are chasing The Man in Black and are about to encounter The Little Sisters of Eluria!
Thinnys are tricky...I suggest treating them like a black hole sort of vortex and have your players make wisdom saves to avoid psych damage.
A year and a half into a campaign that's equal parts Berserk and The Dark Tower! Definitely doable and TONS OF FUN. Randall Flagg has been my players favorite villain. Long days and pleasant nights, sai.
Is there graffiti? World jumping via doors?? Crimson King??
WWW.WERERATSTUDIOS.COM
DND PODCAST - THE CHICAGO TABLE -
www.thomaskiserart.com
Dadda chak
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."