The White Isle, Released but Incomplete

"The White Isle" was my first attempt at putting together  a module. It never worked out, but the art I commissioned is really nice. I finally had the resolve to compile the project into some sort of cohesive whole. You can download a copy of "The White Isle" as a PDF here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B8Qzk1TCjfu346LIl-_BbIThmyvEG0eZ/view?usp=sharing

From The Introduction: 

The White Isle started as an adventure for some friends who had never played dungeons and dragons before. It exists scribbled down between two notebooks. I very much enjoyed running it and the friends had fun.

I then had the grand idea of attempting to turn it into a module for others to use. I planned out what else I needed to write, commissioned some very talented people to create some art, and bugged some other people for advice on the process (shoutout to Jez Gordon).

The art came back looking fantastic. I felt like I had a solid plan for finishing the project and was very excited to tackle my first serious DIY module. Then, life got very busy all of a sudden and The White Isle got stuck in semi limbo. Then the hard drive in which I had the art stored stopped working, so I lost all the art for the first time. The White Isle was well and truly in limbo at that point. Then, my ISP irreversible wiped all of my emails (including the digital copies of the art). With the art lost twice I more or less gave up on ever finishing The White Isle.

Somewhat ironically, considering the dead god of time central conceit of the module, The White Isle was stillborn and rotted away to nothingness.

That was about four years ago.

Two years ago I managed to get access to the dead hard drive and recovered all the art. It sort of just sat there, teasing me for not finishing what I had started, for a while. Then a day ago I thought, I should just whack together whatever I have extant in regards to The White Isle and release it out into the world. The project was sort of haunting me, and it would nice to get it off my back - albeit in unfinished form.

So here it is, unfinished. The White Isle is basically some ideas, some not so great writing and some really good art.

Thanks for checking it out, I hope you like something within it. The text is transcribed directly from my hand written notes, so is very rough. I have included some notes, like editorial comments, for fun, and maybe to remind me of some things if I ever return to properly finish The White Isle. The dungeon maps are just scans of my notebook and are probably next to useless for any one other than me, sorry about that!

It bears noting that one of the artists, Steve Zieser, has since passed away. He did the illustrations in the Labyrinth Lord book. I learned to play D&D using Labyrinth Lord and I very much like “the vibe” he brings to that book. I loved the art he made for me for The White Isle and I am disappointed I never finished the project so he could see how his art fit into the project.

Mario and Matthew also did fantastic art for The White Isle and I’m sorry that I never got my shit together and finished this thing but at least some people will see their illustrations now!

Some images to whet your appetite and set the scene: