I’ve been thinking about writing a novel set in Cimmeria for a while. I’ve always wanted to write something set in the campaign world, but it took me a while to land on the idea. The basics is to cover the story of Blendegad, Galandir, and Tereman that I outlined in the First Vampire of Cimmeria series. After writing that series I knew I had my novel’s concept.

Why write a novel? Well, I like writing. The blog is big evidence of that. I’ve written over half a million words of content since the blog started. If all that writing was novels instead of blog posts I’d have 4 or 5 books done at this point. When I’m feeling sad, crumby, or angry, writing helps me feel good again. One of my life goals is to write some significant piece of fiction and get it published, even if it’s just a few copies for my friends and family. Lots of emotional goals that writing fulfills. I’d say writing a book of some kind is something I’ve wanted to do since high school.

There’s also a business perspective to my writing. I’ve been slowly working towards publishing Cimmeria as a campaign setting. And it’d be cool if publishing was actually successful instead of just a friends and family announcement. What’s the best way to make something successful? INTEGRATED MARKETING!

Gotta get that campaign setting present in other media. A campaign setting, a novel, an adventure series, and a custom Magic the Gathering set. All the weak attention that’s given to each release will add together into a snowball of attention.

Of course, that means more initial work so that I can release all of them close together in time. Or a massively increased work ethic so that I complete stuff a lot faster. I’m mostly doing this for fun though, so this is all just a theoretical media strategy that I’ve made up for fun as well.

Back to the actual writing of the novel! I’ll plan on writing it on the blog here. Maybe even do National Novel Writing Month this year! I’m not sure the whole First Vampire story fits in a single novel, but that’s the story I want to tell. Maybe it’ll get split up. I’ve got to write it first to find out.

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I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Michael tells us about a D&D horseback riding experience at SaddleSnaps! The Chicago-based stable hosted a weekend camping, horseback riding, and D&D event. About 50 players came from across the country for this new experience. During the event, the players were split up into three groups. Each of the groups engaged in the "Exploration" and "Social Interaction" pillars of RPGs as a LARP. They used horses to go out on rides around the area to find clues to a developing mystery. After returning to their base camp they'd set up around tables for the D&D "Combat" pillar. Michael was the main DM of the adventure along with lots of support DMs and NPC actors helping him out.SaddleSnaps is planning to do more rides like this in the future, both single day rides as well as full weekend campouts like this first one. There are evening rides every Thursday for the rest of July 2026 with more to come in future months. You can check out everything about SaddleSnaps on their website.Michael has his own website for his RPG resources called Paragon Provisions that you can check out as well.Michael also runs his own Discord server that you connect with him on if you'd like to keep up with all the cool D&D stuff he's doing.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
  2. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  3. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)
  4. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
  5. 80 – Dynamic RPG Countries (Travis and Tetara)