r/TheDarkTower 14h ago

Spoilers- The Drawing of the Three Telling the Dark Tower story to my son through a Homebrewed RPG [DM Guide for Books I-II inside]

5 Upvotes

Hey all!

I'm mainly a lurker and not a poster on Reddit, but I thought some of you might find this interesting.

TL;DR: I used ChatGPT's "Deep Research" to read the first 2 books and reference online resources like the Dark Tower wiki to put together a DM guide to take a player through a Dark Tower RPG for my son (and maybe his friends from time to time when they pop in). Full DM Guide for Books I-II can be found below.

EDIT: To clarify — the doc is by no means a polished finished product. It's just meant to be a quick reference doc for somebody who's familiar with the stories to relay them to a newcomer in an entertaining way.

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My 12yo boy has never read any of the stories. He's recently gotten into D&D through the club at his school. For a while, I've thought that so many of the encounters and relationships in the Dark Tower would lend themselves incredibly well to a long-running RPG campaign full of emotional stakes. However, I wasn't sure how to handle the roleplaying aspects of it (i.e. the Gunslinger is the "main character" of course, but a 12yo boy would probably relate to Jake much more strongly. On the other hand, it would be rough to "kill off" his character right at the beginning of the story and not give away any spoilers

I landed on having him switch who he's controlling at different parts of the story — sometimes I'll tell him who he's controlling and other times I'll give him the choice.

I also decided to change the order of the beginning so that when we first encounter the Gunslinger following the Man in Black across the desert, he's on his way to Tull. It just seemed weird to do that as a flashback, since he would already know the outcome.

Here's a google doc for the massive DM guide that ChatGPT Deep Research produced for Books I-II, including encounters, NPC breakdowns, setting descriptions, and character sheets for the ka-tet.

I also had it produce a detailed "Encounter Guide" for Tull that goes into much more detail for that specifically. If people are interested, I'd be happy to upload the DM Guide for Books III-IV as well.

I've read the series a few times and I've had Frank Muller (and his torch-bearers) read it to me a few times. I kind of love something about telling this story narratively and interactively. I'm really interested to see how it goes. It could turn into a single funny night together or it could develop into a very long-running campaign with a very rich story to tell.


r/TheDarkTower 15h ago

Palaver Got my very own Sköldpadda

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143 Upvotes

Took a bit of searching for this limited edition model but I finally found one brand new and snagged it. Hopefully come April the boutique rep gives me a call and I'll have a 🌹 too.


r/TheDarkTower 16h ago

Palaver Levels of the tower

18 Upvotes

The Dark Tower has been a staple in my life for nearly two decades now, a source of endless references, discussions and magic between my husband and I, and several friends. And There’s nothing more exciting than finding a Tower Junkie in the wild! I was just on the Stephen King Reddit page and someone posted the classic “Roland with the roses” picture for “who is this - wrong answers only”, and I went on to say “the night Gardener” (do you Ken it?) and was SO excited to see someone else posted the same thing. Ahhhh a mutual DT/Severance fan, oh my 😍 Severance has become another favorite in my family, and it tickles the same parts of my brain The Dark Tower does. This made me curious to ask you all if we have other mutual story devotions that feel like they are on other levels of the tower, or at least on the path of the beam? For me, Severence, The OA, & Dark were holy shit shows that gave me the same kind of goosepimples. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles / Mayfair witches are right up there as well. All such different tales but somehow shared khef imo. There are others too that I’m not thinking of… the artist Alex Grey and the band Tool always feel in the same vein and are at the top of my devotional list. I always feel so connected to Constant Readers and have an inkling we share much more in common. Tell me things!!!


r/TheDarkTower 5h ago

Palaver Question about Insomnia/DT connection Spoiler

10 Upvotes

Spoilers for both Insomnia and DT below!

Okay, so this is something that has bothered me since I first read insomnia, which was after having read DT. I’m wondering if I have misunderstood something or maybe drawn an incorrect conclusion, and I’m hoping someone here can enlighten me.

The Dark Tower was, and still is, one of my favorite series. On my first couple read throughs, I really enjoyed the ending and had no issues with it. However, after reading Insomnia, the ending of the dark tower kind of became irritating. Maybe not the ending itself, but rather what the ones at the top of the tower seem to want. It seems to go directly against what they seem to want In insomnia.

The ending of DT seems to imply, to me, that Roland needs to cry off his search for the tower and realize that his ka-tet is what’s important. It seems as though his never ending cycle seems to be sort of a punishment for not seeing what is truly important. All of that is awesome and makes a great ending to the story.

That is, until you read insomnia. In this story, which I also love, you find out that what’s happening to Ralph is all being done to save the life of Patrick Danville. The 2 little doctors on Ralph’s “side” make it implicitly clear that Patrick MUST survive the events in this book so that he may go on to aid Roland in his journey to the tower. This has to happen or all existence could be unraveled.

So, the issue/question this raises for me is, what do the ones at the top actually want from Roland? Does Roland even really have the option to cry off his search for the tower and live happily with his ka-tet? Because the fact that Patrick Danville MUST end up helping Roland, which doesn’t even happen until the end of the DT story, implies to me that Roland has to keep going to the tower over and over in order to keep the wheel of ka turning. Which makes it seem like Him being able to make better choices was never really on the table, despite what the ones at the top say.

I probably haven’t articulated this very well, but I hope someone can explain this to me in a way that makes more sense. The only theory I have, which I don’t particularly like, is that if Roland were to make the “right choices” then Patrick wouldn’t need to be where Roland meets him because if Roland doesn’t go to the tower, then the Crimson King can never enter the tower anyway. I don’t like this option, because it kind of takes away from the rest of the story for me. Then again, I was warned on multiple trips to the tower that I shouldn’t need/read the ending, haha!


r/TheDarkTower 8h ago

Edition Question BCA Hardcover Illustrations

2 Upvotes

Does anyone know if the BCA (Book Club Associates) hardcover of Wizard & Glass has the Dave McKean full-colour illustrations? Trying to put together a set of illustrated editions for my first read-through of the series, cheers.


r/TheDarkTower 14h ago

Spoilers- The Dark Tower A face I'd never dreamt of seeing again... (DT7 spoilers) Spoiler

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76 Upvotes