RIDDLE OF THE VACANT BARON
by Johan "IgnyteZero" Eklund

STORY: 

As a marine sergeant you were part of a large assault on the nefarious nazi leader Baron von Sheissmolk. Closing in on his keep your forces were taken by surprise, ambushed by a demonic incursion, slaughtering everyone around you. It's seems it is now up to you, the sole survivor, to enter the barons fortress and stop his evil conspiracy.

ABOUT THIS MEGAWAD:

Back in 1994 when I was 20 I somehow got my hands on Doom Construction Kit, probably through some magazine, and being a lover of everything Doom and Heretic back then I decided to try it out and make a custom Doom 2 level. The result of that was what is now the second map of this megawad. Having quite fun I decided to make another and test them on my friends, and as a long time ttrpg gamemaster I started in my head to create a very simple story around the maps I did about this evil nazi baron making a pact with the devil that turned on him. Of course except for the elements of the actual worldbuilding and environments within the maps there was no real way for me to tell this quite simple and shallow story. I made a couple more maps, realised I needed a beginning and added what is still the first level of the wad, which was just a quick barebone level to have some sort of logical starting point to connect the maps.

I named the wad Johan.wad after myself and tested it on my friends playing co-op with them. They may not have loved it, but they sure didn't hate it either so I decided to continue the story, making up to 15 levels all in all. But... time went on and as I got to map 8 I was a bit burnt out and both myself and my friends had moved on to newer more novel games anyway, such as Quake or Red Alert etcetera. So I stopped. The maps was never really shared with the world, and they were all quite unpolished as it were.

So for almost 30 years Johan.wad lay forgotten on my hard drives, until I decided to document it on YT just for myself really. But a guy from Peru, Giancarlo, somehow found those clips and played the wad and suggested I finish the story. And I found myself interestingly enough inspired to do so as I was in a nostalgic retro mood anyway. So I made some quick research into the community, what the popular sourceports today were, and what tools to use for editing.

Now one year later I feel finished with it. It's not a masterpiece perhaps, but at least I think I've made some justice to my 30 year old younger self and my visions and ideas back then.

So for anyone interested I've included the original Johan.wad with this package. It is an unfinished work ofc, but it is seven fully playable maps and the skeleton of an eight. Fully compatible with the original game.
