Showing posts with label S&W. Show all posts
Showing posts with label S&W. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Mary Poppins: The White Witch (Swords & Wizardry)

It is no shock or surprise, but the White Witch has it's roots in Disney as much as it does in D&D.

There is no one character I can point to and say "that is it, that's her!" but a lot that I can take aspects of.  It all gets jumbled up a bit to be honest as the same character can also inspire different interpretations. 

No one is a better example of that than Mary Poppins.
In grade school, I forget what grade, I remember my teacher taking us all out of the classroom and we went out to this atrium area that was large and domed outside of the library and she read Mary Poppins to us.  I remember being very interested in it once she mentioned Mary knew a girl from the Pleiades. 

I have talked about Mary before.  I have even given stats for her as a witch and as a Time Lord.
My good friend and blogger Tim Knight over at Hero Press has a trailer up for the new Mary Poppins Returns and of course, he says she is a Time Lord.  I will admit I am very fond of that idea myself.

The new movie is coming out and I adore Emily Blunt. I can't think of a single thing I have seen her in that I didn't like and think she was the reason it was as good as it was.

So in the case of going back to my roots, here is Mary, as a White Witch.

Mary Poppins
10th Level White Witch Tradition
From Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 18

HP: 42
Alignment: Lawful
AC: 7 [12] (coat equal to leather)
Saves Base: 6

Occult Powers
Familiar: Jackdaw (Raven)
4th level: Herbal Healing (with a little drop of sugar)
7th level: Create Magic Items
10th level: Coven* (Mary gets the benefits of a coven when she is with a family)

Spells 
Cantrips: (6) Alarm Ward, Animate Tool, Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, Object Reading, Warm
First: (4) Analgesia, Animal Friend, Detect Danger, Speak with Animals
Second: (3) Augury, Healing Broth, Raven Spy
Third: (3) Animal Summoning I (Ritual), Calm Animals, Fly
Fourth: (2) Cleanse, Joyous Tidings
Fifth: (2) Animal Summoning III (Ritual), Enchant Item (Ritual)

Equipment
Bag of Holding, Umbrella (serves as staff and witch's broom), Bowtie, Jaunty hat (witch's hat), tea-set.

Using Mary in Your Games
Mary, of course, works best when there are children about. If your game has younger children as the Player Characters then Mary practically, as she often does, invites herself in.
For me, I am planning on using her in various "flashback" episodes with the current characters.

Monday, March 20, 2017

New Releases: Hedge Witches and Prestige Witches

Today is the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, also known as Ostara.
To celebrate this time I have not just one, but two new releases today.

First up:

The Witch: Hedgewitch for the Hero's Journey RPG


Presenting the Hedgewitch for The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying game. Can be used with HJ or Swords & Wizardry Whitebox or Complete.

Included in these 66 pages are:

  • New Race: The Gnome
  • New Professions
  • The Witch class and Hedge Witch tradition
  • 80 spells new to The Hero's Journey
  • 15 new monsters

Fully compatible with The Witch, Eldritch WitcheryThe Witch for Swords & Wizardry Light and The Witch: Aiséiligh Tradition for Swords & Wizardry.  In fact, all are designed to work together as a complete whole.  Getting these various witches to work together in your is another matter entirely.

A softcover print version is in the process of heading to the printer.  I am just waiting on OneBookShelf on this, they are taking longer than expected.

Also released is the next book in the Strange Brew series for Pathfinder.

Strange Brew: Mystical Paths & Prestige Classes


From the book:

Witches and warlocks come in all shapes, sizes, genders, philosophies, alignments, and focuses. Many of these concepts are expressed through archetypes, but some concepts require a bit ... more ... to fully be expressed.

Here are 23 Prestige Classes for your witch or warlock, allowing them to focus on specific aspects of being a witch or warlock, or a specific type of witch or warlock with more control than an archetype gives you. With them, your witch isn’t "just" a witch, she’s a Tempestarii Storm Raiser, or he isn’t "merely" a witch, but an Occult Scholar.

Help find the true destiny of your witch or warlock!

Also included are some of my favorites, the Imbolc Mage and the Queen of Witches.

Regardless of what game you prefer, I have a class for you.  Time to make some magic!

Sunday, March 19, 2017

It's a Liminal Time, A Time of Hedgewitches

Tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox also known as Ostara.
Tomorrow we will have equal amounts of light and dark.
Half-way between the start of winter and the start of summer.

It is a time for in-betweens, for liminals, for things not one thing or another.
A time for Hedgewitches.

Tomorrow you can join them.




Sunday, January 22, 2017

Lazy Sunday: S&W Witch Edition

This morning I am sitting here, drinking my coffee, reflecting on the amazing women's marches around the world.

I am also working on my next "OSR" project, the Swords & Wizardry Witch.  I have loads of text, I just need to make sure it all works with the feel of S&W.

Today, I got my first bit of official art in the mail.  Here is my iconic witch, Larina, and her winged cat familiar.


This art is from +Mona Dowie.  We found each other after she did some work on Petty Gods.
She did the art for my characters Nox and Syla.

I love this. I like that she is sitting there watching the moon while her cat is asleep on her cloak. Her familiar is sleeping because according to Mona, "Supernatural or not, they're all lazy little fuzzballs sometimes."

This is going to be a lot of fun.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Future of the Swords & Wizardry Witch


Yesterday saw the release of the Witch class for Swords & Wizardry Light.  +Erik Tenkar put together a nice set of rules and I had to do something to support it.
So far I am pretty pleased with the sales.  The natural question now is "What's next?"

Well, I have some plans!

Swords & Wizardry is not a game I embraced at first.  Sure it is fun, but I didn't see why people kept calling it an OD&D clone.  It has some design elements similar to OD&D but it is still pretty far removed from my memories of actually playing OD&D.   In truth, Spellcraft & Swordplay is much, much closer to OD&D than Swords & Wizardry is.

That all being said I stopped worrying about what Swords & Wizardry wasn't and focused on what it is.  What it is is a surprisingly fun, easy and fast game that still feels like D&D.   You can thank White Star for that really.

What does this mean for you and my work?

There will be witch books for Swords & Wizardry.

The first is for Swords & Wizardry Whitebox.  I am going to focus on rebuilding the witch class from the ground up to fit S&W.  There will be plenty of new material; I want this to be worth my time in doing it and your money in buying it. I also want it to be compatible with my Basic Witch class, so that they can be used together.

There will be overlap between this new book, the Witch and Eldritch Witchery.  The new book will feature a new Witch Tradition, appropriately called "The White Witch Tradition" and have new spells and magic items.  I have not decided whether or not this book should include monsters.

Next will be another book for +James Spahn's  The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying Game.  This book will be very, very similar to the Whitebox witch. I won't lie, this book will be about 90% the same as the White Box Witch.  It will have its own Tradition as well, the "Hedge Witch".

Finally, I'll pull everything together from everything I have ever written and put that into a "Complete Witch" for Swords & Wizardry Complete.  This will contain all the spells, magic items, powers and Traditions of all my books.  In particular, I want this to be used with the +Stacy Dellorfano led 3rd printing of S&W Complete.  Plus using my witch in +Elizabeth Chaipraditkul's S&W

My plan is to bundle these together so that anyone that really, really wants all these books can get them at a reasonable price.   I also want to make it so that if you choose to buy only one book you have a set of complete rules and something unique the other books do not have.

I have other projects that NEED to be finished first, though, so don't expect these books in the next few weeks or even months.

I am very conscious of the fact that this feels like I am "going back to the same well" too many times.  But this is something I need to write, for me. If you enjoy it too, then fantastic. I would love it if you enjoyed it too.

So let me know what you think below.
Is there something you want to see in these books?
Is there something you DON'T want to see in these books?

Thursday, November 10, 2016

DIY Swords & Wizardry Light Folder + Something new

(Ugh. That election.  But I am not going to sully this blog with talk of our new national nightmare.)

+Erik Tenkar's Sword & Wizardry Light is out. More or less.  It's a great idea and has endless utility.

I played around with the file some to get something I could print out and use.  So I decided to do this.




A touch unwieldy sure, but still very useful to have.  Works as a GM screen or a folder.

Now if I only had something to put inside...


Oh.  Yeah. That looks good.

Have some editing and some checking to do, but stay tuned!