The Other Side blog: blogs

Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Cheeses from Around the World

Over at Rather Gamey Ark has collected a list of over 300 art, rpg, old-school and geekery blogs.

http://rathergamey.blogspot.com/2013/06/breathing-blogs.html

Stop by and see his impressive list!

Monday, June 24, 2013

So nothing really to post or chat about today.

The day job is kicking my butt this week. Our next Summer term starts next week so I am busy getting ready all this week.

In game news I am re-reading "The Silmarillion" for the first time since high school. I am loving it and enjoying it on a completely different level than I did 30 years ago. It's just fantastic really. I had just finished reading "The Children of Húrin" and loved it.

I should have some game reviews up sometime.

Something interesting.
Tenkar has a post about advertising and marketing the OSR. Go over there read his post, watch the video.
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/06/marketing-your-rpg-panel-on-air-with.html

Me. I am happy with beer money (I make enough at my day job to pay bills and get the things I want). Or rather, I use the money I make to buy more games or material for new game books. It's a crazy little eco-system that I am happy with.

Maybe something will motivate me later today.

Friday, June 21, 2013

TBBYANR: Old School Plus

I enjoy Old-School gaming blogs for a couple of reasons. First is most of them like going over the roots of the hobby, talking about how things were not just out of the dreaded "N-Word" (Nostalgia) but more of an academic foray into games and the applications of those games. Sure the the is a bad signal to noise ratio at times with many blogs covering the exact same ground in the exact same way (and this blog is no exception to that) I am still entertained. Also the authors tend to be from the same gene-pool as me; metaphorically speaking. Not that I always want to listen to a bunch of middle aged white guys, but their interests are the same as mine; so if it veers "off-topic" into family, jobs, kids what have you, I don't mind. In fact most times I am nodding in agreement.

A couple of these Old-School+ blogs are the subject of todays The Best Blog You are Not Reading.

Billy Goes to Mordor
http://billygoes.blogspot.com/

Billy Goes to Mordor has to win some sort of prize for the blog name that always makes me smile. Plus any blog that can put up a still from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and not get all maudlin about it is doing something right. Around since 2011 and hitting half a dozen or so posts a month you can read through all his posts in a dedicated afternoon. There are thoughts on D&D, Horror and playing Pirates. Though I think his notes on Game Design are the most interesting. Insight on how another guy does his game.
A lot of thought goes into each post and really I think he is just a few dedicated followers (and regular commenters) away from really growing as a blog. Or maybe it is fine the way it is, but I bet some more followers would be appreciated all the same.

The Disoriented Ranger
http://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/

Another Old-School blog around since 2011. This is a solidly OSR blog with links to free resources and notes on his RC based game. There are a lot of world building articles with his recent ones exploring "Karik Thel - The Island of the Floating Trees" which could easily be used anywhere so very much worth the read.
What got me into his blog was the day we both posted the same Racial Class within minutes of each other, Feline Humanoids vs. Cat Girls (I think it is easy to tell on name alone which is mine). In truth combining the two would make for a great class!
Like Billy, JD also posts more than just gaming material.

I would encourage you to check both blogs out.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Willow & Tara: Villains & Vigilantes

I want to continue talking about Villains & Vigilantes today.

It seems like years ago that Tim Knight of Hero Press asked me to do V&V write-ups of Willow & Tara. I actually remember it being almost exactly 2 years ago because I was sitting in the DMV getting my licensed renewed. I had my copy of V&V 2.1 on my tablet and jotting down some notes on powers.

The biggest issue with any supers game is magic. It really is the "break all the powers" power. Especially in systems where you can take Magic and then take all the other powers as spells.

Here are the girls in their post Dragon and the Phoenix versions.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Heroes & Villains Blogfest: Villains & Vigilanties

Today is the Heroes & Villains Blogfest hosted by Jackie and Dani. This is Part 1 of my post for that, Part 2 is later today.
http://danibertrand.blogspot.com/2013/06/heroes-villains-blogfest.html

The idea is to talk about our favorite heroes and villains. But I do that a lot here. So I am going to do that today, but I also want to talk about about one of my favorite superhero role-playing games. It is also the first superhero RPG I ever played. Villains & Vigilantes.
The current edition is the 2nd edition and you can get the classic version from Fantasy Games Unlimited (the one I played) or the new 2.1 edition from Monkey House Games. They are functionally the same, even with the same text and some art.

V&V was written by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee. Jeff Dee got his start on D&D doing some of the classic module art and book art for the 1st edition game. So the game has some obvious D&D roots.
V&V was unique at the time (and still somewhat) in that in the game you play yourself. You work out with the other players what your strength, endurance, intelligence and the rest are and then you roll randomly on a table of super powers. It's a very interesting and fun concept that we completely ignored. Back in the day we liked playing a "multi-verse" so our V&V characters were our D&D characters in a supers universe. The stats were the mostly the same and both games had levels. Plus it gave us excuses to have strengths of 50 or more (human max is 18). I remember it being a very good time.

As typical of many old school games there are lots of random rolls, charts and a fair amount of math involved. I went back recently to make a character and was thrilled to see that Monkey House Games had an Excel character sheet. The math isn't hard really, but Excel is still faster. Though such things have been around for a long time even with the older edition.

Powers are list by type. So Power Blast is just a blast of some sort of power. It could be Superman's heat vision, Iron Man's repulsors, or even Zatanna's magical blast. What is interesting is teh combat matrix of powers vs. defenses and how they interact. Again, the D&D DNA is here since it reminds me of the Psionic Powers Attacks vs Defenses in 1st Ed AD&D.

There is a V&V campaign world as well. It is loosely defined in the core books, but much greater detail is given in the supplements. It is also one of the few Supers games I can recall where the characters were working for the government at some level. The ill-fated City of Heroes RPG was another.

There are a couple of great sections on Being a Superhero and Gamemastering that work great with any supers RPG.

IF you like old school RPGs and want to get into a supers game that feels like those, then this is a great choice. The price is low and there are plenty of places on the web that support either version of the game with materials, character write-ups and community.

A little later today I'll have a write up of a hero and a villain.

See more posts here:

Sunday, June 2, 2013

OSR Distribution CD-ROM?

So I was posting this comment over at Once More Unto the Breach!:

I have run plenty of demos in my time.
The thing about running a demo game is if you are good then the players will want to go out buy that game. If I do it in a game store (my prefered place to run demos) then I like to take them to the product.

The problem with the OSR is that often the product is not there. I have taken books before and sold them at cost, but I am not a retailer so it's an as-needed/as-I-think of it thing.

I suppose what would be nice is if had permission to redistribute the free OSR books on a CD. Maybe build some nice interface and have the PDFs.

Pop in the CD-ROM and it runs on any machine.

Hmm. That sounds like an idea.

And that got me thinking. What about a FREE OSR distribution CD-ROM?
We put on the most popular free products that we have the permission to use, build a front end (HTML) that has the links to the PDFs on the disk and then links to the various sites and links to whatever else.

Each game would need some promotional "Ad" copy written.

The idea then is we, you, me, whomever demos the game then gives out copies of this disk to the players.

Off the top of my head I think we should include:

Basic Fantasy
OSRIC
Swords & Wizardry
Labyrinth Lord (Free versions)
Lamentations of the Flame Princess (the free versions that out there)
Spellcraft & Swordplay (Basic version)
Microlite74
Matt Finch's Quick Primer for Old School gaming

There could be and should be more. Plus I want to state right now I have not sought permission for ANY of these yet. This is just a crazy half-baked idea, but it is one I have done before. In the pre-WiFi, pre-HiSpeed, stuck in the dial-up days of the Internet I put together a lot packages like this, so I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do.

Would anyone be interested in such a thing?
Would anyone out there be interested in contributing to something like this? (Free PDFs to redistribute not money!)

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Quest of the Ancients: The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day

"Look upon this, old-schoolers, and know that this path has been tread before." - Jeff Grubb

Today is The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day hosted by Mesmerized by Sirens.

On this day I want to go back over some ground I have tread before. Today I want to talk about Vince Garcia's magnum opus Quest of the Ancients.

QotA was the topic of one of my A to Z posts a few years ago. http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/04/q-is-for-quest-of-ancients.html. It seems I was not the only one to use it for Q, Jeff Grubb posted about it the same year and Charlie Warren the year after. There is surprisingly little information out there about this game. The Wikipedia article is sparse and the RPGNet database entry only has the basics. There is very, very little else on the web and the author, Vince Garcia, seems to have no net presence I can find. Plus there is no legal pdf of it out there. In fact if you search for "Quest of the Ancients" + "legal PDF" you will only find me asking for it on RPG.Net. I would also like to find a copy of the 2nd edition print. It has different (and better) cover art but that is all I know for sure. I have heard it was never printed and in other places I have heard it is longer by a few pages. No idea.

So, obscure? Yeah. It has it in droves.
I don't even remember where I learned about it. I am pretty sure I know how and about when though.
I was finishing up my very first netbook on Witches for AD&D 2nd ed and I wanted to collect all the AD&D compatible witch classes that were ever made. My idea was I was going to play test all the classes with the same character (same background and stats) and see how they all played out. Something I still do to this day. I discovered the Judges Guild Witch Class and was not overly thrilled with it. Somehow I discovered or was told about Quest of the Ancients. I picked up a copy on eBay and that was that.

Quest of the Ancients can be best described as an AD&D clone, an AD&D add on or as a collection of someone's AD&D house rules. The author, Vince Garcia, had some publications before QotA came out including some material for AD&D2 and White Wolf magazine. So he was not new to this. In deed the copyright date on this book lists 1982, so some form of these rules were around at least then. Likely it was a collection of house rules. What I noticed though right away was the Witch Class.

Let's be 100% honest here. Vince Garcia loves the Witch class as much as I do. Really. The book is easily 70-75% class material and the class that gets the most attention and the most text is the witch. Before I get into that let me talk about what the book has.

We start out with the title/author page. He dedicates the the book to "Miss Stevie Nicks". Ok. So let me be honest here. I get this. No, I really do. That doesn't not make it weird. But I get it. He also thanks "Angelique". Yeah, I did the same thing.

The QotA game (and I am unsure if this is intended to be a seperate game or as thinly veiled add-on to AD&D) characters have nine (9) stats. They are rolled differently depending on the race of the character and sometime the gender. Nearly everyone has the same mins and maxes (1-20), but the different dice and pluses usually mean different mean, median and modal scores. The big stat is IQ (Intelligence) since it determines how high level you can go. The ability adjustments for these abilities are D&D standard (+0 for average up to +3 for 18 and beyond). Our abilities are Strength, Agility, Conditioning, IQ, Charm, Appearance, Luck, Stamina, and Body (which is the average of Strength and Conditioning).
The book covers the standard races (human, elf, dwarf, half-elf, gnome) and some ideas on how to make other races like the ogre or a "furrfoot" (halfing) work. This bit is not bad advice really and certainly expands on the ideas of races.

Chapter 2 covers the classes. This is the reason you buy this book.

There are Fighter classes. These include the Cossack, Gladiator, Knight, Legionnaire, Rouge (not a thief), Saracen, Viking, and Woodsman. Another group are the Tricksters which are the Assassin, Bard (with some spell-songs), Cutpurse (this is the thief), and Gypsy. The gypsy is interesting since there is a difference between male and female gypsies. The males are more like a Bard/Cutpurse/Rogue while the females are more witch-like. Lastly we have all the Spellcasters. Each class is presented and all their spells follow after. This includes the Druid (different from the AD&D one), Earth Priest, Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Witch. The Necromancer is more akin to the original idea of a Necromancer, one that speaks to the dead. He does have plenty of death-related spells. The Sorcerer is a "do it yourself" sort of spell using class. No spells are even listed for this class assuming the GM will make their own or use some "from magazines".

Let's talk about the Witch now.
Like I mentioned the classes take up pages 13 to 157 (of 214), the witch has 52 of those pages. Who does that remind you of?
She has a lot of new spells up to the 7th level and about five new powers. The witch is also the only class to get a detailed NPC. Actually she gets three. The "Queen of Witches" Elvyra, her familiar and her chief handmaiden. The rules limit advancement to 20th level; Elvyra is 25th and Night (the handmaiden) is 23rd. Look. I am the last person that can throw stones at this one OK. Part of me is face-palming over this, and another part is impressed with the shear bravado of it.
Notably the "iconics" from the cover are not stated up anywhere in the book.
The Witch and Gypsy are both pretty interesting classes. I think what happened here is the author wrote all this material for the Witch and then had a bunch of spells and ideas left over that used for the other classes. Or maybe I am projecting too much. Hard to say.

There are some interesting rules on multi-classing. It reminds a little of the D&D4 Hybrid class rules. Basically you advance in two classes at the same time, taking the more advantageous options. The experience points are a little more than 75% of the two classes added together. So on the average a multiclassed character takes 1.5 times longer to level up than a single class character. Neat idea on paper, not sure how it works in reality.

The rest of the book goes by fast, really just enough to call it a complete game. There is a chapter on skills. only a couple of pages really but for an AD&D Heartbreaker it has some neater ideas. A chapter on Equipment, one on "the Adventure" and another on Combat. The Combat is a d30 deal which is again interesting, but not one I would ever use to be honest.
You might think the Chapter on Magic would be longer than it is. But it is only about 3-4 pages. Though there is some interesting ideas on magical research for all classes.
There are chapters on Rewards and some Monsters. The only thing that sets it apart is the listing of female vs. male unicorns. One (female) is white and good and the other (male) is black and not as good.
There is also a chapter on the campaign world of Islay. It is a typical game world where lot of quasi medieval and semi-mythical lands are clumped together Xena-style.
There is some historical detail about the worshipers of Brigit and his witches which made me smile. Vince Garcia and I read a lot of the same books it seems.

In the end I can't dislike the game and I admire the author intents.
I am not likely to use anything from it really, but it is a fun book to pick up a flip through. Plus I kinda like that there is not a whole bunch known about it. Gives me the illusion that I am some sort of occult expert in a very narrow field of expertise. I can pull on my old professor clothes and have a snifter of age brandy; "Islay you say? Let me tell you about the lands of Islay. Her unicorns, demons and most of all about the Witch Queen. Yes. You must hear about the Witch Queen Elvyra..."

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day

Tomorrow is The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day hosted by Mesmerized by Sirens.

http://mesmerizedbysirens.blogspot.com/2013/05/announcing-obscure-fantasy-rpgs.html

I am just about ready to go myself.

Looking forward to this one. I love really obscure RPGs.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Campaigns I'd Like to Run: RPG Blog Carnival for May

I am participating in my very first RPG Blog Carnival. The topic this month is Campaigns I'd Like to Run, and is being hosted by Lowell Francis over at Age of Ravens.

In truth there is a lot I'd love to run. But there are some that stick out.

Black Rose
Black Rose is my Ravenloft/Blue Rose mash-up. I detailed it in a series of posts back in the early days of this blog. Black Rose takes place in the same world as Blue Rose, but only after it had been pulled into Ravenloft. I am using more of the 2nd Ed and 3.x versions of Ravenloft, not the 4e revisions. I played the hell out of Ravenloft during the 2nd Ed era. I loved it, but there were things about it that I wanted to do that didn't quite mesh with the "kill things and take their stuff" mentality of AD&D. The True20 system, while it still has the same roots, can go a little bit beyond that. True20 is also quite good for doing horror as I discovered.

Generation HEX/Ordinary World
Both of these campaigns would be in the same world and preferably use the same system(s). Both come out of my enjoyment of modern supernatural books and TV shows.
GenerationHEX is a game focused on kids in a magical school. Somewhat like Smallville meets Harry Potter.
Ordinary World is a game about supernatural types trying to live in a world full of humans. sort like Being Human, but also a bit like Charmed.
Unisystem seems like the logical choice here, but I also considered using a different system each time to get a real feel for the characters. This would be character focused, not plot focus.
Given the character focus of these games I also wanted to try something different. I wanted to use a different system for the different eras in the character's life. So Little Fears for when they are all children, Witch Girls Adventures or Monsterhearts for high school, and then Unisystem or World of Darkness for adulthood. I would sprinkle in other systems for one shots as needed, like Chill, Call of Cthulhu or Mutants and Masterminds.
This is something I tried with Season of the Witch and I liked it.

Greyhawk 3000
This one is D&D in SPAAAAAACE! I'd mix up D&D 3.x and Star Wars with ideas from Gamma world, Star Frontiers, Planescape and Spelljamer. Have all the D&D worlds as planets and the planes as something like solar systems. I'd also use some ideas from Starships & Spacemen and some other games. A bit of Traveler too cause I like that.
I do want to use the D&D mythology, just advance it to something like Star Trek Next Gen level tech. I think it would be a blast to be honest.

Those are the ones I'd love to do that I don't see me doing anytime soon. Have too many games going now.

One though I am very likely to run is my Celtic-theme Fantasy Game.

Éire
This game has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Unisystem, True20, Spellcraft & Swordplay. I think with the release of the Codex Celtarum I might start adapting it to Castles & Crusades. This is one I would really like to play and am working on getting it done sometime soon. While I'd love to play this one with my kids, I would also enjoy a more mature approach. Not "Adult" per se, but a group that appreciates Irish myth and willing to play in a world like that.

These are the campaigns I'd like to run.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

WIP it Good!

Ok so sue me. I am participating in another blogfest.

The WIP It Good Blogfest
http://dlcruisingaltitude.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-wip-it-good-blogfest.html

I am going to be talking about Eldritch Witchery!

I know, I have been talking about EW since before The Witch came out.
But on May 31st I am also going to do my new cover reveal! I got a new cover that I am just dying to share.

May is another busy month here.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

What is Obscure? Obscure RPGs.

I'll admit. I consider myself well informed on all sorts of topics related to RPGs. I get to go to a lot of auctions, talk to people online and spent quite a lot of time editing and researching RPG articles on Wikipedia.
But there is always some game that comes up that surprises me. More to the point it also seems to be a game that has a small, but dedicated following.

That is why I am looking forward to the Obscure RPG Appreciation Day hosted by Mesmerized by Sirens.

I was in my game room looking over books. The deal is the obscure RPG has to be Fantasy. I have a lot of Obscure Horror. Hmm.

I have an idea of what I want to do, and I think it might even be a good choice for me in particular.

But mostly I am looking forward to see what everyone else is going to do. So I'd like to see a lot of participants in this for purely selfish reasons. I want to know what little hidden gems are in your collection that I might not know about.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Blogfests

Doing the A to Z was not enough for me so I am signing up for a few more blogfests.

I like these things. They help me stretch my creative muscles and give me something special to work for.
Plus it exposes my blog and work to others that might not seek me out.

May Monster Madness
http://littlegothichorrors.blogspot.com/2013/04/second-annual-may-monster-madness-blog.html
http://www.anniewalls.com/2013/04/may-monster-madness-sign-up-linky-list.html
http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com.au/

I love monsters as you might be able to tell. So I am going to try to post something each day of this. My hope would be to post something to promote Eldritch Witchery some more.

The Best and Worst Remakes Blogfest
http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-to-z-challenge-memento-meant-to-live.html

From the King of Blogfests, Alex Cavanaugh. I am not sure what I going to do here yet, but I am certain it will be horror related.

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/03/hop-against-homophobia-and-transphobia_15.html

I have never been shy about the fact that I support equal rights for everyone. In particular I have been a strong supporter of gay rights and freedom to marry rights. So I am very pleased to be part of this one. Since this hop is focused on authors I am going to talk about some characters. Honestly no idea who yet.

Towel Day Blogfest
http://lgkeltner.blogspot.com/2013/04/announcing-towel-day-blogfest.html

This one is easy. I am going to talk about what is the best RPG to play a "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" game.

May ends with:

The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day
http://mesmerizedbysirens.blogspot.com/2013/05/announcing-obscure-fantasy-rpgs.html
(no image yet, but here is one from the site)

This will be a bunch of blogs talking about their favorite pre 90s fantasy RPGs. I think I know which one I want to do.

Heroes & Villains Blogfest
http://danibertrand.blogspot.com/2013/04/u-unfair-ultraviolet-blogfest-unveiled.html

This one is very new to me. I am sure I can come up with something in the next month!

There you have it! Watch for these over the next month.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A to Z 2013 Reflections

The April A to Z is over.

This year I stuck with a theme and I find that more enjoyable. I posted a lot of new demons and demon types, all of which will appear (with many more) in my next book, Eldritch Witchery.

I managed to visit every single blog in the Challenge. I saw far less dead blogs or advertising blogs this year, thanks to the teams each of the hosts had to patrol the blogs. I did see a lot of posts and replies back to posts on blogs as well. Few RPG blogs in the mix this year, but there were a couple that were new to me.

I am not sure how my numbers came in. I have been suffering from worsening migraines all month. In fact I would not have been able to do this at all if I hadn't written many of these posts a while back. I do know my hits were slightly up, but I have a bunch of new followers. I followed a lot of new blogs too.

I am beginning to wonder though if the A to Z is now too big. The idea was to visit a lot of very different blogs, but at the size it is getting makes me wonder about the utility of that. While I did visit every blog, I didn't leave comments on all of them. Maybe on that particular day they were not posting anything I wanted to comment on. Also many blogs didn't have their Google Friend Connect set up to be followed.

There is the Reflections Blog Hop. It's not open yet, but will be tomorrow. So I am going to try to hit all of those blogs as well.

Once again I did two blogs. The Other Side and one I share, Red Sonja she-devil With a Sword.
Next year (if I do it) I'll include Amazon Princess, a Wonder Woman blog I also share.

If you are looking for another Blog Hop may I suggest L.G. Keltner's Towel Day Blog Hop.

I am going to do games that would be good to emulate Douglas Adams' Universe here and then talk about the man himself over at my other blog The Freedom of Nonbelief. So please sign up and join me on this one!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: The Witch

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day

Today is Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day hosted by Tenkar of his eponymous Tavern.

Nearly 150 blogs are gathered to talk about S&W. He did the same thing a few months back for Basic Fantasy Role-Playing and it was a huge success. I am a fairly late comer to the world of S&W, having read it and then dismissed it. I have recently come back to it and detailed my findings in review and post.

I do have to hand it to Frog God Games to have gotten me re-interested in this game with their Complete Rulebook.
If you would like to get some products for this game here's a coupon you can use at the D20PFSRDshop.com, thanks to John Reyst: SWAD252013

So what should I post about today? Well really there is only thing I can and should do. I get a some emails asking me for me for a S&W compatible version of the Witch. Now to me ALL the retro-clones are largely compatible, but sometimes a ready to go product is also nice. So for you, the S&W fan, here is the Witch for S&W.

You will still need my book, The Witch: A sourcebook for Basic Edition fantasy games, and a copy of the S&W rules. But this will get you going.

I am also including a new Tradition for you to use with ANY version of the Witch you might want to play.

OGL Notice: The following text is considered OPEN under the Open Gaming License.

Art is not considered open and copyright is retained by the artist, Toby Gregory and is used here with permission.

Witch

Prime Attribute: Charisma
Hit Dice: 1d4 per level up to 10th level. At 11th level, +1 hit point per level.
Armor: Cloth, Padded or Leather only, no shields.
Weapons: A witch may only use a dagger, staff, flaming oil, holy water, net, thrown rock, sling, and whip as weapons.
Special Abilities: Occult Powers; witch spells, ritual spells, herb use.
Race: Elves, Half-elves and Humans may be Witches. Dwarves and Halfings may be NPC Witches.

Witch Experience Table					Spells / Level
Level	XP	Hit Dice (d4)	Saving Throw	Occult Powers	1	2	3	4	5	6	*7	**8
1	0	1d4	15	Power	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	2,600	2d4	14	Herb Use	2!	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	5,200	3d4	13		2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	10,400	4d4	12		2	2!	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	20,800	5d4	11		2	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
6	40,000	6d4	10		3	2	2!	-	-	-	-	-
7	80,000	7d4	9	Power	3	2	2	1	-	-	-	-
8	160,000	8d4	8		3	3	2	2!	-	-	-	-
9	320,000	9d4	7		3	3	2	2	1	-	-	-
10	440,000	10d4	6		4	3	3	2	2!	-	-	-
11	560,000	10d4+1	5		4	3	3	2	2	1	-	-
12	680,000	10d4+2	4		4	4	3	3	2	2!	-	-
13	800,000	10d4+3	4	Power	4	4	3	3	2	2	1	-
14	920,000	10d4+4	4		5	4	4	3	3	2	2!	-
15	1,040,000	10d4+5	4		5	4	4	3	3	2	2	1
16	1,160,000	10d4+6	4		5	5	4	4	3	3	2	2!
17	1,280,000	10d4+7	4		5	5	4	4	3	3	2	2
18	1,400,000	10d4+8	4		6	5	5	4	3	3	3	2
19	1,520,000	10d4+9	4	Power	6	5	5	4	4	3	3	2
20	1,640,000	10d4+10	4		6	6	5	5	4	4	3	3
21	+120,000	+1 hp/level	4		6	6	6	5	5	4	3	3

* 7th Level Spells usable only by Witches with CHA of 16 or greater
** 8th Level Spells usable only by Witches with CHA of 17 or greater
! A Witch may take a ritual spell at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, and 16th levels.

Witch Class Abilities

Saving Throws: The witch gains a +2 bonus to any save verse charm or hold spells.

Spell Casting: The witch owns a book of spells called a “Book of Shadows” this is similar to the books used by magic-users, but each book is unique to each witch. A Read Magic spell will not enable another witch or magic-user. Witches may cast up to 8th level spells.

Familiar: The witch gains a familiar at 1st level. This is a supernatural creature that often appears to be a normal animal such as a cat or frog.

Occult Power: At first level and every 6 levels hereafter the witch gains an Occult Power. These powers vary from Tradition to Tradition.

Ritual Magic: At 2nd level the witch may opt to choose a Ritual Magic spell. These spells have special requirements in terms of components needs and multiple participants.

Coven: at 13th level a witch may leave her coven to form her own coven.

New Tradition: Amazon

Witches of the Amazon tradition are one of the most misunderstood witches. To begin, “Amazon” is a misnomer. These witches are only remotely related to the legendary female warriors of the same name. Also these witches are not a group of female warrior-witches, though they opt for fighting professions more often than members of other traditions.

Witches of the Amazon Tradition can only be female; no man may enter this Tradition. This attitude of superiority further extends beyond their own Traditions and covens. Amazon witches believe that no man should be allowed to be a witch regardless of Tradition. An Amazon witch will always refer to a male witch as a warlock.

These witches also share an honoring of the Goddess Diana with their warrior cousins. They are associated so much with the Goddess Diana that many call their Tradition The Cult of Diana. Nonetheless, some small groups of Amazon witches do worship other Goddess, such as Freya, Artemis, Brigit, or even Hecate.

Despite stereotypes, not all Amazon witches are man-haters. Some are happily married with children. This is not viewed as a problem for these witches as Diana is also viewed as the Patron of children and of women in childbirth. They just believe that men should not be witches.

Humans make up the majority of the witches in the Amazon traditions. Elves, dwarves and halflings, from a racial standpoint, do not share the Amazon’s philosophy. Elves in particular gravitate more towards the Faerie tradition. Dwarves have a special type of Amazon-like tradition that is embodied in the Xothia, the Dwarven witch.

Role: Amazon witches represent, what they believe, to be the righteous anger of the Goddess. It is believed that these witches may have began as part of the Classical tradition. When witches began to be hunted and killed, mostly by the priesthoods, the Amazon rose up to fight this oppression.

This tradition overlaps, geographically at least, with areas that are common to Classical traditions and druids. Thus there have been successful attempts over the years to work for each group’s mutual benefit. The philosophical differences between the groups have always been the greatest hurdle.

Joining this Tradition: There are no special ability scores required to be an Amazon, although high Strength and Constitution are entirely desirable. The only requirement to becoming an Amazon Witch is the character must be female.

Amazon Witches usually meet in groups, called Meets, during the time of the waxing moon till the full moon. These meets are very secretive and there is a rumor that any man viewing one will be put to death.
Amazons for the most part are neutral, with some gravitating towards lawful.

Leaving this Tradition: The belief system of the Amazon witch are deeply ingrained into her personality and culture. So most will never leave this Tradition. Generally, an Amazon who leaves the Tradition will be warmly welcomed into the arms of the Classical or Craft of the Wise Traditions.

Occult Powers:
Minor: 1st Level: Minor Fighting Prowess. The Amazon witch gains some minor fighting ability and may add one of the following weapons to her skill set; long sword, large axe, long bow or spear. She may use one of these weapons as she chooses. She still uses the Magic-User attack tables, but she adds +1 to her “to hit” rolls. The Amazon witch may also sacrifice one spell per day to give her a bonus to hit and damage equal to that spell level. This will allow her to overcome the natural resistance that require some creatures to only be hit by magical weapons.

Lesser: 7th Level: Immune to Fear. The Amazon witch becomes so focused in purpose and drive that she becomes immune to the effects of mundane and fear. She also gains +4 to any checks versus magical induced fear.

Medial: 13th Level: Shape Change. The Amazon witch may shape change as per the Druid ability Wild Shape or Polymorph Self. This may be done once per day at 13th level. The witch may only change shape to a natural animal that is within one size category of her normal size. So a Medium sized witch may only change to a Small, Medium or Large animal.

The number of times the witch may do this per day increases with every other level. So 2 times per day at 15th, 3 times per day at 17th and 4 times per day at 19th. The witch may opt to sacrifice one of these times to go outside of her normal range of sizes. So a 17th level Amazon witch could shift to Huge or Tiny once and her normal sizes the other two (total of 4 shape shifts per day).

Greater: 19th Level: Charge of the Goddess. The Amazon witch at this point is such a force for her Patron that she can summon the Goddess’ own power into herself. The witch radiates an aura of Fear at 15’ to all her enemies. She gains a bonus of +3 to all her saves and AC. She also gains +2 to all offensive attack forms, spells or weapons. This charge lasts for a number of rounds equal to the witch’s Wisdom or Charisma score, which ever is better. It may be performed once per day and takes one full action to perform.

Special Restrictions: Only women may join this tradition.

Equipment: None required. Amazon witches are more likely to use martial weapons, such as a longbow or spear, than any other Tradition.

The ritual tool of the Amazon witch is the cauldron (representing the Goddess). If adventuring, the witch can or will use a staff, which can double as a weapon. Both items may also be used for more mundane purposes.

Preferred/Barred Covens: This Tradition is suited mostly to all Amazon covens. Amazon Witches will join covens with other Traditions, but the coven must be exclusively female.

Relationship to the Goddess/Patron: Diana is the protector and guardian of the Amazon witches; they are Her children and heirs to Her world.

Source/Views of Magic: Magic comes from the powers of Creation. As the bearers of children, only women can be true receptacles of creative forces. Men can only destroy or pervert this pure and sacred power.

Wealth: Amazon witches start with the amount of wealth allotted to any witch.

Other: Amazon witches generally get along well enough with other traditions, in particular Classical and Craft of the Wise. The Amazon’s views on male witches usually leads to the Amazon being seen with distrust by the other traditions. Amazon witches do not get along well with clerics of any type, even if they have the same alignment and similar world outlook. They view priests and wizards as patriarchal tyrants.
Amazons will always burn the body of a deceased witch as a proper funeral. It is also common that the coven will burn the witch’s Book of Shadows with the body.

You can download this a PDF file from my Box.com service.

My A to Z post is here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/04/o-is-for-ordog.html

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Petty Gods

I sent my submission over to Greg Gorgonmilk for his resurrected Petty Gods project.

I can't wait for you all to meet Nox, the Goddess of Near Darkness and her minions Syla and the Fyre Fae.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Updates

Hey all!

First off, been out of the loop a bit. Was on vacation all week. Great time.
Here are some random updates.

1. Dwimmermount. Looks like it is getting published afterall. This is a good thing and I give Tavis and Autarch kudos for pulling this one out of the abyss. Looks like James though has shut down shop over on his G+ plage. https://profiles.google.com/jmalisze/about. No idea yet what that might mean for Grognardia.

2. Swords & Wizardry. Tenkar is hosting a Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/03/the-s-w-appreciation-day-line-up-hits.html
It is set for April 17. That is also "O" day.

3. A to Z blogfest. Tomorrow starts the A to Z blogfest. I am so not ready for it! I am doing Demons and know what I am going to post each day, just nothing is written yet.

4. Petty Gods is also back from the dead thanks to Greg Gorgonmilk. He has really taken the ball and ran with this one! http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/

5. Witch Awareness Month. I am going to participate in this one as well. Just not sure what I am going to do yet. http://witchawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/

6. Majus draft available now. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895361773/majus-a-magic-noir-pacesetter-game Doesn't matter that the KS is not done yet or even how much you put into it. Get your draft now.

You all probably know all of these anyway.

Anyway great to be back.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

TBBYANR: RPG blogs

A couple of RPG focused blogs today!

Cross Planes
"Or how I learned to stop worrying and love D&D"
http://crossplanes.blogspot.com/
I gotta admit I love the alt-title. It is something I have said in the past myself in connection with getting out of the Edition War mindset. Cross Planes/Mark Craddock is also very much a non-participant in the Edition Wars. He talks about D&D Next (and he was the first place where I found out the new packet was out). He is also into Dragon Age and I'll admit that reading over his site today has made we want to check out the RPG or computer game again. So much so I did this even:

What Dragon Age: Origins Character Are You?
Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime

Well was there ever a doubt?

He also did a couple of witch builds for D&D Next a Maiden and Mother. Don't know if he did a Crone at all. What I like about this blog is Mark covers a lot of topics and games. Single purpose blogs are great, and if I want to do a deep dive into a system that is what I need. But I also enjoy the daily reading of the general purpose blog (like this one and my own) to get a variety of topics. Plus he playing his games with his two daughters, how awesome is that?

Silver Divinity
http://silverdivinityrpg.blogspot.com/
I actually found this one from my Monstrous Monday Blogfest a while back and again on the Blog Blitz. One of my favorite monsters from the MM Blogfest was his Zombie Cow.
The author of this blog, John, is working on a game project "Silver Divinity" and the blog is his proving ground/sounding board/beta tester.
So far the game itself sounds very cool. It feels like a Steampunk meets Spelljammer sort of thing if I am reading it all right. If so then that is cool. The stats for the races look like d20/OGL so that makes that easier to understand. The blog is only 7 months old and he is still posting ideas to flesh out. So I expect to see some more interesting things in the future.
In the meantime stop on by and see what he has done so far.

This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Book Whore: Cover Wars

One of my finds made Book Whore: Cover Wars!
http://www.bookwhoreblog.com/2013/03/cover-wars-rhiannon-frater-vs-kt-grant.html

Yes.

I have read both books.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Gothridge Manor Giveaway

One of my favortie blogs, Gothridge Manor, just hit 1,000 posts!

To mark the occasion they are giving away an OSR bundle to one lucky commentor on today's 1,000 post.
http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2013/03/1000-posts-osr-mega-bundle-giveaway.html

Included in the bundle is my own OSR book "The Witch".

Go on over, comment and maybe you will win this mega prize bundle!