Leverage RPG is now out

The new Leverage RPG from MWP is now out in PDF.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85727&affiliate_id=10748

Like Smallville and other games from MWP, this uses a variant of the Cortex rule system.  The system in Leverage is a streamline version designed to focus on what Leverage the TV show does best, crime and con games.  So there is not the complexity of character building as you see in Smallville.

What is most interesting about this is that it really opens up the system to different types of play.  You are no longer "killing things and taking their stuff", you are pulling a con...and taking their stuff.

What appealed to me right away is that with some tweaks you could run any type of Law and Order or CSI style game right away.  Given the proliferation of these types of shows that would have some appeal.

So far I like the rules quite a bit even though I know nothing of the show it is based on.  I do miss the classic skills listing though.

B/X Companion is Mine!

I had this cool plan of doing some 4E writing tonight.  A couple of things that have been stewing in the back of my head.  That is till I came home to this:

Yes that is the B/X Companion in all her glory.  The product I think I have been waiting for for close to 30 years.  Sure I have had books that have covered the same ground, and books that made this book obsolete, but somewhere, deep in my psyche there is still that 12 year old version of me wishing he could take his cleric to 15th level.  

The B/X Companion does not disappoint.  Let me just say that if this isn't exactly how it was going to be, then I'd be hard pressed to know what it would have been.  I am reading through it all now and I am purposefully NOT comparing it to the BECMI version of the Companion rules.  Maybe later, maybe even later but before this is posted.  But right now I only want to compare it to the B/X books of which is it is, well, a companion too.

The cover of course is very much part of the original scheme.  The three principle characters, the fighter and the two wizards (or maybe she is a cleric, that could be a "light" spell, though she has a torch too) stand in front of their followers.  They braved the dungeon, the wilderness and now they are ready for the next adventure.  So are we.

For those of us that grew up with the Moldvay/Cook Basic and Expert sets, the Companion book feels very familiar.  The layout is similar, the flow is similar and even the art has a familiar feel.  If you own the Basic or Expert books then finding something in the Companion book is trivial.  I turned right to the character rules and took a glance at all the tables.  Yes sir they run from 15 to 36, just like promised.  Clerics still top out at 7th level spells, but eventually they get 9 of them.  Wizards still go to 9th level, and get 9 of those too.

Fighters get more attacks per round (as they should) and thieves get more abilities.

There are plenty of new spells here.  Many look like they take their inspiration from the products that came after, the Player's Handbook or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, but nothing is an out right copy.  It does have the feel like Becker sat around one day and thought, what are some good spells and what level should they be.

There new monsters and advanced versions of some others.  The Greater Vampire nearly made me laugh out loud as I had done the exact same thing after reading and playing the Expert book for so long.  My Greater Vampire was a photocopy of Ptah from Deities and Demigods with some fangs drawn in.  I never claimed to be an artist.  Te monsters all seem to be appropriate for the levels, though a few more in the 30 HD range might have been nice, but not really needed.

The BIG additions here though are the ones that were most "advertised" back in the day. 

Running a High Level Game  is great advice for ANY edition of the game.  It gives this book the same place as say, the Epic Level Handbook for D&D 3.0 or even the Epic Tier for D&D 4.  Chances are very, very good I'll be using the B/X Companion in my next D&D 4 game in fact.

Related are running a domain and running large armies.  Battlesystem would later give us these rules for AD&D, but here they are much simpler to use.  Again, something to consider to port over to other versions of the game.

I loved the new magic items and can never get enough of those.  I also liked the part on the planes and how it is totally left up to design of the DM.  I wonder how many people out there will re-invent the Gygaxian Great Wheel for their B/X/C games?

Others have reviewed this book already and my insights won't add or subtract to those.  A particularly insightful one is by James over at Grognardia.  I concur with a lot of what he had to say, with the possible exception of his take on demi-humans and frankly I have no idea what I would have done in Becker's place as I am not fond of level limits or even demi-humans as classes.  That being said lets put this product in context.

I would have liked thicker covers to be honest. This book I am afraid will not wear so well.  I would also LOVE to have it as a PDF.  I don't bring a lot of books to the table anymore, I bring a laptop.  So can you hear me JB!  Sell me a PDF! :)

Companion to Basic/Expert Rules

Obviously this is where it works the best.  But there is something here that I don't think others have tapped into just yet.  Companion makes the Moldvay/Cook rules a complete game.  With these three books you now have a complete D&D game.  The only thing really missing is a "C1" module or maybe a BXC one.

Companion to Labyrinth Lord/Basic Fantasy

The new Becker Companion has a lot it owes to Labyrinth Lord (LL) and Basic Fantasy (BFRPG).  While maybe not directly, these two games showed that there is a market out there for "Basic" styles of play.  Both LL and BFRPG take the modern 1-20 level limit for human classes.  Companion is 15 to 36.  So some adjustments need to be made.  There are a few differences in the how each of these books calculate XP per level, and how they do spells.  But nothing so complicated that a a good DM couldn't figure out.  

Personally if I were playing a LL/BFRPG game, I'd go to 15th level and then switch over to B/X Companion. for the next levels to 36.  OR even go to 20 and use B/X Companion as a guide to levels 30 or even 36.

Frankly the homebrewiness of it all has me very excited for anyone that has decided to throw their lot in with "Basic" D&D.

The B/X Companion vs. the BECMI Companion

Ok, I know I said above I wasn't going to do this, but after re-reading James's post over at Grognardia and his post on the Mentzer Companion I felt it was worth a look.

Now I am no expert on the Mentzer era of the rules.  I had moved to AD&D by the time they were out and I never owned them.  I picked up the Rules Cyclopedia a while back and got all the BECMI boxes on PDF back when Wizards sold them on DriveThru.

Both Companions cover similar ground.  The spell progressions and XP look about the same (given that they use simple math, no surprise).   The BECMI Companion only goes to 25th level, not 36 like the B/X Companion. The BECMI Companion generally speaking has more detail than the B/X one, but that is not really a nitpick since the abstraction of the rules in B/X is greater to allow more with less; just like the B/X books it was modeled after.  

Final Tally

I like this book. A lot.  It makes me want to pull out my ratty Basic and Expert books and play Moldvay/Cook era Basic D&D again.   In the mean time, I think I'll just have to satisfy myself with converting some D&D 3.0 or 4e characters over to Companion,  just for the fun of it.

One thing that did disappoint me though was the lack of the OGL.  There is a lot of really cool stuff here and it could be shared.  I suppose that something like this, talking to Johnathan Becker is always the best the way to go.  

Cortex, Part 1

I think it is high time I devoted some photons to Cortex.  In truth I already have with these posts:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/06/supernatural-rpg.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/02/cortex-and-unisystem.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/02/magic-in-cortex-savage-worlds-and-witch.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/03/sympathy-for-succubus-part-2.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/07/savage-worlds.html (a little)
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/07/tale-of-two-supermen.html

I am going to talk about Cortex, or I guess what could now be described as "Classic Cortex".  The Cortex in Smallville and Leverage is something called "Cortex Plus".  There are more differences between Classic and Plus than there are between Classic Unisystem and Cinematic Unisystem or even between D&D 3.0 and 3.5. Enough that I want to detail them as separate systems.

Cortex has a generic book (pictured above) which is the core of the Cortex System. There are many licensed products that Margaret Weis Productions makes.  These include Supernatural, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and Demon Hunters. Smallville and Leverage use the new Cortex Plus system.

So what is Cortex?  Other than a system that seems to be doing a lot of TV shows?  Well I have described Cortex in the past as the love child of Unisystem and Savage Worlds.  The system is closer in feel to Unisystem and is a step-die system like Savage Worlds.

So unlike other reviews I want to hit some very specific things with Cortex.  These might sound a tad negative, but they are not really. I am just focusing on a few things here.  I do want to spend some time still talking about why I like this system.

Magic -  I have gone on about how Cortex needs a better magic system, and it does, but to be fair none of the licenses the Cortex currently has does anything near the magic you see in Buffy or Ghosts of Albion.  Supernatural and Demon Hunters, while they do have magic, are also not at that level.   I have toyed around with converting the magic system from Ghosts and even using the one from Witch Girls Adventures. While these are passable, I really think something new and excited is needed here.  For starters I would take what I learned for Ghosts and keep it simple.  I'd also want to split magic up into different types of magic.  Say like "Earth Magic" and "Diabolic", not just the descriptors I used in Ghosts, but separate "Skills", this would control the power levels some and keep things at that "human" power level that Cortex works well at.

What Book Do I Buy? - Interesting thing about Cortex.  I have never watched any of the shows they have games for.  BSG was good, but I lost interest.  Never watched Firefly (and no plans to start really).  I watched Supernatural and I loved it, but could never find the time in my days to watch the episodes I had recorded.  Same with Smallville and Leverage.  So I can't judge the books on how well they emulate their respective universes.  My gut feeling is that Supernatural is really, really damn close and so is Smallville.  But say you are new to Cortex, what should you buy?  Well...I guess I would start with, what show are you wanting to emulate?  I knew nothing of "Demon Hunters" till I signed up for it one Gen Con.  Cam Banks ran it and it was a blast!  The background is bit more silly that I normally take my modern/horror, but there is no reason at all you could not play it straight.  Supernatural is one of my favorite games presently as well.  It is a great game if you want to play normal human versus things that go bump in the night kind of game.  Actually, Supernatural is a GREAT game if you loved Chill.  If you want to play in outer space, well they have two games for that too.
Smallville, and from what I can tell Leverage, are different.  These games are for interpersonal relationships and drama, regardless of background.  Sure Clark can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but how is going to do if Lois starts filtering with him?  Some people don't like this kind of game, but personally (as a gamer and a designer) I find it fascinating! But I am getting ahead of myself...

Why do I need this if I have this? And this is a good question to ask.  Why would I play Cortex if I have Unisystem or Savage Worlds or True 20 or GURPS?   I think the answer here is people will play it because of the licenses.  This certainly worked great for  Buffy and Unisystem and it seems to working great for Cortex so far.  I think to get them to the next step is to have more products out for the "generic" rules that can be used with any book they sell.  Cortex Plus expands this and the system itself now becomes something of an interest above and beyond the license itself.  So say you are like me and you have Buffy, Chill, Ghosts of Albion, World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu and Ghostbusters; what does Supernatural give you?  Well I guess that depends.  If you are a fan of the show then you have that.  The book is one of the nicest looking RPGs I have seen in a long time. Beyond that Supernatural is about normal people.  Characters in Ghosts of Albion are not normal.  Same is true for Buffy, CoC and World of Darkness.  Chill, like I mentioned, comes the closest, but Chill is a very old system now and there are parts that are showing that age.  Supernatural + the Cortex Core Rules gives you plenty on doing a "hunter" game or even a "survivor" game.

Why I Like Cortex
I will be honest, I like Cortex.  The math geek in me loves the step die progression and the fact that you have die + die/dice to get to a success.  While my love for Unisystem know no bounds, the d10 + numbers is a bit of flat outcome. I have talked about my fondness for Supernatural already and even in re-reads I still think it holds on well.  Here is how I feel about Cortex in general.
- The system is easy to learn.  Look, I have done my tenure with tables, insane formulas and dozens of subsystems.  I don't have to do that anymore.  If game wants my attention then it needs to be simple or have a good reason for the complexity.
- The game is improving. You can track Cortex's development through it's licensed games.  Yes there were some issues with earlier games, but now I feel they have a good handle on what they want to do and how to do it.
- Cortex has some great looking books.  I know that is not the end all be all, but a lot of work, care and effort goes into producing these books.  Supernatural and Smallville in particular are two of the best looking games I have seen in a while.  Minor quibble, not enough pictures of Lenore and Zatana respectively.
- Most importantly I feel it is a system that can do more than it currently has.  The core book is presented in a very "tool box" way and I'd like to try to build something with that.

I will do some Unisystem/Cortex conversions next and talk about magic and what Cortex Plus adds to the mix.

Links
http://www.margaretweis.com/
http://cortexsystemrpg.org/

Savage Worlds

Savage Worlds & Rippers

I have talked around Savage Worlds in the past, here and here in particular, but never about Savage Worlds directly.  Well, I'll change that now.

Savage Worlds is a multi-genre (I dont think Generic is the right word here) action RPG from Pinnacle Entertainment Group, the same people that gave us Deadlands. And the game itself is written by a very familiar name to Unisystem fans, Shane Hensley, who has given us Fistfull of Zombies for AFMBE and Army of Darkness for Cinematic Unisystem (among others of course). This seems to be a genre that works well for Shane since you can see similar DNA in Savage Worlds.

I had the chance a couple of Gen Cons ago to sit down and play some Savage Worlds. Its tagline of Fast! Furious! Fun! certainly held up in character creation, I was able to roll out my standard witch-like character very quickly.
One thing became very, very clear to us right away, well more than one thing, but I digress. The one thing that was clear that if you want to play a pulpy style game, then Savage Worlds could be the game you are looking for. But I don't play a lot of pulp, I play horror and magic. Is Savage Worlds the game for me?

Well.that depends. There are certainly some things about it like and things I don't like. One thing I do like is Rippers, a Gothic, steam punk Victorian Horror style monster hunter game for Savage Worlds; but I have a softspot for those. Ill detail Rippers and how it compares to Ghosts of Albion in a bit. When I detail my conversions, Ill indicate whether or not I am drawing from Rippers or some other source, otherwise assume I mean Savage Worlds core.

Crunch
Ok. So what can Savage Worlds give me? Well for a crunch guy like me there is a lot to look at despite the streamlined system. Savage Worlds uses different die to represent different levels of ability for example like Deadlands. So a d4 is base level, d6 is a little better and so on up to d12 (no d20) and all are rolled against a target number, typically 4. The largest number on each die explodes (called an Ace in this game or the Rule of 10 in Unisystem), so you actually have a better chance of Acing when your die is lower than higher; 25% chance on a d4 vs say a 10% chance on a d10. The neatest thing thought is the addition of a Wild Die. The Wild Die, a d6, can be rolled in any action, but only once per action. If the Wild Die rolls higher than your normal die you can take that roll instead. Given this Id like to figure out a Wild Die mechanic for Unisystem, but given the flat distribution of the Unisystem task resolution I dont see it working as well. Like a regular die roll a Wild Die can Ace as well. There are also cards used, but I wont get into that here.
Savage Worlds also has something called Bennies. Think of these as advanced Hero Points or somewhat lesser Drama Points (this is a recurring theme really. Characters in Savage Worlds are just slightly less powered than their Unisystem counterparts, but more later). You only get four of them and they dont transfer from session to session so use them while you have them.

Game Play
We played one of the downloadble adventures for our first time. I had not bought the books yet, but one of the guys I was with had them. It was the Core Savage Worlds book, Rippers (which we only looked at) and a couple of others. We played a pulpy style adventure where the characters were a professor of Archeology, his assistant who happened to be a witch (that was mine) and an 8-foot tall Cat-humanoid. Ok I gotta admit that any game that allows this out of the box has my attention! Turns out it worked REALLY well.
We did get up an running rather quickly. Combat seemed to be a little slow, and the magic system took a little to get used too. Now my group is used to playing odd things. I have playtested many new games with them and combined we all have about 80 years worth of RPG experience. Combat I think we just need to get used too, Magicis a different story.

Basic Conversions
Conversions between the two systems are surprisingly easy. I say surprising, it isn't really since I feel both games appeal to the same kind of gamer and similar kinds of game worlds. Both games assume normal humans (at least at their core) and a small set of skills. Both games have Qualities or Edges and Drawbacks or Hindrances.

Attributes and Skills
Conversions here could not be easier. From the Unisystem perspective the lowest human score is a 1, but most heroes will have a minimum of 2 in their Attributes. Savage Worlds heroes start out as fairly hardy folks, so they all begin with a d4 and can go up with creation points. The max for Unisystem humans is 6 and for Savage Worlds is d12. This is pretty much the same conversions I use for Cortex, so I'll include them as well.
This give us this:

Unisystem	Savage Worlds	Cortex
1	d4-1	d2
2	d4	d4
3	d6	d6
4	d8	d8
5	d10	d10
6	d12	d12
7	d12+1	d12+d2
8	d12+2	d12+d4
9	d12+3	d12+d6

As we move up an Attribute of 9 in Unisystem is an automatic success. Likewise in Savage Worlds a d12+3 will be an automatic success in just about anything as well. Ok, technically an Attribute of 8 + 1d10 is an automatic success in most cases. But that is picking nits and most humans won't be this high.

Quick converting NPCs from the Savage Worlds Core and Rippers and breaking down the basic Savage Worlds rules reveal that your starting Savage Worlds character converts out to 15 Unisystem Attribute points. This is the same as a White Hat or Primitive Screwhead in cinematic Unisystem or a Pre-Heroic character in AFMBE. This parity between the two games continues.

Attribute classifications line up really nice as well. They even serve very similar functions.

Unisystem	Savage Worlds
Strength	Strength
Dexterity	Agility
Constitution	Vigor
Intelligence	Smarts
Perception	- Not Used Here -
Willpower	Spirit

So at this point it is rather easy to spot convert characters. A Savage Worlds character with Strength d6 is roughly the same as a Unisystem character with Strength 3.

When converting to Unisystem from Savage Worlds I say give the character a base Perception of 2. No worries, the Notice skill converts as a Notice skill.

Both games have Secondary or Derived stats too. As in most cases it is best to convert Primary Stats and then use the system in question to derive the secondary ones.

Skills
Like the Attributes running the numbers on Savage Worlds skills gives us the equivalent of 15 skill points; again, Primitive Screwhead territory. The issue comes when spliting these skill points up. Cinematic Unisystem has 18 skills (or 16 for Ghosts of Albion) and Classic has more. Savage Worlds has 24 points for skills (in Unisystem terms). Some of these crossover with their Unisystem equivalent, enough to make me call them all the same. If you are converting a Unisystem character to Savage Worlds this is only an issue if the character is Pre-Heroic.

Some skills do not have exact duplicates. On the Cinematic Unisystem side there are Acrobatics, Art, Computers, Languages, Occultism and Science. Art, Computers, Languages and Science are mostly covered by the Smarts attribute. Acrobatic can be covered by Edges (more on that below).
Occultism in terms of Occult Knowledge would also be covered Smarts. Occultism in terms of knowledge to cast spells is handled in part by the Arcane Background and various Arcane Edges.
On the Savage Worlds side there is Guts, which has some equivalents in Unisystems Willpower, Nerves of Steel and Resistance (Fear) or Coward.

Up to this point our hero and his Mirror Universe counterpart are still mostly the same. The differences begin to show when we get to Edges and Hindrances.

Qualities, Edges, Drawbacks and Hindrances

One of the hallmarks of Unisystem are the Qualities and Drawbacks. There are the basics Hard to Kill and Nerves of Steel, but in order to be a Protector, have a Really Big Chin or be called a Slayer you need the associated Quality. Edges and Hindrances also work a little different than Qualities and Drawbacks. First off you get a lot fewer of them in Savage Worlds than in Unisystem. Secondly Hindrances come in two types, Minor and Major. A major Hindrance for example gets you two Edges. You can gain a new Edge (or buy off a Hindrance) only when you level up. Level is not the same as d20 levels, more like Chill really. But Edges do remind me of Feats and the magic system works much the same. An enterprising Game Master could figure out a way to convert True20s magic system to Savage Worlds very easily in fact. But I digress.

In general when converting look for Qualities, Edges, Drawbacks and Hindrances that have the same names, it will work out better for you. Minor Hindrances in Unisystem terms should be worth about 1 or 2 points (mostly one), while Major Hindrances are worth 3 to 5. Some 3s could go either way depending on what they are.

There are no combo or package Edges like some of Unisystems package Qualities, there are Professional Edges that are a combination of Edges, Hindrances, skills and prerequisites that do the same job though. The Wizard Edge is roughly analogous to the Witch Quality. One I really liked was the McGyver professional Edge, sounds like something that needs to be in Army of Darkness. ;)

Something like a Slayer or a Protector from Ghost of Albion is going to take a little more work. With Weird Edges, Wild Edges and Epic Featser sorry, Legendary Edges, there are quite a few neat things here. Enough to keep anyone busy for a while.

At this point in comparison sake our SWs character is a tad weaker than his Unisystem doppelganger. I think this is fine given the Wild Die mechanic and Aces you get in SW.

Magic and Other Powers
Ok, Ill be very blunt here. I dont like SWs magic system. I am sorry, but after Ghosts of Albion and WitchCraft very, very few systems could compare. That being said there are some neat ideas.
First thing is characters do not have a lot of start up powers, this not that big of a deal in a Two-Fisted Pulp adventure, but my witch character ended up using her revolver just as much as her own powers in the combat situations, so to me it is a big deal. Rippers expands on Magic, but not quite enough really for my tastes.
Now looking inside the game itself the Powers system sits somewhere in between the free wheeling hands-off rules of BESM or Mage and the static magic of D&D, but still not quite where Unisystems Metaphysics or Sorcery/Magic rules are. They are though internally consistent and flexible enough to provide some nice upgrades. This is another place where the rules feel like a cross between Unisystem and True20.

Now what I DID like are the rules for Weird Science (which is just another Power, like Arcane or Psychic, so there is nothing really different about it). In fact I like them much more than Buffys Super Science (which I never liked in the rules and less in the show), but here Weird Science (and I like this name so much more too) FEELS right, it feels like it fits the system well both in terms of mechanics and in terms of themes. I can see a 30s Mad Scientist right out of those old serials built with this rule. I might work on converting these back into Unisystem or take what very little I like of Super Science and mix it in with a little Sons of ther. Given how much this reminds me of True20 I am also half tempted to convert this power to True20 for a Weird Science Adept whose power feats are gadgets.
Powers for Magic, Super Heroes or Weird Science are bought like Metaphysics and they even look similar to Cincematic magical Spells. Translations are a breeze.

Rippers

I should pay some special attention to Rippers. After all Rippers, like Ghosts of Albion, is a gothic Victorian game in which monsters and the supernatural are real. Like Cthulhu by Gaslight, Masque of the Red Death and Victorian Age Vampire, Rippers takes place in the later 19th Century. Ghosts of Albion takes place at the dawn of the Victorian Age in the 1840s. Rippers though also incorporates some Steam Punk ideas.

The epynononmous Rippers are a world-wide group of monster hunters that are under the guidance of Van Helsing and the Harkers from Dracula. So shades of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to be sure (Allan Quartermain and Mina Harker are in the book, but I dont think they get it on here), with little bits of the Watchers (take your pick, the Buffy ones, the Highlander ones or the Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death ones) and maybe a dash of Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter. What sets Rippers apart is the idea of Rippertech or taking artifacts from the various creatures the characters hunt to improve the characters. Now this is a neat idea, but I do find it curious that many pages are devoted to rather interesting Rippertech enhancements, but they are almost always described as dangerous and generally unsafe to use. In Unisystem they would work like Qualities, with maybe needing a Will doubled roll to resist the bad side effects.

There are other issues that would go unnoticed by most, but not a WitchCraft RPG player. I nearly choked on my coffee when I read that the Rosicrucians taught Enochian magic. But that is REALLY nitpicky of me. The monetary system was a bit weird, using decimals for Victorian era pounds just seems wrong. I got used to converting gold pieces to silver pieces in the 80s I think converting pounds to shillings would be fine.

All in all, Rippers and Ghosts of Albion could exist side by side. The Rippers might know of Protectors and maybe even have one or two on their side. The Protectors would certainly know of the Rippers, anyone that goes around their lands hunting down supernatural creatures is going to attract their notice. How they deal with other of course depend on their first meetings. If a Ripper is trying to extract Ghostly essence from Lord Byron against his will, Tamara might not be too happy about that. The trouble is there is nothing in the Rippers or Core book that comes close to level of magic the Protectors could wield, or even Occult Poets for that matter (but I bet someone that knew the Savage Worlds magic system better than me could pull of an Occult Poet). I might do some more conversion since I love Victorian age games. The spells would convert really nice. Even the Gypsy curses in the Rippers Companion would convert to Ghosts of Albion as a Magical Philosophy: Gypsy Curse. Rough conversion (not tested) Rank converts to Level, keep Range and Duration the same, Trappings become Requirements. Drop Power Points unless you are converting to Classic Unisystem, then they represent Essence loss.

Converting characters between Rippers and Ghosts of Albion is very easy, as you can see with Dirty Nellie, the Street Faerie prostitute.  Given that Rippers and Ghosts of Albion are separated mostly by time; Ghosts in the early Victorian, Rippers in the later, one could see each game as being a reflection of the other.

Gaslight

If you like Savage Worlds (or even d20 for that matter) and Victorian adventures, but not so much the Ripper Tech, then there is Gaslight from Battlefield Press.  Gaslight is a pretty straight-forward game setting, it is the late Victorian Era.  SW Gaslight and Rippers could actually play side by side.  With Gaslight providing some of the real world history that Rippers left out.

Gaslight is certainly more of a sandbox game.  You are given the world, the rules and then let go.  There is no over arching plot or theme like Rippers or Ghosts of Albion.  It is in feel much closer to the old Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death game.  Which is pretty cool.

Nel works fine for Gaslight as well.

Next time, let's play with conversions.  Armies of Darkness in Savage Worlds, Slayers in Rippers.

Busy Weekend becomes Busy Week

Work will be crazy this week so posts will slow unless I can find something ready to go.

I spent the weekend at the wedding of long-time friend Jon Cook.  What was interesting about this wedding is it was at a civil war re-enactment.  So everyone in the wedding party and many guests were wearing their Civil War period costumes.  Since I was one of the best men in the wedding, so did I.

If you have that Facebook thing, you can see my pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2061854&id=1065752655

What is also cool is Jon is the one that introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons more than 30 years ago.  Well, let me clarify.  I had seen and read the books before, Jon was the one that ran the first game I was ever in.
Jon and I played for years.  Eventually we also discovered other players including Erik, the other best man, and Bob who can be seen with his daughter in the picture here on the right. I dedicated my first book of witches to both of them.

Neither of the play anymore.  Jon stopped playing in High School when he got a job.  Bob and I played all through High School and then somewhat into college.  But they lead me down a path that eventually got me to Ghosts of Albion and one of the reasons I bought the outfit I did.  It all comes around I guess.

But in any case.  Yeah. Busy week coming up.

Character Life-Span Development

So I am working on getting my Life-Span Development course up and running for the next term and it got me thinking about the life-span development of characters in games.
I know sometimes people just want the collection of numbers so they can beat the crap outta monsters and steal their stuff.  That is fine and I like to do that too sometimes.  Other times, most times I would say, I prefer to invest in a character and know what makes them tick.

Well this course, which I took as an undergrad many years before, has had me thinking; what effects a character at different stages of development?  Obviously we have a Nature vs. Nurture thing going on here.  In a game that can be viewed almost as Stats and Concept vs. Game system.
I have explored this a bit with my Willow and Tara conversions, but to do it properly I would need something different.  I want to look how a character develops over time, using different games.  For this I need a pretty strong character concept and games that help emulate reality at particular age levels.

Given a number of factors (games I have, books I read and interest) I would want to create a character in a modern supernatural fantasy setting.  One where magic is not known, but is real.  Why not use Willow or Tara or even characters like Rachel and Ivy or the Hex Girls?  Simple, their pasts are fixed and their futures often times are being determined by other factors; either by books or games.

But how should I do this in depth detailed life-span development of a character?  Well first I should see what games I have and what ages they cover.  I'll also use the stages from the course I am writing as a guide.  Why not.  I went to grad school for years, I rarely get to use that here.

So here are the stages and the games I think will cover them well.

Life Stage	Game
Infancy	NA
Childhood	Little Fears
Pre-Teen and Teen	Witch Girls Adventures
Adulthood	Unisystem / True 20 / Cortex / Savage Worlds
Later Life	???? maybe Mage to reflect the higher power levels?
After Life*	Giest; In Nomine

*Maybe I'll use this or not.

I am sure there must be others.
Any suggestions?

If I go with the above then I am certainly going with an urban supernatural deal.  Possibly some sort of supernatural character like a witch or vampire (shocked I know).  I did have an idea for this new game featuring two twin sisters that are witches.  Maybe I can develop them here.

Here is what I have so far.

Kim and Kelley's life had always been surrounded by the strange, supernatural and sometimes horrific.  They were both born on Oct 31, Kelley a few minutes before Kim and Kim a few minutes before her mother died.  Raised by their father Kim and Kelly began encountering ghosts at age 5.  They spent their life together learning about magic and monsters.  Then one day something happened to Kelley...

I obviously don't want to develop too much here since I want the games to help in the development.  Kim and Kelley are not a veiled reference to Kim and Kelley Deal, but they were certainly an influence.  They are more an allusion/homage to Kim Harrison and Kelley Armstrong, two of my favorite authors in this genre.  I wanted to have twins since I could assume the stats are mostly the same and then do different things in the world to them.  I plan to focus on Kim in terms of stats.  I have no idea what either of these girls look like or anything.  Kinda nice to make a new start here.

Plus I would want to include some games that detail world or character development very well.  Something like Dresden Files would be good or even OVA or Cartoon Action Hour.

Something to think about.

What if Gygax had done 2nd Ed?

Quick one for now. I am on my way to campus.

I have been following the OSR scene now for a while and have seen the attempts to do retellings of the most famous RPG in history. Associated with that is the wave of nostalgia for all things from the hands of the Old Masters (Gygax, Holmes, Arneson) and this had gotten me thinking.

What would 2nd Ed AD&D have looked like if Gygax had still been at TSR?

  

I suppose we should look at the variables.  What was TSR doing at the time (late 80s), what was Gygax doing (Mythus, Dangerous Journeys, and later Lejendary Adventures) and how would that have all blended into what could have been the 2nd Ed AD&D as written by Gary.

This is all speculation; I am not a Gygaxian scholar by any stretch of the imagination. But I am curious to know what you all think.

Would we have seen more classes? (I think so) More skills? (certainly) and I also think given the direction that TSR was headed and what Gygax did in DJ/Mythus that we would have seen more "world" books for different genres of play.  So instead of Spelljamer (D&D in space) we would have gotten a Space Opera game that used the AD&D 2ed rules.  Or not.

Thoughts?

EDITED TO ADD: Thanks to Herb and Jason Vey.  They uncovered this link for me.
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2009/02/ad-second-edition.html
I will have to read that in detail when I can.

Fudge and Fate

So I have some new (and some old) Fudge and Fate games I want to talk about.

But in general, what do you all think of Fudge and Fate?

I get the indy appeal, but something about them just never has jelled with me.  Maybe I don't get it.

I like numbers I guess.

Tell me.  What am I not getting here?  I'll have some reviews up soon, and I like the games that use it I just tend to like the games and convert them over to Unisystem.

More later in the week, or whenever I finish up Anime.

Twilight RPG? Sure, why not.

I was talking with some friends online and couple of topics came up that were not-quite but sorta-related.  The first was the rash of vampire fiction and the "changes" happening to it.  Namely that vampires are no longer terrible monsters but super powerful, but dangerous, boyfriends.  They do things now like fall in love with women several decades their younger or move about in sunlight.

To this I simply say.

When was this new?  Cause I seem to recall reading similar things in "Interview with a Vampire" and "Dracula".

We are in the midst of another "Vampire Craze" that seems to pop up every so often.  The last one was of course Anne Rice, Lost Boys and Vampire the Masquerade.  Now it is Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and even True Blood.   I am going to focus on Twilight a bit since it is the most contentious of the lot.
Honestly, I have no big issue with Twilight's vampires (except they are not really vampires are they) or even the fact that a 100+ year old is in love with a High School Girl.  I tend to believe that if a person becomes a vampire that regardless of the chronological age their body is stuck at a certain physical age and mental age.  They might learn more, but in a sense their mentality is stuck, frozen in time.  My biggest issue with the books is the vapid empty dialog,  Mary-Sue characters, and thinly veiled personal sermons.  But I will grant this.  The success of those books has lead to an entire publishing craze of "Modern Supernatural Romance" or "Chick Lit" that has been a huge success in their own right.
Laurel K. Hamilton may have been one of the first, but it took Stephenie Meyer and her "Sparkly Vampires" to make it cross-over.

Which leads me to my next thought.
Should there be a Twilight RPG?

There are a lot of compelling reasons to do so.
Let's start with the obvious, Twilight sold nearly 30 million books in 2008 and 27M in 2009.  There have been two movies of her books, which have made close to $1.2 Billion (that's a "B").   That's a lot of money.  A licensed RPG would be make money if only for the Twilight fans wanting more of this world.

Other obvious reasons.
There is the werwolf/vampire back-story that, and lets be honest here, seems totally cribbed from White Wolf, but it is more of a turf war ala "West Side Story" than the bloody wars of "Underworld".  Though now the mental image of vampires and werewolves singing while fighting is certain to haunt me for days.  But it does make for a good game.

Lets talk marketing.  Who loves "Twilight" besides Kelly Clarkson and President Obama? Pre-teen and teenage girls.
What market have RPGs not done particularly well in?  Yeah.
"Twilight the RPG" could be the gateway drug to RPGs for this market.  Look, this is 2010, we have dropped the stereotypes.  We know girls like and play RPGs. Maybe we have White Wolf to thank for that as well. But we also know that it is still a very territory for marketing.  AND I should point out it is not just young girls and women.  It is "older" women (and by that I mean older than the protagonist Bella, so 20+) that buy and enjoy these books.  What do we know about women in the marketplace?  Well how about this (from Neilsen Media) Women make the buying choices in the family, women have more money now than they ever did, and while men are being laid off at double-digit rates, women are keeping their jobs.

And the game companies know all of this.

We have products out now that are specifically try to appeal to young girls.  Games like Bella Sara are a perfect example of this.

A Twilight game would need to focus on the things that made the books so popular.  Interpersonal relationships, destiny, fated-loves and so on.  As a game it would need to have mechanics that were simple so they do what they need to do and then get out of the way (for the newbie gamers) and powerful enough to keep the narrative flowing (for the more experienced ones).  Blue Rose I think tried to do this to some degree, and I think design-wise they mostly got it right.  It does all the things I mentioned above, but I think ultimately Blue Rose was hampered more by what people thought it was rather than what it really was.
By putting the Twilight label on the game you eliminate that and everyone knows what you are getting up front.  Plus we all know I am convinced that Blue Rose would be fantastic as a horror game.
Combat would be minimal, but it would still occur.  Afterall these vampires and werewolves have to attack something sometime.

Of course I could see this using White Wolf's World of Darkness games too or even Cinematic Unisystem.  Though in both cases somethings might need to be tweaked or redesigned.

The downsides though are numerous as well.  Gamers, it seems to person, hate Twilight.  Or at least I never met one that likes it.  I don't even like it.  The vampires of Twilight are mocked and rightfully so. Gamers would not buy a Twilight RPG unless it had something so mind wracking cool about it that getting it was more of a lure than anything else.
So lets pretend for a second there is a Twilight game out there and people pick it up for whatever their personal reasons are.  Who is going to play this game? and how?

The trouble with the RPG biz is there is shit all nothing in terms of market research.
Companies rarely know what people wan't and they rarely can provide it when they do know.  There are exceptions of course. Paizo and Green Ronin take a lot of customer feedback for example.  But I bet you that if there was a demand out there for a particular game, no company would know about it in any systematic way.  We rely a lot on word of mouth.  Maybe this is fine, but it is very reaction-based and sometimes companies move too slow to do anything about it.

Twilight the Role-Playing Game is not coming to a FLGS near you anytime soon.  But part of me still wonders that maybe it should.

John Eric Holmes 1930 - 2010

By now many of you have heard about the death of Dr. John Eric Holmes, known better to us in game circles as Eric Holmes.  Holmes was the editor of the first "Basic" set of D&D, often called "the Blue Book Basic" where I grew up. The cover of that book pretty much tells you everything you need to know about D&D.

Holmes gave us a new edition of D&D and opened the doors to many people to play the game.  You didn't the "Little Brown Books" anymore.  Holmes D&D was set up to run in parallel to Gygax's own AD&D released at the same time.

Myself, like many in the OSR and RPG community, have fond memories of this book.
Dr. Holmes will certainly be missed.  March it seems is turning into a terrible month for gamers.

You can read more about the man and his work in these links.  They say everything I would have said.

• http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/05/rip-j-eric-holmes-1930-2010.html
• http://underdarkgazette.blogspot.com/2010/05/osr-news-from-underdark-gazette_08.html
• http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/2010/05/rip-john-eric-holms-1930-2010.html
• http://eiglophian.blogspot.com/2010/05/rip-john-eric-holmes-1930-2010.html
• http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/05/j-eric-holmes-1930-2010.html
• http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/2010/05/holms-obituary.html

Liches in Classic Unisystem

“I want to tell you a story.”

That was how she began our conversation so many years ago. I was annoyed, I wasn’t looking for a story, I was looking for answers. For years I had been searching obscure occult tomes for a shred of proof that there was something else out there; something no longer human and unbelievably ancient.

“Do you know of Immortals?” she asked, knowing full well I did. I would not have spent 10 years and travelled to length and breadth of the Earth if I had not heard of something. I would not now be sitting here in this small cottage in France if I had not actually seen some proof.

She was old, that was certain, but how old I could not begin to fathom. I had learned of her just few months ago. I attempted many times to contact her, but she had no phone, let alone email, and her address was not even known by the local post. So I travelled here and searched this pastoral countryside till I found her. She would not receive me and sent me away many times. Finally, after weeks, she allowed me a visit. My French was halting, but I was surprised (though I don’t know why) to discover she spoke English. She invited me to her home. Again I was surprised, no, I was dumfounded. In her possession were occult tomes and texts that many scholars search a life-time for only to discover one such artefact and consider themselves successful. Here tomes of unbelievable worth and antiquity were lying about as if they were a copy of the morning news or some tacky romance novel. There was a nervousness in the air, like I walked into a surreal alien world. Everything looked normal; normal that is, if this were a hundred years ago. Several clues were apparent to me then, but in my haste to learn what she knew I ignored them, or simply did not recognize them for what they were.

“Essence” she continued “is not just the key to life, but life itself. Do you agree?” I nodded affirmative. My throat was dry from my journey here and she had not offered me a drink. Unheading, or just uncaring for my discomfort she carried on. “Then is it any surprise that there are those whose lives are unnaturally long due to essence?” Again I indicated I agreed. I began to re-evaluate how old she really was.

“Essence then extends life.” She said and as a means of illustrating she drew out a long thread. She was treating me as if I were a child, but yet something held my tongue back. “It can lengthen life, but at cost. Most agree, the Wicce in particular, that the cost is too high. Others begin to feel that inventible pull towards Geburah, a wariness of the soul that no mortal sleep can cure, they slip away quietly, hardly a whisper.” She paused.

“There are others. Very, very few. Who never hear the call, never feel the wariness of the soul and they continue.” She turned and handed me an old tome, our fingertips briefly brushed and I felt a cold so profound, so aching, that I feared I would never be warm again.

“You may have this. But I doubt you will like what you read.”

I practically ran back to the hotel room. I was drained, exhausted beyond anything I could remember. I wanted to read that book, but when I got back I fell to bed.

I read that horrible tome, the ancient German difficult, but I struggled on. After a couple hundred or so pages sleep conquered me.

I awoke two days later to the hotel manager banging on my door, swearing at me in French. The book was gone. I went back to that small home but found nothing and no sign of life. As quickly as I could I began copy what I could remember from memory. Some images were blurry, on the edge of consciousness, others had burned themselves so deeply into my psyche that I doubt I will ever be the same.

Along with the nightmares I had been given the answers I sought.

I had spoken to a lich.

Lich
15-point Supernatural Quality

Prerequisites: The Gift, Intelligence or Will of 6 or greater, construction of a phylactery and potion. Must be a living human (no bast, vampyres, ghost, etc.)

There are those that are born immortal or gain unnaturally long lives due to Essence. There are those that covet this, or fear death so much that they seek out fell arcane means to extend their lives. These rare creatures are known as Liches.

Lich comes from the old middle English word Lyche, which means corpse. Indeed the lich is often very corpse like. A mere husk of a human form, the lich is most often a skeleton with dried leather like flesh drawn tightly over the bones. Its eyes are gone, replaced by pin points of malevolent red light. Some hair remains, in thin wispy strands and its hands have curved into talons with long yellowed fingernails. Liches can also appear as human, they are still powerful magicians and can alter their appearance.

The path to lichdom is fraught with peril. To begin the prospective lich must have a strong will or intellect to pursue this path. A strong constitution is favorable, but not required. Only Human Gifted may become liches. Other undead cannot transform into a lich; though it should be noted that there has been a rumor of vampyric liches. There is also some debate on whether other supernatural creatures, such as Bast or Ferals, or immortals can become liches.

The first step is to locate a book or tome with the knowledge. This book includes the rituals and incantations needed, the ingredients of the potion and directions for making the phylactery or soul object to house the lich’s soul. One such tome is known to exist, Das Buch des Leiche. Written in the early 14th century in a crude form of old High German, it is difficult to read and understand. A more common translation, The Book of Liches, is full of errors and will more likely kill the user outright. There are other tomes certainly, but they are only rumored to contain the necessary ritual, potions or materials. Once the proper tome is discovered most occult scholars agree it contains three important pieces of knowledge; construction and empowerment of the lich’s phylactery, the brewing of the poisonous draught, and the ritual of transformation.

The Phylactery
The Soul Cage or Phylactery is a small box or otherwise hollow object about the size of a fist. All reported cases have been made of lead. Lead is used for it’s dark, energy absorbing color and most likely for its malleability.
The would be lich needs to construct this himself or have one made for this purpose.
The Phylactery requires a Consecration Invocation to create the vessel and restrict it only to that caster. The magician must then atune the phylactery by the use of the Soul Projection Invocation and project his soul into the phylactery. This ritual is a perversion of Atlantean Arcana for empowering and energy crystal.
The would be lich must pour all of his Essence (except for 1-5 points) into the Phylactery. He must then regain all of this lost Essence normally before proceeding.

The Potion
On the lunar month before transformation the would be lich needs to brew the poison that will actually kill him. The poison consists of arsenic, belladonna, the venom of a poisonous snake or spider, the blood of a vampyre and the blood of a human whose life has been extended due to essence, or a true immortal or manifested demonic creature. Rendered down in this vile alchemical concoction are the silks of 13 Death’s Head moths (sp. Acherontia styx styx; Acherontia atropos styx). The potion then must ferment for 27 days in an air-tight container and never be exposed to light. Even the light of a single candle will be enough to render it useless. It is still quite toxic, just not suitable for use in the ritual.

The Ritual
The ritual of transformation is what binds the would be lich’s body to this world and his soul to the Phylactery hereafter.
The ritual though is largely unknown. One must discover it in one of the few books known to contain the proper ritual, and not one one of the many books that contain the false ritual. There are many faulty copies and some outright forgeries.
An Occultism check with 10 Success Levels is enough to determine if the ritual is legitimate, but not enough to determine why it might be wrong.
The ritual itself requires at least level 5 in one of the Necromancies listed in the WitchCraft core, but Death Mastery is the most common.
The ritual takes 24 hours to cast and the would be Lich looses 5 points of Essences permanently. If they are interrupted at any point they must start over anew. This includes brew a new potion and loosing another 5 points of Essence.
At the end of the casting the prospective lich drinks the potion and dies. If everything was performed correctly then they will rise as a Lich in three days. If not then they are dead.

Once the new Lich awakens they have the following:

Immortal, Nerves of steel, Photographic Memmory, Acute Senses (hearing and vision), Chill of the Grave (GoA)* (3), Ghostly Fear (GoA)*, Enhanced Vision Darkvision, Hard to Kill (3)
Intelligence +1, Will +2, Occultism/Occult Knowledge skill +2

Disabled senses (taste and smell), Delusions of Granduer, Obsessions (accumulate more knowledge), Unattractive, Inhuman form, Essence Dependence

*These qualities are found in the Ghosts of Albion Roleplaying Game. They are Cinematic but can be used in a Classic Unisystem game with no issues. They cost the listed Quality Points in either Quality or Metaphysics. Either costs 1 Essence point to use.

Like a Vampyre a Lich cannot replace their own Essence. They must spend an Essence point each day to retain their ability to mimic life and any Metaphysics they perform also deplete their Essense. Unlike Vampyres a Lich can absorb ambient Essence, but no more than 5 points per day. This is often why a Lich can be found in Essence rich areas. As long as they are pursuing more mundane research a Lich can persist unchanged and never requiring Essence for years.

Liches then can be played as sort of intelligent Zombies, taking any Quality or Drawback that a Zombie can including those regarding feeding. Liches normally do not feed on flesh but rare conditions (or badly translated rituals) do happen. Liches may also take appropriate Qualities, Drawbacks and Powers that are open to Vampyres or Ghosts.

Like Ghosts, Liches can “see” emotional states. Due to their gifted background they can also see magic and lines of magical force.

Reducing a Lich to 0 Life Points does not kill it, but it does force it’s life force back into their Phylactery. Reducing the Lich to zero Essence Points forces it back to it’s Phylactery as well, but then it must slowly rebuild their Essence at the rate of 1 per day till they reach their maximum. A lich can then re-enter their body and re-animate it. If their body has been destroyed then they enter any corpse within 100 yards of their Phylactery.

If a Lich is somehow reduced all the way to -10 Life Points then their body must make a Survival Test. Failure results in the body being destroyed.

To destroy a Lich one must reduce it to zero Life or Essence points, find and destroy their Phylactery and destroy the body. For this reason Liches often keep a false Phylactery while their real one is safely hidden and surrounded by corpses and animated dead to guard it.

A Lich may regenerate 1 Life Point per Con score per day. This costs the Lich 1 extra Essence Point.

For Classic Unisystem.  WitchCraft RPG, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, or Armageddon. 

System Specialist or System Generalist?

So it should come as no surprise that I know a lot of gamers. A lot of a lot.

And while tags like "simulationist" or "immersion" or even "rollplayer vs. roleplayer" get thrown about like they are important, there is one classification that actually interests me.
System Specialist vs. System Generalists.

The System Specialist plays one system only and that is it.  So they only play AD&D 1st ed or d20 or GURPS. This is not to say they have tried other systems.  I am going to bet many have, but they have found one system that they have decided that is all they need.
I like the System Specialist because they usually become experts of their chosen system.  They in a sense achieve in their system that elusive "fade into the background" element that so many designers strive for, whether it was a design principle of that system or not.  Great system specialists seem like elder sages of their system, knowing rules or situations at such a higher level to even surprise the designers.

The System Generalist (wish I had a better name) plays a large number of systems and may have tried even more.  They are comfortable using True20, FUDGE or Rifts in any given situation and they can often give you informed opinions of why X system is perfect for Y situation.  A lot of game designers I know fall under this category.
I like the System Generalist because they are usually able to adapt to newer systems easier and transfer over concepts from one system to the other to improve their own game play.  Game play details are often rendered in short-hand, "oh it is like BLANK from Call of Cthulhu" or "BLANK from Kult".

There are negatives too, but I am not so much interested in those to be honest.

It should not surprise anyone, but I tend to view myself as a System Generalist.  I like having multiple systems laying around, I like reading new ones, playing old ones and even mixing them is strange and odd ways.
I come very, very close to being a System Specialist when it comes to Cinematic Unisystem.   But I still forget some esoteric bit during play, and sometimes even important ones.  For example, for the life of me I can never remember the formula for life points.  I know it is a function of Strength and Constituion.  I know there is addition in there, and some multiplication and 3 and 10 work into it.  I know you 3 extra points per level of Hard to Kill, but that is it.  Pathetic huh?  I have made what, a few hundred characters for CineUnisystem?
The nice thing though outside of that I can run a Cine Unisystem game without books.  If it Ghosts of Albion chances are I don't even need to look up the spells.  I used to be like that for AD&D first ed, but those memories have faded over the years, or more to the point supplanted by similar rules in other versions of the game.

Where do you see yourself?  Generalist or Specialist?  What do you think are the pros of being...well you?

Black Rose, Part 4

What sort of stories do we tell in a this mash-up of Romantic Fantasy and Gothic Horror?

Well lets start with the obvious.  Evil is out there and it needs to be stopped.  In the Gothic Horror tradition, the evil is always more powerful than the heroes and rarely if ever fully stopped.  Black Rose would to follow suit. The evil is out there and it must be stopped (because that is what heroes do) even if the odds are stacked against them.

In Romantic Fantasy and in Blue Rose in particular, we expect there to be more character driven plots than monster of the week ones.  Not to say we can't do both, but the plot must be focused on defeating the "Evil", whatever it might be, but at the same time growing the characters.

So what are the games about then?

I could start with the death or injury of the Golden Hart.  This is the catalyst that brings the characters together.  I think more so than any other game I would want the players to spend a lot of time telling me who their characters are and what they want.  Riches and Glory are fine for most D&D games, but for Black Rose, I think there needs to be something more.

I would then spend some time slowly building up the lpot elements.  Have encounters with the Vistani/Roamers, or even a run in with a wrongly accused Night Person/Caliban/Half-Orc.  Yeah that is a little cliched I know, but I think there is value in going over some of these tropes that make up the game.

Of course plenty of undead for the characters to fight, though not names dead.  In Ravenloft back in the 2e days the authors really took the time to, pardon the pun, flesh out the monsters.  A wight was not simply a monster from a barrow, it was an ancient warrior that was once a human and some of that human might remain.  Vampires are not just high level threats (they are)  but also characters in their own right.  Blue Rose/True 20 supports this type of play since all monsters are built as characters more or less.

So what is the ultimate goal?
"Defeat evil" is too vague to build a campaign on.  I think the first step is to find out who tried to kill the Hart and find out way the land is creeping into darkness.  These are related of course.  The ultimate goal then is to discover that the Dark Lord Sayvin is not dead (sort of) and behind all of this.  To do this there would need to be a lot of exploring of the lands to gather information.  The heroes would be the lone bringers of light and justice in a world creeping into darkness.  Sounds like it has a cool 70's genre vibe to it.

In Ravenloft there is no chance the heroes could defeat a Dark Lord.  In Black Rose though, I might let them. Or at least Sayvin.  But they can't do it with combat alone, given the feel of Blue Rose, there needs to be something more.  Something that the characters have to do to show growth and ultimate sacrifice for what they believe is right.   Not sure how to do that one yet that doesn't involve railroading the players.

If it works it would make for a great campaign only game, where after defeating the Dark Lord Aldea is pulled back into the light.  I think that is a good ending.  It's not a fairy tale one, the Queen is still a widow and the deaths that happened are just as real as before.

Personages
I think one thing is obvious.  I would have to include Strahd.  I would also like to see Azalin, Harkon Lukas and some of the other Dark Lords.  I would avoid the ones that are too far removed from the Quasi- Renaissance Europe.  I would also have to figure out how the weakening of the barriers keeping them in their own lands would work out.  Some of these Dark Lords hate each other more than anything.  That is a good place to put the heroes in between.  Maybe it is the presence of Aldea that is weakening the laws of Raftenloft.  Sayvin did not complete the ritual 100% (and he is still trying) so Aldea was not pulled all the way into Ravenloft.  That has the borders of the lands become weaker and maybe the Dark Lords want to use that as a means out.  Certainly Azalin would.  Strahd is more concerned with finding his Tatyana, so maybe this freedom is something he is only using to get to her.  All the time Sayvin is making attempts on the Queen's life, but only during the night when he is active.

Lots of potential here I think.

I picked up Troll Lords Tainted Lands in hopes that it might give me some ideas.  But they seemed to have taken Ravenloft and ran in the opposite direction than I want to go.  Too bad really.  But I think there are still some ideas I can use here.

Now to find a group that would want to play this.

Black Rose, Part 3

Sorry for the delay here.  Been really sick.

Now I want to look at the mechanics of how Black Rose will work.  I want to include as much of the Ravenloft feel as possible, so that means fear and horror checks.  To accommodate both Blue Rose and Ravenloft I also want to keep magic low.  In this respect I think the Adept role from True20 will work out fine.

Rules
I'll use the Revised True20 (T20-R) rules for this game.  I love the simplicity of the system and it "just works" well for me. Plus the Revised version allows you to craft roles to better suit your game world.  This would let me create a "Lesser Adept" that still has some spell casting, but also more skills or even combat.  I would use this for clerics and hedge witches or even PC magic-users.  Some of the Roles in the "Horror Adventures" chapter are a good choice.  I would in a sense try to re-create the roles found in Masque of the Red Death for Black Rose.

Magic is known, but rare.  This would not be D&D where you can go to the local "magic shop" to buy magic items or even get them appraised.  So to use the T20-R this would be a "Rising Tide" game.  I would make necromantic powers more difficult to obtain.

With less magic I can see more gun powder being used.  But hardly anything beyond a flint-lock.  I am thinking this is 16th or 17th century at the most, with places still around 14th or 15th, in terms of technology.  I like this idea because it also builds up the struggle of tech vs. magic as well as good vs. evil.  In Dracula, the heroes all were using "state of the art technology" in order to defeat Dracula, a creature of darkness and magic.  It is a pillar of the Gothic tradition.   Of course the other pillar of the Gothic tradition is Frankenstein, or how technology has lead humans to even greater evils.

Fear, Sanity and Dark Powers
Sanity and Fear checks have been part and parcel of horror games forever.  Black Rose would be no different.  I would use the Mental Health track from T20-R since it is very, very close to what characters would experience in Ravenloft.  In this case I would use Sanity as it's own Save.  Give the game it's own feel.

I would not however do Dark Powers checks.  I never really liked them in Ravenloft and feel they have less of a place in Black Rose.  The PCs are supposed to be heroes, and heroes of the highest caliber. Now I know sometimes PCs (and players) mess up, so for that I will use the True 20 Conviction mechanic.  Evil acts result in less conviction, but heroic acts can build more.

Feel
So far everything I describe could be done in games that already exist.  Witchhunter, Solomon Kane, Rippers or even Ghosts of Albion, could all do this and do it well.  What then does Black Rose do for me these other games don't.
Well foremost there is the battle of good vs an unrelenting evil.  But this is not a fight alone in the darkness, the heroes have a home, Aldea, and it is good and worth fighting for.    If nothing else I need to instill in the players or the characters that an attack on Aldea or their Queen is worse than attack against themselves.
Also in Black Rose, everyone knows about magic and the supernatural.  It is an accepted part of life.  People don't fear the bogeyman because he has magic, people fear him because he is evil.

If this were an on-going game I would like to come up with something for the heroes to work towards.   Maybe the eventual defeat of the Dark Lord?  Or finding a way to keep Ravenloft from seeping into Aldea.  No idea yet.  But I would want it to be big and worthy of characters than have been heroes to the land for s long.

Black Rose, Part 1

I had no idea people would like this one so much.  I mean to me it seems a no-brainer.   Let me roll back a bit and talk about why I think so.


I love Ravenloft.  It was *my* world for all of 2nd Ed.  I loved the Gothic horror feel, I loved that there were all these worlds and this was some sort of cosmic dumping ground of evil.  But mostly I loved the atmosphere, there was something about it that was different than all the other AD&D worlds out at the time.  Greyhawk was basically dead, I hated the Forgotten Realms, Planescape was cool but I hate stupid made up slang.
But I had a basic problem with Ravenloft.  A world drowning evil is not always the best one to play in.  Or as I used to say, Ravenloft was great at night, but during the day it was lacking.

Well I put Ravenloft away when I did my great D&D break of the late 90s.  When D&D 3 came out I purchased one of the limited editions Ravenloft core books.  After all it was being done by White Wolf and they know horror.  While it did make me interested in the lands again, the spark was gone.  Besides at this time the Kargatane was breaking up and Ravenloft was not as fun as before.

Then a new game came into my life.  Blue Rose.   In Blue Rose I felt there were a lot of the same things I liked about Ravenloft.  Emphasis on character development and story telling, less on combat.  One by nature the other by choice.  I know a lot of people disliked Blue Rose, but it did give us True 20.  And in True 20 I saw the answer to a lot of the problems I had with Ravenloft.  Ravenloft as an idea was Gothic Horror stapled on to a fantasy action adventure game.  True 20 was systemless.  It was much easier to represent more people with combinations of the Expert, Warrior and Adept classes than the standard D&D ones; or worse the 36 some odd classes we had in the d20 Masque of the Red Death.



Blue Rose also took on some of the same issues that Ravenloft did.  That of being an outsider for one, or working for a cause of light vs. darkness.  People criticized BR's morality, but that is a perfect morality for Romantic Fantasy or Gothic Horror.

In the last couple of years we have seen a surge of books that fall under the term "Urban Fantasy" or "Horror Romance" and even "Chick-Lit".   Typically these books feature a strong willed female protagonist who sometimes makes mistakes but in the end finds her own inner strength.  Sometimes she gets the guy (or girl, or both) all in a world where magic, vampires, werewolves and other horrors are real.  Maybe she is even one of those horrors herself.  Plus many of the authors of those early Ravenloft novels are now "names" in this market such as Elaine Bergstrom, Christie Golden, P. N. Elrod and Laurell K. Hamilton.  Modern urban gothic fantasy is in Ravenloft's DNA.   Blue Rose as a concept supports this type of roleplaying very well.

So I sat down with my Blue Rose book and my d20 Ravenloft book and I started to notice too all sorts of places where they were the same.  So I had this idea, blasphemous as it sounds, to mix in Ravenloft with Blue Rose. I wanted to cast a shadow of Aldea, something is not right any longer. The Queen still holds court, lovers still walk hand in hand, and there are still adventures to be had.   But I had questions I needed to answer. Why has Aldea and Ravenloft "merged"? Or were they always together?
If they merged what was the catalyst? Why now?
What is the effect on the populace with this new influx of evil and dread?

One of the things I have wanted to do is bring Ravenloft out of "mists" and into a real world. Yeah I know that looses someof what makes Ravenloft unique, but I also like the idea of "horror is everywhere" and not needing to go someplace remote to find it.
By bringing Aldea and Ravenloft together I can have "days" and "nights" covered.  Aldea becomes a near perfect landscape with some deep seated malaise over it.  A dark cloud on the horizon.  Or as I call it in my games, "the oncoming darkness"

Here are my first thoughts.

The Races and other Groups
Humans are humans and remain untouched.

I plan to keep Sea Folk for now, but given my Lovecraftian background I will certainly introduce some dark spawn that plauges them. Something like the Shadows out Innsmouth or something.

Night People are the easiest to deal with since their creation is basically to fill that game playing niche of half-orcs. But they also serve other purposes as well, as a constant reminder of the dangers of dark magics and in the case of good and noble Night People, to remind the players and characters that you cannot judge a person by their birth. In all these regards they are nearly identical to the Ravenloft Calibans.

Both games describe these ersatz Half-Orcs much in the same manner. They are products of dark sorcery; they are feared, hulking brutes. I will use the Night People racial modifiers from the BR Core and the backgrounds of both races into one since there is no conflict between them.

Roamers will be replaced by the Vistani from Ravenloft. There is just so much information on the Vistani that it makes sense to use them in place of the Roamers. I will keep the Roamer name, that is what native Aldeans still call them. I will still use most of the information on Roamers from the World of Aldea book, in particular the sayings. Where they contradict is simple. The Vistani are a large group with many Tasques, something that is true for one in not true for the other. Or true depending on where they are. Or, let’s face it, neither group is very forthcoming with information to the giorgios. I have to decide whether or not to use the “Half-Vistani” race. In the Vistani lore there is ample evidence that these children are different than their full blooded cousins. And not using them robs me of a plot device where a young half-blooded Vistani goes on an epic quest to discover “her father’s people” and ends up discovering herself instead. Plus I love the Tarot work on backgrounds. So I will see if it can be adapted to use the Tarokka deck. Maybe when adventures get ready to go on their first epic quests a Vistani vardo comes to town and reads their fortunes to them (using the Ravenloft rules) and then shows them their character (Blue Rose rules).

Vata are still more or less Elves, or more to the point, the Sidhe of Aldea. Ravenloft has elves and half elves, but not a lot of them. My solution then is to go with Blue Roses’ idea and have all the Elves (Sidhe, Vata) be extinct. I have not decided with domains to pull in, but I have figured out that the Ravenloft Domain of Sithicus was the last Vata/Elf country before they were destroyed. Now it is a sad, haunted land.
I might remove the Vata’an and Vata’sha as races and instead use a feat to represent “Vata Touched”. Still thinking about that one really.

Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes exist as rumors or fairy tales only. They might have existed somewhere in the past, but no longer.

More on the lands and bringing these worlds together later.