In Search Of...TSR's R.I.P.

 Spend any time in horror RPG communities or the classic TSR communities; sooner or later, the topic of R.I.P. will come up.  But what is/was R.I.P., and why was it never published?

These are the questions I will try to answer on this special Halloween edition of In Search Of...

In Search Of...TSR's R.I.P.

So, what do we know about this game? Very little to be honest.

• It is modern-day horror. 
• Slated to be published in 1991
• Trademark was applied for in 1990.
• Written by Scott Herring [sic], Jim Ward, and Paul A. Linberg [sic]
• At least one accessory, Lost Souls, was planned and another, a set of cards, were mentioned.

And that is really about it. From the TSRArchive, we learned that it was going to be a boxed set with 32, 64, and 96-page rule books. Dice, cards and fold out maps. I am speculating here that the books were some combination of a fast-play Basic set of rules, complete rules, and possibly an adventure. But that is only a guess. There could have been Game Master's books and a creature book. IF we are to follow the clues from Top Secret, it would have been a Player's book (96), a Game Master's book (64), and maybe an equipment book or world guide.

This is only a guess. Afterall they misspelled two of the three authors on the cover. 

Scott Haring is known for his contributions to GURPS, Dragonlance, Mystara, and the Forgotten Realms. His contributions to Top Secret S.I., Agent 13 and Ghostbusters might interest us more here today though. 

Jim Ward was the creator of Metamorphosis Alpha; he also wrote a lot of material for D&D and then would later move on to various publishers, including Troll Lord Games.  In particular to this conversation Ward designed the "Tainted Lands" horror setting for Castles & Crusades. James died earlier this year on March 18, 2024.

Paul Arden Lidberg was one of the founders of Crunchy Frog Enterprises/Team Frog Studios. He also worked on many games and was part of the TSR West group with Flint Dille for a brief time. He went on to create the games Critter Commandos and Duel. Paul died on June 13, 2022.

Now we do know there is a history of TSR padding their product schedules.  David "Zeb" Cook recently stated at Gamehole Con that he would come up with names of products and other writers developers would have to figure out what that meant. This seems slightly more than that, but not by much. You can't even trust the art. TSR catalogs often had concept or placeholder art in place of a product. That is not an uncommon thing really.  The "blue" Rules Cyclopedia cover is a good example.

In the early 1990s we know TSR was feeling the heat from the new kid on the block, Vampire the Masquerade. I have been talking about the effects of that game and White Wolf all month long in my Ravenloft retrospective. 1987's "Lost Boys" and "Near Dark" showed that vampire movies were still popular and there were certainly rumors about the upcoming Francis Ford Coppola Bram Stoker's Dracula scheduled for 1992. Even Chill saw new 2nd Edition from long time thorn in TSR's side, Mayfair Games. The time was ripe for a supernatural game. 

We do know from many sources, notably Steve Winter, that next to nothing was produced for the game, beyond this cover mock-up. There are no files siting on a 5.25" floppy somewhere and no dot-matrix print out of chapter 1 or anything like that. I do think we have seen everything about this game, save for maybe some TSR inter-office notes or emails that likely no longer exist. 

There are two product codes that appeared in the TSR catalogs for this.

• TSR07404: R.I.P. Horror RPG
• TSR07405: R.I.P. Horror Card Game
• TSR07406: Lost Souls

Here is the text featured, along with the art from the cover.

"Nobody's safe. The undead disregard today's best high-tech security and surveillance systems. These demons attack helpless victims as they sleep - their electronic fences and computers buzz through the night. This horror and much, much more fill the R.I.P. role-playing game. This all-new game awaits horror fans with three rules booklets, full-color cards, dice and maps that spin a tale in modern-day terror."

This is our best clue to what the game was going to be about. But it is not the only one.

The R.I.P. Comics

Our best guesses at the tone and tenor of the game come from the R.I.P. Comics produced by TSR a couple of years before.  Two four-issue series were released. And because I care about you, my faithful readers, I scored 3/4ths of them. 

What can we say about the comics?

• There were two series of four for a total of 8 comics.
• Described as "Comics Modules." 
• Published around the same time TSR had a comics deal with DC.
• Each had some game related content, sometimes Top Secret/S.I. related, sometimes standalone. 
• Flint Dille, brother of Lorraine Williams, was the creative director. 

Flint Dille also wrote the Agent 13, Top Secret/S.I. tie-in media, Agent 13: The Midnight Avenger. 

Now I am being honest here, the comics are not very good. But that is fine, because I am not interested in that. Why I bought these was for the last section of the comics, the game materials. The comic themselves feel a bit like Tales From the Crypt.

In Issue #1 (I will just number these 1 to 8 for ease), has notes for adapting the Top Secret/S.I. part 1 by Scott Haring. This first section details the type of horror game you might want to run. There is nothing particular to the TS/SI rules here, just campaign modes.

Issue #2 shares the same art as the proposed TSR07406: Lost Souls book. This includes the Zombie Hunt game, with rules in the center and a play board on the inside covers, and tokens. Part 2 of our TS/SI aka Role-Play in Peace, section covers some new advantages and disadvantages. Mostly for dealing with the supernatural. They promise more are coming, just write to TSR West.

Issue #3 adds to the Zombie Hunt game with Zombie Rampage. For TS/SI we get some new skills and some Powers as described in the Agent 13 book. This game takes the Chill 2nd edition approach and has the Powers limited to "the bad guys." You know it would not stay that way for long.  Powers here are treated like Skills.  

Issue #4 gives us some monsters. Or at least I would like to say it does. The trouble is the text is small and printed on a color background that is almost impossible to read. I tried a lot of different filters and skill could barely read it. We get Vampires, Werewolves, Frankenstein's Monster and a Mad Slasher.

The Zombie Nation game, a continuation of the zombie games from Issue #1 is written by Paul A. Lidberg.

Issue #5 (or 1 of the second series) features more Role-Play in Peace with some Monster powers by Scott Haring AND a R.I.P. collector card game by Paul Lidberg, which could be the same as TSR07405: R.I.P. Horror Card Game listed above.

Issue #7 (I do not own Issues #6 or #8) includes a solitaire game called The Crypt by Paul Lidberg and a page of a new power (Cause Madness) for Top Secret/S.I.

Now, this certainly begs the question. Was the only material written for the R.I.P. RPG sitting before me right now?

The R.I.P. RPG

It would be folly to try and guess what the completed R.I.P. RPG would have been like, AND would we have called "Rip" or "Are Eye Pea?" But that doesn't mean I can't make some guesses. Especially given some of the Vampire:TM "catch-up" TSR was doing at the time with Ravenloft. For the record, "Are Eye Pea."

Obviously, the biggest, and maybe the most error-prone guess, is that the system used would have been some version of TSR's Top Secret/S.I. RPG. I mean there is no reason to assume it would have been this, comics examples aside, especially since TSR had a history of using a different system for each and every game. BUT maybe with the new Top Secret/S.I. TSR saw a way into modern games. The comics certainly give at least some lip service to this. 

My other "evidence" is the product codes. R.I.P. had the 74xx line and Top Secret/S.I. covered the 76xx numbers. Not that this is solid evidence save for the fact they were all "in production" at the same time.

I think a safer guess is that Vampires would have played a bigger role in this than what little evidence we have. I have stated in the my reviews of Van Richten's Guide to Vampires and Children of the Night Vampires that TSR was well aware of the growing popularity of Vampires and Vampire RPGs. While we know the the production teams were often siloed and unaware of what the others were doing, who knows what would have become of Ravenloft if R.I.P. had been a hit? Would Ravenloft still have been produced? Would we have seen Gothic Earth for R.I.P. instead? 

What can I speculate about this game?

Well, there are certainly tie-ins to the Agent 13 sourcebook. In fact, a 1990s update to that is not just a safe bet but likely the only safe bet. 

The Agent 13 novels are throwbacks to the pulps of the 30s, save without the charm of being from the 30s. I mean, they were throwbacks in the late 80s, but I am not sure they would have fared much better in the 90s. So, the new R.I.P., even if it builds on the mythos of that brand, would need to be thoughtfully updated. The Lemuria origins of the Brotherhood would still be fine. Even the evil takeover of the Brotherhood. Given the 90s, I expect to see more about the Freemasons, the Templars, and plenty of other secret groups. Agent 13 portrayed heroes and villains in terms of black and white. R.I.P. would likely do something similar. While other horror games of this time (Chill 2nd Ed, Vampire, Kult, SLA, CoC) were embracing shades of gray, they were all fairly dark. No one was "pure good," but I do see TSR, especially TSR of the early 90s, trying to push a "PCs are good guys" narrative. 

For monsters, I am sure there will be vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster(s), zombies, and very likely succubi. I would also expect to see all sorts of "high tech" monsters too, like brains kept alive via advanced machinery, "Borg"-like monsters, and maybe even monsters caused by modern problems like global warming and pollution. Would the monsters be well known to normal humans? I can see different campaign modes that allow this or keep them secret. I think our best evidence of this is to look toward Ravenloft for AD&D 2nd Ed. 

One thing that is very easy to guess is that I am sure there will be more skills regarding Occult sciences and powers that "agents" can take. These would be limited, but more skills than the ones seen in the Agent 13 book. Again, I think the model here would be what Chill or SLA Industries were doing in the 90s. 

I would also expect to see a re-print and expansion of all the different types of campaign settings mentioned in the comic. From humor to slasher flicks, to monster hunters to cosmic horror. It is the 1990s, but the X-Files are still a couple of years off (1993), so I am not expecting Governmental and Alien conspiracies just yet. I would expect a group of some sort the PCs could work with. Like ORION from Top Secret/S.I. or even SAVE from Chill.

Given what we saw in Top Secret/S.I., Agent 13, and later in AD&D 2nd Ed Ravenloft, I fully suspect that there was going to be some secretive shadowy organization bent on World Domination^TM, that is, if they didn't already control everything, whom the characters will have to fight the agents of. Whether this takes the shape of The Brotherhood or something more akin to the Dark Powers is difficult to guess. It is likely would be skewed more to the Brotherhood side.

In truth, we will never know. With 2/3rds of the writing team gone, the company gone, and the persistent suspicion that nothing was ever really produced for it there is not enough to go on.

But I think I will see if the idea has any legs all the same. Check back tomorrow.  

Links

• R.I.P. Modern Day Horror, TSR Archive
• Entry at RPGGeek.com
• RPGNet: Can anyone tell me about TSR's R.I.P. game?
• Grognardia: Two RPGs That Never Were
• R.I.P. Comics
• R.I.P. Comics
• Review of the comics
• TSR Was Planning to Launch a Comic Book Company in 1992!
• Crapbox of Cthulhu: Halloween POST-A-DAY, October 19, 2016
• Horror RPGs Historical review: Age of Ravens
• History of Horror RPGs (Part One: 1981-1990)
• History of Horror RPGs: Part Two (1991-1995)
• Authors
• Scott Haring
• James Ward
• Paul Arden Lidberg

RPG Blog Carnival

This post is my last entry for my October RPG Blog Carnival: Horror and Fantasy.. I hoped you enjoyed. I'll post a wrap-up for it tomorrow as well.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Review: Ravenloft Honorable Mentions

 Not full reviews really today, but some honorable mentions of books and accessories you can use with Ravenloft.

X2 Castle Amber (Basic)

I have talked a lot about Castle Amber and how it is a Proto-Ravenloft setting. Droping this into the Domain of Dread seems like a no-brainer to me. 

B7 Rahasia (Basic)

Likewise I have talked about Rahasia and this one come from Tracy and Laura Hickman. Content from this adventure has found its way into official Ravenloft products for 5e.

Heroes of Horror (3.5)

The lack of proper Ravenloft material for 3e can be partially remedied with Heroes of Horror for D&D 3.5. Though this one moves away from Ravenloft's quasi-Gothic horror and looks for something more D&D like.

Dread Metrol: Into the Mists - An Eberron / Ravenloft Crossover (5e)

Keith Baker, the creator of Eberron gives us an Eberron/Ravenloft crossover. Over 100 pages.

She is the Ancient: A Genderbent Curse of Strahd (5e)

I reviewed this in detail a while back. Great new take on the classic Ravenloft adventure. 

And a couple of really good map packs. Suitable for any edition: Castle Ravenloft Battle Maps and Tessa Presents 113 Maps for Curse of Strahd.

And that ends my exploration into Ravenloft for this Halloween. Who knows, maybe we will return again next year! Plenty of AD&D 2nd products left to explore.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 31

  Day 31, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Last night I pulled the last die to complete my sets. So what do I have here tonight?

OH! An owl d6 with bones to mark the numbers. How cool.

Wow that was fun. I might need to do that again next year. Hopefully Black Oak Workshop will have something new!

The Enchanted World: Night Creatures

 I wanted to have more of these done by now, but I fell out of the habit and it became easier not to do them. Well, how about I restart them. 

There are three books in the Enchanted World series that would be good for Halloween, but given my October Horror Movie Challenge is all about the monsters of my youth, this one is the most appropriate. 

Night Creatures

by Editors of Time-LIFE Books, 1985 (141 pages) 
ISBN 0809452332, 0809452340  (US Editions)

This one is also divided into four chapters. 

Chapter One: Perilous Paths through the Dark

We start out with a tale of Beowulf and Grendel, though from the point of view of Grendel and how it roamed the lands of Denmark for countless years at night. I am struck by the similarities between Grendel and Gollum to be honest. It also make Grendel's Mother seem more like some sort of Hag as well. It has a similar description to the Black Annis featured later in this chapter. A connection I have often explored.

We switch to tales of Nyx, and vampire bats, Hecate, and other creatures of the night. This chapter covers all sorts of night creatures. There is even a bit on Trows, which would have been great to have back in 1985. 

A Reckoning with the Fianna's Ancient Bane is the story of a young Fionn MacCumhal slaying a shadow creature on Samhain.

Chapter Two: Visitations from the Realm of Shadow

These creatures are the returned dead and ones from beyond the world of mortals. Smoke like ghosts and spirits and other minor phantasms to returned corpses bent on murder. The Night Hag, or Nočnitsa, of Eastern Europe plagued children at night threating to eat them. Their favorite meal was new born babies. Similar creatures were found in Scotland. 

There was also the Dream Lover, the Mara, who prefered to feed on men. All these creatures though are harmless compared to the mother of demons, Lilith.  Though I don't think Lilith was ever a blonde.

Even young women had to fear the dead's return with dream lovers of their own coming back to claim them as their brides. 

Chapter Three: Blood Feasts of the Damned 

Vampires are found in the myths and tales of every culture.  Tales from Iraq, Greece, Germany, Scotland, the Ukraine,  and more are detailed. Along with the various guises of the vampire. 

As varied as the vampires are all over the world, so are the means in which to dispatch them. A stake in the heart for some, an iron stake in the forehead for others. Sunlight for most. 

All of these creatures seek the blood of the living and often, the blood of those they loved.

This vampire chapter might some of the most well known material in the series to be honest. 

Chapter Four: The Way of the Werebeast

It is possible that shape-shifting humans to animals are the oldest sorts of monsters we know. Far more ubiquitous than ghosts, night hags or even vampires, the lycanthrope or werebeast is know all over the world.

Werewolves seem to be the most feared of Europe, likely due to the fear of wolves. In other parts of the world where other large predators live we find other werebeasts. In Scandinavia warriors would don bear skins and fly into a rage. We get the word berserker from this meaning "bear shirt." Likewise men of the Volsung clan would do the same with wolf skins. There is a bit here about shamans, but I wanted more.

In Japan the tales were a little different with wise creatures taking on the form of humans, or at least human like. There were also women who could transform into foxes. 

I am a little surprised there wasn't a significant amount of text on some of the shape-shifting monsters of India. But when you share a chapter with werewolves, werebears, and fox-women, expect lower billing. If any at all. 

Many of these tales are well know to anyone who has played RPGs, especially any horror RPGs. But a few might be new. Still I find little tidbits of information here and there that are wonderful to have. I must investigate the nočnitsa some more, and I am certainly going to revisit my own take on Trows. 

One thing that gets lost in the vampire and werewolf love of the last two chapters is all the varieties of hags mentioned here. Grendel's mother, night hags, mara, Lilith. Just great stuff honestly. Again, I should go back and challenge my notions on my Lilim demons. 

I also noticed how much this book looked like a Ravenloft book from the AD&D 2nd Ed era. Could be coincidence, but at one point I had this sitting on my freezer to take pictures and I had to double take to make sure it was not my Realms of Terror book. Too bad they are such odd sizes. I would buy and extra one and put it on my shelf of Ravenloft books.

This reminds me I really need to get back to covering these books.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 30

 Day 30

A spider venom d10!

Ok that is four complete sets. What does the last one have??

October Horror Movie Challenge: Zodiac (2007)

 A different one tonight. It is undoubtedly horror and I have been low-key obsessed with the Zodiac Killer for years.  This one features an all-star cast.

Zodiac (2007)

This movie features Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Dermot Mulroney, Chloë Sevigny, and Jimmi Simpson, all in key roles.

This covers the investigation of the Zodiac Killer by Robert Graysmith (played by Gyllenhaal) who wrote the definitive book on the case, The Zodiac. Ruffalo plays Inspector Dave Toschi (the real-life Dirty Harry) and Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The movie is long but covers the Graysmith book well enough (I read it back in the early 90s), to about 1983.  As far as scares go, there are some good ones.  And honestly one of the better movies I have watched this Challenge. Granted it is very different than the theme I had chosen this year.

I think the scariest was watching Jimmi Simpson at the end talking about surviving the Zodiac killer. 

Maybe I find this one scary because I have been following this one for so long. There is a new documentary on Netflix, I'll have to check it out.

For the record. I do think Zodiac was Arthur Leigh Allen, but that could be because I read Graysmith's book so long ago. But the evidence is kind of damning. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 41
First Time Views: 21

Advent-ure Dice: Day 29

 Day 29

Ah, my last d2!

October Horror Movie Challenge: Cat People (1942, 1982)

 I am a huge fan of the 1982 Cat People and I have known about the original one for years, but never saw it. Tonight I decided to change taht.

Cat People (1942)

Horror movies in the 1940s hit differently than other eras. They are slower, yes, but there is more of a feeling of psychological dread, I think. I mean, there is an obvious reason, of course. Film-makers of the time could use that and not gore or other features of the horror genre.

This movie is a bit slow, but it is still rather good. Simone Simon plays Irena, our Serbian Cat Person. Simon is also really good in this, displaying a kind of innocence needed for the role that you just don't get with Nastassja Kinski. 

There are a lot of elements of this movie that you will see 40 years later in the remake. The Cat People legend is largely the same, just changing the location where the legends happen. 

The plot is also very similar—closer than I expected, to be honest. The ending is pretty much the same, too. 

I watched this one on Amazon Prime and it looks like it was remastered. It is still black & white but very sharp and clear. 

This movie is also the originator of the Lewton Bus jump scare (at about 44 mins in).

I like how Irena's village's "Cat Women" are also described as witches. I could use that.

I was going to rewatch the 1982 version, but I ran out of time tonight.

Featured Monster: Lycanthropes and Cat Lord

I am fairly certain that Cat People (1942) had a little bit of influence on the weretiger of the Monster Manual, but I am absolutely certain that Cat People (1982) did influence the Cat Lord of the Monster Manual II. Some scenes of Malcolm McDowell remind me of the art of the Cat Lord. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 40
First Time Views: 20

Review: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (3.5)

Near the end of of the life cycle of D&D 3.5 people were beginning to suspect that a new edition was on the way. They were not wrong, but before that happened we saw some changes in the adventure format from Wizards of the Coast. Certainly a trend to more tactical maps. These last few adventures were all mostly re-visions of some of the classic adventures of old. Castle Greyhawk, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, Undermountain, and of course, Castle Ravenloft.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (3.5)

2006. by Bruce R. Cordell and James Wyatt. Based on Ravenloft by Tracy and Laura Hickman. Cover art Kev Walker. Interior art, Dave Allsop, Kalman Andrasofsky, Ralph Horsley, William O’Connor, Lucio Parrillo, Anne Stokes, and Eva Widermann. Cartography Jason Engle, Kyle Hunter. 224 pages.

For this review I am considering my PDF and Print on Demand copies

It is not a new edition of D&D unless we have new take on the classic Ravenloft. This adventure sees Ravenloft back in it's original home; not just in terms of the adventure published by Wizards of the Coast after Sword & Sorcery Studios license, but Castle Ravenloft, divorced from the Demi-Plane of Dread. This is the 3.5 revision of the original adventure.

Like the original I6 Ravenloft adventure, this adventure plunges players into the cursed land of Barovia, a realm dominated by a bleak atmosphere and ruled by the vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich. Adventurers take on the daunting mission of navigating Castle Ravenloft, confronting Strahd, and ending his sinister reign over Barovia once and for all.

The revamped (heh) Expedition to Castle Ravenloft expands on the original with enhanced encounters, new rules, and a more comprehensive campaign that immerses players in Strahd’s haunting domain. The new encounter system of 3.5 takes up the later half of the book, but makes it easy for DMs to plan out how they want to do their encounters. Given we are on the eve of 4e, this means which minis to grab and which maps to use.

The adventure is expanded into a mini-campaign of sorts. And really, that has always been one of the strengths of this adventure; its ability to do more. The adventure can cover 20 sessions, raising characters from 6th level to 10th or broken up into smaller sessions. It can even be run exactly like the original adventure as a straight forward 1 or 2 sessions of "Find the vampire and kill it."

While that is a great bit of flexibility for the adventure, I already did that back in the 1980s. It would be a shame not to use all the new great material here that Cordell and Wyatt (two excellent designers) have done here. There are new antagonists and new locations to explore. 

Barovia itself is a character in this module: a mist-laden, gloomy land filled with mystery, danger, and spectral beauty. Players are encouraged to explore its towns, ruined abbeys, and dense forests, meeting unique NPCs who add depth and lore to the journey. The encounters are varied and challenging, balancing tense dungeon crawls with narrative-driven encounters that test both the characters' skills and the players' wits. And then finally getting to Castle Ravenloft itself. A locale that has lost none of its "charm" over the years. 

We still have the Fortunes of Ravenloft here, among other classic notes expanded for this new adventure. And like the original, Count Strahd von Zarovich is front and center. Not just in the adventure but in the book as well. 

I have played and run the original Ravenloft many, many times. I honestly think this version is rather fun. It stays true to the original while updating the adventure is good AND providing more adventure as well. It is rare when a "remake" can improve, but this one does.

Even if I were to run Ravenloft again under the 1st or 2nd Ed of AD&D, I would still import ideas from this version to those, especially all the locales around the castle and in Barovia. The original adventure kinda just drops you in (not a big deal, works fine) but this one gives you more land to explore, more people to interact with. 

Strahd is still awful, tragic, powerful and one of the more interesting villains in D&D. Castle Ravenloft is still wonderful to explore filled with dangers both obvious and hidden. 

The art is amazing, and really the views of Castle Ravenloft alone in both art and maps makes this must have for any fan of the adventure. 

The adventure/book is divided into five major sections, four chapters and an Appendix.

Chapter 1 covers Adventures in Ravenloft. An overview of what one should expect to see (or do since this is a Dungeon Masters' book) in the area. While the demi-plane of Ravenloft is not used here, there are area affects due to Strahd and his evil.  This also features our first encounter areas.

Chapter 2 the Village of Barovia covers D&D's own "Hammer Hamlet." 

Chapter 3 details the Lands of Barovia. We have more encounter areas here and our "Fortunes of Ravenloft" options.

Chapter 4 is Castle Ravenloft itself.

The Appendix details some new feats, a new spell, and various magical items.

About the Print on Demand

Of all the Print on Demand products I have bought, this one might be one of the very best. It is the "Hardcover, Standard Color Book" option and it compares very well to the off-set printing ones of the same era. 

The pages are crisp and easy to read. The binding is solid.

I am pretty sure the idea to divorce Ravenloft: The Adventure from Ravenloft: The Demi Plane was a.) to get a new generation into the adventure in it's "original" form, and b.) maybe part of their larger plans for it moving away from 3.x to 4e. But I have nothing to back that up.

This is a great adventure by all accounts for D&D 3.x. It has everything the original AD&D adventure had and more.Maybe it is my "nostalgia goggles" (as my son would say) but I still prefer I6 Ravenloft.

This adventure also marks the end of the 3.x Ravenloft line. Next time we meet in the Land of the Mists it will be under 4th Edition D&D rules.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 28

  Day 28

A purple sparkly d12.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Ghostbusters

 Got a chance to check out the two new(er) Ghostbusters movies and I had a blast with them. The two questions that come up here are "Are they horror?" and "What do they have to do with D&D?" The first is "who cares, they have the trappings of horror" and the second, "yeah, for me they do."

Given that the two movies have the same cast and are continuations of the original Ghostsbusters (1984, 1989) I will talk about them together.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

This series follows up on the original 1980s with the estranged family (daughter and grandkids) of Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis). They move out to Oklahoma, where Egon had been hiding. There is a prophecy about the return of Gozer. The plot is a bit silly to be honest, but the story is a lot of fun.

What really sets this movie apart is the cast. Yes, we get Ray, Peter, Winston, and Janine back, all played by their original actors. Even a bit of CGI and Ivan Reitman playing Harold Ramis as the the now dead Egon. But the real stand outs are the new cast, especially McKenna Gract as Phoebe, the granddaughter of Egon. I have seen her in a lot of movies since Gifted (2017), where she played a seven-year-old math genius.  Here she is not far from that. She is a genius and the spitting image of Egon. 

We also get Finn Wolfhard as her older brother Trevor. He is sorta the comic relief here and that works. Paul Rudd is here playing seismologist turned science teacher. Carrie Coon plays mother (and Egon's daughter) Callie Spengler. New characters include the entertaining Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O'Connor). 

They have to battle Gozer again, but that is fine. Gozzer this time is played by Olivia Wilde and her voice is done by Shohreh Aghdashloo. I mean, what a combination. 

The most fun of this movie is watching all the references to the first two movies and other horror movies/shows, including Stranger Things. Lots of cameos; stick around for Sigourney Weaver. And special cameo/casting of  J. K. Simmons plays Ivo Shandor, looking and sounding just like Ketheric Thorm. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

This one is not quite as good, but it has some fun moments. This one expands on the Ghostbuster myths and makes the case for more sequels. Winston Zeddemore, now an entrepreneur, funds all sorts of Ghostbuster related technology and keeps the whole place funded.

The cast is the same with the additions of Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt. We even get the return of William Atherton as Mayor Walter Peck. For the record I have heard from people I know that William Atherton is actually one of the nicest guys you can ever meet.

There are good moments, the battle at the end is a lot of fun. The big bad, Gahraka is rally scary looking and that is great. Nice to see Dan Ackroyd is still crazy. 

Confession, I thought it was great that McKenna Grace's Phoebe was the hero of both movies. 

The first movie was dedicated to Harold Ramis and this one was dedicated to Ivan Reitman.

Featured Monster: Ghosts and Ghostbusters

These movies, even the originals, had no influence on the D&D books, but they had a huge effect on my games. I loved playing undead hunting clerics and even created special gens to fight and trap ghosts. Yeah, they're not original, but hey, I was 14. 

There are lot of ideas here for a game. Maybe a "Ghost Hunting" game for NIGHT SHIFT! 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 39
First Time Views: 19

Advent-ure Dice: Day 27

  Day 27

A purple d8

Advent-ure Dice: Day 26

  Day 26

A green witch's brew d6

October Horror Movie Challenge: Land of the Minotaur (1976)

As longtime readers will know I am a fan of Greek Mythology, it was my "gateway drug" to D&D. So to find a movie that combines horror, Greek Myths, and stars such luminaries as Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing, all before the Monster Manual was published (1976) sounds like solid gold for this year's theme. And it could have been...but I could not find on any streaming service under this name of the longer cut titled "The Devil's Men."

So today I was weeding through some of my boxed sets of questionable horror DVDs when I found it. Donald Pleasance even has top billing on the cover. Sadly the movie itself doesn't hold up the search I have been on for it.

Land of the Minotaur (1976)

I mentioned it is also The Devil's Men, was a Greek/British production starring Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing. In a turn around, Pleasance plays the good guy Father Roche and Peter Cushing plays our bad guy, cultist Baron Corofax.

The movie centers around the idea that a Minotaur is still somehow alive and worshipped as a god. OR it is really demon. OR it is just a statue what has jets of fire coming out of it's nose. Hard to say really.

A group of Archeology student go missing and Father Roche calls up his friend private detective Milo Kaye (Kostas Karagiorgis) to help him and survivor Laurie Gordon (Luan Peters) investigate.

They discover a cult lead by Cushing who sacrifices outsiders to the minotaur.

Standard cult fare really. There is confusion as to whether or not this minotaur is a minotaur or some manifestation of the Devil. Father Roche is able to keep the cultists (most of the village) at bay with a cross. Note: Father Roche is an Irish Catholic priest, but uses what looks like an Eastern Orthodox cross. 

They find the cult, and Father Roche blows up the minotaur (stone on the outside, soft squishy guts on the inside) using holy water.

Yeah it is not great, but not a bad little cult movie. The American version is 8 minutes shorter than the European version, as can be expected really. There is a whole scene I guess where Milo and Laurie have sex that is not on my DVD.

Featured Monster: Minotaur

The Minotaur of Greek myth was a unique creature. Thus it had certain gravitas or even a god-like quality about it. It was the monster in the labyrinth, whom sacrifices had to be made. Multiple minotaurs in a game make them just ogres with bull horns.

BUT the thing this movie does do well is show how terrifying a single minotaur can be to a group 0-level Humans. The factor in the whole Minotaur as a god thing and getting damaged by holy water, just make him into Baphomet. Now suddenly the movie makes much more sense.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 37
First Time Views: 17

Review: Van Richten's Arsenal, Vol 1

Ok. A bit of an odd one, but one I wanted to take time out to do.  I am still covering the 3rd edition era of Ravenloft, mostly published by Swords & Sorcery Studio. I didn't buy many of these books. After 10+ years of Ravenloft I was ready for something new. But I did buy a few in PDF. OR at least I think I did. I went back to DriveThruRPG and could not find ones I knew I had purchased. It was not until I plugged in my external drive of 3rd edition PDFs that I did find them and yes I had bought them on DriveThruRPG. No idea when (the file date is 2008), but they are all watermarked. 

As you can see with the cover to the right, the scan is not very good. Though my order number confirms it was purchased from DriveThruRPG (or maybe RPGNow). 

Van Richten's Arsenal, Vol 1

2002. By Andrew Cermak, John W. Mangrum, Ryan Naylor, Chris Nichols, Andrew Wyatt. Art by Jeff Holt, Brian LeBlanc and Talon Dunning. Softcover/PDF. 160 pages.

Of note, John W. Mangrum was very active in Ravenloft fandom during the 2e days. He was one of the main authors for the various Books of S___ produced by the Kargatane. Looking him up now I see he ended up with a few more official Ravenloft books under his belt. Happy to see that.

Ok. So why this book? Well it has a witch prestige class in it, so I had to buy it. 

Introduction: Like many of the "Van Richten guides..." this one works under the conceit of have been started by the eponymous hunter of evil and completed by his various protégés.

Chapter One: Stake and Silver. This chapter deals with variou mundane tools used to hunt the supernatural creatures of Ravenloft. 

Chapter Two: Faith and Fury. This covers new arcane and divine spells. There are quite a few good ones here too. Makes me wish this was an OGC book and not a licensed one. Spells are divided into offensive and defensive.

Chapter Three: Instruments of power. These are new magic items and other ways to enhance weapons.

Chapter Four: Bottled Lightning. Introduces alchemical devices and feats. It essentially gives us an alchemist class, or more to the point a way to build and alchemist out of any other class.

Chapter Five: Perilous Pursuit.  These are our Prestige classes. They include Alchemical Philosopher, Anchorite of the Mists, Avenger, Crypt Raider, Dirgist, Guardian Seeker, Hallowed Witch, Knight of the Shadows, Pistoleer, and the Stygian Attendant. The Hallowed Witch was why I bought the book but these all were very fun. In some ways I miss Prestige Classes. I did have a Dirgist at one point as an NPC. 

I should point out that this witch is again different than the witches that appeared in the AD&D 2nd Edition VanRichtens Guide to Witches. This witch for example HAS to be a spell caster first, and have both divine and arcane spellcasting. In 2nd ed the witch had to be anything but a spellcaster first.

This witch does have coven casting abilities too. 

Chapter Six: Tricks and Tactics. This covers how to plan investigation and battles with the supernatural, and extra-normal elements of the demi-plane. This includes dealing with the Vistani, and how to research. Some details on various monster types are also covered. Such as vampires, liches and lycanthropes.

DM’s appendix: NPC stat sheet and detailed background for Gennifer and Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove (The Weathermay Twins), George Weathermay, Perseyus Lathenna, Lord Balfour de Casteelle, Agatha Clairmont, Toret Johann Severin, and Jameld of Hroth. Each comes with a background, 3e stat blocks and "Dread Possibilities" on how these good hunters of evil may have become corrupted. No witches though. Maybe I should stat up Goodwife B of Kartakass above. I am not sure if I remember HOW to do a 3rd Edition character. I would give her the minimums of cleric or druid for her divine spell casting and the minimum levels of sorcerer. She feels more clerical to me than druid to be honest.

I do still like this book, though I lament that it is no longer available on DriveThruRPG and print copies are more than I want to pay for just for a casual stroll down memory lane.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 25

 Day 25

Nice. An orange d8. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: Living Dead Night

 I can't say for sure that the zombies in the Monster Manual are based on the zombies from Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," but so many of modern zombie lore is based on them it would be very difficult to tease apart what was Romero and what is say voodoo myths.  So tonight I am doing the original Romero classic and the new unofficial sequel. 

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

I have lost track how many times I have seen this movie. I mean, let's be honest there would be no "Walking Dead," no "Evil Dead," and certainly no "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" without this movie.

I don't think I really appreciated how much this movie had an impact. This is not even mentioning the casting of Duane Jones as Ben. You can see the DNA of this movie in nearly every single zombie/living dead movie made since.

The acting could be better, but it works. 

Festival of the Living Dead (2024) 

This one is billed as a sequel and an homage to the 1968 movie. It attracted me for a few reasons. First, it is a Tubi exclusive, so that is great. I love Tubi, and it has been great for me. Second, it was directed by the Soska sisters (who also make a cameo), and that is always a plus in my book. And it stars Camren Bicondova, who played Selena Kyle in the series Gotham.

This movie takes place 55 years after a huge zombie outbreak (that goes nameless). It is Ash's (Ashley Moore) birthday (and she seems related to Ben), and she wants to go to the Festival of the Living Dead with her boyfriend but has to stay home to babysit her little brother Luke (Shiloh O'Reilly). Her best friend Iris (Camren Bicondova) agrees to watch him. Ash goes to the festival with her boyfriend Kevin (Gage Marsh), his friend Ty (Andre Anthony), and twins Lindsey and Destini (Maia Jae and Keana Lyn Bastidas). Interesting that the Soska twins also hired another set of twins for this film.

Kevin drives but is doing drugs while the girls watch a livestream video of the festival where people are snorting metro dust. They nearly hit someone in the road, a zombie, it turns out, and they crash the car, and Linsey breaks her leg. 

Back at home Iris's friend Blaze comes over to get high and they decide to go the festival and use Balze's delivery truck to sneak in. 

Ash, Kevin, and Ty go to the festival to find help, but soon, it becomes obvious that there are more zombies. Some scenes are obviously inspired by the Romero movie, and even a couple that I swear was inspired by Stranger Things.

Iris, Blaze, and Luke find Destini walking on the road, and it is revealed that the zombie got Lindsey and bit her as well.

Zombies run rampant throughout the festival. Iris manages to find and rescue Ash. They all regroup in the medical building. 

Luke starts panicking and we find out he has lost his insulin, prompting Ash to go out to find some in an ambulance they saw on the way in. Iris joins her. 

Ty freaks out wants to kill Luke. Zombie Destiny attacks Kevin and Ty shoots him instead of her. Ty runs off and finds the glowing meteor. Zombies seem to avoid. Blaze grabs Luke and heads out. They are covered in zombie blood, so the zombies ignore them. 

More zombie craziness. Ash distracts the zombies so Luke, Blaze and an infected Ty can get to a and including Iris, leading all the zombies to the large burning man-like structure. Well. Buring Woman really. Ash saves Iris. 

Daylight comes and Luke, Ty, and Blaze manage to find the car, and zombie Lindsey.  She attacks Blaze and Ty runs off with Luke.  Ty drives off, but Luke grabs the gun and shoots Ty.  Lindsey bites Blaze, so he distracts the zombies so Ash and Iris can run away.

The army flies drones in to blow everything up. 

Ash, Iris, and Luke drive home. 

Okay, this was a fun flick. I wanted to see it because of Camren Bicondova, but Ashley Moore's standout performance was worthy of being Ben's granddaughter.  

Featured Monster: Zombies

Zombies in the Monster Manual are not as scary as the ones here. However, they are more akin to those in Night of the Living Dead, moving slowly.

The "living dead" of both movies and the ones in most movies are typically the "hungry dead" and more akin to ghouls. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 36
First Time Views: 16

Advent-ure Dice: Day 24

  Day 24

Dark purple d20

October Horror Movie Challenge: Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966)

 I hate it when I queue up a movie to watch, only to discover I had already seen it. I mean, I should have guessed, really. Mario Bava directed and starring Erika Blanc. It just didn't show up in my search here. But yeah, I have seen this one.

Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966)

Also known as Operazione paura (Operation Fear) and Curse of the Living Dead. Dr. Paul Eswai (Dr. Paul Eswai) is summoned to a 1900s village in the Carpathian mountains to perform an autopsy on a girl suspected to have been murdered. He gets help from local nurse Monica Schuftan (played by the always wonderful Erika Blanc). He soon runs into a village full of superstitious locals who all fear the Baroness Graps and a strange ghost girl named Melissa (we later learn is Melissa Graps).

There is also a village witch, Ruth (Fabienne Dali) and her lover the local Burgomeister Karl (Luciano Catenacci), who tries to protect those targeted by Melissa. 

We learn that Melissa died while trying to get help and has since cursed the village with her dying words.

The sightings and the fear continue and people die all over the place. Monica wants to get out, but Paul is still convinced there is a logical reason for everything.

We learn that Monica is also Baroness Graps' daughter and Melissa's younger sister. Ruth confronts the Baroness Graps and kills her for allowing Melissa to kill her beloved Karl. Monica, the new Baroness Graps, leaves with Paul.

Well. I was hoping for a new one, but not tonight. But seeing Erika Blanc is always a treat. It was also nice seeing the village witch as someone everyone went too for help.

Featured Monster: Ghosts, Spectres

One of those. Melissa is a vengeful spirit. She will keep killing until the conditions of her undeath are met.  In this case the death of the medium, her mother, who summoned her back from the grave.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 34
First Time Views: 15

Advent-ure Dice: Day 23

  Day 23

Witch's Brew d%