Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Urban Horror edition.
D&D is metal. But the gritty Urban Horror I enjoy is Rap with Metal. Two great tastes that go great together.
Make sense to me really. I was getting into more urban horror in the 90s when rap and hip hop were huge and nu Metal was on the rise.
Personally I believe that Metal and Rap/Hip-Hop have far more in common than they differ.
So how about we start where it started. More or less.
Anthrax and Public Enemy are as about as different as you can imagine. That is till you dig beneath the surface and realize they are saying the same things to their audiences. Public Enemy is more politically charged than Anthrax is.
Judgement Night. Not just a sub-par Emilio Estevez film, it is also a great urban battle song. Personally I always felt this was a better soundtrack for an apocalyptic battle scene between humans and demons.
Ozzy + Trick Daddy. Ok, Ozzy is only sampled in this. But this was one of the songs I had on repeat when working on the Ghosts of Albion game. My understanding is that Ozzy rather liked this.
I won't lie. I listened to Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" on pretty much repeat all throughout my time working the Buffy game. When I began work on Ghosts of Albion I switched over to "Meteora".
Linkin Park is pretty much the archetypical Nu-Metal band. An alchemy of rock, rap with bits of punk and grunge. Absolutely part of my soundtrack of the Apocalypse.
For shear oddness you can't beat the Gorillaz. One part Blur, one part LSD trip and a bunch of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. This doesn't really fit in the "hard rock" mode, but the trippy video is pure "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" crossed over with "Terra Primate".
Tonight we do a little self-celebrating and mark 2,000,000 hits to the Other Side blog. Yeah I know, a little self-aggrandizing, but hey. I pay the bills here.
I have talked about the history of this place before, so no real need to do that again. Let's just get to the videos.
I am not 100% sure, but it is likely that the name "The Other Side" came from this Moody Blues song. I had a newspaper article in my school newspaper back in 86-87 named "The Other Side of Life". My first web site was then called The Other Side. Kinda anti-climatic isn't it. But still I like the Blues and this was a good album for 1986.
Like the song, thought the video was a little lame.
Interestingly enough the next Other Side, my website, came out a little after this Areosmith song did. It was from 1994, the same year I moved to Chicago to work on my Ph.D.
I have been a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers since "Mother's Milk". The Otherside came out at a very, very weird time for me. I might talk about it sometime. or not. Have not decided yet.
Here is a new one for me. Sirenia. I know nothing about Norwegian symphonic metal, but I like the sound of this. It certainly has all the elements of things I like. This video is kinda cool.
If I had to be honest. Really honest. Well then I would have to stick with the Moody Blues story above. But I was rewriting my personal story then this is the song that really motivated me to name my lexical outlet to the world then I would have to choose The Doors and "Break on Through (to the Other Side)". Total cheat on the title too.
Red Sun Rising is another new band for me. They have this Alice in Chains feel about them that I really enjoy. I heard this one on the radio the other day when trying to come up with tonight's theme.
Hope you are all with me for the next 1,000,000 hits.
It is my pleasure to bring you another Guest VJ. Tonight we are honored to have Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams. He will be playing videos that relate to his newest RPG book "Leagues of Gothic Horror".
So here is Wiggy.
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Hi! My name’s Wiggy (also known as Paul Wade-Williams) and I’m the creative director and a partner at Triple Ace Games. Tim has invited me to guest VJ and talk a little about the music I listened to while designing and writing LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR, which launched on Kickstarter this week.
Truth be told, I’ve mainly been watching movies and listening to Gothic audio dramas while pounding away at the keyboard and watching the shadows for werewolves and vampires, but there is always time for music in the creative process. Maybe I’m a little anal, but I often create a playlist to match the product I’m working on, rather than accept whatever random tune my player throws up. Here are some of the tracks in that list.
Blue Oyster Cult — Magna of Illusion
This track is from my all-time favourite album—Imaginos. The lyrics are laden with layers of hidden meaning and weird significance—ancient prophecies, magic mirrors, alchemy, astrology, witches, magical ships! I’ve always had an interest in the occult(not to be confused with Satanism) and the entire album was essential listening—I never tire of listening to it! I love it so much there are references to it scattered throughout LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR.
Sheelanigig — Lost in Transitvania
My music tastes are quite eclectic. Most of my playlist is heavy metal or rock, but nestled among the albums are 80s pop, folk, movie soundtracks, and Mongolian throat-singing. I came across this band at the Shetland Folk Festival only a few months ago and immediately fell in love with their stuff. Writing can be a boring process, even if you love what you write, and this song gave me an excuse to chair dance while absorbing the Eastern European folk vibe that transported me at least part way to Transylvania.
Ozzy Osbourne — Bark at the Moon
It’s Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness himself! This song met all the criteria when writing a book on Gothic Horror—the heavy metal I love and an atmospheric (if occasionally camp) video replete with elements of the genre. I’ve listened to Ozzy for many years, and regardless of my mood there’s always a song to suit.
The Unguided — Deathwalker
Remember I said my tastes were eclectic? Well, here’s some Swedish melodic death metal for you! I admit I am not without bias in choosing this track—the band based it on my Hellfrost fantasy setting and I was lucky enough to collaborate on the lyrics. Despite its fantasy origin, the track concerns the rising of a powerful lich and his gathering support from the undead, an apt enough topic for Gothic Horror.
Iron Maiden — The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden, the first heavy metal I ever listened to. This track, from their third album, always reminds me of one of my favorite horror film—The Devil Rides Out. The beat is fast, hardly fitting for the creeping terror of Gothic Horror, but the content, Satanism, was perfect for writing the magic section. The track also reminds me of school (I was 12 when it came out), especially since 1982 was the date The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was published, the book that got me into gaming.
Dalibor Krigovský — Moriens Spiritum
Conveying mood to the reader is an essential part of writing. Gothic Horror isn’t slash and gore. It’s dark and moody. It reeks of decadence and decay. Capturing that unique flavour so GMs can convey it to their players in words was essential. Often I can get into the right mood without much thought—it is part of the job being a full-time author working on varied projects—but there are times when I need a boost. This track is heavy and brooding, perfect for immersing myself in Gothic atmosphere.
J. S. Bach — Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
More mood music! I’ve always loved this piece of music. Maybe I’m odd, but it immediately conjures up images of the lonely figure of Dracula (or Strahd von Zarovich) seated in front of an organ in his desolate castle or the Phantom of the Opera. It’s a very powerful and emotive piece that ebbs and flows, never failing to drag my mood along as it does so.
Tonight I want to focus on just one band, but one that I really identify with the entire OSR and nostalgia D&D movement.
The Sword hit my awareness in 2008 or so with their album "Gods of this Earth". Right around the same time this blog got going.
Like the retro-D&D/OSR/Nostalgia movement The Sword was a new thing that sounded like an old thing from the 70s. In this case a band that had a similar vibe to Slayer to sound like Black Sabbath. In any case it worked.
Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians was the first single from "Gods of the Earth". It sounds old school and the video is something right out of Ralph Bakshi. The biggest influence is obviously Bakshi's Wizards. Confession time. I am not a fan of Wizards. Never saw the appeal. I also don't care for rotoscoping.
If any song captures this retro-feel of The Sword the best it's How Heavy This Axe. The video even looks like something filmed the same day Black Sabbath filmed Paranoid or Iron Man. Plus this was also the theme song to +Zak Smith and gang's "I Hit it with My Axe". That gives it OSR street cred right there. Or it gave them cred. Not sure which.
What can I honestly say about Maiden Mother Crone?
Well for starters it is easily my favorite song from The Sword. Plus there are great allusions to Pagan myths and witchcraft. In true heavy metal cliche fashion it has a "mystical orb" at the end (3:30 mark). I am sure that was done completely tongue in cheek. But still it's pretty awesome.
I listened to this a lot when working on The Witch.
Tres Brujas or "Three Witches" came along later. It mixes in elements of Westerns, sci-fi, witchcraft (again) and Kung-fu (the TV show). So yeah...sounds a bit like the AD&D DMG.
Veil of Isis is a newer song. The video reminds me a bit of some of the videos of the later 80s, before Grunge took over. Still it's a pretty cool song.
You can find The Sword on the web at http://theswordofficial.com/
Ah Summer. When you are a kid there is nothing better.
I remember spending my summers playing outside, running around and of course playing D&D on the weekends all night long.
It was an innocent time really before we all discovered girls, drinking (drugs) and other ways to pass the time. I don't regret and would not change a single moment of those times.
Let's start this right with Rush's "Time Stand Still" I think it sums up what I want to say rather well.
Plus "Solstice" means "Sun stand still" so yeah. Perfect song.
And Aimee Mann was damn cute here.
Let's keep going with Rush for a bit. They are afterall the most "D&D" band I know.
"Subdivisions" spoke to everyone in my gaming group in a why that is difficult to quantify really. I didn't grow up in the suburbs (though I live there now) but the feelings are the same. Replace the video games in this video with RPGs and the message is the same.
Ok. So Canada in the Winter does not invoke images of Summer, but the video aside no song reminds me of playing D&D quite as much as Rush's "Tom Sawyer". This was my DM's favorite song. I think I have heard it 1000 times. One more time would be good too.
Ok I lied. "Fly By Night" reminds me of D&D maybe just a little bit more than Tom Sawyer. I remember one of the first big "D&D Parties" we had in Jr. High. My friend and DM Jon put a copy of Rush's Fly By Night into my hands and told me I had to listen to it. He did that a lot. It did change my life.
"Freewill" came to me at a very interesting time in my life. The song was something of an anthem for me, but not one I could shout out loud. 1980, I was 10 and just learning to play D&D. I was also becoming what I would later know to be called an atheist. D&D was my way to explore religious spaces; which is why I tend to play clerics, paladins and witches.
Fast forward to a little over 10 years later Rush releases a new album, Roll the Bones. I remember that some of the hard core Rush fans in college didn't care for it, but I loved it. I know some people hated the rapping in the song, but fuck them.
Isn't that what we do? Roll the Bones.
Tonight I want to welcome guest VJ Chrys Fey!
Chrys is the author a number of books including the her most recent The Witch of Death and the Ghost of Death.
I asked Chrys to come by tonight and share some songs whe was listening too or were inspiring while she worked on her books.
So without further ado, take it away Chrys. Witchy Woman by Eagles
This song was done ten years (1972) before Liberty Sawyer was born, but it could be about her: “raven hair and ruby lips, sparks fly from her fingertips-” Although there’s the mention of the devil, which Libby doesn’t like, she can’t help but dance to this fun song in her living room.
Jillian (I’d Give My Heart) by Within Temptation
This is the song that really gets me, my muse, and Libby pumped up. Ever since we stumbled across it ten years ago, Within Temptation has been our favorite band. They are a Dutch rock/metal band. The combination of Sharon Den Adel’s angelic voice and the dark, beautiful music is spellbinding. And if you’re a fan of Serenity/Firefly, you’ll enjoy the video.
A Witches Song by Ordo Funebris
The odd thing about this song is that no one can find lyrics to it but because it’s so beautiful, eerie, and mysterious, Libby loves it. On top of that, the video features work by her favorite artist Victoria Francis.
Detective Reid Sanders doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but when he’s faced with a crime scene that defies the laws of nature, he has no other choice but to start believing. And solving a magical murder involves working with a witch.
Liberty Sawyer embodies the look of your classic evil witch, so, it’s no surprise when she uncovers the murderer is a witch that she becomes Reid’s number one suspect. If she can’t convince him otherwise, more people could lose their lives to dark magic, including her.
Jolie Montgomery, a twenty-one-year-old woman, wakes up in an alley next to her corpse. She has no memories of her murder or the night she died. She didn’t even see the killer’s face before he or she took her life. Wanting justice, Jolie seeks answers in the only way a ghost can...by stalking the lead detective on the case.
Avrianna Heavenborn is determined to find the person responsible for a young woman’s death. She gets closer to the killer’s identity with every clue she uncovers, and Jolie is with her every step of the way.
But if they don’t solve her murder soon, Jolie will be an earth-bound spirit forever.
Chrys Fey is the author of Hurricane Crimes and 30 Seconds. She is currently working on the sequel to Hurricane Crimes that’ll serve as book two in the Disaster Crimes series.
When Fey was six years old, she realized her dream of being a writer by watching her mother pursue publication. At the age of twelve, she started writing her first novel, which flourished into a series she later rewrote at seventeen. Fey lives in Florida where she is waiting for the next hurricane to come her way.
You can connect with her on Facebook and her blog, Write with Fey. She loves to get to know her readers!
Tonight I want to pay homage to the years that really got me going D&D wise. 1980, 1981 and 1982!
So this morning I was reading Arlee Bird's blog Tossing it Out.
Lee is the brains behind so many great blog challenges including the April A to Z challenge.
This morning he was talking about music and it's relationship to people. For me though music has always been about the times it was in or what was going on when I heard it. The cue for me to switch gears tonight and focus on 1982 was his use of the fantastic Alan Parson's Project, Eye in the Sky. The meaning of the song of the same name is debated; is it about 1984, security cameras or something else. For me this song will ALWAYS be about the module B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. The "Eye in the Sky" in this case is the evil creature/god Arik and his ruby eye. This song was on constant rotation the entire time I bought and first ran this adventure.
From the same album is a song my younger brother and I loved, "Psychobable". To me the song was more about horror and nightmares and that certainly had a huge effect on the style of game I ran even back then. This was only compounded when I got my first copy of Chill.
This video is an odd one but I really like it. The creator re-edited an old Orson Welles student film to go with the song. For me it just fits.
Few albums are more "D&D" than Blue Öyster Cult's Fire of Unkown Origin and few songs more so than "Veteran of the Psychic Wars". Let's look at the song's pedigree for a moment. It was co-written by Micheal Moorcock, author of the Eternal Champion series. It is about the greatest, or at least the most popular of all the Eternal Champions Elric of Melniboné. The song also appeared in the movie Heavy Metal. On the releases I saw this was during the Taarna sequences. The song is an ode to any D&D character ever. It is practically a Grognard anthem. I would revisit the imagery myself during the years I was running my "Willow & Tara" game, Episode 5: Veteran of the Psychic Wars.
Last week I talked about how much Stevie Nicks influenced, well, pretty much everything I have ever written. "Leather and Lace" was another song from Bella Donna that I loved. This one I also connect to B3. In particular the love story of the Princess and the White Drake. In the original version of the adventure (written by Jean Welles) he was the bad guy. In the revised version (by Tom Moldvay, the hero of 1981!) they became lovers instead. I have to admit I like his version better than hers.
In the opposite direction of the sentiment of Leather and Lace we have Greg Kihn, whom I always associate with the start of the "video age". "The Breakup Song" was from Kihn's album Rockihnroll. The truth is, just like the song says, they just don't write 'em like that anymore.
This is one is kind of a cheat. I loved this song back in the day, but never associated it with gaming till much, much later. Donnie Iris' "Ah! Leah!" from Back on the Streets. Though it was out in 1980 I am sure I never heard it till 81. Like Veteran of the Psychic Wars this song became part of the "soundtrack" of music I listened to when working on the Buffy RPG and then later Ghosts of Albion. "Leah" was immortalized in my game universe as the name of the woman that married Tara's brother Donny in "Strange Sort of Homecoming" (which itself is named for a Sting song).
"Let me be the one to say when I've had enough..."
Sum songs capture an age perfectly. Others only capture the feeling, and in retrospect are perfect. Santana's "Hold On" is that sort of song. It's too Latin sounding to be really part of the early 80s. But yet here we are and this song is perfect at describing the time. The first track released from 1981's Shangó.
Got to concentrate, file away Every last detail Don't want to lose what's going down I want to remember everything I'm feeling Should time try fading or stealing something away.
What are your favorite memories from 1981 and 1982?
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos, where we wish a happy birthday to the White Witch herself, Stevie Nicks!
You don't have to know a lot about me to know that I LOVE Stevie Nicks. Tuesday May 26 is her birthday and we are going to celebrate here this weekend.
Whether with Fleetwood Mac or on her own no single artist has ever influenced my writing more. To this day if I am going to write something new about witches I put Stevie and let the words flow.
We first hear of Stevie Nicks in the 1975 self title Fleetwood Mac album. Stevie and then boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham had joined the band bringing Rhianon with them. Stevie had heard the story of Rhianon from a book, and only later heard of the Welsh Goddess. She would often introduce the song as "This is a song about an old Welsh witch..."
Stevie went on to record her first solo album. The enchanting Bella Donna. While many of us were already in love with her from Rumours and Tusk, this solidified her hold as the Queen of Rock.
"The Edge of Seventeen" came about because Stevie could not understand Tom Petty's wife's thick southern accent. Either way it gave us one of the enduring Stevie Nicks images, the White Winged Dove.
Fleetwood Mac was at their height when 1982's Mirage was released. The album had a number of hits but the most Stevie of all the songs was "Gypsy". Mirage my have been the swan song of the Fleetwood Mac that was, but Stevie never rose higher.
Shortly after the Mirage tour came to an end Stevie threw herself right into the recording of what would become, in my humble opinion, her greatest album to date. This is the album I had playing on cassette when I wrote the first draft of the witch class. This is the album I listened to on CD when I made my 2nd Ed. Netbook. And this is the album I listened to on MP3 when I wrote The Witch. The Wild Heart is one of the best albums ever. My memory of this album is I got it for my 13th birthday just as soon as it was out.
Featuring keyboards by none other than the Purple One himself, Prince, "Stand Back" is not very witchy, but I love it all the same.
"Nightbird" the song that launched a 100 characters. I wanted my witch character to be as awesome as this song and to look like Stevie. It was 1983, but it is still just as true today 32 years later.
This version from "Solid Gold" is still one of my favorites. In an age when artists were just lip-syncing their own songs Stevie was singing hers. She is joined here by her longtime back up singer, best friend and sister-in-law Lori Nicks singing the parts that Stevie over-dubbed on the album.
Stevie has spent years trying to escape the image of the "Witchy Woman" only to embrace it full on in season 3 of "American Horror Story". The finale for "Coven" was an episode featuring what can only be called a Stevie Nicks video. The song and the episode was called "The Seven Wonders". The album was Tango in the Night from 1987. The last Fleetwood Mac album I ever bought on tape. Yeah. We used to buy tapes.
You can watch the American Horror Story: Coven version below.
There are so many more of course. But that is good for tonight.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos and tonight we celebrate the best of what happens when Wisconsin and Scotland get together. Garbage!
Garbage is like the penultimate 90s band really. And perfect for the games I was planning and playing at the time.
I have mentioned before that by the mid 90s I was really burned out on D&D and wanted something new. That new ended up being various World of Darkness games like Vampire and Mage, but most of all WitchCraft. I made more than one witch that looked like Shirley Manson.
"I'm Only Happy When Rains" is exactly the sort of song that I had in mind when I was playing then. Alternative, hard, and a great lead singer. From their debut self titled album.
"Stupid Girl" showed that this band was no one hit wonder.
"#1 Crush" appeared on the Romeo + Juliet Soundrack, but that is not where I know it best. It would go on to later be the theme music to the British witchcraft serial "HƎX". I still consider it a "witch" song.
Garbage 2.0 was another breakthrough album for the band. Getting them quite a bit of critical acclaim and giving them their high chart topping songs in the UK.
"Push It" adds more electronica than their previous outings. The video has a nice homage to Village of the Damned.
"I Think I'm Paranoid" is pretty much the theme song for any Mage game I have ever played.
What is better than hearing your favorite band? Hearing your favorite band cover a great song.
"Because the Night" has been covered and recovered by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith (they wrote it), 10,000 Manics and Garbage with Screaming Females. The song is a passionate ode not just to a love but to the night itself. As a nyctophiliac myself, I can relate.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Sci-Fi Edition.
All week I have talking about Sci-Fi games and sci-fi themes. All of this has sent me back to the late 70s / early 80s when I was hard core into scifi and playing Traveller.
I had so many ideas back then for games. Most I'd never use or even admit to today. But back then they were awesome. You just have to take my word on that!
Again. This time was ripe for ideas in gaming. Anything seemed possible. I was already associating D&D and Star Wars together so when the 80s dawned, I threw MTV into the mix.
No one (except one other artist on my list tonight) looked more like a futuristic alien than Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls. "Space Age Love Song" was a lesser know, or at least lesser charting, song from their self titled album. But I always thought it was a great ode for the classic space age hero like Flash Gordon or John Carter.
Who was my idea of a Space Hero? It varied, but I knew his name. Major Tom.
Here is the other Alien artist on my list, David Bowie, in his Ziggy Stardust best, singing about our hero Major Tom in his "Space Oddity". This song appeared on his 1969 album of the same name. It was written as an homage to both Apollo 11 and 2001 A Space Oddity.
German born artist Peter Schilling heard "tell my wife I love her very much" and took his own stab at the story of Major Tom in "Major Tom (Coming Home)".
Major Tom finally made it into my games, but not till much, much later and as a riff on the movie "Lifeforce". Major Tom comes home but he is carrying a virus that starts a zombie plague in All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
You can also here/watch the original German version, Völlig Losgelöst and the really-cool-even-though-it-is-a-commercial version by Shiny Toy Guns.
Back to Bowie for bit. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars just BEGS to have a game made from it. Ziggy played guitar...
Call me crazy. But I always wanted to write a game called "Space Truckers". It would be the unholy fusion of late 70s sci-fi and late 70s "trucker chic". It has not been an easy sell. Regardless of how the game comes out in needs to play like Deep Purple sounds.
Few rock acts can speak credibly on matters of scifi, let alone science. Few acts are Queen.
Brian May, the lead guitarist, writer and sometimes singer of Queen is also Dr. Brian May. He has a Ph.D. is astrophysics. "'39" from 1975's A Night at the Opera is song that grabbed me from the first time I ever heard it. The story of the song is that a man and 19 other astronauts leave on a spaceship to discover a new world. They return with good news of a new world. For them it's only been one year, for the Earth and his family it has been much longer. His wife is dead, his daughter is an old woman and his own grand children are there to meet him. "Ne'er look back, never fear and never cry."
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Supers Edition.
I have been thinking a lot about supers this last week or so. I have a big "deep dive" I want to do this summer with supers and of course the Summer movie season starts tonight with The Avengers.
This got me thinking about 2003-2005 (well that and a post at Age of Ravens that I will get too later) when I was working on a big Supers/Supernatural crossover. Not Supernatural the show, but rather a world, or two worlds, that were "light" and "dark". The dark world was my regular WitchCraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion game. The light world was a world populated by Super Heroes. Characters in one world had a counterpart in the other.
It is from this effort that I began working up a number of different versions of Willow and Tara and it gave birth to Justice. Of course I had a soundtrack.
"Heroes" was not just the centerpiece of this time period, it became the name of the first adventure. Honestly, there is very, very little about David Bowie's singing and song writing that doesn't inspire me.
Heroes always reminds me of the 1977 movie "Heroes" that starred Henry Winkler, Sally Field and Harrison Ford. The movie was not about supers, but about a soldier from Vietnam and the loss of his dream. I remember seeing this movie dozens of times. But what always, always got me in the end was when the credits closed in on a broken Henry Winkler (he came to the reality that his friend was dead) and a crying Sally Field was "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas from their prog-rock classic Leftoverture. I put this in my top 20 of all time favorite songs. Like the movie I always felt that this song was what the characters and situations I were working on were about; Noble, but deeply flawed heroes. The fact that it is use every year for Supernatural only cements it's credibility for my games.
What I wanted to say about my next song was "Fuck you P!nk is my jam!" but you all deserve much better and more than that. P!nk is freaking fantastic. I bought Missundaztood for my wife and I promptly left it in my car where I listened to it everyday. "Just Like A Pill" is not about supers. But it did give me an idea on an old comic/cartoon trope, the drug-addiction episode. Plus if I am going to mix supernaturals with supers then drugs seem like a no brainer.
What became something of a theme song to my later Buffy games, this also captured something I wanted to capture in my own games. These characters, these supers are as removed from humanity as the monsters they fight. I wanted to capture what is was to be human.
Rob Zombie may not have the answer, but in "More Human than Human" from White Zombie's Astro-Creep: 2000 he knows what question to ask.
It's a wicked world we live in. It's cruel and unforgiving. No one raps it better than The Transplants in "Diamonds and Guns".
If you need a theme song for an end of the world Armageddon event then you can do worse than Disturbed and their cover of Genesis' "Land of Confusion" from Ten Thousand Fists. The video was animated by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, so it also has "street cred". If I need to write an adventure about destroying the world I put Disturbed on first.
Mixing Supers and Supernaturals is the Reese's Peanut Buttercup of campaigns for me; mixing two different things together to get something that is better than either on their own. Or at least something new and exciting.
EXACTLY like "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy and Anthrax. Rap meets speed metal. This gets me pumped. Just like Chuck D says "these lines are dope".
In truth I could do an entire night of rock/rap crossovers and talk about how they influenced my horror writing.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos as we continue the Vampire theme for Vampire Month here at the Other Side.
For this last FNV of Vampire Month I wanted to do something special.
Rarely does a movie come around that captures the feeling of the times quite like 1987's. My DM had moved to Chicago, I was in the middle of my world changing campaign that would later become part of The Dragon and The Phoenix and I was getting ready for college. I came up to visit and we went and saw this film. It was full of cool vampires, great music and fantastic ride of a movie. Yes it was taking advantage of the Anne Rice craze of the time, but it did more than that. It took the stock 80s teen movie and turned it into something else.
Given I was on the edge of my Ravenloft years this was the final push I needed.
The soundtrack to this movie fueled many nights of my early college days. To this day it still holds a special place in my heart. No one song is fantastic, but as a collective they are more than the sum of their parts.
The movie opens up with the Echo and the Bunnymen covering the Doors "People are Strange". I like this version and it is a worthy version, but you just can't beat the original in my mind.
Another song that helped make this soundtrack so iconic was Roger Daltery's cover of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". I have a confession. I don't care for Elton John much, but I have always liked this song. Hearing it sung by one of my favorite front men made it an entirely new song. Is it better than Elton's version? Probably not. But I can't hear this song and not flashback to a time between 1987 and 1991, holding a beer and watching the sun set.
"I Still Believe" by Tim Cappello is an interesting choice. I am not really a fan of the song per se, only the memories it brings up. Though it is also the only song where the performer appears in the movie. Tim Cappello was known at the time for being a really big and cut guy. So oil him up and stick him into the movie.
Looking back nearly 30 years later, "Cry Little Sister" is not a great song. It's even a touch melodramaic, overwrought and a little over produced. So the perfect theme for 1987.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos as we continue the Vampire theme for Vampire Month here at the Other Side.
These songs are ones we used in our games for the few times I used music. I do sometimes like to set a tone with some music before playing, especially when I am doing horror.
Back in the day I wrote an adventure for my group called "Ravenloft III: The Necropolis". Yeah, it was not originally named, but some of the things in the adventure later appeared in other adventures and games including what would later become the biggest "vampire game" in my life: Buffy.
The Who's Behind Blue Eyes was the "theme song" for the main anti-hero of the tale. A vampire that you were supposed to feel sorry for and help.
Queen has cemented their legacy as one of the best rock bands ever. But there was a time when this was not the case. Undaunted Freddie and crew still took risks with this song, "Who Wants to Live Forever", from the album A Kind of Magic which also served as the soundtrack to the movie Highlander. Of course a different kind of immortal was featured in the movie, but the song works for either. If you have not listened to this album I suggest you do so.
Yes it is cheese pure and simple, but Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell is one of the very, very few albums I can play D&D too. In fact my Freshman year in college I ran Ravenloft I6 while playing this album.
Also Meatloaf should get special mention here since the video for Bat Out of Hell premiered on Friday Night Videos before it did on MTV.
Not much else on this album is D&D-ish or even Vampire-ish, but this song still has a special place in my black heart.
The 90s began with me playing AD&D2nd ed and mostly Ravenloft. The 90s ended with me, presumably searing off D&D forever in favor of C.J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG.
In between those two times I played Chill 2nd Ed, Mage the Ascension and of course the most 90s of all 90s angst filled games,
Vampire the Masquerade.
If there ever was a "vampire band" it was Bauhaus. No band was Gothier and Bela Lugosi's Dead is almost self-parody. I am sure there were tons of Vampire the Masquerade that looked just like Peter Murphy.
No else one "got" the whole vampire vibe better than Concrete Blonde.
From the album of the same name Bloodletting was a bloody valentine to Anne Rice.
Another love letter to Anne Rice is Sting's Moon Over Bourbon Street.
Blue Öyster Cult was a huge influence on I think a lot of people's early gaming.
No angsty vampire or Victorian sex symbol. This is Nosferatu.
And let us not easily forget "Anne Rice's Dracula", I mean Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula from 1992.
Inspiration will sometimes come from the oddest places.
Take for example the case of Eric Burdon, The Animals and War.
I "discovered" Eric Burdon while going through a stack of old 45s back in my teens. The Animals' song "House of the Rising Sun" painted such an evocative picture for me that I was obsessed with it for years.
Fast forward to the late 90s early 2000s. I began listening to more of Eric Burdon's "new" band, War. "Spill the Wine" was pretty much on constant rotation for me for the longest time. Combine these two and a vista was painted for me in sharp relief. Eric Burdon has the distinction of being the only living person I have stated up as an Occult Poet, he is also the only character I have used both in my Willow & Tara based Buffy game and my lighter tone Hex Girls game.
House of the Rising Sun is a haunting song. It is no surprise to me that it was used in the teaser trailers for American Horror Story Coven last year. For me the House was a house of ill-repute, but it became something more; something much darker. In my games Burdon found the house and uses his occult powers to keep others away.
Don't let me be Misunderstood also had a similar effect on my writing. You could almost construe it as an adventurers lament and not just a man to his lover.
We Got to Get Out of This Place. Vietnam or "Subterranean Fantasy Fucking Vietnam".
Bloggers have spent thousands of pages of text on analyzing the pulp writings of old and their effects on the genesis of D&D, but what about the music? I saw just like the late 70s and 80s captured the mood of the time and D&D, the 60s are what influenced the authors of the games.
Have you ever played a gnome? I have played one and that was during the start of D&D 3.0. Jassic Goodwalker. Jassic was a long haired overfed leaping gnome with a fondness for wine, song, and women. Spill the Wine was the song that gave birth to Jassic. Never played a gnome after Jassic, but I would dust of his sheet in heartbeat.
This week I have a special treat. Well at least for me.
Tonight features what must be the quintessential videos and songs of what was known as "Sword and Sorcerery Rock".
And the lord of all of these was none other than Ronnie James Dio!
He fronted Black Sabbath, Rainbow and his own band Dio. He was a rocker and showman and by all accounts a great guy.
So here we have some of his most "D&D" songs ever. These were huge inspiration to me in the day and then again later one when I was working on newer games.
Man on the Silver Mountain might just be one of the first "Sword and Sorcerery" songs recorded by a "metal" group. Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple and after hearing Dio sing wanted him for his new band, Rainbow. Of course the reasons Deep Purple had problems continued to plague Rainbow, but not before we got Man on the Silver Mountain.
Dio left Rainbow and about that time Ozzy was kicked out of left Black Sabbath. Heaven and Hell is considered to be one of the penultimate Dio-fronted Black Sabbath songs.
Black Sabbath and Dio parted ways, but that gave us one of the best 80s metal bands and early darling of MTV's metal playlist. Many nights when playing D&D we had to stop to watch Holy Diver or The Last in Line.
Rainbow in the Dark became something of a theme during my Buffy playtests.
Welcome to a special Friday the 13th Friday Night Videos!
Let's talk about superstitions, bad luck and bad mojo tonight!
Writing about witches and magic I like to include superstitions in my games and have my characters follow them. Gives a little color to the character and separates them from the other characters a bit more.
First up is the one and only Stevie Wonder.
I will be honest, I LOVE Stevie Wonder. For Once in My Life, My Cherie Amour, Talking Book, Songs in the Key of Life, these are some of my favorite albums. One of the best songs from Talking Book is Superstition.
If you can find a harder case than Mike Ness then you are likely talking about Johnny Cash. Sometimes I think he wallows in self-pity but Social Distortion's Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell is still a hell of an album. And it gave us this song, Bad Luck.
Cream is a group that really had a influence on my writing. I don't know why, it's just something about their blues infused rock and psychedelica that really spoke to me in the 80s. Plus Eric Clapton is God. Let's just all be honest here. This is one of their bluesier recordings, Albert King's Born Under a Bad Sign.
Pete Yorn's Ever Fallen In Love Someone was part of my Sojourn in Hell soundtrack and thus was on constant play while I was working on Buffy and Ghosts of Albion. It also struck me as a "bad luck" song.
Here is something. I LOVE the Police. Really. I have seen them in concert, seen Sting something like 6-7 times. Yeah I am weird like that. But what is weirder is how much some of my own writing from the 80s has obvious and fairly overt influences from the Police.
Here is an older one, from Reggata d'Blanc and written by drummer Stewart Copeland, On Any Other Day. This was my favorite album for the longest time.
Expect a Police night one night.
Another really influential album on my formative years was Who's Next. Here is John Entwistle having a really bad day in My Wife.
Another influence on my writing (but not so much on my playing) was Frank Zappa. I might do a Frank Zappa night, but until then here is his son Dweezil (who is really cool, met him years ago) and the title track to the most under rated album from 1986, Having a Bad Day.
Tonight I want to welcome my very first Guest VJ.
Back on the original FNV guest VJs were a staple. Usually they had something to promote, a new movie or TV show, or they were pop-culture icons.
Tonight I want to welcome my very special guest Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, author and designer of new game WITCH!
I featured WITCH this morning on my Kickstart your weekend post so please check that out.
So without further ado here is Liz!
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Hi! I am Liz and I was asked by Tim to guest VJ and make a playlist based on my game WITCH and what I listened to while creating it. This was difficult and I spent a lot of time agonizing over my Spotify playlists and YouTube history before I came to this core essence list. I hope you enjoy it.
Florence and the Machine - No Light, No Light
When I need to get in the mood for writing I love listening to beautiful things and for me that is Florence and the Machine. Their lyrics stay with me and make me think. No light, No Light is no exception. It is a simple love song with beautiful lyrics. “You are the night time fear, you are the morning when it’s near, when it’s over you’re the start, you’re my head, you’re my heart.” When creating WITCH, the fluff pieces that are meant to tempt and entice readers, I try to emulate what I feel when I listen to Florence and the Machine
Lana Del Rey - Gods & Monsters
Lana is so apathetic in all her songs, it is brilliant. I am a pretty passionate person, at least I like to think so, and Lana is the perfect Yin to my Yang. Furthermore, the subject matter of her songs is darkly shallow, the perfect mood for a simple noir setting- smoking a cigarette, sipping a martini, and trying to hide the run in your stockings. Lana Del Rey just works for WITCH, she’s mysterious, deceptively shallow, and seductive- just like magic.
Johnny Cash - I Hung My Head
Anything Johnny Cash was the soundtrack to my university years. He is a fantastic storyteller. His voice conveys so much emotion, it’s clear and it’s strong. I try to emulate Johnny when I write and listening to him clears my mind. I Hung My Head is one of my penultimate favourite songs by Mr. Cash, it is a simple story of utter tragedy. It makes me think a lot about WITCH, what would you do if you did something so stupid, what would you give up to get out of a stupid mistake you made?
Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen
We’re shaped a lot by our parents. I wasn’t the coolest kid in school so, when I wanted to get into music, I asked my mom to buy me “cool” tunes (big mistake). She came back with Fleetwood Mac. While this didn't make me the most popular kid, I am now happy she did. I love Stevie Nicks and she helps me when things just aren't working the way I want in WITCH. Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac are my editing music. They get my head bopping, they allow me to let go of crappy pieces of text I through were brilliant weeks ago, and the help me get work done.
Shireen - Unmarked
Shireen is actually a band who’s lead singer I know pretty well. She’s my friend and her name is Annieke and she has the voice of a siren. Normally, when you meet people and they tell you they have a band you cringe a bit. (Note: This normally has nothing to do with the band and more me just being too judgmental). However, when I heard Shireen I was sold. Their music is amazing and haunting. I ended up listening to this one track so much while working on our Kickstarter Campaign. It’s a perfect song for WITCH (especially if you take the lyrics a bit too literally).
Tim here again. Thanks Liz. That's a great playlist.
Are you interested in being a Guest VJ here at Friday Night Videos? Send me an email at timothy.brannan@gmail.com
Tonight I want to feature videos from the soundtrack "A Sojourn in Hell". Never heard of it? No one has. It was a collection of MP3s I listened to while I was working on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG and then later when I was writing Ghosts of Albion.
Some of this music also fueled my playtests of Buffy with games that became part of The Dragon and The Phoenix, my alternate Season 7 of Buffy.
The Wallflowers were at the height of their popularity at the same time Buffy was. So I always associated this song with Buffy's last good season (season 5). In my games I always wanted Buffy to fake her death so she could leave Sunnydale and start over. Maybe with someone that looked like Jakob Dylan.
Around the same time we were hit with the death of a performer that actually meant a lot to me and my gaming life, Warren Zevon. I mentioned in the very first FNV that "Werewolves of London" was one of my favorites and the album Excitable Boy was thrust into my hands by my DM with the instructions to listen to it before our next game.
Lawyers, Guns and Money was one of those songs that just stuck with me. This version is not by Warren Zevon, but by his son Jordan with the Wallflowers (again). Of course the lead singer is the son of Bob Dylan. This is from the Warren Zevon tribute album, Enjoy Every Sandwich. A line that he gave to David Letterman when he learned he was dying of cancer. Sage advice really.
Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory was just one of those albums that came into my life and grabbed every bit of my attention. I admit I have always enjoyed the mashup of hard rock and rap. Public Enemy's Bring the Noise with Anthrax is still one of my all time favorite songs.
"In the End" was just one of the those songs and one of those videos that captured exactly what I wanted my games to sound like.
Spend anytime here and you know I LOVE old horror movies. Especially sexploitation, Euro-sleaze. No one is better at than Jean Rollin and no appreciates this more than our next artist Rob Zombie.
Hellbilly Deluxe was an album I got for my 30th birthday and I listened to it on pretty much repeat for the next four years. Living Dead Girl was what my group always thought would be Buffy's theme song, but really there is a lot here that also influenced Ghosts of Albion. The Charlatan archetype, which didn't make it into the final book, is based on Rob Zombie's character in this video.
This was also one of the first MP3s I ever bought and I put it on the Sojourn in Hell disk.
In the early 2000s Chris Rea seemed to be everywhere for me. I am not sure why a ten-year old album, Road to Hell, was so popular again, but it was. For me the song "Road to Hell" was the title track of Sojourn in Hell at least in spirit. One day I'll revisit this and maybe even talk about why it was called Sojourn in Hell. But until then here is the title track and partial inspiration for my Buffy adventure Road to Hell.
Finally for this set we have the 2007 update of the 1994 Megadeth classic, "À Tout le Monde". I have the 1995 Youthanasia version on the disk, but this version actually captures the feel so much better. A little faster, a little louder and 100% more Cristina Scabbia. If there something I like more than rap with my metal it's Goth. Not only is her French better than Mustaine's, she is a lot better looking too.
Ok. I lied.
I said Goth and immediately thought of this one. Not Another Teen Movie is actually a send up of the teen movie tropes in the opposite direction than Buffy was. Tainted Love of course was huge hit for Soft Cell back in the 80s and in the 2000s Manson made it his own. I actually enjoy how he is not taking himself very seriously in this. I mean really if the Rodney Dangerfield reference wasn't enough. You can be dark, scary and all gothy but that doesn't mean you can't have a sense of humor about it too.
Welcome to the Friday the 13th edition of Friday Night Videos!
If Iron Maiden represents AD&D 1st Ed. Then Original D&D is Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin were the pioneers of what would become "Hard Rock" and even "Heavy Metal". Though it would take bands like Black Sabbath to really provide what we think of when we consider 70s and 80s metal.
Led Zeppelin was heavily influenced by jazz, blues and folk music. Plus a rather healthy dose of themes from J.R.R. Tolkien, they have long been associated with the 70s occult scene (backward masking, drugs, lyrics) and by association D&D.
Let's start with what was start for many my age, Led Zeppelin's 4th album from 1971. Sometimes called "4", "Sticks", "Zoso" or "Symbols". I prefer "Zeppelin IV" myself. This song was on the B side and is often overlooked due to the fantastic set on the A side. Pack your bags for the Misty Mountain Hop.
The same album gave us two other greats. Well it gave us a lot of greats, but two in particular.
Honestly I doubt there is a more D&D song than Battle of Evermore. This song features the amazing vocals of Sandy Denny, the "fifth" symbol on this album.
Zeppelin IV also gave us one of Led Zeppelin's most enduring, if not overplayed song. Stairway to Heaven.
This one song fueled more D&D games of mine than I carry to consider.
Going back a bit to 1970's "Led Zeppelin III" another great song is The Immigrant Song. What it lacks in length it makes up for in Saxon fueled energy.
Finally no Led Zeppelin discussion can happen with out a nod to the near Moorcock-like visuals of Kashmir from 1975's Physical Graffiti.
This barely scratches the surface of their catalog.
