The Power of the Witch & Witchcraft: Myth and Reality

A great little video from England in 1971.

Talks about witches and witchcraft but gets it all confabulated with satanism.  It does feature noted witchcraft experts Alex Sanders and Doreen Valiente.

Still though, exactly the sort of thing I would have been watching in the 70s and 80s when I was gaming and playing wizards, priests and witches.




Another one from around 1998 is Witchcraft: Myth and Reality.




It is a bit more even handed.

Watch these and you will get an idea of the sort feel I wanted in The Witch and Eldritch Witchery.

The Greater Good

I'll admit it. I am a total Harry Potter fanboy.
Loved the books, loved the movies, loved the hype.  JKR can do no wrong in my eyes and I hope she sleeps on a bed made of gold like Smaug (though in truth she supports more charities than most groups of people).

I have read the books a number of times. Have seen all the movies multiple times and I want to throw it out there that if ever a Harry Potter RPG ever gets made then I want my name on the short list of authors.

So anytime there is something new in the Potterverse I am pleased.
The newest new thing is a fan movie called "The Greater Good".

It deals with the end of the friendship and relationship between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald and the lasting effect it had on the Dumbledore family and eventually on a boy named Harry Potter.
This 17 minute film is based around a brief narrative in The Deathly Hollows.

Watch it and make the next magical battle between wizards you have this cool.



Links

• Home page, http://www.thegreatergoodfilm.com/
• Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/harrypottergreatergood

Just Talkin' 'bout My Generation

Gary Greenwald and Phil Philips talk about the evils of toys from the 80s.

Just watch.



Shorter version here:


Holy crap!
I have never seen so many jumps to conclusions in my life.  Followed only by how many words they get wrong.  Or details of the toy lines.  Or anything related to reality.

Can we stop using the word "Occultic"!! "Occult" is all you need.
It's "Eternia" not "Ethernia". "Necomancy" not "Necromology". It's....oh I give up.

I love how neither one of these idiots can tell the difference between reality and cartoons.  Or how "D&D pieces" will scream when burned.

Seriously. You have to watch this. It's insane.

Makes you wonder what they would think of my book!

Don't forget, you can win a copy of my books.  Just two more days!
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/11/post-2000.html

BAMF Girls Episode 12

Yeah. I need professional help.
But BAMF Girls 12 is up.


I really should stat them all out for some system.
Maybe for Tacky, Tawdry and Tasteless.

Everyone loves Sparlock

I just discovered JaclynGlenn on YouTube and she discovered Sparlock.


She rips the video too.  Watch her channel, it's great.

"The new witch is adorkable"

If you have not been watching the BAMF Girls Club on Comediva then you are missing out.

The premise is that Buffy, Hermione, Katniss, Michonne, Lisbeth and Bella are all sharing a house in a reality show ala the Real World.

Episode 7 features a familiar witch!
http://www.comediva.com/bamf-girls-club-ep-7



Episode 8 though might have the best line in series.
http://www.comediva.com/bamf-girls-club-ep-8


Lisbeth: "I'll give him a special tattoo, 'I am a sparkling douche-bag.'"

I think the actresses are great.  I have to do a double take any time I see "Hermione" in that Allstate comercial. ;) My boys love the show too.

I'd love to build a game around this idea.  Players take any character from any media and throw them all together in a house and make them try to get along.

Something like Cortex+ would be the serious choice, but I am thinking something more along the lines of QAGS or Macho Women With Guns.

What game system do you all think would work the best?

Anyway.  Watch it. It is funny as hell.

A Reality Show I can like

This looks so funny.



Love the Hermonie and Lisabeth.

Here is Episode 1.

Sherlock Holmes

Been on a huge Sherlock Holmes bender now for a while.  I listened to all the Sir John Gielgud radio plays, have read all of stories in the Holmes cannon, watched all the episodes of Peter Cushing Holmes I can find.  Next up is the Jeremy Brett  Granada TV series, which I have on DVD now.

Should be good!

Professor Elemental for Ghosts of Albion?

Why not.  Though Marquis of Queensbury rules did not exist yet in Ghosts of Albion, but it is hard to find Vicortian-era hip-hop.



How many points should a "Fighting Trousers" Quality be worth anyway?

Hard Core Gamers

Notice: I am not taking down this post because I feel it is more important to leave it up, but also update everyone on what is happening now as of February 11, 2019. Please see this newer post first. http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2019/02/i-am-going-to-talk-about-zak-today-and.html

In case you have been living under a rock all week, the new video version of the hit blog Playing D&D with Porn Stars is out now.

Called "I Hit it With My Axe" it features, well, porn stars, playing D&D.   It's actually quite a good blog and features not only some interesting insights to the game and how people play but also commentary from the likes of Mandy Morbid, Satine Phoenix (below), Zak Sabbath (blogger & DM) and special guests like Sasha Grey and Justine Joli.

It certainly busts a few stereotypes. Like that all gamers are geeky guys hiding out in their basements and all porn stars are sex craved but empty headed.

Looking forward to more!

Mal Havoc: I was waiting for this?

So back in the day I gleefully stole pretty much anything for my games. It was the 80's and we were all doing it. But one thing I remember fairly well was from The World's Greatest Superfriends. The episode was "The Lord of Middle-Earth" and the villain of the week was this Anton Le Vey, vampire looking wizard called "Mal Havoc" (or maybe just Malhavoc). I was psyched about this episode because at the time I was sucking up anything related to Tolkien, or rather more to the point, anything related to the Hobbit having seen the old cartoon on TV recently (well back in 77 or 78).

Well......that is not what I got.

I got trolls, and something like a Drider and a dragon. Which was all fine, but even then I recalled the episode was weak. But I did like the character of Mal Havoc (and I guess I am not the only one). So I began to use him in my D&D games. Though I admit I messed with the character a little. He was still a wizard, but I turned him into a real diabolic one. Not that he was fiendishly clever (he was) but diabolic in the sense that he worshipped Beelzebub. Did I mention it was the 80's?  Oh. and he was also a vampire.  So Mal Havoc became a "hellspawned vampire of the court of Beelzebub" and a semi-reoccuring bad guy in my games.  When I later went on to develop "The Dragon and the Phoenix" for the Buffy game I was running I knew I wanted one of my old D&D bad guys.  Mal Havoc was a serious contender, ultimately he lost out to Yoln (another baddie) since I didn't want to confuse my game with anything Malhavoc Press was doing at the time.

Watching it now I am struck by how bad these things really were (and I own several Superfriends DVD collections) and yet how much potential could have been here.  I can attest that Mal Havoc can be one serious bad ass.  Ok so he smacks around Superman, but that is fine Supes always had a problem with magic.  But he also does the same to Wonder Woman and Batman.  Aquaman doesn't even try.  He also a serious evil vibe going on.  He enslaved a race of trolls (ok more like gnomes really) and has some inhuman or subhuman lackeys working for him.  His "ultimate power" can even kill all the trolls in "middle earth". That serious shit right there.

Given my love (yes, it remains) for the old Super Friends I decided to give Mal the "Bruce Timm" treatment.  I updated the character look to seem more of physical threat, think Glenn Danzig only taller and with a goatee.  He is a wizard still or maybe one of the very, very few cases where I would use the term "Warlock" in a modern game, and look fiendish (and might even worship some devilish or demonic lord), but his deal is he is a vampire crime lord.  "Crime" in he is not interested in crime for money, it's just the things he does keeps him on the wrong side of the law; ie murder, kidnapping, theft, not your typical saturday cartoon fare.  Though in the original SF he had enslaved trolls to mine diamonds, so slavery, forced labor and diamond smuggling is also possible.  He has group of followers, his "Coven"  (not "Camarila" to stay true to the 70's/80's vibe) and of course lackeys and conscripted labor (ie slaves).  Maybe a tad mature for games with kids, but a perfect foe for a group of adult gamers looking to rid the world of evil.

So given that, it looks like that stating him up in Muntants and Masterminds is a must!
My M&M is a bit rusty, but here it goes.

MAL HAVOC
PL: 13 (200 pp)

Str: 22 +6
Dex: 18 +4
Con: NA NA
Int: 16 +3
Wis: 15 +2
Chr: 22 +6

SKILLS: Acrobatics 2 (+6), Bluff 4 (+10), Climb 2 (+8), Concentration 4 (+6), Diplomacy 4 (+10), Disguise (+6), Drive (+4), Escape Artist 4 (+8), Gather Info 4 (+10), Handle Animal 2 (+8), Intimidate 7 (+13), Investigate 3 (+6), Arcane Lore 10 (+13), History 2 (+5), Tactics 4 (+7), Theology and Philosophy 2 (+5), Medicine 2 (+4), Notice 4 (+6), Ride 4 (+8), Search 2 (+5), Sense Motive 2 (+4), Sleight of Hand (+4), Stealth 2 (+6), Survival 4 (+6), Swim (+6)

FEATS: Assessment, Fascinate (1), Fearless, Fearsome Presence (1), Leadership, Minions (2), Blind-Fight, Improved Critical (1), Power Attack, Rage (1)

POWERS:
2 Supersenses
5 Mind Control
1 Drain Constitution (blood Drain)
2 Hellfire Control
30 Immunity (Fortitude Effects)
2 Insubstantial (mist)
7 Protection
5 Regeneration (blood drain based)
1 Shapeshift (Giant Bat)
5 Magic
   5 Mystic Blast ("Hellbolts")
   1 Trasform (humans to trolls)
   5 Teleport
   5 Drain Powers

COMBAT: Melee 13 [Unarmed +6 (Bruise)] Ranged 13 [Unarmed +6 (Bruise)] Defense 23 (16 flatfooted) Init +4

SAVES: Toughness 7 (7 flat-footed) Fortitude 0 Reflex 9 Will 10

DRAWBACKS:
Weakness -Blood Dependence [Freq DC 10] [Sev DC 5]
Weakness -Holy Items [Freq DC 10] [Sev DC 15]
Weakness -Sunlight [Freq DC 5] [Sev DC 5]

Uh...ok, wtf?

Dear Fringe Christian Right,

Thank you for the comedy. 



What is with these weird Christian groups and their use of the word "occultic"?  Isn't "occult" fine by itself?

Of course there is an "occultic" "Dungeons & Dragons game set", which currently has no characters, no rules, just one long out of print supplement (Manual of the Planes) and a supplement for another game entirely (ok, it is The Arcanum, which does have a cool red pentagram n the cover).

Originally posted here: http://www.theescapist.com/blog/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=5&postId=95
And it's YouTube page is here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKRV6Mpm6cw

OLD D&D Commercial

See a very young Jami Gertz and Alan Ruck play D&D in this commercial from the early 80's.

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/61/

Thanks to The Gamer Dome for this one.

I can't recall if I ever saw this or not.

The narrator's voice though is familiar.

Though, where are their character sheets?