Hi everyone! Thank you for the outpouring of support and concern about the disappearance of Adult Wednesday Addams from the internet. As many of you have seen, the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation flagged the show and, for now, it is off of YouTube. I am working actively on coming to a resolution and will not let Wednesday be caged in internet purgatory. I appreciate your patience and support while I sort this issue out!
Obviously, this is very upsetting that the videos aren't online. Wednesday means so much to me as I know she does to you. Thank you for all of your enthusiasm. Your support every step of the way has meant the world to me.
****UPDATE: At this point, the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation cannot do anything to change the status of this issue, so sending messages and donations will not remedy the situation. If there is anything that can be done in support of the series, I will let you know. Thank you again for everything!****
Full Heart, Dead Eyes, Can't Lose.
xo Melissa
I hope there is a resolution that everyone can agree with.
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.
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
Been on YouTube a lot lately; listening to music, watching a lot of videos of a lot of topics. It's been fun.
I found a few Zatanna videos out there. If you need some more information on the character then these are worth a watch. Yeah some are a bit annoying, but hey you get what you pay for.
To celebrate the newest member of the Victorian / Steampunk RPG gaming community I thought some Victorian Chap-hop was in order.
Of course I love Victorian games of all sorts. Just love the time period and the endless possibilities. You can have adventure, science, magic, occultism, spiritualism and the entire world is both at your fingertips and still large and mysterious at the same time.
So let's open it up with some good old Professor E!
Professor Elemental might be the first name you think of when it comes to Victorian era chap hop but he is not the only one. So just like Biggie had Tupac, the good Professor has Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer.
I am not sure how one can describe Abney Park. They are steampunk yes. But in more of a Forgotten Futures sort of way. They have their own RPG, Airship Pirates which comes to us from the same people that brought us Victoriana. In fact it even uses the same system as Victoriana 2nd Edition.
+Lindsey Stirling might not be the first name you think of when it comes to Steampunk music, but her Roundtable Rival certainly has the right look and feel to it. Plus Lindsey has upped her own geek street cred by providing a song for the Dragon Age soundtrack. So there is that.
So here is the girl that my friend Cal refers to as a "magical musical pixie" or how I think a Ghosts of Albion Occult Musician would look. Frankly I think she is amazing.
And lastly tonight back to the good Professor to remind us that we can all enjoy different things, but we are all in it together. One of the reasons why many of us in the Victorian RPG community get along so well with each other. We all enjoy each other's games and talk about our favorite bits.
I am pleased with the reactions I am getting for this feature. I have often joked that my Appendix N consists mostly of 80s music and bad sci-fi movies. I am starting to think I am not the only one!
I want to lead of though with this one.
I finally found a copy of the intro. Really, could anything be more 80s than this? The 8-bit sounding sound effects. The neon. The lone rocker dude against the world...yeah.
So here are some requests I have had since starting this.
Have a request? Send it to me.
Have a long distance dedication for next week, Valentines Day Weekend? Send that too!
Knightsky requested two songs. First up, Chris de Burgh's Don't Pay the Ferryman.
Next is Murray Head's One Night in Bangkok from the concept album Chess.
Murray Head is also the older brother of Anthony Stewart Head.
Rainswept requested Men Without Hats' Safety Dance.
While the video is more Ren Faire than it is D&D, I do have some good memories of this one and playing D&D as well.
Based on this weeks earlier Sol Invictus post, here is a request. Billy Thorpe's "Children of the Sun"
Might be better for a trippy near future space age game. Or a 70s fueled psychic game.
Ok.
Last week went great. Had some good hits and some requests.
So lets get back to it.
This week I want to feature a band who I, and many others, consider to be the quintessential Dungeons & Dragons band.
Iron Maiden!
I was introduced to Iron Maiden via my Jr. High School DM. He was a huge Iron Maiden fan and lived close to the Capitol Records/EMI plant. So we would ride our bikes there and shift through the discarded tapes that would litter the back lot. We found tons of Kenny Rogers and The Tubes, but finding Iron Maiden was a treat.
He would come up with adventures based on the album covers (at the time he had all five of their first four studio albums and "Maiden Japan") and songs. Later when we got to High School and a new DM (we both kept on as players) we would work "Eddie" into a our universe as an undying assassin. I don't think we ever came up with stats.
Somewhere in Time was my favorite album of those days. So first up is one of my favorites, Wasted Years. This video also features a pictorial history of Eddie up to that point.
"Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short... Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six."
Honestly. Could have anything sounded cooler to a bunch D&D obsessed 13 yearolds with an healthy obsession with the occult? No. Nothing else was a cool as Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast.
No discussion of Iron Maiden and my early D&D days can happen without at least acknowledging The Trooper. This was my DM's favorite song and the one video we would wait for before playing.
And another great one from the time, Flight of Icarus.
And my first request, from Mercurius Aulicus, Fear of the Dark:
Going through all these videos and memories I realize I have enough for a Part 2! So look forward to that at some future date.
Have a request? Hit me up!
Want to be a guest VJ (video jockey for those that don't remember MTV)? Also hit me up!
It was going to happen sooner or later, I have to admit it was much, much later than I ever would have thought.
I just got this email from Wizards of the Coast regarding the listserv emails.
Hello!
On February 15, 2015, Wizards of the Coast will terminate our LISTSERV
system that manages this (and other) mailing lists. We've watched the usage
of these mailing lists dwindle due to the rise of other communication
platforms, such as forums and social media. Given this decreased usage, we
have made the decision that it was time to turn them off.
Please take these two weeks to back up or archive any emails you wish to
keep. After February 15, 2015, they will no longer be available and these
lists will cease to function.
—Wizards of the Coast
So the communication tool that began with MPGN.com (remember that?) and once was the primary voice of TSR (and later WotC) on the internet is now slipping away to join other relics of the 90s tech like the TSR pages on AOL and Compuserv.
Frankly I am surprised they were still active, though the MYSTARA-L list was pretty much active the entire time I have been on it. That dates back to the early 90s.
So I don't have a good song to toast the life and death of the Listserv, so the Dropkick Murphys will have to do. Going out in style.
BTW. Anyone know who the girl is this video? The one in the screen grab above.
I am fascinated with with the Satanic Panic of the early 80s. Partially because I lived through it but also as someone who isn't religious I found the whole "panic" to be very confusing.
Here is an article that covers part of it. D&D makes brief cameo.
I have to admit my own (at the time) anti-theism influenced my early D&D games. So lots of undead, demons and (you guessed it) witches. An immature reaction? Yeah. of course! But I was a teen at the time; by definition, immature.
It has though been fruitful in one respect, I have a ton of material that I wrote back then that I'd love to pull out sometime.
Well the for the longest time it looked like 6 episodes was all we were going to get, but now she is back with an Indiegogo campaign to bring us Season 2.
She is already at her goal, but a few more buck wouldn't hurt. Plus at the bargain price of only $5 Wednesday promises not to kill you.
If you have not checked out the first 6 videos please do so. Melissa does a FANTASTIC Wednesday. And it is a lot of fun to see her in new situations like Internet dating, one-night stands, part time jobs and looking for an apartment. Sounds mundane, but not when it is Gomez and Morticia's youngest daughter.
I have been playing around a little (very little really) with the Warlocks in 5e. My son has made one and I have two that I started but have not gotten back too.
Though I like what I have played with so far. The 5e Warlock is a nice mix of the 4e Warlock and even a little bit of the 4e Witch.
Concept wise I can build a number of "witch like" characters and can build a number of other sorts of warlocks and witches. Again, the class is so nicely set-up that their is no real need for me to build a witch for 5e.
I have a couple more experiments with the 5e warlock to try out, but so far so good.
This video came up in my feeds as something that I would like and you know what, I did.
It is too simple for anyone reading this blog, but still a nice walk through.
I am obsessed with the 80s Satanic Panic. Here is another little turd from that time.
Christians talking about how morally deficient and evil D&D is.
)
Why is that these people get their facts so wrong?
Not just the really wrong shit of satanism in a game, but they can't even get the basic facts right.
...Satanism is not part of Witchcraft and visa versa.
...Those are not the words from "Shout at the Devil"
...NecroNOMicon, not Necro"NOME"icon.
...no suicides due to D&D.
...what the hell is a "training 'prim-er'"?
...interviewing prisoners. Always a good source of "credible" information.
I could go on. But what is the point. Here is a great podcast from "The Thinking Atheist".
Shield of Faith (Basic Era/Labyrinth Lord/Basic Fantasy/S&W) Level: Cleric 1 to 7 Range: 5' in front of the Cleric Duration: 1 round per level
By means of this spell the cleric focuses their faith into a tangible shield that will protect them from harm from creatures the cleric can consider "Evil". Typically this is a creature of Chaotic alignment (or Lawful for a Chaotic cleric) and an "outsider" or supernatural creature. This includes (but not limited to) undead, djinn, effrit, demons, devils and any type of spirit. Sometimes even faerie creatures.
The spell reduces the attacks of these creatures at a number of hp per the spell level. So a 5th level cleric using a 2nd level Shield of Faith would be able reduce 2 points per attack for 5 rounds.
The cleric must present their holy symbol when casting and they cannot attack. Material Components: The clerics holy symbol.
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.
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.