Witchcraft Wednesday: The Witch Book of Shadows for the ShadowDark RPG

 What have I been doing? Well this last Gary Con (back in April) I was talking with my Elf Lair Game co-conspirators about future projects. Of course our plans revolved mostly around the recently released Thirteen Parsecs. But I also began flipping through the "new to me" physical copy of the ShadowDark RPG. I had picked up the Quickstart and the Curse Scroll #1 zine at a previous Gary Con, so it seemed right to grab it then too. Originally my plan was only to use it as a supplement for my Old School Essentials games. But others encouraged me to try it out on it's own merits. 

It finally clicked with me one evening this past summer while making dinner what ShadowDark actually is and not what I thought it was. Granted, it is exactly what the video creator Kelsey Dionne has been saying for two years. So I sat down that night during my writing time and put together an outline. I gave myself one week. Well...that week went on, and on, as I really grew to like this project. So now I am ready to reveal the fruits of those efforts. Or at least reveal that I am revealing it.

Coming soon (next month or so), The Witch Book of Shadows for the ShadowDark RPG!

From the upcoming DriveThruRPG page:

Included here is the Witch Class.

- Six new ancestries
- New occult backgrounds
- Basic, Expert, and Advanced witch talents that grow as you level up.
- Thirteen Witch Patrons, from Baba Yaga to Xthluhu the Horror of the Deep! Each with boons and spells.
- 160+ new occult spells for ShadowDark, including special Patron Spells and Ritual Magic spells.
- 60+ Witch-related monsters for your ShadowDark adventures
- 40 new magic items. 
-124 pages A5 size to fit with your current ShadowDark RPG books

Compatible with ShadowDark and other ShadowDark products.

The biggest selling point for this book are all the new spells. Plus every witch takes a patron which opens new and unique spells to them. Add ritual spells and no two witches are ever the same.  There are thirteen new witch patrons as well.

For the monsters, well, many of these came from my recent Horror movie marathon. Going back to the roots of AD&D monsters and then rebuilding them from the ground up, or at least getting a head start from horror movies, gave me plenty of new ideas—so many that a few didn't make the cut and will be featured on a few Monstrous Mondays. 

Right now I am just waiting on the print proofs. Once I have those in hand (expected by Dec 1) then I will figure out what needs to happen next. 

As always, I had a blast working on this one, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together. 

Special thanks to Kelsey Dionne for not just making such a fun game, but building a great community and a sense of community involvement with this game. That might be her best achievement yet.

Kickstart Your Weekend: 5e Witch Content

 I mentioned before that one of the reasons I have not done a 5e Witch class myself is that I have wanted to have some joy in discovery of something new for D&D. If I make a 5e witch, then I am always comparing it to the new stuff to mine. 

So today there are two witch-related 5e Kickstarters I want to share. They are in their last days of funding, so get on these while you can.

Witchfyre: A Dark Fantasy RPG for 5E+ & Pathfinder

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/witchfyre/witchfyre-a-dark-fantasy-rpg?ref=theotherside

This looks like a lot of fun and has a great Folk Horror vibe. It is for 5e and Pathfinder, so that is really great.  And it comes with minis and a tarot set, so I am very intrigued. While the deluxe cover looks nice, I think I prefer the standard cover.

Any looks great, to bad I will have to wait a year to get it.

The Mystery of Witchhaven: A 5e Solo Adventure

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obviousmimic/the-mystery-of-witchhaven-a-5e-solo-adventure?ref=theotherside

I admit a little trepidation to this one. First, I am generally not a fan of Solo adventures. Nothing against them, I just prefer to play with a group. Secondly I have my own "Witch Haven" but the name is so common I should not be surprised when a variation of it gets used.

But this does look fun and I'd be remiss if I didn't check it out.

ETA: Another one!

Wicked Echoes - Whispers of the Samodiva: A 5E Supplement

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wicked-echoes/wicked-echoes-whispers-of-the-samodiva?ref=theotherside

Folk Horror is pretty hot right now. And this one looks great.  This is more horror than Witch focused, but that is fine by me!

--

Both look great and hopefully ship quickly.

Mail Call and Review: Hexbound: A Witchy Supplement for 5e

 So this one was a bit of a surprise for me this week. I honestly kinda forgot I backed it over two and half years ago. But it came in yesterday and I thought I would share it.

Hexbound: A Witchy Supplement for 5e

There are a lot of reasons why I have never put together a witch class of my own for 5e. One of the biggest is I have wanted to see what others have done with their own ideas. You know, try and recapture that thrill of discovery that I had back in the 1980s and 90s when I'd find a new witch class. 

Hexbound is the first big 5e "Witch" class Kickstarter I have backed.  So how did they deliver?

I got the PDFs and STLs a while back and they looked great, but I have been waiting on the book.

Here is what I was sent.

The level I pledged at was for the  Collector's Edition cover of the Hexbound Hardcover, a set of Hexbound Reference Cards, two pins, four minis and digital files of the book and minis.

The book is really nice. I love the art and in particular the Art Nouveau style cover. Really fits the vibe I want for my witches in 5e. 

The add-ons are nice. I am a sucker for a deck of tarot-like cards for a game. I want to make a witch character for 5e JUST so I can use these cards.

And the minis are also nice. I am not sure I recall what that big one is, but it is in the book.

Hexbound: The Good

REMINDER: I am always sensitive when I am reviewing someone else's witch material. I am not aware of any RPG author who has written as much about witches as I have, so I need to be careful on how critical I could be. 

Like I said, the book is really attractive. The art is really nice I think I need some dice to go with it to fit the aesthetic (that should have been an option really.) The author of the book, Antonio Demico, is also the illustrator. 

What attracted me most to this book was there was not just one "Witch Class" but rather witch subclasses for each class. And there are some really fun ones here. All are considered "Witches" and they just have different ways of expressing their magics. This is the same idea I have witches but going in the opposite direction.  I have one witch class with a lot of options, aka Traditions which can be viewed as "subclasses." I rather like it to be honest and it would be a fun way to build a coven of witches in 5e. Everyone takes a class and then the witch sub classes. Each one has a lot of unique options to help keep the witches very flexible.

The classes and their witch subclasses are: 

• The Intoner for Bards. I kinda love this one.
• The Medium for Clerics. This one is so obvious that I am kicking myself for not doing it myself.
• Circle of the Brew for Druids. Not how I would have gone, but it is certainly clever. 
• The Witchblade for Fighters. File under "Why the hell didn't I think of that." Well, I guess I do have my Witch Knights.
• Way of the Specter for Monks. Interesting, I'd have to play it to really understand it.
• Path of the Coven for Paladins. Cool, different enough from my Green Knight to be fun.
• Coven Conclave for Rangers. Similar to my Huntsman but more powers.
• Duskwalker for Rogues. This one is interesting. I rarely mix rogues/thieves with witches. So I will have to try this one.
• Coven of Spirits for Sorcerer. This one calls on the magic of family spirits. Pretty much exactly my Family Witch.
• Witch Patron for Warlocks. This one is also pretty obvious, and likely one of the more popular ones that will get played. 
• School of Witchcraft for Wizards. Now this one is both obvious and yet still a lot of fun. It also has conceptual roots going all the way back to the earliest editions of D&D. 
• Path of the Witch for Barbarian. This one was added later on. In some ways it reminds me of my Cowan for the Pagan Witch, OR (better yet) this is how you can play Cú Chulainn (with Scáthach as his witch) OR even like the warriors on their dajemma with the Witches of Rashemen.

So yeah, if you have a witch concept then there is likely a subclass here that will fit your needs.

There are some new backgrounds for your new witch. All look great really. 

We also get some new familiars here too including a personal favorite, the Jackalope. 

There are some new spells, but only 10. That seems to be a bit, well, underwhelming to be honest. 

Part II of the book is for GMs.

This includes magic items (again, there should have been more), some wands (some really fun ones too), and some magical hats.

Part III is called "for the table." This discusses how to run and play a game filled with witches. There are adventure hooks, NPCs (lots of those), monsters, and some adventures to run. 

Hexbound: The Not So Good

While the book is great to look at, it is not without some issues.

I am not going to quibble about how long it took us to get this and how it may (or may not) sitll be compatible with D&D 5.5. That stuff happens and this is likely a one man show. They get a pass from me on that.

Some issues are like the cards above. Great idea, but I'd have to try them out to see how well they work in a game. And as you can see two of the cards went to press with their placeholder art and not the art for their NPCs.

The minis are nice, but they are really too small. As you can see above compared to HeroForge minis; one I printed myself and one I bought color printed. 

I have the 3D printer, I can print new ones if I want to get them to 25/28 mm Not everyone has that option. OR I just redo the characters as halflings, dwarfs, gnomes and/or goblins.

There should have really been more spells. I know all to well that page count is all important when it comes to this Kickstarters fulfilments. But spells are important to the witch, and there should have been a lot more. 

Ok, so I do not know much about the creator Antonio Demico, but I think I have been writing about witches for longer than he has been alive. So I can't hold his work up to the same critical lens I would hold my own up too, but really. Ten spells is not even close to enough. Reduce the font size by a point and get at least 13 in there. Respect the source material. 

One last thing. Antonio Demico is a great artist and he certainly knows someone that is great at layout, there really should have been a redesigned witchy character sheet. I mean that cover BEGS to have a character sheet to match. I mean really, I do love that cover. 

Overall I am happy with the book and the cards. The minis are too small really and the pins, while nice, are largely forgettable. I mean I put them on my gamer bag and will I even remember what they were from next Gen Con?

At the end of the day, I am still happy to have another witch class and book for my collection. Since at last count I had, well, all of them.

Larina McAlester, Agent of A.R.T.E.M.I.S. for R.I.P. Horror Role-playing

Yes, her middle name is Stephani and yes, she hates it.

 Yesterday I posted my findings on the R.I.P. RPG, the game that never was. Today I want to figure out if you could actually play a game of R.I.P. with the materials at hand.

Well...no. Not really. But I should qualify that.

Without some work, there is not enough published material to play a complete game. On the other hand, I could probably knock together enough details to play a game of R.I.P. in a few sessions. I would have to borrow heavily from other horror games, particularly Chill 2nd ed, GURPS, and Unisystem.  

But I think I have enough here to make a character. So, let's go with my drosophila melanogaster of these sorts of things and see what I can do. 

For this, I am going to create a character first with the Top Secret/S.I. rules, then with the Agent 13 supplement, and finally with the material from the R.I.P. comics. I'll use the core TS/SI rules to form her "base" character, followed by details from Agent 13 and the R.I.P. comics. I'll also borrow the idea from Agent 13 of exceptional characters since the supernatural world of R.I.P. is similar to that of Agent 13.

I don't own the Top Secret rules nor the Agent 13 book, but thankfully I was able to borrow them from a friend.

Larina McAlester, nee Nichols

The first thing I am going to need to do is make some assumptions. I am going to stay in the 1990s for this one, so for that reason, I am going to borrow a lot from my WitchCraft RPG version of her (which, oddly, I have never posted), the DarkMatter version (which feels like the spiritual successor to R.I.P.) and the TimeLord version, just to get the feeling of the era right.  Here she is just out of college, but instead of going to grad school she is recruited by a secret organization, A.R.T.E.M.I.S., to investigate the paranormal.

I am going to say in this version she is still married, but separated from her Irish husband, Eric. She has not changed her name back because the paperwork is too much trouble.

A.R.T.E.M.I.S.

A.R.T.E.M.I.S., or Agency for Research into Transdimensional Events, Magic, and Inexplicable Sightings, is the special investigations group similar to Top Secret's ORION. Or...at least it is supposed to be. I wrote the bulk of what A.R.T.E.M.I.S. is prior to reading any of the Top Secret RPG material because as I was working on the character background I want to be able to port this organization over to NIGHT SHIFT if I wanted.

This group employs people who are "Sensitive" to the dealings of the Supernatural. So very much like her character in Time Lord. They also have funding and governmental backing. So like Chill's SAVE, but more in line with the X-Files.

Given this, I might consider the Supernatural Sensitivity Advantage to be a prerequisite for being a part of this organization. 

Larina McAlester
Agent of A.R.T.E.M.I.S.

Nationality: American
Sex: Female
Race: Caucasian
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 124 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red
DOB: 10/25/1969 (Age 22)

Handiness: Right
Tags: Bites nails, large tatoo of the triple moon goddess (see ref photo #MLS02) on her back between shoulder blades (see ref photo #MLS03). 

Attributes
STRength 38/19/9
REFlex 52/26/13
INTelligence 75/37/18
WILlpower 78/39/19
CONstitution 47/23/11
MOVement 45/22/11
DEXterity 63/31/15

Psychological Profile
Cruelty: Low
Loyalty: High
Sanity: High
Selfishness: Some
Passion: High
Piety: Some/High (Wiccan religion)

Advantages
Sixth Sense (3)
Attractive (1)
Obscure Knowledge (2)
Supernatural Sensitivity (2)

Disadvantages
Addiction, Caffeine (2)
Moral Qualms, Will not Kill (2)
Enemy, Ex-husband (1) 

Skills
Professional Career -
- Fine arts 1 63%
- Musical Instrument (flute) 1 75%
- First Aid 2 80%
- Social Chameleon 1 37%
- Basic Liberal Arts 1 37%
- Anthro/Psychology/Soc 3 85%
- Philo/Religion 2 80%
- Language: Latin 1 75%
- Language: Greek 1 75% (can learn up to 5 more languages)
Research 3 85%

Powers
Mind Reading 4pts
Telekinesis 1

So. Who is this Larina? Well this is an agent who is sent in to assess, but not engage, a situation. She can blend it and knows enough to be able figure out what is going on in a situation. She is still young, a new agent, but learning. Her ability to read minds and her supernatural sensitivity allow her find a supernatural threat among normal humans.

I think for a "real" game of R.I.P., there should be an Advantage, maybe called "Powered," which allows the character to take powers. An 8-point Advantage might grant 10 points in powers and 2 points in a Disadvantage, something like "Haunted." The logic here is that once you dip your toes into the world of the supernatural, then the supernatural also sees you. This is very common in a lot of horror games.

This mechanic would also cover what I think would be a feature in the R.I.P. game; playing something like a Revenant. A dead character is now back to fight the supernatural threats to the mortal world. 

Comparisons to Chill 2nd Edition

Yesterday I made a lot of comparisons of R.I.P. to Chill 2nd Edition. The reasoning is that Chill is also about normal (for the most part) humans fighting the unknown/supernatural and there is a reasonable chance of success. Plus Chill 2nd edition was out at the same time that the proposed R.I.P. RPG was going to be, so the comparisons would have been natural.

I don't have Chill stats up for her here either (note to self, add WichCraft RPG and Chill 2nd ed stats). I do have an old character sheet, but that is not a great comparison since she has had some adventures and is not a starting character like her R.I.P. counterpart. However, there are some comparisons to be made.

Both skill-wise and power-wise, they seem close in respect to their specific game universes. Granted, we don't really know what the characters' power levels were going to be in R.I.P. 

I will say this, though: The character creation was rather fast. Obviously, that has more to do with the Top Secret/S.I. rules than anything else. IF the R.I.P. game followed suit, then it would have this leg up on Chill. Though I can knock together a Chill character quickly these days.

Another good comparison is to the Modern Horror game TSR did produce, Dark•Matter. Again I see similar themes being explored here. Dark•Matter certainly has more gravitas to it. I would like to say it is also better designed, but that isn't really fair since we really have no idea how R.I.P. would have been designed. 

In the end we are just left with a case of thinking of what might have been.

Now to explore A.R.T.E.M.I.S. more.

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!

Advent-ure Dice: Day 30

 Day 30

A spider venom d10!

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

Advent-ure Dice: Day 29

 Day 29

Ah, my last d2!

DriveThruRPG Halloween Sale

 Every year DriveThruRPG / OneBookshelf has a big Halloween sale and every year I participate.

Head on over to DriveThruRPG to see what I have on sale this year!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/8419/the-other-side-publishing?promo=45295&src=browse8419&affiliate_id=10748

Advent-ure Dice: Day 28

  Day 28

A purple sparkly d12.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 27

  Day 27

A purple d8

Advent-ure Dice: Day 26

  Day 26

A green witch's brew d6

Pop Yourself! Larina

 I am not a big collector of Funko-Pops. I have a few but not what I consider a lot. But recently I saw they had a Halloween (now over) promotion to get a Funko Pop figure of yourself. Well that is fine and all, but do I really need one of me? A blonde (er now gray) guy with glasses? I am not even sure I can get one with glasses and a goatee. (I just checked, I can). But since one of the choices was a witch, well I knew what I needed to do!  

And since today is what I consider to be Larina's birthday, I thought I would share the Funko Pop I had made of her.

I did a re-paint on her hair, and yo see I messed up her eyebrows a bit. Still, I am happy with the hair. I opted not to repaint the rest of her. I am not really that good to be honest.

Here is the original. 

Obsessive? Yeah maybe. But I always buy something for myself on Halloween. This was what I got for myself this year.

By the way, I did go back and see what a Funko Pop version of me would look like. 

Not bad. Not sure I need it though.

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. 

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%

Advent-ure Dice: Day 22

  Day 22

Two d2s! "Drink Me" and "Drank Me." Nice. 

GREYHAWK - Special Guest: Timothy Brannan on Gabbin #323; Witches & More!

So I didn't watch a horror movie last. So no post last night, but I did do this instead.

I was a guest on Lord Gosumba's GREYHAWK Livestream to talk about witches, Greyhawk, Mystara, and more.  Plus, a special announcement.

Check it out.

I had an absolute blast doing this. Can't wait to get back on. 

Advent-ure Dice: Day 21

  Day 21

Spider venom d20