Sol Invictus: The Unconquered Sun

The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake 
as the children of the sun began to awake. 

It's not easy pulling off a large mono-theistic religion in a FRPG, especially one where the world not only has a lot of pantheons, but also where all these goods are assumed to be real.
Fortunately there are plenty of examples from the real world.  Especially in the Christ-like figure of Mithra or Mitra and the similar Sol Invictus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81ine

I think a god like Mithra would be interesting in D&D.

The Church of Sol Invictus
In my Mystoerth world the Church of Sol Invictus seeks to unite the faiths of the world under the banner of one Sun God.  They have a lot of influence in the temples of Pholtus, Pelor, St. Cthubert and Ixion.  There are many similarities to this faith and the one of Taiia in 3rd Edition.

Proponents of Sol Invictus believe that their god is the only true god and all others are false gods or even worse elevated demons or mortals.

But the Church of Sol Invictus has a number of other, deeper secrets.
In addition to only recognizing the sun gods of various faiths as the only true god, they believe that these gods are really only aspects of a much greater god.
The high priests and the leader of the faith, known as "His Brilliance", feel that these aspects are in fact aspects of the god known as "He Who Was".

He Who Was was an ancient powerful god whose chief lieutenant was Asmodeus. At the behest of Tharizdun, Asmodeus tricked and betrayed this god. He was ambushed by Orcus, Demogorgon and a third demon whose name has been erased.  He Who Was managed to kill this other demon and even split Demogorgon into two.  Demogorgon later regenerated into  his current form, each half of his head regenerating in to two complete heads.  Orcus killed He Who Was and in a further act of desecration used his skull and spine as the the great Wand of Orcus.

The clergy of Sol Invictus believe then that by combining these aspects of the Sun God and destroying Orcus forever they can have their god reborn. They believe that this rebirth will make their god more powerful than he ever was.

In my larger world St. Aleena was also a follower of this philosophy and the Church of Law and Order in City of Dolmvay is just another aspect of this faith.

The major foes of this Church are followers of Orcus and pretty much any demonic cult.  Also feared and mistrusted are the faiths that follow the Moon.

The Church of Sol Invictus are among the main witch-hunters in my world.

I am planning to work elements of this church into my current game, but not sure how much detail the players are actually going to get.  The use a word my wife hates, I am going to let it grow "organically".

Some of this organic growth began when I first started pulling all this together for 4e. It was building the 4e version of Aleena that got this idea rolling again.  I guess this is one of the reasons I have not let go of my 4e books.  A lot of the fluff is still compatible with what I am doing in 5e.

Not everything is figured out though.
Given that I grew up in the 70s I would love to add some more left-over hippy shit to it all. I would love to add something like 12 houses to the faith, something along the lines of orders.  Or 7 orders and break them down by color.  The 7 orders actually fits better with some other things I had done in the past.  Each order representing a different aspect of the faith.  I had already figured out Red (Military might) and Blue (Knowledge/learning).  It should not be too hard to come up with something else.  Obviously Green could be related to growing things.  Violet could be Guidance. Why? Well it brings in a group I had created separately that could work into this faith.  Maybe they absorbed them.  I could even have a "Black" for the secret police within the faith.

I will give this some thought.  But yeah this could be fun.

Happy Snowy Imbolc!

Well gaming was canceled yesterday so we could spend 3 hours (total) digging ourselves out.
But I really can't complain to be honest.  We have not had that much snow yet this year.

So what do I know?

The Witches
I am going to pick up a copy of Dungeon World today.
I want to do a review of +Melisa Fisher and +David Guyll's "Playbook" for DW, The Witch.
Also I want to read and review another playbook for Dungeon World, also titled, The Witch by Jacob Randolph.  Both look like they are fun.

April A to Z
Yes once again I am going to participate in the April A to Z blogging challenge.  This year I am going to do vampires and like demons and witches the years past I am going to include game playable material for you to use in your games.  Likely it is going to some flavor of OSR game, but I am also wanting to do something for Ghosts of Albion.

Also again this year I am part of the Ambassador's team.  This means I'll visiting a lot of blogs during this time.  Last year I felt I did a good job spreading the word of our little hobby.  I can recall three people in particular who went out and bought Basic Fantasy to either use or give to a loved one.

We talk about spreading knowledge of our hobby around.  This is a good way to do that.
A number of people that come to my blog from outside our hobby will comment to me that they didn't think people still played these games.  Of course WE know that isn't true and the rising attendance of Gen Con helps demonstrate that, we still tend to be a bit insular.
So I encourage you to sign up and give it a try.  I do id not just to be an "ambassador" or even an evangelist but also to improve my own writing skills.

So please join me.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2015/01/the-2015-to-z-challenge-list-is-open.html


Edited to Add:  WOO HOO!  I guess sometime in the last couple of days Eldritch Witchery went up to "Silver" best seller.

Zatannurday: Multiversity

Not sure if you have been paying attention to the world of comics but DC has been gearing up it's Multiversity arc.  From the mind of Grant Morrison (and others) this brings back the DC multiverse hinted in the 52 series.  There are 52 Earths and each one is different.

And I love Multiverses!

Read more here:
http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2015/01/multiversal-geography-checking-against.html
http://heropresstwo.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-peak-inside-grant-morrisons-head.html

Personally, if I were Green Ronin I would jumping all over this for the DC Adventures RPG.

Of course one of the first things I did was try to track down as many Zatannas as I could.  Here is what I know so far.

Earth 0
This is the Zatanna of the new 52.

Earth 1
This is the fishnet wearing Zatanna of the Pre-52.  I also call this the "Paul Dini" Zatanna.
This is just a guess on my part though.

Earth 3
The "evil" reversed Universe where all the bad guys are good and visa versa.
The most powerful sorceress is Annataz Arataz.

Earths 67 and 8
These have Marvel connections so not likely to have a Zatanna here.

Earth 11
This is the "gender switched" universe of Superwoman, Batwoman and Wonder Man.
Here is where you find Zatara.

Earth 12
This is the Earth of the Batman Beyond timeline.  Likely we would find John Zatara here.

Earth 13
Annataz Arataz is this world's Zatanna and member of the League of Shadows in the horror themed Earth 13.

Earth 16
There are some contradictions online.  Earth 16 is listed in the Multiversity book as "Earth-Me" other places link it to the Young Justice animated show.

Earth 19
No pictures yet, but this is the Earth of the Elseworlds Victorian stories.

Earth 21
This is the "Darwyn Cook" universe. I am sure it will look fantastic.

Earth 22
This is the world of Kingdom Come. So this is the home of Zatanna's and John Constantine's son John Zatara.

Earth 23
This is the world of Kal-L of Krypton. In his alter ego of Calvin Ellis he is President of the US.
Not much is known yet of this Zatanna save she prefers a neck tie to a bow tie.

Earth 32
This is the home of the mashed up world of the Justice Titans.  Here the most powerful sorceress is Ravanna, a mash up of Zatanna and Raven.

Earth 37
Appears to be the Thrillkiller world.  I'd imaging the Zatanna of this world looks something like this.

Earth 42
Home of the Li'l Leaguers.

Earth 50
Home of the Justice Lords from the Justice League Animated series.
No idea if Z is on their side or not but I found this fan pic online.  Bruce Timm style and reminiscent of Earth 3's Annataz Arataz.

A multiverse of Zatanas.

Now I want to run a Multiversity game!

Friday Night Videos: Iron Maiden

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!

Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge: January Reviews

Here are the reviews from the first month of the Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge.

I got off to a pretty good start this month with a bunch of books I have been wanting to read or reread.

The Witches of Echo Park - Amber Benson
"The Flood is coming, Lyse. Prepare yourself."
I picked this up the same day I posted about joining the Challenge. I picked it up as both an audio book and as an ebook.
I fist have to say that it is a real treat to hear Amber Benson reading her own books. I feel I am getting something extra that I would not get from another reader.  The Witches of Echo Park is the first book of a series and thus we are hit with a lot of characters at once and the plot builds.   We meet Lyse and her great-aunt Eleanora first and they are focal characters of this book.  Lyse is your very typical Amber Benson heroine; quirky, a little neurotic, sweet and absolutely no clue about what is in store for her.  I can picture her sitting down with Calliope (from her Daughter of Death series) over coffee and talking about who had it worse.  But also like Calliope, Lyse has a hidden reserve of will and power and hopefully we will see more of it.   We are also in turn introduced to the other members of the Echo Park Coven. Devandra, the tarot card reader and mother of two.  I am expecting her daughters also have some power.  Arrabelle, the second in charge (behind Eleanora) and the herbalist of the group.  Daniela, a powerful empath and equally forward flirt.  She has a lot of secrets.  And lastly Lizbeth. She is the mystery here. 17, mute, and a terrible childhood.
Now it would be easy to complain that this is only a set up and by the time the book gets going it is over.  But no, this book is the set up, but there is a reason why this book does what it does and ends where it does.  The plot is about to be turned up to 11 and our witches are in for a wild ride.
Amber has really honed her craft here.  I like the switching narrators (the various members of the coven) to give a different point of view.  The pacing is good and I feel like I am in for a great ride here.
By the end of the book I did want more, and that is a good thing. The next book can pick up where this left off or a couple months down the line; either way I am excited and looking forward to the next one.
Witch Count: 6 (or 7-8, if you count Dev's daughters)

The Last Apprentice (Revenge of the Witch) - Joseph Delaney
This one I picked up for my son but went through it really fast.  Plus it is going to be a new movie, so I thought I would read it first.  The book deals with Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son.  He can see things others can't and this makes him perfect for the his new training as an apprentice "Spook".  Spooks are men that are charged with keeping the things at bay that would harm mortals. Tom quickly learns about ghosts, boggarts and witches.  He also learns that people fear and stay way from Spooks. That is til they need them. Tom learns his trade from Gregory, his master and the area's Spook.  Though a series of events with a local girl, Alice, and the Spook being lead away. Tom has to deal with a powerful witch, Mother Malkin and her family including Boney Lizzy.
Witches are depicted in this book as being evil, but that changes as we read and Tom comes to understand more and more.
Again this is a start to a series and a great one at that.  One could easily make a D&D campaign based on this world.  Actually, even though the book is aimed at younger readers, Lamentations of the Flame Princess has a similar vibe.
Spooks would work as an alternate type of Ranger.
Witch Count: 3 explicitly mentioned, but it is likely to be 4.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling
Of course a total re-read. This time I listened to it on audio book.
I read this book the year after it came out. People online where raving about it.  I have been wanting to reread it now after seeing the movies dozens of times and read it with full knowledge of what is to come.  I have to say the book stands up extremely well.  There are so many details in the book that my awe and appreciation of JKR has increased, if that is possible.  She set the stage for Book 7 very early on in Book 1.  She may not have known all the details yet, but she still knew what direction she was going in.  I am hoping to start Book 2 on audio here very soon.  Waiting for my library to get it in.
I do have to admit that I would love to work on a Harry Potter RPG.
Witch Count: Hundreds if not thousands.

Want to see what others are reading?  Here is a list.
http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/january-2015-witches-witchcraft-review-link-up/

Current Level: Initiate (Read 1 – 5 Witchy Books)

Troll Lords Games Sale

Castles & Crusades is guilty pleasure of mine.

I love the game, but I rarely get a chance to play it.
To me it is the best of D&D 3.x and AD&D 1, all in a really awesome system with great writing and art.

Sadly I hardly ever get to play.  So you can imagine my irritation when Troll Lords puts everything on sale at 60%!

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/86/Troll-Lord-Games?affiliate_id=10748

The great thing about Castles & Crusades is that given it's 1st ed and 3rd ed genes it can be used with any OSR or New School game.  In fact a lot of the innovations in D&D 5 have their genesis in C&C.

It really is like a Rosetta Stone system.

So check out their sale.

Check out the prices on the core books.

Castles & Crusades Castle Keepers Guide, $9.33  (normally $39.99)
Castles & Crusades Players Handbook 6th Printing, $8.39  (normally $29.99)
Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure, $8.39  (normally $29.99)

All for $26.11.  That is not a bad deal at all.

Checking in on my Plan

Over the years I have discussed my Plan.  The Plan is what adventures I am going to take my kids through.

For D&D 3.x I was content to take anything as it came, make stuff up and generally going towards a  stopping the cult of Tiamat plot.  It was/has been fun and we are nearing the end of that.

For the new adventures I was looking at 3rd, then 4th, then 1st and now 5th Edition as the primary game system.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-have-plan.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/02/lets-play-1st-ed-dad.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-kids-are-awesome.html

At the present here is where I am.

• B1 Into the Unknown, levels 1-3
• B2 Keep on the Borderlands, levels 1-3
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill, levels 2-4
• X2 Castle Amber, levels 3-6 (where we are now!)
• I6 Ravenloft, levels 5-7
• A0-5 Slave Lords, levels 4-7
• G123, Against the Giants, levels 8-12 (I also have the Stone Giant one from Dragonsfoot, just need to find it)
• D12,3 Against the Drow, levels 8,9-14
• Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, 10-14
• CM2 Death's Ride, levels 15-20. (Again, unless I use it in my current 3.x game which the boys want me to do)

If I don't do Death's Ride I am seriously considering the classic H series to go after Orcus.

• H1 Bloodstone Pass, levels 15+
• H2 The Mines of Bloodstone, levels 16-18
• H3 The Bloodstone Wars, levels 17-20
• H4 The Throne of Bloodstone, levels 18-100

But I would REALLY edit these since they have a lot of issues.  Truthfully my best plan is to just use H4 and add bits from H1-3 and maybe even some stuff from the 4th Ed E-Series.  But that is if I want to have Orcus as the big bad guy at the end.  It has appeal.

Also I have the mind flayer adventure A Darkness Gathering to work into the mix.

It has taken me a while to get through all this because I am alternating with my 3.x game, some AS&SH and other games.

So far the adventures have seemed random and the characters are wandering about.  But they are about to get some items in the X2/I6 series that will help them later on.  

Right now, with out their knowing about it the Drow, Vampires and Illithids have gathered together to put the final phase of their ultimate plan into motion.  The PCs will discover a little of this plan when they encounter the Slavers.  The slavers are all vampires now and they are not dealing in slaves, but human cattle.    After they have defeated them the last part of the bad guys plan comes into fruition.  

The sun goes completely out.  

There is panic. Everyone gathers in the Freecity of Greyhawk.  The Church of Pelor/Ixion is hardest hit, but also the loudest voice.  All the "big names" are there and they are trying to figure out what to do.

There is a plan to set the moon a flame, but the various clergy of the Moon Goddesses are against that.  Finally they agree to instead use a large asteroid to keep life going till they can re-ignite the sun.

While all the big names are trying to figure this out the PCs have to deal with some raids nearby of giants...

The PCs will then go through the GDQ series to discover the plan and that the drow are working with mind flayers.  After defeating Lolth in Q1 the PCs will have to deal with the vampires who have Pelor captured.  In order to re ignite the sun they will need to set him free from his prison in ..... and that is all I have.

Yeah it is kinda story-gamey.  It's my game, my house and my kids. They will eat this up.

I guess it is hard for me to get away from the idea of vampires as the big bads.

Those of you who have been reading this blog a long time might notice that there was a similar plot in my Buffy Season 7 game, Episode 12 No Other Troy.  Though that one the sun being blocked was a side effect. 

I am inclined to use Orcus as the big bad holding Pelor.  

I have a huge ass mini of him and a crap ton of material for him.

But I have also wanted to use Camazotz as the demon-god of Vampires in his abyssal plane of Xibalba.  Maybe I still can use him in some way.  It is possible he is something like a high priest to Orcus and his job is to sacrifice Pelor on a bloody altar.  Once that is done Orcus will suck up his godly powers and reign as the God of Death and Darkness.

And he would have gotten away with it too had it not been for those meddling PCs.