The Witch Queens Gather

"Every witch owns a clock. It is a special clock in that it never seems to be working until one night of the full moon every thirteen years. Then the clock chimes thirteen bells. Each full moon the clock chimes one less, counting down from thirteen. Until the night of the last full moon.  During this time of the 13 Moons, the Witch Queens gather to choose a new Witch High Queen."

- From the Journal of Larina Nix 

Still working on my War of the Witch Queens campaign. 

I have the adventures picked out. I have some "Background noise." I think I even have my Big Bad figured out.

Now I just need my main NPCs.  Thankfully HeroForge has me covered!

All my Witch Queens and a few extras.

Now I just need about $1,300* to get them all printed!
*Well...not really that much. I already have a few.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 18 Meet

"You meet in an Inn..."

Or not.  Meeting in an inn or tavern has to be one of the biggest clichés in Fantasy Gaming.  I mean, yes it works, but it is certainly a bit of a lazy meeting anymore. But does that make it bad?

Lately, I have noticed, especially with on-line game streamers, that they take the cliché and are very tongue-in-cheek with it.  I also think it is something that has largely been replaced by what is now called "Session Zero."

I like Session Zero.  You get to meet all the characters as they are being rolled up and some backstory is given. Plus there are other house-keeping items that are covered such as what the game is about, any house rules, and what the limits are.

"Meet in an Inn" and "Session Zero" are not mutually exclusive, but they are both typical of the styles of games they usually start.  "Meet in an Inn" is more common with old-school games and "Session Zero" with newer games.  There is also one other factor they represent; expectations of character deaths.

"Meeting in an Inn" is often situated in a game where character death is a likely occurrence. Even though the archetype of this trope, the meeting of Strider in the Prancing Pony, resulted in all the participants surviving to the campaign's end.

"Session Zero" is usually associated with the understanding, either tacit or implicit, that the characters have a good chance of survival.  There is often the aforementioned back story. 

For my "Order of the Platinum Dragon" campaign, I did do the "you meet in an inn" scenario.  Again the purpose of that campaign was to give my kids a "classic D&D" experience and I was not going to rob them of that.

For my "War of the Witch Queens" I have not figured out yet how the characters will meet.  I know how they are going to get on the trail of the mystery, the murder of the Witch High Queen, but before that, I am still at a blank.  But that is ok. There will be a Session Zero, so maybe we can all figure it out then.   Although. I really have wanted an excuse to use The Shady Dragon Inn.

It would give me an excuse to use these two,

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 17 Comfort

Back in 1972, Dr. Alexander Comfort wrote a groundbreaking book, "The Joy of Sex".

Groundbreaking in the frank portrayal of the sexual act as something to celebrate and enjoy.  Also groundbreaking for its illustrations (and photographs at least in the 2008 version) and its place as part of the start of the sexual revolution.

I think what we need today is an equally revolutionary "Joy of D&D."

One might ask why we would need such a book. One could also ask why we need a Joy of Sex, but if nearly 30 years of studying (and three degrees in) psychology you would be surprised by how little people actually know about sex.  Sure they can "do it" and have been since, well forever, but there is still much that people don't know. 
People can ride a bicycle, but that does not mean they are ready for the Tour de France.

I am not talking about a book on how to play the game. We have those, the rulebooks from TSR/WotC.  Or even a manual on how to run the game.  I'll contend that the pinnacle of this is still the AD&D 1st Ed Dungeon Master's Guide.

No. In this case, I am talking about an easy to read book; a breezy sort of guide. Maybe even a collection of essays and personal stories mixed in with guidelines on not just how to play D&D (and I think D&D in particular) but also how to get the most enjoyment out of it.  A Gourmet Guide to D&D and Roleplaying as it were. 

And just like how Dr. Comfort's book broke free of the Puritanical notion that sex had to be done one way for one reason alone, this guide would break the notion that D&D has to be done way.  Sure it can be a serious game, but it can also be light, breezy, and fun. 

Both books serve the same purpose

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 16 Dramatic

How Dramatic do you like your games?

I suppose I do enjoy some drama. I like the game feel high stakes for the players (and characters) but I am more interested in Cinematic Style play anymore.  Even my horror games are a little more Cinematic than they are Gritty Dramatic. 

Just the other night my wife and I were talking Power Creep in games and TV shows and how to prevent it from being a series killer.  Shows like Grimm, or Buffy, tend only to last 6 or 7 seasons because you have to keep upping the ante on the power to increase the drama.  Fight a vampire Season 1, you need a demon Season 2, a God Season 3 and then...oops. Too far too fast.  Star Trek TNG had the same problem, once you introduce the Borg where is up? 

Shows like X-Files and Supernatural have to come up with ways to justify what is going on. In X-Files' case, I think the show fell apart under its own weight. Supernatural...they just keep doing their own thing and the audience is happy. In the case of X-Files, the drama got too much. In Supernatural, it didn't.

But in the case of Supernatural, the drama hasn't changed, it just gets reused. Certainly not the melodrama.  In Arrow, also mostly normal humans, the drama had to come from strained interpersonal relations that were supposedly solved in the previous seasons. Which is the same thing the next season. While it has worked, one can argue, for Supernatural, it didn't as much for Arrow. 

On the other end of the spectrum, you can have games like old-school D&D.

People will often claim that old-school D&D doesn't have, or shouldn't have drama. I say people are missing out.  I often prefer more cinematic play in my D&D as well, but there is still room for some drama.  Of course, D&D is not like a TV show. There is always something more powerful. And thus the Power Creep. We see as the levels go on and even as the editions go on.  I did my analysis a while back where I showed a 1st level D&D 4 character was as powerful as a 6th level BECMI character.  The monsters accordingly so as well.

Can you increase drama without power creep? Sure. But you have to be careful about it.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 15 Frame

I bought this commission from Claudio Pozas years ago.  I did not get it framed since I wanted to take to Gen Con to get it signed.

I got it signed, yeah! But I should have gotten it framed as well!

Now I am having a hell of a time finding a frame that fits it.   

I am loathed to trim it and equally loathed to take it to Hobby Lobby.  Although in their defense, they never gave me grief for the WitchCraft RPG prints I had framed.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 14 Banner

Hmm. This one gives me a couple of ideas, but none I feel like expanding into a full blog post. 

I mean I have some Javascript to make my banner above display random images like my Book panel to the right. 

I suppose I still fly the Banner of Old-School games here even though I am more and more inclined to newer games these days.

I still have my giant Victorian London Map from Banners on the Cheap. 

I'll have to come up with something better for the other posts.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Wilderlands, Witches and Advanced Fantasy

HUGE Kickstart Your Weekend today. So let's get to it!

Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exaltedfuneral/old-school-essentials-advanced-fantasy?ref=theotherside

Old-School Essentials is becoming the game of the year, and the Advanced Fantasy rules are only going to add to that.  There are different pledge levels to join depending which books you already have or which ones you want. Already funded it hardly needs me to sell you on it. Gavin did a fantastic job with his last Kickstarter and I see this one being even better.

The Majestic Fantasy RPG

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/batintheatticgames/the-majestic-fantasy-rpg?ref=theotherside

Rob Conley has been a fixture in the Old-School scene for a while now. He is pulling together all the work he has done for a new ruleset compatible with Swords & Wizardry.  It has a solid late 70s vibe to it and it looks like it will be quite a lot of fun.

The Great American Witch

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/greyauthor/the-great-american-witch?ref=theotherside

This one is a bit different, but it really hits all my buttons.  Based on The Great American Novel RPG this one deals with the secret world of witches.  Honestly, that is all I need to know.  Funded quickly it is also way above their goal.  It just looks like a lot of fun.

There you have it! So much great stuff coming out!

Pookie Reviews the Witches

Mathew Pook over at the Reviews from R'lyeh has taken on all my latest Basic Era Witch books.

His Which Witch series reviews my Daughters of Darkness: The Mara Witch for Basic Era Games, The Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch for Basic Era Games, The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition, The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch Tradition, and the Warlock.

In general I think his reviews are fair, but I tend to enjoy the Pumpkin Spice witch more than he did.

So give him a read and see what he has to say!

Bundle for Beirut! [BUNDLE] at DriveThruRPG

 AAW Games is sponsoring a BUNDLE FOR BEIRUT! [BUNDLE] to support Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontiers.  

All proceeds are going to aid the people affected by the explosion in Beruit. 

I have two books in the bundle, The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition and The Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box.

While getting two of my books is a small deal, there is over $230.00 worth of books in this bundle all for just $30.00.  That's a good deal and it goes to a good cause.  Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontiers is one of the charities I support often.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 13 Rest

We are at the mid-point of the monthly #RPGaDAY2020 and today is Rest.

Given the amount of work I have ay my day job I have to do today, rest sounds great.

Though they say there is no rest for the weary/wicked, here is something I was working on last night.

Last night I was working on a new magic system for D&D and it got...out of hand. So now I have a document for Anime/Manga themed D&D I am calling "Super Dungeon Explorer Adventure Team Go, Go, GO!"#anime #dnd #dnd5e

— Timothy S. Brannan - Working the NIGHT SHIFT! (@timsbrannan) August 13, 2020

So. Yeah. Expect to see Super Dungeon Explorer Adventure Team Go, Go, GO! Sometime.

Maybe I can forego sleep for a while.

Larina by OneEyedNeko

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 12 Message

The cryptic message, or even messenger, is likely one of the oldest tropes in RPGs next to "you all meet in an inn."

It is a central feature of the Ravenloft module, likely because of it's prominence in Dracula.  It's a good hook to get otherwise sane adventurers to go into a creepy castle that they know has a vampire in it.  They have a leg up on Harker. 

The difference between a message to the characters and hanging out in the bar is one of tangible props.

While I discovered in college that D&D&Drinking don't mix well for me.  Soaking some resume paper in a bath of tea and setting it in the sun to dry as a message to the characters also really pleases the players.

I remember when LARPing was getting really big in the 90s (yes it was a thing before that, but not where I lived) and I was confused. Playing D&D in 80s we did some of that, but doing too much of it got you pegged as one of those "steam tunnel weirdoes" and with the Satanic Panic still on people's minds we tried to avoid too many real-world activities.  Hell, I got looked at weird for dressing in all black.  Now? No one bats an eye. 

A message then, as a prop, was always easy to create.  Now it is even easier. 

Plus it is also a good way to get the adventurers back on track.  They are wandering off in the wrong direction? A messenger shows up with news!  Doing the wrong thing?  A booming voice from the clouds! Ok, I tend to avoid divine, or even powerful, intervention like that. I didn't even use the Protectors in B3 where they were needed.  Fire is often it's own lesson.

Right now I am planning on some minor divine intervention in my Order of the Platinum Dragon campaign.  The characters (and players) are really just about 6 hours of play time away from completing the adventure and really, the campaign.  I have a post script though I want them to do.  I might need to nudge them into the right direction.  If they don't...well I'll need a plan for what happens when a group of 18th level character land smack in the middle of my Drow civil war.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 11 Stack

Well. Last night's derecho here in the mid-west left me without power for a while, so I did not get a chance to write today's post ahead of time.

Today is Day 11 and the word is Stack.

This is a pretty easy one.  I typically have two stacks I am working on.

My TBR, to Be Read, Pile, and my Research Stack.

I mentioned my research stack yesterday.  I am going through a lot of books and some older D&D material to research my High Witchcraft Tradition.

My current TBR includes a lot of philosophy. I am currently working through "The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida" by Prof. Lawerence Cahoone.  I am likely to continue this path with "The Philosophy of Science" and the "Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World" or I might take a break from this and go with this "Early Middle Ages" book.  Or I might reread Robert A. Heinlein's "Friday."

Hard call. Depends on how drained I am after Cahoone's book. While I read philosophy of science in grad school, I have not read any philosophy proper, unless you count John Dewey or Paulo Freire, since I was an undergrad.  

Normally when I start a new project, like the High Witchcraft book, I find a book that supplements it well.  I have not done that this time. I hope my writing doesn't suffer for it.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 10 Want

When it comes to RPGs I really don't have a lot of "Wants."

I have been successful in my career so many daily needs of home, food, and health are all covered.  
I certainly don't *need* any books or games. I have enough here to last me the rest of my life and then some.

Though I do think back to a time when a combination of my low income, lack of access and lack of choice produced some Wants in my RPG life.  

The biggest examples of these are my various witch books.  

I have often said that the main drive behind everything I write and publish is a reflection of the wants I had of growing up in the 80s. 
I write the books I wanted to buy back then, but couldn't.  Sometimes that couldn't was because I could not afford it or didn't have access to a good Local Game Store. But most often it was because the books I wanted didn't even exist. 

So really nearly all my "wants" are in the form of "I want to write this book." or "I want to run this game."
And there are a lot of those.

I am currently working on two separate projects (well...more than two, but these are the two I am talking about today).  I have alluded to them both in passing, but I guess today is a good day to make them official.

First, and since today is Monstrous Monday it is good to mention it, is my book on monsters.

The Basic Bestiary: Monsters from the Other Side is my homage to the Fiend Folio and the source of many of those monsters, The Fiend Factory from White Dwarf magazine. 

This book takes monsters that have appeared in my various witch books and monsters that have been featured on Monstrous Mondays.  So very much like the Fiend Folio.  I have even retained the alliteration of the original monster books.  Like the Fiend Folio I am including some new, never before seen monsters as well.  Also like the Fiend Folio/Fiend Factory relationship not all the Monstrous Mondays monsters will go into this book. I am going to leave some of the sillier or snarkier monsters out.

It was the original Monster Manual that got me into D&D all the way back in the 70s.  This also stands as my homage to that.

Presently the book is 220+ with 300+ monsters and no art yet.  So far on par with the original monster books.  The final art for the cover is not yet set and there will be a soft-cover version for fans of "Basic-era" D&D and a hard-cover for fans of "Advanced-era" D&D. While I love the Fuseli art, it predates my beloved Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood art by about 80 years.  But, given the source material, it is quite apropos.  Though I might look for something that works better as a full cover. I am just loathed to not use this somehow.  Unless I can find something from say, Hieronymus Bosch. but he is even further outside my Pre-Raphaelite time period.

Second I have what I have been calling my "Last Witch Book."

The High Secret Order: The High Witchcraft Tradition is going to be the culmination of everything I have written about the witch to date.

Every witch book under the Basic-era Games banner I have written was designed to capture a particular Zeitgeist of playing.  Daughters of Darkness captured the witch as an evil temptress vibe.  The Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch captured that Fall/Winter of 1979 when I was heavy into mythology and picked up the Monster Manual for the first time and my experimentations with the Holmes Basic book.  The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch was not going for any particular time save for the fun of Halloween.  The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch was made to capture the time playing Moldvay/Cook & Marsh B/X D&D game and my times discovering both Norse and Celtic myth as an alternative to Greek myths.

As the last Basic-era Witch book this book covers the time of me moving away from Basic-era D&D towards Advanced D&D. Though it is less about a "time" and more about a "process."  I can go with the process of moving from Holmes Basic (and their promise of a witch class) to AD&D.  I can go with the Greyhawk supplement for OD&D as the first real springboard towards what would become AD&D. Or I can go with my own process of moving from B/X Basic to AD&D and a time when we all mixed all the above freely and without concern that we were "doing it right."

Such things might not matter to you, or they might. I just want to capture that time/feeling and make it solid just for a little bit. My gift to that young teen in the middle of the mid-west who could not get his hands on the books he wanted. Let alone books with witches and demons in it in the 80s in an extremely White-Christian small town.  My book is the book form of the Santana song "Hold On" which consequently is from the same time period.

Again. Like Basic Bestiary above the art is not 100% final. I like Daniel Gardner's painting, but again he is outside of myPre-Raphaelite time period. The "compatible with" designation is not on yet since I am not 100% sure which game I want to make this compatible with.  I have a few choices, but the idea is to capture the proper feel of the time and I need to look to a clone ruleset that does the time in mind well.  Just like Children of the Gods was my time with Holmes, Blueholme Rules was a perfect fit. Basic Bestiary will go with Labyrinth Lord. 

So far my research into my last witch book is moving ahead, but not a lot of writing yet.

I keep saying "last witch book" because there are other things I want to do. I'd love to write some 5e material and I even have a good idea for a 5e series.

I have a Blue Rose book coming out soon which I am pretty happy with and I have had a desire to write some more for BESM4 after picking it up earlier this summer.

So there is a lot I want to do.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 9 Light

Hmm. Light. Light has not been on my mind very much lately.

Shadow has.

Often when talking about light one also brings up dark as in the opposite of, or the absence of, light.  If you pay any attention to what is going on in the world of D&D publishing now there has been a strong push to change, or alter, the nature of certain "dark" races like Drow and Orcs.  I am not going to get into that today, nor do I even find the topic particularly interesting.  Want "good" Drow? Ok. Fine have them. Want good orcs? Sure! They existed in 2nd Ed, nothing new here. My Desert Orcs have been portrayed as "good" since I came up with them.

But if an "evil" race or species can be good, then a "good" race can also be evil.  I pretty much play elves as xenophobic assholes who really don't give two-shits about humans and frankly are just hoping they all kill themselves off.  Are they evil? No, but they are not "good" either.

But extremes are dull. They are cartoon versions of the people I want to represent.  Give me nuance. Give me flaws AND strengths.  Good and Evil. Light and Dark.  

Give me Shadows.

I got to thinking back in June when I was doing my BECMI work I picked a copy of the Shadow Elves guide for the BECMI system.   The Shadow Elves of Mystara are more interesting than Drow.  They are little more nuanced than the Drow are, and this was back in the late 80s.

While reading this I could not help but think of the Shadar-kai from newer D&D. The Shadar-kai from 3rd and 5th Edition D&D are a type of elf/fey, but they were more human-like in D&D 4 where they got the largest treatment.  

There is also the Shadow Fey from Kobold Press which are also interesting.

Between all these treatments there is something I am sure I can use.