My favorite game I never get to play? Easy.
I love everything about this game and I never ever get to play it. I think the last time was at Gen con maybe 10-12 years ago.
It was my inspiration behind Ghosts of Albion and NIGHT SHIFT. Neither of those games would have been made if it had not been for WitchCraft.
I can't even adequately put into words what this game means to me. Only the AD&D Monster Manual comes close.
Going back to Room #2 the next passage looks similar to the passageway for Room #3.
Not sure if this means "This Year" or "Ever." Let's go with Ever.
The Oldest game I have played is Original Dungeons and Dragons.
I spent a summer after my freshman year at college playing in an OD&D campaign. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least!
Passageway 4 ends in a locked door. The lock can be picked or forced open with a combined strength of 24.
Inside this small oval shape room, the party finds a collection of treasure.
The lamps (six total) glow with an arcane light (via a continual light spell).
There are all sorts of small chests here (10+1d6) each containing gems (5d8 x 100 gp worth), a decanter of endless water, a spell book with random spells (1d10 1st level, 1d8 2nd level, 1d6 3rd level, 1d4 4th level, and 1 5th level). Despite it's obvious age it appears to be magically preserved.*
*If a player reads a spell from this spell book as if it were a scroll, it will destroy the whole book.
There is a dagger +2, +3 to lycanthropes.
A shield +2, +3 vs. missile fire.
A scroll of teleportation (with detailed descriptions of the 1st level).
As well as 1d4+3 random other magic items.
Three of the small chests act as large bags of holding. A person could carry one each.
There is a jeweled crown (cursed, after possessing it for one year the wearer thinks they are a king and demand to be treated as such).
And a gilded, jeweled dagger. It is sharp but not magical. It is worth 1,000 gp.
Otherwise the room is a dead end.
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Game Masters should reward XP value equal to 1/2 of the GP value of treasure found.
I wasn't going to promote any Kickstarters for a bit after a month of doing nothing but Wasted Lands, but this one came up and I couldn't say no.
The Beast & Snow #1 - NSFW Queer Fairytale Romance
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicuno/beastsnow1?ref=theotherside
Revision fairy tales? Vampires? Strong female leads? Kat Calamia and Phil Falco? Dorilys Giacchetto cover? Liana Kangas cover? Stjepan Sejic cover?!
Sign me up! No need, I did that myself.
Ok so this looks like a lot of fun and I am getting a strong "Carmilla" and "Vampyres" vibe from this.
The art looks great and the story should be great from what little bit I can gather here. They are just missing a witch from being perfect! (I am nothing if not consistent.)
And if you think I am NOT doing versions of these characters for my home game using my Monster Mash rules then you don't know me or this blog very well.
They have met their funding and unlocked their first stretch goal. Looks like they might need more stretch goals at this rate!
But seriously, this looks like a lot of fun and I hope there are a lot of issues in this series.
Not counting collections (I'll detail that later) the most recent game I have bought was bought FOR me and not BY me. That would be my Spanish Language D&D 5e books.
I got these as Birthday presents back in June because I am learning Spanish now. They are actually a lot of fun and have been a great challenge. I am looking for other RPGs in Spanish too.
Continuing on in this passageway the party encounters a long corridor.
This corridor is lit with an eerie eldritch light. The floor is made up of tiles.
The corridor is 50ft long, and every five feet there is a pressure plate on the floor that fires a magic missile at the party. 1d6 hp of damage, it will always hit one character at random.
A thief can find the traps (the pressure plate), but the trap itself is magical and needs a dispel magic to stop. The dispel magic only works for 1 of the 10 traps in this area.
Doing so will result in 50 xp.
I had to think about this one, but my first RPG purchase of 2023 had to be my Deluxe Edition of The Dark Eye.
.jpg "The Dark Eye")
There is a lot about this game I really love and want to do more with. I still might get around to doing some more too.
The first four tunnels are on the left, and they are all lined up next to each other. The fifth tunnel is on the right and at an angle away from the others.
The farthest tunnel opening on the left leads to a short but wide tunnel. The walls are smooth, as is the floor, but it is obviously carved out of the rock. Within this tunnel, the party encounters a group of four small demons.
DRETCH
These creatures are fat, with long, spindly arms and legs. They have rudimentary human heads, with slobbering jaws and folds of fat. Dretch demons have some weak demonic powers.
Armor Class: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 4 (18 hp)
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d6)
THAC0: 16 [+3]
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Saving Throws: D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (4)
Morale: 6
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 225
Number Appearing: 1d4+1
Treasure Type: J, K, L, M
Yeah...I am obsessed. Mail call today, and it was full of some great witch books.
Up first, another witch-centric RPG I backed on Kickstarter, Last Sabbath.
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| Last Sabbath RPG Art, bookmark and pin |
The game looks phenomenal, and I want to try it out really soon.
And one I have been waiting 20+ years for.
Ashley Poston has a novel out about 17-year-old Tara, one of my all-time favorite witches.
This is her pre-Sunnydale days, and I can't wait to jump into this. And because I had a credit lying around, I picked it up on Audible as well.
While I am sure the narrator will be great, it would have been nice to get Amber Benson to do it.
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So yeah I *know* I am obsessed, and I know I catch some grief for it online, but you know what?
I don't actually care.
This is my little corner of the Internet, and I get to do what I love here. And if that gets me 10 fans or 10,000*, then fantastic! Plenty of other sites out there that leave me scratching my head asking "who would even find that fun??" but hey, their sites, their rules.
To quote Steve Martin, "The most amazing thing to me is, I get paid for doing this!"
(*It is less than 10,000, but a lot more than 10!)
Another one that has been on my mine a bit lately.
My first Gamemaster was myself really. We all kind of taught ourselves how to play back then and I didn't have older brothers or friends that played. But that changed when I got to Jr. High.
My first real DM was Jon Cook and we played this hybrid version of Basic (B/X) D&D and 1st Edition Advanced D&D.
In a lot of ways I guess I am still chasing that high.
Beyond the doors is a large cave system. The cave is huge and while fires can be seen down many of the tunnels (larger tunnels than the ones on the level above), this level is cooler.
There are five tunnels leading out of this chamber.
This one is easy because we played it New Year's Eve and Year's Day. My first game for 2023 was D&D 5e Dragonlance: Shadows of the Dragon Queen.
I was a player in it, not the DM, which was a nice change of pace.
My oldest was running it, and he combined it with bits and pieces of Rise of Tiamat and Horde of the Dragon Queen from the start of D&D 5.
Honestly, he did not care for the adventure as it was written and wanted to tweak it a bit for us. We did not play many more sessions of this. My "falling out" with D&D 5 had a lot to do with that and his promotion as a pastry chef meant he had less time. But we did have a great time. I was cleaning up our game room the other day and all of our minis are still in the "current campaign" box.
These stairs go down into this tomb for quite a long way. Also, any dwarves (or other similar characters) will also note the stairs are moving towards the north.
The stairs end in a large and somewhat cooler chamber. There is a set of large iron doors.
These doors are large and heavy. To open these doors requires a combined strength of 40 points or magic. Unless staked open they will slam shut.
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This level has been largely protected from the volcanic activity of the level above.
Wandering monsters are found here using the table for 8th level (and sometimes 7th level). Again, magic sensitive characters can detect low levels of necromantic magic here.
What is Monster Mash II: A Midsummer Night's Dream?
Much like my first Monster Mash, this one has classes that people typically think of as "monsters" for the D&D game, but uses the special "race-as-class" feature of older, Basic-era, versions of D&D like Moldvay Basic/Cook & Marsh Expert and BECMI.
This book features 12 faerie and sylvan-based classes. Bugbears, Centaurs, Hamadryads, Leprechauns, Nymphs, Pixies, Púcas, Satyrs, Werebears, Werefoxes, and Woodwoses.
Each can be played as a Basic-era "Race-as-Class," with each gaining special abilities as they level up, or as an Advanced "Race" with recommendations for classes.
Also included is the Faerie Witch, because, well, it is one of my books.
There are also new spells for Clerics, Druids, Illusionists, Magic-users, and Witches.
And new occult powers and ritual spells for Faerie Witches.
This book can be combined with my first Monster Mash for even more combinations.
Grab yours now!
The last room on this level is a large landing between the flights of stairs going down. All around the party are portals to the Plane of Elemental Fire. Standing on the landing wielding a huge flaming sword is a fire giant.
The fire giant is named Heiðra. He is a former ally of the Vampire Queen. She cursed him to remain here and keep any who would seek her final resting place away. He will do all that he can to keep the party from moving forward.
Heiðra has the stats of a fire giant, save his sword does an additional 2d6 fire damage. He has an abode in the Elemental Plane of Fire and there is a portal nearby. He will not retreat, though, and will fight to the death. If he is dropped to half his HP he will summon 1d4+1 Hellhounds.
