Willow & Tara: Kult

Going to the vaults today!
It's the start of a new term here so I am crazy busy. I had some other posts ready, but this one was all good to go.  Plus I have been talking about Anime and Supers for so long I missed my favorite topic; Horror gaming.

So without further ado, one of the premier horror games of the 90's and into the 2000s.  Kult.


Kult, Death is Only the Beginning

Kult is a very interesting game. I had heard about it from the WitchCraft RPG list and decided to check it out. I found a copy of 1st Edition on eBay and really liked it. It was not a game I played much, but freely stole ideas from. Kult is a very different kind of world from WitchCraft, World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu or even Ravenloft. It is almost “Dark City” in it’s feel and tone. Sort of gothic-noir-splatterpunk, something I noticed that the new World of Darkness seems to have adopted and the eventual evolution of Chill. The pervasive dread in the game is more Call of Cthulhu, while the world on the surface looks much like WitchCraft. It also has a tone (to me) similar to Warlock, Black Spiral. The two *could* be set in the same world, with some tweaking, but that might be more than I want to do.

In the end I found that WitchCraft was more enjoyable, but I keep my copy of Kult handy, just in case.

Conversions

Conversions between Kult and other systems are not too bad. Kult has 8 abilities, 4 physical, 4 mental, that range from 2-20. There are two ways to generate abilities, one (the D&D method) is roll a 2d10 for each (ì=11). The other (the WitchCraft method) is to parse out 100 points to the 8 abilities (ì=12.5). For a d20 conversion the best bet is to match up the Abilities and -2 to get a d20/D&D (ì=10.5) score.
For Unisystem conversion I take a modification of my D20 to Unisystem conversion.
To generate a Unisystem value from a Kult one, divide the Kult Ability by 2 and minus 4.
BTW: To generate a Unisystem value from d20 I divide the d20 score by 2 and minus 3 (or -2 depending on the game’s power level) I find this works a little better than just dividing by 3.

The abilities match up like this.

Kult	Unisystem	d20/D&D
Strength	Strength	Strength
Agility	Dexterity	Dexterity
Constitution	Constitution	Constitution
Comeliness	Attractiveness Quality	*
Education	Intelligence	Intelligence
Ego	Willpower	Wisdom
Perception	Perception	Perception Skill
Charisma	Charisma Quality	Charisma

*These conversions are covered by Qualities in Unisystem. Since these scores run both positive and negative a slightly different conversion is needed. Figure either quality can run from -5 to +5 for normal humans, but use -3 to +3 as a more realistic range. So add 6 to the Unisystem Quality/Drawback to generate the Kult ability. So a character with a -5 Charisma has a Kult ability score of 1.

Both Kult and Classic Unisystem have a set of similar Secondary Attributes that are derived from the Primary Abilities. Convert the Primary Attibutes/Abilites and then generate the Secondary ones anew from these numbers. This is the best way to handle Essence.

Kult also offers a couple of extra quirks. Dark Secrets are similar to WitchCraft’s character concept. The difference is basically that concepts define what you are, Dark Secrets define what made you the way you are today. Subtle, but in these two worlds it is a big difference. Dark Secrets can be ported over to WitchCraft as is for added (darker) variety without much trouble. The archetypes for either game would work well in the other game.

The other is Mental Balance, Kult’s quasi-equivalent to CoC’s Insanity or Mythos score. Since mental balance is the ration of Advantages to Disadvantages, Unisystem characters will always be on the positive side. To convert I am thinking that Kult to Unisystem characters will have to have a Quality called “Positive Mental Balance” or a Drawback called “Negative Mental Balance”. No points should be converted, gained or loss from these.

Willow and Tara in Kult

(Special thanks to Ronnie Bradley for helping put these together and notes from his Willow & Tara based Kult game.)

Ron’s Notes:

As anyone who has casually glanced at the GM’s section of the Kult rulebook will be aware, the world according to Kult is very different from the world according to the Buffyverse. So how do you make the two worlds collide? I offer these thoughts.

The theory that there are a multitude of Heavens and Hells within the Buffyverse can easily be explained by the idea that man’s grasp of the reality is crippled by it’s own inability to grasp the concept of one complete city. Each “dimension” is in fact merely a part of Metropolis, with it’s own rituals and doors, rather than separate entities. The ending of Buffy season 5, in fact, could be easily seen as the Key dropping the illusion completely, as any player of Kult would be hard pressed to find a better single image of Metropolis than the building that suddenly has an infestation of demons in it when the illusion shatters.

The reason for Demons who are good becomes more obvious. With the disappearance of the Demiurge, there really is no proper side of “good” as we understand the term, or “evil” for that matter. There are only the Archons and Death Angels with their own agenda, vendettas and characteristical quirks. In this regard, it easy to consider that a monster, even one in demonic form, might be a “good guy”, even in the sense of wishing to help mankind break some of the shackles. GM’s should always remember that the black and white has gone, only the grey remains, and those who wish to take advantage of that grey.

The Bete-noir of course is another reason for some demons being good guys. Any demon seen on the show who is “good” (I am thinking of Lorne in “Angel” Or Whistler) could easily be a Bete-noir who has allied him or herself to the powers of good, or to aid mankind at least.

A note on Purgatory. This place has become a virtual hell for all and sundry as they suffer for their own sins. Angel most certainly went to Purgatory as opposed to Hell, although to the layman there wouldn’t be much difference aesthetically, so it was an easy mistake to make. The bigger question becomes, who did release him? Was it an Archon or Death Angel? Or was it a lesser being with it’s own agenda? Maybe that which set him free hoped he would fight for the powers of good, as he did. Or maybe they had Angelus in mind. Either way, he was freed. I bring Angel up to give you an example of how the world of Buffy must be augmented to deal with the Kult backstory, which must take precedence.

As for the First? I leave that open to individual GM’s as to who or what it was in the end. There are plenty of ideas that would fit the First so rather than tie down the creative brain I will let GM’s in their own campaigns set their own agendas.

I will now deal with the specifics of Willow and Tara in their Kult guises.

(Note: Hey, me again.  I tweaked Ron's stats to better reflect my versions of the girls. These stats are from early on in the Dragon and the Phoenix time-line.)

Willow Rosenberg

STR: 11 Load Capacity: 11/33/6/10
AGL: 12 Movement: 6/36
EGO: 16 No. of Actions: 2
CON: 18 Initiative Bonus: +0
PER: 17 Damage Bonus: +1
EDU: 18 Endurance: 120
CHA: 15 Mod. To Ego Throw: +3
COM: 17 Mental Balance: -15

Damage Capacity:
5 Scratches = 1 light wound
4 Light wounds= 1 serious wound
3 Serious wounds = 1 fatal wound

DARK SECRETS

Forbidden Knowledge
Guilty of Crime
Occult Experience
Supernatural Experience

ADVANTAGES

Magical Intuition 20
Math Talent 10
Mechanically Inclined 5
Influential Friends 15

DISADVANTAGES

Black Sheep 5
Dependent 15
Magic Addiction 10
Mortal Enemy (The First) 15
Nightmares 5
Guilt 5
Rival (Amy) 10
SKILLS

Basic Skills

Climb 7
Dodge 11
Hide 8
Read/write native language 18
Search 15
Sneak 12
Swim 14
Throwing 8
Unarmed Combat 16

Projectile weapons
Bows 6
Handguns 8
Heavy Weapons 4
Machineguns/Automatic Weapons 1
Rifles & Crossbows 6

Melee & Throwing weapons
Axes 10
Daggers 8
Impact Weapons 11
Pole Arms 8
Swords 8
Throwing Weapons 5
Whips and Chains 8

EGO-Based
Accounting 19
Alternative Medicine 12
Astrology 12
Computers 24
Cosmology 16
Cryptography 21
Electronics 20
First Aid 14
Info Retrieval 25
Lore: Dreamworlds 10
Lore: Metropolis 10
Meditation 16
Numerology 20
Occultism 18
Security Systems 22
Written Report 16

CHA-Based
Acting 14
Instruction 18
Seduction 12

PER-Based
Forensics 14

Academic Skills

Natural Science 16
Spec: Computer Science 25

Magic

All five basic lores at 25*

Notes
Black sheep really covers her moving towards the Wiccan faith and acceptance of her Lesbianism. This would certainly upset her father, which is why the disadvantage is included. Note that this is a disadvantage as it causes lack of family interaction and is not a statement of guilt on the part of Willow.

Influential Friends refers to the Watchers Council and Giles contacts.

Dependent is Tara, which is why the score is at it’s highest.

Nightmares refer to Killing Rack and her treatment of Tara and her friends whilst under the influence of dark magic. Her Guilt is related to that.


Tara Maclay

STR: 12 Load Capacity: 12/36/6/120
AGL: 10 Movement: 5/30
EGO: 15 No. of Actions: 2
CON: 18 Initiative Bonus: +0
PER: 15 Damage Bonus: +1
EDU: 16 Endurance: 120
CHA: 14 Mod. To Ego Throw: +0
COM: 18 Mental Balance: +35

Damage Capacity:
5 Scratches = 1 light wound
4 Light wounds= 1 serious wound
3 Serious wounds = 1 fatal wound

DARK SECRETS

Family Secret
Occult Experience
Supernatural Experience
Victim of Crime

ADVANTAGES

Code of Honor 5
Empathy 15
Faith 5
Forgiving 5
Influential Friends 15
Motherliness 5
Magical Intuition 20

DISADVANTAGES

Anxiety 5
Black Sheep 5
Dependent 15
Nightmares 5

SKILLS

Basic Skills

Climb 7
Dodge 12
Hide 9
Read/write native language 17
Search 12
Sneak 10
Swim 14
Throwing 8
Unarmed Combat 6

Projectile Weapons
Bows 4
Handguns 2
Heavy Weapons 2
Machineguns/Automatic Weapons 1
Rifles & Crossbows 3

Melee & Throwing Weapons
Axes 7
Daggers 5
Impact Weapons 8
Swords 5
Throwing Weapons 4

AGL-Based

Dancing 15

EGO-Based

Alternative Medicine 15
Astrology 16
Cooking 18
Creative Writing 12
Erotica 16
First Aid 19
Herbalism 20
Lore: Dreamworlds 14
Lore: Metropolis 12
Meditation 19
Occultism 16
Parapsychology 14

CHA-Based

Diplomacy 12
Etiquette 18
Fortune Telling 20
Riding 15
Seduction 10
Singing 20

PER-Based

Counseling 22
Drive Vehicle 14

Academic Skills

Humanities Scholar 14
Spec: Classical History 16

Magic

Five basic Lores at 25*

Notes

Black sheep refers more to how the Maclay family view and treat her as opposed to how she feels about herself.

Dependent is Willow, hence the High score.

Nightmares are of Willow’s abuse of her and her family’s abuse. This is also where her Victim of Crime secret comes from.

*Willow and Tara are two of the most powerful witches in my game. So they get the
benefit of the doubt in being very powerful.

One word on the two co-operating to create a spell or device together. Either of them can be the High Priest and the other adds their entire Ego score to the other. Further there is no “tune in” time required to focus themselves unless one of them is injured or out of sorts. This does make them powerful when they cast together but they always were. One other thing, any Endurance loss is automatically split evenly between them.

Weekend Recap

My big birthday weekend is coming to an end and it was a blast.

Pathfinder
Finally leveled up in Pathfinder yesterday! Yeah!  We are all still making tweaks to our characters which is to be expected. Still enjoying this game but there are some minor rules tweaks we are still getting used to after 3.5 and 4.0.  I am also playing a Paladin.  Something I have not done in maybe 20 years or more, so I have to get used to being a front line fighter again and not the sneaky arcane type that fires magical bolts from the background.  So I have combat tactics to read up on.

New Games
Got Dresden Files.  Wow that is a good looking book, can't wait till the dead tree version is out.  Great stuff and I love the city creation guidelines and it does have one of the most detailed character creation systems I have seen.  I am not sure if I will like it as a game yet, but it goes a long way toward's selling Fate to me.

Mentioned this one on Friday, but I am still loving my new Monster Manual 3 for D&D 4.  The guys over at Wizards know their audience, all the monsters in this book appeared (more or less) originally in the various AD&D modules from the Golden Age of AD&D.  So there are your GDQ monsters, your S series ones (some, not all) and more.  It was nice to see some old faces.  There were new ones as well to keep things interesting.

I worry about D&D 4 though.  It seems to me that the wind is gone out of it's sails (and maybe sales too).  I like the game, but I see why some gamers don't.  The market is more factionalized than ever before and it is somewhat due to the one thing that was supposed to bring us all under one system to rule them all; d20.

I have new Witch Girls Adventures book on the way, so I want to talk about that soon too.

Wedding
Next week I have a Civil War reenactment wedding to go to.  I am in the wedding so I'll be wearing my Victorian suit.  I will be wear a full wool suit, in Illinois, at the start of Summer, outside.  I must be insane.
I want to get XP for this like it was a LARP and be able to apply to any of Ghosts of Albion characters.
In any case I won't be posting near the end of the week.

Random Stuff before the Weekend

So some little posts today.

Monster Manual 3 for D&D 4
Picked this up earlier in the week.  I love it.  You can never get too many monsters or monster books.  IT's too bad we are not playing D&D4 in my adult group.  I might have to move to D&D4 in my kids group just so I can use this.

I am torn. My kids' game of D&D 3.x is going great I almost hate to change things on them.  But then there are all these nice new D&D4 books...

Pathfinder

As typical tomorrow is ENWorld Game Day at my favorite local game store, and I am going to be at home in my game room playing a marathon game of Pathfinder.  Not that I am complaining mind you! I will just have to be there in spirit.  Anytime there has been an EN World Game Day or a D&D Game Day we are gaming at my place instead.  I am fully expecting my paladin, Johan Werper the V, the great-great grandson of my first ever D&D character to reach 2nd level tomorrow.  One can always hope.

I am totally digging using Hero Lab for this as well.  Great to keep track of things and even explore "what ifs" on skills or class choices.




Tempting FATE
Bet that title hasn't been overused!  Anyway. I have a bunch of new(ish) Fate and Fudge games that are screaming at me to try out.  I regular GM is bringing over his printed out copy of Icons, I have Dresden Files and few others.  I am still not 100% sold on Fate/Fudge even if they are Indy darlings.

More Games
Look for reviews, overviews and commentary of games like Dresden Files, BASH, Icons, Cartoon Action Hour 2  and more.  Plus I have a stack of old games I want to go over.  Mostly horror.

AND....
It is my birthday this weekend!  So happy birthday to me.

Willow & Tara: OVA

To wrap-up OVA I present my two witches.

Now at this point you might ask what is that OVA brings to the table that I didn't cover in BESM 2, 3.0 or d20?
And the truth is, not a lot, but that is fine.  It presents the material in a new way. By focusing on the concept of the character first, not just what the numbers add up to, was a good way to think about what the character is supposed to be.

The OVA sheets should sit nicely next to all the flavors of BESM and should be used with those games as well as a reminder of what the character is supposed to be.  I guess this is the reason that some many people like Fudge and Fate so much these days.

That is also what I like most about Anime as a genre/medium.  Emphasis is placed on the character.  Take the recent Witchblade anime and compare it to the Witchblade American comic.   In the anime we get to know Masane first as a mother. Ok a bit of an air head, but she is not an ass-kicker.  Sarah Pezzeni is.  As the series progresses we see Masane as something more than just the Witchblade wielder.  Just like Robin is more than a firestarter witch or Kiki is more than flying.  There is character development that you just don't quite see in American fare.  Now granted, sometimes I want a plot driven show or just watching stuff blow up real good.  That is fine.  But in game I want it to be more character driven.  I invest in these characters; I want to know what they will do.  I want to be pulled in and even surprised.

Shall we?
For the witches I wanted a more powerful game, so I set my power cap at 15.  That is crazy, but I think it works here.  In Mutants and Masterminds terms that could be between PL 12 and 17.

Willow Rosenberg

Human Intelligent Super Witch
29 years old (2010)

Abilities and Weaknesses
Beautiful +2, Filthy Rich +2, Item, Doll's Eye Crystal (adds to Endurance for casting) +1, Inventor +2, Magic, Arcane +6, Occult Knowledge +5, Smart +5, Telekinesis (part of magic) +6
Guardian (Brianna) -2, Loves (Tara) -2, Minority (Lesbian Jewish witch) -1, Quick temper -1

Attack
Blast +6
Spell +6, by spell type

Defense
Barrier +6

Health 40 Endurance 40

Tara Maclay

Human Empathic Witch

29 years old (2010)

Abilities and Weaknesses

Animal Companion (can talk) +1, Beautiful +2, Magic, Witchcraft +6, Occult Knowledge +5, Perceptive +2,  Psychic +2, Sixth Sense +3, Telekinesis (part of magic) +6

Guardian (Brianna) -2, Loves (Willow) -2, Minority (Lesbian witch) -1

Attack

Blast +6

Spell +6, by spell type

Defense

Magic Circle +6

Health 40 Endurance 45

This is obviously much later in the future than my previous builds.  Nothing new here really except for the addition of their dependent daughter Brianna (long story, I'll share it someday).  I gave them different types of magic, something I tried a bit in d20 Modern.  I think in future builds or revised ones I will explore this more.  I would like to see how it works in-game.

Now that I have OVA builds for Willow, Tara, Ivy, Rachel and Robin I should figure out a one shot to use them all in.  Maybe STN comes to Ohio?  Wow, that is even a stretch for me.

While I am on the subject of OVA I might head over to the American side of Cartoons for a bit and do Cartoon Action Hour.  It is a similar game in terms of character creation and I want to compare them while this is still fresh in my mind.

So many games.......

Outlaw Press is back and still stealing art

Like a bad case of herpes that flares up to piss you off, James Shipman has poked his head back up and is trying to sell his books full of stolen art.

The new details are here: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=519805

You can read what was said before here:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-from-outlaw-press.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/12/outlaw-press-uses-stolen-art-and.html
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=483885

This is so irritating that this guy continues to do this.

Any Witch Way You Can: Ghosts of Albion / Unisystem

So to follow up on my OVA post on Rachel and Ivy I thought I would post Rachel and Ivy in my favorite system, Cinematic Unisystem.  since Eden has gone back online and Ghosts is due out soon, this is a great choice! (ok, biased I know).

Actually stating up the characters for Unisystem worked out fantastic.  I might be biased but I am really pleased with how they worked out.   While I am very pleased with the OVA stats, I am thrilled with the Unisystem ones.

The world of Ghosts of Albion (or even Buffy/Angel) is a good fit for the world of Rachel and Ivy.  Demons, faeries, pixies, witches and vamps are all similar to those in Ghosts.  There are "living vampires" in The Hollows series, but I figure they have many of the same stats as regular vamps, only not as much.  So instead of +3 to Strength they only get +2 and +1 to all the other affected stats and skills.  They can move about in the daylight and are not affected by holy items, but are no more in a hurry to die than a human.  Plus they still need to feed.

Vamps in the Hollows can also "pull an aura" which is more of an Emotional Control than a full on Hypnotize.   I reflected this in Ivy's stats below.
Jenks of course is a Pixie and almost a by-the-book one.  Trent is an elf and can be built like the Royal Fae in the Ghosts core book.  Al is pretty much a demon out of the Angel book with some fae qualities like Glamour (only used as a spell).

Of course the big difference in Rachel and Ivy's world compared to say Willow and Tara's is magic is known to be real to everyone.  If Willow and Tara were in Rachel's world I would suspect that Tara would be an Earth Witch completely.  Willow of course would have started out as an Earth witch but moved to Ley Lines quickly.  Willow would almost certainly have some imbalance on her aura ("smut" in the books) and maybe a demon mark.

Rachel Morgan

Witch
Str: 3 Dex: 3 Con: 2 Int: 4 Per: 4 Wil: 5

Life Points: 36 Drama Points: 10

Qualities
Attractive 2, Contacts 3 (Weres, Demons, Witches, FIB), Hard to Kill 2, Heightened Senses (Witches in the world are more sensitive) 1, Magic 5, Magical Philosophy, Earth, Ley Line, Demonic (in Rachel's world you can have more than one), Nerves of Steel, Occult Library 2

Drawbacks
Addiction (Bad relationships) 1, Adversary 5 (nearly everyone wants her dead), Emotional Problems (hard for her to trust others) 1, Haunted (Pierce), Honorable 1, Obsession (Help Ivy), Reputation 3, Risk Taker, Secret (witches are really stunted demons, can do demon magic) 3

Skills
Acrobatics 3, Computer 2, Crime 2, Doctor 1, Driving 3, Engineering 1, Getting Medieval 2, Gun Fu 4, Influence 2, knowledge 4, Kung Fu 4, Languages 2 (English, Latin), Notice 3, Occultism 5, Science 1, Sports 2

Combat
by spell +15, special
Splat Gun +7, target falls asleep (paint balls filled with a sleeping potion)

(Image of Rachel found at http://valliantcreations.com/images/galleries/color.html)

Ivy Tamwood

Living Vampire

Str: 7 Dex: 7 Con: 5 Int: 3 Per: 5 Wil: 4

Life Points: 36 Drama Points: 10

Qualities

Attractive 3, Contacts 2 (Vamps, FIB), Emotional Influence ("pulling an aura"), Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill 3, Heightened Senses 2,  Iron Mind, Nerves of Steel, Regeneration (1 LP per hour), Resources 6, Vampire (Living).

Drawbacks

Adversary 2 (mostly other vampires), Fear (of dying and losing her soul) 1, Fear (of Rachel's magic) 1, Honorable 2, Love, Unrequited (Rachel), Obligation 1, Reputation 1 (living with Rachel has it's downside too)

Skills

Acrobatics 5, Art 2, Computer 4, Crime 4, Doctor 2, Driving 4, Engineering 2, Getting Medieval 6, Gun Fu 1, Influence 6, knowledge 4, Kung Fu 6, Languages 1, Notice 3, Occultism 2, Science 1, Sports 1

Combat
Sword +13
Hand to Hand +13

(image of Rachel and Ivy found at http://thwippersnapple.deviantart.com/art/rachel-morgan-and-ivy-tamwood-41669160)



All in all I really like these builds.  I think they capture the characters well.  I would love to add them to my Unisystem game, I just have not figured out how to bring them into the story yet.

I think I should put these two on the list of builds to try out for when I review Dresden Files.

Greyhawk Grognard: AD&D's Lost Second Edition

Here is a proper link-back for Blogger tracking.

Greyhawk Grognard: AD&D's Lost Second Edition

What if Gygax had done 2nd Ed?

Quick one for now. I am on my way to campus.

I have been following the OSR scene now for a while and have seen the attempts to do retellings of the most famous RPG in history. Associated with that is the wave of nostalgia for all things from the hands of the Old Masters (Gygax, Holmes, Arneson) and this had gotten me thinking.

What would 2nd Ed AD&D have looked like if Gygax had still been at TSR?

  

I suppose we should look at the variables.  What was TSR doing at the time (late 80s), what was Gygax doing (Mythus, Dangerous Journeys, and later Lejendary Adventures) and how would that have all blended into what could have been the 2nd Ed AD&D as written by Gary.

This is all speculation; I am not a Gygaxian scholar by any stretch of the imagination. But I am curious to know what you all think.

Would we have seen more classes? (I think so) More skills? (certainly) and I also think given the direction that TSR was headed and what Gygax did in DJ/Mythus that we would have seen more "world" books for different genres of play.  So instead of Spelljamer (D&D in space) we would have gotten a Space Opera game that used the AD&D 2ed rules.  Or not.

Thoughts?

EDITED TO ADD: Thanks to Herb and Jason Vey.  They uncovered this link for me.
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2009/02/ad-second-edition.html
I will have to read that in detail when I can.

Eden Studios back online

After many months Eden Studios is back online with a new website and new releases!

http://www.edenstudios.net/

And in the "Upcoming Releases" section a welcomed sight!

More as I learn more.

Play Ivy For Me: OVA

So according to the official OVA RPG blog there will be a 2nd edition of the OVA RPG.
I have liked what I have seen so far of OVA, so the second edition should be fun.  July 17 is the release date.

Until then though I wanted to bring out some characters I have been dying to stat up for any game.

I just finished reading the latest Rachel Morgan book, Black Magic Sanction.  Like all the others it was fun ride and great to see Rachel, Ivy and Jenks again.  Given the nature of the series I thought an anime roleplaying adaptation would be perfect. Plus I am wrapping up OVA and just finished the book so it fits; for me anyway.

So what do you need to know with out getting to spoilery? Well.  Rachel Morgan is a witch living in Cincinnati in a world where everyone knows about magic, witches (like Rachel), vampires (like her roommate Ivy) and even pixies (like their business partner Jenks).  Rachel has so problems keeping herself out of trouble and then problems about getting herself much deeper in trouble once she is there.  Ivy is a bad mood away from going total bloodlust psycho thanks to years of mental (and physical) abuse from Cincinnati's former Master Vampire. And Jenks...well Jenks is a pixie and that means a lot in this series.

It is a very cool set of books and if you have not read them and you like modern supernatural then these are a treat.  I have mentioned them before but had not got around to doing any stats.  That changes now.

Like my Witch Hunter Robin write-up I am using the rule of a power cap of 10.  I want Rachel and Ivy to be about the same league as Robin, but obviously more powerful due to their world, age and experience.

Rachel Morgan
Concept: Trouble prone witch with a deadly secret. or two.
"I'm a white witch damnit!"

Abilities & Weaknesses
Beautiful +2, Combat Skill, Splat-gun (a paint ball gun filled with potions) +2, Combat skill, Hand to hand +2, Magic, Arcane (Earth Magic in the book) +2, Magic, Witchcraft (Ley Line Magic in the book +3),  Magic, Demonic (combining Earth and Ley Line) +5, Occult Knowledge +3, Perceptive +2, Weapon, Splat-gun +2
Code of conduct -1, Guardian, Jenks and Family (though they are more often her guardian) -1, Impulse Control (Rachel often acts before she thinks) -2, Obsession, help Ivy -1, Rivals (Al, Moral and Ethical coven, Trent) -3, Secret (demon spawn) -2, Special Weakness, Jerk Magnet (Rachel has terrible taste in men) -1.

Attacks
Hand to hand, +2
Splat Gun +2, special damage. Hit target falls asleep.

Defense
Take down +2
Magic Circle +3, ley line based

Health 40, Endurance 40

Character Notes: Rachel is a 25 year old witch and former IS runner.  She is now an independent runner for Vampiric Charms and no that is not a escort service.  Rachel is tall with long red, red hair and green eyes.  She has a demon mark on her wrist from her personal demon, Algaliarept "Al".  She has discovered a great many things in her short time as an independent and maybe one day she will be able to live to talk about it all.
She awful taste in men given that they either leave, are secretly thieves or are really ghosts.
If nothing else Rachel is a survivor and she might be the secret to the survival of all the Interlander Races.  If they don't all kill her first.

Ivy Tamwood

Concept: Living vampire with issues.  lots of issues.

"Damnit Rachel, you are going to get me killed. Twice."

Abilities & Weaknesses

Agile +2, Beautiful +3, Combat Skill, Sword +3, Combat skill, Hand to hand +3, Filthy Rich +2, Occult Knowledge +2, Perceptive +2, Quick +2, Strong +2, Weapon, fangs +1, Weapon, Sword +3(extra damage), Special: Vampire*

Code of Honor/Conduct (friends) -1, Impulse Control  -2, Love Interest, Rachel (Ivy is in love with Rachel, even if Rachel isn't) -1, Needs Blood -2, Obligation (Master Vampire) -1, Obsession, Survive her 1st Death -3, Rivals (rival vampire clans) -1, Special Weakness, Afraid of Rachel's Magic (Ivy won't use any of Rachel's magic) -1.

Attacks

Sword +3, damage: 2

Hand to hand, +3

Fangs +1

Defense

Parry +3

Health 50, Endurance 50 

Character Notes: Ivy is a member of the Tamwood family of living vampires.  That means she is stinking rich but one day she will die and rise as a soulless monster, a dead vampire.  She will do anything to stop that and she thinks Rachel is the ticket.  Of course the fact that Ivy is also in love with the head strong witch has nothing to do with it.  Almost nothing.  Ivy suffered years of mental abuse from the Master Vampire Piscary to mold her into the type of Scion he wanted. In fact Piscary had been molding her whole family for centuries to get the qualities he wanted.  So Ivy, with her dark hair, husky voice and slightly Asian features, is a knock out.  Even supermodels think she is hot.  But most of the time Ivy is in a bad mood.  She tried to go of off blood and that made difficult to live with, then she went back on to the blood and that made things even weirder.

And there you go.
OVA does not have a vampire ability really, so I just combined things that made Ivy who she is; quick, strong, agile, needs blood to live.

I like the OVA versions of them and can't wait to try them out in Ghosts of Albion or Witch Girls Adventures. 

OVA Witch Hunter Robin

I spent some quality time with OVA this weekend.  I generated a few characters and it was one of the fastest character creation system I have played with in a long time.  Character creation was a snap.

To start with you work from your concepts and then basically figure out how much these concepts are worth.  What I liked about this game that abilities and weaknesses are roughly equal to qualities and drawbacks, so a +4 quality in Unisystem might give you a +4 ability in OVA.  I would also say that they are roughly equal to abilities in BESM 3.0.

What I like about this character creation is it does focus the player on what the character is all about.  Look at Kiki from "Kiki's Delivery Service", she is young, is looking for her place in world of witches, and can fly.  Not a lot really to be honest, but enough to build a story and a character concept around.  We know she can fly, can cook (sort of) and knows her way around the city.  She has a talking cat and a push broom.  OVA starts the same way.

Looking at Robin Sena we can do the same.  I have detailed Robin before both for BESM and Witch Girls Adventures.
What do we know about her?  Well she has secrets. Secrets about who she is ans what she is doing at STN-J. She is a witch, but rarely casts spells but instead uses something more like pyrokenisis. She knows a lot about the occult and can hunt.  We also know her Japanese is not great because she didn't grow up in Japan.  She also needs glasses in order to see to use her powers. She doesn't fly, but does have a Vespa scooter.

Using the rules I decide to set a power cap of 10.  Nice round number.
Finding the abilities and weaknesses I come up with this:

Robin Sena



Abilities & Weaknesses
Combat Skill (fire) +3, Magic, Witchcraft* +3, Occult Knowledge +3, Pyrokinesis (altered form of TK) +3: (Area Effect, Extra Damage),  Impared Sight -1, Secret -1, Haunted by Visions -1, Shy -1, Obsession (Discover the secret of her birth) -1, Code of Conduct -1.

That gives us a total of +6.  Just under the 10 I set.

Health: 30 (i reduced this to refelct her age)  Endurance: 40

Attack, Flame Strike +3
Defense, Magic Circle +3

I gave her "Magic, Witchcraft" instead of "Magic, Arcane" since I felt that it was better fit concept wise.  Though either would have worked fine.  I'll detail later the differences.

I like it.

I seems to be "missing" some crunch that I would normally like, but that could be partially my reading of the system and just the way the game is.   As an Anime game I think it works great.   Parts of it remind me of Cartoon Action Hour, which is cool.  I'll look into OVA again when I talk about Cartoon Action Hour.

Fudge and Fate

So I have some new (and some old) Fudge and Fate games I want to talk about.

But in general, what do you all think of Fudge and Fate?

I get the indy appeal, but something about them just never has jelled with me.  Maybe I don't get it.

I like numbers I guess.

Tell me.  What am I not getting here?  I'll have some reviews up soon, and I like the games that use it I just tend to like the games and convert them over to Unisystem.

More later in the week, or whenever I finish up Anime.

Willow & Tara: Macho Women with Guns

Note: Ok, this is a recycled one.  I had done these in the past and wanted something for Friday.  Continuing in my "can I convert a d20 game to play more like the modern horror/supernatural game of my dreams" I chose...well I chose a game I thought would be a joke, but found I liked the way it worked.

Plus it is a good excuse to post pictures of hot witches in their underwear.

These flow from my d20 Modern and d20 BESM stats.  There are few ideas here.  I like the Professions in MWWG d20 (which really work like the ones in CoC d20) and I used the Bat Winged Bimbos in other places.  These do sorta, kinda flow from the Anime d20 stuff.  A lot of the things you find in MWWG are also Anime tropes (gun bunnies, naughty school girls, succubi).


Macho Women With Guns

The original Macho Women With Guns (MWWG) was a bit of RPG silliness from the late 80's from the minds at BTRC (who would later go on to produce some really cool games). They figured with all the games out there that featured men killing things and taking things from other things and women mostly as ornaments or eye candy that something radical should be done. So this is a game about women killing things and taking things from other things. But that is not all. There is also a whole lot of blowing things up real good and looking good while doing it.

Ok, so not the cutting edge game you would expect, but hey, it was the 80's.

Of course in the 2000s Mongoose had opted to give us a new set of d20 based rules for MWWG, but that is sort of missing the point. Yes, it has lots of ways to kill, maim and blow things up while wearing a chain-mail bikini or halter top. Yes you can still kill scores of drunk fratboys, rednecks and sleazy televangelists. And yes there are pages and pages of scantily clad women that would make Larry Flint proud, but that was not really the point of the game. MWWG worked because it was parody. It took an established cliche and turned it on it's head. Course, later it became a parody of itself indulging in the same said cliché it used to send up. So where does that leave us?

Well. Dont pick it up thinking you can use it as a supplement to Spycraft or even d20 CoC. But as an afternoon diversion, you can do a lot worse. As a game with some fun ideas and a reminder that not every single game session is supposed to serious, then it is perfect.

What Does MWWG d20 have to Offer?

For starters MWWG d20 is mostly just the d20 Modern Rules. But it does have some interesting differences. First is the Witch profession. This gives 1st level characters a magic using option. It is similar in many ways to the Hedge Wizard profession of Urban Arcana. The other is a Mana point option, which is like a poor man's Essence system. What I did like is as out of the box rules with no modifications I got similar proportions of Mana as I did with Essence in WitchCraft for Willow and Tara.

The Professions in MWWGs can be used as a poor-mans Qualities (none should be more than 5 points). Nearly all the Heinous Drawbacks can be used in Unisystem in one way or the other. The Advanced Classes are closer to Qualities and can be used as such. Such get your Directors approval first. Assassin is fine, as are Relic Raiders and Criminal Masterminds. Questionable are Holly Rollers (Renegade Nuns on Wheels) and Infernal Mistresses (though they are like an advanced version of Bat Wing Bimbos). I dont even know what to say about the Busty Vampire Layer.

Besides, you have to like a game with a Naughty School Girl profession. Might have to port that over to BESM d20.  And I have to admit the Occult knowledge analogue, "Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (but are ok for women)" just HAS to find a way into one of my games.

New Quality/Feat/Advantage
Here is a new advantage I wrote for the original MWWG rules, converted for d20 and Unisystem.

Large with the Butch (5 per level) (BRTC)
Anytime her girlfriend is attacked or threatened the character can add the number of levels of this to her attacks and Take Charge rolls.

Large with the Butch (Combat Feat, multiple) (d20)
Anytime her girlfriend is attacked or threatened the character can add twice the number of levels of this feat to her attack, defense and Intimidate rolls.(1 feat = +2, 2 feats = +4).

Large with the Butch (1 point per level Quality) (Unisystem)
Pre-requisite: Love (romantic), Must be a woman in love with another woman
Anytime her girlfriend is attacked or threatened the character can add twice the number of levels of this Quality to her attack, defense and Influence rolls.


Willow and Tara
Of course I'll include my two favorite witches. These stats are mostly the same as the d20 Modern ones. I have made some changes to accommodate the world. Namely their professions start out as Naughty School Girls and then they become Witches. Again, I am looking for out of the box solutions here, sure I could make up new rules, but that is not the point at the moment.
Interesting additions are rules for Things Man Was Not Meant To Know which are ok for women to know. Its adds to their Occultism/Knowledge (Arcana/Magic). Would I adopt that for a Unisystem game? Not likely, but here it is fun.

Note they do get the Heinous Drawback for being conservative dressers in the MWWG world, but drop the minority bit about being a lesbian witches.

Willow Rosenberg, Hot Witch (d20 MMWGs stats)

Female Human, Smart Heroine 5, Occultist 1, Mage 7 (level 13). Medium Humanoid. Naughty Schoolgirl/Witch, hp 45, DC 14, Init +0, BAB +3 (+2 melee, +3 ranged), Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +7, Reputation +3, Wealth +1 Action Points 75.

Strength 9 (-1), Dexterity 11 (0), Constitution 11 (0), Intelligence 18 (+4), Wisdom 16 (+3), Charisma 17 (+3)

Height 53, Weight 110lbs, Eyes Green, Hair Red, Date of Birth August 1, 1981 (25 in 2006)

Skills: Bluff +4, Computer +19, Concentration +10, Craft (Chemical) +10, Craft (Electronics) +8, Craft (Mechanical) +7, Decipher Script +14, Diplomacy +4, Disable Device +9, Drive +2, Escape Artist +2, Gather Information +8, Handle Animal +4, Hide +1, Investigate +9, Knowledge (Arcana) +18, Knowledge (Earth Sciences) +8, Knowledge (Physical Sciences) +8, Knowledge (Theology) +9, Listen +5, Navigate +5, Perform (Ritual) +7, Read/Write Languages (Latin, French, Hebrew) +2, Repair +8, Research +20, Sense Motive +4, Speak Languages (Latin, French, Hebrew) +2, Spellcraft +14, Survival +5, Use Magical Devices +9.

Feats: Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Educated (Arcana and Computer), Focused, Gearhead, Magical Affinity, Meticulous, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Studious, Toughness, Ambidextrous.

Talents/Special Abilities: Magic (free), Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, Mana Boost, Mana Battery

Heinous Drawbacks: Conservative (odd) Dresser, Vengeful

Willow Rosenberg (BRTC MWWGs stats)
Vitals
Age: 20, Ht: 5'3", Wt: 104#, Hair: Red, Eyes: Green
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 9
Looks: 15
Macho: 16
Health: 13
Intelligence: 19

HTH damage: 0

Skills
Throw things (+2), Hit Things (+1), Hit Things with other things (+2), Cavort about (+3), Seduce Creature (+2), Fly Things (brooms only) (+2), Drive Things (+1), Do Technical Stuff (+5), Know it All (+6), Take Charge (+4).

Advantages
Pet (10), Run Like Hell (10), Scriptwriter (5), Witch
(Remember Willow said she was not "Large With the Butch").

Disadvantages
Conservative Dresser (20), Secret Love (Kittens, Girls, computers) (10)

Possesions
Laptop, books on magic, spell compontents.

Tara Maclay, Hot Witch (d20 MMWGs stats)

Female Human, Dedicated Heroine 6, Mystic 6 (level 12). Medium Humanoid. Naughty School Girl/Witch, hp 49, DC 12, Init -1, BAB +4 (+5 melee, +3 ranged), Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +9, Reputation +2, Wealth +1 Action Points 41.
Strength 12 (+1), Dexterity 9 (-1), Constitution 12 (+1), Intelligence 16 (+3), Wisdom 18 (+4), Charisma 16 (+3)
Height 55, Weight 125lbs, Eyes Blue, Hair Blond, Date of Birth Nov 7, 1980 (25 in 2006)
Skills: Bluff +4, Computer +7, Concentration +6, Craft (Chemical) +3, Decipher Script +9, Diplomacy +10, Gamble +7, Gather Information +3, Handle Animal +7, Hide +3, Investigate +7, Knowledge (Arcana) +12, Knowledge (Philosophy) +11, Knowledge (Theology) +11, Listen +10, Navigate +3, Perform (Dancing) +8, Perform (Painting) +8, Perform (Ritual) +7, Perform (Singing) +8, Read/Write Languages (Latin, Greek, French, Japanese) +2, Repair +3, Research +12, Sense Motive +13, Speak Languages (Latin, French, Japanese) +2, Spellcraft +12, Survival +9, Use Magical Devices +8.
Feats: Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Cautious, Creative, Educated (Humanities), Focused, Iron Will, Low Profile, Simple Weapons Proficiency, Meticulous.
Talents/Special Abilities: Magic (free), Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, Mana Boost, Mana Battery, Large With the Butch
Heinous Drawbacks: Conservative (odd) Dresser

Mana Boost and Mana Battery correspond roughly to Increased Essence Pool.

Tara Maclay (BRTC MWWGs stats)

Vitals
Age: 20, Ht: 5'5", Wt: 110#, Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Blue

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 12
Looks: 15
Macho: 17
Health: 15
Intelligence: 18

HTH damage: 0

Skills
Throw things (+1), Hit Things (+1), Hit Things with other things (+2), Cavort about (+3), Seduce Creature (+3), Fly Things (brooms only) (+3), Drive Things (+2), Do Technical Stuff (+3), Know it All (+4), Take Charge (+3).

Advantages
Large with the Butch* (10), Pet (10), Run Like Hell (10), Scriptwriter (5), Witch

Disadvantages
Awful Family (5), Conservative Dresser (20), Fairness, Loves to Read, Secret Love (Kittens, Girls, books) (10)

Links

• BRTC's Macho Women with Guns page.  http://www.btrc.net/html/catmain.html#MWWG 
• Mongoose's d20 version, Full and Diet Editions.
• Facebook Page

Nothing ready yet...

Work has been brutal this week and next week doesn't look any better.  I don't have my OVA write-ups done (or even started) and I still want to cover Open Anime too before I wrap-up this overview of Anime RPGs.

I have a couple of things in "storage" that I could bring out.  Let me check.

Star Wars d20

Hey all.  I know I promised more Anime stuff today, but I work has got me buried.  I did want to talk about something though really quick and that is the loss of the Star Wars RPG from Wizards.

I have not been a huge fan of Star Wars lately.  I loved the movies as a kid, have tons of action figures and toys.  I still have a couple of Boba Fetts (one I had to save proof of purchases for, one I bought) sitting on my desk.  I went from being a hard core fan to a more relaxed one.  I did like the newer movies despite HUGE plot holes (the first movie was about a trade agreement?? really??) and my kids love them.  My adult tastes went more for Star Trek.

All the same I was disheartened to hear that Wizard's was pulling the plug on d20 Star Wars.  I have (or rather my son has) the Revised d20 version.  It is a bit like D&D 3 and so we have been adding it off and on to our regular D&D game (the previously mentioned Dragon Slayers game).

To me d20 and Star Wars seemed a perfect match.  I think back to the late 70's and early 80's and what my obsessions were; Star Wars and D&D.  Having played the game a bit I can see why some people don't like it and why some still prefer the WEG d6 version (I don't), but to me it just works. Stars Wars and D&D share history, they share a common place in the Gen X collective sub-conscious right there next to video games.  To me D&D/d20 and Star Wars just belong together.

Plus, I have a long history of dissatisfaction with Sci-Fi games.  It's odd really.  I love Sci-Fi, but the RPGs I have tried (Traveler, Star Frontiers, Alternity) have left me feeling flat.  Star Frontiers was my favorite.   So I guess to me then, the perfect Sci-Fi game would have elements of Star Wars, Star Frontiers and Alternity all powered by the d20 system.  That is also easy to do.  I am a touch surprised I have not tried that yet.

Now I am fairly sure I will not use anything from the Saga Edition Star Wars, even if it has some improvements on the game.  I like the Vitality/Wound system from the Revised system better and if I plan on adding in anything from d20 Future (to get my Star Frontiers and Alternity fix).  Maybe this would even let me do my Greyhawk 2000, er Greyhawk 2500 game.  I think the Star Wars universe is big enough for that and flexible enough too.  Can't do that so much with Star Trek, despite how much I love it.

I am not sure who will be picking up the Star Wars game next, I am pretty sure I will check it out but not so sure I will buy it.  In the mean time I think I am going to go to my FLGS and see what they still have for Star Wars.

Anime RPGs: OVA

Open Versatile Anime
This is a new one to me, but not a new game.  I just got it and I like what I see so far. The system is very different that BESM, but it has some good character creation guidelines that I think would work nice with any game.  The book is a thin 125+ pages, but that is really all it needs due to it's system and design.

OVA stands for Open Versatile Anime, and it's a pun in Anime circles.  It also stands for Original Video Animation.   There are the perfunctory introductions for the RPG player, the Anime fan and people in general.

OVA has some artwork from Niko Geyer, the same artist from BESM. This sort of gives OVA the same feel. If you go to his blog, you can see some of the art in OVA, and it is nice.

Character creation is the heart of OVA, and there are some good things here.  The character creation has the player starting with a conversation with the Game Master and even other players.  This would seem pointless in other games but important in OVA.  It helps with the next steps and helps decide what sort of game will be played. The interesting part here is that the rules encourage players to develop their character before reading the rules.  So the next step is the Concept stage.

Many games have something similar.  Here, though, it is an actual step.  Typically, this can be as simple as "magical girl with a flying cat" or "darkly handsome swordmaster with a dark past".  In the world of anime RPGs, these are very common concepts.   Since OVA is an Ability-based system (more on this), the concept helps define what a character can and can't do.

Abilities and Weakness
This is the heart and soul of OVA.  Abilities (sometimes called Attributes, sort of confusing) combine the various numbers you would normally see in other games.  In Unisystem, this would be combining Attributes, Skills, and Qualities.  So things like "Magic", "Weapon" and "Cute" would replace all the other numbers that could be combined to create these; ie Dex + Armed Mayhem for Weapon.  This makes for a very focused sort of character, which is exactly what you would expect in an Anime.  You can add all sorts of other Abilities as needed.  So our Dark Swordmaster can add Hobby (Origami) as a hobby, which would be appropriate.
Weaknesses are the same, only like Drawbacks, such as "Easy to Anger," "Bizarre Appearance," or "Obsession."   
Abilities are ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best of the best.  Weaknesses are ranked -1 to -3.  Characters should start around 1 or 2 with no abilities at 5. Character creation is a matter of agreeing on how many points is the power cap.  You can choose 0, so Abilities have to equal Weaknesses, a top point, say 20 or so points of Abilities where 5 can be free and 15 are bought with Weakness points.  All really easy to be honest.

There are number of sample characters covering a variety of anime tropes. Some have a lot of Attributes and thus a lot of Weaknesses, others have much fewer.
There is a stat block for "Basic Statistics," which includes the concept, age, height and weight, and other basic information.   It makes for a very simple character sheet that is also surprisingly full of information. There are a good number of Abilities and Weaknesses, and what is not here can easily be converted from other sources.  However, I could not find anything that was "missing".   There are Power Perks and Flaws which act like Power Feats in M&M.
The system is an easy one, roll dice go for a target number.  Combat is similar.
There is a good DM's section and a bunch of sample characters and NPCs, all of which can be used to design other characters or used as NPCs or PCs.

The system is simple and really easy to play.  The character creation is similar to another new game I grabbed, "Cartoon Action Hour 2".  In fact, I bet you could easily convert between the two systems without too much trouble.  Where CAH2 does not give too many examples of Abilities/Powers, OVA does.  You could use some of the Abilities in OVA as ideas for CAH2.  It sort of defeats the purpose of creating your own, as CAH2 suggests, but it is a good place to start.
I also suppose that you could use the abilities from BESM 3 as well.  I would bet that you could take any BESM 3 character and convert it to OVA with just a couple of edits on the sheet.

OVA certainly feels like the spiritual successor to BESM.  There are a lot of similarities in feel and purpose.   While BESM is crunchier than OVA, OVA is more flexible.   The powers are fairly well-defined and easy to use/grasp.

I am going to test this theory here in a bit and try to convert a BESM character over to OVA.  Most likely Robin Sena from Witch Hunter Robin. But first, let's try a tried and true character.

Larina Nix for OVA

Larina is a witch and in my mind a perfect test for any Anime RPG.

Larina Nix

Human Witch
40 years old (2010)

Abilities and Weaknesses

Animal Companion (Cottonball) +1, Barrier (Arcane) +3, Beautiful +2, Magic, Arcane (Witchcraft) +5, Occult Knowledge +5, Perceptive +2, Smart +1, Telekinesis (part of magic) +5

Guardian (Taryn) -2, Nightmares -1

Attack

Blast +5 1

Spell +5, by spell type

Defense

Barrier +5

Health 40
Endurance 40

Not a bad build really. And really fast to do. Looking forward to doing more with this game. 

Family Game Day: All Wet (rain and ocean adventures)

Taking a break from Anime RPGs for a sec to talk about yesterday's family game day.

Due to the rain yesterday and a general lack of motivation we decided to play a game of D&D.  This is the on going saga of the "Dragon Slayers" which consisted of my oldest son's three characters (I have alway let him play multiple characters since it was just us), my youngest son and his Archer Ranger/Thief and even my wife got into the game for a bit.  A couple of D&D tile sets (which my wife told me to go out and buy more!) a few  of my son's toys that work great with the minis, and a half baked idea all came together for "Dragon Slayers and the Quest for the Dragon Pearl!"

I used my Hero Lab for Pathfinder to put together a character for my wife really fast; a duel wielding Ranger/Fighter multiclass. Now this is not the same game as the Kid's Pathfinder game I have been playing in.  Though Connor is playing an older version of that character in the Dragon Slayers game.  Liam's characters are also somehow related in both games.  I am playing the same witch character.  In Dragon Slayers she is a 9th level witch using my Liber Mysterium rules for D&D 3.0 and in Pathfinder she is a 1st level witch using the new witch class from that game. In Dragon Slayers she is a GMPC/NPC of course, but her job in that group is to record all the knowledge the characters gather on dragons.

The Dragon Slayers game has turned into a rather cool one.  It is at it's base D&D 3.0 with various 3.5 add ins, a little Star Wars d20 (for the Bounty Hunter) and some BESM d20 and Mutants and Masterminds where needed.  It is set in my Mystoerth world which is another unholy union of various D&D worlds, so it all fits really.  The over arching plot here is that evil dragons are planning to take over the world by killing all the good dragons, the characters are finding all the big bad evil dragons and hunting them down, while collecting pieces of an artifact so the can defeat Tiamat. So it has it's own built in end game.   While they are seraching for these artifacts they are also looking for other items of power.  They are supposed to head to the South Pole next time, which I am going to draw heavy from At the Mountains of Madness for, but before they get there they will come to Ansalon, a country they did not know was there (it's not on their maps) and this gives me the excuse to have them gain some Dragonlances.  So yeah, this game is more cartoon than it is fantasy adventure epic, so in a way it does connect back to the topic at hand; how to add Anime Style to your games.  My son's character sheets are an odd collection of D&D 3.0, M&M and BESM d20.  For this game the BESM d20 sheets work the best since his wizards tend to have "powers" instead of "spells".
I know there are purists out there cringing, but all I can say is it works and it is fun.

Yesterday the Dragon Slayers were convinced by an Ogre to retrieve a "Dragon Pearl".  Why were they dealing with an ogre?  Well he had the only boat that would take them from The Four Kingdoms north of the Zakhara desert to the South Pole where they believe another piece of the artifact was.  The pearl was in a submerged cave system and protected by a Deep Sea Dragon Eel and an Aquatic Dragon.  Which were stat wise just two adult black dragons with about 200 hp each.  The Dragon Eel was a toy viper fish that my son got years ago and the aquatic dragon was this sea dragon toy he bought recently on Amazon.  The "ogre" was also an "igor" figure from a Castlevania Succubus, so while he is a small figure to her, to a 7ft tall Dragonborn mini he is about 10-13ft tall (hard to tell, he is hunched over).

The adventure went great and nearly everyone gained enough XP to level up.  My sons started talking about the "end game" of this; when they defeat Tiamat and retire to pick up on 4th Edition.  While I Am looking forward to playing some 4th edition with them, I am finding I am not really ready to see the end of the Dragon Slayers yet.  It has been a ridiculously fun ride.

What adventures will the Dragon Slayers have next rainy day?  Unknown, but it will certainly be a blast.

Anime RPGs: BESM recap

Ok, so I have worked through three different versions of BESM.  Each one had something to offer my regular Unisystem games and each one gave me a alternate game when I felt the need to recharge my batteries.

Yes, Unisystem pretty much offers everything I need in a system.  But playing and reading other games, especially other genres of games, can help me build out the game I am playing.  BESM added a need dose of light to my games.  Trust me, I have a stack of Horror games that can provide me plenty of dark, Anime games helped me focus on some of the things that horror games often overlook.

One of the issues in my games (at least in the past) was "what does it mean to be human?".  I had many characters that were were closer in nature to the monsters they hunted rather than the humans they protected.   To help with these issues games like World of Darkness are good, but full of angst that I may or may not want in an adventure where the characters go to the beach on a bright sunny day.  Anime games help with those "days off" stories where there is a lull from the action but it is a good adventure for character development.

BESM, and other Anime games, were very influential on my Season 3 game "Generation HEX" in terms of tone, pacing and story.  It also helped me see the value in a 2d6 mechanic for Unisystem.  BESM 3 only solidified that.

Some Crunch
One of the things I like to do with a new system/game is find some gems and convert them over to what-ever system I happen to be using at the time.  Often that is Unisystem.


Unknown/Undeveloped Power
1-5 point Quality
Prerequisite: Approval of Director/Chronicler

Some characters are born with their gifts turned on or readily apparent. These characters my start the game as normal humans only to have their powers or gifts turned on when it becomes dramatically appropriate.
To represent this the player pays a certain amount of Quality points at character creation (usually 1 to 5) to have the Director/Chronicler develop the new power over time as part of the story campaign or all at once when it is needed. The Player and Director/Chronicler need to agree to this. The player pats the points now and the Director/Chronicler gives them the power that costs the amount paid plus 50% rounded up at a later date. This payoff should be no more than two or three episodes. Longer than that should increase the amount of interest paid on the power. The character is loosing potential at the beginning of the game (making them weaker than other characters) for a larger return.
So a character that is to develop magic at some point can pay 3 points now and get a return to 3 + 1.5 = 4.5 rounded up to 5 points later to buy Sorcery/Magic.

The Director/Chronicler must work to make the payoff worth it not just in terms of points, but also in terms of drama.

This selection also works well for younger characters.

Characters
One thing that BESM 2r/3.0/d20 was missing were some iconic characters for me to convert.  So I have to turn to it's sister game SAS.  And since GoO was a Canadian company I should use one of Canada's finest superheroes.

Mother Raven

Human Witch
This represents Mother Raven at the start of her career. As she progresses she will increase her levels of magic to a max of 8 and increase her skills and loose her recurring nightmares (loss would be something she would have come to terms with). Given that this is "Silver Age" I would imagine she would be "Grandmother Raven" now.

Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 10

Str: 2 Dex: 3 Con: 3 Int: 4 Per: 7 Will: 7

QualitiesAcute Senses (Sight) ("Raven's Eyes")
Attractive
Contacts (The Guard)
Hard to Kill
Iron Mind ("Raven's Will")
Magic (no TK) 6
Nerves of Steel
Supernatural Senses ("Raven's Warnings")

DrawbacksAdversary (Various, in particular General Winter)
Dependent (Daughter)
Honorable
Minority (Ojibwa Native American)
Recurring Nightmare (life without Raven)
Secret (identity Katherine McCloud)
Spell Focus* (All powers require the use of her Raven staff)

SpellsShadow Form, Illusion ("Raven's Tricks"), Darkness, Pocket Dimension, Negate Powers (drains Willpower), Sunkiss (Blindness, LP damage SLx5, SLx8 to vampires)

SkillsAcrobatics 1, Art 5, Computers 1, Crime 2, Doctor 5, Driving 1, Getting Medieval 3, Gun-Fu 0, Influence 5, Knowledge 8, Kung-fu 2, Languages 5 (English, Ojibwa, Crow, Chippewa, Tlingit), Mr. Fix-it 2, Occultism 7, Science 3, Sports 1

From the d20 version:

IDENTITY: Katherine McCloud (Secret, known to Anisinabe)
OCCUPATION: Teacher, speaker, writer, painter, adventurer
FIRST APPEARANCE: Amazing Presentations, Vol. III, #45
FORMER ALIASES: None
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sunset Lake Reservation, Ontario, Canada
AFFILIATION: The Guard
TERRITORY: Empire City
HEIGHT: 5'8" (173 cm)
WEIGHT: 160 lbs. (73 kg)
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Black

The old ways had been abandoned in Sunset Lake Reserve by the time Katherine McCloud was born; it was a familiar story in Northern Ontario. The Ojibwa sank into despair, suffering from poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and rampant diabetes. The ancestors and spirits of the world were all but forgotten to gambling and alcohol. Katherine excelled in school, but the instability of her home life took its toll. Her father was often gone for months, and they had to take in her mother's mother. Both parents were alcoholics, but her mother would try putting life in order each time father left. Yet whenever he returned Katherine's mother would take him back, beginning anew the cycle of abuse.

By high school, Katherine turned to drinking and drugs as a panacea for the pain and anger she felt, and for the strange visions that plagued her dreams. She dismissed her grandmother's foolish talk of spirits, and refused to admit she was spiralling out of control; Katherine could no longer ignore life when she discovered she was pregnant at 16. She exhibited a supreme effort of will to finally live clean, which her grandmother noted proudly.

Without the alcohol, her grandmother made sense, and Katherine turned to her grandmother's spirits to ease her burden. Drumming circles and sweat lodges brought the image of the Raven, growing ever stronger. As she neared her delivery date, grandmother sent her on a vision quest into the wilderness. The Great Raven appeared, speaking of the need for change. Katherine's role was to become a symbol for her village, for her daughter, for all Anisinabe - the people of the land. She awoke in her mother's house, now a mother herself. Her grandmother taught her to be a good parent, see the spirits, and represent her people. In time, she became a powerful teacher herself, reaching out as a writer, painter, and speaker.

During Katherine's 20th summer, Lady Starbright pursued General Winter across Ontario, until Winter knocked the hero unconscious and deep into Sunset Lake. Katherine desperately struggled to save her while the General's wake turned the village from summer to winter. Raven helped Katherine save Starbright, before both women co-operated to drive Winter off.

Starbright liked Katherine immediately, and offered to teach her. Katherine accepted, knowing she had a greater responsibility. She left her daughter with her grandmother, and let Starbright show her the world. Starbright introduced Katherine, now Mother Raven, to the American Sentinel, Slipstream, and others, while Raven guided Katherine's abilities, teaching her to draw from his power, to create shadows, and cast visions.

An early mission with Starbright against Artificer resulted in tragedy; Artificer lashed out indiscriminately and killed a young Ms. Matthews. Her son, Samuel, forever blamed the women, calling them false heroes; his hatred grew over the years, turning him into Katherine's frequent enemy.

Raven still whispers secrets in his hoarse caw; Katherine learned to take strength from sorrow, and thus faced Starbright's death by joining the Guard. Raven even taught Katherine to touch the sun, as he once did to bring fire to mankind, but only at great need, and at great cost. Now, she travels to protect and teach, but always returns to the one who needs her most: her daughter.

And what is a hero without a super villain. If Mother Raven represents what is best about motherhood and power, then here is the worst.

Bloody Mary

There are many strange and terrible things in the world, but few target innocence so ruthlessly or cruelly as the monstrous Bloody Mary. She has been called demon, fiend, and vampire, but is she truly otherworldly, or just an example of human capacity for evil?

Bloody Mary was first reported as the perpetrator in a nation-wide kidnapping case, where a dozen children from across the United States were abducted. Street kids were whispering, “Bloody Mary got ‘em,” weeks before the FBI had a name. The Baron recognized something supernatural was involved, and helped the FBI. Mary’s plans to use the children as livestock were upset by the Baron, the FBI, and the appearance of Pan & Belle. Mary was defeated, but escaped.

The story of Bloody Mary, however, was told by street kids for years, but no one ever believed them. She was first called La Llorona by children of Mexican immigrants, and known to stalk children through mirrors. Haitian kids knew she could reach through the tinted windows of Jeeps. She was a demon, or a spirit possessing an evil woman, or even a corruption of the Virgin Mary; she fought with angels, and used children for slaves, living off of their blood and fears.
Blood Mary has been seen several times since then. Mother Raven and Lady of the Lantern teamed up when Mary invaded Empire City, once more chasing her away. Some children say she is building an army of demons, a hellish warmachine powered by the souls of children, to conquer the spirit world. Others believe Mary is mad, perhaps driven insane at the loss of a child, and simply trying to restore her old life. Finally, a few believe she is pure evil, hunting children because she loathes their innocence and can feed off their souls. Many children believe once she’s seen your face, Mary can track you to the ends of the Earth.
In 1997, a doomsday cult in San Francisco, the Temple of Mars, summoned Bloody Mary to tear apart the dimensional veil. They offered 100 refugee children as sacrifice.
Whatever they intended, few seemed to realize the horror they were dealing with. Many died as Mary opened a hellgate, but Pan & Belle appeared and drove her back. Meanwhile, Mother Raven and Slipstream arrived and dealt with the demons ... but during the fight, one incarnation of Belle gave her life to keep the children safe.
The FBI does not know how to deal with Mary, and calls in help whenever she is believed to be involved. The Baron clashes with her whenever their paths cross, but she tries to avoid his territory. He does not know if she truly travels between Heaven and Hell, but has seen her vanish into the spirit realms, and has even seen her personal, nightmare dimension. Mary barely acknowledges these forces, except when they directly interfere with her machinations. She sees most superheroes as bothersome distractions, but regards a few (like Red Phoenix and Sentinel) as hated angels.
Pan & Belle most often crop up wherever Mary is spotted, and much bad blood lies between them. Mary is the embodiment of everything they oppose. She eagerly anticipates the day they, and all the children of the world, lie chained at her feet.

Bloody Mary  (Unisystem)
Character Type: Demon? (has Faerie and Vampire like attributes as well)
Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Constitution 3, Intelligence 2, Perception 5, Willpower 8
Ability Scores: Muscle 12, Combat 12, Brains 20
Life Points: 55
Drama Points: 10
Qualities: Dimensional Travel (requires reflective surfaces), Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill 7, Hypnosis, Immortal, Iron Mind, Nerves of Steel, Regeneration, Supernatural Senses, Telepathy, Vampiric Attack (“Spirit Bleed”, Willpower)*
Drawbacks: Adversary (Various, in particular General Winter), Attractiveness -1, Supernatural form (bloody tears, looks supernatural and evil)
Skills: Getting Medieval 2, Influence 4, Kung-Fu 2, Notice 4, Occultism 8

Spirit Bleed Attack: On any touch-based attack Mary can drain 1 point of Willpower. Victims drained to 1 point are completely under Mary’s control. Anyone drained to 0 become zombies.

Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
Dodge 12 — Defense action
Grapple 12 — Resisted by Dodge
Kick 12 8 Bash
Punch 12 6 Bash
Claws 12 6 Slash

Bloody Mary  (Mutants & Masterminds)
PL: 7 (105 pp)

ABILITIES: STR: 11 (0) DEX: 13 (+1) CON: 11 (0) INT: 9 (-1) WIS: 20 (+5) CHA: 13 (+1)

SKILLS: Bluff (+1), Concentration (+5), Diplomacy 1 (+2), Disguise (+1), Escape Artist (+1), Gather Info (+1), Handle Animal (+1), Intimidate 2 (+3), Streetwise 6 (+5), Notice (+5), Search (-1), Sense Motive (+5), Sleight of Hand 2 (+3), Stealth (+1), Survival 10 (+15)

Languages: English, Spanish, Creole, French, Latin, Portuguese

FEATS: Favored Opponent (Children) (1), Fearsome Presence (1), Attack Focus (Melee) (1)

POWERS: Dimesional Pocket [4], Environmental Control (cold) [4], Immunity [2], Mind Control [4], Mind Shield [5], Obscure (Darkness) [4], Shapeshift (animals only) [4], Super-movement (dimensional, requires a reflective surface) [1], Super-senses (innocence, magic, portals, ultravision) [4], Drain (Intelligence & Wisdom) ("Spirit Bleed") [1], Blast ("Soul Wound") [2], Regeneration (Resurrection) [1]

COMBAT: Attack 0 [Unarmed +0 (Bruise)] Defense 10 (10 flat-footed) Init 1

SAVES: Toughness 0 (0 flat-footed) Fortitude 2 Reflex 3 Will 7

DRAWBACKS: Disability (Holy Gound) -4, Noticeble (looks supernatural) -3

COMPLICATIONS: Enemy (Angels, Those that protect children), Obsession (Kill all Children)

Abilities 17 + Skills 7 (26 ranks) + Feats 3 + Powers 79 + Combat 0 + Saves 6 – Drawbacks -7 = 105 / 105

To make these more "Anime" I would alter Mother Raven a bit to be more of a kindly old grandmother type that has a ton of power.  Bloody Mary would be more inhuman looking.  Abnormally thin with long claws. Something like the Witch in Left 4 Dead.

Next week I want to look at some of the newer games and see what they can offer me.