October Movie Reviews: Dracula has Risen From His Grave 1968

For my October Reviews I continuing the Hammer Horror Dracula Collection.

Dracula has Risen From His Grave (1968)
This film takes place one year after the events of Dracula Prince of Darkness and the villagers still fear Dracula, though he is dead. An accident though causes a priest to bleed into Dracula's tomb and just like that he is back.

Though we spend the first 45 minutes or so dealing with the Monsignor and his family (his sister in law and niece).   We don't even get a victim till then.  That being said Dracula has still spoken more lines here than in the last movie.  The movie centers around Dracula's revenge on the Monsignor and getting his niece.
This movie did something very cool in it, Dracula was staked and before the hero could do anything else about it he pulled the stake out of his own chest.

I saw this movie, so long ago now that all I can recall of the movie the end scene where Dracula was impaled on the cross.  Though in the back of my mind I must have remembered the scene with the stake since I made an allusion to it in the Ghosts of Albion game.

In the end there was not much to this movie.  No creepy assistant, only one death due to draining by Dracula and two incidental deaths unless you count the girl in the beginning. No Van Helsing either.
Dracula didn't even burst into flames when he is impaled on a cross.  He just sorta died.

Certainly the weakest of the Hammer Dracula's so far.

The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 7

Episode 7: The Road to Hell


Tara: My whole life has been ‘Tara, don’t use your magic.’ ‘Tara, hide your powers.’ ‘Tara you will scare people or hurt an innocent.’ But you are not innocent are you? You tried to hurt and then kill Willow. So maybe it is time I showed everyone just how powerful I am.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 7 "The Road to Hell"

Episode 7: The Road to Hell by ~WebWarlock on deviantART

March 15, 2003. 
Saturday

Buffy must make a pact with demons to fight Leviathan. Anya is ordered to kill the Cast. The Knights of Elohim are back, this time with a Tainted Fallen with them, but not before stopping off in LA to fight Faith. A group of demons, the Mormolycia (Mormo), go to the Slayer for aid in fighting him before he ignites the Hellmouth with his Taint. Yoln has discovered the final piece of Pillager. Cast discovers that he is nothing but pure will now, his body having decayed completely away by the mad god’s Taint. D’Hoffryn orders Anya to kill the Cast to prove her loyalty to him. When she doesn’t he strips her of her power and curses Xander. Tara defeats a newly resurected Warren, but she and Willow have a big fight.
The Cast learns that Faith is dying.
Story Arc elements: The Yoln arc is moved up, the Knights are killed finally, Buffy makes a pact with a dangerous group of demons, Anya rejoins the Cast, the Bronze is destroyed, Andrew dies a horrible death screaming and crying like the little b!tch he is. Buffy’s disconnection to others is more pronounced when the Mormo demons seem to have more in common with her and even call her “sister” when they call everyone else “monkeys”. Willow begins to take more of a backseat role as the group’s magic powerhouse. Tony Foster is introduced. Giles discovers the truth about Slayers and the Watchers council.
Game design elements: Taint rules for Cinematic games, new group of demons, more on Fallen Angels, rules for curses.
Soundtrack: Chris Rea “Road to Hell”


Notes and Comments:
This one is huge. The biggest adventure to date actually takes place, game time, in the shortest amount of time. We have Warren coming back, summoned by Andrew. Warren kills Andrew and takes his skin. And believe me fewer things were more enjoyable to write than Andrew dying like a little stuck pig. Warren-in-Andrew's skin now works on getting the Knights of Elohim back into town. They have brought one of their own who is now Tainted; think of the Hulk with greasy black wings. The Knights want the Slayer, but Warren wants Willow. At the same time someone or something (Yoln) has been killing all the supernatural creatures in town looking for the last half of his sword (which Warren has). There is a scene in the begining when the cast goest to the Wharf Bar because they hear the Hellions are back. They are, or were, but when they get there they are all dead including two of the Knights.

We also introduced a new race of the demons, the Lilim. One sub-race, the Mormolycia, are a group of warrior demons, normally they all look like stunningly attractive 6ft tall women in green armor. Their true form is so horrifying that other demons fear them. The Mormo make a pact with the Slayer. They will leave each other alone in order to fight the greater threat, the Tainted Fallen and later Leviathan. Stat-wise the Mormo are Slayers. This is on purpose since it is later revealed that the progenitor of the Slayers was Lilith (see: Every Angel is Terrifying). The Mormo keep refering to Buffy as "Sister" and the others as "monkeys". Thier leader H'Cathh was once known to Anya.

The big battle happens at the Bronze. We have Warren in his Andrew suit with Bronze regulars that he has turned into zombies with some tech device. The fallen Angels. The Tainted Fallen (who is crazy) and Yoln who will fight anything not human. On the other side we have the Cast and the Mormo demons. Keeping track of all that combat was a nightmare. In the end the fallen, the tainted fallen and the zombies are killed. Yoln's head it cut off by Buffy but they discover there is nothing under the armor but pure will to live. Yoln gets up gets his sword piece from Warren and leaves. The Mormo keep their word and tell "their sister" that they will be at her side in the final battle. Tara defeats Warren with her "special power" (more on that), but she and Willow have a huge fight. Before that can get heated D'Hoffryn shows up asking Ana why she has not killed the Slayer yet, a job he gave her to do 2-3 episodes back. He strips her of her power and curses Xander to always feel her pain. Game wise this means any damage Anya takes, Xander takes as well. Images from Star Trek I have not gotten out of my head since I was a kid. During the fight the Bronze blows up, well parts of it.

Warren and Tara: this was an interesting problem. We knew he was going to have to come back to deal with the issue of Willow murdering him (we didn’t want to forget that really), but for the balance we wanted Tara to have to defeat him. Our working theory was to have Tara go all uber witch on him and show that you can be powerful but not have to resort to “dark magic” to do it. But I never liked that idea. And we went back and forth on this for a long time. In the end I made an executive choice but a bit of a compromise. Tara was going to show off some power, but only in terms of defense. Bullets melted when coming near her or bounced off and really that is the same spell she used in Episode 5. She did the one thing though that I felt was totally in character and showed that she was more powerful than the others. She forgave him. In that instant Warren lost all his anger and it was replaced by guilt and remorse. I wanted to show that being empowered did not mean having a power-up. Plus there is the other issue at hand, Adam Busch is in reality a nice guy and pretty cool. He hated playing that character and he told Whedon that killing Tara was “the stupidest thing he ever heard of”. So I was willing to cut him a break by not “playing” that character here. Warren, who the cops think is Andrew, goes to jail. Jonathan, who turned himself in at the start of the episode, is released thanks to Tara giving him the phone number of Tatsou from Episode 4. There is a truce between demons and the Slayer thanks to the Mormo (but she still gets to kill vampires). Willow and Tara are still fighting, but it is that silent sort where you are both mad but not talking. Anya and Xander are dealing with their new reality. Giles tells Buffy what he has learned about Slayers (see link above).

The cast then hears that Faith is in the hospital, she had fought Yoln, and she is going to die.

Next up. Dawn goes all Carrie and goes toe to toe with Willow as the magic powerhouse of the cast.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula Prince of Darkness 1966

For my October Reviews I have another one from the Hammer Horror Collection.

This movie is a proper Dracula sequel since it features Christopher Lee as the Count; though he never speaks a line in it.  Unlike the Brides of Dracula before it, this one does not have Van Helsing.

Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966)

We are treated to a montage from Dracula (1958) of Van Helsing destroying the Count.  The movie starts proper with a funeral (in my memories all Hammer Films started like this) of a young girl who we soon learn is believed to be a vampire.  We are introduced to an Abbot or Monk (I was never sure of the difference) who claims she isn't and deserves a proper burial.

The scene changes to the Kents, two brothers and their wives, who are on holiday from London to travel.  Our Abbot meets up with them and invites to them to stay at his abbey and warns them to stay away from Carlsbad and the castle (which does not show up on their maps).
As fate would have it, they end up there due to a broken carriage wheel and are forced to take shelter.  They find the castle warm and inviting, with food laid out for four.  They meet the supposed sole inhabitant of the castle, Klove. He claims he is carrying out the final wishes of his master, Count Dracula.
They stay the night and one brother follows Klove to Dracula's tomb where he is killed and his blood is used to resurrect the dead ashes of the vampire.  Dracula goes after the brother's wife and vamps her.
The other brother wakes up to find his brother and wife gone.  He and his wife try to leave, only to be brought back to the castle by Klove.  Here Dracula and Helen attack.  The escape, only to be thrown in their stolen carriage and recued by the Abbot. 
The Abbot knows about vampires and claims that Dracula is their master and was killed 10 years ago (Dracula 1958).  While they rest, Dracula attacks Diana and takes her while Helen is left behind to be killed by the Abbot.
Charles and the Abbot ride to Dracula's castle where they manage to kill Klove on the way and rescue Diana.  Dracula is trapped on the ice surrounding his castle.  The Abbot shoots the ice cause Dracula to slip into the running water and "drown".

Ok. This is an odd one.  First there are no lines for Dracula.  That is no big really, he had few lines in the book too.  But Modern Dracula is a chatty guy-or rather we like our bad guys to be chatty.  Blame it on Bond I guess.
Of course this movie is really nothing more than a proto-80's slasher flick.  Replace Dracula with a psycho killer and the tourists with teens and you are set.  Of course instead of four we would need six and Drac would need to kill more, but the idea is the same.
There is no Van Helsing here which is not that big of a deal really.
This is one of the first Dracula "resurrection" movies.  No ceremony, just pour blood into vampire ashes and mix well.  It's simple and it works.  The effects for Dracula's return are great for the time and I am sure they were quite proud of how it turned out.

The movie is not bad as far as plot goes. The action is slow at times, but that is more due to the time in which is was filmed.

I can't recall if I have ever seen this one or not.  Some of the older Hammer films all blurred into one in time, and it has been 25-30 years since I have seen some of these.  I didn't recall anything specific about this one, so it is likely it was new to me.

Dracula: other stats

I have posted Dracula stats in the past.

Here are some links:

Big Eyes, Small Mouth 3.0
Mutants and Masterminds (2nd Ed)
Doctor Who, Adventures in Time and Space

Enjoy!

Dracula: AD&D 1st Edition

I have been watching a lot of Dracula movies of late. That has gotten me thinking about how much of a great D&D antagonist Dracula really is.

These differ from my B/X/C stats a bit. Mostly I wrote these many, many years ago.

Count Dracula, AD&D 1st Edition

DRACULA (Vlad Tepes)
FREQUENCY: Unique
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: -1 (-4 with dexterity)
MOVE: 12”/18”
HIT DICE: 13 (103 hp)
% IN LAIR: 50%
TREASURE TYPE: G
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 (by touch or weapon)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-8 (+7)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Blood drain*, hypnosis, +4 to hit in combat
SPECIAL DEFENSES: +1 or better weapon to hit
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
INTELLIGENCE: Exceptional
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: 204
Attack/Defense Modes: B,C/J
S: 19 D: 17 I: 17 C: 19 W: 17 CH: 17

*Dracula drains blood at the rate of 2 CON points per attack. He must succesfully attach to the neck of his victim and drain them of blood. His touch does not drain energy levels.

Getting Dracula to your AD&D world should not really be a problem. There are the Mists of Ravenloft, various Gate spells and even the Psionic Discipline Probability Travel. The how is not as important as the why. Why would you want to bring the King of Vampires to your world?

Long ago when playing AD&D 2nd Ed in college I ran an adventure where an Atlantean Mage summoned Dracula and was promptly killed.  Dracula the began his killing spree anew.

I am always looking for reasons to bring him back.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula 1958

Next for my October Reviews I am moving on to what is the first of a dynasty of movies.

The Dracula from 1958 would have not been a remarkable movie. Really. The pacing is slow, the script takes a number of liberties with the Stoker tale and the play as well for that matter. But it gave us Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and it was the first of many Hammer Horror films.  Hammer almost created it's own mythology of vampires and other creatures that nearly challenges the original tales.  Hammer surpass even the Universal Horror monsters in the minds of many fans, myself included.  It has been years since I have seen Dracula.  It was great to see it again with new eyes.

Dracula (1958)

Also sometimes called the "Horror of Dracula".  This is the first of many Hammer films on Dracula and starring Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.  Lee might be the quintessential Dracula, equal amounts of sinister monster and suave seducer.  He might not look like his counterpart from the book, but certainly he can pull off the menace very well.  Of the actors that have portrayed Dracula he might also be one of the best.   This movie though is also one of the greater departures from both the book and the play.  Harker is a vampire hunter working with Van Helsing.  Arthur Holmwood is here and works with Van Helsing later in the tale when his daughter, Harker's fiancée, Lucy is killed and his wife Mina is attacked.
Cushing's Van Helsing is younger than most portrayals, and more "English" but he displays such a calm resolve.  He is, if the comparison can be made, more like the Doctor.  He knows all and anticipates the Count's moves.  They are more evenly matched here than in previous films.
Christopher Lee brings a presence to the role of Dracula that was different than that of Lugosi.  Where Lugosi was a suave monster, Christopher Lee's Dracula is a barely contained beast.  Dressed in the veneer of a man, you know he is but one bad moment away from ripping your throat out.

This version of Dracula comes back from the dead more often than any other Dracula; which is good, cause Dracula in this movies goes down rather easily.  Van Helsing uses two candle sticks to form a cross and that keeps the count at bay.

Despite all of that, there is something here.  Something that shows the promise of the future Hammer films, not just the Dracula ones.

Dracula: B/X Companion

The new B/X Companion Rules give us the Greater Undead including a Greater Vampire.  This is awesome since it was also something I had done back when my Expert Set was still new.  Of all the Greater Vampires out there, what one is greater than Dracula himself?
Since I have been watching all the movies I figured now is a good time to see if my B/X skills are still good.

Dracula
Greater Vampire*
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 18*** (135 hp)
Move: 150', 180' Flying
Attacks: 2 (or 3)
Damage: 1-10 + Special / 1-8 + life drain
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: Fighter 18
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: G+H (in lair only x2)
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 6,000

Dracula is one of the most powerful of the greater Undead.  In life he was a great warrior and now in undeath he is even stronger.  Dracula can attack with claws doing 1-10 hit points of damage, if both claws hit, Dracula will then latch on with his fangs and drain blood from his victim equaling two energy levels.  He prefers to only drain his prey with his fangs; his claw attacks never drain life levels (though they can if he chooses).
Dracula is quite adept with a sword or spear, but prefers to use his bare hands.

If encountered in his castle he will also have 2-20 human gypsies to serve him (treat as Fighter 1) and his three vampiric brides (treat as normal vampires).   He will have double the normal treasure of his kind when encountered in his lair, but nothing on him outside of it.  He wears a ring of protection +1 with the Dracula family crest on it.

As per the Vampire, Dracula is immune to sleep, charm and hold spells.  HE may summon 10-100 rats (5-20 giant rats), 10-100 bats (3-18 giant bats) or 3-18 wolves (2-8 dire wolves).    Dracula may shapechange into a large bat or wolf, but his hit points remain unchanged.  Dracula may also regenerate 5 hit points per round as long as he has fed.

Dracula shares all the same weaknesses of other common and Greater vampires including revulsion to mirrors, holy items and garlic.  Running water will destroy him, but a stake in the heart will only immobilize him. Dracula may make a "Bend Bars/Lift Gates" check to remove the stake.  He must be beheaded.  Dracula can also move about during the daylight hours, but prefers not too since he cannot shape change.

October Movie Reviews: House of Dracula 1945

Lon Chaney Jr. returns, but not as Dracula, but as the Wolf Man.

This movie is a sequel to the House of Frankenstein and the second of the Universal "Monster Mash" movies. We have a Mad Scientist, Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster and even a hunchback. All the monsters are here and we even have an angry mob of villagers.

House of Dracula (1945)

Dracula comes to visit renowned scientist Dr. Edelmann searching for a cure to his vampirism.  At the same time Larry Talbot comes looking for a cure for his lycanthropy.    Oddly enough the two classic monsters never share any screen time.  Along the way Talbot, in a failed suicide attempt, discovers a cave where Frankenstein's monster is buried.

Dracula attempts to seduce one of Edlemann's nurses, one he had met before, so Edlemann tryies to deal with Dracula.  Dracula double crosses him and feeds him some of his own vampiric blood via the transfusion.  Edlemann later manages to kill Dracula, but the blood in his veins produces an odd Jekyll and Hyde like effect.

Edlemann, in one of his moments of clarity, manages to cure Talbot, but then also slips and kills a local.  The villagers attack while Edlemann is trying to revive the Monster.  He kills his nurse, but is shot by an now cured Talbot and the place goes down in flames with the Monster inside.

What I thought was interesting about this one was both Dracual and the Wolf Man come to Dr. Edlemann to seek a cure. Though I am certain that Dracula had other plans, Talbot I was sure was sincere.
The hunchback was a bit of a surprise.  This was not your ugly Quasimodo, but instead the attractive form of  Nina, played by Jane Adams. Whiled billed as a monster, she is more of a sympathetic victim.  Though our mad scientist, Edelmann, serves both that role and that of a Jekyll and Hyde.

Lon Chaney J.r is back where "he belongs" as the Wolf man and John Carirdine is taking a tour as the Count. I like Caridine as the count. He has the features and he acts like the nobleman that Dracula should be.  In fact in the movie poster linked here he looks a little bit like Christopher Lee.  I did enjoy seeing Dracula's top hat back.

Frankenstein's Monster is utterly wasted here and most of time he is on screen are archived footage from previous movies.  Which is interesting given his "top billing".  The Wolf man, like our hunchback, is more to be pitied than feared.

If you will pardon the pun, Universal's monsters were getting a little long in the tooth at this point.  The next movie after this one was "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein" a completely fun movie, but so far removed from horror.

Next:  Hammer Time! (had to do it)

B/X Companion is Mine!

I had this cool plan of doing some 4E writing tonight.  A couple of things that have been stewing in the back of my head.  That is till I came home to this:

Yes that is the B/X Companion in all her glory.  The product I think I have been waiting for for close to 30 years.  Sure I have had books that have covered the same ground, and books that made this book obsolete, but somewhere, deep in my psyche there is still that 12 year old version of me wishing he could take his cleric to 15th level.  

The B/X Companion does not disappoint.  Let me just say that if this isn't exactly how it was going to be, then I'd be hard pressed to know what it would have been.  I am reading through it all now and I am purposefully NOT comparing it to the BECMI version of the Companion rules.  Maybe later, maybe even later but before this is posted.  But right now I only want to compare it to the B/X books of which is it is, well, a companion too.

The cover of course is very much part of the original scheme.  The three principle characters, the fighter and the two wizards (or maybe she is a cleric, that could be a "light" spell, though she has a torch too) stand in front of their followers.  They braved the dungeon, the wilderness and now they are ready for the next adventure.  So are we.

For those of us that grew up with the Moldvay/Cook Basic and Expert sets, the Companion book feels very familiar.  The layout is similar, the flow is similar and even the art has a familiar feel.  If you own the Basic or Expert books then finding something in the Companion book is trivial.  I turned right to the character rules and took a glance at all the tables.  Yes sir they run from 15 to 36, just like promised.  Clerics still top out at 7th level spells, but eventually they get 9 of them.  Wizards still go to 9th level, and get 9 of those too.

Fighters get more attacks per round (as they should) and thieves get more abilities.

There are plenty of new spells here.  Many look like they take their inspiration from the products that came after, the Player's Handbook or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, but nothing is an out right copy.  It does have the feel like Becker sat around one day and thought, what are some good spells and what level should they be.

There new monsters and advanced versions of some others.  The Greater Vampire nearly made me laugh out loud as I had done the exact same thing after reading and playing the Expert book for so long.  My Greater Vampire was a photocopy of Ptah from Deities and Demigods with some fangs drawn in.  I never claimed to be an artist.  Te monsters all seem to be appropriate for the levels, though a few more in the 30 HD range might have been nice, but not really needed.

The BIG additions here though are the ones that were most "advertised" back in the day. 

Running a High Level Game  is great advice for ANY edition of the game.  It gives this book the same place as say, the Epic Level Handbook for D&D 3.0 or even the Epic Tier for D&D 4.  Chances are very, very good I'll be using the B/X Companion in my next D&D 4 game in fact.

Related are running a domain and running large armies.  Battlesystem would later give us these rules for AD&D, but here they are much simpler to use.  Again, something to consider to port over to other versions of the game.

I loved the new magic items and can never get enough of those.  I also liked the part on the planes and how it is totally left up to design of the DM.  I wonder how many people out there will re-invent the Gygaxian Great Wheel for their B/X/C games?

Others have reviewed this book already and my insights won't add or subtract to those.  A particularly insightful one is by James over at Grognardia.  I concur with a lot of what he had to say, with the possible exception of his take on demi-humans and frankly I have no idea what I would have done in Becker's place as I am not fond of level limits or even demi-humans as classes.  That being said lets put this product in context.

I would have liked thicker covers to be honest. This book I am afraid will not wear so well.  I would also LOVE to have it as a PDF.  I don't bring a lot of books to the table anymore, I bring a laptop.  So can you hear me JB!  Sell me a PDF! :)

Companion to Basic/Expert Rules

Obviously this is where it works the best.  But there is something here that I don't think others have tapped into just yet.  Companion makes the Moldvay/Cook rules a complete game.  With these three books you now have a complete D&D game.  The only thing really missing is a "C1" module or maybe a BXC one.

Companion to Labyrinth Lord/Basic Fantasy

The new Becker Companion has a lot it owes to Labyrinth Lord (LL) and Basic Fantasy (BFRPG).  While maybe not directly, these two games showed that there is a market out there for "Basic" styles of play.  Both LL and BFRPG take the modern 1-20 level limit for human classes.  Companion is 15 to 36.  So some adjustments need to be made.  There are a few differences in the how each of these books calculate XP per level, and how they do spells.  But nothing so complicated that a a good DM couldn't figure out.  

Personally if I were playing a LL/BFRPG game, I'd go to 15th level and then switch over to B/X Companion. for the next levels to 36.  OR even go to 20 and use B/X Companion as a guide to levels 30 or even 36.

Frankly the homebrewiness of it all has me very excited for anyone that has decided to throw their lot in with "Basic" D&D.

The B/X Companion vs. the BECMI Companion

Ok, I know I said above I wasn't going to do this, but after re-reading James's post over at Grognardia and his post on the Mentzer Companion I felt it was worth a look.

Now I am no expert on the Mentzer era of the rules.  I had moved to AD&D by the time they were out and I never owned them.  I picked up the Rules Cyclopedia a while back and got all the BECMI boxes on PDF back when Wizards sold them on DriveThru.

Both Companions cover similar ground.  The spell progressions and XP look about the same (given that they use simple math, no surprise).   The BECMI Companion only goes to 25th level, not 36 like the B/X Companion. The BECMI Companion generally speaking has more detail than the B/X one, but that is not really a nitpick since the abstraction of the rules in B/X is greater to allow more with less; just like the B/X books it was modeled after.  

Final Tally

I like this book. A lot.  It makes me want to pull out my ratty Basic and Expert books and play Moldvay/Cook era Basic D&D again.   In the mean time, I think I'll just have to satisfy myself with converting some D&D 3.0 or 4e characters over to Companion,  just for the fun of it.

One thing that did disappoint me though was the lack of the OGL.  There is a lot of really cool stuff here and it could be shared.  I suppose that something like this, talking to Johnathan Becker is always the best the way to go.  

October Movie Reviews: Son of Dracula 1943

Dracula also had a son it seems. Fitting title (or was it contrived that way) for the son of the Man of Thousand Faces who also almost was Dracula.

With this movie I think we are getting into what most people think of as the Universal Monsters. Lon Chaney Jr., more modern settings and an American setting.  Plus we are getting into that Golden Age of Hollywood, with the stars and the glamor and, in the case of this film, some more special effects.
This is the third movie of Universal's "Dracula Trilogy" and it is also something of a transitional piece.

Son of Dracula (1943)
The setting for this film is New Orleans, a full 40 years before anyone else will associate it with vampires.  Hungarian Count "Alucard" arrives invited by one of the daughters of a plantation owner.  I am not 100%, but nearly so that is the very first time we see the Alucard alias.  Something that will be later used all over the place.   Alucard seduces Katherine Caldwell, the daughter, when they had met previously in Hungary.  Soon her father dies, leaving her the plantation Dark Oaks and her and Alucard are quickly married; much to the chagrin of her fiancée and sister.

Her distraught fiancée Frank confronts them and shoots Alucard, only for the bullets to pass through him and kill Kate instead.  He runs to Dr. Brewster's home, a family friend, and admits he killed Kate.  Dr. Brewster goes to Dark Oaks to see a seemingly alive, but very pale, Kate.  Alucard as the new "Master of Dark Oaks" warns the Dr. off  saying the he and his new wife wish to left alone.
Dr. Brewster, noticing the Dracula/Alucard parallels contacts Hungarian Professor Lazlo, who comes to Brewster with the suspicion of vampirism already formed in his mind.  The police head out to Dark Oaks during the day where they find Kate's dead body and lock up Frank.
Kate visits Frank in his cell and Alucard visits Brewster and Lazlo.  Kate convinces Frank that the only way they can be together is to destroy "Dracula".  She helps him escape, while the two men of science fight Alucard.
Frank  heads out to the Dark Oaks plantation ahead of Brewster, Lazlo and the police.  He manages to destroy Alucard's coffin and leaves Alucard to burn in the morning sun.  He then rushes to where Kate is.  When everyone else has caught up to him we see Kate's coffin ablaze as well.

Ok despite a somewhat simple story there is a lot going on here.
First this is Lon Chaney's first (and only) outing as the Count.  I was impressed with his ability to look very different here, he certainly had some of his own father's skills.  But I have so associated him with Larry Talbot and the Wolfman that it was hard to see him as Dracula.  He just didn't seem European enough.  Yes, I mentioned that in the book Dracula took great pains not to sound Transylvania, but here Dracula sounds like he was the Mid West.  It wasn't just the accent; he didn't seem royal, he didn't sound like Dracula.
And that is the other thing.  Was this supposed to be Dracula or his son Alucard.  The movie is a tad ambiguous, but I felt for certain that he was supposed to be the true Count.  I think the "Son of" appellation here was more due to Universal and due to the actor himself.  Lon Chaney Jr. after all was the son of the man that almost got the role of Dracula in the 1931 film.
We got more special effects this time than the last two films combined.  Lots of Dracula turning into and from a bat here, an effect that would be used to great effect (and profound impact on my young mind) in the later "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein".  While that one is notable, there was the less dramatic, but no less cool, Dracula and Kate turning into and from mist or fog.
I mentioned above that this is a transitional movie for Universal. Transitional in that we are now moving farther away from the source materials (Dracula and Frankenstein novels) and more into modern re-tellings.  For the first time Dracula is setting foot on American soil (and is given good reasons for it in the plot).  It is also the last of the proper "Dracula" films before moving onto the "Monster Mash" films that Universal became known for.  "House of Dracula", the next Dracula film on my list, features Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein, and even a hunchback and mad scientist.

We are missing a Van Helsing in this one, mostly due to it begin modern (1940s) times, but we do have Dr. Brewster in the obiligator Seward role and Prof. Lazlo as our ersatz Van Helsing.  Prof. Lazlo was actually quite an interesting character and would make for a great vampire hunter on his own.

I can't recall if I have ever seen this one or not.  I am sure I must have, but that could have been 30+ years ago really.

Tomorrow. It's a monster mash.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula's Daughter 1936

Next up for my reviews is one of the firsts of a major trend in horror movies; the sequel (though Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was the first true sequel) . This one is is a sequel of sorts to Dracula. We also get a few other firsts: The angst vampire and the lesbian vampire.

Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Dracula's Daughter is an interesting flick.
This time our hero Van Helsing is up against Countess Marya Zaleska, played by Gloria Holden, who is Dracula's Daughter and also a vampire herself. Like daddy, she also has a taste for pretty girls. Though unlike daddy, Zaleska abhors her state as a vampire. I am reminded of the Marvel Comics, Lilith the Daughter of Dracula (not to mention one of the female victims of this film is a model named Lili). She had a similar relationship with her father and her condition.

The plot is similar to the the Stoker story of Dracula's Guest, or the first part of Dracula. But there is more to that. I like how Zaleska wants to ritually destroy Dracula's body in hopes it will cure her.

The film has it's moments, but in the end it is not as good or memorable as the Lugosi effort, which is of course too bad given where the the female vampire in cinema would take us during the Hammer years and later into the 80's. Zaleska is the spiritual forerunner to Miriam Blalock. Though heavily glossed over with the censors of the 1930's.   I have read reports about this film long ago in the Celluiod Closet, but the reality of film is much for subdued than the reviews claim.  It's subtle, but there is a subtext there. 

There is no Dracula in this one, but we do have Van Helsing.  Something we will see again with Hammer and "The Brides of Dracula".  

As a monster you end up feeling sorry for Zaleska more than anything.  Holden has a why of making you feel like she is the victim here.  Mind you that doesn't stop her from mistreating her servant (to her ultimate demise) or attaking the young couple, there is a quality about.  She actually reminds me a bit of Betty Davis here.  Smoky beauty with a hardened heart.

This biggest issue I think here is the movie is slow, even for the time I think.   I'd love to see a high quality remake with a modern cast. 

Next up. Dracula also had a son.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula 1931 (Spanish version)

For my October Reviews I am now moving to a real classic.

Continuing with my delving into the great 1931 Dracula, this time the Spanish language version.

Drácula (1931)

Drácula was a Spanish language version of the Tod Browning movie, filmed on the same set at night.  The effect was a much moodier look and tone to the movie.  If you can speak Spanish (and even if you can't) check this movie out.  It has everything that the English language has, but just seems so much cooler.
According to the audio commentary on Dracula and the documentary, Road to Dracula, the "B" team would film at night on the same set as Dracula.  The director would watch the "Dailies" from the Browning/Lugosi crew and cast and work to improve on them.  They also cleaved closer to that actual shooting script.
The differences are subtle, but still noticeable.  
This production for example seemed to learn from the mistakes of the previous day's shooting.  Also because the censors didn't care about the Spanish version, they got away with more sex appeal.  For example the dresses revealed more cleavage and Lupita Tovar's  performance as Eva (Mina) in general.
In the end this is a hard one to review since I don't speak Spanish and what I see is so close to the Bela Lugosi one that I instead look at them as a whole.  But I am glad I finally got to see it.  Carlos Villarias will never really get mentioned in the same breath as Bela Lugosi, save as a comparison, and his acting was not great.  But there is something about the roll that he also made his own; despite what looks and sounds like a Bela Lugosi impression. In Spanish.

If you are a Dracula fan then I think you need to see this at least once.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula 1931

For my October Reviews I am now moving to a real classic.

When watching these movies I try to keep in mind the time that they were made.  What we consider horror is not the same thing as 20, 50 or 80 years ago.  Every generation remakes the classics and leaves their imprint on them.  The 30's gave us two great examples.  Today, Dracula and tomorrow the Spanish language Drácula.


Dracula (1931) (and audio commentary and documentary)

This is the one that gave us Bela Lugosi as the immortal count.  Lugosi's performance is a bit over the top, but he does give us the suave Dracula.  Some scenes of this movie are so iconic that they have almost outlived the context they were presented in.  Dracula on the stairs in his castle is one, and the meeting of Dracula and Van Helsing in the library is another. Dracula spreading his cape like a bat, or heck even the cape at all.  Here is a question, did Dracula ever say "I never drink ... wine." in the book or play?  No.  That came from this movie and it also appeared in the 1979 and 1992 versions.  I also think, more so than the book or play before it this movie really personalized the battle between Dracula and Van Helsing.  Something that was taken to a new level in the Hammer films.

Lugosi got his start playing Dracula on the stage, something that Frank Langella would repeat almost 50 years later.  Though unlike Langella, he never quite escaped the roll.  For better or worse he has been so entwined with the roll that when watching the movie you should keep this in mind.  A lot of what we associate with the roll comes from right here.

Reinfield replaces Harker here in the begining, or rather they are combined into one character. Despite this Dwight Frye is a great Harker-like character. We do get a Harker later on.  The coach ride to Castle Dracula is very reminiscent of the similar ride in the 1992 movie.  Mina is Seward's daughter, again from the stage-play.

Audio Commentary:  Given that I have seen Dracula before, I wanted to watch this with the audio commentary on.  Things I didn't know:  They are speaking Hungarian in the movie.  There is a lot in this movie that never happened before in movies.  Some of the shots used here, which we take for granted, were new here.  Lon Chaney was supposed to be Dracula.
Listening to the audio commentary it is interesting,  a lot of what is now well known of Dracula lore came about by complete happenstance.  Dracula speaking in Eastern European accident came about because the director of Broadway play could not afford his first choice and he had to hire Bela Lugosi, who could barely speak English. For the movie Lugosi earned $3500.00 for 7 weeks of filming.

The Road to Dracula: A very interesting documentary on the making of Dracula and the Spanish language version.  It talks about a lot of the same things mentioned in the audio commentary, only in much greater detail.  We hear from film historians, Bela Lugosi's son and Clive Barker among others.  It's very cool.

The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 6

Episode 6: Tainted Love


Xander: You know what, prophecies are really beginning to piss me off!
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 6 "Tainted Love"

Episode 6: Tainted Love by ~WebWarlock on deviantART

February 14, 2003. Friday

The cast becomes the guinea pigs of a Governmental psychological experiment. The Cast learn of the Bureau, another Initiative like operation whose goal is to control demons and vampires via a means of psychological conditioning. Spike learns he, like all former Initiative subjects, has a remote controlled explosive buried in his head.
Story arc elements: Deal with loose threads involving love. The stress in Willow and Tara’s relationship forms because of her return. Buffy feels she is loosing sight of her own humanity and that everyone around her is moving on and growing up, but she is stagnant. Learn more about the Slayers and their relationship to the fallen angels.
Willow and Tara each discover something about the final battle, but keep it from the other since it involves either the death of Tara or the eventual return to evil for Willow.

Game Design elements: Retcon the scientifically ridiculous Initiative control chip into something that makes sense.
Soundtrack: Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Tainted Love”, Elvis “You Were Always on my Mind”


Notes and Comments:

The first of the "unpublished" adventures. This one should be obvious, it was full of information from Military Monster Squad. We could not get the episode out for the longest time while the material was being written and then longer when the book was further delayed.  Of course we hated "the chip" so I decdided to use something I knew very well, psychology, and say Spike was submitted to a Clockwork Orange like treatment, only with cattle prods.

This was our "dark Valentines Day" epsiode. Everyone's love life was in a lull in the story and we wanted to make it a bit darker. There were a lot of gues stars and really a lot of stuff going on here. Almost too much really. The episode is big, so we decided it was the first "mid season sweeps" episode. Lots of enemies to deal with especially some older ones. Dru comes back and I gave the Cast the opprutunity to stake her if they wanted, but she got away. The first clues on Spike's role are revealed here as well. Plus we wanted to confront the issues of his attempted rape. While all of this was going on the players of Spike and Buffy discovered a means of defeating nearly any foe thrown at them with various combo moves. So much so that when we went to work on Ghosts of Albion it was one of the things we wanted to address.

Here are some more crunchy bits for you.

Revised Initiative HST Control Chip3-Point Drawback (Psychological) The HST Control Chip, installed into many demons, vampires and other non-human lifeforms is a ruse. The chip itself is nothing more than a small tracking device connected to a small, but efficient explosive.
The behavior modification works not because of high-tech nonsense and techno-babble, but rather old fashioned psychology. Through a combination drugs, imagery and liberal amounts of electroshock torture and what is termed “aggressive behavior modification therapy” the HSTs are classically conditioned to not harm humans. While the Initiative was happy to leave it there, the Bureau went the next step and conditioned many HSTs to become a fighting force. Strong, nearly deathless, immune to bullets and an array of natural weapons the idea seemed foolproof. And it was. While eventually the Initiative controlled HSTs would begin to exhibit often dangerous psychoses, the Bureau controlled subjects maintained their conditioning over long periods of time.
Wired into each chip is a locator device, capable of sending and receiving signals up to 100 km with a handheld locator and globally with the use of GPS satellites.
The signal is constant, using a small LiION battery with motion recharge abilities, and a masking signal to cloak it’s true purpose.
Each “chipped” subject also has a small package of a controlled explosive, not enough for collateral damages, but enough to remove the head of the chipped subject. Treat as an automatic decapitation.
The conditioning associated with this chip is a 3 point drawback.
Removal of the chip was never a design feature. Once the chip is active any exposure to oxygen will cause the explosive device to trigger.  Once the frequency is discovered (getting past the cloak) constructing a remote detonator can be easily built with parts from any local Radio Shack.

Next episode I blow up the Bronze. For good.

October Movie Reviews: Nosferatu 1922

For my first of the October Reviews I want to start with a classic.

Now I have been huge Dracula fan for as long as I can recall, but the one thing about the mythos I hate is the desire to make Dracula a misunderstood or even worse a tragic hero. Now I get the desire to make him suave and sexy and even a desire to connect the mythical Dracula to the historical Vlad,  but lets get serious here.  This is Dracula, not Twilight.  He is a monster.  He killed Lucy, her mother, tried to kill Johnathan and Mina and pretty much everyone else in the book.

That being said you can see the evolution on the thoughts of the character by viewing him through the eyes of the popular films.

Nosferatu (1922)

The first major cinematic release.  If you have not seen this movie then put it on your Halloween must see list. This movie is silent, black and white and an absolutely a classic.  There are issues with the script, mostly due to the insistance of the Stoker estate.  So Dracula became Count Orlock; and Orlock is a monster.  He is rat-like, bald and devoid of anything that could be considered "sexy".  This is a good thing, I think.  The cinematography in this movie is fantastic.  The special effects are state of the art for the time and any time you see Dracula's shadow move without him you have this movie to thank.

The characters outside of Dracula/Orlock are not as good, of course some of that over acting was due to the medium and style of the time.  Like most of the movies there are characters are missing, though not as many as future movies.
The movie though remains a classic, not because of it's age, but because it is still quite good.

There is something very, well, German, about this film.  It's has enough angst to knock the perm right out of Edward Cullen's hair, but yet not overwrought.  Or at least a different overwrought.  This can be seen in the later re-interpretations Nosferatu (1979) and Shadow of the Vampire (2000).

Lawyers, Guns and Money

Lawyers, Guns and Money: 
The Worlds of David E. Kelley and Legal Dramedies

Alan Shore: Oh god. You are all lawyers.

Lets face it. You cant turn on the TV these days with out hitting a legal or law based show. Everything from The Peoples Court and Judge Judy in reality TV, to the latest incarnation of Law and Order or CSI to the legal dramadies of David E. Kelley (Boston Legal, The Practice, Ally McBeal). These later editions (L&O, CSI, and Kelley's work) account for the bulk of televisions viewing audience and represent 1,000 of hours of air time and hundreds of awards won.

Besides, sooner or later, your characters are going to get into trouble and they are going to need a lawyer.

For my money, the best for a game are the fractured and slightly odd lawyers of the worlds of David E. Kelley. Sure there is a really strong political bent to all his shows and often they get preachy at worse or soapbox(-y, -ness?) at best, but the characters are some of the best in TV. Rarely does a character come around that is as fun as Denny Crane or as polarizing as Ally McBeal. Plus David E. Kelley may be one of the best, if not the best writer for TV in the last 20 years. He began winning Emmys for L.A. Law and basically has been winning them every year since then (1989).

A Kelley legal drama is laced with comedy and interesting characters. In fact the term Dramedy for a drama + comedy was invented to describe his shows. Shows are more character focused than they are plot focused. It isnt a mother is suing the school board, though that may be the hook. There is something about this mother and her case and the people involved; especially, given this, her child. Maybe the child has some sort of really strange disability (like she can't smile) and the mother needs to sue to her child into the private school. Its also about the lawyers in the case. Nearly to a person, Kelleys lawyers are good looking and really rich. Yet they all have problems that money can't fix and often times is more hassle. Ally could never find true love, Denny is still always in trouble (comedy) and cant cure his failing health (drama).

To really capture the feel of these episodes you need to get into the characters and see what makes them tick. For this reason episode written for one group of characters might not work for another group or characters (though Kelley has been accused of stealing plots from some of his previous shows). But there are some basics.

Running a legal drama
How is running a legal dramedy different than running a supernatural show? Well they do have a few things in common. Both shows often feature crime and mystery. There is research to be done (either by occult scholars or paralegals), there is usually a bad guy, evil is often presented in terms of black and white, right and wrong, but the truth is often much more grey.
The typical formula for a legal drama follows: There is a crime, or presumption of a crime, an investigation, arrests can be made or summons be sent, there is a trail (the focal point of the episode), the judgment and then we retire to the balcony for cigars and scotch.
For players used the pace of monster hunting a legal drama may seem a bit slow, even mundane, but the drama works best when the stories are personal. Hunting monsters is fun and usually there is a very simple solution: stake the vamp, kill the monster, vanquish the demon. But what do you do when your foe is human? Or maybe even an innocent human in the wrong place. What if the Cast are now the bad guys and the good guys have the full weight of the law on their side?
Sometimes characters in supernatural shows run afoul of the law; its an occupational hazard The Charmed Ones had run-ins with Homeland Security, Faith killed a man, the Winchester brothers are often seen skating just ahead of the cops. In any case sooner or later the Cast will fight the Law and like the man said I fought the Law and well we will see who wins.

The Law and Crime
You dont need to be an expert on criminal procedure to set up an episode, but it certainly cant hurt to be familiar with such things as legal prudence and habeas corpus.
(A decent site with overviews of what the law does is www.nolo.com/) So to start determine what the crime is. What happened? How does it involve the Cast? What it something they really did, mistaken identity or even a set up. Again, this is like a supernatural drama in which the Director has all the cards and knows everything.

Creating a law firm
One of your first steps is to create a law firm. This can be the firm that is prosecuting the cast or representing them. The rules in the Angel RPG are perfect for this.

Crane, Poole and Schmidt (From Boston Legal)
International Law firm
Primary Office: 500 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
Satellite Offices: New York, NY, Los Angeles CA, Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, London, ENGLAND, Tokyo, JAPAN, Hong Kong, P.R.o CHINA.
Employees: Lawyers (Founding, Managing, Senior and Junior Partners, Of Counsel, Senior and Junior Associates), Paralegals, Legal Assistants, Support staff.
Website: http://cranepooleandschmidt.com/

Crane, Poole and Schmidt is an international law firm head quartered in Boston, MA. They specialize in civil litigation, but do some criminal trials as well. They list several Fortune 500 companies as clients as well several large research organizations.

Clout: Criminal (1), Financial (5), Governmental (3), Media* (4), Supernatural (1). Total Cost: 10 points.
Quarters: Huge (4), Worldwide (6), Physical Security (Excellent) (3), Supernatural Security (Believers) (1). Total Cost: 7 points (reduced by seven from Financial and Governmental Clout).
Gear: Computers (Top-notch) (3), Laboratory (basic) (1), Workshop (none) (0), Occult Archives (0), Training (1), Vehicles (Vehicle fleet) (1), Vehicles (Air fleet) (0), Weapons (Basic, what ever Denny has in his office) (1). Total Cost: -2 points (reduced by 9 from Criminal, Financial, and Governmental Clout levels).

*Media is another Clout area that is bought like the others. It relates to firms public image or their ability to manipulate their public image.

A Media Clout roll (Media Clout + Intelligence + Contacts) can get a story suppressed, pull off an impromptu press conference or, in the vernacular, pull a Denny Crane; take an absolutely horrible incident (like shooting a client) and turning it into a situation where the firm, and Denny Crane, come out smelling like roses.

Level 1: Rumored to Exist. You have a website, an ad in the Yellow Pages and you might have been featured in a newspaper article or have a local cable access show. Getting your message to the masses requires a lot of work.
Level 2: Fair Reputation. You have had and expose on the local TV news or newspaper. You are known within your business circles, but not as much outside of it.
Level 3: Major Connections. You have the ear of a few members of the news media or have some good connections with the TV market. Getting your point of view on a story out there is easy, but it would take some work to suppress it outright. These players must have a minimum of Financial Clout 2.
Level 4: Big Player. The group can control many small outlets or has the ear of a few of the larger ones. This is usually through donations of millions, or having a seat on the Board of Directors. These players must have a minimum of Financial Clout 3 and Government Clout 2.
Level 5: The Media. The corporation IS the media. They control what is said, how it is said and even who said it in the first place. This is the level of Fox and NewsCorp. These rare players must have a minimum of Financial Clout 4 and Government Clout 3.

Running a Trial
The trial is the focal point of any legal episode from Perry Mason to Night Court to the latest incarnation of Law and Order. Like the TV shows it best to gloss over the real-world legal proceedings and focus on the drama (there is a reason that Law and Order gets higher ratings than Court TV or even Judge Judy). The Director of course will play the role of opposing council. Maybe even the players can step out of character to play their own legal council. As the Director your job is to keep things moving smoothly enough so a resolution can be reached by the end of the episode (or whenever it is needed). So you are also playing the Judge and jury (and bailiff, court reporter, court clerk and the media)

A trial has the following structure, lets assume it is the cast that are being accused of a crime here.
First a formal charge is brought against the cast in front of a judge, the casts lawyer will enter a plea, usually not guilty, but it can vary from guilty to no-contest, though that makes for a short and unexciting episode. If a not guilty plea is entered then a trial date is set. If it is a violent crime then bail might need to be offered or the cast can be released on their own recognizance. In the real world the trail date can be months from the formal charge hearing, but we can speed things up just like TV.
The date is set and then a jury is chosen (if the cast is being called for jury duty this where they enter the process).
Before the trail both lawyers make their opening statements about the case to the jury. This sets the tone of the trial and allows everyone to know what is going on. During the trail the plaintiff, or in the cases of a criminal trial, the States Attorneys Office, presents their case against the accused (the Cast). They can bring in witnesses or experts to present testimony and bring in evidence. The attorney for the defense (again in this example, the Cast) is allowed to cross-exam these witnesses or experts. The state rests its case and the defense is now allowed to do the same with their witnesses and evidence. Keep in mind that both sets of lawyers are aware of what evidence is going to be presented and what witnesses will be called ahead of time, this is called Discovery and Disclosure. This allows them both to build their cases. After the defense rests their case then both sides make closing statements (great place to earn some dram points!).
The jury then adjourns and makes their decisions. As Director it is best to know the outcome long before hand, but allow the players to help dictate where it might go.

Episode Idea: Jury Duty
The Cast are not the focus of this episode, at least not yet. One of the Cast members gets a summons for Jury Duty and no they cant get out of it. Turns out this is a murder trial and becomes apparent that the defendant is not at all what he appears, in fact the Cast member is convinced he is a demon in disguise. Something will have to be done or a demon (who may or may not have committed the murder) will go free or an innocent human might be going to prison for a crime he could not have committed due to magic.
Yeah, this a blatant Chramed rip-off, but like in that show, it can be used to break up the doom-and-gloom of a seasonal arc.

Now here are some lawyers to keep you all busy.

Alan Shore
Father: What sort of lawyer are you?
Alan: The disturbed, but fun kind.

Character Type: Unscrupulous lawyer with a soft spot for the underdog.
Played by: James Spader (who won three Emmys for this role)
Role: Of Council
Attributes: Str 2, Dex 2, Con 2, Int 5, Per 4, Will 5
Ability Scores: Muscle 10, Combat 8, Brains 16
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 15
Qualities and Drawbacks: Mental Problems: Covetous (2), Lecherous (2), Cruel (2), Fear of Commitment (2), Love (Tragic wife died young), Resources 6 (Allan makes close to a million a year at CP&S)
Maneuvers
Name                Score                Damage         Notes
Dodge                8                                Defense action
Punch                8                5                Bash

Alan Shore is the first lawyer we meet before he works for Crane, Poole and Schmidt. He began as consultant lawyer at Young, Frutt & Berlutti (The Practice), but went to work with Denny Crane. He is Of Concil, which means he is a high ranking attorney, but no prospects for partner. This seems to suit Alans lone-gunman style of practicing law fine.
He has a deep friendship with Denny (their talks on the balcony during the episodes end are a hallmark of the show) and has shown to be very loyal to his friends in general. He is also a fierce advocate for the underdog and the little guy, winning cases that nearly every other lawyer in the firm considers unwinnable.
Of course, as a David E. Kelley character, Alan is replete with a vast amount of neuroses and various sexual paraphilias. Alan has shown he is unable to commit or stay monogamous and his pursuit of is a constant force in his life.
If the cast gets into trouble and the case is very strange (which it is likely to be) then chances are it will be Alan Shore giving the closing arguments in their case.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shore

Denny Crane
Quote: Denny Crane!

Character Type: Unscrupulous lawyer with a soft spot for Denny Crane.
Played by: William Shatner (who also won two well-deserved Emmys for this role!)
Role: Founding Partner
Attributes: Str 2, Dex 2, Con 2, Int 5, Per 2, Will 3
Ability Scores: Muscle 10, Combat 9, Brains 15
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 15
Qualities and Drawbacks: Mental Problems: Alzheimer's Disease (1), Covetous (2), Lecherous (2), Resources 7 (Denny has millions with homes across the world)
Maneuvers
Name                Score                Damage         Notes
Dodge                9                                Defense action
Punch                9                5                Bash

Once upon a time there was a lawyer that was so good and so respected that there mere mention of his name was enough to send opposing council into fear and thinking settlements. That lawyer was Denny Crane.
That was of course, a long time ago. Denny entered into a phase of his life where he was just phoning in his work, which was fine for his firm. His name was on the door and that name brought in millions of dollars of new clients every year. So what did they care if Denny was spending more time chasing women or fishing.
Then Denny decided to go back to work.
It didnt matter to him that he had Alzheimer's Disease (though he says its Mad Cow from all the steaks he has eaten) he was still Denny Crane and he has never been defeated in the courtroom (the current record is over 6,000 wins, 0 losses).
Sure he still shoots people sometimes, and he is constantly getting arrested for picking up prostitutes, but nobody can play the media, a judge or jury quite like Denny Crane.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Crane

Shirley Schmidt
Quote: See the name on the door, Crain, Poole, and Schmidt? I'm Schmidt.

Character Type: Older, but still hot and brilliant lawyer.
Played by: Candice Bergen (who didn't win an Emmy for this role, but has plenty of others at home)
Role: Founding Partner
Attributes: Str 1, Dex 2, Con 2, Int 5, Per 5, Will 5
Ability Scores: Muscle 8, Combat 6, Brains 15
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 15
Maneuvers
Name                Score                Damage         Notes
Dodge                6                                Defense action
Punch                6                3                Bash

Denny was the visionary and the rain-maker. Edwin Poole was the hard worker that got everything going. But when comes to the continued success of Crane, Poole and Schimdt, then you have to look to Shirley Schmidt. Shirley is fine litigator, but what she excels at doing is keeping Denny in line. Now she has comeback to the firm she created to do the same thing, keep Denny in line, but know she also has to deal with Alan and both men trying to get her into bed.
Getting fired at CP&S is often referred to as getting "Schmidt-caned".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Schmidt

Paul Lewiston
Quote: [exasperated] Denny, you must stop shooting people.

Character Type: Underappreciated, by the book lawyer.
Played by: Rene Auberjonois
Role: Managing Partner
Attributes: Str 2, Dex 2, Con 2, Int 5, Per 4, Will 6
Ability Scores: Muscle 10, Combat 8, Brains 15
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 15
Qualities and Drawbacks: Mental Problems: Humorless (1), Dependents (2, Daughter and Granddaughter), Resources 6
Maneuvers
Name                Score                Damage         Notes
Dodge                8                                Defense action
Punch                8                5                Bash

Paul runs (ran) the day-to-day operations of CP&S and is the voice of reason in this chaotic firm. He is as close to a founding partner as one can be. Denny once even offered to put his name on the door, but Paul is more interested in taking care of formerly estranged, formerly drug addicted daughter and his granddaughter. Paul is friends with many of the judges encountered in BL including one played by Arimin Sherman (who was Quark on Star Trek Deep Space 9 opposite of Auberjonois Odo).
Paul is now taking time off to help raise his grand-daughter.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lewiston


Brad Chase
Quote: I was a Marine, I can do this.

Character Type: Assistant District Attorney
Played by: Mark Valley
Role: Formerly a Partner now ADA
Attributes: Str 4, Dex 2, Con 3, Int 4, Per 4, Will 5
Ability Scores: Muscle 14, Combat 15, Brains 15
Life Points:
Drama Points: 15
Maneuvers
Name                Score                Damage         Notes
Dodge                15                                Defense action
Punch                15                9                Bash

Brade Chase was a Junior Partner at CP&S till he was promoted to Assistant District Attorney. This will now place him on the other side of the courtroom from the lawyers of Crane, Poole and Schmidt and makes him the perfect choice to bring charges against the Cast members.
Brads former role at CP&S was to keep an eye on Denny. Of course, Denny liked what Brad stood for; he was a Republican and a Marine, but Denny didn't like the idea that Brad was watching him. Plus Alan and Brad clashed on just about every issue you could imagine.
While he could be described as straight arrow and uptight; Brad was a fine lawyer and usually won his cases.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Chase

Horror Movie Challenge

I am thinking of participating in the October Horror Movie Challenge from Krell Laboratories.

Thanks to Darius Whiteplume over at Adventures in Nerdliness for pointing this out.  I had already planned to go through all my "Dracula" movies in October anyway so I might as well get in on this action!

Here are the ones I am thinking of watching for starters.  Most I have seen, some I have not seen in years and a couple are completely new.

1. Nosferatu (1922) (F. W. Murnau/Max Shreck)

From the "Dracula Legacy Collection DVD"
2. Dracula (1931) (Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi)
3. Dracula (1931) - Spanish Version (George Melford/Carlos Villarías)
4. Dracula's Daughter (1936) (Lambert Hillyer/Gloria Holden)
5. Son of Dracula (1943) (Robert Siodmak/Lon Chaney, Jr.)
6. House of Dracula (1946) (Erle C. Kenton/John Carradine)

Then I want to get into the Hammer films.
7. Dracula, aka The Horror of Dracula (1958) (Terence Fisher/Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing)
8. Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) (Freddie Francis/Christopher Lee)
9. Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) (Peter Sasdy/Christopher Lee)
10. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) (Alan Gibson/Christopher Lee)
11. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) (Christopher Lee/Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing) have not seen this one since it was out.

Then onto the "modern" re-tellings
12. Count Dracula (1970) (Jesus Franco/Christopher Lee) Though not a Hammer film, and if I can find it.
13. Dracula (1973) (Dan Curtis/Jack Palance) Yes. Jack Plance as Dracula. I have this on tape somewhere.
14. Count Dracula (1977) (Philip Saville/Louis Jourdan) started it once, but never finished it. Louis Jourdan was good.
15. Dracula (1979) (John Badham/Frank Langella)
16. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski) have wanted to see this one for years and can never seem to catch it.
17. Dracula (1992) (Francis Ford Coppola/Gary Oldman)

Need 13 more films (which I can EASILY find).

Why can't I find a good Sci-Fi game?

A post over at Grognardia, http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/09/sci-fi-goulash.html, has prompted a reoccurring thought in my head.

Why can't I find a good Sci-Fi game?

I have mentioned before that I have had a hit and miss, mostly miss, luck with Sci-Fi games. Every so often I am convinced I have the One, only to be ultimately disappointed in them.
I after I posted a reply to James' post I went back to the Star Frontiers book I have and online at http://starfrontiersman.com/downloads/remastered. I also went through all the Star Trek books I still have left.

In terms of Sci-Fi I like Trek the best, loved Star Wars as a kid, but got into Dune or the hard sci-fi of Asimov. I did like Heinlein and Arthur C. Clark a lot though. I loved Farescape when it was on and I even enjoyed LEXX.  Never watched Space Above and Beyond, could not get into Babylon 5 or the new Galatica (though that is not really a reflection on them) and I thought Firefly was stupid.

For games I started out with Traveler, moved to Star Frontiers, Doctor Who (FASA), Star Trek (FASA), Alternity, Star Wars d20, d20 Future and others that I have forgotten.  More recently I have used Unisystem (All Tomorrow's Zombies) and Doctor Who (Cubicle 7).  Yet nothing seems to fit just right.  I looked over Star Blazer Adventures, Rogue Trader and others and didn't really care for them.  I don't like GURPS enough to honestly consider it, same for FUDGE and FATE.

What do I want?
That is a very question and one I don't have a good answer for.  There are bits and pieces that I like from all the above games.  I like the sandboxy feel of Star Frontiers and Traveler. I love the tech in Trek, the scope in Star Wars.  I could get better buy-in from my Kids with Star Wars, even if my youngest says "I am not into Star Wars" and lightsabers are cool.   I like some of the features of Alternity.  I liked some of what I read in Dune.

And I don't want to spend a bunch of time figuring out a new system.
I suppose this points to two things.  Unisystem and d20 3.x.

Why?
Well I have a bunch of d20 materials laying around including Star Wars, d20 Traveler (T20), Dragon Star,  and d20 Future (which has material from Star Frontiers and Alternity).  I like the idea of using the d20 Mod/Future classes. I am not thrilled with the idea of levels though, but multi-classing looks like it could be fun.  Plus I have a metric ton of d20 material.  Bring back mind flayers as an alien race.  Baator?  Now a planet; literary Planet Hell.

Unisystem is more flexible and I can do it better than d20, but despite how good All Tomorrow's Zombies is, I want something more.   I am not big into mixing magic and SciFi.  Psionics is ok (in fact I also don't like Psionics in fantasy games), weird I know. I think in the end, d20 might be the way for me to go, or this could be a thinly veiled attempt to do "D&D in Spaaaace!"

Star Wars, like I said, has a great scope and is full of aliens. Adding a Trek-like Federation to battle an Evil Empire is also very cool and a great backdrop.  I'd make it more of a cold war, with hotter areas on the edges.  Lots of room then for black markets and ops.  Maybe even steal a page from Battlestar and make the evil Empire one of artificially intelligent machines.  T20 has a lot of cool stuff too and the Imperium is neat and again lots of cool races.

What is lacking in all of this is unified narrative.  Maybe I don't need one.  D&D doesn't have one, never did.  A lot of what I don't like about the various systems out there is I find their "fluff" to be restrictive.  I don't want all the baggage that go with Jedi, or the Imperium, or Aslans, or Fraal.    I guess say here is Oerth, here is Yavin, over there is Krynn and Vulcan and just let the universe take care of itself.

I guess until I find that perfect mix, I keep searching.