The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 9

Episode 9: Rainbow in the Dark


Willow: I know spells Tara. I need you to teach me magic.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 9 “Rainbow in the Dark”

Episode 9: Rainbow in the Dark by ~WebWarlock on deviantART

April 9, 2003. Friday


Dawn’s new powers are strong and out of control. She becomes the target of every occult faction left in town. All the while Hank Summers sues for custody of Dawn. Social Worker Marion “Cobra” Bubbles is sent in to evaluate her home life. Learn Hank is engaged to his blonde secretary named “Serenity”.
One of Dawn’s friends is killed by a vamp in the end of the last episode. Dawn blames Buffy (friend ends up being Strawberry Switchblade).


Story Arc elements: Return of the Vampire Chicas with new member Strawberry Switchblade. More cults. Willow, Dawn and Tara come to an agreement on magic and their individual journeys of power (Dawn with her new psychic abilities, Willow’s return as the magical powerhouse and Tara’s return to life). Willow and Tara talk about the “the Day of Silence”.

We had some scenes where Dawn was training, Slayer-style only not touching the weapons, but using here TK powers.  Good test of the TK-without-magic rules.  There was also a scene where Dawn gets upset and knocks out all the other PCs (I needed them out so she could run away).  After this episode my mandate was she was not supposed to act immature ever again.  I wanted growth, not lazy writing.

Quotes:
Te above quote came from the end of the game.  Where Willow and Tara are discussing their futures, not just as witches, but lovers as well.  You can have angst and moving plots without resorting to killing or addiction.

Other good quotes from this episode:
Cobra: “It seems that man responsible for your birth has no interest in your future.”
Buffy: “No, not now that he has his new blonde bimbo Serenity.”
Dawn: “Why would anyone name something after old lady diapers anyway?”
(yes, we still some snark left in us).

Runner up:
Buffy: “Oh don’t be a baby, I have been dead more times than you have had a bloody nose.”

Soundtrack: Dio “Rainbow in the Dark”


Notes and Comments:
Ok here is the big Dawn episode. I wanted to show the character as growing and maturing. Though she does do some very typical immature Dawn things, like lashing out at the cast and knocking them all out for a while. The deal here is the final scene for Willow in the shadows of magic. Here she comes back to her own. In the end Dawn's power opens up a tiny hole in reality and she and Willow, without Tara, have to close it up. After ths we talked about what would Dawn's future be. One of my players, Lisa (Tara) thought she should be a doctor, another (sorry forgot who) thought she would end up studing physics. Either way we knew she was going to have the life she felt her sister never could.

Strawberry Switchblade was Dawn's friend who was killed by the Chicas. She became a reoccuring threat in my games regardless of system for a while after that. Her death was to show the Cast that they do not live in a vacuum. The Chicas of course leave town after all of this.

I also wanted to bring back Hank in this one. Everyone seemed to have forgotten him so I figured he was shacking up with some bimbo named Serenity. Anyway he sues which brings in my all time favorite CIA-Agent turned Social Worker, Marion "Cobra" Bubbles. He manages to allow Dawn to stay, garnishes Hank's checks for Child support and kills a vamp in the process.

Strawberry Switchblade
Name: Strawberry Switchblade
Motivation: To make the cast pay for letting her die. Kill anyone else that gets into the way and have fun doing it.
Creature Type: Vampire
Quote: “What do you mean? You MADE me like this. Now I get to return the favor.”

Sex: F
Age: 16 (when killed)
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 105 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red

Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 6, Constitution 5, Intelligence 4, Perception 3, Willpower 3

Life Points: 69
Drama Points: 5

Qualities: Attractiveness +3, Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill 7, Vampire (Murderous)
Drawbacks: Adversary 2, Cruel 3, Delusion (blames the cast for her death) 2, Obsession (kill the cast), Reckless

Skills
Acrobatics +4
Art +1
Computers +2
Crime +3
Getting Medieval +5
Gun Fu +1
Knowledge +2
Kung Fu +5
Languages +1
Notice +3
Occultism +1
Science +1
Sports +1
Wild Card (Seduction) +3

Combat Decapitation +6 S Successes X5, Armor Negated
Dodge +11 N Defense Move
Grapple +11 N Impairment Varies
Kick +8 14 Bash
Punch +9 12 Bash
Knives (2) +11 12 Slash/Stab

Marion "Cobra" Bubbles

“Let me illuminate to you the precarious situation in which you have found yourself. I am the one they call when things go wrong, and things have indeed gone wrong.”

Kids have it rough. Their parents or guardians die or just leave. Then to top everything off they adopt and dangerous alien creature or find out they are glowing balls of energy. It’s enough to make them want to go on a six state killing spree. Fortunately for them (and us) there is the last line of defense, Marion “Cobra” Bubbles.

Cobra Bubbles is a social worker, a special classification (maybe Division 6). He deals with the cases that send most other social works screaming in terror or crying like babies. He also tends to deal with cases of a rather unusual nature.

Cobra from “Lilo and Stich”
The Disney movie, Lilo and Stich is a riot. I won’t get into the details here, but this movie introduces Cobra as Lilo’s social worker. We find out that he is ex-CIA and help broker a deal to keep Earth protected from aliens back in 1973. We learn that Cobra (don’t call him “Mr. Bubbles”) is very serious about his work, cares for children and is really damn strong. You would not want to piss this guy off...
In "animated" episodes he is a cartoon above, voiced by Ving Rhames.

Cobra in “The Dragon and the Phoenix”

Cobra is pissed off. Headquarters has sent him to Sunnydale, a place he hates. There is a case, that of Dawn Summers, that needs his attention. Her last few social workers have been either too scared or too disturbed to go back to the Summer’s home. The case is a special one. The child’s guardian was completely missing on computer files for the Summer of 2001, no paychecks, no classes, nothing. Then one year later the murder of Kara Mclay occurred in the home. The minor in question, Dawn, found the body along with the murdered woman’s sister, Tara.
There is also a claim that the guardian is living with a much older English man that does not appear on any INS database.
To make matters more urgent the minor’s father is now suing for custody.

It should be no surprise that evil-cultists choose now to kidnap Dawn to extract her Key energy.
In my series here he is played by Ving Rhames.

Cobra Bubbles
Character Type: Experience Hero
Life Points 46
Drama Points 20
Quote: “Thus far you have been adrift in the sheltered harbor of my patience.”
and after he surpise kills a vamp in front of the cast "I hate this town."

Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Constitution 4, Intelligence 4, Perception 5, Willpower 5

Qualities: *Cop (Ex), Fast Reaction Time, Iron Mind, Nerves Of Steel, Photographic Memory, Resistance-Pain 3, Resources Level 3, Situational Awareness

Drawbacks: Conspicuous 2 (6'5" tall bald black man in $1000 dollar suit), Honorable 2, Humorless, Obligation 3, Obsession (protect children), Secret 1

Skills
Acrobatics 2
Computers 3
Crime 3
Doctor 2
Driving 4
Getting Medieval 2
Gun Fu 6
Influence 4
Knowledge 4
Knowledge, Aliens and the Supernatural 4
Kung Fu 5
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 3
Notice 4
Occultism 2
Science 3
Sports 4
Wild Card, Government Contacts 4

Combat
Maneuver Bonus Base Damage Notes
Dodge +8 — Defense action
Grapple +10 — Varies
Kick +7 12 Bash
Punch +8 10 Bash
Big Pistol +9 15 Bullet
Pistol +9 12 Bullet

Next up. Buffy and Spike look for a weapon to deal with Yoln. Oz returns with a few suprises.

Rufus and Burne for D&D 4 Essentials

After the success of Morgan Ironwolf, Aleena, and Emirikol the Chaotic, I figured I should do some more updated characters.  And who better than Hommlet's very own Rufus and Burne.

There has been a 4e update to Village of Hommlet and thanks to a kind soul I now have their copy. But oddly enough I did not find Rufus and Burne stated up.
I went with their base stats in the 1st Ed AD&D T1 Village of Hommlet, so in D&D4 terms they are a bit under powered, though Burne has a lot more spells now.  All in all using Essentials is a snap.  I had just re-read my Moldvay Basic book earlier in the evening for something else and I have to say that while the mechanics of making characters has changed, the feel of it has not.

Here they are, the somewhat greedy, a little lazy, maybe a little grumpy, and  very likely to be lovers, Rufus the Fighter and "His Most Worshipful Mage of Hommlet" Burne the Wizard.

 

 Burne

 Rufus

Like I said I kept their original stats and even had Rufus buy a Holy Symbol of St. Cuthbert (although the Church of St. Cuthbert is now a Temple to Pelor in the new 4th Ed module).

If I run 4e VoH then I'll certainly have these two show up.  Yes, pink chain mail and blue and yellow smurf hat and all.

Practical Magic for the WitchCraft RPG

Practical Magic

Note: I am not setting this up as one of my October Movies since it is not really horror, and I have seen it so many times now that I could not count it.

FOR MORE THAN two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town. If a damp spring arrived, if cows in the pasture gave milk that was runny with blood, if a colt died of colic or a baby was born with a red birthmark stamped onto his cheek, everyone believed that fate must have been twisted, at least a little, by those women over on Magnolia Street. It didn't matter what the problem waslightning, or locusts, or a death by drowning. It didn't matter if the situation could be explained by logic, or science, or plain bad luck. As soon as there was a hint of trouble or the slightest misfortune, people began pointing their fingers and placing blame. - Intro to Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (and the movie as a voice over by Aunt Jet).

Sally Owens: I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.

While I set out to like The Craft and didn't so much, I was also set to dislike Practical Magic and found it to be very enjoyable. Sure both Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock can get on my nerves at times, they both turned out a very enjoyable performance. What really increased my enjoyment of this film was the book.



Practical Magic is based on the novel written by Alice Hoffman. Ill admit that I have never read anything else of hers and I read this book only after seeing the movie. But I am glad I finally did. Despite the title and subject matter, Practical Magic is not really about magic or witches but about sisters and their bond. It is also about love, both platonic and romantic, but mostly about a deep connection between people. Hoffman showcases this with her portrayal of the three generations of Owens witches; Frances and Bridget, Sally and Gillian, and Antonia and Kylie. It is interesting to note that the only Owens witch without a sister is Maria, the same Maria whose spell against love turns into the Owens Curse.

Practical Magic, the movie, has a lot going for it. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman make very fetching witch sisters. It is the first major roles for future stars Goran Visnjic (Hotel Sarajevo was his break out role, but this was his big American one) and Rachel Wood. Plus I always liked Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest from their earliest works as well, not to mention a soundtrack by Stevie Nicks. Although she had no lines, I also thought Caprice Benedetti was great as Owens clan matriarch Maria.

The Movie vs The Book
The movie is really is more in line with the universe of WitchCraft than the book (the witches have more power), but the book is much better. The movie and the book do have some significant differences. In the book Sally spends a great deal of time away from the Aunts to try to live a normal life, only to discover that normal is not really what she wanted. This is touched upon in the movie, but not to the same degree. There is more interaction with and between Sallys daughters Antonia and Kylie in the book. Plus the movie reverses the two daughters and has them a little younger. In the movie Jimmy Angelov is Bulgarian and a lady killer in the figurative and literal sense. In the book Jimmy Hawkins is American and just a dumb hood that sells some kids some bad drugs. Both are though are close enough to each other to me to be the same character, so I opt for using Angelov. Goran Visnjic gave an inspired performance as Eastern European-cowboy-Dracula; much more interesting than Hawkins punk thug. Besides, a drunk Goran Visnjic singing You Were Always on My Mind while planning to kill Gillian is very creepy. Not the same creepy as his I am really into sisters now, but still creepy.

So where the movie and book differ, I am likely to go with the book. Ill use the casting from the movie, keep the movies power level for the witches and minor bits here and there.

The Owens Sisters
Each generation of Owens sisters is presented below. You will notice that in most respect the sisters, while physically different from each other, have very similar stats. This is on purpose. The sisters were one part of the genesis of my Anamchara Quality and my example of their use for non-romantic love and for WitchCraft.
In the case of these stats I kept them at the power level and age they were in the movie (the movie was out in 1998).

Gillian Owens: You southern shrew!
Aunt Jet Owens: Ingrate!
Aunt Frances Owens: Goodie two shoes!
Sally Owens: WITCH!

Associations and Concepts
Well, Alice Hoffman didn't consult with C.J. first, so the Owens don't quite fit, but that is not to say we can't make them fit somewhere. Their attitudes, powers and history remind the most of the Wicce. They, Frances and Jet in particular, are great Weird Ones, but really Eccentric ones would be a better choice of words.

Aunt Frances Owens (Stockard Channing)


Sally Owens: All I want is a normal life.
Aunt Frances Owens: My darling girl, when are you going to understand that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!

Aunt Frances is the older of the two aunts. She is tall, thin, formidable and looks very much like a Harry Potter witch. If we continue with the book timeline she would 90 today, and most likely still alive.

Strength: 1 Intelligence: 4
Dexterity: 2 Perception: 6
Constitution: 2 Willpower: 5

Life Points: 32
Essence Pool: 51

Skills: Rituals (Wicce) 5, Driving (car, standard transmission) 1, First Aid 1, Herbal Medicine 4,
Qualities: The Gift, Essence Channelling 3, Increased Essence Pool 6
Drawbacks: Accursed (The Owens Curse), Emotional Problems (Fear of Commitment) 1, Status -1
Metaphysics: Affect the Psyche 3, Cleansing 4, Consecration 2, Symbols of Protection 3

Aunt Bridget Jet Owens (Dianne Wiest)


Aunt Jet: This is what comes from dabbling; I mean you can't practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it.

While Frances would allow the girls to eat chocolate cake for breakfast because others say she cant, Aunt Jet would let them do it because she cant say no to them. Cheerful, plump, short, she would be 88 in 2010

Strength: 1 Intelligence: 5
Dexterity: 2 Perception: 6
Constitution: 2 Willpower: 5

Life Points: 32
Essence Pool: 52

Skills: Rituals (Wicce) 6, First Aid 2, Gardening 4, Herbal Medicine 4,
Qualities: The Gift, Charisma 2, Essence Channelling 3, Increased Essence Pool 6
Drawbacks: Accursed (The Owens Curse), Emotional Problems (Fear of Commitment) 1, Status -1
Metaphysics: Affect the Psyche 3, Cleansing 4, Consecration 2, Symbols of Protection 3

Frances and Jet thought they were going to die together at ages 94 and 92 respectively. That all changed when they had to take in their youngest sisters daughters Sally and Gillian after her death. They raised the girls as their own for years. Their own husbands had died years ago due to the Owens Curse. Frances and Jet are old-school witches. They dress in all black, with funny hats to hide (barely) wild and crazy hair. They ran a very successful, but secret (secret in the way that everyone knew but no one ever talked about it) potion business. They provided potions to cure all sorts of ailments, the get rid of spirits, but most famously were their love potions. They would warn the women who came to them that they were asking for trouble, but in the end they took the money and women left with a small vial. The Owens sisters where also well known for their gardens. When spring came theirs would be in full bloom with jasmine, rosemary, verbena and garlic while their neighbors would still be muddy from the thawing snow. The lilac, lavender and roses grown there could be smelled from blocks away.

Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock)


Sally Owens: Since when is being a slut a crime in this family?

Strength: 2 Intelligence: 5
Dexterity: 2 Perception: 6
Constitution: 3 Willpower: 5

Life Points: 34
Essence Pool: 26

Skills: Rituals (Wicce) 2, Craft (botanicals) 3, Herbal Medicine 3
Qualities: The Gift, Attractiveness 1, Essence Channelling 1 (3), Increased Essence Pool 1, Anamchara (Gillian)
Drawbacks: Accursed (The Owens Curse), Emotional Problems (Fear of Commitment) 1, Impaired Seneses*
Metaphysics: Affect the Psyche 2, Cleansing 1, Elemental Fire 1

*Cant see orange since her first husbands death (from the truck that hit him).

Sally Owens wanted nothing more to live a normal life. Her mother died soon after her father did. He died from the Owens Curse, she died from a broken heart. So she and her sister Gillian went to live with her two aunts. From a very early age Sally displayed the greatest potential, but she turned her back on magic and witchcraft to avoid the curse. She even tried to avoid love, but as fate would have it she fell in love with man named Micheal, got married and had two wonderful daughters. They opened an herbal bath products store. Sally used her knowledge of herbs to create botanicals. Then one day she heard the Deathwatch Beetle clicking away the minutes of her husbands life, Sally ran to find her husband, only to see him get hit by an orange truck. She spent the next year depressed and never left her bed.
One day her sister comes back into her life.

Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman)


Gillian Owens: Hang onto your husbands, girls!

Strength: 2 Intelligence: 3
Dexterity: 2 Perception: 6
Constitution: 3 Willpower: 4

Life Points: 32
Essence Pool: 26

Skills: Rituals (Wicce) 2, Craft (botanicals) 3, Herbal Medicine 3
Qualities: The Gift, Attractiveness 2, Essence Channelling 1 (3), Increased Essence Pool 1, Anamchara (Sally)
Drawbacks: Accursed (The Owens Curse), Emotional Problems (Fear of Commitment) 1, Mental Problems (Mild Lechery)
Metaphysics: Affect the Psyche 2, Cleansing 1, Mind Hands 3/3

Gillian was the younger of the two Owens sisters. She was the partier. While Sally even at a young age tried to get her homework done, eat her vegetables and go to bed at a decent hour, Gillian was running off with first one boy or another. Soon boys that were terrified of her when she was a preteen, couldnt stop following her when became a teenager and adult. If Sally inherited Maria Owens magic, then Gillian inherited her ability to break hearts and turn other women against her.

Gillian and Sally also have the Anamchara Quality, WitchCraft version. While there is obviously a strong love here, it is the sisterly type. The type born out of tragedy, only Gillian understood Sally and visa versa. While they were as different as night and day, they were really one complete person. Maybe this is a by-product of the Owens Curse, since no man could become their soul mate they needed a proper substitute.

It would be interesting to see if the same unfolded for Antonia and Kylie.

Antonia Owens, 16 (Alexandra Artrip)

Kylie Owens, 15 (Evan Rachel Wood)
blond (dyed, normally black) hair.

NOTE: in the book, Antonia was the oldest and Kylie was the younger. In movie this was reversed. I am opting for the movie casting, but the book characters. This is fine since Kylie ending up much taller and looking more like Gillian.

Kylie Owens: Mom, I'm worried about Antonia. Did you know that she put on her mouse ears and drives around town, all liquored up, NAKED?

Children (to Antonia): Witch! Witch! You're a bitch! Witch! Witch! You're a bitch!
Sally Owens: You'd think after three hundred years they'd come up with a better rhyme!

I have not stated out Kylie and Antonia yet. My plan was to introduce them into a game as sisters, but nothing more than that and see where they go. But at last count I have the stats for close to a hundred different witches. Its hard to keep up, let alone try to work them all into a game.

Both are Gifted and are more powerful than Sally and Gillian. I had decided on not giving them Anamchara. In the book they just didnt get along so well, except at the end and it left me wanting more.



Can love really travel back in time and heal a broken heart? Was it our jointed hands that finally lifted Marie's curse? I'd like to think so. But there are some things that I know for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.
- Sally Owens

http://practicalmagic.warnerbros.com/
http://www.alicehoffman.com/hoffman-practical-magic.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_magic
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120791/
http://www.amasveritas.com/

October Movie Reviews: Countess Dracula

Stuck in the 70's with another one of the Hammer Films.

This time we are getting into what would be fertile ground for Hammer, beautiful young women killing other beautiful young women.


Countess Dracula (1970/1971)
This one is a bit mis-titled, and a bit of different one for Hammer.  It is the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, but the twist is here the blood she drains and bathes actually does make her young again in the form of Scream Queen Ingrid Pitt.

The story is not a bad one, but not memorable.  Bathory kills girls, dupes dumb men into being her pawns, finally gets caught in the end.  We are missing some of the characters from Bathory's history, but that is fine really.

The one ups the blood and gore (too be expected) and the sex and nudity (also to be expected).
It is not quite as good as Daughters of Darkness that came out a year later. But it has more of supernatural feel to it and more of a Hammer feel to it if that makes any sense.   Ingrid Pitt also stared as another famous vampire, Carmilla, in the Vampire Lovers.  Female vampires became very lucrative for Hammer in the end, but not enough to save them it seems.

I had forgotten I had seen this one till I got into it.  So I watched it with the audio comentary on instead.  Very interesting insights to Hamer in the 70's to be sure.  Makes me want to go back and listen to the audio comentary tracks on the all the other Hammer films I have watched.

15 Games that Inspired Me

Doing that blog-o-sphere thing again.  I am listing the 15 games that had the most influence on me a player, game master and a game designer.

1. AD&D 1st Ed.  (credit where credit is due)
   
2. Moldvay Basic D&D (toss up which one influenced me more, this of AD&D)
   
3. C. J. Carella's WitchCraft (THE modern horror game)
   
4. Ghosts of Albion (fairly obvious I think)
5. D&D 3.0/d20 (a revolution in game design and publishing. Gave birth to the entire OSR)
6. Chill (showed me there was more to RPGS than just killing monsters in dungeons)
   
7. Traveller (opened up new worlds to me)
   
8. Star Frontiers (the Sci-Fi game I played the longest)
   
9. D&D 4 (sacred cows make for tasty burgers)
10. Vampire the Masquerade (sometimes you get to be the monster)
    
11. Call of Cthulhu (despite playing it in the 80's it was not till the 90's that I figured out how good it is)
    
12. Mutants and Masterminds (showed more than any other game that the OGL was working)
13. Shadowrun
    
14. Paranoia (Role-playing should be about fun too)
15. The OSR (I am lumping them all together since they inspired me to go back and look at the games I played ina  new light)

Pakistan Flood Relief

Long time readers might recall the Haiti Flood Relief done by OneBookShelf Inc (Drivethru RPG and RPGNow).  Well they are doing it again for the recent flood in Pakistan.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=84741&affiliate_id=10748

So for a $25 donation you get over $700.00 worth of products.

It is worth checking out and for a good cause.

There are at least four books I saw right away I wanted and that would have cost me 45+ bucks right there.  I am also certain there are more.

Hell, it has Starblazer Adventures included and that is $50  right there.

The Essentials Druid

The new Druid build for Essentials made it's preview today.
You can read about it here, http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20101018.

On first glance I like the changes.  There is no wild shape ability in the first 10 levels that I can see and focus is more on their animal companion.

Points of Light is also talking about them, http://daegames.blogspot.com/2010/10/essentials-druid.html.

I had expressed my displeasure with how 4e had done Druids before (here and here).  So far this new one looks better than what PHB2 gave me.

Will have to wait and see.

October Movie Reviews: To the Devil a Daughter

Back to the 70's with one of the last Hammer Films produced till the present day.

To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

This one has an all star cast, which in a horror flick usually means bad news.
Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Denholm Elliott and introducing a young Nastassja Kinski. Really it should not get much better than this.

I mentioned this one in the past. It was less of the Gothic horror tradition and more into the supernatural horror. It was the time in the 70's, movies like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby were big hits.  The Devil had never been more popular.
The story involves an excommunicated priest (Lee) and an occult investigator (Widmark). Lee is secretly a worshiper of Astaroth and hopes to use a young nun (Kinski) as the vessel of his lord.

The script is actually rather well researched and certainly is a better portrayal of what real occult practices were like.  Widmark even repeats something I have repeated myself many times about how most "satanists" out there are really just perverts looking for some kinky sex.  It it the other ones you have to worry about.  Lee is great in this role, as usual. Widmark seems bored and Blackman utterly underused here.  There are some places in the script that left me scratching my head about why one thing or another was done.  But all in all it was a fun, if not all that great, movie.

Of course the movie is rather infamous for it scenes of full-frontal nudity from a then 15 year old Nastassja Kinski.   The DVD version I have has those scenes intact as well as the Satanic orgy often cut from most American versions of the movie.  They are pretty risqué for our time, so imagine what they were like in 76.

What I liked best about this DVD though were the interviews.  Christopher is always great to watch in interviews. He reads part of the original book that this was based on and left me with wanting to hear him read all of it.  

I guess in the end I just wanted this to be more than it was.

October Movie Reviews: The Lestat Movies

Double Feature weekend!

I watched, for the first time "Queen of the Damned" and rewatched after a long time "Interview with a Vampire". Both based on the first three books of Anne Rice's Vampire series.
I watched them in the same order I originally read the books way back when. I read "The Vampire Lestat" first then "Interview with a Vampire" next. It gave me a very different point of view of Lestat than others reading the same books at the time.
Let's be 100% honest here. If it was not for Anne Rice we would not have had "Vampire the Masquerade" and certainly she gave birth to the latest modern trend in vampires. More so that "Sookie Stackhouse", "Buffy" and even "Twilight". While Rice's vampires are appealing they are also monsters. Sometimes they struggle with that. So we have her to thank (or blame) for the Agnsty Emo Vampire in whole or in part.

Queen of the Damned (2002)

This film combines and shortens the tale found in the books "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned". Lestat (Stuart Townsend this time) comes back after his self imposed exile/sleep to be a rock star (who sounds an awful lot like Korn). Hey in the books it worked. It comes off a bit rushed in the movie though. His songs, especially about the really old vampires wakes Akasha, Queen of the Vampires (played by the late Aaliyah).  Wackieness ensues. Vampires that don't want to be outted try to kill Lestat, Akasha wants to keep him alive.  Marius shows up.  The ancient vampires fight to stop Akasha.

To start out with, this is not an exact sequel to "IwaV", more of a separate interpretation of the same universe.  That being said lets look at the good and the bad.
Good.  The vampires here are very cool.  Their powers have a nice affect on screen and they are still bloodthirsty killers.  The movie itself is better than I had been lead to believe all these years, but if one compares it to the book then it fails.  Lestat does not come off as a spoiled brat in this one as he did in "IwaV" and the books.  More like a vampire that kinda wishes he was still human.  Which of course was NOT Lestat in the books.
Bad. The script is kind of a mess.  They are trying ram two very dense books into a movie footprint and don't do so well.  Granted, Rice's later books needed pruning, but that is the fine skill of an editor, this was the work of a guy with a chainsaw.  Characters have disappeared, entire plots lost and the resolution does not have the same impact in the film as it does in the books.

In the end I enjoyed the movie, but only as a vampire flick, not as something that I know belongs in a larger universe.

Interview with a Vampire (1994)

Everyone had such high hopes for this one.  On the tail of Bram Stoker's Dracula this was supposed to open up a new era of vampire films.  Maybe it did.  But the movie was a disappointment.
Based on the book of the same name, this one has an all star cast.  I mean really.  Brad Pitt as Louis, Tom Cruise as Lestat, Kristen Dunst as Claudia (long before she would kiss Spider-Man), Christian Slater (filling in for the recently late River Phoenix) as Daniel and Antonio Bandaras as Arman.  I mean wow.  Look at that.
Visually the movie is very appealing.  Pretty (and petty) vampires feeding on humans while Louis frets and mourns his lost humanity.  Yeah agnsty emo vamps.
Tom Cruise was great as Lestat, but in some ways not as good as Townsend.  Now, I'll be honest, I don't like Tom Cruise I think he is a nut-job with a lot of issues and belongs to a wacky cult.  But so do a lot of people.  But he certainly made me believe he was Lestat here.  I am going to come back to why in a bit.  Now Brad Pitt I do like, after his bit in "12 Monkeys" and "True Romance" he convinced me he was not some pretty boy actor.  Watching him "Snatch" confirmed that.  But here he is the pretty boy vampire and frankly the best line in the movie was Lestat's "Oh shut up Louis."
I really liked this movie when it came out, but now almost 10 years later I seen the cracks in the veneerer, the flaws.

Basically I have the EXACT same issue I have with the books.  I can't stand Lestat in "Interview" (book or movie) and I liked him in the Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned.

Anne Rice's vampires are creatures of their times.  Not meaning when they were turned, but when the books and movies were made.  Since then the entire sub-genre of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy has grown up in the soil she tilled.  Vampires are no longer monsters, they are potential date/S.O. material. To be fair, Rice's vampires are monsters.  They just whine about being monsters.

I am glad though I got to watch them both back to back like this.

The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 8

Episode 8: Silent Lucidity

Tara: Wow. Who knew Miss Kitty could quote Shakespeare?
Willow: I am still having trouble getting past “Who knew Ms. Kitty could talk.”
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 8 "Silent Lucidity"

Episode 8: Silent Lucidity by ~WebWarlock on deviantART

March 24, 2003. 
Monday

Dawn’s emergent psychic powers traps the cast in her nightmare.
More than a week later and things have cooled down, a but only a little. At least everyone is agreeing to watch a movie together. It’s a Japanese-monster horror film and Xander has to remind Buffy that it is not a training video. Dawn begins to emerge as a powerful telepath and psychic, but not before she traps the cast and herself in the Dreamlands. The Cast must work through there own subconscious issues before they can escape. Willow and Tara’s issues with each other (loss and power), Buffy and Spike’s issues (trust and obsession) and Anya and Xander’s (fears of commitment and rejection). Dawn is dealing with the issues of constantly worried that she nothing more than Buffy’s shadow or even less. All the while Glory taunts her in her dreams.
Story Arc elements: Dawn focused, but also focused on the interplay of the cast.
Game Design elements: Non-magic psychic powers, rules for play in the Dreamlands, Bast for Cinematic games. Introduce Miss Kitty Fantastico II as a Bast. Have the Vampire Chicas come back to town. While the Cast is “sleeping” Dawn’s friend is killed and Faith dies in the hospital.

Notes and Comments:
Given that I was going to college in the 80’s and 90’s I am allowed to name one adventure ever my entire life after a Queensrÿche song. This is it.  I am also allowed to do one "dream" episode.  This is also it.

Ok. So. I killed Faith here.

Of course I have her appear in Buffy’s dreams and up the bi-sexual attraction she has for her. Mind you YEARS before it ever showed up in any comic. But I was careful not to repeat the cliché of a girl showing interest in another girl and have end her up dead (see “The Celluloid Closet” and the "Evil/Dead Lesbian Cliché"). I have Dawn watching all of this in her dreams, but unable to hear anything. She is taunted in her dream by Glory (really just the manifestation of her own fear) with the fact that she is no more real than Kara was and it is only a matter of time before Willow screws up something and undoes the magic holding her together.
I’ll be honest here, I liked Dawn. I always did. So she gets a chance here to shine (figuratively and literally) in the next few episodes.  We had built up her power slowly over the course of the season and this was the episode we let it cut loose.
This episode was very interpersonal. Very little in the way of combat. Most of the creature in the dream lands were Bast (which you have seen some of those in the past here). For the others I used some creatures that later would go on to be in Ghosts of Albion.  I used my old copy of Call of Cthulhu for ideas, but we never really ran into any mythos creatures other than seeing them in background or "through the veil of other dreams".

For the confrontations in the dreams, the cast were paired of (though I was still having trouble getting and keeping a regular Anya player) to deal with their issues.   For Willow and Tara's case, Willow agreed to basically "re-learn" magic from Tara.  If this had been earlier in the season then I would have dropped her back down to Sorcery/Magic 0 and work back up. But we didn't have that benefit.  Plus the next episode I needed a magically potent, if wounded, Willow.  Tara forgave Willow for her dabbling in "dark magics" and agreed that learning magic together would be the best for them both.

The cast finds out Faith died while they were sleeping.  I have a cut scene at the end where a coroner played by Zach Galifianakis performs Faith’s autopsy while Angel waits. Thought it was appropriate if morbid.

The cover of this does not quite represent the agnst of the episode, but my mandate was Willow and Tara on every cover and this was the one I liked the best.


Next up: The New Marvel Girl

October Movie Reviews: Count Dracula (1977)

For my October Reviews I am back on Dracula.

Count Dracula (1977, BBC)

I am half-tempted to count this one as two movies.  It does come in two-parts and it was rather long.

Ok let's start with the good.
This is closer to the book than any other movie so far.
There are some differences though.  Minor are Lucy and Mina are sisters here.  Arthur Holmwood and Quincy Morris have been combined to a single character, Quincy Holmwood, but he is still American.  An aside, I love it when English actors do American accents.  Quincy is so stereotypically Texan that it comes off more endearing than comedic or even bad.  The actor is very earnest about his role.

Louis Jourdan is a fantastic Dracula.
Susan Penhaligon as Lucy does remind me quite a bit of Sadie Frost, who played Lucy in the 1992 movie.  One gets the feeling that Francis Ford Coppola watched this movie to get ideas.

Judi Bowker (who would later earn her geek cred playing Andromeda in the original Clash of the Titans) plays a wonderful Mina here.  She has the sweet innocence that one needs in Mina in the early part of the tale.  She was the best Lucy up that time and rivals that of Kate Nelligan in the Hollywood film of 1979.

The bad. Though it is not really that bad.

The effects are Doctor Who-in-the-70's quality, but this should not be a surprise given it was in the 70s on BBC.  Missing Holmwood is not that big of an issue.  When you are doing this on stage fewer actors are better, but as we would later see in the FFC Dracula (1992) that it can be done.


It suffers from some of the same issues as the book.  Long and drawn out in places.

All in all a great movie, tribute to the BBC.  I am glad I finally got a chance to watch it.

Dracula: Ghosts of Albion

Something I have always wanted to do is bring Dracula into Ghosts of Albion.  I could imagine a plot similar to Dracula's Guest, only with the Cast.  The cast come to castle Dracula and meet up with the Count, in his old form from the the beginning of the book.  I'd like some sort of mystery.  Maybe a murder, but the Count wants to find out who did it just as much as the Cast.  I'd like to pit the Count against the cast, but not in a physical or combative way; I need him "alive" at the end of the tale.
I'd use the maps from Castle Ravenloft, since they are supposed to be like Dracula's castle anyway.

But the issue is, and has been, I can't quite come up with something interesting enough for the Cast to do with Dracula.  I figure if I am pulling out the big gun here, it needs to be nothing short of awesome.

If I come up with something you all will be the firsts to know.

Count Dracula of Transylvania

Name: Count Dracula
Motivation: To leave Transylvania and see new lands
Creature Type: Vampire, Protector

Attributes: Strength 9, Dexterity 6, Constitution 7, Intelligence 5, Perception 5, Willpower 7
Life Points: 98
Drama Points: 10

Qualities
Acute Senses
Age 4
Animal Communication (limited to bats, rats and wolves)
Charisma
Cloak of Beasts (bat, rat, and wolf)
Control Weather
Hard to Kill 8
Hypnosis 3
Nerves of Steel 2
Magic 4
Mesmerize
Protector of Transylvania
Resources 7
Scale Walls
Soldier, Officer (Retired)
Status, Noble
Sunlight Immunity (limited, unable to change form or use his magical powers except at noon)
Vampire

Drawbacks
Adversary (monster hunters, rival vampires, some gypsies, people with the last name Van Helsing) 8
Anti-Social Impulses (violent)
Archaic 1
Attractive -1  (remember, this is Old Dracula with the bad breath, very thin, hairy palms, and long mustache)
Covetous (Lechery, 2)
Cruel 3 (deranged)
Home Soil
Honorable 1
Love, Tragic (sure, why not.  He believes so at least)
Natural Barrier (running water)
Obsession (leaving Transylvania) 2
Obsession (find a bride) 1
Secret 3 (many)

Skills
Armed Mayhem 7
Art 2
Athletics 6
Crime 5
Doctor 1
Drive/Ride 5 (Coaches)
Engineering 2
Fisticuffs 6
Influence 5
Knowledge 8 (he has done nothing for the last few centuries but read)
Languages 9 (he speaks many languages including English with no noticeable accent)
Marksmanship 3
Notice 10
Occultism 9
Science 4

Combat Maneuvers
Name Score Damage
Punch 12 18 Bash
Break neck 16 36 Special
Sword 13 36 Slash/stab

Bite (vampire)14 22 Must Grapple first; no defense action
Dodge 13 -- Defense action
Grapple 15 -- Resisted by Dodge

Bat 20 -- +8 to hiding
Bite (bat) 14 8 Slash/stab

Wolf 20 -- Double movement; +3 to Crime at night
Bite (wolf) 14 15 Slash/stab
Claws (wolf) 14 15 Slash/stab

Magic 20 Varies By spell
Deflect 20 90° spell deflection (Innate Magic)
Hold 19 Holds spell in place for SL rounds
Dispel 17 Cancels Spell
Volley 14 Returns spell to originator

This is Dracula in 1839. He has not left Transylvania in years and is now planning his moving to England. Of course there are the Protectors of Albion yet to deal with.

Think the old man that greats Harker in the beginning of the book; Old, not very attractive, but charismatic. Here is also the Protector of Transylvania. Though you might want to rule that in your games he looses the benefit of those powers when he leaves his lands.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula 1992

For my October Reviews I am continuing my Dracula reviews.

Dracula (1992)
Also know as "Bram Stoker's Dracula".
Depending on your point of view this is either the best cinematic Dracula, or the worst. But before that lets take the movie at face value.

What I like the most of about this one is it is beyond a doubt one of the better cinematic adaptations of Stoker's book.  All the characters are here, including the oft missed Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood.  There are tons of little details that I love.  Dracula's shadow in the early scenes at Castle Dracula are great and invoke the classic Nosferatu.  The newspapers, Draucla's map of London, even a sandwich board advertising the Lyceum Theater are nice touches.  The sets are masterful, this may be the best Castle Dracula since Lugosi.  Of course watch for Dracula's shadow in his castle.  Nosferatu anyone?  The three brides, always hinted at, are revealed in their full gory glory here.  This might also be one of the first film roles for Monica Bellucci. The use of real Romanian is a nice treat, even if it isn't perfect (it's modern Romanian through out, even when medieval Romanian should have been used).

Though the movie is not without some serious problems.  The whole Mina and Dracula love affair thing is just another example of the Dracula/Vampire fetish. And don't get me started on the whole absinthe scene.  As much as I like Wynnona Ryder I felt her Mina was very flat.  Yes, and there is Keeanu Reeves as Harker, but I like Reeves and didn't mind this, though I kept thinking he was going to say "No way Van Helsing!" ala Ted.  Sadie Frost was a bit overtly sexual as Lucy, but I preferred her performance over that of Jan Francis' portrayal of the similar character in the 1979 film.

We have a little joke among my friends, if you can't figure out an actor to play a roll, get Gary Oldman, he can do anything.  He is convincing as Dracula, both old and young, the suave seducer and terrible monster.  But sometimes here he is a bit over the top.

This movie, more so than even the Jack Palance one, makes the connection between Dracula, the vampire, and Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler more explicit.  It also bridges that important gap of how one man became the monster.  At the time of the movie I liked that, but after just re-watching I am less convinced.  Oh it still is a good bit of storytelling, but it is another factor of the whole Dracula loves Mina sub-plot that gets on my nerves.

In terms of the other characters, well they are all there. Arthur Holmwood, Quincy Morris, Dr. Seward are all great in their respective points in the story played very well by Cary Elwes, Bill Campbell and Richard E. Grant respectively.  Anthony Hopkins plays a much crazier Van Helsing than those before him.  Taking that "we are all God's madmen" line a little too literal I think. Hopkins is great of course, he is Sir-Anthony-fucking-Hopkins after all, but some things about his portrayal bugged me.  The whole "the foe I have been searching for all my life" thing bugged me too.  Was this a metaphorical foe as in "all evil" or "Dracula" in particular?  I got the impression that they meant Dracula himself.

I do have this copy of the script that is full of production notes, stills from the movie, images from the various Dracula publications over the years and Victorian era photos/pictures.   It is sitting in-between my copy of Ghosts of Albion and Victoriana on my "Horror RPG" shelf.

The next full outing of Dracula will have to do better than this one in order to be remembered. And we are about due for one.

Dracula: True 20

I like True20. I do.  It suffers from some issues though.  If you like generic games, then it is great, but it still has classes and levels.  Plus the only way to really do a character properly is a load of multiclassing.

Here is Dracula in his True 20 form. Warrior is obvious, as is expert to some degree.  Adept really is there to cover his powers.

Count Dracula, True 20

Type: 16th level Undead (Adept 2/Expert 1/Warrior 13)
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 ft

Abilities: Str +8, Dex +7, Con -, Int +3, Wis +1, Cha +3

Skills: Acrobatics 19 (+26), Bluff 8 (+11), Climb 8 (+16), Concentration 7 (+8), Diplomacy 11 (+14), Disable Device 2 (+5), Disguise 2 (+5), Escape Artist 2 (+9), Gather Info. 7 (+10), Handle Animal 2 (+5), Intimidate 14 (+17), Jump 2 (+10), Languages 5 (+5), Medicine 4 (+5), Notice 3 (+4), Ride 6 (+13), Search 5 (+8), Sense Motive 3 (+4), Sleight of Hand 3 (+10), Stealth 6 (+13), Survival 8 (+9), Swim 0 (+8), Knowledge (History) 2 (+5), Knowledge (Supernatural) 2 (+5), Knowledge (Religion) 2 (+5)

Feats: Iron Will, Menacing, Leadership, Armor Training (Heavy), Armor Training (Light), Weapon Training, Armor Training (Heavy), Weapon Training (Long Sword), All-out Attack, Canny Dodge, Attack Focus (Long Sword), Defensive Attack, Diplomatic, Improved Strike, Dedicated, Influential, Night Vision, Uncanny Dodge, Rage, Smite Opponent, Greater Attack Focus, Accurate Attack, Power (Weather Shaping), Power (Mind Touch), Master Plan

Traits: Determination, No Constitution, Dark Vision (60ft), Proficiency (Natural Weapons), Immunity (Mind Influencing Effects), Immunity (Sleep, Poison, Paralysis, Stunning), Immunity (Critical Hits, Fatigue), Immunity (Fortitude Saves), Unhealing, Healed by Harm (Harmed by Heal)

Powers: Suggestion 5 (+8) DC 14, Wind Shaping 5 (+8) DC 14

Combat: Unarmed +21, Damage +8 (20/+3), Longsword +21, Damage +11 (19/+3), Defense +21/+22, Initiative +7

Saving Throws: Toughness +8, Fortitude +8, Reflex +11, Will +8

October Movie Reviews: Dracula 1979

For my October Reviews I am continuing my Dracula reviews.

Dracula (1979)
The John Badham film was one of the first Dracula films I saw in the theaters.  Well, actually I think I saw it at a Drive-In. If you don't remember those then I can't help you.

This movie is a visual master-piece and Frank Langella dominates every scene he is in and he is in quite a number of them.  Dracula in the book doesn't get a lot of "screen time", but this one cleaves closer to the screen-play.  Like Lugosi before him, Langella played the character on stage first.
This is another one of the tales that reverses the roles of Mina and Lucy.  Normally it is Mina who loves Jonathan Harker and who is later seduced by Dracula and Lucy who is the friend who dies by Dracula.
Kate Nelligan is a great Lucy (in the Mina role) and Lawerence Oliver is great as the aged Van Helsing.  Donald Plesasence as Seward though left a little to be desired. I guess they decided to drop Seward's morphine addiction and swapped it with eating.  Seward is eating in nearly every scene he is in. Watch close and you will see a younger pre-Doctor Sylvester McCoy.

For some odd reason this movie is set in the Edwardian age (1913 to be exact) rather than the more traditional late Victorian.  It almost plays out as a sequel to the book, if you can come up with a good reason why Van Helsing and Seward don't remember Dracula from before, and deal with the issue that Van Helsing's wife was an invalid in the book.  Maybe she died and he got remarried and had a daughter that he named Mina (after Mina Harker) and Seward got married and had a daughter named Lucy (after Lucy Westerna).  Figure John Harker in this tale is really John Quincey Harker, the son of John and Mina Harker and "Milo" Reinfield is the son of R. M. Reinfield from the book.  At least that is how I have viewed the film for years.

This is an interesting film for a number of reasons.  First it has another great score by John Williams that is so sweeping in it's construction that you can feel that the sort of languid dream quality of the Dracula/Lucy scenes.  Also it was the first Dracula film that many people my age recall seeing.  I had seen the older Hammer and Universal ones yes, but I had been much younger.  I was 9 when this came out and the scene where Mina comes back to her grave scared the crap out of me.  Plus it was at a point in my life when I had not yet read the book, but knew of it's existence.
Langella's Dracula is a sexual predator.  He takes Mina and then Lucy because he can.  There is no "lost love here" like what we will see in the Francis Ford Coppola outing of 1992.

Langella does something here that few Draculas manage.  He acts like royalty.  Christopher Lee comes close and Oldman does capture the warrior-lord well, but Langella acts like a Count or a Prince. Like I said, he dominates every scene he is in and even when not the focus, his presence is felt.  That's some good acting.

This was my favorite Dracula, but almost 13 years later a new one would challenge that title.

Moview Reviews

Hey.

I know I am late on the Movie Reviews.
Count Dracula (1977) is longer than I thought, and slow.
Plus there is something up with my Satanic Rites of Dracula disk, I have now tried to watch it three times on three different DVD players and it keeps crapping out on me.
Just watched Daughters of Satan, awful movie, but too beat to say anything more than that right now.

Dracula: The Books

Despite my reviews, Dracula had a life before cinema.

The book "Dracula" is one of the most influential in the English language.  While the book itself is long, and often slow in places, one cannot deny the effect it has had.  There were vampire tales before it, Varney the Vampire and The Vampyre come to mind, and there were even better vampire stories before it, Carmilla is prime example.  But none had the effect of Dracula, both the book and the character.

If you have never the book then you owe it to yourself to do so. You can get the book nearly anywhere, including for free at Project Guttenberg.   I am fond of the Leonard Wolf annotated version myself, but I would read the book without the annotations first.









Dracula in print, like his movie counterpart, has also had a number of sequels published over the years.  Some were good, most though were not.  Here is a round-up of a few.

WARNING, there are spoilers here if you have not read these books.

The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen

I read this so many years ago that my recollection of it is fuzzy at best.  I remember not liking it that much at the time, which I think had more to do with how Saberhagen choose to portray Dracula as a misunderstood hero. And the wood thing. And the amnesia thing too.  I should re-read it to be sure.
Funny though, I am watching "Count Dracula" from the BBC now, and the cover art on this book reminds me of Louis Jourdan. The timing is right for it too.

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
These books are just goofy fun.  There is a good story here, one about Jack the Ripper and the changes happening to England now that Dracula sits on the throne next to Queen Victoria.  All sorts of name dropping in this one (oh look there's Lestat, hey that's Prince Mamuwalde!) and nods to old vampire movies and books.  I have not read all of his books, but the first one was quite fun.  I remember at the time thinking that if Vampire the Masqurade was as fun as this book then I'd play it more.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Oh I LIKED this one. A secret book bearing the symbol from the Order of the Dragon shows up ever so often to historians throughout the 20th century.  Each of them begins a quest that leads them to...what? Dracula? That is too insane, but as each one investigates further and further that is the conclusion they reach.  The Historian spans three generations of historians as they search for the burial place of the infamous Prince only to find he is not there.  Sweeping in scope and attention paid to the smallest detail you can almost smell the old books and taste the blood as you read this one.
It is a sequel in the loose sense.  All the characters have read the Stoker novel and use it as a basis.  It is never made clear whether or not Stoker was one of their kind as well or just happened to be lucky.
This one is long and you should have a love of history, old books or libraries to get the full satisfaction of reading it.
The narrator of the tale, who is 17 in the book, but in her 50s as she is retelling it, is a descendant of Vlad Dracula and would make for a great Van Helsing like character in a modern game.

Fangland by John Marks 

This is a modern re-telling of Dracula rather than an out-right sequel. The main character Evangeline Harker fills the John Harker role, while Ion Torgu is our vampire (of sorts). It starts off really good and I like the gender reversal and the modern setting. Plus I could always imagine that Evangeline was the decedent of Johnathan and Mina Harker.
But the book fell apart on me for a lot of reasons.  First, Ion has none of Dracula's charm or grace.  I also found I didn't care much for the characters in the book and the author kept giving me more.  Telling it from the point of view of Trotter, a character I didn't like, also didn't help.
What bugged me the most was the part where Evangeline meets up with this other woman Clementine Spence after she (Harker) had been tortured at "Dracula's" home. Harker and Spence have a brief physical relationship while in Romania and Harker describes herself as "changing" which we learn means becoming a killer. One night she rapes and kills Spence and then drinks her blood.
Unlike the book (or movies) Harker does not "get better" but has become a vampire. The book makes it clear that Harker only had sex with Spence in order to close enough to kill her.  This is another case of the Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché and frankly it is getting quite old.  The rest of the book was really just mush after that.
If I kept Evangeline Harker it would only be as a name drop and saying she had been killed under strange circumstances in Romania.  Dracula getting his revenge.

Dracula the Un-dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt

I am of mixed feelings about this one.  On one hand we have an interesting story about the events of our heroes 25 years after Dracula.  We have the great, grand-nephew of Bram Stoker penning the tale.  We have a cool mystery involving Elizabeth Bathory.
Then is all goes bad.
The stories never quite jell, the book makes claims that "Dracula" by Stoker got it all wrong and even makes mistakes.  In truth it is like the authors never actually read the book and instead wrote a sequel to the 1990's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" movie.  Of course there are more cliches here as well.  Tying Bathory to the Jack the Ripper murders (which also got some details wrong about that, and didn't do it a well as in Anno Dracula), more evil/dead lesbians in the form of Bathory (God would not allow her to be a lesbian so she rebelled against God and men, but kills women), Mina still pinning over her "Prince" and using a katana to fight of one of Bathory's brides. I could go and on, but I won't.
I liked the more explicit tie-in with Dracula and Bathory.  I like that Dracula, even though is back up and running, is still not 100%, I like Mina not aging (shades of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and the way her and Johnathan's relationship turned sour. I like Seward's morphine addicted vampire hunter.  So like I said a lot of good ideas strung together rather poorly.  In the end the book just made me mad because how bad the ending was.  This book was so derivative of other ideas that it is wonder it got published.
From this I use most of the background and chuck the narrative.

Special Mention

Grave Peril: The Dresden Files, Book 3

I picked this up after a long pause with the series and I have to say this was the best book in series (so far).  I mention here because after nearly throwing Fangland out the window after reading Dracula the Un-Dead this was so good it restored my faith in the vampire story.  Grave Peril is a vampire story and how Chicago's very own Harry Dresden manages to single handedly piss off 2/3rds of all the world vampires.
Dracula is mentioned in the book and Harry also states that Stoker penned the "big guide on how to destroy vampires".  So I'd rather go that direction in my games.  Sure I'll take the idea from DtU-D and say one of the vampire hunters told Stoker their tale and 10 years after that he publishes the book in hopes of building a stage career out of it, but in reality the effect was that vampire hunters all over the world now know how to kill vampires better.
In any case this book was very good and the best one I have read this month.  I am on book 4 now and it is so far just as good.

Dracula: Chill

In keeping with this month's theme I am also posting some stats for Dracula for the various games I have played over the years.
I have talked about my love for Chill before and in particular the wonderful Chill Vampires book.  These stats are based on the ones found in that book, but tweaked after playing other horror games.

Dracula

BASIC ABILITIES
Strength 110
Perception 100
Dexterity 65
Willpower 120
Agility 80
Luck/EWS 150
Personality 70
Stamina 150
Fear 6*
*Fear Checks. Characters need not make fear checks if Dracula appears as a normal human.

Attack **/95%
**Depends on the form Dracula takes

Movement Sprint in human form without STA loss. 75 as gas. 225 as Bat or Wolf

EDGES & DRAWBACKS (2nd Ed)
Name CIPs Notes
Psychological flaw 1 Obsessions (find a bride)

SKILLS
Name Rank Score Calc
Dagger/Knife (M) 160
Anthropology/ Archaeology (M) 130
Art Criticism (M) 165
History (M) 165
Hypnotism (M) 140
Investigation (M) 145
Language, Contemporary [English, German, all Eastern-European languages] (M) 165
Legend Lore (M) 165
Modeling (M) 135
Disguise(M) 123
Filching(M) 138
Graphology/ Forgery (M) 140
Occult Lore (M) 120

Movement: Varies according to form: in human form, can sprint without Stamina loss; can move 75' per round as mist or fog, 225' as bat or wolf.

Disciplines: Animation of the Dead, Appear Dead (Self), Change Self (to large bat, large wolf, cloud of fog), Create a Feast, Darken, Dreamsend, Evil Eye, Flight1, Gnarl, Influence, Quiet, Slam, Sleep, Steal Memory, Summon, Swarm, Wave of Fog

Dracula can use Flight at night. To fly, he assumes the form of a cloud of sparkling moonbeams that dance in the darkness, then materializes when the flight ends. He cannot be destroyed while in this moonbeam form.

IPs: 3300

Characteristics
1. As a Common Carpathian Dracula cast no shadow or reflection and cannot be photographed or video taped.
2. Human blood excites and enrages him. He must make a Willpower check.
3. Does not die when exposed to sunlight. Sunlight dos weaken him and limits his use of EWS powers.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula AD 1972 (1972)

It's Disco Dracula! Well not really, but it is the first Hammer Dracula set in the 1970s.

This movie reunites Lee and Cushing as Dracula and Van Helsing for the first time since Horror of Dracula.

Dracula AD 1972 (1972)
We begin this one with Dracula and Van Helsing (oddly name Lawrence, but that is fine I think I see what they are doing here) fighting on a coach.  They crash and both die.  One of Dracs followers collects the Count and buries him near Van Helsing.

Ok a minor stop here.  Normally I don't quibble about continuity, especially one in a horror film.  But if this takes place in 1872 and the event of Dracula (the book and supposedly the movie) in 1897 then...ok, repeat to yourself it is only a show...

Fast forward 100 years (to the day-why does it always happen like that?) we meet up with hipster 70s teenage set, Jess (Jessica Van Helsing) and her friends which includes a Johnny Alucard.  Jessica is the grand-daughter of "Lorrimer" Van Helsing, who is in turn the grand-son of Lawrence.  Johnny proposes this new way to "get some kicks" (it's the 70s) and that is a Satanic rite (yeah, the 70's).  The rite brings back Dracula (of course) and the first victim is Caroline Munro.
Her body is found the next day and the police seek out Van Helsing on the matter since they think there may be a ritual slaying angle.

Soon Van Helsing is on the trail but not before we get a few more bodies.  Dracula is after Jessica of course, but wants to get Lorrimer too.   Big battle in the unsanctified Church and Dracula is killed, once again by Van Helsing.

Ok.
I have some issues with this movie.

First, it was not as bad as I was lead to believe.  Yes, it's not very good and the plot in not that different than what we saw in Taste the Blood of Dracula.  The count is still chasing after pretty girls, he is still hunting down people named Van Helsing and really all the is changed is the setting.
Speaking of which, I know it's 70's London, but did we really need the band going through TWO whole songs in the beginning?  It would have been ok if they had been someone, or even good, but we got a third-rate Sly and the Family Stone that I have never heard of before and doubt neither has anyone else.  edit: ok, they have their own Wikipedia page.

The Satanic angle was interesting, but un-needed,  Dracula is evil enough on his own without worrying about being upstaged by the Devil.

Like the Universal movies before it the Hammer Dracs are beginning to show their diminishing returns with sequels.  Granted Lee never had the indignity of facing off against the comedic duo of the time like Lugosi eventually did, but taking out a group of English Mods is almost as bad.

What I do like is the idea that Van Helsing family has been doing this for years. There is room in my games for a Lawrence, Lorrimer, Jessica, Abraham and even Rachel Van Helsing.  Not so sure about a Gabriel though.

In the end this movie was a disappointment in terms of lost potential.

Games Plus Auction Haul, part 2: Back to Basics

So I went back for a another round at Games Plus last night and I am SOOO glad I did.

Here is my second, but smaller haul.

So FINALLY a Mentzer boxed Basic set, complete with both books (in mint shape) and dice, still in the bag with a crayon.  Second Ed Vampire the Masquerade (that I got for 1 buck), and the "new" D&D Basic game; which if it came out today would send people into paroxysms of bitching about how it was too much like a board game (it comes with paper figures and poster map dungeon).  I got it for 2 bucks.

Now I think my Basics Sets are complete.

All are in pretty good shape too.

Of course I have to do this:

Here is part of my collection now.

My D&D "Core" collection all together.  Yeah I have 2 Holmes set, one is in sorta sad condition though. And yes D&D4 is on the next shelf over.

I have a lot of gaming to do!

October Movie Reviews: Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

For my October Reviews I continuing the Hammer Horror Dracula Collection with the first entry of the 1970s..

Christopher Lee has returned in the next Hammer film and it starts as the previous one of completing.  Dracula is struggling on the cross he was impaled on and  soon dies, leaving his cloak, ring, and blood.  A passerby witnesses this and we are off an running.

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

This one begins as Dracula has Risen From His Grave ends. So timeline wise we are still just around 10 years from Van Helsing's destruction of Dracula.  A passerby, Weller, sees Dracula die so he collects Dracula's clothes and blood.  We switch to a church scene where we meet the principle families.  The father, Mr. Hargood scolds his daughter later for "flirting" with a young man before he heads out for his end of the month "charity work".  In reality he, and the other men from the church, Paxton and Secker, have formed a small club where they partake in prostitutes.  Now here I want to point out that while Dracula's castle seems just down the raod a bit, this all looks like 1890s London.  I know I should not quibble.
Anyway they meet up with a disgraced Lord who plans to show them all sorts of pleasures.  He purchases Dracula's blood and makes a drink of it using his own blood.  The others do not drink and it kills the Lord.  Later Dracula rises up, transforming the dead body into his own.  Neat trick that.
Dracula vows to kill those that have killed his servant.
He attacks Hargood first, convincing his daughter to beat him in the head with a shovel. He get's Paxton's daughter and she kills her father and likewise with Secker and his son.  Dracula is about to get rid of Alice Hargood when her boyfriend shows up, now armed with knowledge left to him by her father, to destroy Dracula.  He puts a cross in the door (Dracula should really get that door changed, people keep doing that) and blesses his coffin.  Dracula falls from a balcony and lands on alter turning to dust.

This was a more interesting movie for a few reasons.  One, Dracula manipulates others into doing his killing for him, though he is not above doing some himself.  Plus this movie is the first that has Hammer pushing the boundaries some more.  While there was always beautiful women and sex-appeal, this is the first of the Dracula films with some nudity in it and explict references to sex.  It was 1970 afterall, but I think this was more due to the fact that audiences, now fat on American movies and American sex and violence, wanted more and Hammer needed to fill the seats.  So this does feel more like a "slasher flick" than some of the previous movies.
This was yet another movie where Lee nealry didn't reprise the role of the Count, but in the end he must have gave in.  This was also one of the last of the Victorian era Hammer Dracula movies (as far as I can tell).  After this (and Scars of Dracula, which I don't own) we move on to Dracula 1972 which sets it in the modern age.

I know I had never seen this one before, others I might not be clear about, but this was a first time viewing.

Games Plus Auction Haul

Went to the Games Plus Auction today.  Didn't stay too long, needed to get home and decorate for Halloween.  Here is what I got:

D&D4 Warlock cards ($1.00 for deck 1  and .50 for deck 2)
A box that only was sold at Premier Stores (50 cents)
D&D Basic set ($5.00)
4e Hammerfast ($2.00)
And the D&D 4 H series and P1 all for about $25.00.
D&D 3 Libris Mortis ($7.00)
And a bag of D&D mini tiles. ($6.00)

Not a bad day really.