And you thought your High School had Drama

I just picked up two new games this weekend and I really like them both. "The Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon" and "Byron Falls". Both are short games and both are just 5 bucks, so for just a little cash you can get a couple of really fun games.

Both take the very ripe and ready genre of "High School Supernatural Romance" and run with it.  And yes I do mean things like "Twilight" and many other books and TV shows like "Vampire Diaries".  Set it all in some small town where the girls are super smart and beautiful, the boys are all emo and everyone is trying to date the local supernatural populace.

The hard core horror guy in me wants to rebel, saying that this is what is so wrong with the genre today.  That last generations monsters are this generations would be dates.  But in truth I just can't get worked up about it.  The games are fun, there is a bit of tongue in cheek here (ok, maybe more than a bit) and if these games can capture just a fraction of the "Teen Angst" market that sells the books and TV shows, then they will be the ones laughing at us hard core horror types. ;)

So what are these games?  Well if you have ever listened to a Smiths song, then that is what you have here.  Take those high school kids, mix in a supernatural and let wackiness ensue.  Both go for very rules-light presentations and instead focus on the relationships and interactions with the characters.    In fact the rules are so light that an enterprising GM could add these games to any current modern supernatural game (or even supers) for another level of play.

The Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon 

Silver Kiss, or SKMTFM in the book,  was the first one I picked up.
There are some very interesting things going on in this book too.  First I loved the idea of chocolate as XP, great thing to do and something I have used with younger kids too.  The game assumes four players; two humans and two supernaturals.   The stats are very simple and include names like "Emo" and "Bad Ass".  You get some points to redistribute, so you can have a high "Pretty" and a lower "Emo" for example.  The supernaturals get to choose their race and what they can do is agreed on by the group.  So vampires can walk around in sunlight or faeries can't go into churches.  Then the first scene, or soon after that, one of the humans and one the supernaturals fall in love.  It is designed to be very fluid and fast.  When there is conflict a simple d6 resolution mechanic is given.  The idea here is not who could beat who in a fight, but rather what would be more dramatic and even angsty for the game?  For example if tonight is the big prom (and there is always something going on "tonight") then if two characters get into a fight (let's say the brooding vampire boy and the pining werewolf boy) then the winner will be the one that causes the most drama for our human girl.  She wants to take the vampire, but if the vampire beats the crap out of the werewolf then she will feel for the poor werewolf!  So much drama.  And that is what the game is all about and I think the author Jenni Dowsett does it very, very well.  The game includes tons of "Secret agendas" for the supernatural creatures.  Everything from the personal (X is already in a relationship with Y) or the global (You can't be with her because you are a Z).
My favorite though is a bunch of Emo Quotes that are cut up and given to players to use.  The only thing that is really missing is a rule on how to handle the "long meaningful stare".   The character sheets are easy to fill out.  I suggest printing out the book two page per sheet, that gives your characters sheets a nice portable size that you can fold over like a small journal or diary.  An appendix of recommended reading, watching and listening is included. The game ends with a Halloween themed episode/adventure.
The author also has an active blog where she is posting new ideas for her game all the time, http://jennitalula.wordpress.com/.

Byron Falls
Byron Falls works in a similar manner.

Written by RPG demi-god John Wick Byron Falls focuses more on the human side of the equation.  The town of Byron Falls is full of beautiful, highly intelligent girls and women that only have eyes for the supernatural creatures in town.  And the town has more than their fair share.  Character generation is also very simple.  You have Interests, up to five Friends, an Enemy (or not) and your Grade.  All characters start out as High School Freshman (Grade 9).  The mechanic is a very simple one.  If you want to do something and it relevant to your interests or friends then you roll the number of dice that you have points in that area. Evens mean a success.  No success and your enemy gets to decide what the outcome of your actions are.  Again here it is not whether or not you have enough points in a area to beat someone up, but rather what is most dramatic for the game.  The supernatural creatures of BF also have to be agreed on.  Do Werewolves and Vampires hate each other? How do witches react around humans?
The game is designed with playing humans in mind, and female high schoolers in particular.  But over time more supernaturals can be added and even some characters may discover they are supernatural themselves (like becoming a witch on your 16th birthday).
The town is fleshed out and situations are given for role-playing.

Both games simultaneously poke fun at and respect their source material, which I think is about right.  They can see the silly side of this but at the same time understand that to the people in this situation it is all seriousness.  It is high school, where all drama in Big Drama and every choice is Life and Death.

If you are fan of the source material then these games will be fun.  If you are not a fan then these games can also still be a lot of fun if taken in the right mindset.

Games for Games Sake

OR: "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Game"

Following up on a series of posts that basically have been asking, "Why aren't Games Better".

This morning I read this from Amber Benson's blog, Art for Art's Sake.
Amber is a multi-talented actor, writer, director, singer, dancer and even RPG author (she did write the adventure "Almasti" in the Ghosts of Albion Core book) and she is reflecting on the lack of good opportunities for many actors in today's world and how she has decided not to let that get to her and she will instead only take the jobs that please her as an artist.

I think that is great advice and one that can be extended to the whole RPG biz and the OSR in particular.

I am very fortunate. I don't have to write games to pay my bills.  I can write what I want or take the odd for hire writing gig or more often than not, reject others that while would be nice to get paid for, I don't have the love for them.

So I have decided to take all games on face value.  The questions I'll ask begin and end with "is it fun for me?", everything else is only details.

When writing something now, unless it is a for pay gig, then I am working from the point of view of "is it fun for me?"  IF other find it fun then great! If not, then that's ok too.  I am not trying to be elitist here, actually just the opposite, since I believe that if I find it fun to write and play so will others and hopefully that means a better product.

There are plenty of people out there that need to write to put food on the table, or keep the bills paid off for at least one more month.  For them, since I can't say my laid back attitude would help them or not, I just promise to stay out of the way.  If you are doing something I like and find fun then be assured I'll tell people.  If I don't like it, well then I might not know enough to tell anyone anything about good or bad.  But if I do, then be assured I'll give you a good, intelligent reason why I don't like it.  Your job then is to listen to me or ignore me as it benefits your enjoyment of your game.

The truth is there is just too much good stuff out there to worry about the games that don't work for me.

Zatannurday: Zatanna's Love life

There are basically two things that make for a complicated love life.  Living on the road and being a superhero.  Zatanna strikes out in both cases.

But unlike some other supers, she tries to make the best of it, even if her luck never really changes.

So here is a special Pre-Valentine's Day Zantannurday.

I think, maybe more than any other super-hero, Zantanna seems to have been free to express her sexuality.  Even more so than Wonder Woman, the feminine ideal according to her creator.  If Zatanna wants to hook-up for a one night stand, be Constantine's occasional tantric sex partner or what have you, she seems to be freer to do that.  Maybe it is because she didn't have her own series till recently?  Anytime WW gets a new boyfriend that is the stuff of cometary in Newsweek, but Zee, not so much.

Zee has had her troubles like trying to summon the man of her dreams and getting a monster:

Proving yet again that you should not drink alone (see the empty bottle there) and then try to summon.  That whole careful what you wish for thing I guess.

Of course any excuse to have her work with John is usually and excuse for them to have sex on panel.

Or a one night stand with a fellow magician,

Or making a subtle pass,

But none of these have ended out well and she seems to be settled into single life by the time The Books of Magic series is out.  Though by the Alex Ross series Kingdom Come we see the son of Zee and John. Not that it means they got married, but they were at least still having sex.

Course Zee's most interesting relationship has been with Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Depending on which continuity you subscribe to, Zee and Bruce have know each other for years and she had something of a crush on him in those early days when he was training with her father.

Of course then came the whole Doctor Light mind wipe issue and their friendship was strained.  Mostly by Bats.  They came back around to each other, eventually, but the relationship issue was not fully resolved just yet.  http://readrant.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/zatanna-and-bruce-1.jpg and http://readrant.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/zatanna-and-bruce-2.jpg

Couple of blog posts and sites,
Zatanna's first dates:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/05/20/zatannas-magical-mystery-date/
Given that I am working my way through the "Dresden Files" now, I give Harry a better than average chance, which just means he would find a way to screw it up.

Zatanna's Love Life:
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/986029.html and
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/946188.html

Zee and Constantine
http://www.ugo.com/the-goods/zatanna-constantine

So happy Valentine's Day!

Season of the Witch: Episode 5

Episode 5: Veteran of the Psychic Wars

Fall 2004
Texas.

The girls are driving from NOLA and end up in Southern Texas. They get a phone call from Faith (much to their surprise). She mentions she talked to Dawn and heard they were “in the neighborhood” and gave them directions to where she and a friend was. The go to the place Faith tells them about (a little out of their way) and the meet Faith (remember, this is AU Faith, the Faith of this world died in prison when the Knights of Eolhim attacked her) they also meet an older man, Nigel. Nigel recognizes Tara, whom he accidentally calls “Megan”. Bob recognizes him and Nigel can see Bob.

Nigel and Faith are here hunting Bigfoots. Bob does not trust Nigel and indeed, Nigel seem more interested in Willow and especially Tara than he does in Bigfoot hunting.

Faith is excited to see old friends and to be out of the demon hunting biz. She claims that she was approached by Nigel last year and he works for “The Hoffman Institute”. Bob knows the organization, a group of cryptid hunters.

Slowly it is revealed, mostly from Nigel himself that, that there is more history between Nigel, Bob and Megan than Bob has let on. During an argument between Bob and Nigel, Nigel reveals that he had slept with Megan (something Bob knew) and that the timing was right that Tara might his daughter and not Bob’s. This fun filled family moment is broken up by an attack on their camp by Bigfoot.

The creature is driven off and the cast discover that Nigel hunting Bigfoots is actually a ruse. Even Faith was fooled. Nigel is still working for S.A.V.E. and they are interested in Willow and Tara. In fact they have a rather large file on them and even know that Tara had died and her “sister” Kara never existed. Everyone is angry. But Nigel points out that while his methods were bad, he is really the good guy, he even asks Bob to vouch for him and his mission. S.A.V.E. also knows about The Awakening and wants to make sure that whatever happens that the population of normal humans are safe.

Though now they have a giant cryptid on their hands and Tara’s empathy tells them that the creature is afraid and being hunted by other hunters. The Cast decides to forget Nigel for a bit and instead focus on the Bigfoot. They find it with hunters on its heels. Willow and Tara cast a masking spell on it so it can get back to its home in the swamps unnoticed.

Nigel apologizes for his ruse and says the offer to join S.A.V.E. will always be open to them. He ask Faith to go with him to the Pacific Northwest where he has been told some strange occurrences are going on. She agrees and they all part.

Tara tells Bob that it doesn’t matter what Nigel told her, her father was the man that sat by her bed when she was sick and the one that taught her to ride a horse and drove her all her equestrian events. Packing up, they drive to Central Texas to get back onto course.

NOTES: Not everything in an adventure works. This one is a good example. I had higher hopes for this one. I had been reading a bunch of “Conspiracy” games at this point (DarkMatter, ConX, Delta Green) and I wanted to pull in material from all of them. I was also playtesting the new version of Chill. Well things just never clicked. I tried to merge various elements of all these games (the Hoffman Institute was from DarkMatter) but the problem was not the contradictions but the similarities. While I had not quite given up at this point, this did lay the seeds for me that WitchCraft/Buffy is fairly incompatible with Conspiracy X or DarkMatter.

I brought back S.A.V.E. since I was playtesting Chill 3.0 at the time, which led to my Chill conversions, and I even detail some of the information that Nigel claimed S.A.V.E. had on Willow & Tara.

Of course S.A.V.E. is the third “big org” interested in the girls and The Awakening (The Witches Committee and Lilith). S.A.V.E. is pretty upfront about what they want; to protect normal humans with Willow and Tara’s help. We still have one more big organization to go.

Cordy is missing here. Not for any plot based reason other then her player was not here. So I claimed she had other charges to deal with, after all she was only their “probationary” Whitelighter.
The adventure itself comes off as a weak monster of the week episode and even the monster, Bigfoot no less, is less than threat and more of an annoyance. This partially because at this point in the game it is becoming obvious that your garden variety monster is no match to the cast and my Bigfoot was nowhere near anything like a threat to this group.

I brought Faith back and totally underused her, meant to bring her back again, but could never find anything that I wanted to do that would do her justice. More daddy issues, this time it is Tara that has to show her support and love for Bob. Nigel really is not her father, but he did sleep with Megan. But to be fair she was still suffering from the after affects of dealing with demonic possession. Nigel had been tracking Willow and Tara all this time. He was using Faith as his way in with them.

Bigfoot was originally going to be a chupacabra, but I had watched this Bigfoot documentary a while back and they were hunting the Skunk Ape in Texas, so I figured I would go with that. The research I did then helped in the formulation of some my ideas for the Ghosts of Albion adventure “Almasti”.

One thing I established right away in this adventure was that Bigfoot is NOT a demon. Too many things are labeled “demon” in the original series; it was dull and unimaginative. Bigfoot is a bigfoot. Here are the stats for our guest star. He is a young (say adolescent) Bigfoot and not quite up to his full stats yet.

Bigfoot (young) Motivation: To live alone
Creature Type: Hominid
Life Points: 38
Drama Points: 0–1

Attributes
Str: 7
Dex: 5
Con: 7
Int: 2
Per: 6
Will: 3

Ability Scores
Muscle: 20
Combat: 22
Brains: 10

Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
Grapple 24 — Resisted by dodge
Punch 22 19 Bash
Spear 22 26 Slash/stab

Next up. The Ghosts of Alamo.

How I stat out characters

I post a lot of characters here.  Lots.

Usually I have something in mind or I want to try out a new system with something I already know or a combination of the two.  But how do I take a character like Zatanna, or Red Sonja, or Willow and Tara or anyone and figure out how they are supposed to "be" in a particular system.  I have a couple of things I like to do and it has usually worked pretty well for me.

I always start out with what the character can do and who is this character supposed to be in my mind.  If I am working on Dirty Nel then I have a good idea, "sassy street faerie prostitute. cute. smarter than anyone gives her credit for. Enjoys her creature comforts and knows how to get them."  Some of that doesn't translate into game stats. Well...most games anyway. But a lot of it does.  I know she has quite a bit of knowledge about the world, street life and the occult.  I know she has a bit of magic in her and I also have a good idea about what her fighting prowess is like.

Skills
In most systems there are skills.  I look for signature skills the character has, say being able to program computers or speaking 4 languages and figure out how these are represented in the system.   For someone like Willow I look for high numbers in computers, science but also occult knowledge.  I know this is going to suck up most of her points and want to get them figured out first.  Plus they are very iconic to the character.  If I am working on Batwoman then I want to be sure her acrobatics are good, if I have Robin Sena I know she is young and most of her skills are weak except for things like occult knowledge and maybe her languages.

I like to stay within the rules as much as I can.  This helps me define the character in terms of that world's reality. If a Unisystem character gets 25 points for skills then I need to have good reasons for going to 35.  If I am using PL 9 as a base for Tarot and PL 11 for Tara in Mutants and Masterminds then I want their skills to comparable to those realities.

Skills are good Rosetta Stone really.  Most systems have them and there are lot of good translations.  Knowledge (Supernatural) could be the same thing as Occultism or Occult Knowledge.

Magic
Since I tend to make a lot of magic using characters using magic as another yardstick is good.   For D&D and d20-like games I know they need a certain spell and they need to be a certain level to cast that.  That is how I came up with Willow and Tara's levels in d20 Mod, a combination of spells and skills.
In a game like Ghosts of Albion the same is true, but then I can decide on how many levels of magic they might need.
For something like d20, this is pretty easy to work backwards from.  Find the spells, find the levels that can cast those spells, fill in the details.
For a point buy system like Ghosts, it is only part of the equation.

Combat
A lot of games feature combat or fighting.  To ignore this does the character an injustice.  Even in Call of Cthulhu or Doctor Who the character might need to stop running or talking and fight it out.  Thinking about combat like a skill then is a good way to figure out a character.  In M&M I know Tarot for example is a better fighter than Willow or Zatanna, but she can't match either of them (or even come close) in magic.  That doesn't mean she can go toe to toe with the likes of Red Sonja either.  It means that there is a good balance to be had.  Where that balance is sometimes is up for debate.  My Red Sonja may be different that someone else's based on the same PL (to use an Mutants and Masterminds example).

Feel
This is less "quantitative" really.  I'll start with a premise, "Willow is the most powerful witch in my game" then I work down from her.  I think what would it take to get the character to this level, what would it take to get a different character to a similar level.
For characters like the Hex Girls I want to make them total novices at magic.  So in Unisystem they have Magic 1 or 2 tops.  But still give the points where they would be better than average, music and showmanship.   I usually feel pretty confident in my builds, but each one usually takes longer than say just stating up John or Jane Doe Character.

Sometimes I have such strong idea for a character concept, like Justice, that I also just like to see the character in different systems too.  In the case of Willow and Tara I am also seeing if I can stat them up in as many systems as I can.

Horror is a matter of tone

Quick question.  Which movie is scarier, The Shining or Mary Poppins?
Have an answer?
Are you sure?

Watch these movie trailers then and come back.  You may already seen these.

Shining
Mary Poppins

Horror games are like that.

There is a theory out there on the net (I think I first read it at Krell Laboratories)  that if you take the final girl of horror films and turn her into an ass kicking male then you have an action film. The converse is also true.  Take an ass kicking hero and depower him, or put him is a situation he can't control then you have the start of horror.

The recent trend in books has been the Modern/Urban Fantasy.  You take the tropes of horror and make them into a fantasy story.  Vampires are not hideous monsters, they are different now. Same with witches, werewolves and all sorts of beings that just a few of decades ago were creatures of horror.  We can't blame the Twilight crowd for this, this dates back to even long before Anne Rice and Lestat.  Dracula, was still a monster, but a sexualized one.  Movie Dracula even more so.

What does this mean for games?

Nearly any game can be horror.

D&D has always had a strong undercurrent of horror. Fantasy and Horror have always shared a link.    So often times you can turn a fantasy game into a horror game with something as subtle as the presentation.

The Ravenloft setting had a great example of this.  In D&D you if you go up against a kobold it is described as a sort of reptilian humanoid.  In a horror game it is some foul combination of human, reptile and dog the size of a child, but with murder in it's eyes and blood on it's lips.

I think it is this tone that attracts me most to horror.  I like the tropes, but take the same tropes and given the hero a lot of guns and well there is the action flick again.  "Underworld" is action adventure, "Silence of the Lambs" is horror.

I try to do this in my games as much as possible, but I try not to over do it.  Even the scariest horrors become yawn worthy after to many repeated occurrences.

Some of my favorite books that helped me the most as a GM and author are Nightmares of Mine, Chill, Vampire the Masquerade (oWoD, for personal horror), and Call of Cthulhu.

D6 or not?

D6 from West End Games has always been one of those systems I have known about, toyed around with but never actually played.

DriveThruRPG has the most recent collection of D6 games for free.
I had Hercules & Xena for a while and still have a copy of DC Universe.

I get the basic system (and even better now after talking to Jason Vey).

Is there anything I am missing by not playing/knowing D6?
Is it a system I should investigate further?

I am not a huge fan of dice pool games and I have enough games to keep me busy for the next 10 years to be honest.

February DriveThru Specials

It's time for some new DrivethruRPG codes!  Just my way of saying thanks for being loyal readers and visitors here.

This code is good until March 8th.
The basic discount code is:

FebChatterTwenty11

It's good for 20% off the following products:

Weird War II Player's Guide [Pinnacle Entertainment]
Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade [Third Eye Games]
The Echoes of Heaven Bestiary/The Tainted Tears (OGL Version) [Final Redoubt Press]
USHER Dossiers (ICONS) [Vigilance Press]
The Floating Vagabond BarFly Bundle [Reality Cheque]

I also have one code for someone to receive all the above products for FREE.

But I don't have a good contest/give away idea in mind.  In fact this post has been sitting my computer all day.

So here is the deal.  In the comments section below please post an idea on how I should give away this code. It can be a trivia contest, or a link sharing idea, something.  Whomever has the best idea wins the free code for all the PDFs above AND that idea will be used next month for the March free code.

So let me know!  I'll let it run for the next couple of days or until I get a winning entry!

Orcs of Mystoerth

I have been wanting to write more on the creatures that inhabit my game-world of Mystoerth.  I thought maybe I'd go with the classic nemesis, the Orc.

I have talked about the Desert Orcs of the Zakhara Desert and their allies the Desert Elves.  I also plan to use Harvard's more bestial Orcs of Blackmoor for my Blackmoor area (north pole).

Sure my Orcs have a lot in common with Tolkien's Orcs, but I also borrow a lot from Shadowrun, Orkworld and other games.  I also like to think of orcs as some sort of human predecessor/off-shot. Almost like the gods were trying to make humans (or maybe the elves were) and the orcs were their disastrous first draft.  That would put more emphasis on the human-orc wars than the orc-elven ones. Unless there are some good reasons for the elves to be involved.

My write-up on Goblins can be read here, in case you were curious.

History of the Orcs

Orcs began as one of the first experiments of creating life by the elves.  It is said that the greatest sin is that of hubris. In this hubris, feeling they were equal to the gods that had made them, the first elves, nearly immortal beings of great power, created the first orc through their magic.  They wished to instill the sturdiness of the dwarves (a race created at the same time as the elves), the tenacity of the goblins and the adaptability of this new race known as human.  Though to their horror what they created were the Orcs; a word that means "horror" in the elf tongue.  The elves did not know what to do with there creations, so they hid them away in dark mountains, and underground and anywhere where the clime was harsh hoping that nature could do what they could not, kill their creations.  But nature didn't instead she took iron of the Orcs and tempered it into steel.  The orcs flourished and when the other races discovered what had been done it was too late to stop the orcs.

The hatred of the orcs and elves comes from this point.  Orcs see elves and are reminded of what they are not, elves see orcs and are reminded of the failures of their own race.  Even if the true knowledge of the elves and orcs has been lost to all but the most learned scholars, the racial memory runs deep.

If orcs just fundamentally hate elves, their hatred of dwarves is more pragmatic.  Dwarves and orcs are often found in the same locales fighting over the same resources.  So far the only race orcs have seen as worth enough to be considered equal foes are humans.

Background

All orcs have a number of qualities in common.  They are typically much stronger than humans and elves, have bestial or "primitive" features.  Orcs will cross-bred with anything, but favor goblins, hobgoblins, humans, and ogres.  Orcs have interbred with trolls and some hill giants in the past which has re introduced some randomness into their genetic makeup.  Though it should be stated that orcs do not prefer this.  Orcs are extremely proud of their heritage and consider themselves to be the best of all species as they are the only species to live in every part of the world.  Though they are dimly aware that their success is due in part of their adaptability and ability to interbred with others.

Orcs give birth to 1-2 young at a time.  The gestation period for an Orc is 4 months.  A feamle orc can produce as many as 4 to 6 young per year, but only half will survive their first year. Orcs grow fast, with babies able to walk within months and eat meats by 1 year old.  Orcs also reach sexual maturity at age 10 and are considered adults soon after.  Female orcs choose mates based on their physical size and their ability to gain meat for the family unit.  Males must show prowess in battle and kill any rivals for the female's attention.   All orcs have a sense of honor, but it only applies to other orcs.  Though they have been known to extend the same code to humans; a race they see as a worthy adversary.

Some orcs do enjoy the taste of human flesh, but they typically only eat human (or demi-human) flesh as a means to strike fear into foes or as part of a shamanistic ritual.  Orcs are omnivores, though most prefer only meat.  Elk, caribou and reindeer are the chief staples of their diet (depending on territory).   No matter what though orcs will not eat the flesh of another orc.  That is one taboo they will not break.

Grey Orcs - these are the common orcs of the "Oerth" part of my world.  These are the brutish, violent orcs of most D&D worlds. They are found through out the Flanaess. These orcs extend far to the north where they are the original stock of the Blackmoor Orcs.  Some scholars believe that these are orcs are the offspring of the Uruks and generations of interbreeding with goblinoids.  These orcs are fond of raiding human villages for food and supplies.  Some of these orcs have skin tone that is almost pinkish in hue, but they are still called Grey orcs.  The largest concentration of Grey orcs are located in the Pomarj region. Here the Empire of Turrosh Mak still reigns as it has since CY 584 (the current CY in my game is CY915).  The line of Turrosh Mak greatly favors the Uruk ancestry found in the Grey Orc line. The current orc emperor is Turrosh Bane XIV who came to power after murdering his father and brothers.  Bane is devious, intelligent and violent in the extreme.

Green Orcs - The common orc of the "Msytara" side of my world. Like the greys these orcs are violent and brutish.  These orcs though also have an bit higher intelligence than their grey cousins and are bit better organized, they constantly fall prey to clan fighting among lesser Green Orc chieftains. Unlike the Greys and the Uruk there is no one leader to try to unite these orcs.   These orcs are common to much of the Empire of Thyatis and can also be found in the deep southern jungles of of Pelatan.  The largest collection of Green orcs can be found in the Broken Lands outside Glantri.

White Orcs - These are green orcs that have adapted to the frozen wastes north of Hyborea and Norwold.
In the Northwest corner of Brun there is Hyborea and here the White Orcs have interbred with the Animalistic Orcs of Blackmoor to produce a breed of orc that is both strong, violent and smart. These orcs though seldom organize enough to become more of a threat outside of a raiding party.  Due to the inherent adaptability of the orcs, these orcs have skin that is bone white.  Better to hide in the frozen wastes they call home.

Blackmoor Orcs - These orcs are much more bestial in appearance and manner.  Their sizes vary considerably and many have pronounced horns, claws, fur and other "animalistic" features. It is believed these orcs have been the results of the the strange experiments that were common to Blackmoor before the great explosion.  These orcs have also interbred so much with goblins and bugbears that within Blackmoor it is nearly impossible to tell the two races apart.

Uruks - Also known as High Orcs or even Black Orcs, these orcs consider themselves to be the pinnacle of the orc race.  Their skin is dark and they stand nearly a head taller than men.  They are thickly muscled, often with pronounced tusks in their lower jaw and they are fiercely intelligent.  While, maybe not more so than humans, but they have a cunning that makes them a horror in battle.  Their mortality rate is very high so that they never produce great numbers.  Their society is ordered, militaristic and violent.  They have a single leader, currently a charismatic chieftain, that can control thousands of these orcs.  If the Uruks ever decide to go to war with humanity then it will be a war that engulfs the world.

Desert Orcs - an off-shoot of the Greens.  They live in a land where they are at peace with the elves.  In fact Desert orcs and desert elves consider each other to be brothers.  This relationship was forged thousands of years ago when the rose up together to fight of the evil of the Necromancer Kings.  Living under the harsh desert sun has turned the orcs complexion to more of a brown color.
More detail has been posted here, Desert Elves and Orcs.

Half-Orcs - Most times when an orc inter-breeds with another species the result is an orc. The orc may have certain qualities that are similar to their non-orc parent (Goblin-Orcs are smaller, Ogre-Orcs are larger).  Though there are often times individuals that seem to posses the better qualities of both parents.  These half-orcs can often find a place for themselves in the human lands or the orcs.  Half-orcs are more common among the Green and Grey orcs, though all orc sub-species have produced a half-orc one time or another.

D&D Fortune Cards for non-4e D&D

So I picked up a couple of packs of D&D fortune cards the other day.

So far I fail to see what the big deal is.  It adds another random element to play that can be fun.  They are really not all that different than say playing with Drama points, except that you don't get choose the effect they have when you use them.

Basically you start with a deck say of 30, 40 or 50 and then you shuffle them and draw a card each round.  You can hold or play your card.  Some have conditions that need to be met (you or an ally make a skill check) or when something happens to you (you are moved or teleported) or in combat.
Some negate some bad effect, other add a +2 to a roll or even say you can have 1/2 damage or extra damage depending on another roll.

So far I have seen a single card that I would say is a balance or game breaker.  There are some that might give a character an undo advantage, but I also see it as a way to help make combats interesting and constantly changing.

I also didn't see a thing in them that screamed "this is for 4e only".  In fact outside of some minor terminology I could see these working in any version of D&D you care to play.  Sure some would need to be tweaked, shifting has a particular meaning in 4e and saving throws mean something different.  But others would be perfectly fine to use in your favorite retro clone.

There have been some images of cards posted by Wizards, so lets look at them.
Here are two.

Get a Grip - Every version of D&D has a Saving Throw.  They might mean something different, but they have them and making them is good, not making them is bad.  If an ally fails their save, then play this card and they get a second chance.  Yeah-yeah you "save or you die" types are squealing, but frankly these cards were never for you to start with.

Grim Determination needs more definition, but not so much if you just say "bloodied mean half your hit points are gone".

While I may never use these cards in my 4e game, I am going to make a point of trying them out in at least one old-school game sometime soon just to see if they work out.

I'm having fun, how about you?

A bunch of posts this past week and weekend about the supposed creative dearth in modern RPGs.

If you have not seen them, here are some round ups.

• Malcolm Sheppard, Why Do RPGs Suck?
• Steven S. Long, The Licensing Trap.
• RPGPundit, ranting about what ever it is he rants about.  Frankly I don't pay him any attention since his relevance to my world of RPGs is minimal at best.

And a few analyses.

• James Raggi throwing in his 2cents (or Euros).
• Errant RPG
• Bat in the Attic
• Old School Jump and Playing D&D with Porn Stars for their own point of views.

I am sure there is more.

Now Long and Sheppard have earned their stripes with Hero Games and White Wolf respectively and RPGPundit has...what exactly has he done anyway?  Anyway, they are not some RPG noobs or someone on "teh internets" with a half-baked opinion.  But I think they are missing a very important point.

RPGs are supposed to be fun first.

Sure creative, well manufactured RPGs that take advantage of the medium they are in is a great thing.  But sometimes what is great for me is not great for you or some other group.  There are a lot of designers out there doing really cool things, but some of those "really cool things" would bug the shit out of me as a player.

D&D still works for me now for the same reason it worked for me in 1981; it is fun.

I think that is what games should be about.

Wikipedia, Wikia and D&D

Once upon a time I a was a huge contributor to Wikipedia.  I'd edit articles, save them from deletion and generally improve them.  I spent a lot of time researching material and I even helped get a few articles to Good and Featured status.

The trouble is it is an uphill battle against the deletionists; people that want to remove anything from Wikipedia that didn't fit with their often narrow view of what should be in an encyclopedia.  I have locked horns with people on personal crusades (often self admitted) to remove content of a certain type.  There are the anti-porn crusaders that want to delete all articles regarding porn actresses and I have lost a few battles with them.  There was also the guy that took it upon himself to delete all articles on D&D because, well, we were never really clear on that, but he had a single mindedness of it that spoke of some personal hatred (as someone that has a  psych degree and spent a few years working as professional psychologist I am comfortable to make that claim).  He was ultimately banned from Wikipedia because he was a dick.

But now the deletionists are at it again.  I lost an article I spent a lot of time on last month and now another one is up.  Frankly I don't have the desire to fight them anymore.

The article in question is the one on Glasya, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasya

So instead I am looking for other places for D&D related articles.  Wikipedia was a great resource for pop culture but it's effectiveness is soon going to ground to a halt by factions within the site itself.

There are a few other D&D-related Wikis out there.  Here are the ones I know off and have contributed to in the past.

• Canonfire's The Greyhawk Wiki, http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
• The Forgotten Realms Wiki at Wikia, http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
• The original Dungeons and Dragons wiki at Wikia, http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
• The new Dungeons and Dragons wiki at dnd-wiki.org, http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
• The Eberon Wiki, http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Eberron_Wiki (Thanks to migellito for this.)
• and an extra one I like, Monsterpedia, http://www.monstropedia.org/monster/Main_Page
• and the Same Universe wiki, http://www.thesameuniversewiki.org/MainPage.ashx

I am sure there are more.  It would be nice to have a couple places to go for research.

In the mean-time as D&D articles get deleted I'll try to find new homes for them elsewhere.

Post 500

Another milestone!  This is my 500th blog post.

I really don't have anything special to say here.  I have a lot more posts to come.

Here is to another 500!

Zatannurday: RPG Stats

This might seem like a bit of a cheat, but as an RPG Blog I want to post RPG stats.  Seems only right really, given this site.

Here are some links to some of my favorite versions and a Zatanna pic colored by Ginjirou,
http://ginjirou.deviantart.com/art/Zatanna-coloured-33727410.

Thom Marrion did a great Cinematic Unisystem / Ghosts of Albion version, http://edenstudiosdiscussionboards.yuku.com/reply/34516#reply-34516

A bunch great ones over at the Atomic Think Tank for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed:
Baron's, Batgirl's, Jabronville's, Narsil's, Pamela Isley's, and MDSnowman's.

M&M 3rd Edition/DCA can be found in the DC Adventures Hero's Handbook.

I did one for Witch Girls Adventures here:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/05/zatanna-every-little-thing-she-does-is.html

Will consider doing some more in the future.  Cortex might be a good choice.

Season of the Witch: Episode 4

Episode 4: Under a Cajun Moon

Late Summer / Early Fall 2004
New Orleans, Tara is possessed by the same spirit that had possessed her mother. Learn more about the summer that Bob met Megan.
Special Guests: Eliza Roberts as “Megan O’Kelly / McClay” and Eric Burdon as himself.

Synopsis Willow and Tara arrive in New Orleans. They are still getting used to the idea that Bob is tagging along as a ghost. He keeps reminding them that they need to focus on the mission, the girls remind him they are not on a mission. While sitting outside at a bar enjoying some gumbo (Cajun food was a very big deal for me when working on these adventures), a band begins to play some hypnotic song. Tara, unbidden gets up and begins to dance in a highly erratic fashion. Willow snaps her out of it, but not before she is seen by a tall man with his face painted to look like a skull.

The man is a voodoo priest, known as “Bone Man” and he works for a local crime lord/voodoo practioner Guillaume “Papa” Le Basque.

Papa Le Basque kidnaps Tara, who he sees as a pure conduit to the power of Loa. He takes her to Cottoncrest Manor. Le Basque is a legba hougan seeking the power of the forgotten “dark Loa” he knows is trapped in the manor.

The former owner of this manor was a cruel woman that turned an old slave plantation into a brothel. She eventually tried to burn the place down with all the girls trapped inside to cover her increasing debt. When it later became an insane asylum in the 1950s the women inside were driven to murderous rage to kill any man. Even mild depression became a murderous rampage. The government shut it down after a mother of two went on a rampage and killed 12 inmates and half a dozen staff. Even in notorious NOLA it was never used as a drug den or vampire nest for very long. The last known death was a when teenage couple came to the place after a night of tagging to drop some LSD. The girl who was 16 and described by everyone as shy, butchered her boyfriend. She was discovered days later naked, covered in blood and in a fetal position. She was never the same.

Bob and Megan had been here before and this was their last mission. Most of his team was killed, and Megan was possessed. They thought it was a simple poltergeist. It was a demon lord, Hysterix. A demon that feeds on the despair, fear and pain of women. He was trapped in the burned out house by occultists years ago. Occult Poet Eric Burden remains so he can make sure it does not escape. Le Basque believes Hysterix is a powerful but forgotten Loa. (His corporal form was destroyed, but he bonded with the house).

Bob always felt a little bit of the demon remained in Megan. Hysterix claimed he would have their daughter (they were not married yet, though the demon predicted that Megan’s daughter would be a powerful witch) and her daughters as well. Bob was relieved when Donny was born, but horrified when Tara was born a year later. Bob had to admit his love to Megan to drive the demon out.

The house is filled with the ghosts of all the slaves and prostitutes killed there, of all the people in the asylum, and even memento mori and apparitions of past sufferings. Also illusions created by Hysterix.

Cordy doesn’t want to go in unarmed…she switches to full angelic form. What can I say, the idea of a asskicking angel is just too good to pass up.

Demons feed on fear, uncertainty and doubt, but are repelled by love.
To force the demon out of Tara, Bob (not Willow this time) must confess his love for her and seek her forgiveness.

Part of the episode is also played in flashback with Tara’s player taking on the role of Megan, Bob’s playing Bob, Willow’s playing Nigel and Cordy’s playing the groups medic. The idea here of course is to get the Players to enact the same scene as in the past, with Bob confessing he loves Megan in the past and now making the same confessions to Tara in the present.

Notes: Obviously I wanted to focus on the relationship between Bob and his daughter and Bob and Megan. While Willow is somewhat sidelined in this episode, I came up with the flashback idea to keep her player busy at least. There were still plenty of ghosts in the manor to fight and Cordy and Willow were the only ones with the firepower to do it.

Again, and it may be a dead horse with me now, but I wanted to once again show that there is power, real power, in love. The demon is very much Charmed influenced, with the proclamation of love needing to kill rather than beating on it. The manor is based on this reoccurring nightmare I have had since I was small that I called my “Very Haunted House”. The woman who owned it is still in the house, mummified.

Papa Le Basque is of course killed by the demon, as most human dupes for demons are. But Bone Man, a character from my early Chill days, is still out there. Eric Bourdon appears mostly because I am a fan of “The Animals” and “War” but also due to a documentary I watched about him.

The biggest critique of this episode though came from my players and it is a good one. Basically this is another “Tara in peril” episode. I could not disagree. While I wanted to change things around, the truth is I needed this episode. It sets up the relationship between Bob and the Girls. Had to be done. Plus the demon makes a prediction about the future and that had to be said now. Sure there were other ways I could have done that, but this worked out well enough.

This episode I also introduced some items/plot from my old Chill game.  I had considered running the flashback in Chill, creating characters and having even a little bit of combat.  But that never really panned out.

Next Episode:  Willow, Tara and Bob find Faith in South East Texas hunting Bigfoots with the last person they expected to see in “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”.

Season of the Witch: Interlude

Interlude: When Robert met Megan

Sunnydale, June 1976

"I am telling you I don't like this!" The man said for what may have been the twelfth time that evening. He was young, early or mid twenties. He still had the hair and mannerism of someone who had spent a lifetime in the military. In fact that is how he, Robert Maclay, got his current job as squad commander for S.A.V.E. He lit his cigarette and handed the lighter to his companion who lit his own.

"Well, too bad. Her orders came in from Dublin HQ and a fat all good it does talking to them. Sorry mate, she is our problem now."

"Well I for one have not spent the better part of a year and a half fighting god-knows-what just so I can invite a witch into my group" Robert swore.

"Cleanser." Came a feminine voice. "Cleanser or Craft-Worker, but never a Witch."

Both men turned around to see they had been joined a small, rather unassuming, but attractive woman. She was dressed in hip-hugging bell bottoms, sandals, and a tattered Led Zeppelin concert shirt. Her hair was long and blonde. She looked every bit like all the other California girls they had seen since coming to this hellhole of a town. She carried a burlap bag on one shoulder and wore sunglasses that covered half her face. She took them off to reveal sparkling blue eyes.

"Great." Bob replied. "I ask for a spirit removal expert and S.A.V.E. sends me a kid."

"Hey. I just graduated from Berkeley, I'm no kid. Besides you're like not much older than me anyway." She shot back.

"Oi. Don't listen to him." The other man rose to shake her hand, "Nigel. Nigel Delamort. Don't let the accent fool you, I'm French, not English. I just had the misfortune of having to grow up there. That over there is our fearless leader, Robert Maclay. Don't let the rough exterior fool you, deep down inside he is still every bit the humorless bastard we all know and love."

"Megan" the woman answered back, "Megan O'Kelly. Here are my papers. So. What brings S.A.V.E. to Sunnydale?"

Witch Hunter Robin for Unisystem

I swear I had posted this before, but a quick search brought up nothing.  So here is Witch Hunter Robin for Cinematic Unisystem.  If you are curious to see what else I have done with this character I have done write-ups for OVA, BESM 2r, Witch Girls Adventures and True20.

I worked up this character during during the early days of the working on Ghosts of Albion.  I was working on the magical battles rules and needed someone to try them out with.  I didn't want Willow fighting Tara and I had been watching the WHR fan-subs (and later the DVDs with my wife) I thought Robin would be a good choice.

So here is my full write up on Robin Sena.

Witch Hunter Robin is a fascinating Japanese animation by Sunrise (of Cowboy Bebop and Gundam Wing fame). I am that not much into Anime, but this one was great. A cross between “X-men” and “The X-Files” with parts of the old TV show “The Others” and CJ Carella’s “Witchcraft” thrown in for good measure. Any modern horror gamer should find something here to like. A great tale of government conspiracy, occult themes, and witches. What is not to love about all of that?

The 26 episode series (that is all they were going to make) deals with a witch hunter named Robin Sena.

Fifteen year old Robin is the newest hunter to be assigned to Solomon Toukatsu Nin'idantai (Solomon Executive Organization) – Japan, or STN-J. Robin though is different. She is European-Japanese working in an all Japanese environment (in one episode a co-worker makes fun of her Japanese, in another she eats Miso soup with a spoon). Her early childhood was spent in a convent in Italy. There her life consisted of prayer, chores and learning to use her craft. She dresses in a full-length black dress that is reminiscent of the Victorian age. But that is not what sets her apart.

Robin is a craft-user. A witch.

She is sent to STN-J after the death of another hunter. What Robin is really there for, and what she does are part of the drama and story.

Now “Witch Hunter Robin” is different than most American fare. It is by it’s nature, slower; it takes time to build up to the main plot. We need to see her reactions to the various day-to-day operations of STN-J. Like how she relates to fellow hunter Amon (is she crushing on him? does he want/need to kill her?), or what is the deal with Dojima anyway (great payoff there!). Or why she refuses to use the anti-Witch Orboro guns.

It lacks sex, T&A and some of the things that we have become accustom to on American TV, but the story is first rate. I don’t know much about anime really, but the visual style is fantastic. It is very easy to see this being remade as a live action drama. The musical score is also reminiscent of “the X-files”, haunting, dramatic and really just very, very good.

Robin’s Powers
Robin is a fire-starter, a pyrokinetic. She can create and manipulate fire as a force of will. She can set small fires or large ones at will, or even use her fire to block attacks of a mundane or magical nature.

She also has quite a store of occult knowledge, she knows about magical circles and the histories of various witch-types. So her classical training is a bit better than her co-hunters. She understands witches because she trained as one.

Robin’s weaknesses come in the form of her eyesight. As she uses her magic, her vision blurs. Unless she is wearing her glasses, she can’t see to hit her target.

Witches in Robin’s World
Witches is the world of Witch Hunter Robin are treated as another race of humans, much in the same way that the mutants are in the X-Men. Witches has a specific “witch gene”, which in a sense makes them more like psionicists or mutants rather than witches, but they draw connections with this and the witches of Salem and occult ideas, so an interesting mix to be sure.

The job of Solomon is to “remove” witches and seeds (witches whose powers have not manifested) who use their powers. STN-J’s policy is not to kill witches, but instead they use a drug “Orobo” to nullify their magic and knock them out (In Unisystem I would say one shot per levels of Sorcery, or Magic in BESM). Witches are then carted off to “the Factory”. What happens to them is one of the major plot points of the show, so I won’t reveal it here.

Robin in Your Game
There are a multitude of reasons Robin Sena (or any number of other STN-J agents) could show up in your game. Maybe Solomon HQ is setting up shop to take out the local supernatural population (whether you want them too or not) and in tow is Robin.

Or maybe you decide that Robin strikes out on her own. After all those 26 episodes were in 2002; who knows what she could be doing in 2004. So she ends up in your neck of the woods. Is going to be Hunter or Witch? Well that is for you to decide.

In any case Robin should be one of the most powerful witches in your game despite her age. That is sort of her purpose really. To continue her tale she would be naturally drawn to places with large numbers of supernatural events, whether you have her working for Solomon or not.

Robin is quiet, a little shy and withdrawn. She was shown to be uncomfortable in some situations, but that can be due to understanding the culture she was in. Also Robin is carrying around a few secrets with her, mostly to do with her real reasons for being at STN-J and her own origins. In the show Robin is rarely seen without her glasses when doing magic. She also owns a Vespa scooter and a bike (her driving skills are calculated with these in mind). When not hunting rogue witches she can be found drinking coffee or espressos. Lots of coffee.


Robin Sena

Race: Human
Occupation:Witch Hunter / Witch
Age: 15 (in 2002)
Gender: F
Height:5'1"
Weight: 105#
Eyes: Green
Hair: Auburn

Mother:Maria, dead
Father:Toudou, dead.
Grandfather(maternal): Juliano Collegrie, priest and high ranking officer of Solomon HQ.
Allies:Amon, Nagira, hunters from STN-J
Enemies:Rogue witches, rival hunters

Languages: Japanese, Italian, English

Attributes

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

Life Points: 33
Drama Points: 10

Skills
Acrobatics 0
Knowledge 4
Art 1
Kung Fu 1
Computers 1
Languages 4
Crime 3
Mr. Fix-It 0
Doctor 0
Notice4
Driving 2
Occultism 6
Getting Medieval 1
Science 1
Gun Fu 0
Sports 0
Influence 1
Wild Card 0


Qualities
Attractiveness 2
Contacts 3
Fast Reaction Time
Hard To Kill 1
Occult Investigator
Occult Library 1
Pyrokinesis 7
Sorcery Level 4


Drawbacks
Adversary 5 (witches, rival hunters)
Addiction 1 (Mild, caffeine)
Emotional Problems
Honorable 1
Impaired Sense 1 (Vision when using magic)
Obligation 3 (Solomon, STN-J)
Outcast (foreigner in Japan)
Secret 3 (witch, others)
Teenager
Zealot

Useful Information

Initiative 7 +1d10
Perception 6
Additional actions 0
Armor 0

Combat Maneuvers
Maneuver Bonus Base Damage Notes
Dodge 3 - Defensive Move
Punch 3 4 Bash
Kick 3 6 Bash
Magic 16 - By Spell type
Pyrokinesis 12 5 x SL Will x SL + Fire Damage
Telekinesis 10

Snow Day

More posts once I get myself unburied from all this snow.

Allan Quatermain for Ghosts of Albion

Quick one today before we get hit by The Big Snowstorm of 2011.
I liked the character of Allan Quatermain (note the spelling) from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels and knew somewhat of his origins before that (though I have not completely blocked out that bad Richard Chamberlin movie).  Since I have been re-reading a lot of my Victorian era games of late I thought it would be good to bring him out for Ghosts of Albion.


Allan Quatermain
Before adventure went by the name Indiana Jones it was named Allan Quatermain.

Allan Quatermain, Adventurer
Character Type Journeyman

Portrayed by Heath Ledger (1840s) and Sean Connery (1890s and beyond)

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

Qualities
Acute Senses (sight) 3
Charisma 2
Contacts (local African, 2; British Military, 2; British Government, 1)
Deadeye, (www.grey-elf.com/buffy/lxg.pdf)
Explorer
Hard to Kill 3
Fast Reaction Time
Nerves of Steel
Renown 1
Resources 4
Situational Awareness
Worldly

Drawbacks
Adversaries (various) 1
Honorable 1
Love (Tragic, Wife)
Mental Problem (Obsession with new, undiscovered lands) 2
Reputation 1

Useful Information
Initiative: 1d10 + 10
Additional Actions: +1 physical

Skills
Armed Mayhem 2
Art 0
Athletics 2
Crime 1
Driving/Riding 2
Engineering 1
Fisticuffs 3
Influence 2
Knowledge 2
Languages 2 (English, Swahili)
Marksmanship 5
Notice 3
Occultism 2
Physician 1
Science 1
Wild Card

Manoeuvre Bonus Base Damage Notes
Rifle (spiral bore) +10 22 +2 to damage for Deadeye
-Aiming +15 +1 to aim for Deadeye, +3 for Acute Senses; add SL to Rifle above
Dodge/Parry +7 Defence
Grapple +11 Resisted by dodge
Punch +9 4 Bash


Much has been written about the legendary marksman, hunter, tracker and adventurer Allan Quatermain. But at this point, none of those things have happened yet. He is not yet known as Macumazahn, the "Watcher-by-Night" by the African natives, he hasnt yet grown completely disillusioned with England, and he knows of no league of gentlemen, extraordinary or otherwise.

This is Quatermain at 24 years of age. He has seen some adventures and misadventures (he has already lost his first wife) and now is spending most of his time in Africa. He knows a little bit of the occult so the idea of a Protector is no surprise to him. His goal though is to protect the local population, not the interests of Mother England or her colonies.

It is English colonialism in Africa that awakens some foul beasts left sleeping since Mankind was still trying to survive in the trees. It is here that Quatermain crosses paths with the Protectors of Albion, and they discover that may not be on the same side of this battle. They battle, and realize they have a common foe and join forces to try and stop it.

Like Tamara Swift, Allan Quatermain has fairly progressive ideas for a Victorian Englishman. He is often seen in the books treating women and native Africans as equals and even admitting that they could be wiser than he is. Maybe these ideas began with his affairs with the Swifts. Speaking of which, it would be completely in character for Allan to have a brief but torrid affair with Tamara.

Druthers for Basic era FRPGs

Trying out some more Basic monsters. These are conversions of some d20 ones I have done in the past. Depending on which Basic game/retro-clone you use I have listed Armor Class as both descending (start at 9 and go down) and ascending (start at 10 and go up).

Here is one of my faves, the Druther.
You can also find this guy in my book, The Witch.

Druther

AC: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 9d8* (40 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 Limbs (fists or constructed weapons)
Damage: 2d6 / 2d6
Special: Immune to piercing, water and cold-based attacks. Double damage from fire based attacks.
Movement:: 20 ft.
No. Appearing: 1 (1-3 in lair)
Saves: Fighter 9
Morale: 12
Treasure: None
Alignment:: Neutral
XP: 1,200

A Druther is a type of wood golem that can only be created by a witch. The name comes from an old piece of doggerel often muttered by witches,

“If I really had my druthers,
I’d have my wooden druthers too.”

A “Wooden Druther” is a corrupt form of “wouldn’t I’d rathers”, or something the witch doesn’t want. So the Wooden Druther performs tasks that the witch would rather not do herself.

The druther can understand simple command phrases of about 15 words each. Typically druthers are used for menial labor or to perform a task that the witch can not do or won’t do herself, like killing or scaring an enemy. Often a witch will have a few druthers protecting her home while disguised as trees (Wisdom check at -2 to notice).

A druther cannot communicate at all. Some witches have used woody reeds in the construction of their druthers. When the wind blows across the druther it sounds like a deep bassoon.
Druthers can appear in any form. Usually they are biped and always made of wood. The wood can be carved or a collection of sticks tied together. The appendages need to be attached separately if the druther is to move at all. They can be precisely carved to appear as anything the witch wants, but they typically look like walking bunches of sticks. Legend has it that there was a witch that had such beautifully carved druthers that they were often mistaken for wood nymphs.

Treants, dryads, and wood nymphs view a druther in the same manner a human views the undead or a flesh golem. Most will attempt to destroy them when they can. Some witches and wizards value the wood from an inanimate druther to use to make magical fires.

A druther is mindless in combat. It strikes with its wood fists with almost no regard to what else is going on.
As a construct a Druther is immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, disease, and similar effects. Not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain, or death from massive damage.

Arrows or other piercing items, such as spears or thrust daggers, only do 1 point of damage per hit. Water based attacks have no effect on the druther whatsoever. Fire based attacks always do double damage. Cold based attacks do no damage.


Section 15 Copyright Notice

Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

System Reference Document Copyright 2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Bruce R. Cordell, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks is Copyright© 2003, Timothy S. Brannan and the Netbook of Witches Team.

Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game Copyright © 2006-2008. Chris Gonnerman.

Labyrinth LordTM. Copyright © 2007, Daniel Proctor. Author Daniel Proctor.

"Druthers for Basic era FRPGs" Copyright ©2011, Timothy S. Brannan

Art is Copyright ©2001 Daniel Brannan and used here by permission.  Art is not open content.

Tarot Witch of the Black Rose for True20

So I have been doing some Tarot posts of late and playing around again with True20 so this should really be a no brainer.  Plus Tarot #66 is now out, so why not.

Now one would expect that her True20 stats should be somewhat similar to her M&M 2nd Ed stats.  But if I build her by the book she ends up a touch weaker.  These are her "by the book stats".  In comparison to her M&M counterpart, this Tarot lives in a more darkly supernatural world, say like that of most modern supernatural novels like The Dresden Files or even the urban fantasy of Kim Harrison.
As typical I am using the Adept's Handbook and the guide to Horror Role-Playing from the True20 Revised book.

I would see her as something like a member of an Occult Guard or a Witch Knight.  Her armor then would be more traditional and ornate, but I would not change the character one bit.

Tarot Witch of the Black Rose

Human
Adept 6 / Warrior 3

Abilities

STR:	0	INT:	+1
DEX:	+2	WIS:	+1
CON:	+1	CHA:	+3

Combat
Initiative: +2
Defense: +8
Base Attack bonus: +6  (Melee +8, Ranged +8)

Saving Throws
Toughness: +4
Fortitude: +3
Reflex: +5
Will: +8

Virtue: Compassionate
Vice: Impulsive
Calling (Blue Rose): Justice
Reputation: +3

Skills
Bluff +5, Climb -3 (armor), Concentration +8, Craft (Blacksmith) +3, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +3, Handle Animal +4, Intimidate +4, Jump -2, Knowledge (history) +5, Knowledge (Occult/Supernatural) +10,  Knowledge (theology and philosophy) +10,  Medicine +5, Notice +6, Perform (Ritual) +6, Research +6,  Search +6, Sense Motive +5, Sleight of Hand +3, Survival +5

Feats
The Talent, Imbue Item, Connected, Weapon Training (Sword), Armor Training (light), Attack Focus (Sword), Iron Will

Powers
Object Reading, Wind Walk, Heart Reading,  Elemental Blast, Elemental Resistance, Plane Shift, Ward

Other
Languages: Latin, English
Equipment: Sword of the Goddess, Armor

Conviction: 7

Starts out as an Adept and then picks up some levels in Warrior to cover her training.
Adept powers are based on Charisma.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.

So this Tarot is physically weaker than her M&M counterpart, but still rather powerful for the world she would be in.

Updates

Various updates to some hanging threads.

New Game Group
The Northlands Game group met over pizza.  We are going to be playing Pathfinder as I expected, which is good.  We are using variations of of our former Pathfinder characters (so yes, starting at 1st level AGAIN).  I am going to be playing Oisín, a Cavalier (not a Paladin).  All the characters are half-brothers; Dad got around a lot.  I need to read up on the Cavalier some more and decide what cause he takes up as his own.

Gen Con Updates
I will be going to Gen Con this year.  So far I think I am only going to run three games.  Dinosauria! (one for adults and one for younger people) and a revised Obsession. Obsession was a HUGE success in my mind, but every group wanted to kill the wrong guy from the start, which is fine, but not at all what I wanted to see happen, so the adventure is the same, the first Act will be slightly changed.  So if you played Obsession before, this will not be different enough to play again.  I do want to run a kids game, there are more families coming to Gen Con than ever before and I want to support that.

Sci-Fi game
I think the issue with me not finding a good sci-fi game is I tend to link Sci-Fi more to properties (Star Wars, Star Trek) more than I do Horror or Fantasy.  The closest thing I ever got was Star Frontiers.  I think, given what I am mostly likely to do with a Sci-Fi game, is stick with d20 3.x.  There are plenty of good sci-fi games that use d20, including some of my faves Star Wars and Star Frontiers (sort of d20-there are SF elements in d20 future).  I am going to have to give it a try sometime to see how it all works out.

Zatannurday: First submission!

Welcome back to Zatannurday everyone.  I am pleased to show off my new logo/graphic for the occasion.

I might make it a touch smaller, but I wanted to show it off too.

Zatannurday was barely s few hours old when I got my first submission!

Here is some original art by Eric Stettmeier aka Bubbashelby of the Toyriffic blog (where you can enjoy Harley Qwensday).  Look for his cool Zatanna post today too.

You can find the original here, http://bubbashelby.blogspot.com/2008/01/annataz-ward.html and a post on the DC Justice League Unlimited Zatanna here, http://toyriffic.blogspot.com/2009/04/abra-abra-cadabra.html.

Thanks so much for helping Zatannurday grow!

Season of the Witch: Episode 3

Episode 3: Strange Sort of Homecoming

Late Summer 2004
Willow & Tara go to Tara's home town in Alabama to attend the funeral of Robert Maclay, Tara's father. While there they discover more about Robert's past and how it is connected to Willow and Tara's future.

Synopsis
The girls return to Tara's hometown where they stay with her brother Donny, his new wife Leah and their new baby Megan (named after Tara's mother). Though without knowing Leah has set the girls up in seperate rooms as if they were "just friends". One of the themes of this episode was actually confronting the issues of homophobia as opposed to dancing around the issues. This was at the request of my player/testers who felt that the show never did a very good job of this.

The girls arrive in town. Go to the wake. Tara decides she needs a drink and heads to the local bar. She runs into a guy (Dan) that had a crush on her in high school who never quite understood she was gay. As well as cousin Beth. People in the bar begin to talk and whisper about Tara being back, and with a girlfriend no less.  To bust the tension of the moment my Tara player decides to break into a bit of dirty dancing with Willow to Prince's "Gett Off".  They of course get kicked out of the bar, much to Beth's delight.

During the funeral Tara and Donny get into a fight over the minister Donny chooses to speak. They get into a fight, Tara storms out, Beth comments on "Tara running away again".  Beth mentions that she cast a spell to set everyone against Tara for leaving her behind. Willow punches her.  Willow follows Tara, tells her about Beth's spell.  Discover that Beth did cast a spell, but it had no effect.    Next day things seem to be better, Donny apologizes. Beth has left town. Tara is given her mother's things including her journal that details this entire life she had working with her father as part of a covert ops group to take out supernatural threats.  Donny also gives the girls Robert's car, a blue 1967 Ford Thunderbird.  Tara, now feeling welcomed in her old home decides to head back to her new home.  On the drive back though the ghost of Robert McClay informs them they have work to do.

Notes: This was not an action packed episode, but rather one of interpersonal actions and reactions.  I wanted to delve deeper into Tara's past and her family life, plus fix some of the problems from the show (demons in female side of the family?? WTF?? yeah, I fix that too). Things learned in this episode:  Tara, her mother and grandmother are/were all power witches. Megan was a "Craft Worker" assigned to Robert's unit to aid his group in hunting the supernatural.  Her job was the "Cleaner", or the removal of spirits.  Robert didn't want to work with a witch, but orders are orders.  Now for their group I just used my old 1980's Chill game.  So Bob and Megan were part of S.A.V.E., but something happened back then and they never finished their mission and Bob and Megan left, never to talk about it again.  We also learn that Megan was from Sunnydale.  Donny is not an dick really, just a jerk that listened to his father's anti-demon, anti-witchcraft tirades a little too much.  He is after all Megan's child too, though he does not have any magic.  Beth though does have some magic, though hers never works.  Her role here is smaller than originally planned, but that is fine, she comes back in Web of Lies.

The big deal here of course is Bob, the Ghost.  He needs to lead Willow and Tara through his failed 1976-79 mission in order to find peace.  This mission is also tied to the what the girls are dealing with now and the Awakening.  They also are given Megan's journal which has the cut scenes of the action in the 70's. 

So you are a young gay woman on a road trip with your girlfriend in a cool convertible, what else could you want?  That's right the ghost of your ultra-conservative, way strict father hanging around.  That's got comedy gold written all over it!  Too bad that the trip is to discover what supernatural force might be taking over the world soon and may have had an impact on why your mother died and why your dad is such an asshole.

Now about Bob: Bob of course was on the show, but never given that name.  I named him that cause he looks like a Bob to me, plus it was a nod to a friend of mine author Robert Black.  Funny thing is Robert Black goes to the same church as does Steve Rankin who played Mr. Maclay in the episode "Family" (one of the highest rated Buffy episodes). This is my chance to try to redeem the character a bit instead of making him a two-dimensional cliche.  Since he played a number of military types on various shows (including multiple characters on various Star Treks) he is portrayed here as a Marine (he has played Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians, and as the infamous Col. Green, I think he can pull off a Marine too).  He was later convinced to work with SAVE after seeing something really scary.  In 1976, when he meets Megan O'Kelly he is in his late 20's

"Megan" was my Tara player's idea.  Originally she was named Deirdre (I had just read the Irish tale "Deirdre of the Sorrows" and thought that Bob should be much older than his wife), but in the end came to like Megan more.  Deirdre then became her grandmother.  Megan, who I figure was 22 in 1976 when she joined Bob's team was something of a California girl.  Long blonde hair, Led Zeppelin concert tee, and wearing hip hugger bell bottoms.  For Megan think of a young Eliza Roberts (Eric Robert's wife), though she does not make any appearnces here except in photos and flashbacks.
We learn that Bob had been in the military when he was younger, but left for an unknown reason.  He was getting followers and cards from people Tara had never heard of before from all around the globe.  Donny didn't even know them.

The town the Tara lived in had been her family home for years.  Her father's family had been her for generations.  People talked about how Tara left AND also how Bob had left when he was roughly the same age.  Both came back with a strange new woman from California in their lives (Willow and Megan respectively).  This was the start of building a lot of parallels between Bob/Megan and Willow/Tara.  Each generation did something that the other generation could relate too.

We also learn about Tara's first crush. Tara had been in Jr. High and her crush had been a red-headed high school girl that worked at the "Tastee Freeze" (no, there are no Tastee Freezes in AL). Tara would go there to buy a small vanilla ice cream cone just so she could see her, even if she never actually said anything to her. The girl found out, thought it was cute, and began dipping her cone in that strawberry stuff that freezes when it comes in contact with the ice cream. We called them dip-cones. Of course, the girl had a boyfriend, which broke Tara's heart, but her taste for red-headed women remained. Not sure about the strawberry dip-cones though.

Strange Sort of Homecoming was also the first of the "Road Stories" sub arc.  We had planned this as the first series even before Dragon and the Phoenix.  The 67 Ford Thunderbird was our nod to Thelma and Louise, though we already did that ending in Dragon.

We now had our cast whole.  Willow and Tara, our two witches. Bob the ghost and Cordy the Whitelighter.  It was good that the last two could move in and out at will since the Thunderbird can only seat two.

Next Time: Willow, Tara, Bob, and Cordy get caught up in the crossfire of a voodoo war, meet an unlikely ally, and find what may be the most haunted house in the entire Western Hemisphere in "Under a Cajun Moon".