You can donate $5 to the American Red Cross via DriveThruRPG.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Japan Disaster Relief Fund
Another disaster today. This one is the earthquake in Japan.
You can donate $5 to the American Red Cross via DriveThruRPG.
You can donate $5 to the American Red Cross via DriveThruRPG.
I Explore Characters
I am presenting this as snark free as I can and I am not holding it up as an alternative to any other type of exploration. I simply want to share my point of view.
I explore characters. Lots of them.
Those folders are full of characters for over 100 different games, though the bulk tends to be d20, Unisystem, all editions of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds, BESM and various others. At last count I had stated up at least 40 witches from movies, books and TV. A few supers and 30+ years of D&D characters. Some are 1 page in length, most weigh in around 5 pages, I have some that are 20+ pages of one character for one system.
I also like to explore the same character over and over again in different systems.
Here is my folder for Willow and Tara. The expected ones are here, d20, Unisystem, all the above, plus GURPS, Alternity, dozens of different horror games, a few supers, BESM (all versions), Little Fears, Warlock, all the World of Darkness variants (I have them Sorcerers, Verbena, and new WoD Mages), Kult. Name the game I bet it is here. It's close to 400 pages.
Tabbed by genre.
I guess I am not part of the OSR and more part of OCD.
I explore characters. Lots of them.
Those folders are full of characters for over 100 different games, though the bulk tends to be d20, Unisystem, all editions of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds, BESM and various others. At last count I had stated up at least 40 witches from movies, books and TV. A few supers and 30+ years of D&D characters. Some are 1 page in length, most weigh in around 5 pages, I have some that are 20+ pages of one character for one system.
I also like to explore the same character over and over again in different systems.
Here is my folder for Willow and Tara. The expected ones are here, d20, Unisystem, all the above, plus GURPS, Alternity, dozens of different horror games, a few supers, BESM (all versions), Little Fears, Warlock, all the World of Darkness variants (I have them Sorcerers, Verbena, and new WoD Mages), Kult. Name the game I bet it is here. It's close to 400 pages.
Tabbed by genre.
I guess I am not part of the OSR and more part of OCD.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Return to the Tome of Horrors
Frog God Games, which is from what I can tell Necromancer Games minus Clark Peterson, will be releasing TWO new versions of the wildly popular Tome of Horrors Complete.
http://www.talesofthefroggod.com/index.php/products/the-tome-of-horrors
This three book series was full of old school monsters from the like of the first Edition Fiend Folio and other sources and let them free thanks to the magic of the OGL.
Well the flumph is free once more and the the Complete book has the creatures from the first three books in one cover. It's all been updated to Pathfinder in one book and Swords & Wizardry in another.
I have the three original books and have updated a few of the monsters on my own, so I do find this rather interesting. But I am not 100% sold on it all yet. Looking at FG's products it looks like the same standards that we used to see at Necromancer are still being used. Their publications for both Pathfinder and for S&W look great. So really there is no reason to assume that this product won't be worth every penny. Except, I have them all now. I can use them almost as is for Pathfinder, and retro-scaling them should not be an issue.
I think I am going to wait on this one till I see some reviews.
http://www.talesofthefroggod.com/index.php/products/the-tome-of-horrors
This three book series was full of old school monsters from the like of the first Edition Fiend Folio and other sources and let them free thanks to the magic of the OGL.
Well the flumph is free once more and the the Complete book has the creatures from the first three books in one cover. It's all been updated to Pathfinder in one book and Swords & Wizardry in another.
I have the three original books and have updated a few of the monsters on my own, so I do find this rather interesting. But I am not 100% sold on it all yet. Looking at FG's products it looks like the same standards that we used to see at Necromancer are still being used. Their publications for both Pathfinder and for S&W look great. So really there is no reason to assume that this product won't be worth every penny. Except, I have them all now. I can use them almost as is for Pathfinder, and retro-scaling them should not be an issue.
I think I am going to wait on this one till I see some reviews.
Page Views
According to Blogger Stats my page with the highest amount of page views is not anything from the OSR, witches, Willow & Tara, Zatanna or the Hex Girls.
Coming in at 65,967 page views (between May 2010 and right now) is my Xena and Gabrielle page.
My Warrior Princess can take your hot elf chick in a fight any day. ;)
My highest ranking "OSR" pages are either about vampires or goblins.
My next post will be about an adventure featuring Xena and Gabrielle fighting vampires and goblins in an old school dungeon crawl. The Hex Girls will provide the sound track.
Please contact me if you want me to mention your OSR product in this post. Extra for a link back to your online store. (just kidding of course. unless you actually give me money...)
Coming in at 65,967 page views (between May 2010 and right now) is my Xena and Gabrielle page.
My Warrior Princess can take your hot elf chick in a fight any day. ;)
My highest ranking "OSR" pages are either about vampires or goblins.
My next post will be about an adventure featuring Xena and Gabrielle fighting vampires and goblins in an old school dungeon crawl. The Hex Girls will provide the sound track.
Please contact me if you want me to mention your OSR product in this post. Extra for a link back to your online store. (just kidding of course. unless you actually give me money...)
Season of the Witch: Episode 9 Teaser
Teaser for Episode 9: Web of Lies
Willow on a webcam, wearing only g-string and shear teddy and sitting on a bed: "Ever want to know all those dirty little secrets we keep here in Sunnydale? Ever wonder what we really do in those young wiccan meetings? Well Join me and my very naughty girlfriend (Tara crawls into the scene dressed similarly and begins to nuzzle Willow's neck) for our totally nasty, totally live web show tonight at midnight. I promise you it will be magic.
Join all of us, Young Amy (a very innocent girl joins them on the bed), we don't know how old she really is, but we do know she taught us a few things, and the nasty twins, Kristen and Wanda (two girls, twins, crawl on to the bed to join the other three). Join us tonight at the witching hour of midnight for the show. And leave the credit card in your wallets boys, this show is free!" (All the girls begin making out with each other). Willow stops in the middle of a three way kiss, "see you tonight."
Willow and Tara in their living room watching the action on the computer screen in utter horror.
A pause then Tara says "What the fu--!?"
--
CUT SCENE
A young woman gets off a bus. She is wearing a long heavy coat that seems out of date as well as too much for California. She has auburn hair that is tied up in elaborate pig tails and wears an unflatering pair of half-moon glasses. She walks away from the bus after conferring with a piece of paper in her hands. Her movements are not unnoticed as a solitary vampire begins to follow her. A nearly imperceptible signal and soon more gather.
The young woman, no more than a teenager really, moves forward, headless of her surroundings. She turns down an alley and the vampires close in.
"Not so fast little lady. Don't you know it isn't safe to walk the streets alone?" Laughs as she looks around only now seeing her mistake.
"I am afraid this will have to cost you. An' here we only have one price for everything." The vampire switches to game face. The woman squints at the vampire and says "Kyuuketsuki?" The lead vampire looks confused then suddenly bursts into flames. Soon the gathered crowd one by one bursts into flames. They scream and soon there is nothing left but ash.
Unaffected the young woman goes back to looking for her address.
Friday. Episode 9: Web of Lies.
Willow on a webcam, wearing only g-string and shear teddy and sitting on a bed: "Ever want to know all those dirty little secrets we keep here in Sunnydale? Ever wonder what we really do in those young wiccan meetings? Well Join me and my very naughty girlfriend (Tara crawls into the scene dressed similarly and begins to nuzzle Willow's neck) for our totally nasty, totally live web show tonight at midnight. I promise you it will be magic.
Join all of us, Young Amy (a very innocent girl joins them on the bed), we don't know how old she really is, but we do know she taught us a few things, and the nasty twins, Kristen and Wanda (two girls, twins, crawl on to the bed to join the other three). Join us tonight at the witching hour of midnight for the show. And leave the credit card in your wallets boys, this show is free!" (All the girls begin making out with each other). Willow stops in the middle of a three way kiss, "see you tonight."
Willow and Tara in their living room watching the action on the computer screen in utter horror.
A pause then Tara says "What the fu--!?"
--
CUT SCENE
A young woman gets off a bus. She is wearing a long heavy coat that seems out of date as well as too much for California. She has auburn hair that is tied up in elaborate pig tails and wears an unflatering pair of half-moon glasses. She walks away from the bus after conferring with a piece of paper in her hands. Her movements are not unnoticed as a solitary vampire begins to follow her. A nearly imperceptible signal and soon more gather.
The young woman, no more than a teenager really, moves forward, headless of her surroundings. She turns down an alley and the vampires close in.
"Not so fast little lady. Don't you know it isn't safe to walk the streets alone?" Laughs as she looks around only now seeing her mistake.
"I am afraid this will have to cost you. An' here we only have one price for everything." The vampire switches to game face. The woman squints at the vampire and says "Kyuuketsuki?" The lead vampire looks confused then suddenly bursts into flames. Soon the gathered crowd one by one bursts into flames. They scream and soon there is nothing left but ash.
Unaffected the young woman goes back to looking for her address.
Friday. Episode 9: Web of Lies.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Review: Vampyre Kisses
So I read a lot of horror and modern supernatural books. I like to talk about them here. Not all of them are something I want to use in a game, most are just fun to read. Here is one of the fun ones. Might not be your taste, or it might.
Ok stop me if you have heard this one before. Human girl meets mysterious guy who later turns out to be a vampire! Girl has some vague destiny, vampire has eating disorder, things get in their way of true happiness…lost you yet? Well none of this applies to “Vampyre Kisses”.
“Vampyre Kisses” is a new book from brand new author Elizabeth J. Kolodziej. Yes, Faith is a human girl with a destiny, but she is also a witch, the last of her kind. Trent is a vampire, but he is not your average brooding Baranbas, Angel or Edward. He has a destiny as well and if anything he is just anxious about it. Fate has thrown these two together and together they hold the fate of the supernatural creatures of Kolodziej’s world. Not related to anything, but I kept imagining Faith looking like Fiona Apple. Nothing in the text lead me to that, just the first woman that came to mind.
Yes. There are things in this book we have seen before, not just creatures but plots and circumstances. The difference here, and it’s the difference that makes the book worth getting, is that Kolodziej’s world is very rich and detailed (sometimes too detailed, but I’ll get to that). No Trent is not a Sparkler, he is a vampire, but he is cut from the modern cloth of vampires and more to the point he wants to be more. Faith could have been just another vapid little Gothamite doing 9-5 and partying, but she knows early on there is more going on than just that. In lesser hands these characters would have been annoying characters, or rather caricatures, but thankfully they get much more interesting as the tale weaves on. It is told from the point of view, alternately of both Faith and Trent. Kolodziej does a great job of giving us the proper voice for each character and it is rather easy to hear that voice in your head. There are complications galore including a romantic rival in the form of a werewolf.
A minor criticism, in the beginning of the tale Kolodziej has so much to tell us that she tends to over tell it. I see this as exactly what it is; she was very excited to tell her tale, had all these ideas and wanted to get them out on to the page as fast as she could. It did slow down as the story progressed and a good rhythm was established. Though every once in a while we are hit with a lot of information. While I am calling this a “minor criticism” it is also part of the book’s charm. The author has so much to say and has built up the myths of her world that she just seems excited to tell it all to us. That’s what future books are for.
The book does read like the first book of so many authors, so the pacing is odd at times and there are odd word choices here and there, but that is all something that will work out. Once the pace though is set and the story begins in earnest then you want to keep going and learning more. The book reminds me a bit of the first “Anita Blake” book.
The mythology of this book is well thought out and great care is given to it. Kolodziej is building a world here, not just a novel. I bet if you asked her she could tell you 10 generations of Faith’s ancestors, names and all. Even if she can’t, the book feels like she could.
Admittedly I am not the target audience for this sort of tale. I prefer my vampires darker, my witches more mysterious and werewolves as ravaging beasts. That all being said there is a good tale here and an interesting set of myths. This could very well be the start of a new series of modern supernatural novels that everyone will be talking about, and if not it is also an enjoyable read and in the end isn’t what we want? Kolodziej shares her world with us and we all enjoy it.
I am pleased to hear there is a second book coming. She has built up a lot mythology here and there is plenty for a lot of books.
Ok stop me if you have heard this one before. Human girl meets mysterious guy who later turns out to be a vampire! Girl has some vague destiny, vampire has eating disorder, things get in their way of true happiness…lost you yet? Well none of this applies to “Vampyre Kisses”.
Yes. There are things in this book we have seen before, not just creatures but plots and circumstances. The difference here, and it’s the difference that makes the book worth getting, is that Kolodziej’s world is very rich and detailed (sometimes too detailed, but I’ll get to that). No Trent is not a Sparkler, he is a vampire, but he is cut from the modern cloth of vampires and more to the point he wants to be more. Faith could have been just another vapid little Gothamite doing 9-5 and partying, but she knows early on there is more going on than just that. In lesser hands these characters would have been annoying characters, or rather caricatures, but thankfully they get much more interesting as the tale weaves on. It is told from the point of view, alternately of both Faith and Trent. Kolodziej does a great job of giving us the proper voice for each character and it is rather easy to hear that voice in your head. There are complications galore including a romantic rival in the form of a werewolf.
A minor criticism, in the beginning of the tale Kolodziej has so much to tell us that she tends to over tell it. I see this as exactly what it is; she was very excited to tell her tale, had all these ideas and wanted to get them out on to the page as fast as she could. It did slow down as the story progressed and a good rhythm was established. Though every once in a while we are hit with a lot of information. While I am calling this a “minor criticism” it is also part of the book’s charm. The author has so much to say and has built up the myths of her world that she just seems excited to tell it all to us. That’s what future books are for.
The book does read like the first book of so many authors, so the pacing is odd at times and there are odd word choices here and there, but that is all something that will work out. Once the pace though is set and the story begins in earnest then you want to keep going and learning more. The book reminds me a bit of the first “Anita Blake” book.
The mythology of this book is well thought out and great care is given to it. Kolodziej is building a world here, not just a novel. I bet if you asked her she could tell you 10 generations of Faith’s ancestors, names and all. Even if she can’t, the book feels like she could.
Admittedly I am not the target audience for this sort of tale. I prefer my vampires darker, my witches more mysterious and werewolves as ravaging beasts. That all being said there is a good tale here and an interesting set of myths. This could very well be the start of a new series of modern supernatural novels that everyone will be talking about, and if not it is also an enjoyable read and in the end isn’t what we want? Kolodziej shares her world with us and we all enjoy it.
I am pleased to hear there is a second book coming. She has built up a lot mythology here and there is plenty for a lot of books.
Lost my Projects Drive
Damn.
I work on a lot of projects. Maybe too many to be honest, but they help keep my sanity.
So imagine my horror this morning when I could not find my projects flash drive.
IT's a tiny thing really. 8 gigs, black. But on it were WORLDS. It had my drafts to a couple of Old School projects I was working on. It had my complete draft of my "new" old-school campaign world "Eire". Dozens of characters for a few different games. About 2 gigs worth of PDFs. A few reviews of some books I was reading. Some new adventures for Ghosts of Albion.
Nothing I can't replace or rebuild in time, but irritating all the same. Well the review I have to restart from scratch and the three books I only have the last backed-up versions.
Not at all happy this morning.
I work on a lot of projects. Maybe too many to be honest, but they help keep my sanity.
So imagine my horror this morning when I could not find my projects flash drive.
IT's a tiny thing really. 8 gigs, black. But on it were WORLDS. It had my drafts to a couple of Old School projects I was working on. It had my complete draft of my "new" old-school campaign world "Eire". Dozens of characters for a few different games. About 2 gigs worth of PDFs. A few reviews of some books I was reading. Some new adventures for Ghosts of Albion.
Nothing I can't replace or rebuild in time, but irritating all the same. Well the review I have to restart from scratch and the three books I only have the last backed-up versions.
Not at all happy this morning.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Review: The Nameless City
The Nameless City is built in the same vein of the old TSR S-Series, the same that gave us Tomb of Horrors and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. The adventure is for higher level characters, 7 to 10, and the adventure is certainly a deadly one.
The adventure itself is something of a cross between a dungeon crawl and an H.P. Lovecraft story (the Nameless City in fact). There are plenty of degenerate lizard men, a cult to a forgotten god ala Lair of the White Worm, undead galore and of course dinosaurs and crazy snake-people cultists.
While there is nothing per se new here, it is all put together in a rather interesting and fun way. Yes this adventure is dangerous. The first room is enough to kill most parties and they have not even gotten into the city yet.
There is a bit of "old school ecology" here, ie monsters seem to be here for the sole purpose to be killed, but that is fine really and the adventure does give reasons why everything is in the place it is in.
The maps are nice, but I like mine a bit larger, but that's fine.
The plot is thin, but more robust than most of the old school modules it emulates and it does, I think, exactly what it was setting out to do.
What do I like about this?
Well the obvious and acknowledged nod to both Lovecraft and the dungeon crawls of old are nice.
Killing undead is always a plus in my book.
Loved the desert setting. Investigating pyramids is always a blast.
Snake-People as secretive cultist like bad guys pretty much moves anything to the top of my list.
So this adventure succeeds for me on many levels.
I would have liked some more art sure, but what is there is very useful and the rest I guess is up to me and m players. Again, bigger maps would have been nice.
The Nameless City comes in two flavors, S&W Complete or Core Rules/OSRIC version and a S&W White Box Version. The rules are the same, except where needed and the monster stat blocks differ. Of course either version should work well with any version of D&D or it's clones you desire. Heck even with a very, very minor amount of tweaking I bet it would work well with 4th Edition, Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds or even Ghosts of Albion. If I were Mythmere games I'd be looking into a CoC version myself.
The Nameless City is fun adventure and one that can be run in an afternoon or so. And for the price it is a steal.
- The Nameless City: Swords & Wizardry Complete or Core Rules/OSRIC version
- The Nameless City: Swords & Wizardry White Box version
5 out of 5 stars
Willow & Tara: Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition
Willow & Tara: Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition
I have been on a Mutants and Masterminds 3.0 kick of late. I like M&M and I love the new 3rd Edition game. So really it was only a matter of time before I tried out my favorite witches in the new system.
I have done Willow and Tara before for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed. But my write-ups were straight conversions of Unisystem and that might not have worked as well as I thought. So with this I went back to who and what the characters are and stated them up from the ground up. I kept many of the same powers and skills, or at least tried to.
I set the girls at PL 10. I did PL 11 previously with 2nd ed and they ended up being really super-powered. Granted, that is fine for me, but I wanted to see what I could do with PL 10 and going by the book. Willow has more powers/spells under Witchcraft, but Tara still has her healing ability and minion in MKF II.
Given that this is for the 3rd edition version of M&M and I was working on a 3rd season for Willow and Tara called "Generation HEX" I am going to combine them together into one. Only fair really since Generation HEX's genesis was in my attempt to add more M&M and BESM style play to my games. In this case this Willow and Tara share a lot of the same history as the ones in my Unisystem games. It is 2011 and they are still together, celebrating 10 years as a couple.
Don't know if they are living in the same world as Justice, but I'd like to think so if I can figure out how, but they are certainly living in the same world with Tarot.
For the purposes of a game I would want them (or at least Tara) be teacher(s) at the local School for the Gifted. For M&M 2nd ed this would be Claremont Academy and I still like that idea.
Willow Rosenberg
PL 10
Strength 0, Stamina 1, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 6, Awareness 4, Presence 2
Advantages
Artificer, Attractive 2, Benefit, Wealth 3 (millionare), Equipment 1, Extraordinary Effort, Inspire, Languages 4, Occult Library, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise (Magic)), Teamwork, Well-informed
Skills
Expertise (Magic) 14 (+20), Expertise (Science) 12 (+18), Insight 4 (+8), Investigation 4 (+10), Perception 2 (+6), Persuasion 1 (+3), Ranged Combat (Arcane Blast: Blast 10) 1 (+1), Sleight of Hand 1 (+1), Technology 10 (+16), Treatment 8 (+14), Vehicles 1 (+1)
Powers
Magickal Senses: Senses 8 (magic, Awareness: Magical, Counters Illusion: Magical, Detect: Magical 2 (ranged), Postcognition (Limited): Touch, Radius: Magical; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank))
Telekinesis: Move Object 4 (mystic, 800 lbs.; Concentration)
Throw Object: Blast 2 (Alternate; magic, DC 17; Diminished Range)
Witchcraft: Magic 12 ([10 active, 30/38 PP, 3/r], DC 25; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank), Multiattack)
Arcane Blast: Blast 10 (Alternate; DC 25; Distracting, Noticeable (Light flare))
Astral Projection (Alternate; Activation: Move Action)
Computer Link: Other Communication 5 (Alternate; Sense Type: Computer Link; Linked (Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing 13))
Flight: Flight 10 (Alternate; Speed: 2000 miles/hour, 4 miles/round; Concentration)
Forget: Mind Control 1 (Alternate; mind, DC 11)
Glamour: Illusion 5 (Alternate; magic, Affects: All Sense Types, Area: 30 cft., DC 15)
Magic Sheild: Force Field 20 (Alternate; +20 Toughness)
Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing 13 (Alternate; Affects: 2 Types, inc. Visual - Vision and Hearing, Range: 30 miles; Linked (Magickal Senses: Senses 8) [4 extra ranks]; Concentration)
Telepathy: Mental Communication 5 (Alternate; Advantages: Extended distance with Willow; Distracting)
Teleport: Teleport 10 (Alternate; 4 miles in a move action, carrying 50 lbs.)
Veil: Concealment 10 (Alternate; All Senses)
Equipment
Ritual Tools 1, Cell Phone (Smartphone), Computer
Offense
Initiative +0
Arcane Blast: Blast 10, +1 (DC 25)
Forget: Mind Control 1 (DC Will 11)
Grab, +0 (DC Spec 10)
Telekinesis: Move Object 4, +0 (DC 14)
Throw, +0 (DC 15)
Throw Object: Blast 2, +0 (DC 17)
Unarmed, +0 (DC 15)
Witchcraft: Magic 12, +0 (DC 25)
Complications
Prejudice: Jewish Lesbian Wicca
Relationship: Tara
Languages
English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Russian
Defense
Dodge 3, Parry 0, Fortitude 5, Toughness 1, Will 7
Power Points
Abilities 26 + Powers 65 + Advantages 20 + Skills 29 (58 ranks) + Defenses 10 = 150
Tara Maclay
PL 10
Strength 1, Stamina 1, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 3, Awareness 5, Presence 2
Advantages
Animal Empathy, Artificer, Attractive, Benefit, Wealth (well-off), Equipment 3, Extraordinary Effort, Inspire, Languages 4, Minion 2, Occult Library, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise (Magic)), Teamwork, Well-informed
Skills
Expertise (Horse Riding) 4 (+7), Expertise (Humanities) 8 (+11), Expertise (Magic) 10 (+13), Insight 8 (+13), Investigation 5 (+8), Perception 2 (+7), Persuasion 2 (+4), Ranged Combat (Arcane Blast: Blast 10) 2 (+2), Sleight of Hand 2 (+2), Technology 2 (+5), Treatment 8 (+11), Vehicles 1 (+1)
Powers
Magickal Senses: Senses 8 (magic, Awareness: Magical, Counters Illusion: Magical, Detect: Magical 2 (ranged), Postcognition (Limited): Touch, Radius: Magical; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank))
Mystic Healing: Healing 9 (Activation (move action), Limited (Touch only))
Telekinesis: Move Object 4 (mystic, 800 lbs.; Concentration)
Throw Object: Blast 2 (Alternate; magic, DC 17; Diminished Range)
Witchcraft: Magic 11 ([9 active, 27/35 PP, 3/r], DC 24; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank), Multiattack)
Arcane Blast: Blast 10 (Alternate; DC 25; Distracting, Noticeable (Light flare))
Astral Projection (Alternate; Activation: Move Action)
Flight: Flight 10 (Alternate; Speed: 2000 miles/hour, 4 miles/round; Concentration)
Glamour: Illusion 5 (Alternate; magic, Affects: All Sense Types, Area: 30 cft., DC 15)
Magic Sheild: Force Field 14 (Alternate; +14 Toughness)
Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing 12 (Alternate; Affects: 2 Types, inc. Visual - Vision and Hearing, Range: 16 miles; Linked (Magickal Senses: Senses 8) [4 extra ranks]; Concentration)
Telepathy: Mental Communication 5 (Alternate; Advantages: Extended distance with Willow; Distracting)
Teleport: Teleport 10 (Alternate; 4 miles in a move action, carrying 50 lbs.)
Equipment
Apartment, Athame 1, Car, Cell Phone (Smartphone), Computer
Offense
Initiative +0
Arcane Blast: Blast 10, +2 (DC 25)
Grab, +0 (DC Spec 11)
Telekinesis: Move Object 4, +0 (DC 14)
Throw, +0 (DC 16)
Throw Object: Blast 2, +0 (DC 17)
Unarmed, +0 (DC 16)
Witchcraft: Magic 11, +0 (DC 24)
Complications
Prejudice: Lesbian Wicca
Relationship: Willow
Languages
English, French, Gaelic, Greek, Japanese, Latin
Defense
Dodge 4, Parry 0, Fortitude 4, Toughness 1, Will 8
Power Points
Abilities 24 + Powers 67 + Advantages 22 + Skills 27 (54 ranks) + Defenses 10 = 150
Minion - Miss Kitty Fantastico II - PL 10
Strength 0, Stamina 0, Agility 2, Dexterity 2, Fighting 1, Intellect 1, Awareness 1, Presence 1
Skills
Athletics 2 (+2), Close Combat (????) 1 (+2), Deception 1 (+2), Insight 1 (+2), Perception 3 (+4), Stealth 4 (+6)
Powers
Fly: Flight 2 (Speed: 8 miles/hour, 120 feet/round; Wings) - MKF has wings that fold up on to her back and stay hidden unless she is using them.
Luck Control: Luck Control 1 (Negate Luck) - she is a black cat after all.
Mental Link: Mental Communication 1 (Sense Type: Telepathy; Limited (only with Willow and Tara))
Offense
Initiative +2
Grab, +1 (DC Spec 10)
Throw, +2 (DC 15)
Unarmed, +1 (DC 15)
Complications
Quirk: Lazy
Quirk: Curious
Languages
Cat, Telepathy
Defense
Dodge 2, Parry 1, Fortitude 0, Toughness 0, Will 1
Power Points
Abilities 16 + Powers 8 + Advantages 0 + Skills 6 (12 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 30
All in all I like them, but would like to hear what the experts have to say.
Tara gets the car (specially designed hybrid Subaru Outback), apartment and MKF II on her sheet to spread the points around. Willow is brilliant and the most power witch on the planet maybe, but she considers Tara to be just as potent. Both girls have Wealth, in my games Willow sold her software company, Red Witch, and remained on as their paid consultant. This gives her freedom to work when she wants and still have money. Red Witch makes the world best computer security systems; and all have a back door that only Willow knows how to access.
In my WitchCraft game, Tara has more Essence or magical energy than Willow does, not sure how replicate that here.
Note: That fantastic bit of art up there is from David Reynolds, one half of the brilliant ShadowGirls comic team.
I have been on a Mutants and Masterminds 3.0 kick of late. I like M&M and I love the new 3rd Edition game. So really it was only a matter of time before I tried out my favorite witches in the new system.
I have done Willow and Tara before for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed. But my write-ups were straight conversions of Unisystem and that might not have worked as well as I thought. So with this I went back to who and what the characters are and stated them up from the ground up. I kept many of the same powers and skills, or at least tried to.
"Willow and Tara" by David Reynolds
I set the girls at PL 10. I did PL 11 previously with 2nd ed and they ended up being really super-powered. Granted, that is fine for me, but I wanted to see what I could do with PL 10 and going by the book. Willow has more powers/spells under Witchcraft, but Tara still has her healing ability and minion in MKF II.
Given that this is for the 3rd edition version of M&M and I was working on a 3rd season for Willow and Tara called "Generation HEX" I am going to combine them together into one. Only fair really since Generation HEX's genesis was in my attempt to add more M&M and BESM style play to my games. In this case this Willow and Tara share a lot of the same history as the ones in my Unisystem games. It is 2011 and they are still together, celebrating 10 years as a couple.
Don't know if they are living in the same world as Justice, but I'd like to think so if I can figure out how, but they are certainly living in the same world with Tarot.
For the purposes of a game I would want them (or at least Tara) be teacher(s) at the local School for the Gifted. For M&M 2nd ed this would be Claremont Academy and I still like that idea.
Willow Rosenberg
PL 10
Strength 0, Stamina 1, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 6, Awareness 4, Presence 2
Advantages
Artificer, Attractive 2, Benefit, Wealth 3 (millionare), Equipment 1, Extraordinary Effort, Inspire, Languages 4, Occult Library, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise (Magic)), Teamwork, Well-informed
Skills
Expertise (Magic) 14 (+20), Expertise (Science) 12 (+18), Insight 4 (+8), Investigation 4 (+10), Perception 2 (+6), Persuasion 1 (+3), Ranged Combat (Arcane Blast: Blast 10) 1 (+1), Sleight of Hand 1 (+1), Technology 10 (+16), Treatment 8 (+14), Vehicles 1 (+1)
Powers
Magickal Senses: Senses 8 (magic, Awareness: Magical, Counters Illusion: Magical, Detect: Magical 2 (ranged), Postcognition (Limited): Touch, Radius: Magical; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank))
Telekinesis: Move Object 4 (mystic, 800 lbs.; Concentration)
Throw Object: Blast 2 (Alternate; magic, DC 17; Diminished Range)
Witchcraft: Magic 12 ([10 active, 30/38 PP, 3/r], DC 25; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank), Multiattack)
Arcane Blast: Blast 10 (Alternate; DC 25; Distracting, Noticeable (Light flare))
Astral Projection (Alternate; Activation: Move Action)
Computer Link: Other Communication 5 (Alternate; Sense Type: Computer Link; Linked (Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing 13))
Flight: Flight 10 (Alternate; Speed: 2000 miles/hour, 4 miles/round; Concentration)
Forget: Mind Control 1 (Alternate; mind, DC 11)
Glamour: Illusion 5 (Alternate; magic, Affects: All Sense Types, Area: 30 cft., DC 15)
Magic Sheild: Force Field 20 (Alternate; +20 Toughness)
Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing 13 (Alternate; Affects: 2 Types, inc. Visual - Vision and Hearing, Range: 30 miles; Linked (Magickal Senses: Senses 8) [4 extra ranks]; Concentration)
Telepathy: Mental Communication 5 (Alternate; Advantages: Extended distance with Willow; Distracting)
Teleport: Teleport 10 (Alternate; 4 miles in a move action, carrying 50 lbs.)
Veil: Concealment 10 (Alternate; All Senses)
Equipment
Ritual Tools 1, Cell Phone (Smartphone), Computer
Offense
Initiative +0
Arcane Blast: Blast 10, +1 (DC 25)
Forget: Mind Control 1 (DC Will 11)
Grab, +0 (DC Spec 10)
Telekinesis: Move Object 4, +0 (DC 14)
Throw, +0 (DC 15)
Throw Object: Blast 2, +0 (DC 17)
Unarmed, +0 (DC 15)
Witchcraft: Magic 12, +0 (DC 25)
Complications
Prejudice: Jewish Lesbian Wicca
Relationship: Tara
Languages
English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Russian
Defense
Dodge 3, Parry 0, Fortitude 5, Toughness 1, Will 7
Power Points
Abilities 26 + Powers 65 + Advantages 20 + Skills 29 (58 ranks) + Defenses 10 = 150
Tara Maclay
PL 10
Strength 1, Stamina 1, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 3, Awareness 5, Presence 2
Advantages
Animal Empathy, Artificer, Attractive, Benefit, Wealth (well-off), Equipment 3, Extraordinary Effort, Inspire, Languages 4, Minion 2, Occult Library, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise (Magic)), Teamwork, Well-informed
Skills
Expertise (Horse Riding) 4 (+7), Expertise (Humanities) 8 (+11), Expertise (Magic) 10 (+13), Insight 8 (+13), Investigation 5 (+8), Perception 2 (+7), Persuasion 2 (+4), Ranged Combat (Arcane Blast: Blast 10) 2 (+2), Sleight of Hand 2 (+2), Technology 2 (+5), Treatment 8 (+11), Vehicles 1 (+1)
Powers
Magickal Senses: Senses 8 (magic, Awareness: Magical, Counters Illusion: Magical, Detect: Magical 2 (ranged), Postcognition (Limited): Touch, Radius: Magical; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank))
Mystic Healing: Healing 9 (Activation (move action), Limited (Touch only))
Telekinesis: Move Object 4 (mystic, 800 lbs.; Concentration)
Throw Object: Blast 2 (Alternate; magic, DC 17; Diminished Range)
Witchcraft: Magic 11 ([9 active, 27/35 PP, 3/r], DC 24; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank), Multiattack)
Arcane Blast: Blast 10 (Alternate; DC 25; Distracting, Noticeable (Light flare))
Astral Projection (Alternate; Activation: Move Action)
Flight: Flight 10 (Alternate; Speed: 2000 miles/hour, 4 miles/round; Concentration)
Glamour: Illusion 5 (Alternate; magic, Affects: All Sense Types, Area: 30 cft., DC 15)
Magic Sheild: Force Field 14 (Alternate; +14 Toughness)
Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing 12 (Alternate; Affects: 2 Types, inc. Visual - Vision and Hearing, Range: 16 miles; Linked (Magickal Senses: Senses 8) [4 extra ranks]; Concentration)
Telepathy: Mental Communication 5 (Alternate; Advantages: Extended distance with Willow; Distracting)
Teleport: Teleport 10 (Alternate; 4 miles in a move action, carrying 50 lbs.)
Equipment
Apartment, Athame 1, Car, Cell Phone (Smartphone), Computer
Offense
Initiative +0
Arcane Blast: Blast 10, +2 (DC 25)
Grab, +0 (DC Spec 11)
Telekinesis: Move Object 4, +0 (DC 14)
Throw, +0 (DC 16)
Throw Object: Blast 2, +0 (DC 17)
Unarmed, +0 (DC 16)
Witchcraft: Magic 11, +0 (DC 24)
Complications
Prejudice: Lesbian Wicca
Relationship: Willow
Languages
English, French, Gaelic, Greek, Japanese, Latin
Defense
Dodge 4, Parry 0, Fortitude 4, Toughness 1, Will 8
Power Points
Abilities 24 + Powers 67 + Advantages 22 + Skills 27 (54 ranks) + Defenses 10 = 150
Minion - Miss Kitty Fantastico II - PL 10
Strength 0, Stamina 0, Agility 2, Dexterity 2, Fighting 1, Intellect 1, Awareness 1, Presence 1
Skills
Athletics 2 (+2), Close Combat (????) 1 (+2), Deception 1 (+2), Insight 1 (+2), Perception 3 (+4), Stealth 4 (+6)
Powers
Fly: Flight 2 (Speed: 8 miles/hour, 120 feet/round; Wings) - MKF has wings that fold up on to her back and stay hidden unless she is using them.
Luck Control: Luck Control 1 (Negate Luck) - she is a black cat after all.
Mental Link: Mental Communication 1 (Sense Type: Telepathy; Limited (only with Willow and Tara))
Offense
Initiative +2
Grab, +1 (DC Spec 10)
Throw, +2 (DC 15)
Unarmed, +1 (DC 15)
Complications
Quirk: Lazy
Quirk: Curious
Languages
Cat, Telepathy
Defense
Dodge 2, Parry 1, Fortitude 0, Toughness 0, Will 1
Power Points
Abilities 16 + Powers 8 + Advantages 0 + Skills 6 (12 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 30
All in all I like them, but would like to hear what the experts have to say.
Tara gets the car (specially designed hybrid Subaru Outback), apartment and MKF II on her sheet to spread the points around. Willow is brilliant and the most power witch on the planet maybe, but she considers Tara to be just as potent. Both girls have Wealth, in my games Willow sold her software company, Red Witch, and remained on as their paid consultant. This gives her freedom to work when she wants and still have money. Red Witch makes the world best computer security systems; and all have a back door that only Willow knows how to access.
In my WitchCraft game, Tara has more Essence or magical energy than Willow does, not sure how replicate that here.
Note: That fantastic bit of art up there is from David Reynolds, one half of the brilliant ShadowGirls comic team.
International Woman's Day
Note: I am cross-posting this on the Wonder Woman blog, Amazon Princess as well.
Today is International Woman's Day.
While I think that is great thing I have to ask why more than half of the population only gets one day? Shouldn't women get Spring and Summer and men get Fall and Winter? Anyway I am not here to debate. William Moulton Marston envisioned a world where women would be more highly regarded than they were in his own time (and even than they are now), but failing that at least we can honor his ideals on this day with a picture of one his greatest creations; Wonder Woman.
From the DC Women Kicking Ass and Girls Gone Geek.
Don't see Fire, Ice or Zatanna in the pic though. Oh well it is still awesome.
Today is International Woman's Day.
While I think that is great thing I have to ask why more than half of the population only gets one day? Shouldn't women get Spring and Summer and men get Fall and Winter? Anyway I am not here to debate. William Moulton Marston envisioned a world where women would be more highly regarded than they were in his own time (and even than they are now), but failing that at least we can honor his ideals on this day with a picture of one his greatest creations; Wonder Woman.
From the DC Women Kicking Ass and Girls Gone Geek.
Don't see Fire, Ice or Zatanna in the pic though. Oh well it is still awesome.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Finally got my Expert Set!
So here is a story and it is a familiar one. Young boy in the early 80's playing Atari and listening to Thomas Dolby gets the gift that will change everything, the D&D Basic set. Later, with his well earned and saved money he buys the D&D Expert set. Life is pretty good. Advanced books follow. Boy becomes a young man and moves away to college. Books are taken in some moves, left at parents in others, many years later that milk crate of D&D books, including those once prized Basic and Expert sets (and a crap ton of AD&D hardcovers) have disappeared.
Sad tale to be sure.
Well no more, because after years of looking (albeit not very hard) I finally got a decent looking Expert set.
The box has some wear, yes, but let's look inside.
The books themselves are in fantastic shape. Almost mint I would go as far to say.
Much better than the one I had (bought a couple years back),
The box also had a near mint AD&D 1st ED DM's screen and a full booklet of AD&D NPC record sheets.
Of course now I have four copies of X1, Ilse of the Dread; three of them in near mint condition.
This was pretty much the last thing I wanted to buy. Now my long lost collection is complete again. Well, I don't have the Dungeon or Wilderness Survival Guides, but that's fine.
Sad tale to be sure.
Well no more, because after years of looking (albeit not very hard) I finally got a decent looking Expert set.
The box has some wear, yes, but let's look inside.
The books themselves are in fantastic shape. Almost mint I would go as far to say.
Much better than the one I had (bought a couple years back),
The box also had a near mint AD&D 1st ED DM's screen and a full booklet of AD&D NPC record sheets.
Of course now I have four copies of X1, Ilse of the Dread; three of them in near mint condition.
This was pretty much the last thing I wanted to buy. Now my long lost collection is complete again. Well, I don't have the Dungeon or Wilderness Survival Guides, but that's fine.
They Don't Write 'em Like that Anymore
A while later I was able to get my hands on some old White Dwarf magazines, issues #1 through #50. Most of them were there as well but not all of them were in great shape.
But beyond the quality of the magazines and how much (or rather how little) I paid for them, reading them was pure joy. Even if I was not actually playing the versions of the games they were talking about (this was during the 2nd Ed era and into the 3rd Ed one) they were still fantastic. Some stuff was good, some was bad, but all of it was earnest and just plain fun to read.
I get that same feeling while reading Oubliette.
I just picked up Issue #5 and I have others, but this issue really gave me the same feeling as reading a newly discovered fan magazine from the late 70s. There is nothing that stands out as special to me in this issue, it is just the whole package that I enjoy. It was interesting to see the Monstermark system again, having seen it in my collected issues of White Dwarf and still not getting it. I liked the "advanced" vampires too.
The art is very evocative of the old school style seen in Dragon, White Dwarf and The Dungeoneer magazines.
I hope we can see more from The Oubliette!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Exploring Characters
I like exploring characters. I guess this means I am a "role-player" more than I am "Dungeon Crawler". I like to explore my characters, figure out what makes them tick. I'd rather loose to a monster in way that advances the plot or characterization than kill the monster and get the treasure in what was otherwise a roll of the dice.
I guess that is just one more hit to my old-school street cred.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Reviews: Can't Sleep, Clown Will Eat Me edition
Some reviews while I can't sleep.
Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Adventures HC
I picked this up at the same time I did the True20 version.
This is one of the best Arthurian legends games I have read in a good long time. The text is very readable, the layout is very well done and the maps are fantastic.
The use of the d20 system here is nice, but lacks the elegance of the True20 version.
You do get a number of very good feats and prestige classes here though so that evens it out some.
If you are a fan of Arthur in any of it's many re-tellings then this is a fantastic game to own.
5 out of 5 stars.
Fantasy Women Clipart JPEG 7
20 clip art images to use in your games. All are 3D "poser" style computer images, so their utility for certain styles of play might be limited. But all in all they are not bad and the price is fine.
4 out of 5 stars.
Solid! The d20 Blaxploitation Experience
A very interesting take on a little traveled genre in RPGs. While the rules are firmly within the d20 Modern ruleset, there are bit of interesting crunch here and there to make it worthwhile. But where this game shines really is as a guide to the Blaxplotation film genre and history. If you want to run any type of game, regardless of the system, set in the 70’s then this is a good place to start.
Damnation Decade
I have a love/hate relationship with the 70s. I grew up in the 70s and have good memories of them. Loved classic rock, hated disco. Loved the new age occult revival, could have cared less about some of the other stuff. I grew up then, but consider myself a child of the 80s.
Damnation Decade though is the pure raw distillation of everything 70s, good and bad, into one awesome game. It is a historical game, in the same way Ghosts of Albion is about 1839. Damnation Decade takes a wrong turn in 1974 down a dead end. The world is sort of like ours, yet also very different in some key respects. Damnation Decade is also quite possibly the one RPG product to ever tacitly or implicitly illustrate that things under President Ford could have been a lot worse that what we really got. Reading through Damnation Decade is at the same time a trip down memory lane and an exercise in identifying puns and analogues to our real world. Green Ronin: did we really need a world where folk singer Edmund Fitzgerald sings about the Wreck of the Gordon Lightfoot? But I guess you are forgiven by giving us the first RPG product to feature a real Fantasy Island.
It reminds me of Solid!, which is also about the 70's. If Solid! is Parliament, then Damnation Decade is Grand Funk Railroad. Damnation Decade though gives something that Solid lacks; memorable NPCs. Sure if you can get past that most of them are amalgams of 4 or 5 70s figures, for example Humboldt Suede is not just a bad Hugh Heffner rip-off, he is part Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione AND the Son of Satan. Though some are original enough to be useful outside the 70s atmosphere; Theramin Hunker for example could work well (maybe even better) in 21st Century games full of conspiracies.
Damnation Decade works great as a d20 game AND it has a True20 appendix that might even be better.
Plus that cover rocks.
5 out of 5 stars.
Bunnies And Burrows
The premier RPG of playing something other than a human or anything humanoid. It is basically "Watership Down" the role-playing game, but there is much more to it than that.
It would be disingenious to review it with modern eyes (it is nearly 35 years old now) but it has a very good skill system, and one of the first to be honest. Since the characters are rabbits, there is not much in the way of combat and instead a focus is placed on solving problems and role-playing.
5 out of 5 stars.
Dreaming Cities: Tri-Stat Urban Fantasy Genre
Dreaming Cities was one of the first attempts I had seen of putting together a good Urban Fantasy game that was not also trying to do horror. Sure we had Urban Arcana for d20 and a few others, but this one felt a bit different to me. At least at first. So the real feature of this game is the background information and how they make Urban Fantasy work for them.
The game system itself is Tri-Stat which at this point was mostly the same as BESM 2nd Ed-Revised and SAS. If you know the powers and rules for those you have the same things here.
The real meat for this game comes in only around page 70 when we see how to apply these character rules into archetypes to work in Urban Fantasy. Many seem cribbed from other versions of Tri-Stat/BESM/SAS games, but that is fine.
The rest of the book talks about how to make an Urban Fantasy game work. Like the treatment SAS gave the 70+ year history of comic book heroes, DC tells about the modern urban fantasy genre. There is a quite a bit of crunch mixed in with text on how a modern society deals with things like magic, pixies, zombies, demons and dragons and visa versa.
GoO and Tri-Stat are gone, sad to say, but this game is still worthwhile and has a lot going for it. If you play a modern horror game or a modern supernatural one where magic and supernatural are still hidden, then this is a refreshing little breather.
IT’s not D&D with guns and computers mind you. It is however something very fun.
The rules suffer the same pros and cons as SAS, BESM and the rest of the Tri-Stat family. There is not a lot here that is new in terms of rules, just new ways to use them.
The text is clear and the art is very good.
4 out of 5 stars.
ION Guard
Bash! Edition
ICONS Edition
If you need a reason to buy BASH or ICONS then this is it. At just about 60 pages this supplement presents the Intergalactic Ordinance Network Guard or ION Guard, an intergalatic police force defending the universe from all sorts of bad guys.
Yes we have seen this before, but the the presentation in this book is so enduring you ignore the obvious DNA of this product and just pull on your ION Fist, say your Oath and protect the Galaxy. NPCs are detailed as well as bad guys for you to fight. The layout of the book is awesome and I honestly can't say enough good about it.
Dislike: would have liked to see more bad guys.
5 out of 5 stars.
Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Adventures HC
I picked this up at the same time I did the True20 version.
This is one of the best Arthurian legends games I have read in a good long time. The text is very readable, the layout is very well done and the maps are fantastic.
The use of the d20 system here is nice, but lacks the elegance of the True20 version.
You do get a number of very good feats and prestige classes here though so that evens it out some.
If you are a fan of Arthur in any of it's many re-tellings then this is a fantastic game to own.
5 out of 5 stars.
Fantasy Women Clipart JPEG 7
20 clip art images to use in your games. All are 3D "poser" style computer images, so their utility for certain styles of play might be limited. But all in all they are not bad and the price is fine.
4 out of 5 stars.
Solid! The d20 Blaxploitation Experience
A very interesting take on a little traveled genre in RPGs. While the rules are firmly within the d20 Modern ruleset, there are bit of interesting crunch here and there to make it worthwhile. But where this game shines really is as a guide to the Blaxplotation film genre and history. If you want to run any type of game, regardless of the system, set in the 70’s then this is a good place to start.
Damnation Decade
Damnation Decade though is the pure raw distillation of everything 70s, good and bad, into one awesome game. It is a historical game, in the same way Ghosts of Albion is about 1839. Damnation Decade takes a wrong turn in 1974 down a dead end. The world is sort of like ours, yet also very different in some key respects. Damnation Decade is also quite possibly the one RPG product to ever tacitly or implicitly illustrate that things under President Ford could have been a lot worse that what we really got. Reading through Damnation Decade is at the same time a trip down memory lane and an exercise in identifying puns and analogues to our real world. Green Ronin: did we really need a world where folk singer Edmund Fitzgerald sings about the Wreck of the Gordon Lightfoot? But I guess you are forgiven by giving us the first RPG product to feature a real Fantasy Island.
It reminds me of Solid!, which is also about the 70's. If Solid! is Parliament, then Damnation Decade is Grand Funk Railroad. Damnation Decade though gives something that Solid lacks; memorable NPCs. Sure if you can get past that most of them are amalgams of 4 or 5 70s figures, for example Humboldt Suede is not just a bad Hugh Heffner rip-off, he is part Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione AND the Son of Satan. Though some are original enough to be useful outside the 70s atmosphere; Theramin Hunker for example could work well (maybe even better) in 21st Century games full of conspiracies.
Damnation Decade works great as a d20 game AND it has a True20 appendix that might even be better.
Plus that cover rocks.
5 out of 5 stars.
Bunnies And Burrows
The premier RPG of playing something other than a human or anything humanoid. It is basically "Watership Down" the role-playing game, but there is much more to it than that.
It would be disingenious to review it with modern eyes (it is nearly 35 years old now) but it has a very good skill system, and one of the first to be honest. Since the characters are rabbits, there is not much in the way of combat and instead a focus is placed on solving problems and role-playing.
5 out of 5 stars.
Dreaming Cities: Tri-Stat Urban Fantasy Genre
The game system itself is Tri-Stat which at this point was mostly the same as BESM 2nd Ed-Revised and SAS. If you know the powers and rules for those you have the same things here.
The real meat for this game comes in only around page 70 when we see how to apply these character rules into archetypes to work in Urban Fantasy. Many seem cribbed from other versions of Tri-Stat/BESM/SAS games, but that is fine.
The rest of the book talks about how to make an Urban Fantasy game work. Like the treatment SAS gave the 70+ year history of comic book heroes, DC tells about the modern urban fantasy genre. There is a quite a bit of crunch mixed in with text on how a modern society deals with things like magic, pixies, zombies, demons and dragons and visa versa.
GoO and Tri-Stat are gone, sad to say, but this game is still worthwhile and has a lot going for it. If you play a modern horror game or a modern supernatural one where magic and supernatural are still hidden, then this is a refreshing little breather.
IT’s not D&D with guns and computers mind you. It is however something very fun.
The rules suffer the same pros and cons as SAS, BESM and the rest of the Tri-Stat family. There is not a lot here that is new in terms of rules, just new ways to use them.
The text is clear and the art is very good.
4 out of 5 stars.
ION Guard
ICONS Edition
If you need a reason to buy BASH or ICONS then this is it. At just about 60 pages this supplement presents the Intergalactic Ordinance Network Guard or ION Guard, an intergalatic police force defending the universe from all sorts of bad guys.
Yes we have seen this before, but the the presentation in this book is so enduring you ignore the obvious DNA of this product and just pull on your ION Fist, say your Oath and protect the Galaxy. NPCs are detailed as well as bad guys for you to fight. The layout of the book is awesome and I honestly can't say enough good about it.
Dislike: would have liked to see more bad guys.
5 out of 5 stars.
Zatannurday: Killing Joke
But take any game changing moment like that and it is ripe for others to want to look at it anew.
The "Brave and the Bold" banner is for various team ups from across the DC line. One of last year's best was The Brave and the Bold #33, a team up of Z, Wonder Woman and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon). OR My three top comicbook loves of all time. Of course it is a powerful piece, but not in the way you expect.
Now I was never a fan of Babylon 5, but I have always sorta liked J. Michael Straczynski as a writer. He has given me reasons not to like him in the past, but this does not disappoint.
It takes place the day before Barbara's shooting and Zatanna has a vision. We don't know that though. We just know it Z and WW and they want to take Barbara for a girls night out of dancing.
You can see more here: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1855423.html
Obviously if you have not read The Killing Joke then the emotional impact will not be the same, but if you have then...well, you will have to read it for yourself I think.
-- Spoilers --
Honestly that is some pretty powerful stuff there.
Close up, http://www.dadsbigplan.com/2010/04/comic-rack-the-brave-and-the-bold-33/
Here are some reviews I found interesting, each having a slightly different take
http://allthiscrap.blogspot.com/2010/04/brave-and-bold-33-ladies-night-review.html
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=2155
http://acomicbookblog.com/channel/dc-comics-blog/the-brave-and-the-bold-33-review/
I had no problems with Zee and Wonder Woman not being able to help Babs. Afterall Zatanna doesn't know when it will all happen anyway and she is sure that if she interferes it will only make things worse. I also don't have an issue with her precognition; she is magical and weird stuff like that happens sometimes.
And because I can, here is a pic of Batgirl and Zatanna reading the comic.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Review: Haunts and Horrors
Haunts and Horrors
I love horror games. I love reading new ones, trying new ones and each time I try to do or learn something new. So it was is with great interest that I got the new “Haunts and Horrors” RPG (H+H RPG).
H+H RPG is a 126 page book. The art is predominantly public domain with some other pieces that are newer, but all are black and white. I bring this up for two reasons, first off the art is sparse which gives the book a “less than polished look” but the art is also thematically appropriate for the tone of the game. While I like newer art in a game, I think this works well for this game. The layout looks like a simple affair with clip-art borders.
H+H RPG is a fairly typical RPG, it starts out with “What is an RPG?” to Character Creation. I like the starting age effects starting XP section. It is an interesting take on how to deal with starting at different ages.
Points are given to buy attributes, skills and edges and disadvantages dependent on starting age.
Attributes are mentioned (Strength, Size, Willpower…) and then abbreviations are used (STR, SIZ, WIP) but nothing connecting the two. Granted a semi-experienced gamer could figure it out, but a novice will be scratching their head for a second or two. There are some generated secondary attributes as well, including something called “Killing Power Adjustment” which seems a bit off in a horror game; not that things don’t kill things, but often killing is not the focus, but I am fine with it. There is a section of previous experience which is interesting.
Lots of disadvantages (not sure why hay fever is worth more than partially deaf or partially blind, or why it was not just folded into Allergy). Though it does a much better job with the mental drawbacks than most games (eg it makes Multiple Personality Disorder different from Schizophrenia, a pet peeve of mine). Disadvantages are bought with points, any extra disadvantage points have to be bought off with experience points. I like that to be honest. It casts disadvantages in a different light. Instead of using disadvantages as a means to gain extra points, but rather as something that must be bought off. For a horror game it is a good model.
The skill system reminds of me a bit of Chill. Some will find this refreshingly “old school” others might find it “old” or “out moded”. I think given the atmosphere the game is trying go with I am going with “Classically oriented” and think it works fine for this game. There are a lot of skills too, which is also very old school in feel as opposed to more “cinematic” games that try to get more done with less skills.
There is a good section on Weapons which deals with a lot of standard weapons (guns, sticks, and archaic stuff).
The next section is on Psychic abilities and mention they can be bought by anyone with a high Perception, so a little different than saying buying a “psychic edge” and then buying the abilities.
The psychic abilities seem work fine and feel right here. Again, I am feeling a bit of Chill here, though the magic and psychic powers are not the same as Chill’s magic, it’s the overall vibe; more magic than Call of Cthulhu, less than C.J. Carella’s WitchCraft.
Next up is magic.
(Speaking of magic, on page 41 the formatting shifts down by an inch or so for the rest of the magic secction. Nothing is unreadable, but looks odd.)
Magic is divided up into traditions (like that) and talks about what a tradition is and how they have access to some spells, but not all (like that too). Each tradition also has various mechanical things that can happen to them via their magic, so each one does feel different than the other.
Spells are supposedly bought like Psychic abilities, but I have not found a guide anywhere in my reading.
Combat is next (odd that it is not with Weapons) along with misadventures, healing and diseases.
The chapters on creatures and their powers are next and it is full of the horror show mainstays and a few new ones. I like that there are multiple types of vampires for example.
A section on curses is also provided which would be useful for any game with curses.
All in all there are some interesting things in this game, though nothing terribly unique. I like some of the character creation options. The magic system has some neat points but not quite unique in and of itself really. My biggest issue with the game is that I expected more, and the layout is far below what I would have expected from an established game company. There are also a number distracting typos, while I normally would ignore these, but some made it difficult to understand the text.
The game itself looks like it would fun with the right mindset. There is a darker tone to it that puts it somewhere between Chill and Call of Cthulhu. Though it lacks a bit of focus; is it Victorian, is it Modern? And what do characters do in the game? The motivations of the characters are unclear too. What do they do, why are they doing it? I think this needs to be better defined.
I would have liked to see some character write-ups so we could see how characters look when done.
I love horror games. I love reading new ones, trying new ones and each time I try to do or learn something new. So it was is with great interest that I got the new “Haunts and Horrors” RPG (H+H RPG).
H+H RPG is a 126 page book. The art is predominantly public domain with some other pieces that are newer, but all are black and white. I bring this up for two reasons, first off the art is sparse which gives the book a “less than polished look” but the art is also thematically appropriate for the tone of the game. While I like newer art in a game, I think this works well for this game. The layout looks like a simple affair with clip-art borders.
H+H RPG is a fairly typical RPG, it starts out with “What is an RPG?” to Character Creation. I like the starting age effects starting XP section. It is an interesting take on how to deal with starting at different ages.
Points are given to buy attributes, skills and edges and disadvantages dependent on starting age.
Attributes are mentioned (Strength, Size, Willpower…) and then abbreviations are used (STR, SIZ, WIP) but nothing connecting the two. Granted a semi-experienced gamer could figure it out, but a novice will be scratching their head for a second or two. There are some generated secondary attributes as well, including something called “Killing Power Adjustment” which seems a bit off in a horror game; not that things don’t kill things, but often killing is not the focus, but I am fine with it. There is a section of previous experience which is interesting.
Lots of disadvantages (not sure why hay fever is worth more than partially deaf or partially blind, or why it was not just folded into Allergy). Though it does a much better job with the mental drawbacks than most games (eg it makes Multiple Personality Disorder different from Schizophrenia, a pet peeve of mine). Disadvantages are bought with points, any extra disadvantage points have to be bought off with experience points. I like that to be honest. It casts disadvantages in a different light. Instead of using disadvantages as a means to gain extra points, but rather as something that must be bought off. For a horror game it is a good model.
The skill system reminds of me a bit of Chill. Some will find this refreshingly “old school” others might find it “old” or “out moded”. I think given the atmosphere the game is trying go with I am going with “Classically oriented” and think it works fine for this game. There are a lot of skills too, which is also very old school in feel as opposed to more “cinematic” games that try to get more done with less skills.
There is a good section on Weapons which deals with a lot of standard weapons (guns, sticks, and archaic stuff).
The next section is on Psychic abilities and mention they can be bought by anyone with a high Perception, so a little different than saying buying a “psychic edge” and then buying the abilities.
The psychic abilities seem work fine and feel right here. Again, I am feeling a bit of Chill here, though the magic and psychic powers are not the same as Chill’s magic, it’s the overall vibe; more magic than Call of Cthulhu, less than C.J. Carella’s WitchCraft.
Next up is magic.
(Speaking of magic, on page 41 the formatting shifts down by an inch or so for the rest of the magic secction. Nothing is unreadable, but looks odd.)
Magic is divided up into traditions (like that) and talks about what a tradition is and how they have access to some spells, but not all (like that too). Each tradition also has various mechanical things that can happen to them via their magic, so each one does feel different than the other.
Spells are supposedly bought like Psychic abilities, but I have not found a guide anywhere in my reading.
Combat is next (odd that it is not with Weapons) along with misadventures, healing and diseases.
The chapters on creatures and their powers are next and it is full of the horror show mainstays and a few new ones. I like that there are multiple types of vampires for example.
A section on curses is also provided which would be useful for any game with curses.
All in all there are some interesting things in this game, though nothing terribly unique. I like some of the character creation options. The magic system has some neat points but not quite unique in and of itself really. My biggest issue with the game is that I expected more, and the layout is far below what I would have expected from an established game company. There are also a number distracting typos, while I normally would ignore these, but some made it difficult to understand the text.
The game itself looks like it would fun with the right mindset. There is a darker tone to it that puts it somewhere between Chill and Call of Cthulhu. Though it lacks a bit of focus; is it Victorian, is it Modern? And what do characters do in the game? The motivations of the characters are unclear too. What do they do, why are they doing it? I think this needs to be better defined.
I would have liked to see some character write-ups so we could see how characters look when done.
Season of the Witch: Episode 8
Episode 8: Heart of Light
Winter 2005
Area 51
Cordelia voice over: Previously on “Willow & Tara: Season of the Witch”
The Thunderbird rolls into Roswell, NM.
Willow and Tara on the bed making out, Bob walks in.
Tara yelling at Bob, then following him outside.
Willow following Coyote out of the hotel room.
Tara panicking asking where Willow is, blows up the TV.
Scrying crystal landing on Area 51, Tara peels out in the Thunderbird and driving into the night.
Coyote turns into Oz.
Tara driving, but falling asleep. Bob yelling at her to wake up she crashes the Thunderbird into an invisible wall. See Tara bleeding and unconscious.
Coyote-in-Oz’s-form telling Willow “You are going to destroy the world and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Tara, Bob and Cordy in military custody. The base commander speaks to them. "Everyone knows what happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. But I am here to tell you ladies and gentlemen, that everyone is wrong."
While speaking pan to the hanging angel. Hear Cordy say “Oh. God. It’s Uriel.”
Roswell, 1947
Scene changes. Black and white, a man in uniform, an Air Force Captain, looks into a room were electrical charges can be seen reflecting on the wall along with sounds of electrical discharge and a high pitched screaming. He looks on in horror then turns away to a General examining some debris on the floor of the office. The material looks shiny, like flexible metal. There are the remains of a long sword, shattered and covered in runes.
“General! We can’t keep him here, this office is in no way equipped to deal with…with that!”
“I know son. That is why he is being transferred to a more secure facility.” Off the captain’s look. “No worries son, we have dealt with his kind before. Well maybe not exactly like his kind, but close enough.”
“Is he? Is… What is he?”
“He is a threat, a threat to the sovereignty of the United States of America. And we do not deal with threats, we eliminate them.” A pause. “This entire fiasco will covered up and forgotten. Is that understood?”
Snaps to attention. “Yes sir!” a pause. “But sir, what do we tell the press, they will be here shortly.”
The General looked over the silvery material on the ground, it was light and flexible like cloth, but nothing they had could even tear it a little. “Tell them.” Pause. “Tell them it was a weather balloon.”
Present Day
Lieutenant General Ashby informs them that this “monster” was shot down by the U.S. Air Force and that is what crashed in Roswell. The metal everyone thought was “Spaceship metal” was really his armor. The Lt. General takes them to their own cells and tells them not to worry, that a solution to the Supernatural Menace has been discovered and will be used shortly. The doors close on them. Bob cannot phase out and Cordy can’t orb out. But they have larger concerns. Tara has blacked out again and is muttering in Gaelic, more gaelic than she actually knows. Her tempature is spiking and Cordy guesses it must be at least 107. She has been trying to heal her, but her magic is not working due to the cell. Tara does come around and asks about the angel upstairs. Cordy (with the Director’s help) explains that he is Uriel and he has been missing for 60 years. A long time for humans, but for angels a blink of the eye. What is so important is that Uriel stands in front of the gates of Hell and keeps the demons from getting out. Since he has been missing the demons have been getting to Earth. Tara feels Willow is near, Cordy does not. Feeling stronger Tara uses her own heat to focus on the lock and melt it. They are able to leave their cell, but still can’t use magic. They manage to get up a level before being captured again. Ashby decides that some time in the common area with the other prisoners is what they need. So they are all locked up with various other supernatural monsters. We see demons of all sorts, a werewolf and other things. All the creatures approach them.
Willow has subdued her guards (Director Fiat, I just said she did it) and is walking around the facility. She sees the Lt. General, but not Tara. At this point Willow’s player asks if she can use magic to talk to the computer the system. There is no spell so I set a SL for her to hit and asked her to use an Int + Magic + Computers + d10 and treat it like a spell of PL 5 or 6 I think. She rolls, made it of course and communicates with the base main frame. This is the first use of her mage powers. The ability to make on the fly magical effects using a variety of skills. I let her do this one now, but another one, jumping up a few dozen feet with STR + Magic + Acrobatics I did not (even though that would have been the way to do it as a Mage. She is not all the way there yet.) She does discover that the government has a plan. They have created a virus that will kill all supernaturals, angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, and witches.
Willow finds Uriel, is mostly left alone, and manages to talk to him. She tells him she will free him. He agrees, but it won’t be now. Uriel tells her that he has been waiting for her for a very long time. She quips that is the Coyote only told her last night. Uriel warns her not to trust the Coyote, he doesn’t lie, but he hardly ever tells the whole truth. Willow tells Uriel that Coyote said she was going to destroy the world. Uriel stops and then says that may be the one time when Coyote has told the whole truth. Uriel tells Willow her path is before her, but she will not walk it alone, that her Anamchara is here, and she must find her and then they will free him. But like her, he has his love, and Willow must find her as well. Willow asks who it is and Uriel says Sherazza. He tells her there is a plan for them all to escape, they were waiting for the sign. The sign of course is the arrival of the Cast.
Back at the common cell, all the creatures are approaching Bob, Cordy and Tara. A female voice shouts stop and the creatures stop and look over their shoulders. Approaching is a tall, beautiful red skinned demoness, a Lilim. Her wings are tattered and she has obviously not been well treated, but she still has a commanding presence here. She looks at each cast member in turn. Growling at Cordy. She approaches Tara. She begins to sniff her, looking her all over. She places her clawed hands on Tara’s stomach and before Tara can say anything or react, the Lilim turns to the others and says “It is her! She has the Allaidh!” The other creatures roar in triumph. Finally asking what the hell is going on, the Lilim tells them that it had been foretold to them by the Seer that they would be freed by the one possessing the Allaidh. The demoness only smiles and says “Mother said you have questions. But I don’t have to answer them.” Mother of course is Lilith, and the Lilim tells them that they will honor the pact made by her sisters the Mormo and the one made by their mother. As long as she is here, there will be no harm to the cast. But the Lilim wants Tara to break them out now. Tara tries but she can’t do it like she did before.
Willow shows up, drawn to her Anamchara. Together the girls manage to melt the locks on the door (my players wanted to blow it up, but were talked out of it by Bob). The meet, the lilim touches Willow’s face and smiles, saying “Two? Two with the Allaidh? What engines of destruction you will become!” Willow gets ranty about no destroying anything. Tara tells her they have to go and get Uriel. Willow says they will once they rescue Sherazza. The lilim laughs and tells them they already have.
The Cast and the demons are running helter skelter through the base. Willow tells them about the virus, but the military is starting to open fire. Sherazza, flies into the crowd and begins to subdue, but not kill they notice, the airmen. The other demons do not show the same restraint.
Sherazza, goes to Uriel to free him, but she can’t. I now let Willow use a Strength + Magic + Kung-fu +d10 to rip the locks off. It works (but I give her a penalty to her magic rolls next, seeing right away that mages can be game breaking) and have her take some damage.
The rush to the room where the virus is kept to encounter Lt. General Ashby. Sherazza grabs the virus and a stand off begins.
For this I had Willow and Tara’s players take on the role of Uriel and Sharazza respectively and hit them with the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Ashby asks Sharezza for the virus, he has a gun pointing at her. He tells her he can shoot her and kill her, shoot the virus and kill them all (except him) or she can give it to him. It is the only sample. Ashby eludes to a supposed double cross where she was supposed to be freed only to betray Uriel. She denies this (I told Tara’s player it wasn’t true, but not Willow’s player). Basically then I gave both players a choice. Turn in themselves, or turn in their lover. If they turned in a lover and the other turned in themselves then that one would go back and the other would be free. So if Uriel turned in Sharezza and Sharezza turned in herself, then Ashby would shoot Sharezza dead and Uriel would go free. If they turned in each other, then Ashby shoots them both, if they turned in themselves, they went back to prison. Leave it to my Tara player to find the other option. She flies into Ashby, burning a drama point and kills him, but is killed herself.
Uriel seeing this weeps for his lost love and before “sterilizing” the base he teleports the Cast back to the Thunderbird. The cast watches as the base is destroyed. They are sure it is Uriel. Cordy “heals” the car (Whitelighter thing) and they drive on. It is late in the day now.
Willow tells Tara about Coyote. We end the episode with car driving on and entering California.
Notes: We are introduced now the fourth and last faction dealing with the Cast, the Government. Like S.A.V.E. their primary goal is to protect humanity. But of course unlike S.A.V.E. good old Uncle Sam adds, “by any means necessary”. Now one thing we didn’t want to do was paint the government as a one sided, one dimensional entity. In fact their cause is in fact noble. They just have their facts a little wrong and tend to be a bit paranoid. They make other appearances later, but mostly as a threat.
There are also other clues here to the girls oncoming mage powers. Tara blows up a TV is the obvious one, Willow talking to gods and super hacking are others, but the subtle one are the girls themselves. I told my players that they were much more amorous with each other. They ran with it and had them having sex at every chance. Which is fine, not what I had in mind 100%, but hey when life hands you hot girl-on-girl action….make lemonade and watch I guess. (????) Of course my players, who were involved in the in-world-myths, knew what was happening. This is the start of their powers growing. In game this was dubbed “Allaidh” (the “wilding” in Gaelic) by my Tara player. Sharezza makes note of it. Again another Charmed influence…the Seer is mentioned. I don’t say which one, the Charisma Carpenter or the Debi Morgan one. As much as I like Charisma Carpenter I am inclined to say it’s Debi Morgan. http://charmed.wikia.com/wiki/Seer
Ever wonder why in the 50’s we had some many UFO stories and then nothing. Then next thing you know, little bit by little bit we get flooded with tales of demons, vampires, and other supernatural baddies? Well that’s because we were being visited by angels more often then, we thought they were UFOs, and then the big bad ass angel that guards the gates to Hell and keep demons away was shot down by the U.S. Air Force. While he is in a cell for almost 60 years (not long enough for the side of Good to notice, but Evil sure did!) demons run amok. Buffy is busier than any other Slayer before, the Charmed Ones have more work to do than all the Warren Witches combined and we get thousands of supernatural themed TV shows. Of course it doesn’t help that the Veil is weakening.
One way or the other the fit is going to hit the shan.
The Uriel/Sharezza was going to play out differently. She was going to be redeemed and go to Heaven with Uriel. But we thought that that was not as interesting. Plus there is the issue of the government base. They needed to be weakened and only Uriel was strong enough to do that and he wouldn’t if he were all happy. But as the Angel of Vengeance, well that is different. Originally then Sharezza was going to be shot while they were making their escape, but I couldn’t let them get to the virus without Ashby being there. So there he was. I also was going to have him die from the virus, but that would imply he was also a supernatural, and I have seen that too many damn times in X-men, so I figure he was human with a gun that could kill supernaturals.
Another subtle nod to what will happen in the finale is here. Can you spot it? ;)
Next up… The girls are home and stars of their own X-Rated web show???
Plus the return of Amy and Beth.
Area 51
Cordelia voice over: Previously on “Willow & Tara: Season of the Witch”
The Thunderbird rolls into Roswell, NM.
Willow and Tara on the bed making out, Bob walks in.
Tara yelling at Bob, then following him outside.
Willow following Coyote out of the hotel room.
Tara panicking asking where Willow is, blows up the TV.
Scrying crystal landing on Area 51, Tara peels out in the Thunderbird and driving into the night.
Coyote turns into Oz.
Tara driving, but falling asleep. Bob yelling at her to wake up she crashes the Thunderbird into an invisible wall. See Tara bleeding and unconscious.
Coyote-in-Oz’s-form telling Willow “You are going to destroy the world and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Tara, Bob and Cordy in military custody. The base commander speaks to them. "Everyone knows what happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. But I am here to tell you ladies and gentlemen, that everyone is wrong."
While speaking pan to the hanging angel. Hear Cordy say “Oh. God. It’s Uriel.”
Roswell, 1947
Scene changes. Black and white, a man in uniform, an Air Force Captain, looks into a room were electrical charges can be seen reflecting on the wall along with sounds of electrical discharge and a high pitched screaming. He looks on in horror then turns away to a General examining some debris on the floor of the office. The material looks shiny, like flexible metal. There are the remains of a long sword, shattered and covered in runes.
“General! We can’t keep him here, this office is in no way equipped to deal with…with that!”
“I know son. That is why he is being transferred to a more secure facility.” Off the captain’s look. “No worries son, we have dealt with his kind before. Well maybe not exactly like his kind, but close enough.”
“Is he? Is… What is he?”
“He is a threat, a threat to the sovereignty of the United States of America. And we do not deal with threats, we eliminate them.” A pause. “This entire fiasco will covered up and forgotten. Is that understood?”
Snaps to attention. “Yes sir!” a pause. “But sir, what do we tell the press, they will be here shortly.”
The General looked over the silvery material on the ground, it was light and flexible like cloth, but nothing they had could even tear it a little. “Tell them.” Pause. “Tell them it was a weather balloon.”
Present Day
Lieutenant General Ashby informs them that this “monster” was shot down by the U.S. Air Force and that is what crashed in Roswell. The metal everyone thought was “Spaceship metal” was really his armor. The Lt. General takes them to their own cells and tells them not to worry, that a solution to the Supernatural Menace has been discovered and will be used shortly. The doors close on them. Bob cannot phase out and Cordy can’t orb out. But they have larger concerns. Tara has blacked out again and is muttering in Gaelic, more gaelic than she actually knows. Her tempature is spiking and Cordy guesses it must be at least 107. She has been trying to heal her, but her magic is not working due to the cell. Tara does come around and asks about the angel upstairs. Cordy (with the Director’s help) explains that he is Uriel and he has been missing for 60 years. A long time for humans, but for angels a blink of the eye. What is so important is that Uriel stands in front of the gates of Hell and keeps the demons from getting out. Since he has been missing the demons have been getting to Earth. Tara feels Willow is near, Cordy does not. Feeling stronger Tara uses her own heat to focus on the lock and melt it. They are able to leave their cell, but still can’t use magic. They manage to get up a level before being captured again. Ashby decides that some time in the common area with the other prisoners is what they need. So they are all locked up with various other supernatural monsters. We see demons of all sorts, a werewolf and other things. All the creatures approach them.
Willow has subdued her guards (Director Fiat, I just said she did it) and is walking around the facility. She sees the Lt. General, but not Tara. At this point Willow’s player asks if she can use magic to talk to the computer the system. There is no spell so I set a SL for her to hit and asked her to use an Int + Magic + Computers + d10 and treat it like a spell of PL 5 or 6 I think. She rolls, made it of course and communicates with the base main frame. This is the first use of her mage powers. The ability to make on the fly magical effects using a variety of skills. I let her do this one now, but another one, jumping up a few dozen feet with STR + Magic + Acrobatics I did not (even though that would have been the way to do it as a Mage. She is not all the way there yet.) She does discover that the government has a plan. They have created a virus that will kill all supernaturals, angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, and witches.
Willow finds Uriel, is mostly left alone, and manages to talk to him. She tells him she will free him. He agrees, but it won’t be now. Uriel tells her that he has been waiting for her for a very long time. She quips that is the Coyote only told her last night. Uriel warns her not to trust the Coyote, he doesn’t lie, but he hardly ever tells the whole truth. Willow tells Uriel that Coyote said she was going to destroy the world. Uriel stops and then says that may be the one time when Coyote has told the whole truth. Uriel tells Willow her path is before her, but she will not walk it alone, that her Anamchara is here, and she must find her and then they will free him. But like her, he has his love, and Willow must find her as well. Willow asks who it is and Uriel says Sherazza. He tells her there is a plan for them all to escape, they were waiting for the sign. The sign of course is the arrival of the Cast.
Back at the common cell, all the creatures are approaching Bob, Cordy and Tara. A female voice shouts stop and the creatures stop and look over their shoulders. Approaching is a tall, beautiful red skinned demoness, a Lilim. Her wings are tattered and she has obviously not been well treated, but she still has a commanding presence here. She looks at each cast member in turn. Growling at Cordy. She approaches Tara. She begins to sniff her, looking her all over. She places her clawed hands on Tara’s stomach and before Tara can say anything or react, the Lilim turns to the others and says “It is her! She has the Allaidh!” The other creatures roar in triumph. Finally asking what the hell is going on, the Lilim tells them that it had been foretold to them by the Seer that they would be freed by the one possessing the Allaidh. The demoness only smiles and says “Mother said you have questions. But I don’t have to answer them.” Mother of course is Lilith, and the Lilim tells them that they will honor the pact made by her sisters the Mormo and the one made by their mother. As long as she is here, there will be no harm to the cast. But the Lilim wants Tara to break them out now. Tara tries but she can’t do it like she did before.
Willow shows up, drawn to her Anamchara. Together the girls manage to melt the locks on the door (my players wanted to blow it up, but were talked out of it by Bob). The meet, the lilim touches Willow’s face and smiles, saying “Two? Two with the Allaidh? What engines of destruction you will become!” Willow gets ranty about no destroying anything. Tara tells her they have to go and get Uriel. Willow says they will once they rescue Sherazza. The lilim laughs and tells them they already have.
The Cast and the demons are running helter skelter through the base. Willow tells them about the virus, but the military is starting to open fire. Sherazza, flies into the crowd and begins to subdue, but not kill they notice, the airmen. The other demons do not show the same restraint.
Sherazza, goes to Uriel to free him, but she can’t. I now let Willow use a Strength + Magic + Kung-fu +d10 to rip the locks off. It works (but I give her a penalty to her magic rolls next, seeing right away that mages can be game breaking) and have her take some damage.
The rush to the room where the virus is kept to encounter Lt. General Ashby. Sherazza grabs the virus and a stand off begins.
For this I had Willow and Tara’s players take on the role of Uriel and Sharazza respectively and hit them with the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Ashby asks Sharezza for the virus, he has a gun pointing at her. He tells her he can shoot her and kill her, shoot the virus and kill them all (except him) or she can give it to him. It is the only sample. Ashby eludes to a supposed double cross where she was supposed to be freed only to betray Uriel. She denies this (I told Tara’s player it wasn’t true, but not Willow’s player). Basically then I gave both players a choice. Turn in themselves, or turn in their lover. If they turned in a lover and the other turned in themselves then that one would go back and the other would be free. So if Uriel turned in Sharezza and Sharezza turned in herself, then Ashby would shoot Sharezza dead and Uriel would go free. If they turned in each other, then Ashby shoots them both, if they turned in themselves, they went back to prison. Leave it to my Tara player to find the other option. She flies into Ashby, burning a drama point and kills him, but is killed herself.
Uriel seeing this weeps for his lost love and before “sterilizing” the base he teleports the Cast back to the Thunderbird. The cast watches as the base is destroyed. They are sure it is Uriel. Cordy “heals” the car (Whitelighter thing) and they drive on. It is late in the day now.
Willow tells Tara about Coyote. We end the episode with car driving on and entering California.
Notes: We are introduced now the fourth and last faction dealing with the Cast, the Government. Like S.A.V.E. their primary goal is to protect humanity. But of course unlike S.A.V.E. good old Uncle Sam adds, “by any means necessary”. Now one thing we didn’t want to do was paint the government as a one sided, one dimensional entity. In fact their cause is in fact noble. They just have their facts a little wrong and tend to be a bit paranoid. They make other appearances later, but mostly as a threat.
There are also other clues here to the girls oncoming mage powers. Tara blows up a TV is the obvious one, Willow talking to gods and super hacking are others, but the subtle one are the girls themselves. I told my players that they were much more amorous with each other. They ran with it and had them having sex at every chance. Which is fine, not what I had in mind 100%, but hey when life hands you hot girl-on-girl action….make lemonade and watch I guess. (????) Of course my players, who were involved in the in-world-myths, knew what was happening. This is the start of their powers growing. In game this was dubbed “Allaidh” (the “wilding” in Gaelic) by my Tara player. Sharezza makes note of it. Again another Charmed influence…the Seer is mentioned. I don’t say which one, the Charisma Carpenter or the Debi Morgan one. As much as I like Charisma Carpenter I am inclined to say it’s Debi Morgan. http://charmed.wikia.com/wiki/Seer
Ever wonder why in the 50’s we had some many UFO stories and then nothing. Then next thing you know, little bit by little bit we get flooded with tales of demons, vampires, and other supernatural baddies? Well that’s because we were being visited by angels more often then, we thought they were UFOs, and then the big bad ass angel that guards the gates to Hell and keep demons away was shot down by the U.S. Air Force. While he is in a cell for almost 60 years (not long enough for the side of Good to notice, but Evil sure did!) demons run amok. Buffy is busier than any other Slayer before, the Charmed Ones have more work to do than all the Warren Witches combined and we get thousands of supernatural themed TV shows. Of course it doesn’t help that the Veil is weakening.
One way or the other the fit is going to hit the shan.
The Uriel/Sharezza was going to play out differently. She was going to be redeemed and go to Heaven with Uriel. But we thought that that was not as interesting. Plus there is the issue of the government base. They needed to be weakened and only Uriel was strong enough to do that and he wouldn’t if he were all happy. But as the Angel of Vengeance, well that is different. Originally then Sharezza was going to be shot while they were making their escape, but I couldn’t let them get to the virus without Ashby being there. So there he was. I also was going to have him die from the virus, but that would imply he was also a supernatural, and I have seen that too many damn times in X-men, so I figure he was human with a gun that could kill supernaturals.
Another subtle nod to what will happen in the finale is here. Can you spot it? ;)
Next up… The girls are home and stars of their own X-Rated web show???
Plus the return of Amy and Beth.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Sheen
This might be the coolest product I have seen in a long time.
Totally worth the price.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88778&affiliate_id=10748
This one is for Scot!
Totally worth the price.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88778&affiliate_id=10748
This one is for Scot!
Review: Witch Hunter: the Invisible World
Witch Hunter: the Invisible World
I have a real love-hate relationship with this game. I played it right after it first came out at Gen Con and thought the game was great. The rule system was easy to pick up in game and I liked the dark history feel of it. It felt like one of the modern horror games that I loved to play set in the 17th century. I bought a copy then and there and took it home. Once I started reading through it all I was less enamored with it. The funky alt-history never worked for me, and as a player that likes to play witches in many games I disliked the vibe of the game that all witches were evil and had to be hunted.
Also on future playing I began to dislike the system. I sold the book to a friend about 6 months later. I wanted to give it another chance so I picked it up at DriveThruRPG about a year after I bought it in hardcover. I have given the game it's due attention (bought it twice in fact) and still could not make it work for me. To be 100% fair I think that has much more to do with me than this game.
I think there is a lot of really good material here. A lot of things I would love to use elsewhere, maybe running it under WitchCraft or True20. The book itself is well laid out and just a cool book to look at. The PDF here comes in both the full version and a printer friendly one. There is a vague World of Darkness feel about it and it does remind me a bit of Mage the Sorcerers Crusade. I do like the magic system here and I do keep coming back to the game wanting to do more with it.
Character creation is very good, I like the spells and the magic system. The overview of the world is very nice and I like the background information on the Orders of Solomon.
There is an odd mix of new and old thought in this book, some of them contradictory. Examples: The Sumerlands are mentioned (from Wicca) but witches are supposed to be all evil. Werewolves are shown with a pentagram etched into their hand/paw but that is something that only came out in the movies. The Aztecs are still around, even if other parts of history depicted here could not have happened unless the Spanish had had a firm hold on the New World.
The book has a ton of atmosphere, and you know right away what this game is all about.
A few things I like:
- Atmosphere. Like I said it has oodles and gobs of it. Solomon Kane left feeling "eh", but this one, you know right away what you are doing.
- Closest thing I get to a WoD-like game set in a period I really wanted to try.
- Support, the Paradigm Concepts website has tons of cool things, in fact seeing the website made want to seek this game out when it was first available at GenCon (2007 was it?) I bought a book there and then later bought the PDFs.
- Solomonic-based magic systems always rock.
- Beautiful book.
- The Orders, I can see why the exist, what they do in the world and why someone (the PC) would be part of one.
Things I didn't like, but could easily live with:
- Very WoD in feel and execution.
- Dice pools. Don't like them, but I can live wit them.
- Talents seem very "Feat" like. I like feats mind you, just not everywhere.
- would have liked more monsters.
- "Satanists". Too many modern conotations. I would have prefered to see "Diaboloists" (which the book does also use) or "Luciferians".
Things I didn't like:
- Some of the alt history doesn't make sense, even with magic. But that can be an opinion.
- I dislike the entire black & white-ness of the good and evil here. If it were just that I would say it is an artifact of the times they are trying to emulate and be fine with it. But I like to play "good" witches also and the rules (or my interpretation of them) didn't support that.
And by good witches I don't mean spiritualists or animists or alchemists. I mean witches. That practice witchcraft, worship the Goddess and all that. Granted that is MY bias and maybe this is not really the game for this.
- Along with good witches (and the spells for them). I'd would have liked to see evil members of the Church. Sure their are "foils" in the shape of the Jesuits. But I work for a couple of Jesuit universities, I was not buying it as a real attempt to make them evil. Rather just overly dogmatic in their views.
In the end, I am going to give it 4 stars out of five. I think it does what it does well, even if it leaves me scratching my head at times. It is an attractive book and the online support and community for it is really top notch. I would have given it 3, but everything I think is "Wrong" with it is really my own bias.
I have a real love-hate relationship with this game. I played it right after it first came out at Gen Con and thought the game was great. The rule system was easy to pick up in game and I liked the dark history feel of it. It felt like one of the modern horror games that I loved to play set in the 17th century. I bought a copy then and there and took it home. Once I started reading through it all I was less enamored with it. The funky alt-history never worked for me, and as a player that likes to play witches in many games I disliked the vibe of the game that all witches were evil and had to be hunted.
Also on future playing I began to dislike the system. I sold the book to a friend about 6 months later. I wanted to give it another chance so I picked it up at DriveThruRPG about a year after I bought it in hardcover. I have given the game it's due attention (bought it twice in fact) and still could not make it work for me. To be 100% fair I think that has much more to do with me than this game.
I think there is a lot of really good material here. A lot of things I would love to use elsewhere, maybe running it under WitchCraft or True20. The book itself is well laid out and just a cool book to look at. The PDF here comes in both the full version and a printer friendly one. There is a vague World of Darkness feel about it and it does remind me a bit of Mage the Sorcerers Crusade. I do like the magic system here and I do keep coming back to the game wanting to do more with it.
Character creation is very good, I like the spells and the magic system. The overview of the world is very nice and I like the background information on the Orders of Solomon.
There is an odd mix of new and old thought in this book, some of them contradictory. Examples: The Sumerlands are mentioned (from Wicca) but witches are supposed to be all evil. Werewolves are shown with a pentagram etched into their hand/paw but that is something that only came out in the movies. The Aztecs are still around, even if other parts of history depicted here could not have happened unless the Spanish had had a firm hold on the New World.
The book has a ton of atmosphere, and you know right away what this game is all about.
A few things I like:
- Atmosphere. Like I said it has oodles and gobs of it. Solomon Kane left feeling "eh", but this one, you know right away what you are doing.
- Closest thing I get to a WoD-like game set in a period I really wanted to try.
- Support, the Paradigm Concepts website has tons of cool things, in fact seeing the website made want to seek this game out when it was first available at GenCon (2007 was it?) I bought a book there and then later bought the PDFs.
- Solomonic-based magic systems always rock.
- Beautiful book.
- The Orders, I can see why the exist, what they do in the world and why someone (the PC) would be part of one.
Things I didn't like, but could easily live with:
- Very WoD in feel and execution.
- Dice pools. Don't like them, but I can live wit them.
- Talents seem very "Feat" like. I like feats mind you, just not everywhere.
- would have liked more monsters.
- "Satanists". Too many modern conotations. I would have prefered to see "Diaboloists" (which the book does also use) or "Luciferians".
Things I didn't like:
- Some of the alt history doesn't make sense, even with magic. But that can be an opinion.
- I dislike the entire black & white-ness of the good and evil here. If it were just that I would say it is an artifact of the times they are trying to emulate and be fine with it. But I like to play "good" witches also and the rules (or my interpretation of them) didn't support that.
And by good witches I don't mean spiritualists or animists or alchemists. I mean witches. That practice witchcraft, worship the Goddess and all that. Granted that is MY bias and maybe this is not really the game for this.
- Along with good witches (and the spells for them). I'd would have liked to see evil members of the Church. Sure their are "foils" in the shape of the Jesuits. But I work for a couple of Jesuit universities, I was not buying it as a real attempt to make them evil. Rather just overly dogmatic in their views.
In the end, I am going to give it 4 stars out of five. I think it does what it does well, even if it leaves me scratching my head at times. It is an attractive book and the online support and community for it is really top notch. I would have given it 3, but everything I think is "Wrong" with it is really my own bias.
Am I a 2nd or 3rd Generation gamer?
I am an old school gamer, I started in 1979 with a copy of the Holmes Basic set (Blue Book) and the AD&D Monster Manual. I kicked my gaming into high gear the next years though with the Moldvay Basic.
I learned from guys that learned from their older brothers. I played with a guy that had learned how to play from Gary himself using the White Box.
I am certain I am not a 1st Gen. Those are the luminaries of our hobby. The 2nd Gen either learned at their feet as Plato did from Socrates. OR are they all part of the 1st generation? I guess I must be the 2nd generation removed from the source.
I know plenty of "old school" players that were not even alive when even the first Red Box was out. I know plenty of just plain "old" players that love the newest games. So age is not the issue I think.
Where are you? Can you trace your gaming lineage back to one of the Old Great Masters? Should that even matter?
ETA: Cyclopeatron has a nice list of the Generation of Gamers.
http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2011/03/defining-six-generations-of-d-players.html
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Justice is Blind, Issue 3: M&M3 / DCA
I have mentioned before about how pleased I have been that Mutants and Masterminds 3 and DC Adventures share the same system. Here is one of those reasons.
My latest super-hero character Justice.
Justice, as she is known is a Paragon, of the likes not seen since Superman left he Earth and Wonder Woman retired. Many know she is the newest force for Truth, Justice and the American Way, but not many know that she shares more with the those paragons of old than a costume design.
Justice is also Astra Kal-El, daughter of Superman (Kal-El) and Wonder Woman, Diana of Themyscira.
I have detailed Justice in previous posts. Her introduction and Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed stats, and stats for the BASH! RPG.
I like her M&M 3.0 stats as well and think this is the best system for her. Issue 3 of "Justice is Blind" would deal with her current troubles of establishing herself as her own hero with some flashbacks of her time on Themyscira.
Justice - PL 10
Strength 11, Stamina 10, Agility 4, Dexterity 2, Fighting 5, Intellect 3, Awareness 3, Presence 4
Advantages
All-out Attack, Attractive 2, Benefit, Alternate Identity (Astra Kal-el, Astra Kent), Benefit, Wealth (well-off), Connected (Bruce Wayne), Defensive Attack, Languages 1
Skills
Athletics 1 (+12), Close Combat (Grab) 2 (+7), Deception 2 (+6), Expertise (Law) 4 (+7), Insight 1 (+4), Investigation 4 (+7), Perception 3 (+6), Persuasion 2 (+6), Ranged Combat (Heat Vision: Blast 8) 3 (+5), Stealth 4 (+8)
Powers
Flight: Flight 8 (Speed: 500 miles/hour, 1 mile/round)
Heat Vision: Blast 8 (DC 23; Distracting)
Invulnerability
Immunity: Immunity 10 (Life Support)
Impervious Defense: Impervious Toughness 5
Super Senses: Senses 8 (Acute: Vision, Hearing, Distance Sense, Extended: Vision, Hearing 2 (x100), Penetrates Concealment: Vision; Limited (Lead))
Super Speed: Quickness 4 (Perform routine tasks in -4 time ranks)
Super Strength: Enhanced Strength 2 (+2 STR; Limited (Lifting only))
Offense
Initiative +4
Grab, +7 (DC Spec 21)
Heat Vision: Blast 8, +5 (DC 23)
Throw, +2 (DC 26)
Unarmed, +5 (DC 26)
Complications
Power Loss: Exposed to Kryptonite
Secret: Is the daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman. Raised by the Batman.
Secret: Secret ID, Astra Kal-El, aka Astra Kent.
Weakness: Magic
Languages
English, Greek
Defense
Dodge 4, Parry 5, Fortitude 10, Toughness 10, Will 3
Power Points
Abilities 80 + Powers 49 + Advantages 8 + Skills 13 (26 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 150
What I like about Justice is she has power, she has a pedigree even (daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman, trained by the Batman) but she is still young and she does not always know what she is doing or what she needs to do. She only knows that she sees injustice and suffering in the world and she needs to do something about it. She is not an brooding, agnsty hero, but she is a dedicated one and maybe even a bit of a naïve one. She just knows she has to do something. No existential struggles with her, just action.
Now here is to seeing if my regular GM will let me use her in one of his adventures one day.
ETA: I updated her based on some conversations
My latest super-hero character Justice.
Justice, as she is known is a Paragon, of the likes not seen since Superman left he Earth and Wonder Woman retired. Many know she is the newest force for Truth, Justice and the American Way, but not many know that she shares more with the those paragons of old than a costume design.
Justice is also Astra Kal-El, daughter of Superman (Kal-El) and Wonder Woman, Diana of Themyscira.
I have detailed Justice in previous posts. Her introduction and Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed stats, and stats for the BASH! RPG.
I like her M&M 3.0 stats as well and think this is the best system for her. Issue 3 of "Justice is Blind" would deal with her current troubles of establishing herself as her own hero with some flashbacks of her time on Themyscira.
Justice - PL 10
Strength 11, Stamina 10, Agility 4, Dexterity 2, Fighting 5, Intellect 3, Awareness 3, Presence 4
Advantages
All-out Attack, Attractive 2, Benefit, Alternate Identity (Astra Kal-el, Astra Kent), Benefit, Wealth (well-off), Connected (Bruce Wayne), Defensive Attack, Languages 1
Skills
Athletics 1 (+12), Close Combat (Grab) 2 (+7), Deception 2 (+6), Expertise (Law) 4 (+7), Insight 1 (+4), Investigation 4 (+7), Perception 3 (+6), Persuasion 2 (+6), Ranged Combat (Heat Vision: Blast 8) 3 (+5), Stealth 4 (+8)
Powers
Flight: Flight 8 (Speed: 500 miles/hour, 1 mile/round)
Heat Vision: Blast 8 (DC 23; Distracting)
Invulnerability
Immunity: Immunity 10 (Life Support)
Impervious Defense: Impervious Toughness 5
Super Senses: Senses 8 (Acute: Vision, Hearing, Distance Sense, Extended: Vision, Hearing 2 (x100), Penetrates Concealment: Vision; Limited (Lead))
Super Speed: Quickness 4 (Perform routine tasks in -4 time ranks)
Super Strength: Enhanced Strength 2 (+2 STR; Limited (Lifting only))
Offense
Initiative +4
Grab, +7 (DC Spec 21)
Heat Vision: Blast 8, +5 (DC 23)
Throw, +2 (DC 26)
Unarmed, +5 (DC 26)
Complications
Power Loss: Exposed to Kryptonite
Secret: Is the daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman. Raised by the Batman.
Secret: Secret ID, Astra Kal-El, aka Astra Kent.
Weakness: Magic
Languages
English, Greek
Defense
Dodge 4, Parry 5, Fortitude 10, Toughness 10, Will 3
Power Points
Abilities 80 + Powers 49 + Advantages 8 + Skills 13 (26 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 150
What I like about Justice is she has power, she has a pedigree even (daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman, trained by the Batman) but she is still young and she does not always know what she is doing or what she needs to do. She only knows that she sees injustice and suffering in the world and she needs to do something about it. She is not an brooding, agnsty hero, but she is a dedicated one and maybe even a bit of a naïve one. She just knows she has to do something. No existential struggles with her, just action.
Now here is to seeing if my regular GM will let me use her in one of his adventures one day.
ETA: I updated her based on some conversations
Review: White Plume Mountain Dungeon Tiles
I love the old-school modules, I love the new school systems. The trouble is that one of the things I enjoy about the newer systems is the use of minis. I love mins, my kids love minis. But I don't have enough dungeon tiles to always run these classic adventures or the time to make my own. That is where Red Pub Games comes in. I was searching for some material on White Plume Mountain, which I plan on running soon, and to my pleasure I found this product.
At 37 pages and 50 cents this will save me hours of either looking for the right dungeon tile or trying to make my own. I just print them out. IF I need to write on them, no problem, I can print out a new one later.
I am quite pleased with this product and want more.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Epic Dragonslayers
A couple of the Dragonslayer characters hit 19th level over the weekend.
I let my boys play two characters each, but sometimes the characters can vary. My oldest has a cast of 6-7 that he uses two at a time. Well both boys now have a character each that are 19th level. The lowest ones are still 15.
I am planning to let them take ALL their characters for the final battle with Tiamat. Yeah, yeah I know, not really a good role-playing experience for them and more of a roll-playing one, but it is the final battle and the last time they will be able to use any of these characters.
Plus I have a couple more adventures I want them to do before that big battle.
So I am considering using the Epic Level rules.
Anyone have any insights, tips, suggestions?
I let my boys play two characters each, but sometimes the characters can vary. My oldest has a cast of 6-7 that he uses two at a time. Well both boys now have a character each that are 19th level. The lowest ones are still 15.
I am planning to let them take ALL their characters for the final battle with Tiamat. Yeah, yeah I know, not really a good role-playing experience for them and more of a roll-playing one, but it is the final battle and the last time they will be able to use any of these characters.
Plus I have a couple more adventures I want them to do before that big battle.
So I am considering using the Epic Level rules.
Anyone have any insights, tips, suggestions?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Message
That is the name of this story my oldest son has been writing. His teacher is very proud of him and so are his mom and dad! But beyond how cool that is, today during our Dragonslayer session he ran "The Message" for the very, very first time as a game. This was his very first time running a D&D game and frankly I thought he did really well.
We took the Dragonslayers, including his own character as a quasi DM-PC (I'll help run him) and I got a chance to play my witch again. The one I rolled up back when D&D 3.0 was new and my witch book was in playtest.
The adventure was simple enough. We (the characters) had to cross Druid Woods and deliver a message (thus the name) to a Baron on the other side of the forest. Simple right? What could go wrong? Well we were attacked many times in the woods by kobolds, hobgoblins and (much to my joy) a rogue druther and an evil treant. Of course the Baron had been kidnapped and we needed to save him from being the main event in a sacrifice to Tiamat. We saved the Baron (who turned out to be a Neutral Blue Dragon in human form) and we were attacked by a huge adult red Dragon (in my boy's world Reds and Blues hate each other so much that they will work with anyone to defeat the other).
Baron saved, returned home and the message delivered. It really was great fun. Liam (my oldest) said he toned down the Red. We got the initiative on him and dealt what I felt was a respectable 64 hp damage to it. Then he turned around and did a 48 to all of us on his first attack (and that was with the elemental protection my witch set up). He toned the dragon down a touch and we all came out of it more or less intact.
It was really, really fun. Liam did a great job and it was nice to not only see him running a game and doing a good job, but also running an adventure he wrote all on his own.
Connor (my youngest) also got in some good playing too. We found a gold necklace and I said his character could have it for his girl-friend, to which he replied "What girlfriend? I am too busy adventuring to have time for one of those!" And when we fought a fire elemental he told us that "I hate these guys, when I was younger they attacked my village and killed my mother." No idea where that came from.
Maybe next time we will hit the mountains.
We took the Dragonslayers, including his own character as a quasi DM-PC (I'll help run him) and I got a chance to play my witch again. The one I rolled up back when D&D 3.0 was new and my witch book was in playtest.
The adventure was simple enough. We (the characters) had to cross Druid Woods and deliver a message (thus the name) to a Baron on the other side of the forest. Simple right? What could go wrong? Well we were attacked many times in the woods by kobolds, hobgoblins and (much to my joy) a rogue druther and an evil treant. Of course the Baron had been kidnapped and we needed to save him from being the main event in a sacrifice to Tiamat. We saved the Baron (who turned out to be a Neutral Blue Dragon in human form) and we were attacked by a huge adult red Dragon (in my boy's world Reds and Blues hate each other so much that they will work with anyone to defeat the other).
Baron saved, returned home and the message delivered. It really was great fun. Liam (my oldest) said he toned down the Red. We got the initiative on him and dealt what I felt was a respectable 64 hp damage to it. Then he turned around and did a 48 to all of us on his first attack (and that was with the elemental protection my witch set up). He toned the dragon down a touch and we all came out of it more or less intact.
It was really, really fun. Liam did a great job and it was nice to not only see him running a game and doing a good job, but also running an adventure he wrote all on his own.
Connor (my youngest) also got in some good playing too. We found a gold necklace and I said his character could have it for his girl-friend, to which he replied "What girlfriend? I am too busy adventuring to have time for one of those!" And when we fought a fire elemental he told us that "I hate these guys, when I was younger they attacked my village and killed my mother." No idea where that came from.
Maybe next time we will hit the mountains.
Next up: At the White Plume Mountains of Madness
The idea of this adventure was to go to a mountain in snowy area. So I using the 3.x conversion of S2 White Plume Mountain (and the original) and I am going to set it in a near Arctic area. I am also going to fill it full of Lovecraftian Horrors since my boys both know who Cthulhu is. Meld the two together a bit for some good old fashioned dungeon crawl of horror fun.
The adventure is actually very short; shorter than I remembered it. Plus my youngest has been asking about the most powerful swords in D&D so I think it is time he sees Blackrazor.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Zatannurday: What is Zatanna Reading?
What does Zatanna read before going to bed after a long night of performances? We go to "Catwoman #57" for that answer.
Looks like Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law on her bed and the Necronomicon on her nightstand.
Gotta love the poster of her Dad over her bed.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Art and Content thief Jim Shipman back
You all might remember Jim Shipman; the thief that has been stealing art all over the internet and putting them on Tunnels and Trolls products and selling them as his own.
Well he is back at it.
http://www.outlawpressinc.com/
Now he is trying to lie behind some bullshit disclaimer that the items are "second hand" and not published by him and he therefore has not responsibility over their content.
Can we please shut this asshole down once and for all?
Thanks to Tran Eskoor an Doon for this information.
http://quietdayinheimdall.blogspot.com/2011/02/breaking-news-shipman-is-still-asshole.html
Well he is back at it.
http://www.outlawpressinc.com/
Now he is trying to lie behind some bullshit disclaimer that the items are "second hand" and not published by him and he therefore has not responsibility over their content.
Can we please shut this asshole down once and for all?
Thanks to Tran Eskoor an Doon for this information.
http://quietdayinheimdall.blogspot.com/2011/02/breaking-news-shipman-is-still-asshole.html
Mutants and Masterminds 3
The third edition is out, and I have talked about it before, but flipping through the pages fills me with such geek-related glee that I can barely contain it. Then you add my favorite comics on top of that, DC Comics, in a 100% compatible system then I wonder why I play anything else at this point. Well maybe that is a stretch.
But not by much.
Mutants and Masterminds is by far one of the the best examples of how and why the OGL works so well. It is the same basic d20 system, stripped down to the bare bones and then fine tuned, just enough, to be exactly what it needs to be.
Is it the best RPG ever? No, not by a long shot.
Is it the best Super Hero RPG ever? Yeah, it probably is.
Third Edition has gone a long way to fixing a lot of the issues I had with 2nd Edition. Mind you those were "issues" not "problems" and many could have been solved had played a few more games of it really.
I am looking forward to playing some with my boys at Gen Con. I just hope I can get in to them this year.
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