Friday, April 8, 2011

Season of the Witch: Episode 13

Episode 13: All Along the Watchtower

May/June, 2005
Heatherfield, WA

No previously on “Willow & Tara: Season of the Witch” we pick up right where we left off.

Willow and Tara are separated by the newly repaired veil. A lot of things happen at once. Tara is screaming for Willow and collapses, but does not pass out. Cordelia and Bob both disappear. The Guardians “power down” and revert to their normal forms.

The members of the Witches’ Committee attempt to use magic to capture Tara, but all discover that they no longer have any magic at all. S.A.V.E. (Nigel, Faith and a couple of field agents) gets in between them with guns (Faith, btw no longer feels like a Slayer). At some point the Daughters of Flame had arrived and are now surrounding Tara to protect her from anyone that might cross their line. It looks like everyone is going to resort to physical fighting. In what would later be called “Tapping a Line” in my games, Tara, the only Mage in the group, screams “Enough” and summons up enough magic to physically move everyone away from her. Think of those anime shows where the hero summons up magic. So lit from the bottom, hair flying wild, glowing eyes.

Tara manages to round up the groups and sets them into figuring out what is going on. I tell her player she can still feel Willow, but it is weak and distant. She can tell that Willow is still alive, but that is it.

With Bob and Cordilia gone I get their players to play Nigel (and Faith, representing S.A.V.E.) and Morgan (representing the Witches’ Committee). I slip them notes with what their ultimate goal is. S.A.V.E. wants to keep the veil closed so there are no more magical threats. Nigel though wants Tara to be with Willow because of his own guilt with Megan and Bob. The Witches Committee wants the veil to be removed since they have the most to gain in a world of magic. Lilith is also there, being represented by Anya. She is an NPC, but Lilith’s interests are maintain the status-quo. But she has plans for either outcomes. The Guardians for the first time in years have nothing to guard. They have no powers and they feel lost.

While meeting and discussing the various merits of all the plans, Tara and company get a visitor. The Lich from Episode 10. Tara meets with him alone, everyone else is too terrified and too surprised to see him still walking around (they had gotten reports that all magical creatures were gone or dead).

On the other side of the veil, Willow is having the opposite problem. She is super powerful, but everything she throws at the veil does nothing to change it. She is joined by Coyote. He mocks her a bit, saying this what the old Willow would have wanted, all this power. Willow tells him if the price for power is Tara then it is not worth it; That she would rather be a normal human, living a normal life as long as she is with Tara. Coyote tells her that maybe she can have both and he wanders off. Willow follows.

Tara and the Lich are meeting in a room, the Daughters begged her to allow a body guard, but Tara didn’t want one. The Lich tells her that they are linked, that she owes him but in the present state of the world there is no way she could pay him back. Tara figures out the other reason they are linked. Everyone else’s magic is gone, but his and hers. He was a Mage too. The Lich says that the only way they can settle their debt, and he indicates his mark on her, is to bring magic back to the world and not just the trickle that leaked through the Veil, all of it. Tara asks him what he wants in return. The Lich is silent.

Willow follows Coyote to the court of the Fae. Both the leaders of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts are there. The Seelie King and Queen treat Willow with an odd amount of respect. The Unseelie Queen is down-right friendly. King Oberon address Willow and says it has been over a hundred years since they last met. Willow is confused. Queen Maeve (the Unseelie Queen) tells her that the King refers to her past life when the Veil was erected by herself and her Anamchara.
The Seelie want the veil to remain closed, and have offered Willow a home on this side of it. The Unseelie want it open, Maeve enjoys humans and will miss the interactions. The court leaves Willow to think about her future, Coyote joins her.

Tara has decided to drop the veil. Living in a world with no magic is one thing, but living in a world with no Willow is another thing all together. Since she and the Lich are the only ones with magic she doesn’t even bother to tell the others.

Willow can feel Tara’s anxiety but does not know what it is about. She decides that living in a world full of magic is meaningless without Tara. She goes back to the Veil. Laughing, Coyote follows her telling her it is time to destroy the world.

At the Veil Tara is followed by the throng, wanting to see what she is going to do. She summons up her magic and tries to bring down the Veil. Nigel asks her to stop, telling her that if she drops the Veil she might not get it back up again.

On the other side Willow feels Tara at the Veil and uses her own magic to lower it. The Seelie Court detects this and are right on her heels trying to stop her. The Unseelie try to stop them.

The Veil is weakening as it does the people with magic on the other side begin to feel the return. The Guardians are first, and they are unsure what to do. The decide to help Tara. The Witches Committee member, Morgan, lends her magic as do the Daughters of the Flame.

On Willow’s side she can feel the flow of magic more and knows Tara is on the other side helping. Maeve is also lending her magic. So total we have five Guardians, three Daughters of the Flame, Morgan, Maeve, Willow and Tara, and the Lich for a total of 13 witches/mages.

The Veil falls.

Willow and Tara are reunited as magic rushes into the “real” world, banality rushes into the magical one.

The Guardians of the Veil are now the Guardians of the Watchtowers, each a mage in her respective element.
Morgan and the Daughters all have their magic levels increased.
Bob and Cordelia are back.
Maeve and the rest of the fae feel weaker in terms of magic, but they mention this is a temporary solution. King Obereon tells Willow and Tara that the pact forged in their past lives is now broken.
Two of the Daughters, Ceriweden and Brigh, offer themselves as their personal protectors as long as they draw breath.
Morgan can be heard on her cell phone talking away about setting up a press conference right away. She is ushered into a car that had just pulled up. She pauses to thank Willow and Tara and tells them they should come to offices, now that they are not trying to kidnap or kill them. They can do lunch.
Nigel and Faith mention they will figure out something to tell S.A.V.E., Faith kisses both girls on the cheeks and tells them not to be strangers anymore.

Tara looks out to see the Lich. It nods to her and she feels her mark burn. The Lich speaks in her mind, “there is still the debt”.

Tara feels ill, then light headed and she passes out.

--

Tara wakes in a hospital room. She is connected to an IV drip and Willow is sitting by her side. Bob is “pacing” the room. As soon as Tara sits up Cordelia orbs in. She tells them all the Elders are “Freaking out” but not as much as the demons. They are all crazy busy, but she felt they knew this was the direction everything was going to go. Now that they don’t have to cover up magic anymore they can concentrate more on fighting evil. Cordy gives Willow and Tara both a hug goodbye. She tells them she can’t be their Whitelighter anymore since they are Mages and she is needed elsewhere. But she will come by to see them when she can.
Cordelia orbs out.

Bob, who has been quiet this whole time says he has to go too. Tara protests, but he tells her that she is grown up and doesn’t need her daddy to help her back on to the horses anymore. He tells her this was how it was always going to be, he was here to help with the Awakening and that is what he did. He tells her he is tired, and he wants to see Megan again. Megan appears (played by Eliza Roberts again) she goes to Tara and hugs and kisses her. She also hugs Willow thanking her for being there and loving her daughter so much. She tells them both how proud she is of them and how exciting the future will be for them. She takes Bob’s hand and as they fade away they fade to their younger versions from the 1980s.

Tara is crying and Willow is holding her.

The doctor comes in, a young Indian man. He apologizes for being so late, saying that the ER has been a nightmare for the last 24 hours. He asks if Willow can leave so he can talk to the patient, Willow protests, but Tara mentions they are legal domestic partners and are married in the tenants of their faiths. That they are spending the rest of their lives together and that anything that she needs to know Willow needs to know too.

The doctor says, “Ok, this should be good news then. Congratulations Ms. Maclay, you are pregnant!”

The final scene is the stunned look on the girls’ faces.

--
Notes: Ok so big things here. Let’s break it all down.

No Big Bads: One of the things I wanted to do here was do a Season/Series/Arc/Campaign with no Big Bads. No final boss at the end of the level to fight. I am going to say that this was 100% a success. It did take some work to do. The mental place you are in when working on this game is a Big Bad. It’s what the show does, it’s what a lot of shows do.

The Awakening: The big season focus was on the Awakening, or the return of all Magic. Or as we said at the time, Magic was being outed. I felt that the world as it was could no longer exist. You can’t explain everything with gangs and PCP, you can’t even explain anything really. So the best plan was to have a world where everyone knew magic was real. We do it all the time in D&D and ShadowRun. My major influence here was the Piers Anthony “Incarnations of Immortality” series. Magic has returned to the world and it allows me make some rather big changes.

Pregnant: Yup. I got Tara knocked up. Well. Not me personally.
I wanted to keep the identity of the other parent secret for a while, but my Season 3 never quite got together the way I wanted. It got together in a completely different way, but more on that later.
Tara is pregnant. At the time we were building “The Dragon and the Phoenix” there was a meme of Tara getting pregnant stories. There were tons of them. Examples,  http://www.uberwillowtara.com/artfamily.htm  and http://www.uberwillowtara.com/artmothers.htm
I thought we should do our own take too. Taking a cue from Lisa , our co-author and resident Tara expert, I went to her Willow & Tara epic tale (700+ pages) “Unexpected Consequences” and got the name for Tara’s child, Brianna. Brianna was born Feb 2, 2006.

Who is the “father”? Well I wanted to do a lot of Red Herrings and things like that. Maybe even implicate the Lich, but in the end that never came to pass. Season Three picked up many years later, with a small “Mini-series” in between.

The father of Brianna is Willow.

You can even see where (and when) I came up with the idea, http://edenstudiosdiscussionboards.yuku.com/reply/21984#reply-21984

During the adourflame the girls suffered provide the magical catalyst, and they were certainly having enough sex at the time. This is also (I am told) a fairly common theme in lesbian authored Sci-Fi stories, so I suppose I should not have been surprised there were so many fics out there of it.

Ghosts of Albion: A lot of what happened in Season of the Witch made it one way or the other into Ghosts of Albion. These were our play tests. Anamchara casting rules became “William and Tamara Casting Together”, faeries, expanded vampires, magical philosophies, all of it came from these games. Mages obviously never made it to Ghosts, but we also did not have Protectors in Season of the Witch (except Milicent, and she was only there in the beginning).
This lead to a number of discussions with Chris Golden, Amber, and all my players on how different were William and Tamara compared to Willow and Tara. The answer of course is not much at all.

This was the last time I played with that group. I had a more local group forming at this point and we were getting back into D&D and Ghosts of Albion. We played a lot of games, thus continuing my “conversions” threads over the years, but it was not the same without my witches.

Where are Willow and Tara now?

Well the character sheets (hundreds of them, for several dozen games) sit in a 4-inch binder in my game room.

The characters?

Willow created a small software company that produced a new type of data encryption method. It was quickly bought by a larger company making millions for Willow and Tara. Willow was hired by the same company as an executive consultant. She helps other companies set up her software to protect their data. Willow herself uses the same software on her home computers to protect all the magical texts she has scanned in over the years.
Willow took her money to have special Subaru Outback converted to a hybrid car.

Tara completed her degree and is teaching Art History at a local private school. She is also a youth councilor at the school. She still has her mother’s spellbook/journals as well as her own. She wants to complete a Ph.D. but thinks she will wait till after Brianna is older. She is also starting to think she wants another child.

Brianna is four and is the spitting image of Willow.

They all live in a converted Brownstone in Boston, MA. Tara takes her bike to work everyday (when it is cold she laments giving her dad’s car to the vampires). They have not seen Cordy again, but have heard of her and some of her charges. They have seen Dawn a few times, she is currently in medical school where she uses her psychic powers to diagnosis and treat patients.

G is for Guardians

New Quality: Guardians of the Watchtowers for Classic and Cinematic Unisystem

Hail! Guardians of the Watchtower of the East, Powers of Air! from Calling the Guardians rite.
Guardians! Unite! - Wil Vandom, W.I.T.C.H.

I have used the idea of witch guardians before, both here and in my various games.

Guardian of the Watchtower
5 point Quality
Prerequisite: The Gift (Classic) or Sorcery (Cinematic).
Optional: Three other Witches to complete the circle.

The Guardians of the Watchtowers are special spiritual guardians that guard the four cardinal directions (North, East, South and West) and the four classical elements (Water, Air, Fire, Earth). To a human Guardian they grant certain boons when dealing with their preferred element or direction.

When facing their chosen direction, or casting spell (invocation) that deals with their chosen element the witch is at a +2 for all spell casting roles. If it is the opposing element or direction then the roll is -1 and if they surrounded on all sides by their opposing element the they cannot cast at all. Directors/Chroniclers with a sense for more exclusion can up this to -2 for the opposing element/direction and -1 for the other two, but then no surrounding element restriction.

For example, Bonnie from The Craft is the Guardian of the Watchtower of the South, her element is Fire. She gains +2 when facing south or when casting a fire based spell (but not both at the same time). She is at a -1 when facing north or using a Water based spell. If she were surrounded by water she couldnt cast at all.

If we were to extend this example to W.I.T.C.H., then when Cornelia casts a Earth based spell she gains a +2, but since that shows mythology/cosmology is more elemental based she would be at a -1 when using Water or Fire based magic and -2 when using Air based magic. She would not however be at a loss of magic when she is flying (surrounded by air).
This can be used as source of rumor for your games as well. An old superstition says that submerging a witch in water will rob her of her magic, which is true, for a fire-based Guardian of the Watchtower, but completely ineffective on the Water Guardian like Irma Lair from W.I.T.C.H.

Classic:
Essence Channeling: +2
Invocation: Willpower + invocation level + 2

Cinematic:
Willpower + occultism + sorcery + 2

Often to use this added power the witches need to engage in a minor ritual. For the Craft girls it was a night long ritual that gave them their power permanently. For the girls of W.I.T.C.H. it is minor one that must be repeated (at least once per episode).

The advantage comes when all four (five for the W.I.T.C.H. example, with Wills element as pure magical essence) use their magic together. All minuses are dropped, regardless of the direction facing or element used, and all may contribute their +2 to the group spell casting. In W.I.T.C.H. they augment this by each girl facing their cardinal direction with Will in the center. The Craft witches join in a circle.

This could be extended to other numbers of witches as well. The girls from Scholastics T*Witches could be seen as day and night for example; Camryn getting the benefit under the light of the sun and Alexandra during the moonlit hours. Great dramatic potential comes when they are able to cast together under a total solar eclipse.

Examples
Witch group Number   Notes
W.I.T.C.H. 5 As listed, elements plus raw magic.
The Craft Girls 4 Elements and Directions
Charmed  3 Special case, Charmed One Quality supercedes
T*Witches 2 Day and Night or Sun and Moon
Ghosts of Albion, William and Tamara    2 Special case, Protector Quality supercedes
Willow and Tara  2 Special case, Anamchara Quality supercedes

Why 5 points?
For your 5 Quality or Metaphysics points you get the equivalent of raising your Will 2 points, or your Sorcery 2 points, or an invocation and Essence channeling increase of 2 points each. The drawbacks of course are this power increase is limited to only a quarter of the total spells/invocations out there and there is an associated power loss. Plus it is dramatically pleasing to have other witches to complete the circle.
Like most qualities there is a significant roleplaying element that goes beyond the stats. Sure, W.I.T.C.H. might be interesting with just Will, we have seen many shows like that, but then it would be just W. I guess. The drama comes from the interaction of all the different elements. No pun intended.

Using Guardians in Your Game
This obviously works best, both game level and dramatically, when you have a few witches to compliment the powers. In most game this would work great with a small coven of guest stars with great powers despite their young age or naivety in other occult matters. Personally, Id refrain from using them as villains, they could become quite powerful together and you would miss your chance to have them explain to the Cast who and what they are.
It is also possible that they are short one member and a Cast member has the complimentary outlook/power.

In Classic Unisystem games, this quality is most common among the Wicce, although some small groups of Solitaries can sometimes band together and form an ersatz covenant based on their own personal outlooks.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Ghosts of Albion at Gen Con

I am going to be at Gen Con this year running Ghosts of Albion games again.

On tap is "Obsession (Revised)"  if you played Obsession in the past then this is the same game, but I am changing the beginning slightly.  The change is subtle, but I think it will change how the rest of the adventure plays out.

I am also going to run two games of "Dinosauria!".  The one during the day will be welcome for younger players (cause everyone loves dinosaurs) and the evening one will be geared more to the older crowd (tad more violent, but also things adults are more likely to get like an argument between Karl Marx and Charles Darwin. Yes they are NPCs).

Here are the locations and times.

RPG1120388 Obsession (Revised) Thu @ 7:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Grand Central Blrm D :: 8 Cost: $4

RPG1120389 Dinosauria! Fri @ 1:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Grand Central Blrm D :: 6 Cost: $4

RPG1120390 Dinosauria! Fri @ 7:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Grand Central Blrm C :: 3 Cost: $4

I am leaving Thursday and Saturday during the day to play some old-school D&D and 4e D&D with my boys.

Links to Wisdom OSR Wiki

I updated the Links to Wisdom Wiki a bit today.

I added a bunch of material that I have posted here.
Included now are:

F is for Familiars

Familiars

Familiars are as ubiquitous to witches as are cauldrons, pointy hats and brooms.

Despite their outward appearances, familiars are not animals, but rather spirits in the shape of animals. They can talk and understand human speech but only their witch can understand them. This connection is a mental one, but it is often described as speech. This connection also allows the witch to communicate with animals of the same kind. With their familiar present they can talk to any animal and understand what is being said. Some familiars also have a chance to know another language, which the witch then will know.

A witch starts at 1st level with a familiar. This familiar will show up when she first becomes a witch. The nature and form of the familiar will often be dictated by the circumstances of her becoming a witch. She may add other familiars as she progresses in level. The maximum number of familiars a witch may have is equal to her number of Retainers based on CHA. She may also only call a new familiar once per year and a day (alternately this can be once per level). This is for an additional familiar or to replace one that had been killed (familiars do not die of old age like natural animals). So a witch with a CHA of 18 can have a max of 7 familiars at a time, but will take her a minimum of 7 years (or levels) and 7 days to obtain them all.

A familiar adds 1 spell level of a spell the witch can learn. So a witch with a familiar can learn an extra 1st level spell, a witch with three familiars can learn any combination of three spell levels, so 1 3rd level spell, 1 2nd and 1 1st level spell, or 3 1st level spells. If the familiar is killed then the witch looses those spells the familiar knows. If she has cast those spells already this day then she loses an equal numbers of levels.

As the witch gains level the familiar also grows in power by gaining 1 hit point per level the witch gains and their armor class improves by -1 per level.

Anytime a familiar is killed or if the witch releases it she much make a saving throw vs. death or lose a number of hit points equal to that of the familiar.
Summoning A Familiar
At 1st level the witch gains her first familiar automatically. Once she gains a level she can attempt to summon a new one.

Summoning a new familiar is not something that can be done lightly. The witch needs to spend a day in deep meditation and purification. The day must begin for sunrise with the witch participating in a ritual bath and cleansing that must be complete before the sun has clear the horizon. She will spend the morning preparing the area for a familiar to come; laying out small treats for the type of animal she wishes; cheese for a rat, cream for cat, meats for a dog or wolf, and so on. She then will spend time preparing items for each sense, something for touch, taste, smelling, hearing and seeing. Then she will also appeal to the four elements, plus the fifth element of magic, and for the mind, body and spirit. So in total the witch must procure 13 items that are outside of the treat for the familiar to appeal to magic. These items must have significance to the witch and will be unique for each casting and each witch. In total these materials will cost the witch up to 100 gp.

The witch has a base chance of obtaining a familiar equal to 65% + 3% per level up to 10th level. So even at 10th level the witch has 1% chance of there not being a familiar within the area.
Any roll of 100% (00) will result in a Special familiar.

Regardless of the result of the summoning, the witch will have spent the day in the ritual and will not have prepared any spells for that day. Any materials spent cannot be reused.

Special familiars are not in the shape of animals but are often creatures of the Faerie or even the other planes. Special familiars cans speak to anyone capable of understanding their language.

List of Familiars
(roll d%, this is not the same roll as discovering a familiar)
Rolls of 00 result in a Special Familiar.
Roll Familiar* Additional Powers to the Witch
1-3 Badger +2 to Constitution checks
4-6 Bat +2 to Dexterity checks
7-9 Beaver Double normal speed when swimming
10-12 Cat Night vision (night is treated like a light spell)
13-15 Coyote Surprised only on a roll of 1 on a d6
16-18 Crow +2 bonus to Magic Wand saves
19-21 Dog Surprised only on a roll of 1 on a d6
22-24 Eagle Improved vision
25-27 Ferret +1 to Dexterity checks, -1 to AC
28-30 Fox +1 to Intelligence and +1 to Wisdom checks
31-33 Frog +2 to Constitution checks,
34-36 Goat +2 to Constitution checks
37-39 Hawk Improved vision
40-42 Hyena +2 to Dexterity checks
43-45 Jackal +1 to Intelligence and +1 to Constitution checks
46-48 Lizard +1 to Intelligence and +1 to Dexterity checks
49-51 Lynx +2 to Dexterity checks
52-54 Mouse +2 to Dexterity checks
55-57 Owl +2 to Wisdom checks
58-60 Porcupine Improved AC, -2 bonus
61-63 Rabbit Surprised only on a roll of 1 on a d6
64-66 Raccoon Surprised only on a roll of 1 on a d6
67-69 Rat +2 bonus to Paralysis saves
70-72 Raven +2 bonus to Death saves, can speak to others
73-75 Scorpion +2 bonus to Poison saves
76-78 Snake +1 to Intelligence checks, +2 to Heal
79-81 Spider +2 bonus to Poison saves
82-84 Squirrel +2 to Dexterity checks
85-87 Swan +2 to Charisma checks
88-90 Toad Wide-angle vision, surprised only on a 1 on a d6
91-93 Turtle Improved AC -2 bonus
94-96 Weasel +2 bonus to Rods and Staff saves
97-99 Wolf +2 bonus to Spell saves

Special Familiars
Familiar Alignment Additional Powers to the Witch
Batling Lawful Improved hearing and +2 polymorph save bonus
Bear Neutral +2 to Strength to checks
Bendith ý mamau Neutral Improved hearing and a +2 wands save bonus
Blink dog Lawful Witch may dimension door once per day as the blink dog’s power.
Brownie Lawful +3 bonus to all Dexterity based rolls and effects
Butterfae Neutral +2 Wands saves and +2 to Spell saves
Cait Sidhe Neutral +4 to Wands saves
Celestial Animal Lawful Same as normal animal, +2 to Spell saves
Dire Animal Neutral Twice the bonus as a normal animal of it’s kind
Elemental, small Neutral Gain +5 to saves to the Elemental element
Fiendish Animal Chaos Same as normal animal, +2 to Poison saves
Imp Chaos Regenerate 1 hp per day
Mephit Chaos Gain +5 to saves to the Mephit’s element
Pseudodragon Lawful +3 to saves vs. Dragon Breath
Skitterwing Chaos Gain +5 to saves to charm and mind affecting magic
Sprite Lawful +2 bonus to all Dexterity based rolls (Reflex, AC)


Perform ritual. Roll d% to see if you summon a familiar, if yes roll a d% to see what you get.  A roll of 00 on either roll is an automatic special familiar.

More soon.
--
Section 15 Copyright Notice

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

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

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

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

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

"Witch's Familiars" Copyright ©2011, Timothy S. Brannan

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

E is for Elegy

An elegy is a poem of mourning.

It is also the title of a 2009-2010 story arc of Detective Comics featuring the new Batwoman. In many ways Elegy is Batwoman's origin story,  but it is also the origin story of her arch-enemy and the secret connection they have.

After reading "52" I became a big fan of the new Batwoman.  She was a different character than either Batman or Batgirl.  You knew what motivated them, what caused this new Batwoman to don the cape and cowl?   Elegy tells you what motivates Kate Kane, what drives her and why she has to do what she does.

I'll let you in on a little secret, I don't actually read a lot of comics.  I pick up a collection every now and again, read some things that were popular years ago, or a trade paper-back, but I don't actually follow anything.  I am a bigger DC fan than Marvel by a long shot and I tend to watch any super-hero cartoon, TV show or movie that I can, but monthly comics, I rarely if ever read those.

I picked up Elegy since I was a fan of Batwoman.
I am very glad I did.

Elegy is not a story that could be told with the Batman or even any of the Batgirls.  It had to be Batwoman.

Before I go on I have to mention the artwork.
J. H. Williams III had been lauded for his work on this book, but I am not sure that even those do him justice.
The art work here is another layer of story telling above and beyond the great story by Greg Rucka. There are parallels drawn between the two foes that make you think that we have a rivalry to well, rival that of Batman and the Joker.  But that is the easy stuff to sell because it is so good.  The look on Kate's face when she is dumped by her girlfriend is tangible.  She says she is ok, but her look says so much more.   That is something you never see in the Batman.  Both characters are full of sadness and loss. Kate's though is closer to the surface, not beat down like Bruce has done, or she thinks she has done.  Kate is more vulnerable; not because she is a woman, but because her pain is still real to her, her multiple losses, all the reversals of fate.  She just wants to do the right thing, the honest thing, the just thing, but each time reopens a wound.  Elegy rips her old wounds open and drowns them in salt.

Ok on to the story.  Caution, Spoilers Ahead.

The story is told in flashbacks while the Batwoman is working on a new case.  The Cult of Crime is back in town and the Batman is giving his approval for the Batwoman to take it on her own.  She investigates and only turns up a few clues.
She returns home to where we meet her father, a retired Army officer, is helping her out via two way radio ala Batman Beyond.  Frankly it's a great idea, two heads are better than one.  She works out and has to rush to a breakfast date, only to get the aforementioned dumping.   With the Cult of Crime in town though she can't dwell on that.

We get flashbacks to her life at Westpoint.  She was then an up and coming officer with high marks.  Just past "Ring weekend" the young Kate Kane is brought into the Commandant's office where she is told she is under suspicion of "homosexual activity" and is asked if she wants to deny it, reminded that if she doesn't she will be expelled. Kate recites the Cadet Code of Conduct about not lying nor allowing others to do so. She admits to being gay and is kicked out of the academy.


Let me go back to the art for a second.  Look at the sequence of Kate's face. She is sad, angry and then finally resolved because she knows there is only one right answer the answer is the Truth she can't deny who or what she is.  She is a Westpoint Cadet and they never lie. Neither will she.

For the first time (we think at this point) Kate has no where to go and nothing to do.  She returns home to tell her Army officer father what happened and he tells her he is proud that she stood by her honor and told the truth.  That's it.  Kate struggles a bit.  She doesn't care for her new step-mother at all (we find out her mother was killed, but that is it for now).  A chance meeting with a mugger in the streets though changes that.  She is actually about ready to beat the thug into a bit of pulp, shouting at him "think I'm some victim? I'm a soldier!" till she (or rather the mugger) is rescued by the Batman.

I want to come back to this later.  Rescued is such a loaded word here, but I use it on purpose.  I want to get to why later.

Kate then decides (between tattoo sessions I am guessing) that her new purpose in life is to be a vigilante.   That is till her father discovers.  He helps focus her attention. She trains with people he knows for the next couple of years.  He tells her if she is serious then she is going to war and in war you define your objectives and your winning strategies.  She comes back and her father has decked out their version of the "batcave" with state of the art surveillance, urban combat weapons (but the "Batman Rule" is always in effect) and a new costume done up in red and black, the colors of war in her Jewish faith (I have to take Rucka's word on that one, never heard it before, but it sounds right).  Though she is not happy with the heels on her boots.  In newer parts of the story we see they have been replaced with proper bad guy stomping red combat boots.



More details are discovered with the Cult of Crime.  But frankly at this point those details are only a means to an end.  That end is Alice.  Alice is the new High Madame of Crime and she has a very personal interest in Kate/Batwoman. She is also Joker-level crazy.  This gets to my one real issue with this.  WAY too many bad guys know all about her "Secret Identity" for a character that was introduced as a closeted, lipstick lesbian, everyone seems to know her secrets.  Alice in particular knows a lot of them.

We get up to the final confrontation.  Alice has kidnapped Kate's father and wants to us his knowledge to launch some missiles (I thought he was retired.  Maybe still active??).  So the ruse of fighting Batwoman was just to get to her father. Or was it.  Reading on it seems that was just a ruse to get at Batwoman.  Alice and Kate fight. Kate manages to stab Alice, Alice stabs Kate.  They are over the Gotham river and in a rare lucid moment Alice, no longer talking in 3rd person, tells Kate that "she has our father's eyes". She then falls to her death (seemingly).

Kate goes back to the HQ, her father begging her to stop along the way.  She takes two blood samples, hers and Alice's.  She gets them analyzed and Alice is her twin sister that she had assumed was dead for years.

In one more flashback we see Kate's life when she was a little girl living with her mom, dad and twin sister.  Briefly, she is kidnapped along with her mom and sister by terrorists.  Her father does get an army team in to save her, but shots are fired and her mother and sister are killed.
Kate dedicates her life to service to honor her Army Officer mother and twin.

When Kate gets the confirmation she goes to the Cult of Crime and tells them that if they come for her father again she is going to kill them all.
The story ends with Kate still not talking to her father.

--

There is so much happening here and I didn't even get into the relationship Kate has with mer step-mother, her dance with Maggie Sawyer, what happened with her and Renee Montoya,  or how Betty "Flamebird" Kane is her cousin.   It has been said before and it is true;  This is not a female Batman.  Kate's Batwoman is also propelled by loss and grief and anger, but they are different.  She built her entire life after her mother's death on the idea that she would be the best officer she could be and serve to honor them.  When that is removed she was lost in a way that Bruce Wayne never was.

When I said before that she was "rescued" I meant it.  She was never in danger of that mugger.  The mugger actually had more to fear from a very capable and very deadly opponent with no outlet what so ever for her aggression, anger  and sense of loss.  The Batman showing up saved her.  Not the man, but what the man stands for. The symbol.  That is why she is the Batwoman and not some other new costumed hero.

The parallels in the art in the book between Alice and Kate are amazing. I am rather disappointed in myself for not guess who Alice was sooner.

I mentioned also that Kate is more vulnerable than Batman is. Again, not because she is a woman, but  because her pain is still so fresh and her choices still weigh on her.  Because of that her heroic actions are greater.  We know she can fail, we know she hurts (and sometime physically given her chest wound from 52 is still not 100% healed) and yet she still goes out there, every night.  The Batman goes out every night because that is what he is.  Kate chooses her life, the ups and the many downs.

Elegy manages to be poignant yet not preachy. Kate certainly is not a perfect character.  She is still brash, has a chip on her shoulder and even with out the Batwoman gig she would still have troubles in her relationships (as seen with Renee). But she is trying and I think that is the reason why her series would do well.



Elegy is the best comic I have read in a very long time.  I like Kate, I like Batwoman and I want her to do well. It would make a great movie.  Maybe when Nolan is done with Batman he can turn his sights to a Batwoman.

You can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batwoman:_Elegy
http://www.amazon.com/Batwoman-Elegy-Greg-Rucka/dp/1401226922/

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

D is for Dresden Files

When the Dresden Files RPG was announced I had a vague idea of the books. I had watched and enjoyed the series on Sci-Fi (back when they still were Sci-Fi and didn't show Wrestling). But I never gave the books much thought.  Over the course of the last couple years all the other books I was reading in the Modern Urban Supernatural genre kept bringing up the Dresden Files and Harry Dresden.

So I bought the game and I liked it a lot. It is cool and neat. And I quickly put it away!  The game is so full of spoilers for the books.  I had read the first book, Storm Front, and remembered it was a bit like the Sci-Fi channel movie.  But the game went so far beyond that. So I figured before I could properly read the game I needed to read the books.  So for the last six months I have been going through all the Dresden Files books.  I have been "reading" them on audio-book during my commute.  I have gotten them from my local library and I have gotten rather used to hearing James Marsters in my car.  By the way, I never really liked Spike as a character and never thought much of Marsters as an actor, but hearing him read these books has really changed my opinion of him.

Anyway I am almost done with Turn Coat now which as I understand it is the next to the last book so far.  There is a collection of short stories and a new book out soon.  I should be ready for it.  One thing I have enjoyed about listening to the book in my car is while I am driving through Chicago is every so often I'll hear of a place and immediately think of where that is in proximity to where I am at.  I once even drove by one of the grave yards mentioned in the book while it was being talked about.

Though as a Chicagoan (of sorts, moved here 17 years ago) its the Kennedy, not the JFK. It's DUI, not DWI. It's not Coke, it's Pepsi (ok that one is just me). Things that would be said if you grew up in Missouri (like Jim Butcher did, where it is the JFK and DWI).  Nor is it as easy to get a cab as Harry seems too, but then again he is a wizard.  There weer other minor issues (he drove from downtown to Deerfield in a few minutes?  The guy HAS to be a wizard for that!) but nothing that was a deal breaker for me.

Dresden Files the RPG is a different story.  I liked the background already; supernatural going ons in Chicago and the developer Fred Hicks once claimed that he loved the WitchCraft setting as a possible choice for the Dresden Files RPG.  I am just not a huge fan of Fate.  I do understand that they have taken it to new and wondrous places and that it is not very similar to FUDGE at all anymore, but I am still skeptical.  I will though review the game on it's own merits and not my pre-conceived notions of the system.

I have played in a Chicago-based Unisystem game that has some similar tropes of the Dresden books.  Though our Chicago is also 1 part Cine Unisystem, 1 part Ghosts of Albion, 1 part World of Darkness and 1 part just good old fashion knowledge of the area.

I'll certainly convert some characters sometime.  The issue though is the whole Wizards and Technology deal. Makes converting the Hex Girls difficult and Willow down right impossible.

More I guess when I am done reading the books and the game.  Maybe I'll re-watch the series too.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Woo Hoo. I leveled up!

According to Trey over at The Sorcerer's Skull I just leveled up to Level 7 Pundit!

Thanks all!

(file under: Silly)

C is for Charmed

I am not ashamed of this, but all things considered I vastly prefer Charmed to Buffy. I don't even consider myself a Buffy fan to be honest, more of a Willow & Tara fan. But I am an unapologetic Charmed fan.

There is the whole witch thing to be sure.  And the Charmed Ones are rather easy on the eyes.  But I think my friend and former TV writer Robert Black said it best,  Charmed never forgot who their audience was and never forgot they were a TV show.

You can see his post from an archive of the Original Other Side here, http://web.archive.org/web/20040518093406/http://www.xtreme-gaming.com/theotherside/tenways.html

I am at a really good place in my gaming life.  I get to game all the time now with various groups. I get to talk to the people that make this hobby happen and they are really cool.  And I get to write the stuff I like.

But I'd kill to be able to write a Charmed RPG.

While I know the demographics of the show and your average gamer are not exactly the same, I think with the amount of "modern supernatural" fiction being published today that a Charmed game would be fantastic.  Buffy sold well, Dresden Files is doing nicely.  Granted those are properties with significant geek/gamer buy-in and at the time of their games the properties are still active.

I would like to point out that with all the stuff I have written about witches and magic in the things I have published that this game would be a natural for me. ;)

The world of Charmed is richer and it is a drama about sisters that happen to be witches and living in a supernatural world. Not one about witches that happen to be sisters.  The differences sound subtle but have huge potential differences on how a story can be told.  Charmed featured, not just witches and demons (the typical fare in my book) but all sorts of other races, creatures and groups with agendas of their own; and just because two groups were working for the same side they didn't always get along.  For example the Charmed Ones and the Elders or even the Valkyries.

I think there are better stories one can tell in the Charmed universe, actually I know so.  One of the premises of Season of the Witch was to take two Buffy characters and put them into a more Charmed like universe and tell a story.  It worked. It worked really well in fact.

Of course my system of choice for this would be Unisystem, but I can also see doing it in something like Mutants & Masterminds or even Cortex..    Maybe I need to chase down the company that owns the game rights (I know, or rather knew, who they are) and see if they want to hire me cheap.  If Eden were to do it and publish it I'd even consider doing it for free.

There are a couple of versions of Charmed on the web.
Andrew Peregrine, author of Victoriana 2nd ed and Hellcats and Hockeysticks did one way back when.  You can still find it here, http://www.peregrine.madasafish.com/charmedrpg/.

Jeff Slick also did one years ago, but all his copies seem to be gone.  I did find thins one though, http://www.scribd.com/doc/44502892/Charmed-RPG-Netbook.

I like both, but there are things I'd do different in each one.

At the end of the day though I think a Charmed RPG may never be.  More is the pity too.  I think I could really rock on writing it.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Special: C is for Companion


Yes I know. No A-to-Z posting on Sunday and C is Monday's letter.  But I do have a C for Monday.

The Companion Edition of D&D was one of the near mythical books for me growing up.  As I mentioned yesterday that I began my game playing with the Basic/Expert, known today as B/X, sets from the early 80s.  The expert took the game from 3rd to 14th level and the Companion book was then going to take the game from 14th to 36th level.  Even though I knew of AD&D at the time, I thought that the Companion book was going to be the way to go. So I waited for it.
And waited.

And waited some more.

Finally I gave up waiting and dove into AD&D instead, leaving Basic D&D behind.  Eventually a Companion Rules Set did come out.  But it was for the new Mentzer-edited Basic set (now called BECMI) and I no longer had any interest in it having discovered the world could also have Assassins, half-orcs and 9 alignments.

I did manage to read it once.  I was in college and it was at Castle Perilous Games in Carbondale. Of course now AD&D 2nd Ed was the new hotness and I had no desire to look backwards.   What I saw though at the time did now impress me.  I think the entire Mentzer set at the time (AT THE TIME mind you) made me think of it as D&D for little kids (now I see it differently).

Fast forward to the Old School Revolution/Renaissance/Resurgence/Recycled and I have re-discovered the Basic sets (all of them) in their imperfect glories.  And I am not the only one that must have felt a little gipped by not getting a Companion book for B/X.
JB over at B/X Blackrazor designed his own Companion rules.
If it is not exactly what the companion was going to be, it is really, really close.



I have gushed on and on (and on) about how much I love this book here and elsewhere.  If I went on anymore then Jonathan owes me advertising. ;)

But I have to add this. B/X Companion I think is the best embodiment of the what is the spirit of the OSR, not to diminish the to efforts of others (hardly at all), but the B/X Companion gives us something new, something that we didn't have before.  Something, for me at least, that I have been waiting years for.

I only have two issues with the book.  First I want a PDF of it.  It is  my only old school book that I can't cart around with me everywhere. Though now according to JB the pdf is on the way! Second I wish he had used the OGL so others could expand on it, make modules for it.  But no big deal, I am just thrilled to have it.

Speaking of which, I did get a chance back in the day to get my Companion fix in.  My DM ran the module CM2 Death's Ride under AD&D and it nearly killed us all.  In a perfect world I'd run Death's Ride again using the B/X Companion.  Maybe one day I will.

In general I like the idea of the Companion rules, either of them. They take the rules into a different place; a place that the Basic or Advanced rules had not previously done well.  The idea of running a kingdom or even traveling the planes.  Great stuff.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

B is for Basic D&D


Ok that was silly yesterday, but now lets get down to the serious business of serious blog posting.  Seriously.

I am fairly well known in these circles for my enjoyment of the new 4th ed D&D game.  It's fun. Really what else should it be?  If I want to play something that feels like an older edition of D&D then I have older editions of D&D still on my shelves.   Which is interesting because lately my current favorite edition of D&D is the Moldvay/Cook versions of Basic and Expert.

Like so many other gamers my age I had been exposed to the AD&D 1st ed books and LOVED the Monster Manual.  And like so many others I asked for D&D for Christmas.  I didn't get this:


I got this:


Of course I was not sure what the difference was.  I had been using a really piss-poor scan of someones Holmes Basic book that was I was sure was blue.  This one was red in a purple box.  But it said D&D on the cover and that made it official D&D to me (funny how that hasn't changed much in the past 30 years).

I played this edition and then eventually got a hold of the Expert Set too.  We played AD&D, but I still used these books.  OR maybe we played D&D and used the Advanced books too.  It was a good time in any case.

With the release of such cool products like Basic FantasyLabyrinth Lord and the B/X Companion (more on that tomorrow!) I have been able to get my Basic D&D fix all over again.

The rules are light, to the point and very, very fun.
I have gone back now and re-bought both the Moldvay Basic and Cook Expert sets (my originals were long since lost), the Holmes Basic and even the Mentzer Basic set and Rules Compendium.  But it is this version is the one I consider "mine".  When people say Red Box, this is what I think of first.  Sure there are some "odd" things about it.  I got really used to the alignment system in AD&D and races as classes seemed odd to me then and they still do.  But these books are just such good fun that I can overlook all of that.

Zatannurday: I get by with a little help from my friends...


I like the Hellblazer series of comics.  I like their darker tone and of course I love the magic.  I also love them because of Zatanna, of course.

In one of the odder comics (Hellblazer #63, 1993) it is John Constantine's 40th birthday and his friends throw him a surprise party. Chantinelle "Ellie" (a succubus), Zatanna and Swamp Thing are invited as well.  Swampy then proceeds to grow a bunch of pot for everyone at the party.   Which leads to Zee becoming to my knowledge the only standing member of the Justice League to get high in the comics.  So here is John, Zee and Elle getting high.



There is a commentary about this issue here:
http://www.ifanboy.com/content/video/ifanboy_mini_-_episode__59_-_what_were_they_thinking__hellblazer__63

Friday, April 1, 2011

Season of the Witch: Episode 12

Episode 12: Torn

May/June, 2005
Heatherfield, WA

Willow and Tara spend more than a month with the Daughters of the Flame. They begin to feel a pull to the north, something summoning them.

They prepare to travel but Tara mentions being sick. Cordy scans her, but finds nothing wrong with her. She admits though as she is mage now her magic is different.

They arrive is a small town in Washington State called Heatherfield. Here they meet up with five young women fighting a giant dragon. Before they can help they are able to send through a portal. The women identify themselves as “The Guardians” and they have been protecting Earth from threats from the magical worlds for almost 10 years. They are younger than Willow and Tara, but act much older. When they are finally able to talk to them (they are not interested in what Willow and Tara have to say) they learn that the Veil is thinnest here and it is getting thinner by the minute.

There are some battles with various monsters that come through and Willow and Tara prove their worth to the five Guardians. Tara notes that in Tamara’s Journal she talked about creating the Veil to protect the lands of Faerie from humans and visa versa. The spell is in the book, but it is a very complicated one and it will take all seven of them to cast it. They debate, the five guardians are anything but united in their plans, but finally they decide to give it a try.

The ritual is cast. During this time the Witches’ Committee shows up to try to stop them but they are stopped themselves by S.A.V.E. The ritual hits a tumult and the veil is erected anew, but Willow is trapped on the other side and they can’t take it down now.

Notes: This one was going to be bigger but my group was falling apart at this point. The Guardians obviously are a take on the Guardians of Kandrakar from the comic book W.I.T.C.H., but also designed to be any type of elemental-based magic-girl. I wanted to explore why the universe would choose five teenage girls as the ultimate protectors. I figured it had something to do with innocence or something, but I never got the chance to really get too deep into it.
I wanted this episode to have a real anime feel to it. So there were a lot of magical battles. I let Willow and Tara fire bolts of magical energy that were cast like spells and did SL x3 + Willpower x2 amounts of damage. It made for an interesting time.

I wanted to play up how the Guardian girls were no longer connected to what they were and that had something to do with the weakening of the veil, but I don’t think I quite got it.

I did the cliffhanger ending here of Willow being on the other side of the veil when it went up. Yeah I know, separating the girls to cause angst was quickly becoming a cliché in this game, but this was the last time.

The Witches Committee and S.A.V.E. were back to provide some more antagonists/distractions.

Next up. There must be some kind of way out of here…

A is for "Lipra Loof!"

It's the start of the A to Z blogging challenge and I Am already breaking the rules, or rather bending them a bit.
It is also April 1st and that mean April Fools Day.    So my first post is about the great April issues of the old Dragon magazine.

Back in the 80's Dragon would send out their April issue and it would have various bits of "off" content.  While every May there would be "serious gamers" complaining about it I thought it was great.

I came to enjoy them as much as I did the annual Halloween/Undead/Horror issues in October.

In fact the "Adventure" Nogard from Dragon #96 (it's Dragon spelled backwards! Funny!) became a serious thing in our game.  A dimensionless plane with no exits.  It is timeless, so you can't die of old age or even hunger (but you still get hungry) became an awful place to get stuck in for our high school games.

I'd later use the exact same place in my series "The Dragon and the Phoenix" as the demonic waste-land in the finale "No Other Troy".

Of course some of the articles were just silly.  I remember them now only fondly.  Plenty of allusions to Phil and Dixie's "Sex and D&D" and lots of pointless character classes.

More recently WotC did an April Fools web site that featured older Basic and 1st Ed books as "New" and an equally useless cass, Witchalok (that got my attention) with powers like "Slow Dramatic Clap" and "Turn into Dinosaur".  Some of the older gamers were "offended" I thought it was funny as hell myself.   So in the vein of humor I present a new Witch Spell for Basic D&D.  Convert to any version of D&D you like.  But not to Original D&D, because really, who plays that any more?  BTW this is the spell I got paid for the new 5th Edition D&D that will be announced at Gen Con 2011.

Slow Dramatic Clap
Level: Witch 8
Range: 25'
Duration: 3 rounds
This spell is one the greater compulsion spells the witch has access too.  It can only be cast after someone in the witch's party does something that can be described as truly epic.  Defeating the ogre king with only a broken table leg, getting the cursed gem into a bag, or scoring the winning basket with only seconds left on the clock.  The witch stands and begins to clap very slowly.  Any creature that fails their save vs. Awesomness (or Spells, whatever is on your sheet) will stand (if sitting), drop their weapons and clap too.  Everytime someone falls victim to the spell, others will take a -1 to their save rolls.  So if 4 people fail their save before you then you are at a -4 to save yourself.  Eventually all will be clapping.  If any 80's rock anthem is playing then everyone takes and additional -5.
The witch must be able to stand and speak the command words "Well done. Well. Done."

Of course WotC is doing it all again this year too!
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/

A to Z blog challenge, Let it begin!

Hello! Welcome to the Other Side!

This blog is the "reincarnation" of my old The Other Side website from the dawn of the Web.  I like to write about role-playing games, particularly old-school ones, D&D and horror games.  I post a lot of character write-ups, I love witches and magic.

I am participating in this blogging challenge for the same reasons I am blogging to begin with; to help improve my ability as a writer. Challenges like these help stretch those creative muscles and hopefully get me to write about stuff I might not normally do.


I am not alone in this challenge.  I am going to be following all these blogs, some of which I only know about because of this challenge.  Please join me in watch and reading these blogs.


Ands a few new blogs to me that are also participating.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Horror RPG Blogs

So putting out a request to all the RPG bloggers out there.

What Horror RPG blogs do you all read?
I have some, but not as many as I'd like.

Looking for some reading suggestions.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Class Compendium: Warlord

Back a bit ago WotC announced they were cutting some books and the minis line and other things and the cry went out far and wide that they were doomed.  To be fair if WotC had changed the name of a book or the cover art there would be people out there on teh internets claiming it was a sign of their near death.

One of the books that met the gallows that day was "Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell".  It's purpose was to update some of the earlier PHB classes to the new Essentials format.  It was never high on my list as something to get; PHB classes and Essentials classes are still equal.  But it would have been nice to see some of the content.

So Wizards has released the Marshal, which is the Essentials version of the Warlord.
And they have done it for free.  In Dragon Magazine 397.

You can download the Marshal from Wizard's site here, http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dra/201103warlord

I checked from other browsers to make sure my DDI password was not cached in.  It is free.

So if you have not looked into the Essentials classes yet here is a good example.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Happy Birthday Lucy Lawless

In celebration of who might very well be the biggest reason most people come to my blog, here is a happy birthday to Lucy Lawless, aka Xena.

And since DC Women Kicking Ass has declared Xena an honorary DC ass-kicking woman, here are some stats for her for DC Adventures/Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Ed.

I am going with the idea here that Xena might be more than just human.

Xena, Warrior Princess - PL 8
Strength 4, Stamina 4, Agility 4, Dexterity 3, Fighting 5, Intellect 2, Awareness 2, Presence 3

Advantages
All-out Attack, Attractive 2, Chokehold, Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 3, Diehard, Equipment 2, Improved Critical: Nerve Pinch: Suffocation 1, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Leadership, Power Attack, Precise Attack (All) 4, Skill Mastery: Close Combat, Skill Mastery: Ranged Combat

Skills
Acrobatics 6 (+10), Athletics 6 (+10), Close Combat: Sword 4 (+9), Insight 2 (+4), Intimidation 6 (+9), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 6 (+9), Ranged Combat: Chakram 8 (+11), Stealth 4 (+8), Treatment 1 (+3)

Powers
Leaping: Leaping 1 (Leap 15 feet at 4 miles/hour)
Nerve Pinch: Suffocation 1 (DC 11, Advantages: Chokehold; Grab-based)
Protection: Protection 2 (+2 Toughness)
Regeneration: Regeneration 1 (Every 10 rounds)
Equipment
 Chakram (Boomerang), Sword

Offense
 Initiative +4
 Chakram, +11 (DC 20)
 Grab, +5 (DC Spec 14)
 Nerve Pinch: Suffocation 1, +3 (DC Fort 11)
 Sword, +9 (DC 22)
 Throw, +3 (DC 19)
 Unarmed, +5 (DC 19)

Complications
 Honor
 Motivation: Doing Good
 Relationship

Languages
 Greek

Defense
 Dodge 7, Parry 7, Fortitude 8, Toughness 9/6, Will 4


Power Points
 Abilities 54 + Powers 8 + Advantages 22 + Skills 25 (49 ranks) + Defenses 11 = 120

Wanted to Trade

Hey out there!

So I have a couple copies of the 4th Edition "Manual of the Planes" and a copy of the 1st Edition "Manual of the Planes" that I'd like to trade for a 3rd edition version.

The 4e one is in very good condition. A couple of the pages have had some corners bent by accident, but I have it sandwiched between some heavy books and that should fix it.  That is all that is keeping it from being in Mint status.

The 1st Ed one is in really sad shape.  It has one of those "Dragon Skin" covers on it that has melted to the cover.  The book is stained a bit and the binding is loose. It is in poor to fair shape.  You can still turn the pages and read them all.  But I don't want to play this one up, it is in sad shape.

I'd like a 3e version if anyone would part with one.  Just email me or post something below.

I am not at home at the moment, or otherwise I'd post pictures.

Monday, March 28, 2011

A to Z blog challenge, update

Getting ready for the A to Z April blog challenge.  I see there are a lot of RPG bloggers taking part too.  That is great, I can't wait to see what everyone does.

I have a tentative schedule and even some posts in the starting phase.  Trouble is I keep re-doing my posts for A, B and C!  That and I have two Hs, no J yet.  Though I think I just came up with something....

I have some game posts, but I am also using this as an excuse to post some non-rpg, non-horror content.

Hey! If you have a blog and are going to participate post a link to blog below so others can also see what you do!

Here are some I am going to follow.

Ands a few new blogs to me that are also participating.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Reviews: Eden Studios / Misfit Studios Edition

Some more reviews, my goal is to have my review queue cleaned out by the end of 2011.

Here are some of my favorite products from two of my favorite publishers, Eden Studios and Misfit Studios.  They had a partnership a while back and produced some really good products.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?cPath=299_4530&affiliate_id=10748

Armageddon: Armed Force
For a while Misfit Studios and Eden Studios worked on a partnership, one of the outcomes of that partnership was this new book for the Armageddon game.  Filled with just tons of information on real world and the world of 2018 military equipment.  Plus a bunch of new qualities that would also work great for WitchCraft or even Conspiracy X. Great map of the conflicts and what is going on in the war, new combat rules for Unisystem. Not to mention new magic and monsters. If you play Unisystem and need any type of military information then this is the book you need. If you play Armageddon, then this is the book you need.
5 out of 5 starts

Armageddon: Enemies Archived
You can never be too rich, too thin or have too many monsters. And in the post-Reckoning world of Armageddon, this is also true. This book contains a number of horrible beasts that rose up after the reckoning occurred. Some have always been around, others are new to this realm. Written by Steven Trustrum for Misfit Studios under license from Eden studios. This book is a fantastic guide that is perfect for any Classic Unisystem game or even Cinematic Unisystem. It's faux military dossier style makes it perfect for Conspiracy X or even an Initiative based Buffy/Angel game.
5 out of 5 starts

Odyssey Prime
Odyssey Prime is a fantastic premise that was perfect for the time. What if all your d20 (and Unisystem) worlds were connected? One part Armageddon: The End Times, one part Conspiracy X and one part Stargate SG1, the Odyssey Prime Mission was to "seek out new life and new worlds, and get to them before ours blows up!". Some examples were given of various d20 products from many publishers on how link in their product to this one. Pluses: Great use of the d20 system to do a variety of things (military, tech and magic). Built in excuse to use all your d20 books in one game. Minues: Lacked product support since the line was delayed. Still a fun game though and one I would enjoy seeing come back.
4 out of 5 starts

Odyssey Prime: Southern Discomfort
Odyssey Prime was a noble experiment. Take all the d20 worlds you can grab (or buy) and link them all together with a Stargate like device to transversing the multiverse. And for good measure include the in-house rules of Unisystem.
The game was a great idea, but something about it never caught on with everyone. Regardless the ideas are sound and this is a good adventure based on the simple idea that everything is better with velociraptors.
Worth it for the dino-stats alone really.
4 out of 5 starts

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Dragonslayers vs White Plume Mountain, Part 2

We continued on with White Plume Mountain.

The Dragon Slayers made their way through and fought the giant crab protector of Wave.  They got the idea really fast about not poking the semi-solid membrane and they even remembered to shut all the doors in case it did break.

They are now in the inverted ziggurat room they defeated the first water layer and the dessert layer.  Then pizza came and the combat was held for another day.  I have mentioned that there are other groups of adventures here also looking for the other items, Blackrazor and Wave (they are supposed to get Whelm for Omar), but I have not pulled them out yet.   I think I will do that next session.

Also the final battle will be with Keraptis and Dragotha.  Dragotha will swoop down and grab the PC holding one of the items and carry them off to the Cave of Bones.  Cheesy I know, but it works.

I have the 3.5 update for WPM and while it is nice to have the stats for the monsters handy I don't care for how the weapons have been re-done as legacy weapons.  Even with everything that you need to do to get the powers up and going they seem less interesting than they did under 1st Ed.  I am thinking of just using the 1st ed stats to be honest, not even really upping them.

Might get some more in tomorrow.

Zatannurday: Adam Hughes


I have mentioned elsewhere that I think Adam Hughes might be my favorite artist for Wonder Woman.  He also does a very awesome Zatanna.


This might one of his most recognized versions of Zee.


And this one,



And let us not forget this awesome piece of all the DC women.


He keeps his Deviant Art page updated as well and you can visit his Zatanna gallery here, http://adamhughes.deviantart.com/gallery/27635250