R is for Ravenloft

Ravenloft. 

This might very well be the best module I have ever played, run or mined for ideas. I remember buying this at my then-FLGS (Waldenbooks remember) and then giving it to my then DM and saying in no uncertain terms "run me in this".   I went through it, nearly died, lost a lot of levels and got my ass handed to me many times by Strahd, but in the end I got out, Sunsword in hand.

Since then I have run it many times.  I will go as far as to say it is one of the few modules I have completely memorized.

Ravenloft was TSR's great experiment.  Take the central monster and make him a fully realized character.  Seems odd to ask to do this now, but back then, that was crazy talk.  Gothic Horror in Heroic Fantasy?  Crazy! But it worked.   Sure, Strahd can be thought of as a poor man's Dracula, but he has since become his own monster.

When I got to college and switched over to 2nd ed Ravenlof became my campaign world.  I had everything. All the boxed sets, all the modules.  Everything.  I never got to run it as much as I wanted too, but it more or less became my defacto world.  I even bought most, if not all, the Ravenloft novels.  Looking back it is amusing to see names like P.N. Elrod, Christie Golden, Tanya Huff and Laurell K.Hamilton among the authors.

For 3rd Edition I did get the Ravenloft books from Sword & Sorcery Studios/White Wolf and expected them to do, well, more with it.  I still enjoyed the books, but I didn't get all obsessive about it like I did before.
I also picked up "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" too, but was fairly disappointed.

With 4th ed, we now have Ravenloft all over the place.  The Ravenloft board-game (which is awesome), Ravenloft as part of the Shadowfell (which is really cool) and now the Heroes of Shadow book which is full of Ravenloft inspired ideas.

Regardless of the system. Regardless of the world around it though Ravenloft is about adding a bit of darkness to your game.  To take that love of Hammer horror and mix it in with the likes of Conan, Elric, the Grey Mouser and Merlin.

I also played Ravenloft using other systems such as Black Rose, a Ravenloft/True20 mix and even tried doing it under Unisystem a couple of times (WitchCraft works REALLY nice for it, but I also like using Ghosts of Albion).

I'd love to run it for my kids someday.  I am not sure how well it would work under 4e, since it is more of a "mood" module than a combat one.  Maybe a one-shot special using OSRIC or True 20 or even Unisystem would work out.

Q is for Quest of the Ancients

Q is for Quest of the Ancients, an RPG I discovered back in the days when I was getting "out of" D&D and looking for something else.

Quest of the Ancients can be described as a D&D clone, a D&D add on or as a collection of someone's house rules.  The author, Vince Garcia, had some publications before QotA came out including some material for AD&D2 and White Wolf magazine.  So he was not a noob to this.

QotA fills that same slot of near-D&D that you will sometimes find other games living in. Similar to the Atlantean series from Bard Games.  Lejendary Adventures is one that comes to mind as well.

Why did I pick it up?  Simple, it was advertised as having the most complete Witch class ever made.  I forget where I read that, but I knew I had to pick up a copy.  So I did. I was a bit underwhelmed, but there were some good bits.

While the game certainly has it's impressive moments, it never struck me as bringing anything new to my table.  I liked the Gypsy class, the Witch class was interesting, but everything else seemed like a poor-man's copy of AD&D.  There were a ton of classes in this book, something like 15 or more, and a bunch of spells.

I want to talk about the witch class for a bit.  Now in general I liked the witch.  Garcia was obviously pulling from some of the same books I was when he wrote up his witch.  Also (and you can tell by looking at the cover) this was a thinly-veiled attempt to have a "Stevie Nicks" character class.  I can't say I disapprove of that.  There was also a gypsy class which was divided into Male and Female gypsy.  I kinda made sense, kinda didn't.  I see what the author was trying to do, but I don't think it worked out as well as he liked.

I have always wanted to pick up the second edition.  I don't know if much has changed in it, but the cover art is much better (featuring the same characters).

I like this cover to be honest.  The Witch looks more like Stevie Nicks than ever and the wizard looks like he has gained a few levels.

I have wanted to get this, but can't actually bring myself to buy it until I see what some of the differences are between the editions.  I am hoping that there is something here above and beyond the first edition, but I am fairly sure there is not.    In the beginning of the 90's this might have been a cool game to play, but today it looks a little a dated.  A+ for effort though.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_of_the_Ancients
http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=8756

Buy
Noble Knight Games (best place to get it really)

ETA: And check out Jeff Grubb, also doing QotA for his Q post.  http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2011/04/q-is-for.html

Elisabeth Sladen 1948 - 2011

Elisabeth Sladen has passed today at the age of 63.

For those of you not in the know she played the character Sarah Jane Smith, companion to two different Doctors in Doctor Who.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13137674

Sarah Jane was one of my favorite companions and I loved seeing her come back in the new Who series with David Tennent and then in the Sarah Jane Adventures.   There was a time in my life that I seriously thought that if I even had a daughter I'd name her Sarah Jane.  Mostly cause I didn't want anyone picking on Romanadvoratrelundar Brannan.

She will be missed.

P is for Psychoses and Pet-Peeves

I have an undergraduate and a graduate degree in Psychology.  I spent three years working at a facility for the mentally ill that were trying to integrate back into society.   Most never had a chance in hell of doing this, but they still worked towards it.

So naturally you might think that I would like to see mental illnesses represented in RPGs.

Well that would be wrong.

Most of my pet peeves revolve around how mental illness or "craziness" is often represented in RPGs.  For a group of intelligent, literate people, this get bolloxed up more times than I can count.

I think Call of Cthulhu does it right.  I think the True20 "Shadows of Cthulhu" also does a good job on representing them and does a great job with their mechanics.  Many horror games make a good attempt, but others fall short.


Here are some of the things I hate the most.


1. Most severe mental illnesses are debilitating if not treated and cared for.  In today's world we have doctors, medicines and support systems so people with mental illnesses can live a relatively normal life.  That is not the case in many games.  In Call of Cthulhu for example characters often go shit-eating crazy and that is the end game.  But in other games people use it as an excuse to act like an idiot or an asshole, or both.  Often both.

2. Schizophrenia is NOT "Split Personality".  They are not even close.  Having schizophrenia is grounds for a character to removed from play.  Split Personality, or Dissociative Identity Disorder  is so rare that I can count the case I have know about on one hand and still have enough fingers left over to give you the thumbs up, the peace sign and show you my wedding ring.  A lot of games use this as an excuse to allow characters to do thing they could not otherwise do.  In that case, multi-class.

3. Chaotic Neutral is not "Insane". In my games Chaotic Neutral is not insane. Nor should it be in anyone's game.  Chaotic Neutrals should be loners, often anti-social, often assholes.  OR they could be happy go lucky, but if they are on the happy side then why are they not Chaotic Good?  Alignment is a moral and ethical stance, not a mental stability one.

4. Most games should not have Insanity Rules.  Players don't know how to use them, Game masters don't how to run them and I'll go a step further and say most designers don't know how to write them.  A rule of thumb. If you are playing in a time period that lacked mental health care then there is no such thing as insanity.  Yes there are mental illnesses, but insanity is a legal definition and often a societal one.
Fantasy RPGS like D&D should never have insanity rules.  Horror games should, but handled correctly.  Modern games can have them, but should avoid them; games like Spycraft and James Bond they might make good plot points, but avoid using them as a means to get points.

5. If you are going to use them, use them in the time they are given.  I said games like D&D should not have them and that is correct.  People were not insane, they were possessed by evil spirits.  A cleric with Remove Curse or something will clear that up.  If you are playing in a Victorian age game, then use Victorian notions of mental illness.  Talk about "floating organs" and then apply to appropriate remedy.

Now full disclosure time.

I have written a number of different takes on Psychoses for games over the years.  I have never been totally satisfied with any of them.  Most recent was one for Mutants and Masterminds based book that sadly will not see publication.  I like the mechanics of that one, but the representation was not my best work.  I did one for Ghosts of Albion too.  I tried to fit it to the Victorian ideas of mental illness the best I could AND still make it compatible with Eden's other books.
I also did one for Ravenloft that I liked at the time, but now see it as coming up very, very short of the mark.

And lets be honest here.  Player Characters are all insane anyway.
Rushing into dungeons, killing monsters in their lairs to get a gold piece here or there.  Digging through obscure and forgotten texts to discover not only are we insignificant specs in the universe but the universe is so freaking dangerous we should just hide under the covers or any of the other 100 things we have our characters do.

We don't need a game version of the DSM-IV, we all need therapists.

O is for Otherworlds Club

When I was first getting into D&D back int he early 80s there was an explosion of Sci-fi and Fantasy books to hit the shelves in it's wake. For me this was a great time and one I have talked about before: "Reflecting on D&D - Sometimes you can't go back".

Friday I was driving home past a closed Border's, the company that had bough Waldenbooks and it made me think of my now mostly underused Border's Rewards Card in my wallet, and all the cards that came before it.  But the first one, the one I was "proud" of, was my Waldenbooks "Otherwords" card.

For me being part of the Otherworlds Club back then was part and parcel of the D&D experience for me.  Back then my FLGS ("favorite local game store" for those new here) was Waldenbooks in White Oaks mall in nearby Springfield Il. This card (which my dad laminated for me) allowed me to get 10% off an Sci-Fi/Fantasty and D&D book I bought! Given the taxes at the time that pretty much meant I was paying just under the price on the cover.  Sure, not a great deal, but when you are 12 and the money for D&D books comes from your paper route then that is awesome.

The Otherworlds Club had a little newsletter call Xingals that I used to enjoy the heck out off.  I would have upcoming releases and I'd always be thrilled to see the latest D&D book on the back.

Sadly, the Otherworlds club is no more.  It was replaced by successive book clubs at Waldens till Waldenbooks itself was replaced by Borders.

It has been said that the Golden Age of Sci-Fi/Fantasy is 12-14.  Well for me that was 1982 to 1984 and the Otherworlds Club was my ticket.

Today I have frequent buy cards at two different game stores, discount cards for Borders and Barnes and Nobles and of course my RPGA card. But the Otherworlds card was the only one I ever laminated and carried with me all the time.

The Dragonslayers vs White Plume Mountain, Part 3

Today was a good day for adventurers.

The Dragonslayers continued on their mission into the White Plume Mountain.  The defeated the monsters of the inverted ziggurat and immediately distrusted the hooka smoking halfling to recover Blackrazor.  The boys were also extremely distrustful of the black blade and hid it away in a bag of holding.

They made it down the last hall and confronted the vampire Ctenmiir.  The Dragonborn Paladin of Bahmut had a few choice words with the vampire and the characters had made it out with Whelm as well!
Of course, there was more to be done.  The weapons in had they rushed out of the volcano only to have their wizard (with the bag of holding with Blackrazor) snatched up in claws of a undead dragon flying north.
The hunt for Dragotha has begun!

The boys did really great today.  They were able to solve the Prime number riddle with no problem and the sphinx riddle only slowed them down a little.  There is still the effrit to deal with though and of course one of the party has been kidnapped to be taken back to Dragotha's Lair where the final battle will begin.

I have been playing down the guardians of the weapons to lull the boys into a false sense of security. Dragotha and Keraptis are different matters all together.

I am also going to start planting the seeds for my 4th Ed game.  The boys will defeat Keraptis, this is a foregone conclusion, even if it is Dragotha killing him himself.  But as he dies he is going to utter "beware, the shadows".

During the next couple of adventures there will be other clues dealing with shadows.  I'll talk more about that later on, but I am very excited with the prospect of it all.

N is for Netbook

Say "Netbook" and today it invokes an image of a cheap micro-laptop with no optical drive and WiFi. Great little invention really. Get them under 100 bucks a pop and the world of education will be changed.

But that is not what I am talking about today.

Once upon a time Netbook meant a collection of various game related material, often originally posted to places like the AD&D LISTSERV or rec.games.frp.dnd on the Usenet.

It is hard to imagine it in today's post OGL and Creative Commons world, but there was a time when putting together a collection of D&D rules and putting them out there for others was a renegade idea.  TSR back in the day came down hard on any posting anything D&D related, despite the fact that D&D material had pretty much been on the internet since the earliest days.  Eventually TSR backed down (a little) and opened up areas for people to share original creations, via FTP sites like MPGN.

As Usenet, Listserves and ftp sites gave way to the World Wide Web, TSR gave way to Wizards of the Coast. Say whatever you want about WotC, they handled the entire internet issue and netbooks much, much better than TSR ever did.

The mid to late 90s was the Golden Age of Netbooks.  The web was growing and people wanted more material to fill their gaming needs.  Sites like Blue Troll, Planet AD&D and Olik's Netbook Archive grew to meet the need of people wanting to get more material.  These sites are still up (and PADND is still active) so you can download some of these forgotten treasures.

Sites like the Kargatane also grew out of a need for more support for a particular setting, in this case Ravenloft, and they began to produce netbooks that rivaled the quality of TSR/WotC.   Other sites like the Vaults of Pandius for Mystara are not only still active, but still producing material all the time.

The OGL in 2000 changed all of that.  Now you didn't need to post thinly veiled allusions to D&D rules, you could use the OGL and the d20 STL and post a "Compatible" product as long as you followed the rules.  There were still some netbooks produced under the OGL, the FANCC produced a large number of netbooks back in 2000 - 2001.  But all in all the Netbook fad shifted.

Now instead of a Netbook you can make a real book. With the OGL you had new rules that you could use and reuse as you needed.  With places like Lulu and DriveThruRPG you could put your creation up for sale even.

The entire OSR community is the spiritual decedent of  not only the Indie RPG movement, but the Netbook one too.

My Witch Netbooks
Of course I have to mention my Witch netbooks.  The first one is something I had started back in the late 80s and expanded on it through out college. It was originally for AD&D 1st Edition, but I shifted it over to AD&D 2nd Ed back around 89-90.  I remember printing my first copy of what I was calling my "Witch Book" back in '92 on a HP Desk Jet 500.  I expanded it more, read more netbooks online and finally on Halloween 1999 I Was going to release it.  I did.  Almost.  My son Liam was born 3 days before that!  I did get it out onto the web, but I followed it up with a second version on Dec. 22.

You can get a copy of "The Complete Netbook of Witches and Warlocks" from Google Docs. Let me know if there is a problem with the link.

A year later we got D&D 3.  I was given the play test files in Feb of 2000 and I picked up my copy of the new Players Handbook on Sept 11, 2000 (I have the receipt still).  I Had begun on my changes to d20 over the summer and with the new game realized I needed to redo the class from the ground up.  I joined the "D&D Community Council" later renamed to the "Fantasy Community Council" so I could get some input/advice on how to best re-do my witch.

I got a lot of help and in 2003 we published "Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks".  You can also get that from Google Docs.

The two books have some material in common, but they are different takes on the same basic archetype.  For example in CNoWW witches are divine spell casters more similar to clerics and in Liber they are arcane ones.  Warlocks, such as they are, are also very different from each other.

Netbooks as a movement may be dead, but their spirit remains strong.

Zatannurday: Guest star in Power Girl #23

Guess who is making a guest appearance in Power Girl #23.

Of course Zee ends up getting tied to a chair. Again.

But I have to say I love that her ringtone is "Every Little She Does is Magic"! That's pretty cool.

From The Source.

And cause it is a good pic,

A to Z blogging, Half-Time

So here we are in the middle of the A to Z blogging challenge.  People are on L, M or N depending on whether or not they took Sundays off.

I have noticed more hits, a slightly elevated number of responses, a bunch of new followers and of course a lot of Spam.  Lots.  Like 10 posts a day lots.

I have seen some really cool posts too.  And every so often someone posts something that has me going "I almost posted that!"  or even "man I should have posted that!"

It's been a lot of fun so far and really stretching the creative muscles a bit.
Look forward to seeing what everyone does on the last half.

M is Monster Manual

I have said it many times. You can never be too rich, too skinny or have too many monsters.

The Monster Manual was the book for me.  The one that got me hooked.  The one, sitting in "silent reading" back in 1979 at Washington Elementary School in Jacksonville, IL that I became the über-geek you all know today. How über? I used the freaking umlauts, that's my street cred right there.

Back in '79 I was reading a lot of Greek Myths, I loved reading about all the gods, goddess and monsters.  So I saw my friend's Monster Manual and saw all those cool monsters and I knew I had to have a copy. Though getting one in my tiny near-bible-belt town was not easy.  Not hard mind you, by the early 1980s the local book store stocked them, but I was not there yet.  So I borrowed his and read.  And read.  And read.  I think I had the damn thing memorized long before I ever got my own game going.

Look at it.  That is pure awesome still.

Since that time I judge a game book on the "Monster Manual" scale.  How close of  a feeling do I get from a book or game compared to the scale limit of holding the Monster Manual for the first time?  Some games have come close and others have hit the mark as well.  C.J. Carella's WitchCraft gave me the same feeling.

Since that time I also like to go to the monster section of any book, or get their monster books.  Sure I guess sometimes there are diminishing returns, Monster Manual V for 3.5 anyone?  But even then sometimes you get a Fiend Folio (which I liked thankyouverymuch).

This book captured my imagination like no other game book.  Even the 1st DMG which is a work of art had to wait till I was older to appreciate it.  The Monster Manual grabbed me and took me for a ride.

Of course the real reason to my puberty influenced brain might have been the picture of a naked succubus.

So difficult to know for sure.

L is for Little Fears

Fairy Tales don't teach children that monsters are real, all children know that. 
Fairy tales teach children that monsters can be defeated.

Not exactly the quote from G. K. Chesterton, but close enough for today's letter.

Little Fears has the distinction of being one of only five games my FLGS will not carry.  I didn't press them why or ask to order it (they said they would order it for me, they just don't stock it), they are my FLGS for a reason and I have many other means of getting the books I need.
I had the original edition from some time ago and picked up the nightmare edition, promising the author Jason Blair I'd have a review up.  I still don't.  But I hope to fix that now.

LF is a game of Childhood Horrors.  Simple enough.  As a father I have been up many nights sleepily fighting one bogeyman or another.  Thankfully most bogeymen are terrified of my "huh? go back to sleep" speech cause I have never seen them.  But maybe once apon a time I did.  I am reminded of a Charmed episode where a little girl was being attack by little bogey like creatures and the Charmed Ones, being adults, could not see them.  They had to cast a spell to be more childlike (with accompanied wackiness) to see the threat.  That was the hook I was going to use to get my group to play LF one day.  Turn their characters into kids and to keep them off guard I was going to take their Unisystem sheets and give them Little Fears sheets instead and then not tell them all the rules.  The Little Fears book makes a big issue about kids living in an adult world and not knowing or understanding the rules.  Frankly I thought it was brilliant, but it never happened.

Little Fears plays like that.  Only more so.  Monsters are defined by the character's fear but also by their belief.  In some ways playing LF with adults is a bit like playing D&D with really young kids.  They want to be the player AND the DM.  In LF the characters and players can change the nature of the game in overt or subtle ways.

The rules are very simple really.  The system is a d6 dicepool based on abilities or qualities.  Monsters are built similar to characters though are tougher generally speaking.  The damage system reminds me of Mutants and Masterminds a bit and is also pretty simple.   Emphasis though in this game is not how many monster you can kill, but how well you role-play the monster you nearly escaped from and lived to tell your friends about (because they have seen the same monster, but have been too afraid to tell you).  Little Fears is one of the most role-play heavy games I have read in a very long time.  If you only like to hit things with pointy metal sticks or throw fireballs, then this might not be your game.  If the idea of playing something that is akin to "Kult Jr." or "C.J. Carella's WitchCraft Babies" then this is the game for you.

There is an over-arching malaise though over Little Fears.  I get depressed reading it I have to admit.  Maybe it is because I am a father and I know how those little kids feel to be afraid and alone and powerless.  I guess the counter argument is they are not powerless or alone really.

Given the mythology of Little Fears, I could easily adapt a couple of my Bogeys to use in the game.

Buttons the Bear
Buttons is either a Monster (but a good one) or a Hand Me Down (p 114).

Buttons the Bear began just like another childhood toy. He was a handmade stuffed bear given to a now forgotten child one Christmas morning in the early 1800's. As his child grew older Buttons (and this was not yet his name) was discarded for newer playthings. That is till he ended up as a donation to an orphanage. By this time Buttons had seen a fair amount of use, in particular his glass eyes were gone. The matron of the house, a young Irish nun sewed two buttons on his face for eyes; one green the other red. She gave him to a small child who had nothing and had never received a Christmas present before. It was there that Buttons felt the first tinges of Awakening, the love of this young child stirred up the spark of divinity that is in everything; even in a stuffed bear with mis-matched buttons for eyes.

An orphanage, especially one in what was now the mid Victorian era, was ripe for all sorts of bogeys. Generally these were the pestering kind, but every so often something more dangerous would prey on the unfortunates. Buttons (as he was now known) went from merely scaring them off to actively hunting them down at night. For many years Buttons protected the children here and in return he knew he had their love.
Things changed shortly after the Blight. Taking advantage of the suffering and death many demons moved into Ireland, one chose to use the orphanage as a staging area. He would hide in wait, corrupting the adults and torturing the children. It was not though till the demon had fully manifested itself and prepared to kill a child did Buttons attack. Though he was no longer a child's stuffed plaything; instead he had manifested into a towering black bear with razor sharp claws and a mouthful of teeth. He attacked the demon full on.

The demon, while still very powerful, was only expecting some starving children, not seven feet, 1,200 pounds of fur, claws, and fangs. Within a few seconds the demon was not only on the defense, but nearly ripped to shreds.

On the demon's home plane a portal opened. The demons there were awaiting their Lord's return to bring them the bounty from the orphanage. Instead the bloodied corpse of their lord was flung through followed by a huge bear with a fire red ruby for one eye and a burning emerald for the other. It let out a deafening roar; a clear warning to the demons. Since that time Buttons has killed no fewer than 17 demon lords and wounded many others. The orphanage suffered no more attacks as long as there was one child holding a tattered old bear with buttons for eyes.

Mrs. Cully Mully and her Pink Dog
Mrs. Cully Mully is one of the Good People (p 111)

No one is really sure who, or what, Mrs. Cully Mully is. Was she a human witch that became more imaginary over time. Or an imaginary friend that became more like a real human? No one knows for sure. Mrs. Cully Mully appears to be a woman in her 70's wearing a pinkish frock coat, horned rimmed glasses, and carring a small handbag purse.

She is known to walk the areas between Dream and Reality, between this world and the next one, and between childhood and the end of innocence. Always between worlds, but never in any one world properly. She will say thing to make you believe she was once human, like "when I taught kindergarten…" and things to make you think she is imaginary, or at least question her sanity; "…of course the sky was pink then and we had three moons."

She walks the "in betweens" helping those who are lost, or of need information. In her bag she almost anything the Cast could need, almost. She has no (and no use for) weapons. If the Cast is hungry then she might have their second-favorite sandwich (she is always out of their first favorite) or some magical bauble that may not seem to be useful now but will be priceless later on. She will of course claim she is just walking her dog.

Her dog, who is completely pink, will bark constantly in it's small yippish barks. It is only when it stops barking is there reason to fear. That usually means bogeys, spirits or demons are near.

She will try to hastily retreat, pulling the Cast in-tow. If she has to fight then her true nature (or is it?) is revealed. She has never been known to get into a fight, but in one case an occult scholar (who has since retired to working on a small farm) was lost in the in-betweens when he encountered Mrs. Cully Mully. He described her as pleasant, if seemingly addled. She agreed to walk the man home, since it was "on her way" when the object of the scholar's search appeared, the Great Demon Abraxas (so he claimed). Abraxas demanded the scholar's soul and threatened to kill everyone else. Mrs. Cully Mully, he then claimed, walked right up to the demon lord and called him by his true name (also, so the scholar claims) and proceeded to scold him like a schoolboy. She was stern, but never once raised her voice. The demon, angered beyond rage, roared and disappeared in a pillar of flame. She took the man's hand and told him that were taking a short cut, walked two or three steps and were in front of the man's home. She told him to give up this life, get a real job and find himself a nice quiet girl to marry.

Some say she is a good natured aspect of the Crone, Goddess of the Witches. Others say she is really the Goddess Ceriweden. And still others say she is a retired kindergarten teacher out walking her dog.

She does not engage in combat. She does have a handbag and small pink, yippy dog.


Using Little Fears
Little Fears works fine on it's own and you can do a lot with it.  But for me there are other great advantages to using this game.

1. Character Building Device
Want to know more about your character's history?  Then stat them in LF and maybe even run a session or two with them as young kids.   Imagine a supers game where you play Bruce at age 9. He is not the Batman yet, he doesn't even know that is coming, he is just Bruce a scared, lost and hurting little boy and these are the moments that define him and make the Batman.  This type of episode I call the Crucible Episodes, where the impurities of their character are burned off leaving only the hero you know will be.

2. The "Special Episode"
In my long running Willow and Tara game I was going to have a Season 3 that had an episode called "Hell is for Children" were the cast had to go into the Closetland of LF to find a monster preying on magical children.  To do this they needed to become kids themselves.

I think it behooves anyone playing any modern supernatural game to give Little Fears a shot using 6-12 year old versions of your characters.  It would be a fantastic experience.

Plus like I said, I want to run a Buffy/Little Fears crossover episode one day based on this image alone.

Little Fears might also be one of the most effective horror games I have ever played.  Chill, Kult, WoD, CoC, WitchCraft are all great and I love them all, but Little Fears is different and the power structure between what you can do and what you need to do is such that it is a scary, scary game.

Buy it. Play it. And even if you don't like it you will never look a butterflies the same way again.

K is for Kittenboard

Back in the day I spent a lot of time on Discussion Boards.  Lots and lots of time.  The board though arguably I spent the most time on was The Kitten Board.

The Kitten Board, also known as "The Kitten" is short for "The Kitten, The Two Witches, and  The Bad Wardrobe".  As can be gleaned from the name, it is a board dedicated to Willow and Tara.  Members are also known as Kittens.

The Kitten was my place to go back in the early part of the 2000s.  I had started my WitchCraft based Willow and Tara game back in 2001 and was told I really need to visit "the Kitten" since it was the place for Willow and  Tara fans.  I did and was hooked.  It was through the Kitten that I met all sorts of great people.  All of the authors and players in my Willow & Tara games "The Dragon and the Phoenix" and "Season of the Witch" as well as meeting Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.

Back in 2001 I lost my dot com job like so many others so I was at home for a while looking for a new job.  I was laid off on Sept. 10, 2001.  So I was at home on Sept 11, 2001 and watched the whole World Trade Center on TV.  I worked back and forth between the Kitten and the TV to see what was going on.  That was the start of my time there.

Of course we were the first to also learn that Tara was going to be killed.  It was my rather vocal opposition to this on the Kitten that got me the attention of several of the shows writers.  While some were pissed at us, I also had others that secretly agreed with me and were sending my copies of the scripts as soon as he could.

We ran a charity event and raised over $8,000.00 to support the Trevor Project.  That was at the time (and I think of all time) that any "Buffy" based board had ever raised for charity.  Recently Amber Benson herself donated to the Trevor Project with the help of the Kitten Board.

One thing the Kitten is most remembered for is of course the "Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché FAQ".   IF you have not read it, then please do.  While Whedon/Mutant Enemy may not have set out to tell a clichéd, ultimately they did exactly that. Intentions are good for the Road to Hell.  Before you start quoting Season 7 or the godawful comic keep in mind when this was written and that all those later things happened after Whedon and co had to answer the question of why Tara had to die a 1000 times and are still be asked about today. they were wrong and now ten years later I see more people saying "the Kittens were right".

10 years later the Kitten is still going when many of the other boards that were around at the same time are distant memories.

I don't get into boards much anymore.  I hated the fighting between them that made the Edition Wars look like two first graders pushing each other on the play ground.  I hated some of the cliqueness of it all.   I still have close to 5000 posts there, which is not a lot given that it is 10 years old, but a lot if you consider I did most of those in the first 3 years.

I know one thing though, I'll always have a home at the Kitten.

Justice is Blind, Issue 4: Icons

Yesterday I talked about Icons.  Today I want to see how my paragon, Justice would fare.

I have detailed Justice in previous posts.  Her introduction and Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed stats, stats for the BASH! RPG and for Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Ed / DC Adventures.  This would be issue #4 of the Justice is Blind comic.  Each issue and each build had a "theme".  Issue 1 of course is her origin story and her current situation, Issue 2 is told in flashbacks with the current tale of her training with the Amazons and her early life.  Issue 3 was more flashbacks though now her training with Bruce.
Issue 4 will be more recent flashbacks, her work with DA Barbara Gordon and her getting into Law School.  I should suppose that here would be the best time to introduce some boy friend for her, but allude that ended really badly, possibly refrigerator badly.
Icons is really about action, so this would be the episode where she gets to conk some heads.

Since one of the things I like most about Icons is the presentation of their character sheets, here is Justice in an Icons style character sheet. Click for larger.

Over all the game reminds me a bit of Bash and M&M. Which should be no surprise.  The one thing we don't have yet is an arch villain for her.   I am going to have to think of something.  Something appropriate to her.  So the archvillain should be someone all about anarchy.  Maybe that is it.  Her nemisis is Anarchy (not Anarky).

Just a thought.

DriveThru April Codes

It's a new month, and once again DriveThruRPG has provided codes for my loyal readers.

This month’s code is DTRPGAprilPodBlog2011 and you can use it to get 20% these PDFs

• Dirty Secrets Dark Omen Games
• Wraith Recon Mongoose
• Lexicon of Traps Ennead Games
• Shadow, Sword & Spell Rogue Games
• Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. Third Eye Games

AND there is a special code to get all these products for FREE.  

To get that code here is what I need:

In the comments section please post an adventure idea that uses elements from all these games.

Please include your contact in the post (such as email if it is not on your profile) so I can email you the code.

Have fun!!

J is for Jabberwock

Jabberwocky for Ghosts of Albion.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jub Jub bird
And shun the frumious bandersnatch!

The Jabberwock might be a type of dragon, a creature of faerie or even a demon of some sort.  Two things are know for sure.  The seemingly non-sense poem, Jabberwocky by Lewis Caroll is a clever bit of occult poetry in disguise, designed to keep the Jaberwock away from Albion's shores.
The second thing that is known is that the Jabberwock elsewhere is a very real threat.

There are very, very few occult texts on the Jabberwock, and the ones that do mention it refer to it simplly as a type of dragon.  The Jabberwock though is no mere dragon but a force of pure chaos; a creature of insanity made whole.  There is debate on whether or not Caroll actually encountered the Jabberwock himself, but if he did it would have been before his 1872 poem "Jaberwocky", and even possibly before 1855.

The Jabberwock is a terrible foe.  Difficult to hit and even harder to kill. It can reattach limbs that have been severed by common weapons, and even magic is deflected away from it.  It is usually found only in the tulgey wood where it can be heard "burbling" by the Tumtum trees.

Name: Jabberwock

Motivation: To cause chaos

Creature Type: Unknown

Attributes: Str 14, Dex 6, Con 9, Int 3, Per 6, Will 3

Ability Scores: Muscle 34, Combat 24, Brains 12

Life Points: 220

Drama Points: 2

Special Abilities: Armour Value 8, Attractiveness –6, Breathe Fire, Flash, Flight, half damage from Bash attacks, Increased Life Points, Innate Magic, Resilience, Unique Kill (Decapitation, Vorpal Sword).

Manoeuvres

Name              Score   Damage           Notes

Bite                 22        47                    Slash/stab

Claw               24        34                    Slash/stab

Eyes of Flame 24         10+SLx3         Fire damage 

Deflect            15       —                    Magic defence action; deflects spells 45º

The Jabberwock can send fire from it's eyes..  All bu the greatest magics will bounce off the Jabberwock.

Reducing it to 0 or fewer Life Points only slows down the might Jabberwock as it will begin to regenerate itself.  The Jabberwock can not regenerate lost LP during combat, but once it is dead it will regnerate at the rate of 9 LP per hour.  The only way to kill a Jabberwock is to cut off it's head with a Vorpal Sword.

The Vorpal Sword
All is known about a vorpal sword is that it is the finest weapon of the land and that even in the hands of a novice it can lead them to victory over a great opponent.  What is most well know about the vorpal sword is that on a perfect strike, it will sever the head from an opponent in one swoop.
There are many theories about the vorpal sword including ascertaining if there is more than one or if it is an unique weapon.   Rumors also include that it is the Word of Law, forged into a weapon. It would make it oddly appropriate then that the only thing that can kill a chaotic creature like this, is the Word of Law forged into a sword.
The vorpal sword adds +2 to die rolls for sword combat and is deadly sharp.  Damage is Strx6 and must be wielded in both hands. Decapitation damage for it is x6 regular damage.

Though if the true Jabberwock is unkown, the other creatures are a complete mystery; The Frumious Bandersnatch, believed to be some large pack animal, and the Jub Jub Bird.

My First Award!

Back when the Other Side was just my website and not a blog I used to love getting awards.  Well I finally got one for this site as a blog!

Deirdra Eden-Coppel of "A Storybook World" sent me her award!

http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com/p/awards.html

Go over to her site and check it out.  I had been to her site before, so I knew of her and her award.  Her site is cute and quirky and I like that.  I am going to have to check out her books sometimes as well.

So here is my very first blog award and I display proudly.

Besides, I can't say no to a woman in cute faerie wings no matter how hard I try.  It's a personal failing I know.

I is for Icons

ICONS

I enjoy Supers games. I don't get to play them as often as I would like, but I enjoy them all the same.  I had been playing M&M 2ed and just picked up BASH! so I was hesitant to also get Icons.  But Icons comes with a pretty good pedigree.  First it is written by Steven Kenson, who gave us Mutants and Masterminds and also worked on Silver Age Sentinels.  Steve obviously knows his supers.  It has Gareth-Michael Skarka of Adamant Entertainment and one of the minds behind "Hong Kong Action Theater". Walt Ciechanowski has a ton of game systems under his belt too including M&M, True20 and Victoriana (1st ed). And Morgan Davie, whom I'll admit I am not as familiar with.  But he is one of the guys that wrote Icons, so that makes him good in my book.

Comics are a visual medium.  Full of art and color and eye catching action.  Icons is the same.  It is a really good looking book, especially one that has such a "retro" or even "indie" feel to it.  It lives somewhere between the free flowing cartoon fun of Cartoon Action Hour and the slick, high production values of Mutants and Masterminds.  All three of these games are fantastic and their style really tells us a lot about what they are about.  Icons is a comic book game that is close to a Saturday Morning Super Heroes cartoon.  The art, which some people have disliked, I think sets the perfect mood for this book.  It is simple art, but it is good art and has a earnestness about that I like.  That is also true for the rules.

Icons, as you may or may not have heard, is powered by FATE. Though the typical FATE/Fudge trappings of naming the power levels is gone in favor of numbers (sort of a step backwards from the FATE perspective, but fine for me). There is the option for named levels too, and I think it would fit the style of comic book action, but I myself prefer numbers. The scale is pretty simple, 1 to 10, with 3 an average.  So very similar already to a lot of games I play.

The rules themselves are really simple.  It is a modification of the dF system.  Use 2d6 with one as positive and one as negative, roll and add, apply mods.  Easy.  You can be up and running in less time than it takes to say "Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice..."

Hero creation is unique for a modern game, it is random.  Not that you couldn't do it as a "point buy" system, but the randomness is what I think sets it away from BASH which can fill similar needs.

I feel I must at this point call out the Character Sheet.  Long ago I was a reader of Marvel and I  loved their "Whos Who" of the Marvel universe where they would have bar charts to rank their heroes on various attributes.  It was almost very game-like and I loved them.  Icons does something similar and it really gives their characters a different feel.

I would be lying if I didn't see bits of pieces of Silver Age Sentinels or Mutants and Masterminds peeking out every so often.  That is fine with me.  That familiarity is a good thing in my mind.

Icons is not really the game I would use if I were going to run a multi-year, multi-arc long game; that's what Mutants and Masterminds is for.  But if I needed to run a supers game on a rainy afternoon or a convention or just something to have some fun with, then Icons is a great choice.

I also picked up The Mastermind Affair and it is a great little adventure that gives you the feel on how to run an Icons game.

Lantern Corp: Confidence

So my boys have been getting into Green Lantern a lot lately and have enjoyed all the new Lantern Corps in the whole emotional spectrum deal from "Blackest Night".

So I got them some rings, a green for my youngest and a blue for my oldest, their favorite colors.  Today my oldest decided that he needed a new one; Aquamarine.   Here is his logic:

"Aquamarine rings are for Green Lanterns that are exceptional. They are the best so they get a Blue Ring, but it becomes like Turquoise or Aquamarine.  Their power comes from Confidence."

So he drew a picture (then we later did it up in Photoshop) and he wrote their oath.

Here is the oath according to Liam:

In wounded day, in Bleeding night

Confidence shall rise

To the sight of Aquamarine Light!

If we come up with an Aquamarine Lantern character we will stat him up in M&M3/DCA for you all to see.

H is also for Hobbit and Halfling

I don't pretend to be particularly original with everything I do in my games for fun.  I produce a ton of original material all the time, but sometimes I like to let others do the heavy lifting.  In this case I like it when a 119 year old English professor does the lifting for me.

1980 was a good year.  I had been introduced to D&D the year before and got my copy of the Basic set and I discovered the world of The Hobbit.  Sure I had seen the cartoon movie on TV and remembered it, but this was the year I read the book.  From that point on I have made it a priority to re-read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings at least every three or so years.  Frankly nothing else in the literary world even remotely comes close in my mind.

So then it should be no surprise that my D&D worlds have halflings, and lots of them.
I pretty much use Prof. Tolkien's guide with my halflings too.  Short, stocky, prone to laziness or at least not having the desire to go anywhere, much less on adventures (make you late for dinner!).

I think it was this picture by Jeff Dee that made me look at halflings as a good character race.

I always figured this was the local halfling sheriff and he didn't trust "big ones" like this guy. And how cute is that halfling girl?

My first halfling was a easy going guy named Perrin. Perrin though liked human women. He was an odd one. My games steadily got more and more dangerous that a guy like Perrin would have easily gotten killed. He retired and lives in a folder in my basement. I kinda hope he retired, bought a nice little cottage in the country and married a Valkyrie Warrior Maid, 6 foot tall and cleavage you could ski off of.

In my world I have a lot of halfling sub-races.  I do stick with the common ones.
- Hairfoots (D&D) or Harfoots (Tolkien) are the most common types.  These are your classical hobbits with hairy feet, slightly pointed ears and a tendency to be home-bodys.  These halflings get along well with dwarves.  These are the stereotypical hobbits.
- Stouts or Stoors are a touch shorter and tend to be more adventurous.  They get along well with humans and while not as numerous as the Harfoots tend to be the ones most humans see.  Their ears are more pointed.
- Tallfellows or Fallohides are a taller breed than the Harfoots, though no where near as numerous.  They have more pointed ears and are commonly found in the same areas as elves.    There is even speculation that the Fallohides have elf blood in their lineage.
- Lightfoots are the halflings that became popular with the advent of D&D3. Roughly the same size as Harfoots, the Lightfoots are notable for their desire to travel more and wear shoes.  The hair on their feet is sparse to nearly non-exsistent.
- Docrae a race of "cursed" halflings from the Blackmoor setting.  I have them closer in nature to the nomadic Native American tribes of the north.  A sad, stoic but hearty race.  I use some information on the Strongheart halflings from the Forgotten Realms here as well.
- Kender, the race of Kender of the hidden island nation of Ansalon believe they were created from gnomes. This is only half true. Kender are a magical, but now true, crossbreed of Gnome and Halfling.  There is even some speculation that Lightfoots are halflings that have bredd back with Kender as the two races have a number of similarities.

Halfling witches are known as Herb Women.

Halfling witches see themselves as the hands of their Mother Goddess. Allow the clerics to be Her eyes and voice; the halfling witch has work to do! This does cause some friction between the two set’s worshippers, but rarely among the populace. Halfling witches are most like their human cousins. More females pick up witchcraft, which they just call “the Craft,” than do males, but there has not been the history of persecution among the halfling witches as with the humans.

Halfling witches tend to be open and honest not only about their Craft, but many of their other opinions as well. While this makes them appear to be crass at times, it has also given rise to a popular saying among halfling youth, “If you want an Answer, ask a cleric. If you want the Truth, ask a witch!”.
Adventuring halflings are known to be full of wanderlust and a desire to see the world. Non-adventuring ones prefer the simple comforts of home, hearth and family. The halfling witch then is the self styled guardian of both halves of the halfling heart. The halfling witch is rarely an adventurer, but has been know to have accompanied adventurers in the past.

Halfling Herb Women fill many roles in the halfling community. First she is a center of wisdom and understanding folkways. In some respects she acts as an informal teacher outside of the halfling home. She is a healer, often a seller of herbs, remedies and minor magic. She may perform marriages (handfastings) and most importantly she is also the community’s mid-wife. Few, except the most knowledgeable clerics can match her wisdom in the ways of bringing the young into the world.

As mentioned previously, halfling witches are very similar to human ones, except there is no history of prosecution for the Herb Women, so nearly all Herb Women display the sign of their trade openly for all to see–a broom propped outside of their door. Each morning the herb woman will rise and sweep her back stoop or porch to signify that she is open. She will then place the broom outside of the door and leave the door open. This is a welcome invitation for the community who may stop by to buy her wares or even to gossip. It is believed that if the broom falls as someone walks in then that person is either special or under a curse. Since the herb woman’s shop is often her kitchen she can very well be fixing dinner all day while chatting with customers. When the witch closes her store she places the broom across the door as a lock. The ritual tool for the halfling witch is of course the Besom, or witch’s broom.

Herb women get along very well with most human witches of all sorts, Elven Kuruni and of course Gnomish Good Walkers. They are typically any non-evil alignment, but individuals have their own choices.

Reviews at DriveThru

Working on cleaning up some of my "to be reviewed" files on my flash drive.

Trollops Of Destiny
At $1.19 I was not expecting a lot. I did get a book of 7 NPCs that I could use in any fantasy/historical style game. With a bit of work I could use them in almost any game, so the utility seems to be pretty high. But the issue I have this (one of them anyway) is there is not really enough information here. There are background sketches and motivations. There is an idea of how each character compares to the commoners of the time (intelligence, skills, wealth) and presented in a way to aid conversions into any system. There are also some adventure hooks and use ideas.

But there are some issues I have with it. First the art, that is there, is not really related to the text. Some art of the women in question would be nice. And "Trollops". Really? Why not just women or Femme Fatales but Trollops? And I am not sure what the whole "Destiny" thing is about. I know these are supposed to be archetypes, but they are very close to being stereotypes.

At the end of the day, it's nine pages for under a buck and a quarter. I would have rather paid more and gotten more I think.
3 out of 5 stars

Dudes of Legend (Full Version)
Be Epic.

Semi-serious, but very much tongue-in-cheek, this started out as an joke that people really loved. Is it irony to use it seriously in a game or self-referential humor? Sometime to break through the cliche is to embrace it.

It is the source book on how we wish the guys at White Wolf really were.

Every White Wolf player cliche of the 90s and on is here, and not just presented, but embraced and loving brought to us as if it were the only True Way to play. What is so funny here is that the stats for everything seem rock solid. They really put some care and attention to this.

White Wolf's April Fools jokes are usually pretty good and this one is no exception.

Grab your katana, trenchcoat and this book and be the Epic Awesome Legend you are.
5 out of 5 Stars

Player Races: Dragon Men
Misfit Studios gives us another fantasy race for Savage Worlds. This time we have Dragonmen, humanoid dragons. The document is not large, but does exactly what it needs to do. Description of the race, point values as a race and ways to use them in your game.

Good product for the price.
5 out of 5 Stars

Forgotten Foes Clip Art 1
Forgotten Foes Clip Art 3
Forgotten Foes Clip Art 4
12-14 excellent pieces of art to use as monster or character art or use in your own products with included license. All are black and white, but have a feel about them like you are reading a high-end bestiary. What would be nice if someone came up with stats for these for their own games. These are more inline with the classic monster books of the 1980s. The quality is great and the monsters/characters are good fantasy fare.
Includes a PDF for easy viewing.
4 to 5 out of 5 Stars

The Northland Saga Part 1 - Veangeance of the Long Serpent, Swords and Wizardry Edition
The Northland Saga Part 1 - Veangeance of the Long Serpent, Pathfinder Edition
I picked this up because I am playing in a Pathfinder game called "The Northlands Group" (unrelated). I am glad I did since this is a very interesting little adventure for low-mid level characters. Combining different cultures (Eskimo, Viking/Norse and others) and working on the "Lot's of planets have a north" theory, this adventure can be easily dropped into any campaign world. Brought to us by Frog God Games, which is what was Necromancer Games, it has the same high quality layout and writing you would expect from Necromancer.

This adventure comes in both Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry versions, but I did not see any loss of fidelity from one version or the other, just the mechanics have changed. The Pathfinder version is longer by 4 pages, but that is entirely due to stat blocks. It would be interesting to me anyway to hear how the playtests for the different versions went. Is there that much of a difference in playability. In any case this adventure is a very good example of how the game design can change in 3+ decades, but game play is still what matters.

Designed as part of Frog Gods new Northlands campaign setting it shows a lot of promise and certainly will be something I am going to want to pick up and use.
5 out of 5 Stars

Undefeatable: The Collected Feats Sourcebook (PFRPG)
The collected volumes of Undefeatable for d20/Pathfinder. 90+ pages of feats for all sorts of characters and situations.
A good resource to have. Nothing jumped out at me as particularly broken or munchkin, and I read many feats that were of the very useful sort. Some do seem to blur the line a bit between 3.x feat and 4e powers, but that is not a big deal to me.
4 out of 5 Stars

[PFRPG] Moon's Folly
I love little towns with a lot of mystery. I love weird, freaky cults and weird, freaky goings on. And I love material that I can use in any setting, especially my own.
So I snatched up Moon's Folly in a hurry.
So take a town, plant it near a pre-historic megalithic structure. Fill it full of humans, elves, fey and lycanthropes and all peacefully worshiping the Moon Goddess, add your PCs and I am sure something is going to happen. But in case you are at a loss for ideas, there are plenty in this book. Did I mention that there some lumberers wanting to cut down the forest for profit? Yeah they are there too.

Reminds me a bit of the Village of Hommlet, if Hommlet was in the Scottish Highlands surrounded by dryads.
There are plenty of other secrets and plenty of NPCs to keep a Game Master occupied.

The one thing it is missing though is some sort of threat the Characters can solve the old-fashioned way, with sense violence. Not a requirement mind you, but players do enjoy a good combat session. The Keep had the Caves of Chaos, Hommlet had the Temple of Elemental Evil and Moon's Folly could do with something similar.

All in all, an enjoyable work and a great starting place for a group of new adventurers.
4 out of 5 Stars

Tobyart 006
Tobyart 007
Tobyart 008
Tobyart 009
Tobyart 010
Good line art to use as a character portrait, stock image or even for your own publications.
The license is included and easy to understand
5 out of 5 Stars

Bill Coffin's Septimus
Bill Coffin's Magnum Opus Septimus is yours for the asking.
Using the D6 system you can now play in this far future setting of a dying empire and a huge Dyson's Sphere.

This book is the ultimate in expression of the D6 system. Everything you need to play for years is here. Like the characters, there is so much to uncover here that it would take a group years to run out of ideas. If you area fan of Dune, Foundation or of the D6 system, then this really is a must have.
4 out of 5 Stars

Arcane Flavor
Need more background for your wizards or a cool place for them visit? Then this is the book for you. Living in a world full of magic should make for some magical lands and people, Arcane Flavor present five such cultures. Easily added to any campaign world. Each city, culture or locale also comes with new powers, spells, feats or rituals that are common to that region (and no where else!)
Cailleath is a fey city like no other. It's people are a strange assortment for any world and getting stranger all the time! It is a magic cosmopolitan filled with wonders not possible anywhere else in the world, or worlds, given it's nature.
The Valok are nomadic peoples with their own stories and songs and these contain power.
The Merry-Bedlam Company stretches this idea even further with a large extended theater family whose original race is no longer clear.
Karxal is a arid nightmare of a land, all the more reason to find arcanists devoted to beauty.
And finally to strike fear into hearts of power mad wizards everywhere are The Ternion.

The product has good layout and everything is very clear to read. The art is also good.

The rules are 4th Edition, but there is enough background here that it would be good for any game.
5 out of 5 Stars

Smallville High School Yearbook
An excellent source book to use with Smallville focused on the what really is the core concept of the show; Clark in High School. As expected the layout and art is top notch, this is a fantastic looking book. I love the whole "Yearbook" motif, very clever.

In you play Smallville, then this is a must have.
If you play any other game based in or around a High School then this is also a great resource to have on hand for character development. I loved the idea of the cliques and think I see a bit of the "Leverage" design philosophy in this game as well. In the end it makes for a much cool game.

Very much worth the download.
5 out of 5 Stars

[PFRPG] The Genius Guide to Fire Magic
Every group has one. I have had several. That wizard that is a complete pyro. It makes sense, fire causes a lot of damage, cleans up dungeons and the preferred weapon against most undead. Now the Super Genius' have given us this useful tome.

Tons of fire magic (including a new one, Steam) and ways to use your fire based spells and spellcasters. I got this one for my sun and his "Fire Wizard" so I am going to be getting a lot of use out of this one.
5 out of 5 Stars

Zatannurday: H is for Hex Girls!

There was a recent episode of "Batman the Brave and the Bold" that featured a cross-over of Batman and Scooby-Doo.  This is the latest incarnation of Scooby, "Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated".

Of course this easily reminds me of the old Scooby-Doo movies that featured Batman and Robin in ther "Super Friends" years.  We have that one on DVD (both movies)  and we are looking forward to seeing this new one, "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!".

This got me thinking.  If Batman and Scooby-Doo can have a crossover, why not Zatanna and the Hex Girls!  The set up should not be too hard really.  Both are scheduled to perform at the same town/locale and something weird happens (something weird always happens) and all four would be needed to solve the mystery/case!  It's really not all that far-fetched given the logic of both universes.  Plus Jennifer Hale does the voice of both Thorn and Zatanna so that is not a stretch, obviously I am not the only one to think so.  An on going gag can be that the Hex Girls are bit star struck with Zee and in the end she is the one that asks them to autograph copies of their CDs (That is if Zee is an NPC).

It would be a cool one-shot, or part of an on-going Hex Girls game.
Now the question is, what system to use?

For a one shot or one off adventure like this I would not use Smallville's version of Cortex since I think it works better with a season long plot and Hex Girls games are more "monster of the week".
Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition might also be a good choice.  Zatanna is already stated out in the DC Adventures book.

I have done Zatanna and Hex Girls for Witch Girls Adventures and that still feels like the best first choice.

Cartoon Action Hour would also be fun, and the new look for the Hex Girls that I was using for CAH:2 fits well with the Bruce Timm design of Zatanna.

So what would the focus of the adventure be?  Something bigger than a Chupacabra or ghost.  No we would need something worthy of Zatanna.  Maybe Modru.  I never liked that guy, and even though he is more of a Legion of Superheroes bad guy, he has the magic to go up against Zee.  Modru it is.
I think I'll even pull a cliché out of the bag and have Modru turn Zee evil and the Hex Girls (ie the players) have to turn her back to good and then defeat Modru.

And in typical Scooby-Doo/Hex Girls fashion the girls play a song (I am thinking "Magic" by America) at the end, with Zee on stage doing some magic.

Maybe this is the start of a Season 3.

Here are some other Hex Girls posts

• Unisystem and Witch Girls Adventures
• Cartoon Action Hour 2
• New Hex Girls
• Cortex
• Those Meddling Kids

And Zatanna for Witch Girls Adventures.