Dragonchess

WotC is running their "favorites of the lat 400 issues Dragon" still and one of the ones popping up today is one of my faves from issue #100, Dragonchess.

Gary Gygax, a well known chess fan, created Dragonchess.  You can read about it on Wikipedia, or if youhave that DDi thing, then read about it in Dragon #400.  So interesting background from Kim Mohan is included too.

My DM back in High School made a Dragonchess board.  He used plexiglass and painted a bunch of chess pieces and bits from other games for all the pieces.  The paint was still drying when we played our first game, which took all of our D&D time I recall.

Might need to show this one to my kids too.  They love chess.

Writing Slumps and Research Surplus

In the last two weeks I have done nothing.


Well that is not totally true, I mean I have been working at my job, still reading with the kids, playing D&D with my kids and Pathfinder with the big kids.   Still doing things that I need to do around the house.

But I  have not done any writing at all.
And this is a big problem.

Not so much for "The Witch", although that is also affected, but I am supposed to have a new adventure for Ghosts of Albion ready to go for Gen Con and I am not done with it, nor have I playtested it yet.

For the Witch, I have been going back to my stacks of research.  I am re-reading Margaret Murray's "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" for inspiration.  Yeah, yeah I know, every credible anthropologist on the planet has derided her work, that would be an issue if I was writing am anthropological textbook.   Instead I am looking at it different this time.  Murray posits that "witches" are an unbroken line from pre-history to now.  What if I went in the opposite direction?  What if I took the neo-pagan tropes and reverse engineered a pre-historic ancestor using the fairy tales of the ages AND placed this recipe in a D&D-ish style world to stew for a few thousand years.  What sort of witch would that be?

Also thanks to the magic that is my new Father's day gift I have been downloading a ton of ebooks.
So far here is my research list:

• The Witch-Cult in Western Europe - Margaret Alice Murray
• Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft - Sir Walter Scott
• Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather A Reply - Charles W. Upham
• Brood of the Witch-Queen - Sax Rohmer (fiction)
• Grimm's Fairy Tales (the originals) - Jacob Grimm
• The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology - Russel Hope Robbins (one of my faves)

I am also re-reading the "Malleus Maleficarum", but frankly there is not much here for a game.
The book is laughably bad in most places when it is not sadistic, misogynistic, and overly focused on the curses a witch will put on men's genitalia (for a group of people that are supposedly celibate the writers of this book are very preoccupied with sex).

Frankly it has the mentality of a 14 year old, and a very puerile 14 year old at that.  

And lets not forget that real people were actually tortured and murdered because of this book.  While it might not be the "Witches' Holocaust" of later writers, 1 innocent person murdered is 1 more than I would like.
While I might glean some tidbits out of it, all I got out of it the last time I read it was the Malefic Witch I wrote from my 2nd Ed Netbook back in 1999.  I want to write something people want to play, not torture.

Not that I want only good witches, I like evil ones too. Grimm is a great source for that especially if you read the original versions.  Evil, child eating hags that live in the woods? Oh yeah there is room for you in my book, right next to so-beautiful-it-is-frightening faerie witches and the domestic goddesses and potion makers.

I have the traditions defined, the class, some magic items, some monsters and about 500 spells.  That will be trimmed down, but still expect a lot of spells from me.  I have art.   And it may go against some "old school" credo but I have some art from Larry Elmore to put in it.  I have always wanted to have a book of witches with Elmore art in it and now I can do so.

For my Ghosts of Albion adventure I am re-reading Sherlock Holmes and I now have a copy of  Jess Nevin's WONDERFUL The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana.  And let me tell you this. It is worth every penny I paid for it. I bought it before the prices sky rocketed but it still was not cheap.

Act 1 is done.  Act 2 and Act 3 are mostly done.  I have the characters.  I have my monsters.  What I don't have is a good way yet for the players (not the characters) to figure out how to stop the monsters before they break out and eat London on New Years' Eve.  Whatever clues I need to move the plot forward need to be in Act 1, so I might need to tweak that a bit.

Hopefully I'll get some writing in soon.

Summer Solstice

The sun stands still at 12:16 pm local time.

To celebrate here are the posters boys of the original old school Rush.
Time Stand Still.

Voting: Tell DTRPG About Your Character

Drivethru RPG is into the final stages of their Tell Us About Your Character Contest.

You can vote for the finalists here, http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/rpg_character.php?affiliate_id=10748

There are some pretty cool characters here.  I voted.

Congrats to all the finalists so far.

More Reviews at DriveThru

Here are some more reviews of some products I have gotten from DriveThruRPG recently.
Have bought too much recently.  But these struck my fancy.

Fantasy Heroines Set
I love these paper minis from Arion games and this package is no different. I bunch of little paper people for your game. There are heroines of every class type here and the "cheese cake" factor is minimal (the paladin for example is in head to toe armor). Some mounted and some tri-folded versions as well.

There is only one thing missing from this package are full sized (or even half sized) page versions of the characters to print out and use with a character sheet. That would make these perfect in my mind.
4 of 5 Stars

Greek Woman
Two hi-res pieces of art (the same, one in b/w, the other in sepia) to be used with any project personal or commercial.
A very good piece.
5 of 5 Stars

Doctor Who: Aliens and Creatures
An excellent source of new things to run away from!
Actually this is a great product, full of all sorts of monsters, aliens and other creatures primarily from the new version of Doctor Who (but some old favorites are still there).

There is also an adventure book with two ready to go adventures using these new creatures; and plenty of ideas of how to use the others.
Some printing will be required for the cards, but that is minimal.

The same level of art, design and layout given to the core game is here, making it one of the more attractive games out these days. Perfect for the Doctor Who gamer and the Doctor Who fan alike.
5 of 5 Stars

Eden Studios Presents: Volume 3
While it doesn't come out as often as I would like, each issue of ESP is worth the wait. In particular here are Jason Vey's conversions of WitchCraft Gifted to be used in the Cinematic lines like Buffy or Ghosts of Albion.

More Cinematic Unisystem spells for Buffy/Angel (and Ghosts of Albion or Army of Darkness).

If you play Unisystem games then this is a great resource for you.
5 of 5 Stars

Book of Races
This book is filled full of new and interesting races, many of which are not your typical fantasy fare. While not all are great there are some gems and I appreciate the overall effort. There are races, new feats and paragon paths for 4e (not Essentials, but easily updated).

The art does tend to be all over the place and some of it is not great. But for half price and the chance to do something very different than the typical elf-dwarf-halfling trifeca, this is a good choice.
4 of 5 Stars

F-211 Copperhead
This is actually pretty awesome and one of the best things about PDFs. For one price (and lot of printer ink) I can have a fleet of little paper spaceships.
The design is very cool, brings to mind both the Vipers of BSG and the X-Wings of Star Wars, so that is a plus.
My suggestion is to take your time and let the paper dry before gluing. I smudged my first one.
5 of 5 Stars

DRAGONSHIRE: City Ruins
More cool print and build models from FDG. I love using 3D props in my games and I love the idea I can print out as many as I like. At just $4 (and printer ink) I can build an entire destroyed village.
5 of 5 Stars

Hero Happy Hour Presents: The Sheen (ICONS)
This might well be the most awesome product I have ever paid under a buck for.
You don't get many pages here, but you get alot. A "ripped from the tabloids" personality that can be a snap to play. All the Icons stats you need, a background, awesome art and a little paper mini to use in your game.
All for less than you would pay for a Mt. Dew out of a vending machine.

I just don't want to see more like this, I want to see LiLo and all her awesome powers of...well something I am sure.

Worth it for humor alone.
5 of 5 Stars

The Dragonslayers vs. The Lost Caverns of the Tsojcanth

Today the boys wanted to play some D&D for Father's Day.  Really, how could I say no?

So we wrapped up the last bits of the return from White Plume mountain.  The boys went and visited Crazy Omar to collect their reward.  Omar got Whelm, as he wanted.  They traded Blackrazor for an equally notorious weapon from my world, the crossbow "Bessie Mauler" (yes, yes stolen from the Riftwar Cycle, but to be fair I stole it from my old DM and I had no idea he had stolen from somewhere else).

I also wanted to point out that they now had a crowd following them wherever they went.  After all they were the heroes that freed the Silver Princes and defeated Dragotha.  They are a long way from The Caves of the Stinky Goblin (the first adventure of the Dragonslayers).  I wanted them to feel like heroes.

Of course now they are a day's ride to the Horn of Iggwilv.  Omar has told them that great treasure awaits them in Iggwilv's lair.  They are free to keep the spell books, but Omar has his sight on "Iggwilv's Greatest Treasure" something so precious that she "wrapped in in gold".   Well Omar, or the boys yet, don't know that the rumors of the greatest treasure are referring to Drelzna and she is wrapped in gold.  Gold armor to be exact.

The made it up into the mountains.  They know there is a Gnome kingdom located in the mountains and they have just been abused by a group of Stone Giants tossing boulders at them.

I have had S4 forever and it is great to finally get a chance to run it.  I am using the original AD&D 1st ed version of this, along with the Iggwilv's Legacy update from WotC from 2007 (no longer online) and will include the Lost Temple of Tharizdun IF it seems like a good idea.  This adventure should take us well into Gen Con.

There is a blue dragon in this adventure and one in the next one I am planning, Death's Ride.  I am going to make them the same blue dragon.  It would be good to give them a reoccurring enemy.  And who better for the Dragonslayers than the Huge Blue Dragon Korbundar?

I am not planning on having them run into Iggwilv just yet.  Mostly I am torn on whether or not to make into a witch (one of my versions) or make her into a wizard.  She did study with the Circle of Eight and she does seem to be in every respect a wizard.  The easiest thing to do is cheat and wait till I am running 4e and just make her into a Warlock/Wizard multiclass.  A person of such history would be great to have in my games.  Wilva though is not a do-er, she is a manipulator. She has pawns.  I think this pic sums her up best.

I still have my Big Plan^TM in motion for 4e and Iggwilv is a part of that.  So she is manipulating the Dragonslayers now to get them in place for her take over of the Abyss.  Turns out it will be their kids, but she can wait.

I just don't know if I can!  I want to play this all now!

Been Caught Stealin': Free RPG Day

In case your forgot today is (was) Free RPG Day.   Took the boys to my our favorite local game store and here is our haul.

We each got two things, the limit.  But it is a good set of things.

I might use them all together.  No idea yet.
They are all high quality products.  The DragonAge one is the thickest, the D&D and Pathfinder ones are full color, DCC really does look very, very old school, only with better production values.
The AFMBE one (the only non-D&Dish thing here) is really fun of course.
The d10 is also very nice to have.

All are intro adventures so not really good for the Dragonslayers at this point, but when we start up again with 4e I can certainly use them.

Zatannurday: Picture Round-up

I have a bunch of Zee pics laying around so I thought today would be a good time to post them and their sources.

First up from the Comic Knock Outs tumblr site:

by Da Xiong

by Stephane Roux

by Jeremy Bastian

And this one, but no idea where I got it from.

by Dave Hoover

Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows, Part 2

This is going to be great.
The scenes where knights come to defend the school is exactly how I imagined it would be.




And there is this,  http://www.youtube.com/JKRowlingAnnounces

Skills in D&D

I was talking with one of my friends at work today who is hard core 1st ed AD&D.  The subject of skills came up.  That is whether or not *D&D even needs skills.

I found I was rather agnostic about it.  I like skills and think they add a nice element, but the focus of the game is and has been combat, exploring and getting loot.

Pathfinder works well with skills.  Basic D&D maybe not as much.

What do you all think?
Do you like skills, do you need them or use them in you old school games?

End of an Era

We are coming up on the end of an era.

The last Harry Potter movie will be hitting theaters next month and it has been a fun 10 year ride.
Regardless of your thoughts on the books, or the movies or any of the hype there are a few things I think are very true.

1. It has been a worldwide phenomena, not just in terms of the "World of Harry Potter" but something that got kids to READ!

2. It has been a wonder watching these young actors grow up.

The books have been fantastic. The movies wonderful. I am for one sad to see them go, but all good things right.

Here is a really cool video.

What's Next for the DragonSlayers?

I like to read PDFs while running, I feel like I am getting more done that way.  On this weeks's reading list: The Lost Caverns of the Tsojcanth and the 3.5 update Iggwilv's Legacy.

I loved this module back in the day and I still have my original copy.

Should be a lot of fun.

Interview at Lili's Lair!!

Hey all!  I am very excited about this!

You can read an interview about me and the RPG work I have been doing at Lili's Lair this morning.

http://www.lilislair.com/2011/06/timothy-brannan-ghosts-of-albion-rpg-co.html

Read about my involvement in Buffy, Ghosts of Albion and other RPGs.

Enjoy and don't forget you can get Ghosts of Albion, Buffy and other games I have worked on at DriveThruRPG.

OH! And the guy sitting in the chair in picture to my left? Wearing the blue shirt on sunglasses? That is my High School DM.   He is almost as much to blame for this as I am.

Could WotC support ALL D&D?

There is an interesting post on Wizard's site today where Mike Mearls discusses (basically) gaming style and which version of D&D best fits that style.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110614#74972

It is worth a read and reminds me a bit of the old GNS Theory that was so popular a few years back.

I am not going to get into whether or not X version of Y game fits where on Mearls grid or even Edward's GNS.
I don't particularly care about those sorts of things since they all take a back seat to the more important questions to me: "Is Game X fun?  Will I have fun with Game X?  Do I own Game X so I can find out on my own?"

Which gets me to my random though of the day.

Should WotC support ALL D&D?  

As a business model it is a flawed one, the cost to produce physical products for a game that is 10, 20 or even 30 years out of print is pointless.  But what about using their own electronic distribution?

Recently WotC has seemed open to print 1st and even 2nd and 3rd Edition related material.  Why not take that that a step further and offer a "Classic D&D" subscription.  You pay (or maybe it is part of the DDI) and get new material for your game.

Of course readers of this blog will see the error right away.  There are a ton of blogs out there now, producing for free or very, very cheap, material for those older games.  And thanks to the OGL WotC (unlike TSR in the past) is perfectly happy that we continue to do so.

But what WotC adds to the mix is something we as a group do not have.  Brand recognition.  I can say "my magic hats is for people that ply Basic Era games" (nudge nudge wink wink implied).   Only WotC can say "this is for you people that still love to play Basic Dungeons & Dragons".

Obviously there is cost.  Someone has to write and that someone has to be paid.  Art is a very important part of what WotC can bring to the table that a simple blogger or one-man shop can't do as well or as cheaply.  Of course art is still not cheap.

I am sure that a cost benefit analysis would need to be done.  How much would it cost versus how much return they could get.

So let me throw it all out to you.

Would you pay WotC for regular content for your particular favorite Old School D&D product?
How much would you pay?
Per product or monthly?
What would you want to see to make you seriously consider this?

Now keep in mind this is NOT market research.  You all are not a random sample. You are a sample that is used to get a lot of material free (if not her, then other places) but you are also a sample that is interested in this older games AND a sample that is open to other games.  You read my blog afterall, I talk about a dozen or so different games here and about a half dozen on a regular basis.  You answers are different than those of say the regular reader of Dragonsfoot or Grognardia or ENWorld.

Let me, and the world, know what you think.

June DriveThruRPG

Today is my Birthday!!

But it will be you that get the gifts today.

Here are the products you can get from DriveThru RPG for 20% off.



Ninja Burger RPG (2nd Edition) [aetherial FORGE]
Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded [Dream Pod 9]
Hero's Handbook: Dragonborn [Goodman Games]  (I am picking this one up now!)
Splicers RPG [Palladium Books]
Noir Knights (Savage Worlds) [Savage Mojo]
Mekton Zeta Plus [R. Talsorian]
Judge Dredd RPG (Traveller Version) [Mongoose Studios]
Dark Heresy: Inquisitor's Handbook [Fantasy Flight Games]
Amethyst: Foundations [Goodman Games]
King Arthur Pendragon (Edition 5.1) [Nocturnal]  (A very, very awesome game and my fave on this list)

The 20% off code is: HotJuneDrive2011

Enjoy!!

They didn't kill the Ubues.

A while back my kids group, the Dragon Slayers, completed an adventure I was calling "Return to the Palace of the Silver Princess".  I used elements of both the "Orange" and "Green" versions (sounds like something I might have bought in Northern Ireland), the Tome of Horrors books and a bunch of other materials.   I turned it from a  low level dungeon crawl to a high-mid level campaign.

But I am not here to talk about my mad DMing skillz.

I want to talk about my players, my boys.

They got to the kitchen area, which is on the second level. They had been through the first level and fought goblins, giant rats, and mutant kobolds all as warm ups. The second level was where Arik's magic was in greater force and there were a couple of beholders floating around and some dwarves that had been turned into orcs and a giant prehistoric were creature that had elements of both bear and wolf (Aliegha*).  The Ubues were up next.  Like many of the creatures I increased their HD and attacks.  Either I multiplied their levels by 3 (which is what I did here) or added 10 levels.

The kitchen was of course home of the Ubues, and home to the art that got the Orange (or Loyalist, wait wrong orange again) version turned into a collector's item.
The boys rationalized that the Ubues, being all weird looking but living in the evil glow, were not really evil, but mutated innocent humans.
So instead of killing them they put them all to sleep (usign one of the sleep spells from my d20 Witch book).  They then moved them all to a room and Locked the door with a spell.

Now I could have played this by the book and kept them evil monsters.  I didn't, I like their idea so much I decided it was the truth.  In fact each Ubue was in fact three servants merged into one creature and that had driven them a little mad.  Also by the book rules would have also said they did not get an experience points for this "encounter" I gave them full XP.  I decided that since they did in fact defeat them and caused them not to be a threat anymore then they deserved full XP.

I am pleased with what the boys did and glad they were less bloodthirsty than others.

*Coming back to this, they did kill Aliegha.  In the Orange version she was a werebear and in the Green she was a werewolf.  Since I had already had the dwarves (orange) mutating into orcs (green), I had Aliegha mutating into were creature that was somewhere between bear and wolf.  I had just finished reading "Frostbiten" by Kelley Armstrong and I had been curious about the prehistoric Amphicyonidae (Bear-dog) since a trip to the Natural History Museum and seeing one on TV.  I figure she was changing into some creature that was the ancestor of the "modern" werewolf and werebears.  They did kill her, but now I kinda wish she had gotten away.  She would have made an interesting character.

Pathfinder

Today is my Pathfinder game with the "big kids".  The Northlands group.
To help explain my absence since late-February the GM has decided that my character was kidnapped.

We will see how it all goes.

Testing

New blogging software test.

Zatannurday: Deviant Art

I am a huge fan of Deviant Art.  I love that they give up and coming artists a place to showcase their talent. And there is quite a bit of talent there!

So here are some of my favorite Zatanna pics from Deviant Art.


zatanna and raven by ~gianmac on deviantART


zatanna and raven colored by ~gianmac on deviantART


Zatanna quick sketch by *mainasha on deviantART


Zatanna - DSC by *zet on deviantART


Zatanna by ~Kawuamo on deviantART

More soon!

Even Witches have Itches, Part 2

Happy Harry?  Hogwarts Hanky-panky?

Please let that be the last time I ever say "hanky-panky" on this blog.

Anyway new easter egg from the 3rd Harry Potter film.
Found by the Daily What?  http://geeks.thedailywh.at/2011/06/09/harry-potter-innuendo-of-the-day/ 

Madam Vastra and Jenny for Doctor Who RPG

AGAIN WARNING: There are some MINOR Spoilers here for the new Doctor Who episode, A Good Man Goes to War.  If you have not seen it yet, you might want to come back here after you do.

My post about Vastra and Jenny for Ghosts of Albion was very popular.  No surprise really given how popular the  characters currently are.

So it seems only proper then that I also stat them up for Cubicle 7's Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space RPG.  Maybe if I get cheeky I'll even stat them up in Traveler and FASA's Doctor Who game.

You can re-read the background for them on my Ghosts of Albion post.

Madame Vastra

"The Great Detective"
Story Points: 10

Attributes
Awareness 4
Coordination 6
Ingenuity 4
Presence 4
Resolve 4
Strength 3

Skills
Athletics 4
Convince 2
Craft 1
Fighting 5
Knowledge 2
Marksman 3
Medicine 1
Science 2
Subterfuge 2
Survival 2
Technology 2
Transport 2

Traits
Alien (Silurian), Alien Apperance, Brave, Code of Conduct, Eccentric (Mild Cruelty, Speciesm), Gadget (Perception Filtre), Last of My Kind (sorta, only awake Silurian in Victorian London), Tough

Tongue Lash (Strength +2, poison)

Equipment
Perception Filtre (Major Gadget)
Katana (Strength +4)

Home Tech Level: 5-6 (higher than 21st Century Earth, but no indication of FTL travel).

Vastra as a human. 

(in reality Neve McIntosh who played Vastra)

The Silurian Tongue Lash has a lethal poison.  Vastra, like all female Silurians, can choose whether or not her lash injects the poison or not.

Vastra is very devoted to Jenny, her companion and love.

Jenny Flint

Story Points: 10

Attributes

Awareness 3

Coordination 4 

Ingenuity 3

Presence 3

Resolve 4

Strength 3

Skills

Athletics 3

Convince 2

Craft 1

Fighting 4

Knowledge 2

Marksman 2

Medicine 3

Science 1 

Subterfuge 2

Survival 2 

Technology 0

Transport 1

Traits

Attractive, Brave, Face in the Crowd, Obligation (Madame Vastra)

Equipment

Katana (Strength +4)

Home Tech Level: 4

Jenny is the human companion and paramour of Madame Vastra.  To normal people they keep up the façade of a Lady and her servant girl. Jenny had been a servant but she was also already knowledgeable in the healing arts. A skill that has served the combat prone Vastra well.  Jenny herself is not slouch at combat, having trained with Vastra many times.  She is just as deadly with her katana as is her mistress.

Using Vastra and Jenny in Your Game
If you are going to go to Victorian London anytime soon (and you must if you are playing Doctor Who) then Madame Vastra and Jenny are going to be there.  They can be the focal point of an episode, important side characters (as they were in AGMGTW) or just a rumor.


There has been discussion and a post of stats for DW:AITAS already on the Doctor Who boards.
http://dwaitas.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=characters&thread=1469&page=1

But, shouldn't we aspire to be the Hero?

Back in the late 80s, but mostly in the early 90s there was a trend towards "dark" games.  Not just in terms of horror, but dark, grim subjects.  Obviously the ultimate expression of this zeitgeist was the classic "Vampire: The Masquerade", but you could see it in the FRPGs of the time too.  I called it sort of the anti-D&D mentality.   D&D was, at the time, about being a hero-even a super-hero, in a world that needed them.  Sure there was still plenty of "killing things and taking their stuff" but often the things killed were black and white evil, and saving the world was still the end game of many campaigns or at least the published ones.
This anti-D&D mentality was drawn out of the then perceived watering down of AD&D2's content.  In fact there are a number of publishers and authors from the time that I have talked too that have said they published their game in opposition to the loss of demons and devils from AD&D2 or as reaction to the popular media's stance on D&D.  "You think D&D is evil? Wait till you see my game!! ".  Such was the design philosophy of the products from Death's Edge Games.

We kinda got out of that for a while.  But now it seems we are heading back into it again only this time without some sort of reactionary motivation to account for it.

I like horror games. I have worked on a fair number of them over the years and one thing all horror games struggle with is the desire to motivate their players while putting fear into their characters.  Sometimes this is via mechanics.  The Fear saves/checks of many games are usually the first thing used.  The Sanity checks of Call of Cthulhu is also a prime example of a mechanical feature that has effects on the character and the player.  The game Dread does this brilliantly with Jenga blocks.  You can instill a sense of foreboding and doom in players IF you are willing to try.

The latest batch of supposedly Grim-Dark FRPGs don't do that.  They are more akin to the reactionary games of the early 90s.

I am going to pick on one as an example, but there have been and will be others.

I don't like "Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing".

It tries, oh so hard, to be edgy, but really all I see is like watching a little kid dress up in their mother's or father's clothes and pretending to be big.

Let's start with the suggested reading.  This is now nearly boilerplate text in any RPG these days.  Not just to include it, but to include these exact same authors.  There is a reason though, the works of Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, Howard and Tolkien are all fantastic as sources for a game.  Each had a level of storytelling that was sublime.   LotFP is not sublime and I wonder truthfully if the author actually read those books.

The idea, as I take it, is that LotFP is supposed to be "wierd", but outside of the splatter-porn art and questionable abundance of violence on women, there is nothing in the game that I don't have already in Swords and Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord or Basic Fantasy.  Except with those games I get monsters.
Now the author claims there are no monsters because monsters should be unique.
Frankly that is not only lazy, it's bullshit as well.  The game has an introduction book aimed at new players, yet goes on to tell these new players to make monsters without ever giving them anything to work from?  That's also just bad design. This of course is the bias of an author who has not seemed to have played many games outside of AD&D; I am not sure what games Raggi has played, but venture outside of AD&D and there are a lot of ways to have monsters and make each and every encounter with them unique and fearful.

Let's compare this to Call of Cthulhu the pinnacle of horror gaming for most.  There is a whole chapter on monsters, right there in front of everyone.  In fact there is even a skill in the game so characters can know something, maybe a lot of something, about each and every one.  It still does not do them a bit of good.  Raggi quotes Lovecraft and Smith, but his depiction of what you do with those elements are almost antithetical to what the authors were actually doing.  Browsing through the art (which is fantastic by the way, when it is not over doing it with the violence on women) there is nothing here that would actually have appeared in any Lovecraft or Smith book.  Yeah, there is the vague Nyarlathotep-looking creature on the back cover of one of the books, but that was the exception rather than the rule.   He took the time (and use that phrasing rather loosely) to not include monsters, but didn't bother to say much at all about mood, tone and how to generate a sense of horror that doesn't involve a disemboweling.

Horror is not the only factor in these newer Grime Dark games, there is after all the Grim.
Well to get a good idea on how to best do this I'll take a very recent example, The Northlands, which I reviewed a while back is grim game. The stakes in this game are high; you screw up you will freeze to death and that is your best option.  It very successfully impresses on you the feeling of doom; yet people still live here and make a life out of it.  The Scarred Lands from Sword and Sorcery Studios a few years back is another grim world.  They are grim, but not to the point of nihilism. People/Characters still can rise up and be something more than they are now.

And so far I don't like Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Why are we looking at a game and extolling it's "non-heroic" mien as a virtue?

Plus, on a pragmatic point, neither of these games are particularly original or new.  What new has been added?  Specialists (LotFP) are new and I'll grant that something that would work well in a Swords & Wizardry game.  DCC? Well I am still reading through the BETA to be honest with you.  The art reminds me of the old school art, but lacks the charm of it.

I like the old school games. I still love playing B/X and it's modern clones.

Butt what I did then is what I like to still do now.

Play the game, save the village, town, kingdom,  or even just the princess (or prince), defeat the monster, and be the Hero.

I have both the Deluxe and Grindhouse versions of LotFP and I'll pick up DCC too.
I doubt I'll play either.

Demons Run...when chased by Madame Vastra and Jenny

WARNING: There are some MINOR Spoilers here for the new Doctor Who episode, A Good Man Goes to War.  If you have not seen it yet, you might want to come back here after you do.

Ok?
Good.

Back?  Ohmygodwasthatthecoolestthingyoueversawinthehistoryofdoctorwho!!!???

And of course by that I mean the Victorian Silurian katana wielding Consulting Detective and her human paramour Jenny.
That's makes them perfect for Ghosts of Albion in my book!

I am going to have to do a bit of speculation, but I have some good sources and I consulted Jason Vey who did the EXCELLENT Doctor Who game guide for Unisystem.

Background: Madame Vastra came up from her home deep underground when she thought underground workers were trying to invade. They were not, they were only working on the underground subway system. She was ready to go to war on them when the Doctor arrived to help her.  He was able to save the humans and the Silurians.  Vastra, indebted to the Doctor vowed to repay him helping her.  She knows quite a bit about the Doctor and about Time Lords.  She knows about regeneration and even calls the Doctor "old friend" on many occasions.

At some point she met a young serving girl named Jenny and the two entered into a partnership. They shared adventures as disguised vigilantes/detectives and a romantic partnership as well.

In 1888 Madame Vastra had just ended the career and life of serial killer Jack the Ripper when a blue box appeared in her parlor...

We have little to go on of these two. But if the web traffic out there is any indication then they are already wildly popular with people asking for a spin off!
You can read their TARDIS files here, Vastra and Jenny.
They have their own Facebook page, Deviant Art page,  and an article on After Ellen.  All before the show even airs in America.

Madame Vastra
Very Experienced Master

Life Points 50
Drama Points 10

Attributes
Strength 3
Dexterity 6
Constitution 4
Intelligence 4
Perception 4
Willpower 4

Qualities
Silurian (Homo Reptilia)
Attractiveness +1 (+2 with Perception Filter on)
Charisma
Hard to Kill 4
Fast Reaction Time
Natural Armour (+2 to Armor)
Nerves of Steel
Perception Filter (acts as a Glamour, disgusses her true form) (see below)
Resources 8
Situational Awareness
Status 4

Drawbacks
Honorable (Minimal)
Love (Jenny)
Mental Problems (Mild Cruelty)
Minority (Woman)
Obligation (The Doctor, Important)
Obligation (The Yard, as a consulting detective, Minimal)
Secret 3 (is really a Silurian pretending to be human)
Secret 2 (Lesbian living with another woman)

Useful Information
Initiative +11
Actions 2/1
Natural Armor +2
Observation 1d10 +9
Fear +5

Skills
Armed Mayhem 5
Art 0
Athletics 5
Crime 3
Drive / Ride 1
Engineering 3
Fisticuffs 4
Influence 4
Knowledge 3
Knowledge (Silurian Technology) 3
Languages 2 (Silurian, English)
Marksmanship 5
Notice 5
Occultism 0
Physician 1
Wild Card

Combat

Maneuver	Bonus	Damage	Notes
Dodge / Parry	+11	-	Defence Action
Grapple	+11	-	Defence Action
Katana	+11	12	Slash / Stab
Punch	+10	6	Bash
Tongue Lash	+11	3	Sting
- Poison	-	Special	Strength 4 (same as Con Score)

Madame Vastra in the Ghosts of Albion world is a hunter of criminals.  She is not above killing them herself, she is a trained Silurian Warrior after all.  She does posses a Perception Filter which acts as a Glamour allowing her to pass as human.  Though due to the nature of the device, and it's fragility, she prefers to don a cloak and hood when "hunting".

Vastra as a human. 

(in reality Neve McIntosh who played Vastra)

The Silurian Tongue Lash has a lethal poison in it that has a Strength value equal to the Silurian's Constitution score.  Vastra, like all female Silurians, can choose whether or not her lash injects the poison or not.

Vastra is very devoted to Jenny, her companion and love.

Jenny Flint
Experienced Journeyman

Life Points 40
Drama Points 10

Attributes
Strength 3
Dexterity 4
Constitution 3
Intelligence 3
Perception 3
Willpower 4

Qualities
Attractiveness +2
Hard to Kill 2
Fast Reaction Time
Nerves of Steel
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks
Adversary
Honorable 2
Love (Vastra)
Obligation (The Doctor, Minimal)
Secret 1 (Lesbian living with another woman) (Jenny's is less than Madame Vastra's since she is of a lower class and has less status to loose)

Useful Information
Initiative +9
Actions 1/1
Observation 1d10 + 6
Fear +5

Skills
Armed Mayhem 4
Art 0
Athletics 3
Crime 2
Drive / Ride 2
Engineering 1
Fisticuffs 3
Influence 2
Knowledge 3
Languages 1 (English only)
Marksmanship 2
Notice 3
Occultism 0
Physician 3
Wild Card

Combat

Maneuver	Bonus	Damage	Notes
Dodge / Parry	+8	-	Defence Action
Grapple	+8	-	Defence Action
Katana	+8	12	Slash / Stab
Punch	+7	6	Bash

Jenny is the human companion and paramour of Madame Vastra.  To normal people they keep up the façade of a Lady and her servant girl. Jenny had been a servant but she was also already knowledgeable in the healing arts. A skill that has served the combat prone Vastra well.  Jenny herself is not slouch at combat, having trained with Vastra many times.  She is just as deadly with her katana as is her mistress.

Using Vastra and Jenny in Your Game
The question is why not use them? Or. How can you not use them?  Seriously.
If you are not happy with the Doctor Who connection then make Vastra a reptilian alien from Conspiracy X or a type of demon or even go out further and make her an Unseelie Lady, working to remove the taint of dishonor she sees her people have done.
The Victorian Era is so full of crime and mystery that there is enough for these two to do.

Good to see my regular GM already thinking of things to do with these two.
http://rhoninsramblings.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-really-want-to-do-something-with.html

On Blogfests, Part 2

My numbers held out.

I had a huge gain in followers according to Cyclopeatron's rankings.
http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2011/06/fastest-growing-osr-blogs-of-april-and.html

Up 40 by his count and another 3 since he did the list.  43 new followers is not a bad deal.

Thank you all for thinking I have enough interesting things to say to keep on coming back!!

I have some updates on Liam's book, the next Dragonslayers game, the Witch book, what I am doing for Gen Con and how interspecies, intergalactic, Victorian, lesbian crime fighters might just be the next big thing.

Stay tuned!

On Blogfests

Yesterday I participated in the It's All Fun and Games blogfest and before that I participated in the A-Z blogfest and the Horror Movie Challenge.

It was fun to do them all and the numbers of hits, new followers and comments speak for themselves; they were very successful as getting The Other Side some attention.

I know these sorts of things have been derided or mocked in the various OSR/Gaming blogs before, but the impact something like this can have can't be overlooked. While I can't say that it increased the sales of Ghosts of Albion or even Chill (WitchCraft, the only other game I linked is free), I do know from clickthroughs that people looked at the games.

Not gamers mind you.  People. The Normals.  ie. The People we need to bring into the fold of this hobby if we are expected to see it survive to the next generation.

Whether it has a significant impact or not, mine is just one site and an admittedly loose focus.  I am likely to talk games as well as horror movies, comics, and anything else.  This is not a platform blog unless the platform happens to be random stuff that is no longer confined to just my brain.

Later in the month I am going to participate in the Queer Film Blogathon. I am going to explore the meme/trope of the Lesbian Vampire in horror films as the ultimate outsider and compare how she is more often portrayed as a tragic figure than that of a monster.  This can be extended to the Homosexual Vampire too (Lestat, or any of Rice's vamps) and even due to race (Blackula).   This of course will necessitate a discussion on the Evil or Dead Lesbian Cliché and whether or not even a sympathetic vampire still qualifies.

This has almost nothing to do with gaming (but I'll give it the old college try*), but it will expose my blog to a completely new audience that has no idea that we even exist or think that D&D died out sometime in the 80s.

If we want to grow our hobby we should be looking for any chance to go out there and evangelize it.





*Since I went to Southern Illinois University for both my undergrad and graduate degrees that means I'll have to have a few beers and then think about it. ;)

All Fun and Games

I am surprised I didn't see this one before hand, but there is a new Blogfest out there and I am a sucker for these things.

It's All Fun and Games hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

I guess since we all talk about our favorite games anyway this is lest of a fest and more of a "Monday".

But anyway here we go!

1. Dungeons and Dragons:  D&D is the 800-lb gorilla in the game world for a reason. It provides what is to many the ultimate experience in a table top RPG.  I started playing this game back in 1979 and I still play it today.  I enjoy all the editions, warts and all, and it is still the game I enjoy coming back too the most.
Not much more I can say about this one really.  It has kept me entertained for over 30 years now.

2. WitchCraft RPG. I was half-tempted to list "Ghosts of Albion" but I thought that might be incredibly tacky and self-serving. Instead I want to list the game that eventually got me to Ghosts.  It was the late 90s and everybody was going crazy for "Storytelling" games.  Games not about killing things and taking their stuff, but about exploring characters, that may or may not be monsters themselves, in a world of...well...darkness.  C. J. Carella's WitchCraft did this better than any other game out there in my mind.  Picking up this book filled me with the same awe as holding that Monster Manual back in '79.
WC paved the way for so many other games for me, not just in terms of playing but in writing.  If it were not for WC then we would not have had Buffy, Angel or Army of Darkness.  Conspiracy X would have remained in the it's original system. There would be no Terra Primate or All Flesh Must Be Eaten and certainly there would be no Ghosts of Albion.
The cover also is one of my all time favorite bits of artwork for a RPG cover ever.
If you have not discovered this game, then I suggest you get a copy now.
It is 100% free at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=692&affiliate_id=10748

3. Chill.  If D&D was my first and WitchCraft is my current favorite horror game, then a special place must left in my heart for Chill.  Chill is a horror game of normal people in an abnormal world.  It's not as dark as say Kult or as dangerous as Call of Cthulhu and character never get to the levels of WitchCraft, but it was a perfect game for the time I was playing it (the early to mid 80s).
Chill, either 1st ed or 2nd ed, doesn't hold up as well in today's world where characters have as much firepower as the monster they hunt (or even are the monsters), but back in the 80s it was a huge shift in my understanding of how games could be played.  Traveller also represented such a shift for me and it almost made the #3 slot here.   I also have a big post coming up about Traveller here in the near future, so it will get some love.
You can get the 2nd Edition (Mayfair version) of Chill from DriveThruRPG:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=2888&affiliate_id=10748

That is my Top 3.  I have played scores of RPGs and own or owned many more I haven't played.  And that is not even talking about other games I like such as Dungeon! or even other board and card games.

Zatannurday: Gilbert Monsanto

I have not seen this one before, but I like it.

Gilbert Monsanto

Someone to Witch over me

By now many regular readers know I have been putting together a number of posts for an eventual Basic Era book for a Witch class.
Here is a link to the announcement I made back in March.

Also you may know that Jonathan Becker over at B/X Blackrazor is also doing a witch class for his "The Complete B/X Adventurer".  I personally think that is very cool, and I dig the name of the book too.

I am looking forward to seeing else JB will do with his witch.  I am sure it will be different than what I am doing and I think the Basic Retro-clone market is large and now getting diverse enough to support more than one view on the witch.

I want to talk about his ideas in a bit, but first I want to talk about my own ideas, as they are right now.

Presently this book has about 63 pages of game material and an additional 52 pages of nothing but spells.  Frankly that is WAY too much material for what is essentially just one new class.  Though I have much more than just that of course.  The spells can be used for other classes and there are some new monsters and magic items.

Here is a small sampling of what I'll be offering, though edited to fit the narrative of the book better.

• Cantrips for Original and Basic-Era Games
• Druthers 
• Earth Trolls
• Familiars 
• Gnomes for Basic era FRPGs 
• Gypsy Elves 
• Level Titles for Magic Using Classes 
• Magic Hats 

Plus I am very keen on doing a witch that was likely to have been built back when the Moldvay boxed set was still new.  So I have spent a lot of time thinking about the role of witches and what they do in a game. Again, taking my cues from Tom Moldvay as detailed here, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/01/tom-moldvay-on-witches.html.  I have tried to address all these points (and then some) in my new witch.

The other issue that is important to me is that the witch must have a role that does not take away from the Cleric or the Magic-User/Wizard.  There should be overlap, that is fine, just like a fighter and thief can both use weapons to attack a monster. The cleric, magic-user and witch all use spells.  They just use them in a different way.

I have done witch books for *D&D before including one for AD&D 2nd Ed and another for D&D3/d20.  There will be some similarities of course, but I am more focused on the Basic Witch to create a book that feels like it was made in the later 1970s/early 1980s.  I am reading witch and occult material that was popular at the time.  I really want a good old-school feel, but while still taking advantage of all the research I have been doing over the last 25+ years.

Now lets go back to JB's Complete B/X Adventurer Witch.

His links are here:

• The B/X Witch
• Ooo-oo, Witchy Woman...
• and an earlier one, Something Wicked this Way Comes...

Jonathan has a good idea of what he wants and I think he is going about it in a very cool way.

His Something Wicked... goes over a lot of the same ground I have gone over here, but he also points out that we get a lot of references to witches without any witches themselves.  Now he mentions he has never read the the classic Dragon Magazine articles on witches (#5, #20, #43 and most famously #114), but I think there is a lot in those articles that bear reading.  One of which is the Tom Moldvay list from my previous post.

I am looking forward to seeing how these two different, but related, interpretations are welcomed by the OSR community.

AD&D1 in Dragon #400

Just was reading through some of the new articles that will be in Dragon #400.  Current WotC employees are talking about their favorite Dragon moments.  Mike Mearls brings back Roger Moore's Jester and keeps it as 1st Edition AD&D.   Odd seeing a 1st ed character in 4e trade dress.

Anyway here it is, but you need to be a subscriber.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dra/400jester#74712

New Review: Northlands

Northlands

The Northlands is a very cool campaign setting for a Norse/Viking like area for use with Pathfinder. Not a setting by itself, it is designed to be easily inserted into your game world. Though there is nothing stopping you from just using this book all by itself.

In its 110+ pages you will find a area ready for adventure. There are new classes, skills, feats, weapons and spells. There are rules for variant races (humans and Dwarves) and new races from the bestial Trollkin to the Hyperborean. Everything is given a new look to reflect the cold lands of the north. The culture here is a very different one. It’s not just colder, the people (and thus the characters) are different.

The magic chapter is very cool, with new spells, and new types of magic such as grudge magic and runic magic.

The lands are detailed in both chapter 2 and chapter 5. So there is plenty to work from here. The chapter on monsters contains quite a nice number of creatures and they are not for the faint of heart.

The author capture not only the rules of playing in these lands but the feel as well. Author Dan Voyce obviously has a love for this setting and their real world counterparts that show through the writing. This is a well researched book.

The art is equally fantastic and even though it is spare and black and white, it adds to the overall feel of the book. The cover is one of the best I have seen in a very long time.

The legends of the Scandinavian countries are ripe for adventures and part of the very fiber that makes up the core of the FRPGs. The Northlands helps bring these tales to life.

I originally grabbed this because my local Pathfinder group is called "the Northlands Group" and I thought this might be a cool thing to have.  But once I got it and started reading it I realized I wanted to keep it all for myself! I plan to use it for the areas in my Mystoerth games, specifically the areas right around my version of Hyborea.

Now this Northlands has nothing to do with the Frog God games Northland Saga for Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry.  But they are not incompatible.

I enjoyed it and I think you all might too.

5 out of 5 stars!

...here there be dragons...

School is winding down for my little guys and that means the summer of no school, no homework and no reading right?

Wrong!

You can't be the kid of an educator and not expect something.  But this time it was my son that surprised me.  I was talking with him the other day and he wants to write a book, and not just any book.  He wants to write one on dragons.
 
Liam has been playing D&D now for years.  He loves dragons and has read dozens of books on them and of course he is the original Dragonslayer in my games.  

We talked and I talked with teacher, so this summer Liam will be writing his first book, "Here There Be Dragons".  There will be stats, histories and all sorts of goodies about dragons.  He wants to do it all for Pathfinder and maybe 4e.  I also suggested doing it for OSRIC and Basic era games too.

He wants spells, prestige classes and even has come up with some very specialized dragon hunting weapons including the dragon hunter's spear ("Because getting close enough to a dragon to use a sword is stupid.")

I will be doing the layout and editing, but all the ideas will be his.

The best part?

We are going to make the book available to everyone.

I don't know all the details yet.  But expect a book of dragons coming from us sometime later in the summer.

Cliff Chiang Bad Reputation

Making the rounds today but it is very cool. Cliff Chiang's mashup of DC women and the Runaways.

I love Black Canary singing and Z on bass.
Course I posted this to Amazon Princess, but given that it had Z in it I figured here is a good spot too.

Something nice till they completely reboot the DC universe. Again.

Other links:
http://cliffchiang.tumblr.com/post/6037210898 Cliff Chiang's tumblr.
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/6037306593/omg DC Women Kicking Ass
http://girls-gone-geek.com/2011/05/31/dc-women-runaways-mash-up/ and Girls Gone Geek.
http://amazon-princess.blogspot.com/2011/06/cliff-chiang-bad-reputation.html Amazon Princess

Long Weekend

Just getting off of a long holiday weekend.  Lots of blog posts to read, picked up some games too.

More soon.

Zatannurday: Russel Platt

I have recently discovered the art of Russel Platt.
Here is his rendition of the Other Side's favorite Sorceress Supreme, Zatanna.

And one not safe for work, http://rplatt.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=144#/d14qp56
This one is a bit too busty for my tastes, but I love the facial expressions on this first one.

Happy Birthday Christopher Lee

Happy 89th Birthday to Christopher Lee.

I hope I am half as awesome as you are when I am 89.