Zatannurday: Supers Unleashed

I picked up this really simple super game a bit back called Supers Unleashed.  To say it is simple is an understatement.
It has a lot of potential and extremely easy to learn and play.

I have a feeling though that eventually that player of this game will want more.

So here is Zatanna, stated up for Supers Unleashed.

Zatanna

Super Points: 100

Powers: Magic 110
Limitations: Limit, must speak backwards: -10
Archetype: Magician (like Mage, only not as stuffy).

That is it!
I told you, very simple.

Sure I could reallocate points to mental or psychic powers, but she does all that stuff with magic.

Not too bad for a $0.99 game.

You Know Something?

I had forgotten how much fun I had with D&D 4th Edition.

The kids are in bed, the wife is out seeing "Magic Mike" and I am sorting through my D&D4 collection.

I know it gets beat up a lot, especially in the OSR blog-universe, but you know what? It is still fun to play and reading it there is a lot of nods to the older editions and a lot of love.  They just wanted to do their own thing.

I am really, really pleased that this is the system my son picked for his group.

Tales of Woe

It is a sad day here at The Other Side.

My hard drive died a couple weeks ago.  Normally this is a cause for panic, but I didn't because having been doing this for a while I thought I had everything backed up.  Well.  I didn't.

I didn't lose any of my PDFs save for maybe the most recent ones I bought since May, but I can always go back to DriveThruRPG and re-download those.  My current OSR/Old-School books were in the hands of editors, so they were saved.

I did though loose all my documents for my Ghosts of Albion adventures Blight, Obsession, Wilderness and Synchronicity.  I have printout of Blight and Obsession, so that isn't too bad.  And I lost all my personal emails from 2011-2012.

Figuring it was the circuit board (given the errors I was getting) I worked with a company that specialized in this brand of hard drive (Seagate Barracuda) called PCB Solution.

I worked with Kevin to find a new board for this drive and in truth my hopes were high, even if he felt (and he did tell all this upfront) that my drive might be further gone that I thought it was.  Undaunted I picked up their repair kit and got it in a couple of days.  It easy easy to do as long as you have no fear of cranking open your computer or drives.  I got it in installed and slapped it into a new external drive enclosure and ... nothing.

I worked on a few other tricks I have picked over the years.  Back in the day I ran the official usenet alt.sys.pc-clone.gatewat2000 FAQ, so I consider myself a bit smarter than the average bear in this respect.  But if there is one thing I have learned, there is always someone smarter.  And it will take someone smarter than me to fix this one.

Here is what I have learned (and should known already):

1. It doesn't matter how much you back up.  Back up more.
2. Stop buying Seagate drives.  Every single one has died on me and took much valued data with it.

So that is what I know.

I do want to publicly thank Kevin at PCB Solution.  He really went above and beyond the call of duty to help me.

OSR Links and Call for Editors

Here are some links and news for all OSR fans out there.

First, I want to repeat that Jason Vey of Elf Lair Games has a poll up.
http://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2012/07/contemplating-kickstarter.html

Howling Tower, the blog of long time vet Steve Winter has both an article up at Kobold Quarterly, http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/front-page13022.php and listing of some of the best free OSR products, http://www.howlingtower.com/p/old-school-renaissance-resources.html.

Also we need some editors to expand this Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_simulacrums

This article is about all the D&D clones, near clones and other such games we love in the OSR.
Please be sure to include any external and third-party refs.

EN World Game Day

Please don't forget that if you are in the Chicago area come by and play Ghosts of Albion with the author (that would be me)!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/325572-chicago-gameday-32-july-14th-sign-up-play.html

Saturday July 14, 2012.

New Kickstarters

My buddy Jason is looking to see how many people would be interested in a Kickstarter of his two games, 12 Parsecs and the Wasted Lands.

Stop by his blogs and let him know what you think.

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/07/contemplating-kickstarter.html
http://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2012/07/contemplating-kickstarter.html

D&D4 Group: Follow-ups

Source

So I hope you all had a great July 4th Independence Day!  And for my international readers I hope it was a nice day for you all as well.

I had the chance to talk to the parents of the kids (and a couple of the kids) of my son's D&D4 group.

The big news is that they all had a good time.  The biggest surprise to me though was the the ones that enjoyed it the most were the youngest one in the group.  My youngest (9) loves his Bard.  The two younger kids (almost 9 and 8) also really like their characters and they like the system.

All three were told by their parents that if they didn't enjoy it they did not have to stay.  But so far all three are staying.

The older kids had fun too.  They had more opinions on what worked and what didn't.  My oldest son still enjoys 3.x more he thinks, one of the twins loves his character so as long as he is playing that he is happy.  The other twin prefers C&C, but that is fine.

The next game is July 16.  We have mysteries to solve, some kobolds to take care of, and there is that rumor of a dragon's graveyard.

White Dwarf Wednesday #22

We close out 1980 and start 1981 with more subtle changes to White Dwarf.  We are getting to the tiem where so many of us started that these magazines now elicit memories of games past.

Let's start with this awesome cover.  Warrior riding a giant beetle while the Death Star-ish thing rises on the horizon. Really, does anything scream 80s Sci-Fi/Fantasy more?  Sure I suppose if he had a scantily clad barbarian queen/space princess on his side.  But this is good.

Page 1, we get what I think is the first full page ad for the Fantasy Trip.  I could be wrong.   All in all five pages of ads. Our editorial this issue is the discussion of what is the best Fantasy role-playing system.   Ian Livingstone is asking what the readers think is the best and why among D&D, C&S, RuneQuest, The Fantasy Trip and others.

Pictures from GamesDay '80 cover the next couple of pages and the 1980 awards results.

Mervyn Lemon gives us some advice on how to build 3-D dungeons.  A good one for today's world to be honest.

Rick D. Stuart writes "Robe and Blaster" upgrading Aristocracy in Traveller. Page and a half.

Treasure Chest is up next. It's a mixed bag.  Crystal Fruit (magical crystals full of fruit juice) and the Assissin's Quill (brass knuckles with crossbow bolts), Stonerings (turns you to stone till taken off), the Stones of Li-Chao (all sorts of cures), Tenser's Shield (floating disc turned on it's side) and others.

Open Box gets a little facelift and some new games.  Charles Vasey gives Mythology from Yaquinto Games a glowing 9/10.  Likewise John Lambsehd gives Metagaming's Stellar Conquest a 9/10.  Not doing as well are Runquest's Bestiary (Andy Slack gives it a 6/10) and Task Force Games' Asteroid Zero-Four (also a 6/10 from Alestrair Brown).

Lew Pulsipher pulls out all the stops and gives us an article about evil priests, "Black Priests" that also includes art of a nude woman about to be sacrificed.  Certainly not something we would see to today in any gaming magazine.   Odd, when I first saw this pic I thought her right arm had been cut off.  It is just how the blood spill is.

The class is, well, evil.  The have abilities of clerics, some Monster Summoning ala magic-users and even some thief and assassin talents.  They use cleric spells and cleric level titles only with the word "Black" added to them so Black Curate and so on.  Their experience point per level is more inline with magic-users.  We got a few "evil" classes around this time. Anti-Paladins, the revised Witch and Death Master from Dragon.  Not sure what this trend was about really.  I am guessing it was because the "normal" classes were very safe and played to be good.

Barney Sloane presents "The Search for the Temple of the Golden Spire" an AD&D min-module for 7 2nd-4th level characters.   It was used as a competition module at Dragonmeet III.  It is four pages long, but no scoring for competition.  Just good little adventure.

Letters concerns itself with alignments, again showing us there are no new arguments.

Star Base, the Sci-fi regular feature.  This is one of the first reader submissions, this time from S.L.A McIntyre on Port Facilities for Traveller.  And to understand how much Traveller was the only game in town,  the game's name is not even mentioned till 3/4 of the article.

Fiend Factory is back and again sporting the new design. This time we get some heavy hitters.  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are undead vassals of Orcus.  They remind me of Skeleton Warriors under the control of a Death Knight, and in fact that is probably how they were played, save that these warrirors have 12 HD and the leader is 16 HD.  We also get Ungoliant the (Demonic) Queen of the Spiders.  Yes we do.  She is more powerful than Lolth, but not as much personality.   There is the Capricorn (in case you forgot how close the 70s still were) which is an aquatic goat of some power and good.  Actually the concept of the monster is so interesting that it would be worth reviving it as a powerful celestial beast.  Might need to come back to this one.  We end the article with the Crystal Golem.  Not a bad little creature. Described as the only golem that an Illusionist can build.

Lew Pulsipher is back with a treatise on character stats in AD&D and what the numbers mean.  It is one of the first "Simulation" articles I ever recalled reading back in the day; and that is that AD&D is not a Simulation game.  But he does refer to it as a wargame.

We get News of the newest game company, Steve Jackson Games.  Chaosium is coming out with a boxed set for Runequest.  More news on their new Elric game. TSR releases A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity (one fo the first modules I went through in AD&D). And plenty of Traveller news with Games Workshop getting the ok to produce official Traveller material in the UK.

Classifieds and more ads follow.

A very solid issue that highlights the growth WD was experiencing at the time.  The switch in my mind will be complete over the next year or so.  D&D/AD&D and Traveller still reign supreme among the games.  That's fits my experiences as well. I bought Traveller because of the ads in Dragon and White Dwarf.

New Games!

Is there anything better than a new game?  Sure! Lots of new games.

Here is what I picked up over my lunch break.  Cause new games are fun.

B/X Companion.  The Book We Never Got.  You can now take your Basic/Expert characters past 14th level.

Deadlands: Hell on Earth Reloaded. I don't know a lot about this game, but it has a good pedigree, and it is Savage Worlds, so it can't be all bad. ;)

Primeval RPG Core Rulebook. I loved this show when it was on.  A bit like Torchwood, a bit of Doctor Who.  All British.  Well Cubicle 7 has finally got it out to us and it is great.  This game uses the same game system as Doctor Who (which is very nice) so you can have all your Time Travel shenanigans in one place.  This book will sit nice on the shelf next to my Doctor Who game.

Extreme Edge Volume Two Collection. Ok, so. I like the Hot Chicks RPG.  It's silly fun and it doesn't take itself seriously at all.  Plus I know Dakkar and he is a good guy.

Supers Unleashed. A simple supers game that has a lot of potential.  The layout is beyond simple into the sparse category and the artwork is the cover only.  So think of it as a minimalist game. It has a price to match.

More detailed reviews soon.

B/X Companion in PDF

One of the things I like most about the OSR are the products that don't give me things I already have, but things I have always wanted or never knew I needed.

B/X Companion is one of those products. (You can read all I have said about it in the past.)

Well it is now finally out as a PDF. Please stop by DriveThruRPG or RPGNow to get your copy.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103412/B-X-Companion?affiliate_id=10748&

So if you have been waiting for this one, her is your chance.

Gods of the New Game

I still don't have a name yet for my new Realms based 4e game, but things are coming together really nice.

Now back when I said I didn't know anything about the Realms. Well that wasn't true.  I don't know much about the lands or the peoples.  I have no idea where Elminster is from, but I could pick him out in a police line up.   But one thing I do know about is the gods of the Realms.
Back when I was working on my first Witch netbook I picked up what was at that time my only Realms specific book, Faiths & Avatars.  I wanted some more info on various gods, various 2nd ed Kits and the human deities. Later I picked up Powers & Pantheons and Demihuman Deities.

So Gods, I know.
I have been playing around with the plots lines of the Spellplague and the events in HPE modules.
And I have decided that I have killed of a number of the Gods.

Here is who is living and who is dead and why.

Bahamut has taken on Tyr's and Torm's portfolios. Torm was killed by Asmodeus. Is now a greater power.

Bane - Dead. Why? can't stand him.  Plus I need Asmodeus as a greater threat. He killed Bane and absorbed all his power and portfolio.  Part of his Reckoning of Hell.  Asmodeus is still keeping Tharizdun chained up deep in Hell.

Kelemvor - Was killed by Orcus in the demon lord's attempt to regain his godhood.  In my games Orcus was not a human that rose up through the ranks of demon-hood, but rather he was Death Primordial/Titan that had the powers of a god.  He had been denounced and banished to the Abyss.  He is searching for an artifact to give him ultimate power.

Mystra is dead, as per the book.  But she won't stay that way for long.

The Raven Queen - from the D&D core and not the Realms I know.  She is alive, but she has not come into her power at all.  In fact she is currently in the guise of a teenage girl ala Death from the Endless.  She is the vessel of Kelemvor's power.

Sehanine, Selûne and Shar are much as they are in the books. However in my world there is also a heresy and a cult dedicated to the "Triune Goddess" or the "Triple Moon Goddess" who believe that all three deities are merely part of the same greater goddess.  They are respectively the Maiden, Mother and Crone.
The mother, Selûne,  is pregnant with the infant Mystra.   Since Kelemvor is dead, Shar is pulling double duties till the young Raven Queen is ready.

Others will appear (or die) as needed.

The Road to Winterhaven

The first session of my kids new D&D4 group happened yesterday and fun was had by all.

The road to Winterhaven has it's issues, but yesterday the band of heroes-to-be gathered together to defeat the kobold ambush.  Present were Dracnil, a Dragonborn Paladin/Warlord, Swift aka "The King" a Bard, Hunter a Ranger, Glock the Halfling theirf, Calinndin an Elandrin Swordmage, Drac of the North a Mul Barbarian and Nevar Bloodbrow a Dwarven Cleric.

Some time was spent on getting characters made and the first encounter.  There was also an impromptu skill challenge when one of their fellow passengers was missing after the combat.  Even the natural 20 from the Ranger could find no trace of her.

So far they have the mystery of the missing girl, a symbol they are sure represents some cult, and three of the seven have been hired to investigate the rest of the kobolds.

I am going to add in some bits of the Winterhaven I was working on back in 2003.  It was conceived as a town where witches roamed free.  The D&D4/Nentir Vale Winterhaven is different, but it sits on a nexus point of the Material World, the Shadowfell and the Feywild.   So there is more here than meets the eye.

I thought the kids did really well yesterday, especially the two that had never played before (though I guess their mom was a big player of Werewolf back in college).  In fact I think the extra XP award for best role playing has to go to one of the new kids (who is the youngest) and the next oldest (though he has been playing a lot longer).  In fact it was Drac of the North (one of the youngest) that got extra experience points for being the first to notice the missing girl.

Given how yesterday went the combat was long, but not much different than my 3.x game.  That will change I know.  Also as the kids (and I for that matter) become more accustomed to the rules things will move along better.

Next session is not for another 2 weeks, so progress will be a bit slow, but I think it will be fine.

No name for the group yet, I am going to let the kids choose.

Tomorrow it Begins!

Tomorrow I start my* new D&D group.  

So far where is what we know.

• We are playing D&D 4th Edition with the plan of going from 1st to 30th level
• I will have *7* players aged 8 to 12 1/2
• We are playing in the Forgotten Realms as it is in the 4th Ed books.
• We are going to do the H-P-E Modules starting with "The Keep On the Shadowfell"

Two of the kids are mine. Three are the sons of my friend Greg and two are friends of my oldest son.  The two new kids have never played anything before.

Greg's kids have played a lot of games, mine have played a variety of D&D games, most notably our 3.x Dragon Slayers game.

We are going with the Orcus wants to become the God of Death plot line.  The differences will be that it's Kelemvor that has died due to the Spellplauge and the Raven Queen is only a Godling, her power untapped. This makes her a more likely target to Orcus than the mature Raven Queen.  I'll admit there are some things from Amber Benson's "Death's Daughter" that I want to try out too.   I am still doing many of the ideas from this post back in 2010, except these characters are not the descendants of the 3.x characters and I am going to smash a world into this one.  

Honestly I think it is going to be great.  4e has it's detractors, but we still had fun with it.  Plus my son plays in a Castles & Crusades game with 3 of the other kids listed above and my two boys are still finishing up their 3.x game where I used all the old 1st Ed modules.  We get to do all sorts of schools here.

(*really my son's)

LinkWithin

Well I have been trying out LinkWithin on my blog for the 3rd time (or maybe the 4th) and this time it seems to work much better.

In earlier versions of the Other Side layout I had written large parts of my own CSS. The new Blogger layout now gives me the advanced features I wanted without needing to muck around with coding.  That is nice since my own coding also has disabled some of the nicer comments features.  It also was not very compatible with LinkWithin.

Well now it seems to work better.  I am not seeing how the algorithm works; for example how a post on the Zatanna and Hex Girls will also direct you to Dracula, Shakespeare, and D&D Basic.  But I guess in my world that makes sense.

The one thing I am noticing that my hits for older pages are way up.  That is a good thing.  I have over 1200 posts here now, some of that older stuff has to be good too!

Do you like the LinkWithin widget?  Are you finding any hidden treasures, not just here, but any blog that uses it?

My Game Room needs a HUGE map

Custom Bandit Signs

So a bit ago I was approached by Nathan Beddome of "Signs on the Cheap" and "Banners on the Cheap" with an idea of printing up a large game map for my game room.

Well I have always wanted a large map of Victorian London on my  wall so I responded back and we got to chatting.

Today I got the file formats I needed to know about so I am going to give it a try.

This is a very different kind of market for both me and his company.  Afterall I rarely if ever need vinyl banners and I am sure they print up much stuff for gamers.  So I am quite curious to see how this will all turn out.

I will keep you all posted on how it works out and all that good stuff.
Now I just need to find a good image file (that I own) for this!  So far though things have been pretty easy going.

White Dwarf Wednesday #21

Miss me?  Sorry for the delay last week.  This has been a busy time at work and I have been taking it home with me at night to do instead of this.
Let's get down to business. 

Issue #21 is from Oct/Nov 1980 and it is off to a good start with some cool late 70s/early 80s wizard art.  A lone star focused through gems reveals a fighter in battle.  If it were redone today the gem would be d20 shaped.

We have an ad for Ariel games which in a bit of neat synchronicity features a game reviewed earlier today by James at Grognardia, The Mystic Wood.  This and four other pages of ads follow.

The editorial is another "Ripped from todays blog roll" on whether or not the Vancian magic system is outdated.  Interesting really.  This is 1980, not 2012 and the D&DNext playtest discussion.  Though maybe they should read this editorial.  Not that the offered solution, the power point system in RuneQuest, is much more modern today, but it bears thinking about.
There is also a note about their production artist, Robert Owens, who was killed in a crash.  

Andrew Finch gives us a new D&D class based on The Chronicle of Thomas Covenant.  "Lore of the Land" features the Lore Lords.  They are an uber spell casting class that can combine their spell casting levels to cast more powerful spells and increasing the fighting ability of others.  Something like a hyper-bard. Also detailed are Rhadmaerl, or a new type of magic user based on the Lore of Stone and the Hirebrand or Lillianrill, magic uses based on the Lore of Wood. And finally the Bloodgurd, a type of fighter.  If you are a fan of the novels then these might be fine, but as character classes they look a little over powered, with the exception of the Bloodguard.

Roger E. Moore gives us a bit on Merchants.  Including what they do and an NPC class for them. Very much an example of the early days when every profession had to be detailed as a class.

Open Box review Azhanti High Lightning, one of the classic classics of Travleler. Andy Slack gives it 8/10, James gives it a little bit more detail.  Roger Sandell reviews Intruder from Task Force Games, giving it a 6/10. He states it is a "good idea, but needs improvement".   John Lambshed reviews another Task Force Games entry, Valkenburg Castle.  This one fares better at 8/10.

Letters deals with important issues like alignment and why does a lantern burn for 24 hours but the same flask of oil thrown lasts only a round.

Up nest is another complete mini-game Survival by Bob McWilliams. Seems simple and quick to play.

Treasure chest is upping their game this issue with a bunch (15) new spells.

Fiend Factory gets a huge makeover this issue.  For starters the layout is better and the monsters are all grouped by a theme. In this case wilderness monsters for characters of 5th to 7th level.
The font used to write the monsters' names is now a plain one, not the stylized art font unique to every monster.  Monstermarks are still included.  The monsters themselves also seem to have been taking up a notch in terms of design.  The jokey monsters are gone, replaced with real threats. This issue gives us The Brothers of the Pine (undead full of magical pine sap), Chthon (a living rock), Enslaver (a small pool of mercury that controls others), Micemen (the results of Brownie/Orc crossbreeding), Dragon Warriors (created from the teeth of dragons), Grey Sqaargs (a race of evil automata) and a Cyclops.

Starbase, the Traveller feature, continues with a mini "situation" for Traveller.  We would call these an Encounter today.

S. Hartley presents the Tomb of the Maharaja, an AD&D mini-module for 6-10 3rd and 4th level characters.  It is a nice little dungeon crawl that could be completed in one night.

Up next are some ads, including this one from Games Workshop that really got my attention.

Remember when I said at the start of this that anything British was automatically cool in my teenaged mind.
Here is a better scan of the Doctor Who board game that I mentioned last time.

With issues 20 and 21 we see a shift in WD to a more mature gaming magazine.  The jokey monsters and classes are going away and focus on other games, like Traveller, is keeping the focus more of serious gaming material.

Let's see if this trend continues.

Links
Some links to other White Dwarf retrospective reviews

An older RPG Net thread that goes issue by issue
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?405199-In-which-I-read-White-Dwarf-from-issue-1

A newer EN World one that reviews 10 issues at a time to get a better perspective on the overall trends.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/325009-white-dwarf-first-100-issues-read-through-review.html

And other Magazine retrospectives:

Grognardia takes us back to the future every Tuesday with his Ares retrospectives.

Land of Nod does Dragon by Dragon every Sunday.

EN World Game Day Sign-up

The Sign-ups are now open at EN World for Ghosts of Albion on Chicago Game Day 32.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/325572-chicago-gameday-32-july-14th-sign-up-play.html

Stop by and post to sign up for Ghosts of Albion!

Victoriana 1st Edition

Back when I was working on Ghosts of Albion I became aware of the game Victoriana.

I picked up the game, but since I was deep into playing Ghosts at the time I didn't look at it much.  Finally I did and then learned a 2nd Ed was going to come out.  Of course I did eventually get the 2nd edition (and signed no less!) and know I hear there is a 3rd Edition on the way.

I spent some time reading the 1st Edition rules and thought it was interesting, if odd.  For starters I am not sure why there was no U.S. Civil War. I was also not a fan of the Fuzion system.  I liked all the odd races for the game (even if it did lead to the infamous Orc from Africa debate) and felt like it was, as it has been later described, Victorian Age Steampunk.

The thing that struck me though is how similar that cover is to the Ghosts of Albion BBC logo.  In particular the silhouettes of  William and Tamara.   I am sure it is nothing but coincidence,  but I could not help but notice it all the same.  Save for the pointy ears on the Victoriana cover that *could* be Tamara and William.

I still like this game though.  It has a soft spot in my heart really.  It is like Ghosts of Albion gone all gonzo and turned up to 11.  Plus it is one of the few games I always try to play at Gen Con; well it or 2nd Ed.


Here are the books I own.   What I feel they lack in system, they make up for in style. They can be used with the 2nd Edition of the game with the conversion guide in the back of the 2nd Ed core book.


Victoriana: 1867 Edition
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1612/Victoriana%3A-1867-Edition?src=s_pi&affiliate_id=10748
This is the core book of the "1867" or 1st edition rules.

The Hounds of Fate
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/2241/The-Hounds-of-Hate%2C-A-Penny-Dreadful-for-Victoriana?affiliate_id=10748

What if "Hounds of the Baskervilles" was a true story?  Well in the world of Victoriana, it can be!
This is a "Penny Dreadful" or an adventure for Victoriana 1st Edition (aka 1867 Edition).
This adventure though is based more on the old legends of the Black Dog or Old Shuck on the English countryside.  As such it is a good adventure for any Victorian era game with a heavy emphasis on magic or the supernatural. One could easily run this under Ghosts of Albion or Cthulhu by Gaslight.


The Smoke: 1867 Edition
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/2240/The-Smoke%3A-1867-Edition?affiliate_id=10748

This is one of the best Victoriana 1st Ed products.  At 128 pages it is a very comprehensive guide to London in 1867.
Granted there is the Victoriana-universe spin on everything, but otherwise it is perfect for use with ANY Victorian era game.  It especially works well with the 2nd Edition of the Victoriana game.   The book is sans-game stats, so there is no system conversion to worry about, just thematic conversions.

The maps are fantastic and I especially enjoyed the descriptions of all the neighborhoods.
Very good resource indeed.


The Dragon in the Smoke
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1613/The-Dragon-In-The-Smoke?affiliate_id=10748

Another adventure for Victoriana 1st Ed.  The set up is very nice and it captures the feel of the game right away.
The adventure itself deals with strange eastern magic and mysticism, missing children and a cursed statute.   Plenty of really good plot elements to keep your players guessing.
This adventure also includes some rules on using martial arts.

While I am not likely to play Victoriana 1st Ed these days, it still holds a special place for me.  Though these products listed here are my favorite.

Do we need these?

The 1st Edition reprints are on their way and I am quite excited about it.

WotC just also announced new reprints of the 3.5 version of D&D.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20120625

This one has me scratching my head.  I can still buy 3.5 books new at my FLGS.  My 3.5 books are actually in really good shape (picked up the leather bound ones a while back).

I think I would rather see the Rules Cyclopedia reprinted than 3.5.

EN World Game Day Chicago 32

Once again I am going to be running a game at EN World Game Day Chicago!

I'll be running Ghosts of Albion: Blight. I have had requests to run this one, so here it is for what might be the last time.  Working on some new adventures.

Here is the blurb for the game:

Ghosts of Albion: Blight
Ireland is dying. 
Her Protector has been murdered and you are the primary suspects. Can you clear your name, regain your magic and stop whatever necromancies befoul the land? Time is short, yours and one million lives hang in the balance. Set in 1847 this is an adventure for the Ghosts of Albion RPG.

Game System: Cinematic Unisystem
Rules Edition: Ghosts of Albion
Players: Minimum 5-6, Max 8.
Minimum Age: Teen (13+) (PG for some violence, and problem solving)
Experience Required: None (never played before), some knowledge of "Ghosts of Albion" is helpful.
Materials Provided: Yes, materials are provided for this game. You do not need to bring your own.  One d10 is needed.

There is a sign-up thread over at EN World, http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/324478-chicago-gameday-32-event-planning.html

I have an afternoon slot 3:30pm to 8:30pm on Saturday, July 14 at Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL.
You can read more about Chicago Game Day here, http://gameday.buzzmo.com/faq/

Hope to see you there!

Zatannurday: Strikes-Twice Cosplay

Back in the start of June I posted some random Zatanna Cosplayers.  One that really got my attention was Strikes-Twice on Deviant art.
I loved her style and thought she made a great Zatanna.

She tells us on her DeviantArt site that loves Zatanna and she is her favorite "DC Chick".  I can't disagree.
So here are some of her pics.  Please enjoy!


AH! Zatanna by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


Party time, tnellecxe! by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


Deviant ID 1.0 by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


Showstopper! Zatanna and Catwoman by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


Spellaholic. by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


Z VS. H by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


Cats and Wands by ~strikes-twice on deviantART


OOH MR. BATMAN OOH by ~strikes-twice on deviantART

So stop by her page to see more and say hi!

New Game, New World

I am gearing up for my new game.  I posted about it already a couple days back.  Since then I have picked up another new player.

What I have been considering for this game is moving it away from my normal world of Mystoerth to something new. Or at least new for me. I am considering, very seriously, the Forgotten Realms.

I talked about this a while back. I picked up the Player's Guide then, and just got the Campaign Guide.
I own some Realms books as PDFs. They were one of the things I grabbed in the mad dash before DriveThru took them all down.

I mentioned before that I was never a fan of the Realms. I considered it to be a pretender to Greyhawk and not a very worthy one at that.  In fact one of the first examples of my own Nerd Rage was how Anti-Realms I used to be because it took the spotlight away from my beloved Greyhawk.

I picked up the 3.0 Realms Guide when it came out and I admit I liked it. I felt it was a good book and all it really was missing was monsters. The new 4e campaign books are a good model too. Though this time I feel I have enough monsters.

But what I like the most about the 4e Realms book is how completely gonzo it is. Smash two planets together to get one world! I love that! Spell plagues? Bring it on!  Races from Abeir now showing up? Fantastic!

I will be honest.  I know next to nothing about the Realms.  Nada. Zip.
Never read the novels, never played in the Realms EVER.

In fact most of what I know comes not from books or games, but from Wikipedia and the Forgotten Realms Wiki.

Normally I think this would be an issue. But since I am using the 4e material and it is about 100 years after all the events in 3e, not to mention world-changing events at that, that it is ok if that the players know nothing.  All I need to worry about is their local part of the world.
The iconic NPCs are never going to show up, nor in fact will my sons' characters from our 3.x game.
I want this story to be about these characters right now.

I am also still planning to use the HPE modules for these characters to fight Orcus.   Since it is the Realms I am going to add some of the materials from the old H-series, The Bloodstone Wars.

So here are my questions to those of you far more familiar with the Realms than me.

• Should I read over any of the older material?
• Where is a good place to start the characters?  IE.  What is "The Village of Hommlet" for the Realms?
• Anything I should about running the Realms say as opposed to running Greyhawk?

Thanks!  
I am feeling really excited about this and want it to work out well.

I Don't Want No Civil War....

But this one is pretty cool.

MWP has their next Marvel Heroic Roleplaying book out and it covers the big Marvel Civil War arc.

Now, I'll be honest I didn't care for the Civil War story.  But this book does look cool and it adds more heroes for your game.

The books come in two flavors.
The Essentials edition just covers the new material.
The Premium Edition includes the Essentials plus the material from the Basic Game.

I grabbed the Essentials.  But I'll pick through the Premium if it has material updated from the Basic game.

While I didn't care for the story in Civil War it did give us one of the best Cap and Spidey panels in existence.

First Day of Summer, celebrate with Fire

So last Winter's Solstice I posted a bunch of pictures of DC's Ice.  Well today I'll post her partner and other favorite of my oldest son, Fire.



fire league justice by ~victormanga on deviantART


Fire Fight by *CandelaGreene on deviantART


A fiery Bea by ~brilliant-beatrice on deviantART


Blazing Fire_no text by ~Mancomb-Seepwood on deviantART


Fire by ~Lamzao on deviantART


Fire Wallpaper by ~Ziggyman on deviantART

Enjoy your Summer!

White Dwarf Wednesday

Will be a bit delayed today (maybe till tomorrow).

I just got back into town from a business trip and am woefully behind on everything.

Latest Drama Bomb

Well I go away out of town for a couple of days and there is yet another drama bomb dropped on the RPG community.

If you have not heard it yet, well, look around it will surface somewhere else to be sure.

Even though this is a the exact sorta thing I'd normally through my hat into, I am lacking the motivation to do so.

I will say this though.

If I don't like your product, game and even to a degree you as a human being (I never claimed to be with out bias) then I won't buy your product.  That's it. That's my worst threat.

I am not going boycott it or your publisher.  I might write a bad review if I do buy it.  But that is fair.
I am not going to declare you "my enemy" (enemy? really? What are we, 12 years old?)

I DO understand the original complaint and I DO agree with it.  I don't agree with the actions they are trying to do.

Ok, I didn't want to rant or get involved, so I'll stop here.

Kickstarter News

Angus Abranson, formerly of Cubicle 7,  has started a new Facebook group to keep track of all the RPG-related Kickstarters going on.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/430556803645272/

Stop by. Get updates. If you know of any, please join the group and post them too!

New Game Group and Game!

There is nothing quite like the excitement of a new gaming group.
New people getting together for the first time, new characters, new game, new worlds to explore.

My oldest son has a friend that really wants to learn to play D&D. So I talked to his mother and she is thrilled about it too. She used to play Werewolf back in college.  We are also going to add his younger brother and my youngest too.  So a total of four boys ages 9 to 12.

My oldest plays in a group now that he is continuing with. They are playing Castles and Crusades and having a good time with that.  My oldest and youngest are still playing our 3.x Epic game, the DragonSlayers.

Given I still have all this 4e stuff I want to get my money's worth out off, we are going to play Fourth Edition D&D.

I think it is going to be a great time to be honest.

Right now the plans are to play every other Saturday.
I picked up the Forgotten Realms books at Half-Price books a while back dirt cheap so maybe we will play in the Realms.  I have never done that before.

My kids created their characters yesterday and I am going to use the companion rules to let them have a human or animal companion.  My oldest is playing two characters a Dragonborn Paladin/Warlord and Genasi Sorcerer,  My youngest is playing a Half-elf Bard.  I am planning to go totally 4e gonzo on this too.  Use all the options, the cards, everything.

So yeah, it is about as far from an old school game as you can get, but you know what, it is going to be a blast!  I can't wait to get started!

I am not likely to use the "Basic Levels" idea I came up with.  Which is too bad really, cause I really liked that.  But hey, who knows.  Let's see what the kids want.

Free RPG Day Haul

Look what I got!

I grabbed the "D&D"-like ones, because that's what my kids enjoy the most.
Been toying around with an idea that might incorporate all four into a game...but that is silly.

The ShadowRun was more for me.  I have been itching to pull my ShadowRun books down again.

Don't forget you can also get the Ghosts of Albion Quick Start and Adventure Derby Day.

Free RPG Day: Free Stuff Here!

I hope you all enjoy Free RPG Day.

Please head to your FLGS (am will be going to mine)to get some great RPGs and accessories.

Here at the Other Side we don't want you to feel left out if you can't get to a game store.

So here, by permission of Eden Studios you can download the Ghosts of Albion Quick Start and Adventure Derby Day!

Derby Day was written by Garner Johnson who was invaluable help to me while writing Ghosts.

If you were ever curious about my game Ghosts of Albion, then this is your chance.  Please download and try this out.

You can also use these rules to play the first ever Buffy Adventure The Dark Druid.

Please enjoy these courtesy of the Other Side and Eden Studios.

Zatannurday: Zatara

Last two Mother's Day weekends I mentioned a bit about Zatanna's mother Sindella. But in truth there is only one parent that Zatanna has known here whole life and that is her father Giovanni "John" Zatara.

He first appeared in the June 1938 issue of Action Comics #1, notable for the introduction of another famous golden age superhero, Superman.

"Zatara Master Magician"  was by Fred Guardineer and ran from pages 20 to 31.
From the beginning Zatara spoke his spells backwards.  Mostly to give him something different than the other magicians-turned-crime-fighting-mystermen like Mandrake the Magician and his imitators.

Zatara was woven into the DC Comics fold more completely when he was given the back story of having been a friend of Thomas Wayne, introducing him to his future wife Martha and then later training a young Bruce Wayne in the skill of escapology.  It was in fact during the time right after the Waynes were murdered that Zatara left America on an extended tour of Europe.  Here he met Sindella and soon Zatanna was born.
This was developed more as Zatanna's history was developed and most famously in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Zatanna".

Another of his good friends, or rather paramours was Madame Xanadu, who would not marry him.  Currently Xanadu and Zatanna share a title in Justice League Dark.  They are both Homo Magi, so even though X was Z's dad's former girlfriend, they do look about the same age.  Zatara himself was also Homo Magi in addition to being a stage magician.  A distinction he shares with other, now dead, father figures like Ludlow Swift of "Ghosts of Albion" and Harry Dresden's father.

Of course the most notable feature today of Zatara is that he is dead.  His death is what help push his daughter into a life of fighting crime as her father had done.  Though for a dead guy he pops up often enough in Zatanna's life.

I like the idea of Zatara. I'd love to try him out sometime in a supers or pulp like game.
I have already decided that my first Amazing Adventures character will be Giovanni Zatara.
But until then, here he is in all his Golden Age glory!

Giovanni (John) Zatara - PL 10

Strength 1, Stamina 2, Agility 1, Dexterity 3, Fighting 2, Intellect 3, Awareness 4, Presence 4

Advantages
Artificer, Benefit, Wealth 3 (millionare), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Fascinate (Expertise), Languages 3, Skill Mastery: Expertise: Magic, Uncanny Dodge, Well-informed

Skills
Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+4), Deception 6 (+10), Expertise: Magic 10 (+13), Expertise: Stage Magic 6 (+9), Insight 10 (+14), Intimidation 2 (+6), Investigation 5 (+8), Perception 10 (+14), Persuasion 4 (+8), Ranged Combat: Eldritch Blast 6 (+9), Ranged Combat: Mental Blast 4 (+7), Sleight of Hand 10 (+13), Stealth 2 (+3), Technology 1 (+4)

Powers
Magic: Magic 10 (DC 25)
   !dleihS: Deflect 10
   !ediH: Concealment 0
   !elzzaD: Dazzle 10 (Alternate; Affects Sense: hearing, sight, Resisted by: Will, DC 20)
   !tsalb hctirdlE: Blast 10 (Alternate; DC 25)
   !tsalb latneM: Mental Blast 5 (Alternate; DC 20)
Magical Senses: Senses 5 (magical, Acute: Sight, Analytical: Sight, Detect: Sight, Hearing 2: ranged, Ranged: Sight)

Offense
Initiative +1
!elzzaD: Dazzle 10, +3 (DC Will 20)
!tsalb hctirdlE: Blast 10, +9 (DC 25)
!tsalb latneM: Mental Blast 5 (DC Will 20)
Grab, +2 (DC Spec 11)
Magic: Magic 10, +3 (DC 25)
Throw, +3 (DC 16)
Unarmed, +4 (DC 16)

Complications
Motivation: Doing Good
Responsibility

Languages
Italian, English, Greek, Latin

Defense
Dodge 10, Parry 9, Fortitude 7, Toughness 2, Will 10

Power Points
Abilities 40 + Powers 30 + Advantages 14 + Skills 39 (78 ranks) + Defenses 27 = 150

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Willow & Tara: World of Darkness (new)

Willow and Tara in Mage the Awakening

Following up on my post from earlier today on The World of Darkness RPG.

One of the reoccurring themes in Willow & Tara fiction or games is their shared growth of magical power.  As they grow together and grow more in love, their powers increase to a near phenomenal level.  Sort of like the powers wielded in Mage the Awakening.

Now in my last Buffy campaign, "Season of the Witch", I had Willow and Tara become "mages".  Not exactly what is here, but very close.  I would be lying though if I didn't say there was some influence. There was. You can read about that in the last three adventures of that game:

• Episode 11: The Burning Times
• Episode 12: Torn
• Episode 13: All Along the Watchtower

This is also a common theme in the various Willow & Tara fanfics out there. In fact one of the best Willow/Tara fan fics out there is “Unexpected Consequences” by Lisa Countryman.  Lisa even uses the word “mage” to describe their power level even though I know for a fact she has never seen any White Wolf game.  In Lisa’s “Unexpected Consequences” Tara’s Awakening happens too soon and it causes, well, all sorts of unexpected consequences.  It takes place during season six and is far, far better than what happened on TV.  In the sequel fic “Milestones” Lisa deals quite well with Willow and Tara’s true Awakening some 10-15 years in the future.  Not only does she capture 30-something Willow and Tara quite well, it is an excellent narrative of how an Awakening can happen or be done.  Willow and Tara knew it was coming, and yet they are still totally unprepared for it.  It also shows what an Awakening must be like through the eyes of a mundane or other non-awakened witches.

So as they grow old together Willow and Tara will get much more powerful.

Presented here are a possible Willow and Tara right after the events of Season of the Witch.  I am borrowing heavy from Lisa here as well as my own World of Darkness (old) stats.  This would have lead up to my Season 3 that would have been more magically focus. In fact these conversions lead right from my Mutants & Masterminds 2.0 conversions in terms of when they happened (game wise) and when I wrote them (real time).  It was because of these two games that gave me the idea to move the girls to Boston.

Their Awakening in Brief
Lisa and I both consider Willow and Tara to be “old souls”, they have both been reincarnated many times and have shared many lives together.  Our separate visions of this were so compatible that we meshed them.  I had considered their first incarnations to be “Bodhmal” (Willow) and “Liath” (Tara) from Celtic Ireland, Lisa’s are “Belen” (Tara) and “Damara” (Willow).  In either case Willow and Tara’s Awakening in Mage is a similar event to awakening their Old Soul in WitchCraft; contact with their primal soul-selves. In Mage Revised this would have been their avatar. In Mage the Awakening this is the primal spirit that instructs them on who they were, who they are now and what they are to become.  I choose them both to take the Path of Thyrsus.  While they are not really “shamans”, there is an earthy quality about Tara.  It was more for their seeking of their Primordial Soul-selves. Plus in Lisa’s fiction Willow and Tara’s awakenings was always about a surplus of life and life-power. In UC Tara becomes faster, stronger and more confident.  Something she tries to maintain later in MS. What also struck me was the description of the Thyrsus’ extreme emotions.  This also fits Lisa’s fictions.

Delving deeper into the “Tome of The Watchtowers” (which also inspired the name for Episode 13) we learn that Thyrsus was the only Watchtower formed by a woman. The sexual nimbus fits with sex=magic we saw on TV and Lisa’s description of Adourflame (Episode 11).

I could have chosen Acanthus as well since this communication with their previous souls is across time and space, but I did not feel either of them fit the “Fool” or extremely lucky archetypes.

Willow Rosenberg

Path: Thyrsus   Order: Mysterium

Virtue: Justice. Willow is very much about what is right and what is wrong.
Vice: Wrath.  Some people bring a gun to a knife fight, Willow brings a flamethrower.

Attributes
Intelligence: 5	Strength: 1	Presence: 3
Wits: 3	Dexterity: 2	Manipulation: 2
Resolve: 3	Stamina: 3	Composure: 3

Skills
Mental	Physical	Social
Academics 4	Athletics 2	Animal Ken 0
Computer 5	Brawl 1	Empathy 1
Crafts 1	Drive 0	Expression 1
Investigation 2	Firearms 0	Intimidation 1
Medicine 2	Larceny 1	Persuasion 2
Occult 3	Stealth 1	Socialize 1
Politics 1	Survival 1	Streetwise 1
Science 4	Weaponry 1	Subterfuge 1

Merits
Allies
Ambidextrous
Encyclopaedic Knowledge
Language 2     
Striking looks 2
Size: 5
Speed: 8
Initiative Mod: 4
Defence: 2
Health: 8
Willpower: 6/6
Morality: 6



Mana: 9
Gnosis: 5
Wisdom: 8



Personal Data
Age: 27 (in 2008)
Ht: 5’3”
Wt: 115#
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Gender: Female


Arcana

Death: 0
Fate: 0
Forces: 3
Life: 2
Matter: 1
Mind: 2
Prime: 2
Space: 0
Spirit: 1
Time: 0




Tara Maclay

Path: Thyrsus   Order: Mysterium

Virtue: Temperance. Tara is nothing if not understanding and temperate
Vice: Sloth. She is not lazy, but she likes things to move a little slower. She does not enjoy fighting monsters.

Attributes
Intelligence: 3	Strength: 2	Presence: 3
Wits: 4	Dexterity: 1	Manipulation: 1
Resolve: 3	Stamina: 3	Composure: 4

Skills
Mental	Physical	Social
Academics 3	Athletics 0	Animal Ken 2
Computer 2	Brawl 1	Empathy 3
Crafts 1	Drive 1	Expression 0
Investigation 2	Firearms 0	Intimidation 0
Medicine 1	Larceny 0	Persuasion 0
Occult 5	Stealth	Socialize 1
Politics 0	Survival 1	Streetwise 1
Science 1	Weaponry 1	Subterfuge 0

Merits
Allies
Encyclopaedic Knowledge
Language 3
Striking looks 2
Size: 5
Speed: 9
Initiative Mod: 4
Defence: 2
Health: 8
Willpower: 7/7
Morality: 8

Mana: 10
Gnosis: 4
Wisdom: 8

Arcana

Death: 0
Fate: 0
Forces: 2
Life: 3
Matter: 1
Mind: 2
Prime: 1
Space: 0
Spirit: 1
Time: 0


Personal Data
Age: 28 (in 2008)
Ht: 5’4”
Wt: 125#
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Gender: Female

Of all the re-builds I have done of the girls these are in my top 5.
If I were to pick-up playing these characters again I would seriously consider using the nWoD/Mage rules.

For Arcana I gave Willow 11 dots and Tara 10.  This actually might be a little light.
I would love to play around some more with this game some day, but I can't find people to play it.

---

This is my last post for the YAM Magazine LBGT Blogathon.  I wanted to end with Willow & Tara and using one of the most accepting RPG I have ever known.