Witch Books, Part 2. d20 years

Continuing on my previous post on the witch classes for the D&D game.  In this post I'll focus on the the early batch of d20 and later books.

DMG Witch
Let's not forget that the witch was a "sample" character in the 3.0 edition DMG.  She was basically a Sorcerer that had a different spell list.  Dropped some of the iconic damage spells of the Wizard in favor of some minor Cleric spells.   I always considered this the baseline witch. Though since it was not in the SRD I avoided reading about it.  When working on Liber Mysterium back in the day I was very, very strict about what I would read.  In fact I have a spread sheet full of spells and I would have discussions on what was and was not a witch spell.  In the end I ended up with a list that was not too unlike the witch spell list in the DMG, but I have tons of documentation of how I got it.  We were more concerned back then that WotC was going to stomp out any d20 infraction they found.  Still glad I did all the work though.  I was able to go back to it for all my other witch books.

Relics & Rituals
While not a book about witches per se, there is a lot in this book to like.
This was one of the very first additional magic books available for the d20 game.  It has a number of things that would be expected.  There are a good number of Prestige Classes for starters and I particularly liked the Blood Witch and the Sea Witch.  There are new feats and hundreds of new spells.  But the real gem of this book and the reason why it is still good to have today are the ritual casting rules.  There was a time that including a copy of these was mandatory in any new d20 book magic it seemed. They were frankly some of the best mutli-caster rules I had seen to that date and I have not seen anything else in the d20 world that has since come close.  Throw in scads of magic items and the book is a steal at twice this price really.

The Quintessential Witch - Mongoose (Print) (PDF)
I am not a huge fan of the older Mongoose books.  There are number of issues with the classes all over over the place, odd editing and art that runs the gambit.  This book is not any different.  The witch class is pretty typical of the time (early days of the d20 boom).  There is a wide variety of Prestige classes, which is nice, but not all of them are usable.  The book tends to be full of a lot cliches.   Though the ones that are good (Occultist, Puppet Mistress) are very good.  There is a good section on new uses for skills including telling fortunes and a good section of feats. There are new spells and new magic items, as expected, but the coolest thing might be the Places of Power.  Some Times of Power ends the book (also a good section).

The Witch's Handbook - Green Ronin
Certainly a great effort.  There is a lot I really like about this book.  The gems of this book are the ideas for skills and of course the fantastic cover art by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.  Like my own d20 book this witch uses Wisdom to cast Arcane spells.  I still kinda like that to be honest.   There are a lot of nice Prestige Classes here.  There are new spells and like Way of the Witch below it uses the Ritual Casting rules from Relics & Rituals which were very much in vogue at the time.
There is no PDF of this I can buy which is disappointing really.

Way of the Witch -  Citizen Games

Style-wise this is the best of the lot of the early witch books for d20.  Hard cover, with some of the most beautiful art I have seen in a book.  I mean look at that Thomas Denmark cover.
The witch is basic and has a lot a really nice features.  The prestige classes are simple, but functional, dividing the witch into White, Black, Grey and Brown witches.  There are some other nice ideas as well.  The authors really took their time and care with this one and it really shows.
Alas, Citizen games did not make it out of the d20 boon alive.  They were going to come out with a second witch book, Seasons of the Witch, and I had heard a little about it.  I had high expectations really.
I am also disappointed that there is no pdf of this I can buy anywhere.  It would be great to have all my witch books in one place on my hard drive(s).

Lions' Den Press: Classes of Legend: The Witch
This one is different enough from the Pathfinder or DMG versions of the witch class to merit it's own product.  There are some new feats and spells.  All 20 levels are presented as well as some "High Witchcraft" alternate levels. Some good ideas here and not bad for the price.

The Enduring: Witches and Shamans
This book gives us a Faery Witch and Shaman class.  There is some natural overlap between the two.   In addition there are also 3 new prestige classes and 22 new feats.  There are a fair number of new magic items and a lot of new spells. There are also quite a few new monsters that are likely to exist in the same worlds as witches and shamans.   The classes seem a bit overpowered for straight d20 ones, but might make good Pathfinder classes.  The feats and spells are mixed bag. I have seen similar sorts of feats and spells in other books, some better, some worse.  But for the price, this is a good deal.  I am not a huge fan of the art, but it is not bad.

Unorthodox Witches
A lot of different types of witches built from the d20 rules. A few new ideas and a lot recycled art.
If you are looking for new ideas for witches, wizards or other types of spellcasters.
After going over this book again all these years later there is actually quite a bit more for your money.  55+ pages, and plenty of classes, there is a lot here that can use right out of the box or combine for something new.  The key word that I was forgetting here was "Unorthodox" and these certainly fit.  While I see this primarily as a GMs tool, there is likely to be a class in here that you will want to try if you are into witches.  Just because it is called a Beguiler or Crescent flyer, doesn't matter, that is just to separate them all out from each other.
There is something good here if you like arcane classes. Or any class with a bit of mystery to it.
Actually I would not use them as classes, but edit them a bit for Prestige classes for the Witch.

Lost Classes: Chaos Witch

Some products you buy for the content, some for the art. This was both.  I was working on the Chaos Witch for WitchCraft a while back and I wanted to see what is was all about.  Plus the witch on the front looks like Raven from the Teen Titans.  I didn't actually use anything here for the WitchCraft Chaos Magick, but I did enjoy this.

It is an interesting Prestige Class that adds a bit of randomness to her spell casting effects. She gains a few extra spell-like abilities and a random "hex" to curse people with.
A lot of fluff is given for the class, but the crunch does not quite match up. Still an interesting class for an NPC or a witch-themed game.  Only 3 pages, but the price is low.


Dept. 7 Adv. Class Update: NeoWitch Guardian
An advanced class for d20 Modern.  Has some nice features and powers.  I particularly like the broom (Besom) attacks. Great for d20 modern with magic.

D&D Next next playtest packet

The next playtest packet is out for D&D5 (I still hate calling it "Next").

There is a lot more material including character generation (novel concept you ROLL for your abilities) which already has some of the newer guard complaining.  Though there is the standard array.

First thoughts:
- I like the monster write-ups.  They are simple and easy to read and can summarized in a module easy.
- Character creation is really fast, as it should be.
- Some feats now seem to be maneuvers, which I like.
- Classes focus on the Big 4.
- Backgrounds and skills together. This is an improvement over 4e since you can now play that kid just off the moisture farm.
- I can see Witch as being a Specialty of a Wizard.  This reminds me a lot of the 2nd Ed Kits.
- Races are the other Big 4.

All in all I see the strands of DNA from every edition of D&D here.
I will buy this game, I am not sure if I'll play it much but who knows.

Witch Books, Part 1. The beginings

With Eldritch Witchery and The Witch done and off to final edits and layout I wanted to spend some time looking at some the older books on witches for the D&D game over the years.  I have all these books (no surprise really) and I have played them all.   Each brought something different to the game and some worked better than others.

Bard Games: The Compleat Spellcaster
Man I loved this supplement back in the day.  The witch in this is very typical of the time.  It is a modification of Magic User class, but with a bunch of new spells. What is lacks in actual crunch it more than makes up for in style.  What was particularly cool about this was all the new demons and other monsters.
This was later merged into the Arcanum series of books that were also quite fun.

Witches Court Marshes (print) (pdf)
An adventure and an new class. When I first got this years ago, but long after I had moved away from AD&D 2nd ed and I was not that impressed.  Now looking back at it, it has a certain charm.  The Witch class is a sub-class of Magic-User, but the experience for each level is much lower that I have seen for other witches.  There are plenty of new spells and in true old-school fashion some classes and monsters are completely immune to the witch's power/spells.
In addition to all of this there is a marsh that is the home to many evil witches.  I might need to update this one for my own uses.

Dragon #114 Witch
This one the one that grabbed my, and many other's attention back in the day.  It was presented as an NPC Class, but I don't know anyone that followed that rule. This was an update of the witch class that had appeared earlier in Issue 43.  It is also the one the most people seek to emulate.  The witch here was limited in level, but there were plenty of options.  This witch included many level based powers, plenty of new spells and an interesting new concept of High Secret Order spells.  The HSO spells were only available if the witch belonged to the High Secret Order.  This issue also featured a really great piece of Elmore art and I have always associated witches and his art ever since.
One only needs to see the top of my blog here to know how well this class has defined how D&D players see the witch.

Witches Mayfair Games
This was the book that I HAD to buy.  First off, it was all about witches and it came at  a time when I had been working on my own witch class for some time, but had not quite got everything solid yet.  It was also my first go at playtesting a class.  I used this witch in a game but every time she went up in level I also leveled up my own witch class and the Dragon #114 witch.  Just to compare powers.  As a guideline I also had the exact same character as a Magic-User/Wizard so I could compare what she could do in the game.  It was very interesting.
Plus is was from Mayfair games and they were now (then) doing Chill.
It has 9 different kinds of witches and plenty of really cool spells.  Interestingly enough it also had the Deryni in this book.  I had played a thoroughly OD&D (with honest to goodness LBBs) where the characters were all Deryni with a psionic system from Eldritch Wizardry.   To this day I still feel the Deryni are more psionic than magic, but the class here is not bad.  I also felt the book had a lot of good advise on how to add witches to a game that might not have had them before.

Complete Wizard's Handbook
This is less of a witch book, but it does feature the witch "Kit" for AD&D 2nd Ed.  It also really set the tone for what WotC would later do with their own witches in 3.x (the custom wizard in the DMG).   The additional spells are nice to have for this, but only required if you also like to play other wizard types or need to have a complete collection.

Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium #3

This guide combines the previous works of Van Richten's Guide to Fiends and Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani, plus the unreleased Guide to Witches.  Needless to say I was really looking forward to this book  Obviously the Guides to Demons (renamed from Fiends) and Vistani, were still top notch.  The Guide to Witches really should have been called the Guide to Hags and Witches, because it dealt with both.  I'll break it down here.

Guide to Hags
        I really liked this part.  Hags should be part of Ravenloft, and I think this section did a great job of presenting another monster type in a far more complex light.  It is on par with the Guide to Liches or Vampires.
I would have liked to seen more on linking hags to Night Hags.  I liked the second change idea that other hag type change into Night Hags, but does not have to be the only way they are linked.  In the Monster Manual 2 (1st Ed.) stats that the Annis is a relative to Night Hags and the Greenhag is a relative to both the Annis and the Sea Hag.
I liked the Irdra/Ogre link to hags, but I liked the "Dark Fay" theory much better.  My hag, the Makva (or Wood Hag), are more of a dark faerie type than an ogress.  Plus I don't play Dragonlance, so the Irdra are not part of my worlds.
For Hag reproduction and powers the Makva are most similar to Greenhags. Except most Makva only live about 800 years.  Makva are usually spawned from elves and half-elves rather than humans.  Makva may join coveys, but their will be only one makva per covey. In spawning rituals Makva pick elves or half-elves as victims. They can perform them only on nights of the new moon.

Guide to Witches, Warlocks and Hedge Magicians
        I was prepared to find witches that were very different than my own, but I did not expect that they would be this different! Witches have had a spotty history with D&D since the beginning and it seems that every few years a new rule book comes up that gives us a different vision on the witch.  To begin with this witch is not a class or a subclass, but a kit.  It is also not the same as the Complete Wizards Handbook witch kit.  What I did like was the information on the Church of Hala and the acknowledgement that witches could be good or evil, overall I did not like it.
        I am not saying I did not like the new kit, I just do not like them as Witches.  The author, Steve Miller, got the points right about witchcraft being based in faith and I really liked the whole idea of the Weave, I just did not feel that these were the same kinds of witches from fantasy and horror literature. For example where was any mention of the occult? Or how about familiars? I just felt that these witches lacked a few of the things that made witches special.

Which Witch is Which?
Here is a side by side comparison of the various classes and kits that have been called witches over the years.

	Bard Games	CWH	Role-Aids	VR MHC3	Dragon #114
Base Class	own	Wizards	Wizards	Any non-magical	Own subclass
Races, human	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
…Half-Elf	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
…Elf	no	yes	yes	yes	no
…Half-Orc	no	no	no	no	no
…Gnome	no	rare	no	no	no
…Vistani (and Half)	NA	maybe	no	yes	no
Ability Requirements	WIS 13, INT 13	INT 13, WIS 13	INT	INT 10, WIS 12	INT 10, WIS 10
…Minor Requirements		CON 13	WIS	CON
Proficiencies	NA	Wizard	Wizard	By Class	NA
…Bonuses	magic	yes	no	yes	yes
Alignment, Witch	Any	non-good	Any	any lawful
…Warlock	NA	NA	Any	any chaotic	NA
Weapons Restrictions	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
Armor Restrictions	yes	yes	yes	when casting	yes
Highest Spell level	7	9	9	9	8*
Special Powers	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Special Hindrances	yes	yes	no	minor	yes
Faith?	NA	not-required	yes	yes	yes
Covens	yes	no	yes	yes	yes

These products represent the earliest years of D&D on up to almost 2000.  The next 12 years we will see almost 3 new versions of the D&D game (more or less, D&D 3.x, D&D 4, Pathfinder) and more witches than ever before.

Posting this week

My regular posting is going to be off this week due to Gen Con.

I have some reviews of some books I have been using for years , so I have those queued up and ready to go.

There might the random/odd post from Gen Con itself.

But otherwise I am going to be enjoying the Best 4 Days in Gaming!

Zatannurday: Zatanna art

Zatanna Art
Here some Zatanna art that has crossed my computer screen the last couple of weeks.  Thought I would share.

Enjoy!

Making the rounds on Facebook

This one is by Oliver Nome

By Cedric Poulant

A couple of Anime Zatannas

Friday Links

It is the Friday before Gen Con.  While I am gearing up for some serious vacation time coming to me. I figure I'll send you out some link today.

First off, David from There's Dungeons Down Under is back, at least for 1 post.

http://theresdungeonsdownunder.blogspot.com/2012/04/d-next-and-osr-tumult.html

Kenzer & Co are giving away HackMaster Basic for free!  Crazy I know.

http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_94&products_id=862

The Kickstarter for Band of Zombies for All Flesh Must Be Eaten has 21 days left to go. Get in on the Zombie WWII goodness.  This promises to be a great book.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/all-flesh-must-be-eaten-rpg-band-of-zombies-source

My boys and I have decided to start our 1st Ed AD&D game at Gen Con.  Seems fitting and I don't have to haul all my minis and maps with me.

But to do that I need character sheets.  While I have one of each type of the original AD&D sheets left, I didn't want to use them.  Good thing we have the Mad Irishman and his collection of RPG Sheets.

http://www.mad-irishman.net/index.html

Happy Friday everyone!

What Was Your Childhood Monster?

I write a lot of horror into my games.  I love horror movies and books and pretty much have dedicated all this writing to horror and horror-themed RPGs.  So you might be wondering what is it that scares, or rather scared, me.

Tree Monsters.

Well a specific one at least.

Back when I was young I remember watching this movie on KPLR-TV Channel 11 out of St. Louis.  It was an old 50s horror film called "From Hell it Came".  My gods it was terrible.
But the monster in it, a cursed tree that grew out of the grave of a wrongly condemned man, freaked me out to no end.

I am not sure why.  Maybe it is because trees are alive and they are everywhere.  I think too it was the noise it made. The monster was called a "Tobonga" but in my young mind it became "Taboo the Tree Monster" and I must have freaked out pretty hard cause to this day I still get grief for it from my family.  I even get "gifts" of little tree monsters for Halloween from them.

I have never made a tree monster that I thought worked well enough to match the memory of fear (not the fear itself, that is long gone) I had then.  I did create Druthers for various games and I think they have a link to this guy.  Though I did buy this bit of art to come up with something.  I still might.

Yeah. So I was never afraid of witches. I loved them back then too.  Scarecrows freaked me out for a bit.  But the real horror is in walking, back from the dead, killer trees.

I am posting this as part of Christine Rains: What Was Your Childhood Monster Blogfest. 

And check out here new novella, Fearless.

You can sign up too!

Thinking about Halloween

Halloween is coming up really fast.  Well. I start thinking about Halloween in August anyway.

Work is moving forward on both of my Witch books and I would love to have them out and to you by Halloween.

And to light a fire under my ass, I am committing to Give Away Blog Hop.

Here is the banner:

http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com/2012/07/wicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html

So I am joining a bunch of other Halloween themed giveaways (mostly paranormal erotica, but hey) and I am going to give away a PDF copy of "The Witch"  to one lucky winner.

I have no idea how I will do it or how I will choose, but I have more pressing matters.  Like layout.
But I am going to use this to promote the two books.

As a reminder (I know I am woefully late on these, but trust me they are better for it):

The Witch: A new class for Basic era games

And Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay.

The inLinkz link list is here: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=170526&r=http%3A%2F%2Fcloseencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F07%2Fwicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html

I could not find the embed codes like you have with Linky.

I think this will be great.  It starts the week before Halloween.  I am going to look for other means of promoting these books.

White Dwarf Wednesday #27

White Dwarf #27 starts of with another great sci-fi cover.  Or rather a pulp-age inspired one. The other thing that jumped out at me (other than the transparent space suit the woman has on) is that the month/year is missing from the front cover. But those keeping track this is October/November 1981.

Ian Livinstone lets us know why, White Dwarf is going Monthly in 1982.  They also got some new, larger offices.  WD is hitting it's next big phase of growth along with the rest of the hobby.  Many would claim this period marks the end of the Golden Age, but I have a hard time with that because the popularity and growth never has been, and arguably never will be again, as high as this time.

Roger Musson is back with Part 3 of the Dungeon Architect.  This time he talks about the Populated Dungeon.  This delves into what some other Bloggers have referred to as Gygax Naturalism. Or how do these life forms get to where they are and survive there?  Steady diet of 1st levels?  If you are working out a dungeon crawl then these are good articles to find.  I guess in a way this is also a sign of the "end of the golden age".  The GA did care about dungeon ecology or why things were there, they just were.  The later Silver Age (or even, the Dragonlance Age) dungeons had a reason for being and the monsters there did something other than wait around to be killed.

Robert McMahon takes us to a new career option in Traveller, the Imperial Secret Service.

Open Box has some reviews for us.  Deluxe Edition Traveller is out, combining previous books plus Book 0, a map and 2d6s. I notice this is also one of the first uses of "role-playing game" used other than an academic or editorial context as opposed to SF/F game. I still have not seen RPG used yet.  Back on track, Andy Slack gives it 10/10 for newcomers, but 4/10 for old hands since there is not much that is new.
Chaosium has a new Runequest supplement/adventure Griffin Mountain. Actually it is more of a campaign at 200+ pages.  It gets a solid 9/10 from Murray White.  Star Fleet battles from Task Force Games is up next. I always wanted to try this game out and I know it has it's legions of fans, but it never happened.  The review is solid and John Lambshead gives it 8/10 citing it might be a bit complex for new players.  A bunch of Traveller books are up next, IIS Ship files (10/10), Traders and Gunboats (9/10) and Asteroid (8/10).  It was a great time to be a Traveller fan.

Lew Pulsipher is back with Part 5 of his An Introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. This time talking about characterisation and alignment.  Ahh, more evidence the Golden Age is nearly over if we are talking about characters. I am joking. (well, only a little). The interesting idea here is that Alignment should have an effect on role-playing your character and thus you get experience rewards accordingly.  So not an in-game mechanic, but a meta-gaming concept.

The Dungeon at the End of the Universe continues where Issue 26's The DM's Guide to the Galaxy left off. Marcus Rowland continues the D&D in space concept to combat, magic and equipment.  Though I have my doubts that a quasi-Dark Ages metalsmith can make air-tight armor.

Letters are up next.

A mini adventure for AD&D is next, Hell's Portal, fir 7-9 characters of 4th level. Fairly straightforward adventure.  I did notice that HP was constantly referred to as HTK which was common in many non-sanction D&D products.

Star Base has an article on putting Traveller weapon information on  index cards for quick reference.  Even then people were trying integrate cards and RPGs.

In what I believe is a White Dwarf first we have a female author of an article!  Penelope Hill gives us the Summoner class in Character Conjuring.  Summoners are a sub-class of Magic-User that summon monsters to do their bidding.  It looks solid, but the proof is in the playing as it were.

Fiend Factory is back with the "near misses" of the Fiend Folio.  These are the ones that didn't make it (and yet the Flumph did...) We have the Spikehead (an ape with a spike on it's head) and the Wirrn (large maggots) I suspect the Wirrn didn't make it due to a similar creature with a similar name in Doctor Who. The Greenman (a creature with green skin and four arms) and the White Ape (ape with four arms) both have their origin in the ERB's Mars books.  The last one, the Cold Beast, is something like a Lamasu or Shedu without wings and lives in a cold area.  Well that and it eats people.

Treasure chest has a bunch of new spells.

We end with a bunch of ads. The last page has the official AD&D miniatures page with the first time I recall seeing the new "man in the moon" TSR logo.

I see this issue as still a transition issue.  Obviously White Dwarf is deeply in love with D&D still, but the Traveller content is now about equal to it.  Runequest, which was always strong, gets mentioned still, but not as much.

Looking forward to 1982 and more changes!

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul, Part 2 (sorta)

I wanted to have at least one write-up done for you today.  But work has been really busy and I crashed last night while watching the Olympics.

So instead here are some links that be helpful till then.

Thread on RPG Net
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?639850-Capes-Cowls-and-Villains-Foul

The Author's Blog
http://capescowlsandvillainsfoul.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/spectrumgames

Website with some freebies
http://www.spectrum-games.com/

Enjoy!  I hope to have something more useful soon.

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul (CCaVF) is the eagerly anticipated supers/comic book emulation game from Spectrum Games.  The same folks that gave Cartoon Action Hour.

I want to start off by saying that this is an attractive book.  At 164 pages of full of color it feels like a comic. Since that is what the author aims to emulate I would say it so far is a success.

I think that is a good place to start.  What is CCaVF?  Well yes it is a supers game, but it is more a comic book emulation game.  Meaning it tries to emulate the play-ability of reading a comic book.  This sets it apart from the likes of other purely "Supers" games that might be trying to emulate how a super hero could exist in some sort of reality.  Instead the assumption here is comic book reality. This would include things like editorial control or even breaking the 4th wall.  Both of which are discussed later.

Chapter 0 is our Introduction which helps lay the ground work for what we will be reading. We are told that physics and logic often take a back seat to drama and excitement.  So far I feeling that this will be closer to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying than say Villains and Vigilantes (both of which are great games for different styles of play).  We are told that this game is about telling exciting stories with your friends.  So far this sounds good.  We are told next that this game uses the d12.  I love that.  The d12 is the oft forgotten die stuck between the mighty d20 and the diva that is the d10.
We also learn that CCaVF is a resource-based game.  Now my experiences with resource based supers games has been mixed.  So lets see what we have here.

Traits are match against other Traits with various Linked traits.  Traits can be Primary or Secondary and after they are Used they become less effective.  So someone like Superman would have a Primary Trait of Super-Strength with Secondary Traits of Flight and Heat Vision. Following the example in the book the Traits are bolded.  Characters are likely to have 5 to 12 traits.  Characters can also have Complications and Factoids. Sounds great! Let's get into the design!

Chapter 1 is Character Design.  I like the term "Hero Design" myself, but that is cool.  Your "Editor" (GM) will determine how many starting points your character will have.  Much like the Power Points of M&M or other games. Except you are not buying the trait itself, you are buying what the trait represents.  So a Signature Triat vs. a Secondary one or an Auto Defend.  There is a handy chart with all the trait types and levels/ratings so you can add up your points quickly.
CCaVF encourages thinking about your character as a whole.  So when making your Batman-clone you would not list all his martial arts but would just list Advanced Combat Training or something like that. Superman would have Super-Sonic Flight while the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel would have Hyper-Flight.  So where are these traits listed?  They are not.  Yup.  YOU define what the traits mean.  So for example I define an Anamchara trait to go with my Willow & Tara characters.  This is a Shared Trait, so the points are split up, but I define what it means and what it does.  But don't worry the author gives you some ideas to work with.

The neatest thing though has to be the Editorial Control. These are like supercharged hero points or drama points. Editorial Control can be purchased with points, but is more expensive for more powerful characters. The Editor also gets a pool of EC points as well to use for the villains.  There are also examples of various ways to regain EC points.  Finally you fill out the character with factoids.
The chapter ends with an example of character creation.  This is followed by a quick generation card to get you plying right away. Finally a listing of Heroes and Villains.

Chapter 2 is the Rules chapter.Typically rolls are a d12 + some trait.  Other times you might need to roll 2 d12s and keep the highest or even 3.  The basic idea here is that the action needs to be like that in a comic book. So a bit of time is spent on combat.  Now heroes and villains in CCaVF don't have hit points, but they do have Setbacks.   Most of the chapter is dedicated to this this idea and some example difficulties are explored.  All and all pretty easy.

Chapter 3 is all about Villains.  Villains get special treatment in CCaVF.  They are created with the same rules that give us heroes, but there is more to them than that.  Given the treatment given them here, I think this should be must reading for any superhero RPG player/GM.  Heroes are often defined by their villains or rogues gallery.  This game did not forget that.

Chapter 4 deals with Options. Things you can do to tweak characters or games.  One really nice thing is about how deal with super hero team-ups and what to do when some characters are more powerful than others.  There is even a bit on killing (and why it should be avoided) and live action (LARP) supers.

Chapter 5 is a fairly comprehensive example of play.  If you normally ignore these please read this one.  Many of my questions were answered here. It is a good walk through of how to play the game.

Chapter 6 talks about Issues, or adventures for your new set of heroes and villains. Again there is a lot of good information here for Editors/GMs of any sort of supers game.  In particular there is the all important Introductory Issue which brings the team the together.  I could not help but think of the team of misfits in the new Justice League Dark while reading this.  Fantasy RPG fans should also take note of this chapter since it helps get past that old "you all met in an inn before an adventure".

We end with an Afterword where the author discusses why he made this game.  The Appendix has a great glossary, index and cheat sheets for the game.

All in all I am quite pleased with this game.  I agree with the author in that I love Supers games, but it is hard to find that perfect game for your group.  There have been some great choices that have come out in the last few years, but none are 100% perfect.  CCaVF may not 100% perfect either, but it is really damn nice and has a lot of great things going for it.

Up next I'll stat up some characters.

Mars

Ever since I read the War of the Worlds and Princess of Mars I have wanted to have a D&D game based on Mars/Barsoom.  This was heightened when I later read the Martian Chronicles.

It turns out that the real Mars is far more interesting.

The latest Martian rover Curiosity has landed successfully on the Red Planet. The stated goal of this little robot is to see if Mars was ever capable of supporting life or even had life at one point.

I should not have spell out the ramifications of a positive discovery would have in both science and religion.

Till that happens you can follow Curiosity's Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
And it's official site here: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

While Curiosity roams the face of the real Mars, you can roam the face of the Mars that never-was with these games.

Mars
Savage Worlds Edition
d20 Edition

Adamant Entertainment distilled some of the best features of the Planetary Romance/Sci-Fantasy genre into their Mars books.  The lineage is obviously Edgar Rice Burroughs, with Green, Red and White (Ape) Martians.  There is also a fair enough amount of H.G. Wells, but I have a hard time seeing this dying Mars invading Earth.  As they advertise this is not the Mars of reality, this is the Mars that never was.  This is Barsoom as it were.  While not "John Carter of Mars the RPG" it can be played that way.   There are even some surprises in the form of the Grey Men of Mars.  Hint, they are not the "Greys" of later UFO mythology.
There are plenty of options for characters with an emphasis on high heroism and great feats.   Imagine all the adventure of Victorian Times and the Pulp Era with the feel of a Space Opera in a D&D campaign then you get an idea of what Mars can do or be.  This all reminds me a bit of the "Dying Earth" genre as well, since Mars is dying.  Maybe that invasion of Earth is not too improbable after all.
NOTICE: Adamant Earlier today decided to offer these at half off!

Space 1899: Red Sands
This is the Savage Worlds update to the classic Space 1899 series.  Like it's fore-bearer this is a game where brave men and women from Earth brave the Ether to travel to a dying Mars or a Venus covered in lush jungles and dinosaurs.  Based on the works of Burroughs and Verne this is a space travel game with a twist.  There is plenty of room for adventure and the importunity to plant the flag of the British Empire on a new world or even find adventure of your own.
It is the Savage World rules and you need the core rules to play this. It is great fun and it is to date the best reason given to me to play Savage Worlds.
The only downside to this is that there is no conversion notes from the old Space 1899 to the new system.

DriveThruRPG August Sale

Been a bit since we had one of these.  But DriveThruRPG is offering 20% off any or all of the following products.

Here is the Coupon Code for this month's 20% off the listed products: TooHot8450


Tailslap Issue 1 [Unicorn Rampant]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/81174/Tailslap-issue-1?affiliate_id=10748&

Claw/Claw/Bite Issue 18 [Unicorn Rampant]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/92329/Claw---Claw---Bite-Issue-18?affiliate_id=10748&

Second World Sourcebook [Second World Simulations]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/19443/The-Second-World-Sourcebook?affiliate_id=10748&

Lore of the Gods [DragonWing Games]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/28416/Lore-of-the-Gods?affiliate_id=10748&

The Makefactor Base Class [Total Party Kill Games]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102842/The-Malefactor-Base-Class?affiliate_id=10748&

The Agency [Realms Publishing]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/98467/The-Agency?affiliate_id=10748&

DCC #70: Jewels of the Carnifex [Goodman Games]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/104220/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-%2370%3A-Jewels-of-the-Carnifex?affiliate_id=10748&

Artists, Artisans, & Workers [Taurus Twelve]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/85690/Artists%2C-Artisans%2C-%26-Workers?affiliate_id=10748&

Vornheim: The Complete City Kit
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/91110/Vornheim%3A-The-Complete-City-Kit?affiliate_id=10748&

I also have a coupon for $10.00 off an order.  I have to figuer out what to give it out.

Zatannurday: Team-ups

For the most of her career Zatanna has been a solo act. She has worked in groups; Justice League or the JL-Dark (not really the team's name) and some pairings.

But I'd like to see her in more team ups with other supers.

Here she is with Raven, pairing up with her dad Zatara, with other DC Women,  with Black Canary, and a couple times (here at least) with Scarlet Witch (here and here).

So here are some other team ups with Zee!  Enjoy!

Scarlet Witch and Zatanna 3 by ~Thetrainingartist on deviantART

Zatanna v Enchantress (Marvel) + Enchantress (DC) by ~Nick-Perks on deviantART

Gen Con 2012

It dawned on the other day that I am in no way shape or form ready for Gen Con 2012 yet.

Hotel was booked back in January, badges bought, games registered for.Google calendar updated.
But I am not mentally ready.  I am not running anything this year officially, maybe something for my kids.  Most likely the continuation of theForgotten Temple of Tharizdun.

I plan to pick some things up at the OSR booth, but there are not many purchases I want to make this year to be honest.

Who is going to the Best Four Days in Gaming? 
What are your plans?

The Complete B/X Adventurer

I got my copy of the Complete B/X Adventurer in the mail about a week or two ago.

What do I think of it?

Well, it certainly lives up to it's hype and to it's predecessor the B/X Companion (BXC).  Though there is no emotional investment on this one for me.  I waited for the B/X Companion for almost 30 years.  I waited for this one for only about a year or less.

I am going to make comparisons of it to B/X Companion AND to the old Bard Games "Compleat Adventurer" series (Adventurer, Spellcaster, Alchemist).   I think both comparisons are fair.  The first is obvious, but the second I want to explain.  It is obvious in the construction that this book owes a lot to those previous books.  The author, Jonathan Becker, acknowledges this in his Introduction.  I did the same with the first book on Witches I ever wrote back in 1999, so I might be predisposed to like this.
There is also a feel to this book that reminds me of the later Bard Games books, The Arcanum and the Atlantis series.

In all three cases the books provide additional classes, spells and magic with additional rules that can be added with little effort to your game.  We saw something similar from the official D&D books in the Unearthed Arcana books.

But getting on with the review proper.

The physical book is now perfect bound, not stapled, and it comes in at 62 pages. The cover doesn't try to invoke any other old-school product I am aware of, but I could be wrong.  This is a good thing really since it should have it's own identity. BXC very much wanted to invoke the images of the old Basic and Expert sets.
Table of Contents is on a page, not the inside cover.

Ready to play!

Now on to the meat.  We get a nice introduction from Jonathan Becker about how the book should be used.  It does indicate compatibility with Labyrinth Lord, LoftFP and Swords & Wizardry.  Though I don't see the compatibility licenses those products require.  I hope that is not an issue, but something that the author should look into.  Also this is not an OGL product, so no license and no OGC.  May not matter to you. In terms of buying.  I supposed if someone wanted to use some of this material in say an adventure that was broadly compatible Becker would give his permission (and he has said as much if I recall correctly).  For me I like to operate in the safe harbor of the OGL.  But this doesn't detract my opinion from the book at all.

First up we have charts on random head gear.  While this section is very good, it feels completely random. Not in terms of the tables, but why does the book lead off with this?  I would have made this an appendix or part of a later chapter.  Oddly enough the class table does not include any of the new classes in this book.  Move this to the back in future printings I say.  This follows with class exceptional traits.  Also very cool.  This one would belong here, but I would have put it after all the new classes.  Again, this does not have all the new classes listed.  Sure use the sub-class idea with Witches as a type of Magic-User.   Follwing this firearms. Again move to equipment.  I might not ever use this, but my son wants too (he read the book before I did).

Next up are all the classes.  These are the gems of the book in my eye.  The classes get about a page each.  So this will be nice to print out the PDF pages and re-org as needed.   The classes are Acrobat, Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastmaster, Bounty Hunter, Centaur, Duelist, Gnome, Mountebank, Mystic, Ogre-Kin, Scout, Summoner, Tattoo Mage, Witch, and Witch Hunter.

The classes are about what you would expect if you have been in this game for a number of years, but they have their twists.  The gnome, centaur and ogre-kin are obviously race-classes in the Basic/Expert style.  The Summoner is really cool.  You summon creatures to do your magic for you.  So part demonologist, part Pokemon trainer! (ok ok) only really awesome about it.  It is one of the neatest takes I have seen on this ill-used fantasy archetype.  I will discuss the witch and the witch-hunter in detail in a bit.

This is followed by all the new spells that these classes need. It's a good amount, taking up the remaining 20 pages of the book.   The spells are of a good sort and there are a lot of them here.

The art is good and similar in style to BXC, sharing a couple of the same artists. Each class gets an art piece (another similarity to the Bard Compleat books) but the spells doesn't get much if any.  That is too bad since the art is generally very good.

My Thoughts
Again I think I would have put some the beginning material in the back to focus on the classes more.
But I really enjoy all these classes and I think that for my kids old-school AD&D game I would let them choose from this as a possible source.  I can see my youngest wanting to play an Acrobat and my oldest a Bounty Hunter.   I would some tips I have written in the past about converting "Basic" classes to "Advanced" ones, but honestly there is not much here I would change.

Another thought is that most of these classes are stated out to 14th level.  This makes them perfect, obviously, for pure Basic/Expert style D&D.  But there is something else they would work well with, ACKS.
In fact I have mentioned before how well BXC would work in extending ACKS.  Well now you can use the TCBXA as an add on to ACKS.  These two games have different purposes in life, but they fit together rather nicely, and this gives you some new classes to play around with till ACKS Player's Companion is out.

NOW all we need is Jonathan to give us a B/X Companion boxed set.  It can include the B/X Companion, the CBXA, and a brand new module.  I think that would be great!

The Witch

Ok, I have to play special attention to the witch.  Not just because it is a witch class, but because it is different than the other spell using classes.  For starters the witch can cast in groups to cast higher level spells. That is a nice feature really and something very much in tune with the archetypal witch.  The witch is the class in the book that is stated up all the way to 36th level AND built to gain powers to that point, also something I rather like.  Why?  Because a 36th level witch is the only class that can cast 10th level spells.  Yup.  This one goes to 10!

Crafting spells.  The witch does not memorize a spell, but she does have a limit on how many she knows.  The witch needs both a high intelligence (to know the spell) and a high wisdom (to learn and scribe it down in the first place).  So a first level witch with a high Intelligence knows 1+Int mod 1st level spells.  She can also scribe spells of 1st level + how ever many extra levels equal to her Wisdom mod.  I like it.  It is a nice quick way to know what can be done.  In fact I would like to use that for clerics since gods should know ahead of time what spells their flock need and then they just give them to the cleric at that time.

For the witch though I would reverse it.  Intelligence to write or scribe the spell and Widsom to know how many they can cast.  Witches are often called the "Craft of the Wise" afterall.   But all in all I like it.
10th level witch spells are nothing at all to sneeze at.  This is a powerful witch class.

The 10th level spells are a nice solution to the "Coven spells"/"Powerful magic" vs independent witches.  I can't see too many witch covens in groups.  Maybe two or three at a time.  With what JB has done here is given us a way to have powerful magics in groups at lower levels and keep those same magics out of the hands of solitary witches till much later.  This then does not make them a more attractive solution over Wizards/Magic Users.

Witchhunters
If you are going to have witches then you should have witchhunters. The ones here are fairly straight forward but they have some nice features.  I like that they get magic, but not as spells but powers.  Sure you could do a multi-classed Cleric-Ranger, but this is B/X not 3.x.  I'd like to give this witchhunter a spin sometime.

Bottom Line
If you enjoyed BXC or even Basic/Expert or other Old School play then this is a great buy.  If you enjoy old school play but are sticking with your clone of choice then I still say get this.  Look at the class list above and decide if any of those sound interesting to you.

I like it and I recommend it.

I'll stat up a witch after a bit and compare her to other OSR witches.

Blog Roll clean-up

First of the month, time for clean up.

I want to add some new sites, but Google puts a limit on how many I can follow, so some have to go.
Normally it is very easy.  But as I deleted older blogs and replaced them with newer ones I have added more than fall out naturally.

So have to make some hard cuts.  I am not lobbying for one site or another, I am just bemoaning that Google limits how many I can follow.

White Dwarf Wednesday #26

Summer of 81 is ending but White Dwarf 26 is ready with all sorts of new ideas! Let's get started.

First off, how awesome is this cover?

In this issue's editorial Ian Livingstone discusses the prospects of a monthly White Dwarf.  Bottom line they need more to write about (and more people to do the writing) to make it work.   We know that they will, but that is a bit off yet.

First up is "The DM's Guide to the Galaxy" or Space Travel in D&D by Marcus Rowland.  Two pages of what looks like the genesis of the Spelljammer products or even Space: 1899.  Very interesting to my eyes now, but back then I would have rejected it as being too odd.  I never mixed my D&D and SciFi back then. ;)

Open Box is next with our reviews.  We learn about the Apocalypse board game for 2-4 players from Games Workshop.  John Olsen gives it 9/10, downgrading the otherwise superb game due to the amount of time it takes to play.  Book 5 High Guard for Traveller is up.  It also gets a 9/10 from Robert McMahon.  Up next is a favorite of mine, and an admission.  I mixed Sci-Fi and D&D all the time and Marcus Rowland knows this.  He reviews module S3 The Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.  The hours I spent reading and re-reading that module.  He gives it a 9/10.  Knights of Camelot reviewed by Charles Vasey only fairs a 7/10.

Roger Musson is back with the Dungeon Architect.  Prat 2 is The Constructed Dungeon. Two pages of various physical features of the dungeon.  Such items like traps, one way doors and use of vertical space are covered. Lots of great ideas and certainly worth a look the next time you are designing an old-school dungeon crawl.

Star Base details the problems with Jump Drives in Traveller.

Letters covers topics from the last issues (24 & 25).

Character Conjuring is next with one of those articles I think everyone had a copy of or knew some one that did "Lizardmen as Player Characters". Simply put Roger E. Moore and Michael Brown spell out how to use the Lizardman as a player race.  I remember using this a a template for all sorts of odd-ball races.  What I like is they get everything onto one page.  Easy to read and use.  We should be seeing more stuff like this in the OSR.

Neil Cheyne presents his winning Traveller scenario, Amber to Red.  Three pages long.  I always admired how Traveller did more with less when it came to scenarios.

Lew Pulsipher is back with "An Introduction to Dungeons & Dragons" with part 4, fighters and thieves.  In both cases we are asked to look at these characters a bit differently and play to their strengths.  I can't but help think of the old Dragonlance modules/books here which had in their group 5 fighter types, but each acted differently from the other and had different strengths in the group.  That was this article in action.

Treasure Chest is back with some good treasure this issue.  The Potion of Quiet Spell casting is so cool I am disappointed I never thought of it myself.  A magic dagger, a curse potion that makes your words come out wrong, a tarot like deck and all sorts of other useful items.

This issue's Fiend Factory continues with the themes, in this case the Dire Tribes.   We get spell casting Shadow Goblins (which I have used before), the Asrai (water elemental or fey types),  Forest Giants and Winter Kobolds.  All of these are really cool monsters and the type of thing I bought WD for back in the day.

We have the results of both the White Dwarf questionnaire and the Monster Quiz.  The results were as expected really.  More coverage of other games, go to monthly.  Most people loved the cover to issue 23.   I likes 22 and 24 better myself.  The top three games are still the same, D&D, Traveller and RuneQuest.

Some news. Some Classifieds/Small ads. Then many pages of ads. Cover to cover 36 pages.

In truth a solid issue and one that has a lot of material that stands up to the test of time.
In fact I might drop a couple of Shadow Goblins into my new 4e game just mess with the players some.

And Another Kickstarter

Just when you thought your wallet  was safe there is another "must join" kickstarter, and this one has some serious Old-School roots.

Jeff Dee is recreating all his old art from the old B/X Basic and Expert sets.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-artwork-from-original-dungeons-and

Here is one of my faves.

And of course he did the immortal Morgan Ironwolf.

So check it out and you too can get some cool art from and old-school master.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-artwork-from-original-dungeons-and

Band of Zombies Kickstarter

The newest Kickstarter is now up for Eden Studios' "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" Zombie RPG.

Band of Zombies is coming for your WWII Zombie fun!

I was a playtester for this one and I can tell you it was a lot of fun.  But what makes this one cool are all the add-ons, stretch goals and things you can get for being a backer.

Eden has a history of high quality products and this book looks like it will live up to that.

OSR Monster project

Re-blogging this from Rended Press.
http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2012/07/status-update-osr-ogl-blogosphere.html

As of today, the OSR OGL BLOGOSPHERE MONSTERS PROJECT has 26 entries.

I'll close the file sometime during the afternoon of August 1.

Remember: This is open to any creature you've posted on your blog at any point in 2012!

So come on, people. Do the cut & paste!

Note: Please only share material that you feel comfortable appearing in a half-assed, crazy, DIY fan compilation.

I have sent a couple of monsters in.   It would be nice to see some more!

Edits

Eldritch Witchery and The Witch are both back from the editors.

Which means that I am working on edits and in some cases rewrites.  Nothing major, but if I want to do it correctly it will cut into my blogging.

So please don't mind the silence here this week.

Zatannurday: Zatanna and Raven

My love for Zatanna is well known and highly documented, but she is not the only magic-using character in the DC Universe.
There is another character that honestly I like just as much, but never really focused on around here and that is Raven.

Since we are getting a new, renewed, Teen Titans on TV ("Teen Titans Go!") I thought I'd talk a little abotu Raven.

Raven is the daughter of Trigon the Terrible, one of the most powerful demons in the DC universe.
In fact when we are first introduced to Raven in "The New Teen Titans" she goes to the Justice League first. Where she meets Zatanna.  Zee tells the league not to trust her because she can sense Trigon's evil in her.

Raven has had some ups and downs. She went evil, tried to kill her teammates, she died, came back as a teen again, been a target for sacrifice and/or marriage by a cult.  Daddy issues are the least of her issues.

Outside of some special editions though Raven and Zatanna have never really worked together.  There was speculation that she might be in Justice League Dark (she would fit) but I guess she is now back with the Titans.

Anyway here some pairings of the two, official, other worlds and cosplay.

Of course who could forget this one.  Sort of a prelude to JLD.

Some Deviant Art pieces.

zatanna and raven colored by ~gianmac on deviantART

Justice League of... yeah, just Justice League by ~luanklebers on deviantART

My 52: Sentinels of Magic by ~EddieD0129 on deviantART

Ok, so Zee is known for pulling rabbits out of her hat. Sort of a gimmick, but yeah. Well on the Teen Titan's Raven was turned into a rabbit in the episode called, odly enough, "Bunny Raven".

Zatanna and Bunny Raven by ~red-wolf7 on deviantART

Nuth'n Up My Sleeve by *LEXLOTHOR on deviantART

Here are some cool Cosplay.

Looks like I'll have to create an adventure that includes both Zee and Raven for DC Adventures/Mutants and Masterminds 3.