Celtic-themed Games

I have really been reading a lot of games based on real world myths, and mostly Celtic myths.  There are a lot of good ideas in these games, but none that felt perfect to me.  I am still looking though!

Slaine the RPG of Celtic Heroes

Mongoose has released their 2002 OGL game, Slaine to PDF for what I think is the first time ever.

To begin with this is NOT a game of generic Celtic myths and heroes, this is a game for the 2000AD comic Slaine which borrows a lot from Celtic myth, but takes a number of liberties as well.
It also diverges from it's SRD/d20 3.0 (NOT 3.5) roots.  So when reading, keep this in mind.

The book is very typical of a setting-type book.
We start with a number of classes. These have all be re-flavored to fit the mythos of the world better.  So Tribal Warriors and Witches join the ranks of Druids and Thieves. Also we only have 3 races, Human, Dwarf and Warped-Ones (humans changed permanently by their interactions with the Beast Folk).
Next we come to skills and there are some differences here than the d20 norm.
We also get a new honor system. Enech: Honour and Reputation is used to tell the value of a warrior (his Sarhaed or Honor Price). It is also used when someone it wronged or challenged in a battle. In a lot ways it should be more important than XP.  Tied to this are weirds (fate) and geas (taboos).
A strong collection of feats are presented. Including the fabled Warp Spasm and Salmon Leap.

Goods and Weapons is next and it deserves a careful read from the player.  Afterall you might know that 3 gold piece is worth 3 cows, but that won't help you when all you have to barter for your new sword are chickens and pigs.
Combat is given special attention. In particular we get one on one combat, chariot combat and larger army combat. Useful for any d20 game in truth.
Magic and Spells are handled in a very different way. With each spell costing EP. Details are given about how gain and get EP for magical use.

We get some information on Slaine's world including the mythic version of the British Ilses (Albion, Alba, Cambria and Eriu or England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland respectively).
There is a section on adventures which includes some very interesting Prestige Classes.
We also get a run down on the Goddesses and Gods of the Tir Nan Og, and the bestiary of normal animals and more fantastic monsters.
Campaign ideas and notes.

All in all a good book if you are a fan of the comic or in Celtic myths in general. My only disappointments in this is some of the art is a low res scan and it looks very pixelated, the other is that there is no character sheet included.  The character sheet for Slaine was one of the nicest ones from early in the d20 craze.

Bardic Lore: The Fachan
Celtic myth and lore is full of strange creatures. Some that don't quite have an analogue anywhere else.  The Fachan is one such creature.  Their might be similar creatures in other myths (I bet the Japanese or the myths of India have something like this) but none I can recall off the top of my head.  This book gives us the background on the Fachan, 3.x style monster stats and some ideas to use it in your games.  There is also a Fachan NPC and some notes on using the beastie as a character race.  All in all not bad, and then when you consider the price then it is great.

Bardic Lore: Ogham
This is a well researched guide on Ogham, the written language of stones often seen near ancient Celtic settlements.  This product blends historical findings with mythology to give us something very cool indeed.  New ideas for Druids and Bards using Ogham are included along with a new feats, skill uses and revised spell lists.  What is nice is the chart of the Ogham characters with sounds, English letter equivalents, and tree names.  A lot of research went into all of this and the quality shows. Don't take it as a historical treatise on Ogham, but it is a great tool for a game.  Nominally d20/3.5 but really the most of it can be used in any game.

Treasures of the Sidhe
Not a bad product. 45 new magic items of various degrees; most I thought were fine.  It lacks art a lot of art, but for under 3.00 you are getting a lot of magic items and 1 new monster.  Great if you are running a 3.x game bases around the Sidhe or the Seelie/Unseelie courts.

Zatannurday: Cosplay

As con season winds down for the summer here is a last look at some of the wonderful Zatanna cosplayers!


Zatanna Zatara - Otakon 2012 by ~mariegreycosplay on deviantART


Steampunk Zatanna by ~sphingosine on deviantART


Zatanna by ~KaitoEinsam on deviantART


Zatanna 5 by ~KitsuneNasu on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara by ~2Loves on deviantART


Can i show you a trick? by ~TrineMeincke on deviantART


Is this your card? by ~TrineMeincke on deviantART


:DC: A League of Their Own by ~AlouetteCosplay on deviantART


No,dad is my fault!(Zatanna Cosplay) by ~Saracatscats on deviantART


:DC: Sorcery Savant by ~AlouetteCosplay on deviantART


:DC: Like Magic by *AlouetteCosplay on deviantART


W12 - Zatanna by ~BlizzardTerrak on deviantART


come closer by *Shaaawn on deviantART


Zatanna at London Expo Oct 2011- 2 by *Leonie-Heartilly on deviantART


Zatanna- HA:UK by *Leonie-Heartilly on deviantART

And a few more,

Witch Books, Part 5. Other games

For D&D4:  The Witch Player Class
A decent witch class for D&D4.  Predates the witch that appears in Heroes of the Feywild by a few years, but is roughly compatible.

For Witch Girls Adventures: Original Witch Girls (OWG)
The comic that came before the RPG. The first 200 or so pages are comic content of various artists, but all in the WitchGirls School and world.  The next dozen or so pages is the Coventry School written up for the Witch Girls RPG. And we end with WGA write-ups for all the characters that appeared in the comics.
One of the great things about the Witch Girls game are the characters.  So this is a nice treat really.
If you are a fan of the game and want some more NPCs for your own school or need some ideas on adventure then this  is a great book to have.

For Colonial Gothic: Witchcraft
I enjoy the Colonial Gothic game quite a bit. I love how it weaves the earliest American history with horror and monsters.
I was set to like this book quite a bit and I do, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting given how much I enjoyed all the other CG books.
This book gives us Witchcraft for the CG world and it does a great job of researching, but it only gives us the "evil" sort of witchcraft associated with summoning demons.  Granted, that is perfectly fine for this game.  I think I wanted to see a little more.
The first half deals with Witchcraft in the CG world and is great.  The second half is from the writings of King James and frankly he was more than just little bit paranoid.
In the end it is still a good book for the game and something to grab if you are interested in thoughts a views on witches of the time.
Of course for my own take, if you are going to assume that King Jame's witches are real then why not Margaret Murray's witches too?  I guess I just like having the option of playing a witch in my games.

For Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade: Witches and Pagans
A great resource for the Renascence era Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade.

For Mage: The Ascension:  Tradition Book: Verbena (1st) (Revised)
More Verbena goodness and more rotes based on the Verbena's sphere of Life.

Both are full of great background information on "witches" in the Mage game and are full of wonderful ideas and great art.  This is WW at their peak and there is so much care and detail here that I couldn't not get these books.

For Basic Role-Playing (Call of Cthulhu...):  BRP Witchcraft
I reviewed this one in detail here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/07/brp-witchcraft.html

Witch Hunter: the Invisible World
I reviewed this one in detail here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-witch-hunter-invisible-world.html

Quest of the Ancients
I have talked about this one before too: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/04/q-is-for-quest-of-ancients.html
The witch in this book is roughly compatible with AD&D1.  Lots of new and fairly cool spells.

Witch Books, Part 4. The New Old

The New Old.  
These are new products to play old school style witches. Generally speaking these are all throwbacks to the Basic or First Edition days for games like Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC or any OSR game.

Classic Fantasy Review: Volume 1, Issue 2
This might be one of the first Old-School style witches that I purchased. In this supplement for OSRIC we get the Diabolical Witch.  A witch that gains her powers and spells from the various demon and devil lords.  Its a cross between a cleric and wizard, maybe with more emphasis on the cleric side of things.  The level progression is closer to the cleric than the wizard to be honest.  There are new spells, just a redistribution of current OSRIC spells.  They get a number of special powers, some make sense (clerical turning and shapeshift) others not as much (limited thief abilities).   A nice feature is how witches of different demon lords, devils get different powers.

Darker Paths 2: The Witch
I am always a bit hesitant to review other peoples work on witch-related classes since I have products of my own out there. I fear of being too critical or too lax, each to out weigh the other. In the end I think I just need to review the product as is. Like DP1: The Necromancer this product is for the "Adventures Dark and Deep" RPG, OR any other near-clone of AD&D. Also like the first Darker Path book this presents the witch as an evil character class; not the Earth loving priestess of old faiths or even the spiritual seeking witches of modern tales. This must be recalled when reading the rest of this book. These witches are more Baba Yaga and not Circe for example. There is the obligatory disclaimer on Contemporary Witches and how this game is not that. (As an aside, as someone that has written these myself this one does seem more of a disclaimer of "don't email me" rather than a "I am not trying to offend", but that could just be me. EDITED: I did get an email clarification on this and the author was very much in the "I am not trying to offend, but these are different things" camp, which is cool by me.)
Witches in this game are all evil and their main ability is Wisdom. Their Charisma must start high, but it degrades as the witch rises in level. Interesting. I am not sure I like that since it seems here that Charisma is used as an "Appearance" proxy and not as a "Force of Personality" one. It would make it hard to make a character like Circe, who was evil, attractive and had a lot of force of personality, as a witch in these rules. That is fine, she would have to be something else, but I do want to point it out.
Witches advance to 13th level; so reminiscent of the druid. She has a nice variety of spells to choose from (more on this) and there are rules for her brewing potions and poisons. Like other witches of folklore, this witch can also have multiple familiars. A nice touch in my mind.
The spells are the real gem of this book. Nearly 50 new spells there are a lot of classics here. There are spells on Candle Magic (and done differently than my own) and nearly every base is covered (curses, storm summoning, afflicting others).
Like with DP1, the art is a mix of new and public domain art, but all of it is appropriate to the feel of the book. In the end this is a very good evil witch class. It does make me wonder how the author might do a good witch.

ACKS Player's Companion: The Witch
This one is not out yet for the public, but I have seen the witch for it.  It was actually based on some OGC I produced a while back with some significant changes.  I didn't write it, but it has it's DNA in stuff I did write. So I have recuse from a proper review, but I will say this:  I like it a lot. It is compatible with my two other "OSR" witches but still covers new ground on it's own. At the same time is still new and fresh.

The Complete B/X Adventurer: The Witch
I have talked about the the TCBXA before, but I want to focus on the Witch class from it.
For starters the class works best if you also own the B/X Companion.

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.

White Dwarf Wednesday #28

White Dwarf #28 takes us to Dec 1981/Jan 1882.

Again this feels like a  transition issue, but I am not sure if that is the natural feel of it or because I know what sort of changes are coming up. An aside, though I have mentioned this before.  At this point in my life I was a HUGE Anglophile. Still am, but not like I was back then.  If it was English, British or somehow associated with the UK then it was gold in my mind.  My music collection of the time reflected this and so did my tastes in RPGs.

We get an interesting cover of blaster wielding centurions fighting giant war robots.  Not sure what it is about, but there is no part of it that isn't awesome.

Jumping through the ads for a bit we see something new, an ad for these new Personal Computers! There was the one I really wanted back in the day, the Atari 400.  Though I ended up with the Tandy Color Computer 2.  Soon PCs and RPGs are going to become linked in a way that we could never have imagined back in '82.

Ian Livingstone phones in the editorial this issue by asking reader what genres of "Role-playing games" (again we are seeing this term more and more) they want to see.  He correctly predicts the explosion of the next 2-3 years.

First article is Magic Jar by Andy Slack.  It is a basic character conversion matrix.  It is based on the premise of percentage conversions, ie what is percent does "4" account for on a 3d6 and so on.  It is a nice quick and dirty way of converting characters and materials.  It is also not a bad article, but it makes the mistake of assuming that normal, min and max in all games are the same.  I have pointed out in conversions of my own that a Strength of 18 in D&D (max on a 3d6) is not quite exactly the same as Strength of 6 in Unisystem (human max) even if mathematically they are the same.   Still though, back in the day I would have eaten this article up.  I say "would have" because I have recollection of reading this issue when it was out.

Starbase includes a quick Traveller scenario designed to cure trigger happy players.

Open Box has a treat for us, the Fiend Folio. Jamie Thomson gives the hometown publication a solid 8/10.  ICBM is a nuclear war mini-game that is described as too easy and only gets a 4/10.  Ley Sector is a Judges Guild Traveller add on. It only gets 6/10 due to many typos. There are two new Traveller books from GDW, Marooned/Marooned Alone (adventure 4) and Library Data A-M (supplement 8).  They get very high marks for novices earning a 10/10 and 9/10 respectively.  Experienced players will find them useful, only not as much so, dropping their scores to 9 and 7 respectively.  Steve Jackson has a new mini-game out Undead that follows the story of Dracula and gets an 8/10.

The War Smiths are the new class from Character Conjuring.  A subclass of the fighter these guys excel making armor, shields and weapons of war. They even have some minor magic to allow them to perform their trade better.  While I don't think it makes for a very good class, it does make for some interesting background.  The War Smiths could be an esoteric order that learns magic and fighting skills to make better weapons.

Steve Cook presents On Target, a critical hit system for Traveller, but easily adapted to other systems.

Operation Counterstrike by Marcus L. Rowland is an AD&D scenario that blends fantasy and sci-fi and inspired by War of the Worlds.  It is longer than most scenarios and the font is tiny.  So this one is a long one.  A very interesting idea.  What your characters do if they were suddenly invaded by alien technological lifeforms.

Letters and then Treasure Chest.   Someone was watching the old Spider-man cartoons, we have Web devices and boots of sticking to walls.

Fiend Factory has an assortment of woodland beasts including a black unicorn and an undead Dryad.

There is a recap of the Games Day and then ads.
One of the ads is for the TSR mini-games including Vampyre.  I think that for the longest time I confused Vampyre and Undead.  Both were mini-games focusing on Dracula. I never owned Undead, but I did buy Vampyre.  One day I should see if I can get a hold of both of them.

Witch Books, Part 3. Pathfinder

To many Pathfinder is the heir-apparent to the legacy of D&D, to others it's the biggest retro-clone out there.   But regardless of how you view Pathfinder, one thing is for certain, it is wildly successful.

Pathfinder also has it's own witch class from the Advanced Player's Guide.  It is nice and has a cool vibe about it, there are somethings I don't care about it.  I talked about it detail here, and offered up a couple of Prestige Classes here and here.

Other companies though have filled the gaps with their own Pathfinder-compatible witches.

A Necromancer's Grimoire: Secrets of the Witch

This book offers up the Green Hag as a playable race for the Witch class.  Sort of.  It is more of a race-as-class, but close enough to the witch to work.  Anyone that played D&D back in the late 70s will have no issues with this really.  There are also plenty of new feats and hexes that can be used by the witch or Green Hag.  There are also plenty of new spells.  This is a good book if you are a witch completest like me, or would like to use hags in your pathfinder game.

For a fuller witch I would also grab The Book of Faith (spells) and Paths of the Druid (for some Prestige Classes and ideas for familiars).

Advanced Feats: The Witch's Brew (Pathfinder RPG)
Certainly one of the more interesting books for the new Pathfinder witch class. You will need the Advanced Player's Guide to get the most of of this book obviously.
We start off with a brief overview/analysis of the witch class.  Not bad really, but nothing we can get from the APG.
On to the meat of the book, the 30 new feats.  They are a mixed bag, but for the most part they add a lot flavor to the witch.  There are some familiar affecting feats which is nice, and commentary/sidebars on a few.
There are also 3 sample witch builds that you can use to make your own.

Witch Spell Cards for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game

Exactly what is says on the tin.  Spell cards you can print out and use with your Pathfinder APG Witch.
If you like cards then these are great.  If you prefer sheets then they can still be used.

Paths of Power
Described as a source book for Base and Prestige Classes.  This book features a new Witch class. This witch has "Circle" magic and gets spells based on Wisdom as do the witches in the 3.0 book I did years ago.  This witch is a nice alternative to the Pathfinder Witch.  If you were to use both I would call this one a "Witch" and the APG one a "Warlock".   In addition to the witch we get the Anti-Paladin, elemental wizards, gladiators, samurai and the Voyager.  NPC classes include the Courtesan, Captain and Sycophant.  Truthfully I only found the Courtesan useful.  Prestige classes include the Child of Bast, Crypt Stalker and the Envenomed.  Personally I would have liked the PrCs to be a little more related to the base classes.
There is though plenty of magic items and spells. There are also plenty of new witch-related feats.
Since I bought it for the witch alone, I am actually pretty satisfied with what I got.

Book of Arcane Magic
Another great book from 4-Winds Fantasy Gaming.  This one focuses on the Arcane Spellcaster in Pathfinder.  While the book predates the APG Witch, a lot of these new spells and ideas can be used with the witch.  Of course they are all also fine to use as they are.  In particular I liked all the new Sorcerer bloodlines and colleges of Wizardry.  I like the idea of my wizard doing post-graduate work in magic.
There are new familiars, spells and magic items.  So it is worth it just for these.

The Book of Divine Magic
Likewise, the Book of Divine Magic adds more material to your cleric, druid and paladin classes (and Rangers).  There is a list of gods and their domains. Plenty of new spells.  Rules for temples and divine animal companions (like familiars) and new magic items and relics. Avery densely packed 94 pages.

Up next are a the "With a Bullet Point" series on witches from Super Genius Games.  Designed to be quick guides that can be used with a minimal of prep time and minimal cost.  I like the idea.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 5 Magic Witch's Daggers
Here we have 5 magical Athame ("ath-a-may") or daggers that can be used by witches.  These weapons work in conjunction with the witch's hexing ability, though they can be used as magical weapons as well.
Short, sweet and to the point. There is nothing to complain about here.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 13 Witch Hexes
Again one page, one buck.  This time we get 13 hexes that can be used by the witch. Some blur the line between what could be a hex and what could be a feat, but all in all they work fine.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 9 Witch Hunter Feats
Hard to mess with a good thing.  A page for the cover, a page for the OGL and then a page of nine feats for Witch hunters to either protect them from witches or to help them when battling the forces of darkness.  If you enjoyed the Genius Guide to the Witch Hunter (below), then this is a great addition.  If you don't have that you can still use this product. 

Super Genius Games also produces the "Genius Guides" which are larger and go more in-depth.  

Advanced Options: Witches' Hexes
This book surprisingly has no overlap with SGG's With A Bullet Point: 13 Witch Hexes.  The hexes listed here are all new and there also Major and Grand hexes detailed.  There are even some hex-related feats.

The Genius Guide to the Witch Hunter
Where there are witches there will be witch hunters.  This is a full 20-level class devoted to witch-hunting.  Plenty of powers, abilities and feats are detailed.  I think this would have worked as a prestige class, but this is pretty good.

Legendary Levels II
This book, like the first LL, deals with Pathfinder "Legendary" Levels, of levels 21 to 30. What 3.0/3.5 called Epic Levels. I think they picked "Legendary" as not to confuse it with D&D4. There is a Legendary Witch in this book, which is why I got it, but the rest is pretty good as well. In particular I liked the Legendary Samurai  and the Dragon Lord prestige class.  I Would have enjoyed seeing more prestige classes myself, but the book's focus was "Legendary classes" and note really prestige ones.  Plenty of new feats and I REALLY liked the art in this book.  So at the end of the day it was worth it to me.

Hex Girls: Lord Salem on TV?

Faithful reader Danny pointed this out to me the other day.

On the new Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated there was a character, Hebediah Grim, who is very similar to my own "Lord Salem".

The episode was called Grim Judgement and I guess the character was the ghost of a Puritan judge (thus the mallet).

http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/Hebediah_Grim
http://scoobydoomysteryincorporated.tumblr.com/post/29064054832/happening-now-on-mystery-incorporated-a-puritan
http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/Grim_Judgement

I am not surprised they come up with a character like this.  Using a Puritan judge or witch-hunter is kind of a no-brainer really.

I will have to watch this episode sometime and see if I get any ideas.  Maybe for the game I can rework it into an CAH2 episode where the girls Lord Salem/Grimm are attacking actually are witches.  Maybe this is the first time we see him.

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.