http://www.bookwhoreblog.com/2013/03/cover-wars-rhiannon-frater-vs-kt-grant.html
Yes.
I have read both books.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Book Whore: Cover Wars
One of my finds made Book Whore: Cover Wars!
http://www.bookwhoreblog.com/2013/03/cover-wars-rhiannon-frater-vs-kt-grant.html
Yes.
I have read both books.
http://www.bookwhoreblog.com/2013/03/cover-wars-rhiannon-frater-vs-kt-grant.html
Yes.
I have read both books.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Gothridge Manor Giveaway
One of my favortie blogs, Gothridge Manor, just hit 1,000 posts!
To mark the occasion they are giving away an OSR bundle to one lucky commentor on today's 1,000 post.
http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2013/03/1000-posts-osr-mega-bundle-giveaway.html
Included in the bundle is my own OSR book "The Witch".
Go on over, comment and maybe you will win this mega prize bundle!
To mark the occasion they are giving away an OSR bundle to one lucky commentor on today's 1,000 post.
http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2013/03/1000-posts-osr-mega-bundle-giveaway.html
Included in the bundle is my own OSR book "The Witch".
Go on over, comment and maybe you will win this mega prize bundle!
The Best blog You Are Not Reading!
Next week I'd like to run a week long features of "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading".
I have run this in the past, off and on, but I really want to get some focus on some blogs that I enjoy that you may not know of yet. I have five ready to go but I also wanted to give you all the chance to send me your recommendations
Preferably the blog should be newer and/or have only a few subscribers. Alternately it can also be one that is far outside the normal reading you usually do.
Yes of course you can choose your own blog.
So let me know in the comments below and I'll take a look. If I like it I'll mention it next week!
I have run this in the past, off and on, but I really want to get some focus on some blogs that I enjoy that you may not know of yet. I have five ready to go but I also wanted to give you all the chance to send me your recommendations
Preferably the blog should be newer and/or have only a few subscribers. Alternately it can also be one that is far outside the normal reading you usually do.
Yes of course you can choose your own blog.
So let me know in the comments below and I'll take a look. If I like it I'll mention it next week!
Monday, March 18, 2013
The Freedom of Nonbelief: Asking For it
A post over at my other blog that is not entirely appropriate for this blog. BUT I wanted to let you know about it all the same.
The Freedom of Nonbelief: Asking For it
Leave any comments there.
The Freedom of Nonbelief: Asking For it
Leave any comments there.
The Rise and Fall of Grognardia
Content Warning: Pre-coffee navel gazing.
A couple of interesting posts this past week on the subject of James, Grognardia and Dwimmermount and how much a reputation can take before it is trashed beyond repair.
The posts are here and you can read them at your leisure if you haven't already.
A couple of interesting posts this past week on the subject of James, Grognardia and Dwimmermount and how much a reputation can take before it is trashed beyond repair.
The posts are here and you can read them at your leisure if you haven't already.
- http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/03/wayward-kickstarters-dimming-of.html
- http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/03/is-this-post-grognardia-era.html
- http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2013/03/devilmount-arise.html
- http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/03/i-finally-have-dwimmermount-er-i-mean.html
- not to mention all of http://yourdungeonissuck.wordpress.com/
Let's use Gorgonlilk's term and say this is the post Grognardia era. What does that mean (whether true or not, or descriptive or not) to the OSR blog reader in general?
Well. We certainly have lost a voice, a cheerleader as it were.
And he was very vocal.
Here is something I found interesting, The daily visits to Grognardia are still about 1000 a day. Not too shabby for a site that has not been updated since November really (and one post in December).
Many people came to his site and then found the rest of this corner of the internet, but now I feel that many are going to his site only out of morbid curiosity.
On one hand really, he is only late on a project. If that were a crime then 80% of the gaming industry would be guilty of that. On the other hand though he is on the line for nearly $50k, no communication and no paid free-lancers. Which is some cases could be a crime. While I have seen people and companies come back from worse PR problems, it hasn't been very many.
In those cases there is a lot of goodwill usually between the person/company and the community. I think that the goodwill is being burned up here.
I don't know. What do you all think? Can James still pull himself out of the abyss and comeback?
Is there an OSR Oprah he can go to, sound contrite and get forgiveness?
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Palace of the Vampire Queen
Ran Palace of the Vampire Queen yesterday.
It went great I felt. The kids had been playing D&D Basic all day, so I didn't have to explain the rules to them at all which was cool.
We might be doing this all again in August around Gen Con time. I'd like to run some other games too. Maybe that Chill game set in 1976 I have been dying to run.
It went great I felt. The kids had been playing D&D Basic all day, so I didn't have to explain the rules to them at all which was cool.
We might be doing this all again in August around Gen Con time. I'd like to run some other games too. Maybe that Chill game set in 1976 I have been dying to run.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Zatannurday: Wearing O' the Green
So even on St. Patty's Zatanna (who I would say is predominantly Italian anyway) isn't really going to wear green. But she hangs out with a lot of people that do.
Here is Zee with a collection of "Green" Heroes.
Happy St. Pats!
Friday, March 15, 2013
Friday Updates
Well it seems to be a race now between Feedly and NetVibes. The Feedly intetface is nicer and faster, NetVibes adds a lot of nice social networking features.
As many of you know I am participating in the A to Z challenge again this year. I am also working as an Ambassador for the challenge. This means I'll be going over sites and encouraging them to post, comment and the like.
You can read about that here, http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-arlees-to-z-ambassadors-part-1.html
I also joined D.L. Hammons' Blogging Blitz. This is an ongoing blog-fest to drive new visitors to your site.
I plan to use it in conjunction with my own "The Best Blog You are Not Reading" feature (which I am way overdue on) to get the word out on some cool, but under read blogs.
Here is the code to sign up!
As many of you know I am participating in the A to Z challenge again this year. I am also working as an Ambassador for the challenge. This means I'll be going over sites and encouraging them to post, comment and the like.
You can read about that here, http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-arlees-to-z-ambassadors-part-1.html
I also joined D.L. Hammons' Blogging Blitz. This is an ongoing blog-fest to drive new visitors to your site.
I plan to use it in conjunction with my own "The Best Blog You are Not Reading" feature (which I am way overdue on) to get the word out on some cool, but under read blogs.
Here is the code to sign up!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Well. This Sucks, Part 2
Ok. I went from irritation to anger to irritation to resignation to careful optimism today on this.
This will give me the chance to try new readers and maybe ones that connect with Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter better.
Presently I am trying Netvvibes. Has a lot of features I like. I'll post more later.
This will give me the chance to try new readers and maybe ones that connect with Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter better.
Presently I am trying Netvvibes. Has a lot of features I like. I'll post more later.
Well. This sucks.
So many of you are getting the news today about Google Reader.
Google plans to sunset the application in July 2013.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html
http://support.google.com/reader/answer/3028851
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/
And this for exporting your data.
http://www.dataliberation.org/google/reader
I am not sure what I will do about reading blogs, I have grown rather attached to Reader.
I suppose there are many other cross-platform solutions, so I suppose I better start looking.
So what do you all use to read your blogs with? I am on multiple computers and OSes.
ETA: Here are some ones I am looking at.
http://www.bloglines.com/
http://theoldreader.com/
http://www.newsblur.com/
http://likehack.com/
Google plans to sunset the application in July 2013.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html
http://support.google.com/reader/answer/3028851
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/
And this for exporting your data.
http://www.dataliberation.org/google/reader
I am not sure what I will do about reading blogs, I have grown rather attached to Reader.
I suppose there are many other cross-platform solutions, so I suppose I better start looking.
So what do you all use to read your blogs with? I am on multiple computers and OSes.
ETA: Here are some ones I am looking at.
http://www.bloglines.com/
http://theoldreader.com/
http://www.newsblur.com/
http://likehack.com/
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
White Dwarf Wednesday #56
It's August 1984 and White Dwarf 56 is on the shelves and newsstands.
I have felt that the last few issues of White Dwarf, and my reviews of them, have been in something of a rut. So for this issue I think instead of dedicating time to the minutia of the issue, I will instead highlight sections and talk about what they meant to me then and now.
Interestingly enough I am starting in the same place; the editorial. Ian Livingstone (and if memory serves these are among his last issues) talks about the state of the British RPG hobby. While in retrospect I can see what he is saying, but back in 84 England was this magical land where True Roleplaying games come from. Even the best American games had English roots. Or so I thought. Imagine my surprise living in Illinois that Ground Zero for RPGS was just a couple hundred miles north of me. When I got to college I heard stories about how Gary would come down to SIU to play D&D. The store I was mail ordering from to get rare items (like White Dwarf) was in a Chicago suburb I would later move too and stay for 10 years. So my perspective then was one of an anglophile living in a town that was in the middle of a cornfield and not really based on any reality. It is interesting though that reading this now I do still think of the British RPG market as being more serious. I think this is largely due to White Dwarf itself.
It was about this time I was HEAVY into Doctor Who, so the FASA game was on my must have list.
Up next is an article about playing Ninjas in FRPGs. In the early 80s everyone was obsessed with Japanese culture and society. Though I guess ninjas never really go out of style. I have played exactly 1 ninja my entire gaming life. His name was (horrible I know) Oko-nishi. My lame attempts at a Japanese sounding name. In my defense at what I knew was bad I made him a half-orc. It must have been around this time I made him too using the Oriental Adventure rules. My then DM and I had worked up a D&D combat simulator and we plugged him in with 9 other characters. He was attacked by a Black Dragon (or Red, cant recall) and killed. The dragon kept attacking him and only him. We had not worked out all the errors. In the end he had been reduced to something like -70 hp. My DM offered to let him be ok, or keep him dead. We enjoyed watching it so much and getting the mental image of this dragon jumping up and down on my dead ninja that I felt it was a waste to say it never happened.
I am pretty sure that my half-orc ninja was not based on the cover of this issue.
Open Box switches to a new format. The games are now on "cards" like an offset window, self contained. It makes it easier to see what you are reading and jump to a particular game, but the space economy is terrible. The review I focused on was the World of Harn game. It gets a 6/10.
A few more pages in we get something that was a feature of Dragon, the stating up of book characters. In this case The Belgariad by David Eddings. This is something I do to this day. The issue then as now is that characters in books, movies or TV are not built according to the D&D rules. We saw that a couple of issues back with Gandalf cast as a Cleric. There is an ad for the books later in the magazine.
Up next is an interesting Call of Cthulhu game that takes place in the future on a distant planet. The Last Log is an interesting thing really. I was not expecting to see CoC used like this, but of course it works. The creatures of Lovecraft's stories are more alien than demonic. This very notion will be explored again and again till most recently with Eldritch Skies and Cthulhu Tech.
The adventure itself would fit in nicely with either of the newer products above and it was a nice bit of forward thinking. Not so forward was the "dot matrix printer paper" of the layout, but hey.
We also get an AD&D adventure on an island.
The minis section works with the Cthulhu adventure (which some are used) and/or Traveller or Star Frontiers.
We get more ads in the middle of the magazine, similar to the style of Dragon including one for the new Dragonlance modules.
Fiend Factory seems to get back to made it so good in the past, really neat monsters. This issue has monsters from the Planes.
An article on Tech in D&D. For no reason better than "I don't wanna!" I never liked tech in D&D including black powder.
The newstand reports that TSR is releasing the Companion Rules. Finally. I had moved on to AD&D at this point and was not a fan of the Mentzer books. Now I am of course. Also excitement over the new Indiana Jones game that is due out. An interesting bit about a new movie based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space is being made. Wonder what happened to it?
Near the end we get one of the first of what I call the "classic" ads for MERP from ICE.
So in truth this is a better issue than the previous ones. The common thread is taking the game you are playing and doing something new with them. Maybe we are turning a corner here.
Interestingly enough I am starting in the same place; the editorial. Ian Livingstone (and if memory serves these are among his last issues) talks about the state of the British RPG hobby. While in retrospect I can see what he is saying, but back in 84 England was this magical land where True Roleplaying games come from. Even the best American games had English roots. Or so I thought. Imagine my surprise living in Illinois that Ground Zero for RPGS was just a couple hundred miles north of me. When I got to college I heard stories about how Gary would come down to SIU to play D&D. The store I was mail ordering from to get rare items (like White Dwarf) was in a Chicago suburb I would later move too and stay for 10 years. So my perspective then was one of an anglophile living in a town that was in the middle of a cornfield and not really based on any reality. It is interesting though that reading this now I do still think of the British RPG market as being more serious. I think this is largely due to White Dwarf itself.
It was about this time I was HEAVY into Doctor Who, so the FASA game was on my must have list.
Up next is an article about playing Ninjas in FRPGs. In the early 80s everyone was obsessed with Japanese culture and society. Though I guess ninjas never really go out of style. I have played exactly 1 ninja my entire gaming life. His name was (horrible I know) Oko-nishi. My lame attempts at a Japanese sounding name. In my defense at what I knew was bad I made him a half-orc. It must have been around this time I made him too using the Oriental Adventure rules. My then DM and I had worked up a D&D combat simulator and we plugged him in with 9 other characters. He was attacked by a Black Dragon (or Red, cant recall) and killed. The dragon kept attacking him and only him. We had not worked out all the errors. In the end he had been reduced to something like -70 hp. My DM offered to let him be ok, or keep him dead. We enjoyed watching it so much and getting the mental image of this dragon jumping up and down on my dead ninja that I felt it was a waste to say it never happened.
I am pretty sure that my half-orc ninja was not based on the cover of this issue.
Open Box switches to a new format. The games are now on "cards" like an offset window, self contained. It makes it easier to see what you are reading and jump to a particular game, but the space economy is terrible. The review I focused on was the World of Harn game. It gets a 6/10.
A few more pages in we get something that was a feature of Dragon, the stating up of book characters. In this case The Belgariad by David Eddings. This is something I do to this day. The issue then as now is that characters in books, movies or TV are not built according to the D&D rules. We saw that a couple of issues back with Gandalf cast as a Cleric. There is an ad for the books later in the magazine.
Up next is an interesting Call of Cthulhu game that takes place in the future on a distant planet. The Last Log is an interesting thing really. I was not expecting to see CoC used like this, but of course it works. The creatures of Lovecraft's stories are more alien than demonic. This very notion will be explored again and again till most recently with Eldritch Skies and Cthulhu Tech.
The adventure itself would fit in nicely with either of the newer products above and it was a nice bit of forward thinking. Not so forward was the "dot matrix printer paper" of the layout, but hey.
We also get an AD&D adventure on an island.
The minis section works with the Cthulhu adventure (which some are used) and/or Traveller or Star Frontiers.
We get more ads in the middle of the magazine, similar to the style of Dragon including one for the new Dragonlance modules.
Fiend Factory seems to get back to made it so good in the past, really neat monsters. This issue has monsters from the Planes.
An article on Tech in D&D. For no reason better than "I don't wanna!" I never liked tech in D&D including black powder.
The newstand reports that TSR is releasing the Companion Rules. Finally. I had moved on to AD&D at this point and was not a fan of the Mentzer books. Now I am of course. Also excitement over the new Indiana Jones game that is due out. An interesting bit about a new movie based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space is being made. Wonder what happened to it?
Near the end we get one of the first of what I call the "classic" ads for MERP from ICE.
So in truth this is a better issue than the previous ones. The common thread is taking the game you are playing and doing something new with them. Maybe we are turning a corner here.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Kickstarter: Metal Dice
New Kickstarter brought to my attention.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623394548/precision-machined-role-playing-dice-hyper-precisi
Honestly it looks pretty cool and might be fun to have. I'd get a Brass d10 for Ghosts of Albion to give it a steampunk feel.
Check it out and through some money at them.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623394548/precision-machined-role-playing-dice-hyper-precisi
Honestly it looks pretty cool and might be fun to have. I'd get a Brass d10 for Ghosts of Albion to give it a steampunk feel.
Check it out and through some money at them.
GM's Day Sale: Last 24 hours
The GMs Day sale DriveThruRPG and RPGNow is ending soon.
We are in the last 24 (or 22 now) hours of the sale, so if there is something you really want and you want it cheaper then now is the time.
The GM's sale over at DriveThruRPG also extends over to it's sister site, DNDClassics.com.
For sale are the various Historical References for 2nd Ed AD&D, but good really for any version of the game.
DnDClassics.com and DriveThruRPG
Just click on the links or banner above to get going!
We are in the last 24 (or 22 now) hours of the sale, so if there is something you really want and you want it cheaper then now is the time.
The GM's sale over at DriveThruRPG also extends over to it's sister site, DNDClassics.com.
For sale are the various Historical References for 2nd Ed AD&D, but good really for any version of the game.
DnDClassics.com and DriveThruRPG
Just click on the links or banner above to get going!
Getting Basic
Getting ready for Palace of the Vampire Queen this weekend.
Got my books, the adventure and five (soon seven just in case) B/X characters around 5th-7th level.
I still want to stat up a witch character just in case. Just need to throw some dice into that pile and I am ready to go. I might make the vampire queen a witch with the Gypsy tradition. Mostly because I have had "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" by April Wine going through my head ever since I have started working on this.
Two copies of the adventure, Palace of the Vampire Queen. Since it is 5 levels and I only have 4 hours the kids will get some rough maps. From the previous survivors, besides the Queen doesn't mind unannounced guests...for dinner! (sorry. couldn't help it.)
Good, old fashioned dungeon crawl with empty rooms, treasure just laying around random monsters and the big bad at the end. Gonna party like it's 1981!
I still want to stat up a witch character just in case. Just need to throw some dice into that pile and I am ready to go. I might make the vampire queen a witch with the Gypsy tradition. Mostly because I have had "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" by April Wine going through my head ever since I have started working on this.
Two copies of the adventure, Palace of the Vampire Queen. Since it is 5 levels and I only have 4 hours the kids will get some rough maps. From the previous survivors, besides the Queen doesn't mind unannounced guests...for dinner! (sorry. couldn't help it.)
Good, old fashioned dungeon crawl with empty rooms, treasure just laying around random monsters and the big bad at the end. Gonna party like it's 1981!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Return to the Tomb! Part 2
Like I reported Friday I picked up the "new" Dungeons of Dread.
The format is the same as the new AD&D book reprints. It is a reproduction of the S modules interior from the late 70s/early 80s. Unlike the Realms of Horror, the 1987 compilation of the the S series, these are exact replicas. The book has been re-paginated to accommodate the newer format.
The pages are a bit glossy and remind me of the newer D&D 4 books, like Tomb of Horrors below.
You might not be able to see this as well, but the print on the new book is darker and a little less clear. The picture of the Aludemon was the worse example I could find. It's not bad, just a little harder to see the details.
The portions of the modules that were "pull out" like maps, the visual guide to Tomb of Horrors and Expedition Beyond the Barrier Peaks and the new monsters and spells booklet for S4 are all bound in int he book. The 87 Realms of Horror had it as a seperate booklet.
So what is the verdict?
Well it's mixed. The S series were "my" modules. These are the ones I ran in my group in High School and I recently had so much fun with them when I took my kids through White Plume Mountain and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. One day I will take them through the Tomb of Horrors, I have a copy for every edition of the game and certain the Barrier Peaks. So yeah, I love these crazy ass adventures.
But this book is not the best way to the run them.
It's a great book for the 40+ year old geek that enjoys reading these things. I love that these books are getting made. I also enjoyed the new introduction by Lawrence Schick that gave some insight to the writing of the modules.
Honestly I think the best modern form of the old modules are the ones you can get from DnDClassics.com.
I can buy the PDF for cheap and print out what I need. Often I print out player's maps and I usually print out a page per sheet (not a page per side) so I can write notes on the blank backsides of the pages. I can then through the whole thing in a 3-Ring binder with any other material I need (such as monster page from the Tome of Horror).
Still though. I am still considering getting the others. I know the A series is up next. I never owned copy of the original modules so I might get that. I have not seen the GDQ modules on the products page, but I grabbed the PDFs.
Still though. Tomb of Horrors in it's original 1st deadliness. That's gotta be worth something.
The format is the same as the new AD&D book reprints. It is a reproduction of the S modules interior from the late 70s/early 80s. Unlike the Realms of Horror, the 1987 compilation of the the S series, these are exact replicas. The book has been re-paginated to accommodate the newer format.
The pages are a bit glossy and remind me of the newer D&D 4 books, like Tomb of Horrors below.
You might not be able to see this as well, but the print on the new book is darker and a little less clear. The picture of the Aludemon was the worse example I could find. It's not bad, just a little harder to see the details.
The portions of the modules that were "pull out" like maps, the visual guide to Tomb of Horrors and Expedition Beyond the Barrier Peaks and the new monsters and spells booklet for S4 are all bound in int he book. The 87 Realms of Horror had it as a seperate booklet.
So what is the verdict?
Well it's mixed. The S series were "my" modules. These are the ones I ran in my group in High School and I recently had so much fun with them when I took my kids through White Plume Mountain and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. One day I will take them through the Tomb of Horrors, I have a copy for every edition of the game and certain the Barrier Peaks. So yeah, I love these crazy ass adventures.
But this book is not the best way to the run them.
It's a great book for the 40+ year old geek that enjoys reading these things. I love that these books are getting made. I also enjoyed the new introduction by Lawrence Schick that gave some insight to the writing of the modules.
Honestly I think the best modern form of the old modules are the ones you can get from DnDClassics.com.
I can buy the PDF for cheap and print out what I need. Often I print out player's maps and I usually print out a page per sheet (not a page per side) so I can write notes on the blank backsides of the pages. I can then through the whole thing in a 3-Ring binder with any other material I need (such as monster page from the Tome of Horror).
Still though. I am still considering getting the others. I know the A series is up next. I never owned copy of the original modules so I might get that. I have not seen the GDQ modules on the products page, but I grabbed the PDFs.
Still though. Tomb of Horrors in it's original 1st deadliness. That's gotta be worth something.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Palace of the Vampire Queen
Greg wanted to give his players, the Gen Con experience since none of us are going Gen Con or even Gary Con this year.
I had a bunch of ideas, but I wanted to play to my strengths. At first I wanted to do Ravenloft, but that would take to long. So instead I am going to run Palace of the Vampire Queen using Basic/Expert D&D and my Witch book.
I have been dying to run this since I first scored a copy about three years ago.
This is a classic adventure and has been talked about on various blog before. Here is Grognardia's take and a bit from Jeff's Game Blog. To be able to run this in a Con like setting is going to be a real treat.
Since that 2010 post I have picked up another copy from Pacesetter (not sure if it is the same Pacesetter that did 1st Ed Chill).
The module is thin. Not just in size but in terms of plot too.
I'll give the kids some background and I might develop the character of the vampire queen more using my Basic Vampire supplement (which is free by the way). She is a self-styled vampire Queen in my mind. So not Akasha or even Marceline.
But in truth it is going to be a simple dungeon crawl with lots of undead and a big bad at the end.
Just like like to old days!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Zatannurday: Bloodspell
A draft cover for the oft delayed Zatanna/Black Canary team up comic.
Joe Quinones is doing the art and I have featured some bits from him before but here are a few more from his blog.
I like Zee's mystical robes here.
Hopefully we will get to see this soon!
Friday, March 8, 2013
Return to the Tomb!
I'll detail this more, but wanted to share this now.
I am going back to the Tomb of Horrors.
I got the new Dungeons of Dread today.
Here is the history of my S4 collections.
Back coverleaf (not the cover itself).
My hardbound editions. Yes that is a hardbound version of Realms of Horror which was out in 87. No you didn't miss out on something, it was only softcover. I had it hardbound at a local book boundary.
The 87 Realms of Horror was a redo, the new Dungeons of Dread is the original modules in presentation.
The last is the 4th Ed update of Tomb of Horrors.
Again. More later.
I am going back to the Tomb of Horrors.
I got the new Dungeons of Dread today.
Here is the history of my S4 collections.
Back coverleaf (not the cover itself).
My hardbound editions. Yes that is a hardbound version of Realms of Horror which was out in 87. No you didn't miss out on something, it was only softcover. I had it hardbound at a local book boundary.
The 87 Realms of Horror was a redo, the new Dungeons of Dread is the original modules in presentation.
The last is the 4th Ed update of Tomb of Horrors.
Again. More later.
Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 3
 |
| Image source, but I have this figure too. |
Ecology of the Succubus
The succubus can play the ultimate temptress. Typically we see the succubus as an agent of power in the game and that is certainly true for the latest edition. For D&D 4, we have the Ecology of the Succubus and the authors' blog, http://stevesgamerblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/fallen-angels-ecology-of-succubus.html.
There is another the Ecology of the Succubus from the late lamented Kobold Quarterly Magazine #21.
For 4th edition. This article is by Sersa Victory and feels slightly longer (hard to say given the different formats), but there is a still a lot of useful material here regardless of the game you are playing.
They both used similar elements tot he succubi I have presented here in my blog and in Eldritch Witchery. No big surprise there, we are all drawing from the same myths and legends. Both try to do some mental gymnastics to cover the change of succubi from demons to devils. Both work rather well, but I took a different approach myself.
For Pathfinder there is Mythic Menagerie: Demonic Harlots
Six new sub-types of Succubi for your Pathfinder/OGL game. Plus new magic, feats and plot devices for using succubi in your games. No rules for Succubi PCs, but nearly everything else is here.
For D&D 5, it looks like Succubus might be headed back to being demons.
Good Succubi
Succubi have always been a favorite of many gamers. So it is no surprise that every so often we get a "Good" Succubus. From D&D 3 we had Eludecia, the Succubus Paladin. I liked her story and wish WotC had done some more with her. This link for example, makes her a Paladin of Heironeous. She appeared in the adventure, Legend of the Silver Skeleton [PDF]. I would use her as something like a Kwai Chang Caine character. Roaming the lands, maybe incognito, trying to do the most good she can.
Nobility and Eros: The Noble Succubus
Love is a disease. At least that is how the succubi might feel if you use this supplement in your OGL games. The Noble Succubus (not 100% sold on that name, but it does work and I can't come up with anything better) is a succubus that has become infected. She is no longer a demon, but a creature with a soul that feels. In a sense a "good" (if chaotic) succubus. The role-playing options here abound.
There is plenty of background information that can be used and plenty of hooks into various game worlds including modern, sci-fi and the standard fantasy.
The real meat though is in the crunch on what the differences between the Noble and Demonic Succubi and how to use Noble Succubi as characters.
Myself, I would make them much rarer, and still have it be a process that maybe one in 100 Billion succubi could go through. I also think it would be interesting to have a Noble Succubus and for whatever reason choose to remain evil. That would be an adversary worth having.
Succubi and their Kin
I have also been doing a lot of generic demon research lately.
101 Greater Demons to Summon
101 Lesser Demons to Summon
101 Names of the Devil
For a buck you get a list of 100 demons. There is a name and description. Culled from a variety of sources such as the Lesser Key of Solomon, the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and others.
It also has tables for various demon aspects and motivations. The information here can be found elsewhere, but for a buck, you are getting it all in one place and formatted. It can be used with any game that has demons. There are no stats and nothing in the way of measuring the power of one demon to the next, but that is not what they are advertising here. Great if you need new, random demons.
One of the great things about working on so many projects it has given me the chance to recast the demons as I like. I am very excited to get some of the things I am working on into your hands and I hope you enjoy them too.
Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 1
Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 2
Zombies....
I think. I just got out of a 4 hour long meeting to find a ton of email waiting for me and only a taco to help me deal with it.
Be back when I can actually think.
Be back when I can actually think.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Reviews: Dragon Island and Magic
A few new products I picked up at the GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG.
My boys are getting ready for their huge campaign finale. The giant battle against Tiamat on the Island of the Dragon Empire. Back in the dawn of time the Dragon and their Dragonfolk surrogates ruled the world from the Dragon Island. Those days are gone and the Dragon Empire has fallen. But the Island remains and that is where the characters will make their stand.
Fantastic Maps - Iconic Island
I am gearing up for the BIG finale of my years long 3e game. The final battle where the forces of good battle the forces of evil happens on an Iceland-like island in my world. I could have drawn anything, I could have even taken an older module and altered the island in Photoshop. With this product I didn't have too. It even looks almost EXACTLY like what I wanted. The ZIP file contains maps of the island. Non-marked, marked and hexed variants. Plus a BW version. There is no text or fluff to go with this, which is great, I have my own. This is my new Dragon Isle! I would love to see more products like this one.
My new island is going to need people too.
Archetypes of the Jade Oath (PFRPG)
I got this product for the new witch hexes but the rest of it is great as well. There is a cool Eastern Flavor to this and I want to see if there is more in this series. While I have a lot of cultures on my game world the one thing that has been getting the short end of my attentions are Dragonfolk/Dragonborn. This book, while not explicitly designed for that, is perfect for my needs (and the cover kinda helps with that).
So what do we get? 20 pages (with cover, credits page, OGL statement and 2 pages of "Ads"). While there is an Eastern "flavor" to this, it is presented mostly context free.
The Barbarian is based on totem animals, which is a really awesome variant. I normally don't play barbarians, but I would try one of these. The Cavaliers are the Order of the Ancestors and Order of the Creed. Monks, a natural fit, are presented as Kensai (one of my favorite classes back in the day). Imagine the typical unarmed monk, now armed. And finally, the Witch, with a bunch of new and exciting hexes based on Elemental magics or Dragon magic (see it is a perfect fit!!). In fact these are some of the best Dragon Witches I have ever seen. So this is worth the price of the book alone to me.
We also get plenty of new feats. This was a nice surprise and I am very happy with this.
Midgard: Player's Guide to the Dragon Empire
I own a few of the Midgard products, but this one really called to me. This Dragon Empire is very similar to the one I was crafting for my own game world, so this saves me some heavy lifting.
The 30 pages of this book is jam-packed. What did I like in this?
Well I love the castes. Dragons seem very arrogant and a caste system makes sense. I liked how the castes were set up as well. Lots of great role-playing potential in these. We get a bunch of new Traits and Feats.
Classes get a bit of an update as to be expected. There is a Cavalier archetype, the Order of the Firedrake (which is a PERFECT with my world's own White Drakes). The Druids have the Elemental Exarch. Fighters get Edjet Warriors, and the Magus has the Dragon Magus. We get a couple new monks, Monk of the Fiery Fist and Monk of the Wind Palm. There is also the Mystery of the Void, Greyscale and Void Elemeentalist for the Oracle, Rouge and Elementalists respectively. There is also the Dragon Emir prestige class which I am sure my son would love. The book end with new spells, exotic goods and magic items, including magic the magic carpet. Cool stuff. I am going to have to look for more books in this series.
Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder RPG
We always need more monsters. Over a 100 new monsters for Pathfinder. Lots of really interesting ones too. I loved the Shadow Fae, Ice Maiden and Red Hag and have hooks already for all of them. The new dragon types are also very interesting and I can't wait to use a Mithril Dragon or Baby Yaga's Horsemen. In fact there are two completely separate campaigns I want to use this book in, a Dragon based one and a Witch-centric one. Both need unique monsters that the players have never seen before, and there are a number of monsters here that are perfect for one or the other or both!
Also available for 4e and AGE.
Lineage Draconis
This 28 page (27 + cover) pdf features 6 dragon crossbreads including the oft stated Orange and Yellow Dragons. But you also get the Blade, Steel, Rust and Gray Dragons. These dragons are pretty interesting and for the game I have coming up I need a lot of interesting dragons. The book also includes the Dragon Blooded "class" though it is also sort of a race. They are humanoid dragons. Plenty of things you can do with this class as well as alternate versions depending one where the blood came from.
In a neat little feature you also get the art from the book in a seperate file. So now you can show your players exactly what a Yellow Dragon looks like.
The Modern Spellcaster Basic Class
This book is for the d20 Modern Game, Pathfinder and a few other d20 based games. It presents a generic form of a spellcaster that isn't a wizard, cleric, witch or druid. In a sense it is a throwback to the older "Magic User" class. The basic premise here is to provide full powered (up to spell level 9) spellcasters from D&D like games to your Modern Games. I am not sure how this works out in play, but the concept on it's own is interesting enough. There are new feats and a fun "arcane death" table. Frankly I would like to see that expanded into an "Arcane CSI" to be used in any modern game with magical elements.
My boys are getting ready for their huge campaign finale. The giant battle against Tiamat on the Island of the Dragon Empire. Back in the dawn of time the Dragon and their Dragonfolk surrogates ruled the world from the Dragon Island. Those days are gone and the Dragon Empire has fallen. But the Island remains and that is where the characters will make their stand.
Fantastic Maps - Iconic Island
I am gearing up for the BIG finale of my years long 3e game. The final battle where the forces of good battle the forces of evil happens on an Iceland-like island in my world. I could have drawn anything, I could have even taken an older module and altered the island in Photoshop. With this product I didn't have too. It even looks almost EXACTLY like what I wanted. The ZIP file contains maps of the island. Non-marked, marked and hexed variants. Plus a BW version. There is no text or fluff to go with this, which is great, I have my own. This is my new Dragon Isle! I would love to see more products like this one.
My new island is going to need people too.
Archetypes of the Jade Oath (PFRPG)
I got this product for the new witch hexes but the rest of it is great as well. There is a cool Eastern Flavor to this and I want to see if there is more in this series. While I have a lot of cultures on my game world the one thing that has been getting the short end of my attentions are Dragonfolk/Dragonborn. This book, while not explicitly designed for that, is perfect for my needs (and the cover kinda helps with that).
So what do we get? 20 pages (with cover, credits page, OGL statement and 2 pages of "Ads"). While there is an Eastern "flavor" to this, it is presented mostly context free.
The Barbarian is based on totem animals, which is a really awesome variant. I normally don't play barbarians, but I would try one of these. The Cavaliers are the Order of the Ancestors and Order of the Creed. Monks, a natural fit, are presented as Kensai (one of my favorite classes back in the day). Imagine the typical unarmed monk, now armed. And finally, the Witch, with a bunch of new and exciting hexes based on Elemental magics or Dragon magic (see it is a perfect fit!!). In fact these are some of the best Dragon Witches I have ever seen. So this is worth the price of the book alone to me.
We also get plenty of new feats. This was a nice surprise and I am very happy with this.
Midgard: Player's Guide to the Dragon Empire
I own a few of the Midgard products, but this one really called to me. This Dragon Empire is very similar to the one I was crafting for my own game world, so this saves me some heavy lifting.
The 30 pages of this book is jam-packed. What did I like in this?
Well I love the castes. Dragons seem very arrogant and a caste system makes sense. I liked how the castes were set up as well. Lots of great role-playing potential in these. We get a bunch of new Traits and Feats.
Classes get a bit of an update as to be expected. There is a Cavalier archetype, the Order of the Firedrake (which is a PERFECT with my world's own White Drakes). The Druids have the Elemental Exarch. Fighters get Edjet Warriors, and the Magus has the Dragon Magus. We get a couple new monks, Monk of the Fiery Fist and Monk of the Wind Palm. There is also the Mystery of the Void, Greyscale and Void Elemeentalist for the Oracle, Rouge and Elementalists respectively. There is also the Dragon Emir prestige class which I am sure my son would love. The book end with new spells, exotic goods and magic items, including magic the magic carpet. Cool stuff. I am going to have to look for more books in this series.
Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder RPG
We always need more monsters. Over a 100 new monsters for Pathfinder. Lots of really interesting ones too. I loved the Shadow Fae, Ice Maiden and Red Hag and have hooks already for all of them. The new dragon types are also very interesting and I can't wait to use a Mithril Dragon or Baby Yaga's Horsemen. In fact there are two completely separate campaigns I want to use this book in, a Dragon based one and a Witch-centric one. Both need unique monsters that the players have never seen before, and there are a number of monsters here that are perfect for one or the other or both!
Also available for 4e and AGE.
Lineage Draconis
This 28 page (27 + cover) pdf features 6 dragon crossbreads including the oft stated Orange and Yellow Dragons. But you also get the Blade, Steel, Rust and Gray Dragons. These dragons are pretty interesting and for the game I have coming up I need a lot of interesting dragons. The book also includes the Dragon Blooded "class" though it is also sort of a race. They are humanoid dragons. Plenty of things you can do with this class as well as alternate versions depending one where the blood came from.
In a neat little feature you also get the art from the book in a seperate file. So now you can show your players exactly what a Yellow Dragon looks like.
The Modern Spellcaster Basic Class
This book is for the d20 Modern Game, Pathfinder and a few other d20 based games. It presents a generic form of a spellcaster that isn't a wizard, cleric, witch or druid. In a sense it is a throwback to the older "Magic User" class. The basic premise here is to provide full powered (up to spell level 9) spellcasters from D&D like games to your Modern Games. I am not sure how this works out in play, but the concept on it's own is interesting enough. There are new feats and a fun "arcane death" table. Frankly I would like to see that expanded into an "Arcane CSI" to be used in any modern game with magical elements.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
White Dwarf Wednesday #55
Ian Livingstone's editorial is once again ripped from today's headlines. The Gaming Hobby is DYING! But he admits that despite the shrinking market and layoffs the hobby is only changing. He is right of course and the hobby will never hit the peaks it hit at this time, but it is, and was, changing. Interestingly enough I did not have this perspective back then. To me it seemed like the gaming hobby would go on forever, if I thought about it all.
Marcus Rowland continues his Name of the Game series with Supers, Spies and Scary Guys. Superhero games are covered with Champions claiming the top spot. Spy games are next with Top Secret featured. Next are the "odd" games which includes a diverse lot of Call of Cthulhu, Daredevils and Gamma World. Historical games end the article.
Spiderbite is next and it is a short scenario for D&D/AD&D, for 1st to 2nd level characters. There are some interesting changes here. First thing you notice are the "DM's" sections to each room/adventure area. Canned text for the DM to read that began with B3. Also are the "newer" non-orthogonal maps, ala Ravenloft (see next section). It comes in at four pages, but seems smaller than that. The newer format certainly takes more text.
Open Box has some reviews. We get our first supplement to Warhammer, Forces of Fantasy. I will admit I know very, very little about Warhammer except what is commonly known. Jon Sutherland gives it a 7/10 and asks why was the Warhammer book so full of errors (glitches as he says) to need this book?
A bunch of TSR modules are next, X5, L2, I5 and the immortal I6. Dave Morris goes over them in turn. He has the highest praise for X5, Temple of Death which he gives 10/10. L2 gets 7/10, I5 9/10 and Ravenloft gets a 8/10. He loves the plot and does call it a straight Hammer Horror yarn, but bemoans the puns.
Sherlock Holmes - Consulting Detective and an associated adventure The Mansion Murders are reviewed. Nic Grecas enjoys it as a welcome diversion from dragon slaying or blasting aliens and gives it a 9/10. I have been looking for a copy of this for a while. Still haven't found one yet. Finally Stuart Aston has a few books for Starfleet Battles; SSD Books 1, 2 and 3. All get a 9/10.
Critical Mass has more book reviews. The only book in the bunch I can recall is Stephen Donaldson's Daughter of Regals. I remember getting this through the Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club (ok hands up, who was a member?) and I enjoyed it, which is interesting because I didn't really care for much of Donaldson's other works. The reviewer here disliked the book mostly (but liked his other stuff from the sounds of it).
ICE breaks up the flow (eh) with a full color ad for the Fellowship of the Ring boardgame.
Phil Holmes has more undead for RuneQuest. Now back in the day I was not into RuneQuest except as a way to get more Call of Cthulhu into my D&D. These days I am trying to educate myself more on RQ and this is the sorta thing I enjoy.
Another full page, full color ad. This time to let us know that Finieous Fingers is going to Fantasy Gamer Magazine. One though has to wonder if the big selling point of your magazine is the appearance of a comic. BUT this is Fineous Fingers, and while I never was a big follower of any particular magazine comic (with maybe the exception of "What's New!") even I knew of FF.
Crash Course, bi-monthly Car Wars column is next. This one concerns punks in 2034. While it is easy to read this now and think "that is only in 20 years", its still an interesting insight into 1984.
Animal cults and worship for D&D is next. Tony Parry and Jerry Vaughn correctly point out that this is an area that has gotten very little attention in D&D. And they are still correct.
Castle of Lost Souls part 4 is next, finishing up the series. This seems to be the longest one yet. I think I should give this one a try sometime.
Letters covers some of the same observations that I have had. The magazine looks better than ever, but showing signs of slowing down and not being as cutting edge as it once was. Other bemoan the lack of Traveller articles and the increase in RuneQuest ones. Additionally one letter states how they don't like Travellers (the comic).
Speaking of, Thrud is next.
Tabletop Heroes gets the color pages again. It is my memory that at this time Dragon was moving away from minis while White Dwarf was embracing them more. I could be wrong though.
RuneRites has some really cool looking threats for RuneQuest. First we have a bipedal bat-like monster, a rather nasty spell and a magic ring that seems to be just as cursed as it is magical.
Fiend Factory has the Gods of the Shapelings (from last issue). The gods seem more interesting than I recall the monsters being. The trouble is they are presented as something along the lines of uber-archetypes to fit the psychology of the Shapelings. Noble effort, but the result is the gods seem a little bland. Though with some work I think they would work out well.
Treasure Chest has an interesting article about Arch Enemies in FRPs (and D&D in particular). I like the idea. The concept of the reoccurring villain is older than Lex Luthor or the Joker, and not something I think we use enough in fantasy games. It is something VERY common in games like Buffy, or Ghosts of Albion sure. But there is something to be said about having an enemy come back for more and more. Keeping him alive though is the real trick.
Travellers is next followed by an article on variant universes in Traveller.
News is up. We learn about Mayfair's "The Keep" movie tie-in game/adventure. Also from Mayfair are the Roleaids products. RQ3 is on the way. The Star Trek RPG from FASA will hit the shores of the UK soon.
We end with the usual rounds of ads.
Not much to say about this issue really. Nothing new or innovative from the last few issues to be honest, but serviceable material. I think WD needs to shake it up a bit here soon.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Review: Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
There is just something about a big red box for games.
I have not been able to get Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea in it's big red box form, but I do have it on PDF, and let me say it is really nice.
So what do you get with this? Well there is a 256 page player's book, 240 page Referee's book, a map of Hyperborea and pdfs of the Box Covers. So all in all about 500 pages worth of old school playing goodness.
Now there is a lot here that is old hat for the experienced role-player and some that is similar to many of the OSR games. That all being said it does also make it a great intro game for anyone and there is a still so much here for the old-timers that I don't feel a page is wasted.
The Players Book focuses on making characters, magic and combat. So ability scores are covered, alignment and classes. Most of this is the same as say D&D or S&W, but there are enough little changes to make it worth your notice.
for starters the races of Hyperborea are all human-centric. So we have Amazons, Kelts, Kimmerian, Vikings and Hyperboreans among others. All what I call the "Conan" races.
Let's move to the classes. There are the four basic classes, the Fighter, Magician, Cleric and Thief. But each also has 4 to 6 subclasses. Fighter has the Barbarian, Berserker, Cataphract, Paladin, Ranger and Warlock. The Magician has Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer and Witch. The Cleric has the Druid, Monk, Priest, and Shaman. Finally the Thief has the Assassin, Bard, Legerdemainist and Scout.
Each subclass is very much like it's parent classes with some changes. The classes look pretty well balanced. I liked the bard as a single class option (nice to have and not something that we had in 1979). I would love to try out the Necromancer, Witch and Warlock and I know my son would love to try the Pyromancer.
Each class has a "Fighting Ability" and a "Magic Ability" which relates to attacks. So yes, even magicians can get a little better in combat as they go up in level. It's a great little shorthand and works great. So a 4th level Fighter has a fighting ability of 4. A 4th level magician still only has a fighting ability of 1 and a cleric 3 and thief 3. Sub classes can and do vary.
AC is descending (like old school games), BUT with the Fighting Ability stat it could be converted to an ascending AC easy. There are background skills and weapon skills.
The next 90 or so pages deals with magic and all the spells. The max spell level is 6. Not a bad number really and that is still plenty of spells.
The last 60 pages of the Player's book deals with combat in all it's forms. So combat, mass combat, saves and conditions. A great collection really of some of the "Best of" ideas I have seen in many games, but it all works really nice here.
The Referee's Manual is next.
It is nearly as big (240 pages vs 256).
The first half is fully devoted to monsters. The format is most similar to Basic or Labyrinth Lord, and it is full of the usual suspects with some notable exceptions. For starters this book includes the Demons (but not the devils). It does NOT include any dragons. But to make up for it there are many of the "Lovecraft" races such as the Great Race, Elder Things and fish men. Great inclusion.
The next 50 or so pages covers treasure. Among the magic items are things like Radium Pistols and other sc-fi artifacts. Very pulpy.
Finally we end with the Hyperborea Gazetteer. A great bit that I can easily drop into my game. The lands are a pastiche of Howard, Vance, Lovecraft and Smith. If these names mean anything to you then you know, or have an idea, of what you are going to get here.
All together this is a package of such great ideas I can't wait to use it somewhere.
For me this would work perfect a "Hyperbora" in my own Mystoerth world. I would include my own White Orcs in any AS&SH game though. The witch is a nice class, I would supplement some of my own rules for it.
With the GM's sales going on this is a great buy. You can also buy the print version from their website (and find other goodies too). http://www.swordsmen-and-sorcerers.com/.
This game is so full of potential. Whether you play it as is or as a supplement to your favorite old-school game.
I have not been able to get Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea in it's big red box form, but I do have it on PDF, and let me say it is really nice.
So what do you get with this? Well there is a 256 page player's book, 240 page Referee's book, a map of Hyperborea and pdfs of the Box Covers. So all in all about 500 pages worth of old school playing goodness.
Now there is a lot here that is old hat for the experienced role-player and some that is similar to many of the OSR games. That all being said it does also make it a great intro game for anyone and there is a still so much here for the old-timers that I don't feel a page is wasted.
The Players Book focuses on making characters, magic and combat. So ability scores are covered, alignment and classes. Most of this is the same as say D&D or S&W, but there are enough little changes to make it worth your notice.
for starters the races of Hyperborea are all human-centric. So we have Amazons, Kelts, Kimmerian, Vikings and Hyperboreans among others. All what I call the "Conan" races.
Let's move to the classes. There are the four basic classes, the Fighter, Magician, Cleric and Thief. But each also has 4 to 6 subclasses. Fighter has the Barbarian, Berserker, Cataphract, Paladin, Ranger and Warlock. The Magician has Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer and Witch. The Cleric has the Druid, Monk, Priest, and Shaman. Finally the Thief has the Assassin, Bard, Legerdemainist and Scout.
Each subclass is very much like it's parent classes with some changes. The classes look pretty well balanced. I liked the bard as a single class option (nice to have and not something that we had in 1979). I would love to try out the Necromancer, Witch and Warlock and I know my son would love to try the Pyromancer.
Each class has a "Fighting Ability" and a "Magic Ability" which relates to attacks. So yes, even magicians can get a little better in combat as they go up in level. It's a great little shorthand and works great. So a 4th level Fighter has a fighting ability of 4. A 4th level magician still only has a fighting ability of 1 and a cleric 3 and thief 3. Sub classes can and do vary.
AC is descending (like old school games), BUT with the Fighting Ability stat it could be converted to an ascending AC easy. There are background skills and weapon skills.
The next 90 or so pages deals with magic and all the spells. The max spell level is 6. Not a bad number really and that is still plenty of spells.
The last 60 pages of the Player's book deals with combat in all it's forms. So combat, mass combat, saves and conditions. A great collection really of some of the "Best of" ideas I have seen in many games, but it all works really nice here.
The Referee's Manual is next.
It is nearly as big (240 pages vs 256).
The first half is fully devoted to monsters. The format is most similar to Basic or Labyrinth Lord, and it is full of the usual suspects with some notable exceptions. For starters this book includes the Demons (but not the devils). It does NOT include any dragons. But to make up for it there are many of the "Lovecraft" races such as the Great Race, Elder Things and fish men. Great inclusion.
The next 50 or so pages covers treasure. Among the magic items are things like Radium Pistols and other sc-fi artifacts. Very pulpy.
Finally we end with the Hyperborea Gazetteer. A great bit that I can easily drop into my game. The lands are a pastiche of Howard, Vance, Lovecraft and Smith. If these names mean anything to you then you know, or have an idea, of what you are going to get here.
All together this is a package of such great ideas I can't wait to use it somewhere.
For me this would work perfect a "Hyperbora" in my own Mystoerth world. I would include my own White Orcs in any AS&SH game though. The witch is a nice class, I would supplement some of my own rules for it.
With the GM's sales going on this is a great buy. You can also buy the print version from their website (and find other goodies too). http://www.swordsmen-and-sorcerers.com/.
This game is so full of potential. Whether you play it as is or as a supplement to your favorite old-school game.
Creative Batteries need recharged
Don't you hate it when your creative batteries are running low.
I have been starring at the same doc file since Thursday and maybe added 200 words to the whole thing.
What do you all do to recharge?
I have been starring at the same doc file since Thursday and maybe added 200 words to the whole thing.
What do you all do to recharge?
Monday, March 4, 2013
GMs Day at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Part 2
Here is what I a getting out of my Wishlist thanks to the DriveThruRPG/RPG Now GM's Day sale.
and things that are on sale, but not due to GM's Day (I just want them).
I am sure there will be other things I "need" later in the week.
Total value: $73.95, Price on sale: $52.70, that's a $21.25 saving. Not a bad deal really.
I was going to get these all eventually, might as well get them now.
- Elric of Melnibone
- RuneQuest 6th Edition Never got into RQ too deep. Now is a good time.
- M&M3 Supernatural Handbook been wanting this one for a while.
- The Malefactor Base Class
- The RPG Handbook
and things that are on sale, but not due to GM's Day (I just want them).
I am sure there will be other things I "need" later in the week.
Total value: $73.95, Price on sale: $52.70, that's a $21.25 saving. Not a bad deal really.
I was going to get these all eventually, might as well get them now.
GMs Day at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow
It's GMs Day all Week at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.
This is their biggest sale of the year so it's time to get all those items that have been collecting on your Wish List.
The sales start today at 9:00am Central. I'll post some more when I see what is on sale.
This is their biggest sale of the year so it's time to get all those items that have been collecting on your Wish List.
The sales start today at 9:00am Central. I'll post some more when I see what is on sale.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Teratic Tome: Print Verison
I picked up the Teratic Tome on PDF a while back.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-teratic-tome.html
I liked it. So I decided to pick up the hardcover too.
It fits in nicely with all my other 1st edition-ish books.
The author, Rafael Chandler, did a really good job of capturing the look of the 1st ed books.
Maybe too good of job in fact. In any case it fits in nice with my books as a Monster Manual 4 or Fiend Folio 2 (if Monsters of Myth is MM 3).
What really swayed me on this is the fact I am running a 1e game with my kids and I could use a couple of these.
If you buy the PDF you get a coupon to get hardcover at $6.66 off. If you buy the hardcover at full price you get a free PDF.
Pretty nice really.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-teratic-tome.html
I liked it. So I decided to pick up the hardcover too.
It fits in nicely with all my other 1st edition-ish books.
The author, Rafael Chandler, did a really good job of capturing the look of the 1st ed books.
Maybe too good of job in fact. In any case it fits in nice with my books as a Monster Manual 4 or Fiend Folio 2 (if Monsters of Myth is MM 3).
What really swayed me on this is the fact I am running a 1e game with my kids and I could use a couple of these.
If you buy the PDF you get a coupon to get hardcover at $6.66 off. If you buy the hardcover at full price you get a free PDF.
Pretty nice really.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword: Gail Simone on Red Sonja #1
Reblogged from Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword: Gail Simone on Red Sonja #1
From: http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2013/03/gail-simone-to-wield-red-sonjas-sword.html
and http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/03/red-sonja-gail-simone/
and http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/01/red-sonja-gail-simone-dynamite-comics-emerald-city-2013-fiona-staples/
Gail Simone, one of the biggest names in comics right now, is taking up the sword and mail bikini of Red Sonja in a new Red Sonja #1.
In addition cover art will be done by Fiona Staples, Nicola Scott, Colleen Doran, Jenny Frisson, and Stephanie Buscem
Here is Fiona Staples art for Issue #1.
According to Simone:
From: http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2013/03/gail-simone-to-wield-red-sonjas-sword.html
and http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/03/red-sonja-gail-simone/
and http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/01/red-sonja-gail-simone-dynamite-comics-emerald-city-2013-fiona-staples/
Gail Simone, one of the biggest names in comics right now, is taking up the sword and mail bikini of Red Sonja in a new Red Sonja #1.
In addition cover art will be done by Fiona Staples, Nicola Scott, Colleen Doran, Jenny Frisson, and Stephanie Buscem
Here is Fiona Staples art for Issue #1.
According to Simone:
"It's like this...even most of the best female heroines when I was a kid were pretty polite. What I love about Sonja is that she isn't polite, she says what she means and if you give her any lip about it, hello, sword in the gut. She's smart, she has a heart, she has some compassion. But when it's go time, she's a hellraiser, a mad general, she's a sword edge virtuosa, she's death on wheels. She is the woman you never want to mess with. I can relate, Sonja. No offense to all her guy writers, but THIS Red Sonja is about sex and swords! It's everything you love about Red Sonja, except with more monsters getting stabbed in the eye."Red Sonia #1 is out in July.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Busy Day and other stuff.
Gotta a lot of stuff to get done before the next half of the spring term starts. blah.
Also I have a post over at my other blog, The Freedom of Nonbelief about the "Gay marriage" bill in Illinois. Pop over there and give it a read please.
http://freedomofnonbelief.blogspot.com/2013/03/sb-10-and-culture-of-blindness.html
Thanks
Also I have a post over at my other blog, The Freedom of Nonbelief about the "Gay marriage" bill in Illinois. Pop over there and give it a read please.
http://freedomofnonbelief.blogspot.com/2013/03/sb-10-and-culture-of-blindness.html
Thanks
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Video Game question
In the popular consciousness RPGs hit the market maybe 30 seconds before video games did. The Atari 2600 entered into home market in October of 1977, around the same time as the first printings of AD&D. Sure OD&D was out before that and there were video games before the 2600 too. Indeed the 2600 is part of the 2nd Generation of video games, with the 1st gen starting in 1972.
The cost of entry to the home video game hobby is higher than RPGs, the prices are remarkably stable. For example RPGs have been something of a steady state tech, video games and their hardware are fully in line with Moore's Law; getting cheaper while getting better. The 2600 retailed for $199.00 in 1977, the Wii retailed at $249.99 30 years later.
Video Gamers and TT Gamers have always seen to eye to eye. I know for a fact that someone on my reader list has seen someone come into their FLGS to look for a video game only to be mocked out of the store.
The issue I have is that this divide really should not exist Granted. I have no clue what some Video Gamers are talking about sometimes. I am still only level 2 in Skyrim, never played WoW, Everquest or anything else like that. I have been playing Lolipop Chainsaw for about 8 months and still am not past "level 2" on it.
So before I go deeper into this I want to ask. What video games are you all playing?
Did you pick them because they appeal to your TTRPG background? Or because they are opposite of an RPG? Why that game?
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
White Dwarf Wednesday #54
Ian Livinstone brings up the Satanic Panic issue. I guess he was abroad in Australia and New Zealand and the subject of "black magic" was brought up to him. I like his response, one of dismissive confusion.
Not content on bring logic to the real world, the next article tries to bring logic to the fantasy world as well. Christopher Hunt gives us Laws of Nature; or how to create a logically consistent game world. There was a lot of this around this time and I think a hallmark of the Silver Age. While older adventures were content with the dungeon crawl and room after room of monster and treasure; the mid 80s was a time when people began to ask why are these rats here? and why do they have a sack of 2,000 coins? This is reflected in the modules and the articles we read. I took a lot of this to heart then and as a consequence my games are still not full of gold or even magic items.
There is a Barbarian writeup for RuneQuest next. I know I never read it then because it was too new to me. I never got into playing barbarians at all. I never read Conan growing up and I preferred the magic using types. But the article is quite good.
Marcus Rowland is back with Name of the Game. This entry is on Sci-Fi games, with Traveller dominating the article. Others are mentioned, Space Opera, Star Frontiers, Star Trek (FASA) and Laser Burn.
Microview reviews two computer games Apocalypse and Battle 1917, both are for the 48k Spectrum computer, which of course means most people could run an emulator and put these on their phones. While reading about their tape loading woes was nostalgic, I never heard of either of these games. There is a BASIC game aid included in the article as well, a random name generator.
Table Top Heroes is reserved for the color page again (as it should be) to show off the miniatures.
Open Box reviews Traveller Adventure 11 (7/10 by Andy Slack), Book 2 of Steve Jackson's Sorcery, Kharé - Cityport of Traps (Marcus Rowland gives 8/10 as a book 2, 6/10 as a stand alone). Espionage and an adventure Border Crossing by Hero Games. For Hero's entry into Spy Games Marcus Rowland gives them a 8/10 and 9/10 respectively. Nic Grecas reviews Theatre of the Mind Enterprises' Pursuit to Kadath, a third part of a Call of Cthulhu adventure. He gives it 8/10.
Critical Mass has a review of Battlefield Earth. I thought the book (when I tried reading it in the late 80 say 4 years from this review) was abysmal dreck. I am happy say that all the reasons I hated it are brought up here. Well, not all, my reasons are a long and varied, but they hit on the big ones.
The solo "adventure" The Castle of Lost Souls is back for Part 3. This time it is longer than Part 2. A few of the entries are fun, but it's still a programmed adventure.
RuneRites has some undead. As always, some great ideas for the the AD&D gamer here too.
Thurd is back.
Temple of the Doomed Prince is up. An adventure for 5 to 8 AD&D characters of 4th to 6th level or RuneQuest characters of 45% to 65% weapons skills. It also mentions Empire of the Petal Throne. The adventure is simple and the monsters are dual stated.
Letters from Hobbits grace the Letters page.
What follows is a first, a mid magazine full color ad for Battlecars.
Fiend Folio has two related ghostly creatures; Surrogates and Shapelings. Related in the fact that have one set of stats.
After that the parallel color page for I.C.E.'s Fellowship of the Ring boardgame.
Travellers is next.
Some more ads with color (but not full color) are next. This is a change form all the ads being at the end of the magazine.
Treasure Chest cover Goals for Role-Playing. Or basically, what drives your character.
News this time looks like a posting board of newspaper clips.
Small ads, Gobbledigook and the ads close out the issue.
Like last issue this is a solid, serviceable issue but nothing that sticks out. It seems that despite all the physical growth of the magazine the creative and critical growth is off. I see more of the same ahead at least for the rest of 84. We will see.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Cover Me
I was reading the good old Facebook this morning and noticed this picture of author Joanne Brothwell's new book and the cover of another book by Loren Manns.
The books are of course not related outside of both in the modern paranormal genre. But I thought it might be fun to imagine one.
This is not uncommon for many indie and newer authors to use stock art for covers. Sometimes you can even find them. It is interesting though to see what a difference Photoshop makes.
It even happens in our publishing.
Here is a cover of a game you might recognize, and it's doppelganger.
Obviously mine and one called Magic & Miracles for the D6 system. In this case though both of us are using the famous John W. Waterhouse painting. I make no excuses for that, I love the Pre-Raphaelite style.
I'll have to go over this alternate version of the witch in detail.
I know they say you can't judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes you can use that cover for some fun!
The books are of course not related outside of both in the modern paranormal genre. But I thought it might be fun to imagine one.
This is not uncommon for many indie and newer authors to use stock art for covers. Sometimes you can even find them. It is interesting though to see what a difference Photoshop makes.
It even happens in our publishing.
Here is a cover of a game you might recognize, and it's doppelganger.
Obviously mine and one called Magic & Miracles for the D6 system. In this case though both of us are using the famous John W. Waterhouse painting. I make no excuses for that, I love the Pre-Raphaelite style.
I'll have to go over this alternate version of the witch in detail.
I know they say you can't judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes you can use that cover for some fun!
New Releases Tuesday
Time for the 2013 edition of New Releases Tuesday for two of my favorite authors (you can click to see 2012, 2011 and 2010).
Up first is my talented friend Amber Benson with the next installment of the tale of Calliope Reaper-Jones, the girl that would be Death in The Golden Age of Death.
This book is out today!
Next is everyone's favorite red-headed witch/demon, Rachel Morgan in Ever After.
Rachel has more trouble, this time cleaning up a mess she made a few books back. Of course if she doesn't fix it all the demons in the Ever After will be coming for her.
This one has been out for a bit.
Up first is my talented friend Amber Benson with the next installment of the tale of Calliope Reaper-Jones, the girl that would be Death in The Golden Age of Death.
This book is out today!
Next is everyone's favorite red-headed witch/demon, Rachel Morgan in Ever After.
Rachel has more trouble, this time cleaning up a mess she made a few books back. Of course if she doesn't fix it all the demons in the Ever After will be coming for her.
This one has been out for a bit.
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