Zatannurday: Zatanna News and Web Round-up

So I get pictures sent to me all the time of various versions or pics of Zatanna.  Here are some recent ones.  Each has something a little different or special about them.

First up, Zatanna gets another new costume and moves over to the Justice League!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/zatanna-new-look.html

Looks like a combination of her classic costume and the one she wore in Identity Crisis.
Glad to see the fishnets back, though I do hope she gets her top hat back.  I know, fishnets and high-heels are not good super hero costumes, but she is a stage performer. After all have a look at Misty Lee, a real life magician and performer.  Ok I know that is a cheat.  Misty Lee is also Mrs. Paul Dini.

Also talked about here, http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/47101162553/zatanna-gains-role-in-justice-league-loses-pants  which leads me the the next picture too.

This has been making the rounds and it is a nice contrast to what I normally post, is a "fully dressed" Zatanna.
http://www.geeknative.com/38733/drawing-the-impossible-fully-dressed-superheroines/#lightbox/4/
and
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/47040890525/a-look-at-costume-designs-to-fully-clothe-some-comics

I like it, but miss her classical stage magician look.

And this one from Hanie Mohd
http://haniemohd.tumblr.com/
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-super-girls-by-hanie-mohd.html

In a very special treat Paul Dini released this animation cell of a proposed Zatanna cartoon,

It would have been so cool!

These great mono-chrome ones,
http://aaronnsn.deviantart.com/

And this one,
http://funrama.deviantart.com/

And finally,

Leonardo Gondim

A to Z posting later today.

E is also for Evil Dead!

The new Evil Dead is out tonight!
Are you going to go see it?

Well the game based on the original Evil Dead movie, Army of Darkness is now on sale.

Army of Darkness

It is 100% compatible with my game Ghosts of Albion.

Pick them both up today!

E is for Eodemon

Eodemons are another "new" race of demons I am working on.  Eodemons are the "Dawn Demons" or Proto Demons.  These are the demons that were already old and evil and sulking in the Hells.  Unlike the "devils" that were once good and then fell or "demons" that are relatively new to the scene, the Protodemons were old and evil. Their motivations are often alien to mortals and other demons.  Their numbers are few, but each one is extremely powerful.  Many are worshiped as gods, or at least, dark gods.

These are not to be confused with the Eudaemons, or beneficial demons.  Also many believe that Lilith herself is an Eodemon, but this is something she denies.  Also some scholars use the more archaic form Eolim to describe these demons.  Not to be confused with Elohim, which are also servants of Good.

For my take on these demons I am taking really, really old myths.  The one that everyone knows is Pazuzu.
How do you know him?  He was the demon in The Exorcist.

Only five Eodemons are being detailed. There maybe more, but they have thankfully remained unknown.  As a group they are more powerful than the Baalseraph, but are too independent and chaotic to work to the same ends.

While I am connecting the Baalserasph Lords with the Deadly Sins, I see the Eodemons as representing a classical element.

Dagon: Lord of the depths. This Eodemon combines the worst aspects of fish, octopi, sharks and strangely mankind.  Like most Eodemons his form constantly shifts and rearranges itself to suit his need, environment or whim.  One constant is his large, dead looking eyes. Always described as the “eyes of a fish” or a “drowned man”.
His element is Water.

Leviathan: It is supposed that this is the oldest of all the Eodemons.  Leviathan is so ancient that even other demons seem in awe of “his” age and power.  It assumed that it is a he though there is no evidence to suggest either way. Leviathan exists only for one purpose; to feed.  Leviathan can be found in the Astral realms devouring entire worlds.
"He" represents the Fifth Element of Quintessence.

Pazuzu: The Lord of the East Wind is a demon of the skies. He appears to be a well proportioned athletic male human with bronzed skin. His head is a bizarre combination of human, dragon and hawk.  His double set of wings could indicate a semi-divine nature but Lord Pazuzu denies such things.  Lord Pazuzu says a lot actually, he is the most active Eodemon in the affairs of mortals.
He represents the element Air.

Tiamat: The Queen of Monsters and Primal Chaos.  Tiamat was once a primal goddess of creation. But she desired only to destroy.  She was cast out and was already old in the hells when the Baalseraph arrived.  Evil Dragons and evil monsters still revere her as their queen and goddess.
She represents the element Water.

Tsathogga: This great demon appears as some sort of titanic frog-like monster.  It appears to be at least 50’ long or as much as 75’. There is a vague humanness about this this demon, but it’s countenance is one of an evil frog. It’s mouth is filled with rows of sharp, shark-like teeth the length of a grown man’s  arm.  It’s body is covered in open sores where oozes pour out.   Tsathogga does not bother to attack mere humans and will summon 4-9 (1d6+3) Demodands loyal only to him. Tsathogga, when he does attack, will use his tongue to attack the nearest opponent.  Human cultists worship Tsathogga, but the Demon Lord cares little for humanity.
The Lord of Toads represents the element Earth (I know, not a great fit).

So a nice collection of different myths here.

Help a Brother Out? (aka D is for Dragon Age...)

Not really a D post.

I am though looking for some help.

I would love to get my hands on a Dragon Age Morrigan action figure.

I have checked all the normal places and I am coming up blank.

Now I am NOT looking for someone to give me one!  I want to BUY one.
I am trying to find a place where I don't have to pay $120-$200 for one.  I am even fine with opened.

If you know of anyone selling one that would be fantastic.

Thanks!

D is for Demogorgon and Demodand

Demogorgon

Reminds me of Eldritch Wizardry's cover

Every D&D players knows about Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons.  He made his appearance in Eldritch Wizardry and has been in every monster book since.  His popularity is second only to Orcus.
In 4e his story gets expanded to include this little treat, he has two head because his head gets split in two by a good god.  The two halve regenerate into two seperate heads. Cool, and creepy.  At the same time I was working on my own version of Demogorgon for Unisystem.  You can click to read it, I think it is worth the read to be honest.  I even considered reposting it for today, but that seemed like cheating.

As interesting as his official background is and even the one I created is, Demogorgon has a much more interesting history. The first time I met him outside of D&D was in Milton's Paradise Lost.

And by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name of Demogorgon.
- Milton, Paradise Lost.

He meets Lucifer in a void area that isn't Hell but a place where Chaos and Night rule.  Sounds like the Abyss to me.

Another version of Demogorgon comes from writers Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski in their Menagerie series.  This Demogorgon is more like my Leviathan or even Galactus. The series is on going (in theory) so we have not seen the heroes face off against the Demogorgon yet.  I am looking forward to it.

If I were to redo Demogorgon I'd keep most of the background I created, but maybe make him more monstrous, maybe something like a two-headed dragon, only really freaking huge.  Something like the Tarrasque is now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

And not to forget The Temple of Demogorgon.

Demodands
These guys are bastard children of demondom.  Not demons, not devils not even daemons. They appeared first in the Monster Manual II for AD&D and seem to based on the Deodands of Jack Vance or even the classical use of the term.
For my uses these are demons that have been put together from the dead scraps of other demons.  So even among demons they are reviled and despised.
No idea if I'll do three different sub races or not.  But I like the idea of them being put together from scraps of other demons.

Petty Gods

I sent my submission over to Greg Gorgonmilk for his resurrected Petty Gods project.

I can't wait for you all to meet Nox, the Goddess of Near Darkness and her minions Syla and the Fyre Fae.

White Dwarf Wednesday #59

White Dwarf #59 comes to us from November 1984.  We have one of my favorite WD covers. It is vaguely reminiscent of the Dragon #114 cover, though it predates that cover by 2 years.  I saw the Dragon one first. In any case this is still a great cover.

Ian Livingstone starts off with talking about some more changes coming to WD.  Most notable for the magazine and for my retrospectives here is the change to Fiend Factory.  Up until now the monsters have been D&D/AD&D, now they are opening it up to other systems like RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu.

Up first is a story, the Mad God's Omelette, a play on the Micheal Moorcock book The Mad God's Amulet.  I typically don't read the fiction in magazines.

Open Box has some Call of Cthulhu products, Glozel est Authentique!, Curse of the Chthonians and The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island.  Stephen Kyle gives them 5/10, 9/10 and 7/10 respectively.

James Bond is also represented as well with For Your Information and the Gamesmaster Pack.  Bob Neville  is a bit disappointed with these giving them only a 3/10 and 4/10 respectively. Also reviewed by Phil Masters is the game based on Larry Niven's Ringworld. He likes the game mostly but finds some rather critical errors with it and gives it a 6/10 saying is lacks the depth it should have had.

We get the AD&D version of the Ninja, which is really just a re-skinned Assassin.  Not a bad idea mind you, and there are some new and noteworthy add ons, but after all this build up I was looking for something more.  I thought I had remembered this class prior to this review, but I think it must have been another ninja class and not the one in OA.

A bit on cults in Modern RPGS is next, a followup from last issue. Some neat little cults and odd religions to add to any game.

A Car Wars article on double-decker buses.

Graeme Davis has a great article on Magic Item production for AD&D.  The article is bit reminiscent of the magic item creation found in 3.x (some 16 years later).

Hour of the Tiger is an introductory adventure for Ninja characters for AD&D or Bushido.   The adventure itself looks good and is very detailed. A good introduction for ninja characters.

We also get a RuneQuest scenario dealing with a traveling caravan.  Reading it over I wish I had it back in the 2nd ed days when I was playing with gypsies in Ravenloft.

Table Top Heroes discusses brushing techniques.

Starbase discusses and intelligence agency that Travelers players can work for or against.
RuneRites discusses pit fighting.

Fiend Folio covers AD&D stats (has to be stated now) of Reavers, the evil foes of Death Knights. There are only 6 and interestingly enough for me and this month is that all the Reavers are named after demon lords.

Treasure Chest details more uses of classic spells.
Newsboard doesn't have much. Some pictures. No new product rumors.

Despite the size of the issue, there seems to be only a little actual content.


Looking for my A to Z post? Scroll down or click here.

C is for Cimeris

A full half of the demons I have researched start with the letter A or B.  No joking.  I have never figured that out really, but check out the various demonologies out there.  There are a few left of the other letters though.

For C we have Cimeris. Also known as Kimaris, Cimeies, Cimejes, Cimeries, and Tuvries  he is one of the more popular demons, appearing in the Ars Goetia,  Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, even in  Aleister Crowley's and Anton LeVey's works.

NAME: Marquis Cimeris
Symbol: See next
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 120'
Armor Class: 0
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 158 hp (17 HD)
Attacks: Two-handed sword
Damage: 1d10
Save: F17
MORALE: 10
Hoard Class:
XP: 8,550

Cimeries is a great marquesse and a strong, ruling in the parts of Aphrica [Africa]; he teacheth perfectlie grammar, logicke, and rhetorike, he discovereth treasures and things hidden, he bringeth to passe, that a man shall seeme with expedition to be turned into a soldier, he rideth upon a great blacke horsse, and ruleth twentie legions.
- John Weyer, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum

Cimeries appears as a strong human male astride a large black house.  He wields a huge two-handed sword that he carries into battle, which is often.  He commands 20 legions (each legion of demons is 6,660 demons) that follow him to battle.  He can be summoned by human generals, but his price is the decimation (sacrificing 1/10) of all the General's own troops.  These men must be killed by the summoner himself.
Cimeries may also be summoned by a lone magic-user to learn the secrets of grammar, logic and rhetoric.

Not Cimeris, but close enough.

White Dwarf Wednesday will be posted later today.

B is for Baalseraph

Eldritch Witchery is my next book coming out.  It is for the Spellcraft & Swordplay game and covers some of the same ground that my last book, The Witch, did for Basic D&D.
One of the special features though of Eldritch Witchery is the inclusion of Demons and Devils much like the original (and inspiration) Eldritch Wizardry did for Original D&D back in 1976.

With my book I wanted to capture everything eldritch about the witch class.  So unlike some of my other books, this book also has a Warlock class.  It is also different from my Basic D&D book "The Witch".  Though all three classes together would make a nice full picture of the witch as she has appeared through out the history of RPGs.
Plus this book is designed to be used with the Spellcraft & Swordplay game.  It *can* be used with OD&D/S&W, but you would need to modify some things a touch.

But the biggest draw for both books is the inclusion of Demons.

 

When writing about demons, devils and the hells for D&D it is very hard to break out of the Gygaxian classifications of who is what and what is what.  A look at the history of the Succubus in D&D reveals that. So I had to make a conscious effort to break it.  I did and everything is now a "Demon".  There are many different types of demons though.

The Baalseraph are powerful demons that were once the forces of good.  They fought against their brethren and masters, becoming twisted and evil.  They were cast down into the pits (which we call Hell) and there they subjugated the demonic races already living there.

To non-gamers: The Baalseraph are the fallen Angels and gods from various myths.
To gamers: The Baalseraph are the unique "Ruling" class of devils.

In EW demons, devils and other creatures were put together and resorted in to Calabim, Eodemons, Lillim and Shedim.  The Baalseraph rule over the Shedim (Demons of Rage) with an iron fist.  They have alliances with the Lillim (Demons of Seduction) and the Eodemons (Proto-demons) and fight against the legions of Calabim (Demons of Destruction).

The rulers of the Baalseraph are Astaroth, Asmoday, Baalberith,  Beelzebub, Gressil, Sonneillon and Verrine.  I am also working up backgrounds and stats for Belial, Mammon, Mephistopheles, Moloch, and Dispater.  Once I have them all plotted and stated out I want to have seven Princes, each in charge of other courts and representing one of the Deadly Sins; somthing I have discussed before.  Belial, Moloch and Baalberith I have used before in my Ghosts of Albion games, so coming up with something brand new for them will be key.

Hopefully I can get this all sorted out this month!

A is for Astaroth and Astártē

A is for Astaroth and Astártē

Kinda looks like Nicholas Cage

I am going to begin with Astaroth because Astaroth was the beginning. At least for me and my fascination with demons.

Once upon a time there was a Goddess named Astártē.  She is more or less the same Goddess as Ishtar and related thematically to Aphrodite and Isis.
But when Christianity was sweeping the world and literally and figuratively changing all the old Gods and Goddesses into demons poor Astártē not only was demoted to demon, but changed to a male as well.  I always felt bad for Astártē because of this.

I first "met" Astaroth around the age of 13.  I was going to a fish-fry in Union, IL with my family so I brought some books to read.  In one of the those books I read about Astaroth and thought he was an interesting character.  It wasn't till later that learned about eh Astaroth/Astártē connection.
In my games I made him the son of Astártē. A Goddess I named the "Queen of Heaven".  She featured rather predominantly in my games over the years.  In my D&D and WitchCraft games "The Coven of Astártē" were a group of witches that were believed to be in league with demons.  In truth they did summon demons, but it was to figure out how to better combat them.

Here are some 3.0 stats I have been using for years.

And to celebrate my volunteering for Gorgonmilk's Petty Gods project, here is Astaroth in Petty Gods format.

Astaroth

NAME: Astaroth, Duke of Hell
Symbol: See next
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 150' (240' flight on dragon)
Armor Class: 0
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 166 hp (19 HD)
Attacks: Viper (1d8 + poison), sword (1d10 + flames 1d6), breath (save vs. poison)
Damage: 1d8+poison (save or die), 1d10 + 1d6 fire damage, breath (as per stinking cloud)
Save: F20
MORALE: 12
Hoard Class: See below
XP: 10,000


"Astroth is a great and a strong duke, comming foorth in the shape of a fowle angell, sitting upon an infernall dragon, and carrieng on his right hand a viper: he answereth truelie to matters present, past and to come, and also of all secrets.  He talketh willingelie of the creator of spirits, and of their fall, and how they sinned and fell: he saith he fell not of his owne accord.  He maketh a man woonderfull learned in the liberall sciences, he ruleth fourtie legions.  Let everie exorcist take heed, that he admit him not too neere him, bicause of his stinking breath.  And therefore let the conjuror hold neere to his face a magicall ring, and that shall defend him."
- John Weyer, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.

Astaroth is usually summoned by a magic user (he has no desire to travel to the human world on his own).  He appears to the summoner naked astride a giant black dragon (stats as a huge, ancient black dragon), though he can appear clothed as royalty if he chooses.  In his right hand he carries a long viper, in his left a flaming sword (like all devils he is left-handed).  He stands over 8 feet tall and has the strength of a Fire Giant.  His face is very attractive and he is physically fit, if  slightly overweight.
Unless the magic-user is in a protective circle Astaroth will strike him down.
His manners are extremely polite. He will converse and even gossip about various demons (save for himself).  The summoner had also better have some equally good, if trivial, knowledge to share at this point.  It is also at this point that the summoner will notice Duke Astaroth's breath.  It is simplly the foulest thing he has ever smelt.  If he reacts to the foul breath Astaroth will also consider this a breach of etiquette and contract and kill the offender.
Once the chatting is over, the summoner may ask Astaroth three questions; one about the past, one about the present and one about the future.  Astaroth will answer the questions honestly.  He will, as most Dukes, follow the letter of the agreement but not always the spirit of it.  If the Astraroth believes he is being tricked or if the questions are asked out of sequences; ie he feels a question about the past is really about the future, he will also consider this a breach of contract.  The wealth gained by the summoner will depend on the questions asked.  Astaroth brings no riches with him.
He is rumored to be the treasurer of Hell because money and riches have no allure for him, he only craves knowledge.  His interests are far and wide and he can pleasantly converse about a number of topics.  His surface demeanor though hides a deep and viscous cruelty.  On  his home layer of the Hells his dungeons are reported to filled with magic-users that have tempted to summon him and failed.  Here they are tortured for his amusement as he records all their reactions in his journals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte

A to Z Blogging for April and Introduction

Hello and welcome to The Other Side!  My little home on the internet.  I will have a proper post up later today.  I wanted to post an introduction to me, my blog and the various people that are likely to be here.

This blog is the "reincarnation" of my old The Other Side website from the dawn of the Web.  I like to write about role-playing games, particularly old-school ones, D&D and horror games.  I post a lot of character write-ups, I love witches and magic.

I am participating in this blogging challenge for the same reasons I am blogging to begin with; to help improve my ability as a writer. Challenges like these help stretch those creative muscles and hopefully get me to write about stuff I might not normally do.

This year I am writing about Demons.  I am going to talk about them from the point of view of a game author and a fan of horror.  I am planning to "stat-up" as many as I can.  By that I mean work out the Role-playing Game stats for the creatures so you can use them in your own games.  I am also going to try and focus on creatures that have not been seen before in any of the games I play.

So with that in mind welcome to the A to Z challenge!

Updates

Hey all!

First off, been out of the loop a bit.  Was on vacation all week. Great time.
Here are some random updates.

1. Dwimmermount. Looks like it is getting published afterall.  This is a good thing and I give Tavis and Autarch kudos for pulling this one out of the abyss.  Looks like James though has shut down shop over on his G+ plage. https://profiles.google.com/jmalisze/about. No idea yet what that might mean for Grognardia.

2. Swords & Wizardry.  Tenkar is hosting a Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/03/the-s-w-appreciation-day-line-up-hits.html
It is set for April 17.  That is also "O" day.

3. A to Z blogfest.  Tomorrow starts the A to Z blogfest.  I am so not ready for it!  I am doing Demons and know what I am going to post each day, just nothing is written yet.

4. Petty Gods is also back from the dead thanks to Greg Gorgonmilk.  He has really taken the ball and ran with this one! http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/

5. Witch Awareness Month.  I am going to participate in this one as well.  Just not sure what I am going to do yet. http://witchawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/

6. Majus draft available now. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895361773/majus-a-magic-noir-pacesetter-game  Doesn't matter that the KS is not done yet or even how much you put into it.  Get your draft now.

You all probably know all of these anyway.

Anyway great to be back.

Damn You Goblinoid Games!!

Dear Goblinnoid Games.

Please stop making games I want to buy.  I am going broke.

Between buying copies of Labyrinth Lord from people I am trying to get into Old School Gaming and you picking up the old Pacesetter games you have gone and done this to me:

Majus Kickstarter

And it is compatible with Rotworld, Time Master and other Pacesetter games **coughChillcough**

My wife is tired of seeing "Kickstarter" on the credit card bill too.

Looks like I am going to have to buy this one anyway! ;)

Speaking of Kickstarters, have you seen the one for Veronica Mars?
I never watched the show when it was on and I feel I missed out on something.  But anyway they want to make a movie sequel to the show and took to Kickstarter to do it.  The results were 100% funding in a few hours and it continues to climb.  Check it out.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project

TBBYANR: RPG blogs

A couple of RPG focused blogs today!

Cross Planes
"Or how I learned to stop worrying and love D&D"
http://crossplanes.blogspot.com/
I gotta admit I love the alt-title.  It is something I have said in the past myself in connection with getting out of the Edition War mindset.  Cross Planes/Mark Craddock is also very much a non-participant in the Edition Wars.  He talks about D&D Next (and he was the first place where I found out the new packet was out).  He is also into Dragon Age and I'll admit that reading over his site today has made we want to check out the RPG or computer game again. So much so I did this even:

What Dragon Age: Origins Character Are You?
Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime

Well was there ever a doubt?

He also did a couple of witch builds for D&D Next a Maiden and Mother.  Don't know if he did a Crone at all. What I like about this blog is Mark covers a lot of topics and games.  Single purpose blogs are great, and if I want to do a deep dive into a system that is what I need.  But I also enjoy the daily reading of the general purpose blog (like this one and my own) to get a variety of topics.  Plus he playing his games with his two daughters, how awesome is that?

Silver Divinity
http://silverdivinityrpg.blogspot.com/
I actually found this one from my Monstrous Monday Blogfest a while back and again on the Blog Blitz.  One of my favorite monsters from the MM Blogfest was his Zombie Cow.
The author of this blog, John, is working on a game project "Silver Divinity" and the blog is his proving ground/sounding board/beta tester.
So far the game itself sounds very cool.  It feels like a Steampunk meets Spelljammer sort of thing if I am reading it all right.  If so then that is cool.  The stats for the races look like d20/OGL so that makes that easier to understand.  The blog is only 7 months old and he is still posting ideas to flesh out.  So I expect to see some more interesting things in the future.
In the meantime stop on by and see what he has done so far.



This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day.  If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there.  I think the owners would like that.

Blogging Contract

Blogging is not writing. Not really.  Sure there are a lot of similarities but there are plenty of subtle differences.

When writing an RPG book I have an audience in mind. That is a nebulous audience that I may or may not interact with.  I don't know who bought every copy of The Witch or Ghosts of Albion or Buffy.

I do have the chance to get to know each and every reader here via the comments section.  I post, you comment, I reply.  There is a social contact at work here.. You are not expected to reply, but I write my posts hoping that people will.

Implicit in that is one of control.  I try to keep my posts interesting to my known audience.  This is one of the reasons I have different blogs.   I control what I post.  You control what you reply with, but ...I also control your reply. See I can delete any reply I don't like.  But I don't.  There are few good reasons for that.

I don't because it is dishonest. Having people disagree with me is a great way for me to learn something new.  I have lost track of all the things I have looked into because some one said "no. you are wrong."

I don't because it violates the social contract we have.  You put yourself out there, those were your thoughts.  I may not agree with it, but that doesn't give me the right to shut it down.

I also don't, and lets be honest here, controversy and conflict means more hits, more audience and hopefully more people reading my stuff.  Not fake controversy, people can see that a mile away, but real and honest.

A natural extension of that is I will also not delete old posts.  I don't see the point. You may want to go back a read something I posted in 2010. Great!  I will leave it there.  Even if it something I don't agree with, like or otherwise grok anymore.

I have been seeing too many cases of people taking down posts, editing posts to put themselves in better light. Sorry folks, between Archive.org and Google cache people can find anything that was posted given time, so don't try to change history.

I'll remove a post of your own if you ask me to. I'll delete multiple posts if looks like you were fixing a typo or something. I'll delete spam.

That's my contract with you.
Your contract with me is not post anything to make be doubt this choice! ;)

White Dwarf Wednesday #58

White Dwarf #58 takes us to October 1984.  Right away we notice the Chris Achilleos cover.  I have always associated his work with White Dwarf and visa versa.  It's funny that some of his best work happened later than I remember.  This horde of evil is a theme he comes back too and I think he does well.  I seem to recall he has a few more coming up.

Ian Livingstone talks about how RuneQuest once again beat out AD&D for Best RPG at Games Day.  Under the new deal with Avon Hill RuneQuest will now cost £40 up from £30! Which is today's money is about $15 extra ($45 to $60), no idea what the value of that was in 1984 England, but I am sure it was a lot.

A couple of pages on traps.  After a DM with a couple of volumes of Grimtooth's traps I got used to checking for traps as I walked more or less. So today traps don't interest me much.

Open Box has some interesting games.  Lands of Adventure is first. I have never heard of it and Richard Clyne only gives it a 5/10.  Though up next is the classic Middle Earth Roleplaying from ICE.  They were such attractive books and I really lament not getting the game when it was new.  MERP gets 9/10 and Bree and the Barrow Downs (which I wanted FOREVER) gets a 7/10 from Jon Sutherland.  One day I need to spend some quality time with MERP.  The Q Manual for James Bond gets a 9/10.  Also an old favorite is the FASA Star Trek. Russel Clark loves it and gives it a 9/10.

Part 3 of the Ninja article is next. It deals with martial arts and the quasi-mystical ninja powers.  I have seen better treatments but I have seen worse too.

Graeme Davis is next with an article I remember well when I got a copy of this back in college. Beyond the Final Frontier deals with death in the games and how it might not be the last go.  The death myths of different cultures are presented it is a cool read.

Some significant typing is needed for the next article if you want to use the BASIC program to Grow Your Own Planets. This is the first time I have seen program designed specifically for the IBM PC using MS Basic (as opposed to Z80 Basic) in WD.

Some ads.  We come up next to a supers adventure for Golden Heroes and Champions.  Looks fun and simple enough.  I bet it would work fine for Icons, BASH! or M&M.
Not to be forgotten we have an AD&D mini adventure too with a couple of new monsters to boot.

Credit is detailed in Traveller.
"Colour" is the theme in Tabletop Heroes for mini painting.

RuneRites has a couple of really short scenarios. should work with about any game.
Treasure Chest details some old spells and gives them new twists.

Letters concerns itself with questions on what purpose does Tabletop Heroes serve.  Oh just you wait!
News details the new games coming up and licenses seem to rule the day; Indiana Jones, Star Trek, 2010, Conan, Star Fleet Battles and so on.

At this point White Dwarf is up to 56 pages and still 85p.  Most of the new space is used by ads though.
Serviceable issue, made better by the use of the fine cover art.

TBBYANR: Author Friends

The next two blogs belong to two people I consider friends. Both were huge help to me when I was working  on Ghosts of Albion.

Bobert the Hoosier expatriate

http://bbovenguy.livejournal.com/
Robert Black is someone I have known for more than 10 years.  We were both deeply involved involved in Willow & Tara fandom over at the Kitten Board. It was in my discussions with him that helped me formulate a lot of the ideas I had for the Dragon and the Phoenix and Season of the Witch.  Bob also came up with the original idea for the Sisters of Paradox.  Tara's father Robert in Season of the Witch is named after him. So I owe the guy a debt of gratitude for all the work we did back on the Kitten.
Bob is a YA author. Something he learned well as a writer on the classic "You Can't Do That on Television" back on Nick.  He is the only writer of that show to have dumped green slime on Alanis Morissette.

Dave Chapman's Autocratik
http://autocratik.blogspot.com/
Dave Chapman was working on Conspiracy X 2.0 the same time I was working on Ghosts of Albion.  I used to comment that only Eden hires a guy from Chicago to write a game about Victorian England and an Brit to write an American Conspiracy game.  We helped each other out a lot and then he had come in and do some playtests on Doctor Who.
Dave talks about a number of topics, but mostly related to games he likes.

I say pop on over and check them both out. If you like what you read there pick up one of their books and tell them I sent you.


This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day.  If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there.  I think the owners would like that.

TBBYANR: Aggregate Cognizance

You might recall some posts I have made about the horrible vampire game by Mykal Lakim.
Well a lot of what I know about it all I owe to Wil Hutton and his blog Aggregate Cognizance.

Well he is known for a lot more than being a constant thorn in Paul Cape's side. He has some cool stuff on his site too. So that makes Aggregate Cognizance today's Best Blog You are Not Reading.

Aggregate Cognizance
http://rivetgeek.blogspot.com
Obviously there is the whole Dark Phoenix Publishing/Mykal Lakim/Paul Cape drama to read and I would be lying if I said I didn't find it all fascinating.  HE also has quite a bit of FATE going on his site and he is quite the Tribe 8 fan as well.
I have to admit that his Search Alphabet Soup made me run to my own search keywords to see what people were using to get to me that was worthy of sharing.
The writing is clear and honestly I think with some time this could be one of those cool blogs to read that posts on a bunch of topics but has a central core.  When I pick up FATE again this summer I am going to make a bee-line to this blog and try somethings out.

So come for the FATE but stay for the vampire. Especially vampires.

If you are into Tribe 8 then he does have another blog dedicated to that, Dreams of Flesh and Spirit.
Tribe 8 was always one of those games I wanted to try, but never did.  Of course given my juvenile brain I always think of tribade and might not get out of one session without pissing off someone.

Anyway. Go over to his blog(s). It's good stuff.


This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day.  If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there.  I think the owners would like that.

TBBYANR: Movie Blogs

I love horror movies of all sorts.  I have a special place in my heart for sexy, cheesy euro-sleaze horror from the 70s to the early 80s.  So for the first set of "The Best Blog You are Not Reading" I would like to pick two film review sites that feature a lot of the movies that would be in my personal Appendix N.

The first is The House of Self-Indulgence

http://houseofselfindulgence.blogspot.com/
Truthfully HoSI breaks a lot of the rules of TBBYANR. It's not new, not small and has over 300 followers.  But it is also not one I see listed in the blog rolls locally, so I am going to let it pass.  Also the film reviews are so in-depth that I imagine that the author, Yum-yum, sits there in a private viewing room, whisky in hand with a leather bound journal and an Aurora Diamante fountain pen writing notes and witty insights to later be given to a secretary (who looks like Lina Romay in her prime) to be put on the blog.  Or something like that.
The reviews are long, in-depth and contain a surprising breadth of knowledge.
So yeah HoSI doesn't really need me to sing their praises, but I am anyway.

Another movie review site is For It Is Man's Number.
http://foritismansnumber.blogspot.com/
Again the focus here is horror, but a lot of other types of movies are covered. Owner Kevin Mathews has some solid old-school tastes. What attracted me to this blog was his coverage of Dracula AD 1972. One of the weakest Hammer Dracula films to be certain, but one I have used in my own games over and over.
Honestly this is one of those blogs where you want to start at the beginning of his blogging and read all the way up to the present day.  The reviews though are also the right size for getting a good feel of the movie.  He provides some Amazon links (which is nice).  I particularly liked going over all his Dracula movies.
What I find odd is that Kevin has been posting quality reviews since 2011 and he still only has 30 followers.  I think that is a crime to be honest.

If you enjoy movies then these are both worth your time.


This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day.  If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there.  I think the owners would like that.

Chronicles of Mystara? Yes Please!

I was just thinking the other night I really need a video game to help my D&D itch late at night when I want to game but everyone else is asleep.

This might just be what I need.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20130322#85749
http://www.capcom-unity.com/gregaman/blog/2013/03/22/announcing-dungeons-dragons-chronicles-of-mystara

It's Mystara on the Xbox.  How can that be bad?


Ok. So it is not going to replace D&D or even Skryim or even Minecraft in my house. But it will be fun and that is all that counts.

Out in time for my birthday.

Zatannurday: Young Justice

Young Justice ended last week. I have posted anything about it because I still have not watched it yet.  I am also avoiding spoilers on it.
But I thought that in it's passing I'd post a few Young Justice-era Zatanna pics to remind us of how it was or could have been.



Young Justice Zatanna by *Glee-chan on deviantART


Zatanna - Young Justice by ~1984neptune on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara by ~bechedor79 on deviantART


Young Justice: ZETA by *camilliette on deviantART


Young Justice by ~Lola-Gainsborough on deviantART


zatanna by ~matsuri0w0 on deviantART


Zatanna by ~Fueled-by-Rage on deviantART


YJ: The Mistress of Magic by ~galaxyshiba on deviantART


New 52 Zatanna (YJ Style) by ~Youngjusticeaddict on deviantART


Do you believe in magic? by ~Mazrilin on deviantART

And since we didn't stick around long enough to see the rest of the Titans, here are some Ravens.


Young Justice: Raven by *Glee-chan on deviantART


YJ: Raven by *Glee-chan on deviantART


Raven by ~alykam on deviantART


Raven Teen Titans by *jamietyndall on deviantART


Raven by *RagingBarbarian on deviantART
Gonna miss this show.

New Book Stores

I am HUGE advocate of supporting your FLGS and your local book store.
If you have the choice, please always support your local stores when you can.

That all being said there is a new online book store that I am calling "The Book Store of all of Tim's Favorite Things."

Wednesday Mourning from "Oddities: San Francisco" has started a new online book store Orphic Vellum Books.

You can read about it here: http://wednesdaymourning.com/blog/?p=18#comment-38
And see the store here: http://www.wednesdaymourning.com/zencart/

A lot of the books I would want here I already have, but I am hoping to see more soon!
The place looks great and getting these old books would really be nice.

If you buy something from her tell her I sent you!
Not that it would matter at all, but I have always wanted to say that about something...

Friday Updates

hmm this might a regular feature.

Ok so next is a busy, busy week for me.
I am going to post a bunch of "The Best Blogs You Are Not Reading" posts.  I may not though be able to adequately respond to responses or even properly promote the posts.

I am also unsure whether I'll have a White Dwarf Wednesday ready to go at all either.  Yeah, it's going to be that kind of week.

In other news the new D&D Next playtest packet is out. People seem to like it. I have not read it yet myself.

So let me get this all straight WotC is A.) distributing their playtest material for free for anyone to play with and they are updating based on the feedback they are getting. B.) selling PDFs again and C.) have the reprints in physical stores for people to buy.  Oh and every so often Dragon features material for older editions.  It sounds like they are listening to their customers.

Eldritch Witchery Update / Elf Lair Games Update
Ok so. Yeah. I am way late on Eldritch Witchery. It was due out at the same time as the Witch, but needed some additional editing.  In talks with Jason Vey (head Elf at Elf Lair Games) we decided to merge in a couple of other products with EW that fit.  My celtic themed Old School game based on Spellcraft & Swordplay is for the most part dead in the water.  I know. I am saddened by it too, but Jason did not want to be in a position of competing with Troll Lords who publishes his Amazing Adventures game.  I can't say that I blame him.  Besides, the Codex Celtarum looks fantastic.  Éire will see the light of day, someday, but not as a Spellcraft & Swordplay book.  The materials though that went into it have been folded into EW rather nicely.  The other book I was working on was a book on demons and devils for Old School games.  But since that project started we have had a number of good monster books come out.  So that is also being folded in and the Warlock class in EW is getting a nice boost because of it.  I am editing down some things too to make sure this is not going to be a 300 page book.  Some of that will appear here on the blog.

A to Z Blogfest
I am doing demons. Should be fun. I have 100s or so to talk about, so the trick narrowing it down to just 26.
What pushed Demons up over Vampires?  Easy. I found a "Q" demon before a "Q" vampire.

The Big Reveal Bloghop

Mina Lobo from Some Dark Romantic and David Macaulay from Brits in the USA are hosting the Big Reveal Bloghop.

Bloggers who have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge are letting us know about what their theme is going to be.

Well.

I have gone back and forth a number of times on this. Talked about it in a round about way here and I am finally ready to say I am doing....

Vampires.

No wait. Demons.
Vampires.  Defiantly vampires.....maybe not.

Demons.
Yes Demons.

Yeah.

Ok so I am going to do Demons.

I am going to talk about all sorts of demons, but these will be firmly rooted in an RPG environment point of view. How to add them to games (all sorts) and things like that.
All leading up to their inclusion in my oft-delayed Eldritch Witchery.

I suppose some explanation is in order about EW.  Yes. It's late.  Part of the deal is that it needed more editing than The Witch did.  Also I was talking with Jason at Elf Lair Games and we wanted to merge in the bits from my Celtic game that we are no longer doing and the delayed Demons & Devils book.   The nice thing is you will get a much larger book in the process.

So join me as we go investigating the evilest creatures of myth and fairytale!

Next year I'll do vampires. ;)

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Second Chance: Swords & Wizardry (Frog God Games)

A while a back I posted that I was giving some products another chance.  One of those products was Swords & Wizardry.

I picked up the Frog God "Complete Rulebook" and spent a lot of time with it.  I think my biggest issue with S&W is that was sold to me as "0 Edition" or "OD&D" and it isn't. I played OD&D and S&W is nothing like it. Well, not "nothing" but it's made some serious changes.  Those changes I think kept me from enjoying the game for what it is.  So after staying away from the game for a number of months I came back and looked at in a different light.  I dropped the idea that is an OD&D clone but instead a Retro Clone stripped down to it's most basic form.  Now that is game I can get behind.  If you ever played any version of D&D or any clone you can play this.  S&W is really the basic essence of what D&D is. The most basic stuff you need to play.  In this new light I saw the changes for what they were, really nice and intuitive changes.
The classics are really basic, but they work. In this Frog God edition you have a more classes, Assassins, Paladins, Rangers, Druids and Monks join Thieves, Clerics, Magic-Users and Fighters.  Races are Human, Elves, Half-elves, Halflings and Dwarves. So again all easily recognizable.
There are a set of good multi-classing rules (which is always nice in an OSR game).
Spells go up to 9 for Magic-Users, 7 for most others.
There are plenty of monsters, tons really.  The monster blocks are simple like everything else.

Really S&W does take a lot of what made OD&D/Dasic D&D so fun, the advances in AD&D and the features that made 3.x so popular.  Yes. It has Ascending AC (which is still the best, sorry old school guys) and I like single saving throw bonus.
This Frog God version shares a lot of the art that appeared in The Tome of Horrors Complete and the layout.  This is not a big deal as far as I am concerned.

At a 134 pages it is a complete game. You don't really need anything else here, though you can use it with nearly other OSR product or any of the scores of products created for S&W.

I am glad I gave this another chance.

If you have this then The Tome of Horrors Complete is a great supplement to have.

If you are new to S&W then there are some other supplements to help you out.

MCMLXXV (aka 1975) is a new introductory module and old-school primer.
At just under 24 pages (minus cover and ogl) this is designed to be something akin to Keep on the Borderlands for S&W, only not as big.  The adventure is small, but in old school terms it is good sized really.  There is less in terms of pages of descriptions than modern day modules. It leaves far more to the imagination of the players and GM.  If there was a Frog God Games S&W box set then this would be included.
Great little adventure that really helps set the tone of the S&W game.

Swords and Wizardry Monstrosities is a new monster book.  New in that is newly published, but some of the monsters we have before either in the SRD or other books.  That though does not detract from it's value as this is a 560+ page book since in addition to that there are some new monsters.  The cover is very evocative of the old-school (pre 1980) covers.
There is much in common between this book and The Tome of Horrors. Each monster is given a page of stats, description and a plot hook.  While ToH used some recycled art, this all seems to be new art.  Even Orcus (which we now have 3 listings for) is new.  Actually the art is pretty darn good and I don't mind the occasional repeat of a monster to see some new art.
Honestly there is so much great stuff in this book that even with the occasional repeat monster this is still a top notch collection. If you play S&W then this is a great monster book to have.  I am even going as far as to say it is a must have for any serious S&W GM.

OD&D
If you really want a game that is close to what OD&D really was like you do have some choices.

First up there is the OD&D set from WotC coming out this fall.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/02/original-d-premium-edition.html

There is also Spellcraft & Swordplay, a personal favorite of mine.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/04/s-is-for-spellcraft-swordplay.html

While S&W has some neat ideas, S&S comes closer to OD&D for me.

In any case you can use all of these game to party like it's 1975!

White Dwarf Wednesday #57

Ok so last week I tried something new and focused on the articles that I remembered the best and talked about what I was doing at the time.  I am not sure that entirely worked out they way I wanted.  I felt like I had left large portions of the magazine unmentioned.  This is going to become a bigger issue as I get into the 60s and 70s since I only recall a couple from that time and almost nothing from 80-100.
Still though. There is a lot I can say. So I think in the interests of trying to find a happy medium I am going to ignore the comics for the most part (unless they figure into what I am talking about) and I might ignore the book reviews.  My tastes in books was  going more to horror and dark fantasy at this point anyway so I less likely to see books I was reading at the time.  Course I could be wrong.

On to the issue!

The cover is pretty cool.  Barbarian on a zebra fighting a guy on a giant bird.  

We get a nice big full page, full color ad for the new FASA Star Trek Game.  I loved that game, but never got a chance to play it.

Ian Livingstone asks the perennial questions about licenced games.Do gamers prefer them?  That's not an easy one to answer. While D&D was and still is to a degree king I would argue that it is it's own brand.  The games I have worked on that have gotten the most attention Buffy and Ghosts of Albion did great and were based on a license.  Another game I dearly love, WitchCraft uses almost the exact same system and Eden has a hard time giving that game away.  So yeah.  My experience is that yes, gamers like licenses.

First article is one on Psionics in AD&D and other FRPGs.  I agree that psionics in most fantasy games are treated like another form of magic. I have a real Love/Hate relationship with psionics in D&D. We used it in our AD&D games and it was fun. I even was part of an OD&D game one summer that all the characters were psionic and that was a blast too.  But generally speaking I don't like to mix my magic and psionics.  Eventually my distaste for Psionics in D&D manifested as psionic characters were hunted like witches in my magic-centric world.  Played out rather nice really.  The article by Todd E. Sundsted does a good job of giving you tips on how to use psionics in a game and even gives them a more modern point of view.
Conversely I also don't like Magic in my Sci-Fi settings, but I do like to have Psionics in them.

Open Box is back to it's regular format.  Up first we have the first four Role-Aids books from Mayfair Games.  I have had a long relationship with Mayfair and I have enjoyed the Role-Aids books quite a bit.  Robert Dale here doesn't agree. He gives Dwarves, Elves and Dark Folk all 3/10.  Wizards fares better with 6/10.  Andy Slack gives 9/10 to the Traveller Adventures book.  Powers and Perils was always one of those games I was curious about but never bought back then.  I have a copy a copy now and it is cool. Adrian Knowles gives it 8/10, I'd do 7/10 myself.   Continuing with a licensed game we have the new James Bond 007 game which comes in two versions a single book or a box set.  You can see the shift here in that the reviewer, Bob Neville, far prefers the single book option. He faults it on several points, one of which I thought was amusing that it was written by Americans.   In the end he enjoyed it enough to overcome it and gave it a 6/10.

Sky Rig is a Traveller Scenario for 3-6 characters.  We are now at a point where the books needed to play must be indicated. An issue D&D has had for a bit now, but new here. The scenario is 5 pages long and looks good, but I am not a good judge of these things.  WD does use one of their color pages for an illustration though.  Most likely it for the Dragonlance ad that appears next and this was the same page in layout/printing.

Yes. Big Dragonlance ad is next. Often seen as the herald of the Silver Age or at least the herald of the end of the Golden Age.  The end actually happened much longer than this I would say.   To paraphrase Star Trek III the Search for Spock it was "the bold Experiment".  Now lets be honest.  Those ads sucked you in just as much as me.  The bold adventurers the dragons. That evil looking Darth Vader looking dude.  I never played the Dragonlance adventures, though I read the novels.  I hated the Kinder, I thought "Steel Pieces" and no gold was stupid.  But I still was caught up in it enough to buy the books again as an adult and the 3rd edition campaign guide.

We get more Living Dead in RuneQuest.  Again, cool and certainly something I want to come back too now I have finally picked up some RuneQuest books.

More on Ninjas in AD&D, RuneQuest and Bushido.  I loved these cross system articles.  The Ninja has gotten more treatments in AD&D than Witches I think (but still less than Necromancers).  I liked reading the Ninja stuff other people did cause I saw the same single mindedness I had with the witch.  Again if you remember last week I have played only one ninja my entire gaming life.

Lew Pulsipher is back with Lew's Views. He covers the life of a retired wizard. One issue it covers is the idea of "Magic Shops".  I like magic shops, but they are rare in my world as to be unique.

Part II of the AD&D of the Island of Rammas, The Sunfire's Heart, is next.  The adventure is quite in-depth as well. It got me thinking that the quality of adventures from White Dwarf always seemed a bit better than that of Dragon and the later Dungeon.  At least at this point in time.  Later I would give teh nod to Dungeon and Dragon, but today it is White Dwarf.  This adventure has some neat idea like the Frost Vampire.

Andy Slack has a new race for Traveller, the Staurni.  It's a snake with arms and wings.  Neat, but not something I would use myself.

Fiend Factory is back with monsters from the Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg.  Quite a collection too. I have no experience with the books, but the monsters looks interesting enough.

Tabletop Heroes has a how-to-do guide on how to set up bases for your minis, including some nice full color photos.

Letters has praise for the last few issues, including the comics.

Another Reader Survey is next. I'll discuss this when the results are published.

Treasure Chest has some tips for spell usage and a crossword puzzle.  I stared at the crossword and wondered if it could double up as a dungeon.

News items deals with the rumors of of games called "Toon" and "Paranoia".  NOW the Golden Age is dead! ;)

Despite the fact there is not much more here than the last issues, I felt this was a better issue.  Maybe due to the good adventures and monsters.