Monsters: Demon vs. Dæmon and Daimôn

In many RPGs the words "demon" and "dæmon" often lumped together into the same group or groups of creatures.  This reflects a Judeo-Christian bias in popular thought that a "demon" has to be an evil, malign creature.  This was not always the case with dæmon.  in the ancient Greek tradition these creatures were something more along the lines of creative, benevolent spirits.

The dæmon is most famous to AD&D players as being the Neutral Evil race found between the Abyss, home of the Demons and Hell, home of the devils from Monster Manual II.  I liked the idea of more variety to the fiends but thought about these guys in terms of what a normal human would think of them.  That is how does one say "demon" vs. "dæmon"?  That was the start of my disappointment in them as a D&D monster type.  They would later change the name Yugoloth, the only time I felt the 2nd ed name changes were an improvement.

Other games have taken the concept the other direction and made the "demon" more like the classical "dæmon" and had the name mean anything that came from somewhere else.  Also not preferable really.

I had forgotten about all of this until recently when I started working on demons for Eldritch Witchery.

Dæmons seem to be much creative, if chaotic types.  Somewhat like what Deborah Harkness has in her books, A Discovery of Witches.  But in truth her Dæmons feel more like Fae or Changelings to me.  Moving mine more to the "outsider" type I get a race that is very chaotic, but not really evil.  In a sense what Jim Butcher has done with the Fae  in the Dresden Files and maybe a little of what Kim Harrison has done (or is doing) with Demons (the ancient enemy of the fae) in her Rachel Morgan books.
More to the point I have a race I can swap with Slaadi.

Slaad began their life in the pages of the Fiend Folio as inhabitants of the Chaotic Limbo.  Trouble with the Slaad were that know one played them Chaotic Neutral. They always ended up as Chaotic Evil.  Plus Slaad are not open and are not found in the SRD.  Dæmon's though are chaotic, can be good or evil and somehow in my mind fit the idea of a creature living between the Chaotic Good fae (and planes of Olympus in the old D&D cosmology) and the chaotic evil demons living in the Abyss.

I have not detailed many dæmons yet except for a Personal Dæmon, which is a bit like a familiar dialed up to 11.  Given that they need more conceptual work I am not expecting dæmons to appear in Eldritch Witchery.  But do expect the monsters-formerly-known-as-daemons-or-yugoloths to appear as a demon type.  Too bad I can't use Slaad, but hey.

And just to make matters more confusing I think the ruling class of dæmons are known as daimôns.

Enjoy? Please check out the other monster posts today!

Old School Week at DriveThruRPG

DriveThruRPG is celebrating the best of the OSR this week.

For a limited time you can grab their selected 10 best OSR products for a special price.
You can use promotional code OSRF711F2 to get 15% off on these select titles till Sunday, May 19.

Personally I can't recommend these titles enough.  We have the immortal D&D Basic Book in new, clean PDF format, the awesome Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and two of my favorite "what if" games, Spellcraft & Swordplay and Adventures Dark & Deep.  Plus three very different kinds of games with a great old-school feel, HackMaster, Dungeon Crawl Classics and one of my personal favorites Castles & Crusades.

Lots of great stuff here.

Monster Post later today.

Second Edition Reprints

Wizards of the Coast has released the Limited Editions of the 2nd Edition of AD&D in some markets. I picked my copies on Friday.

These are the reprints of the second printing of the Second Edition rules.  Not the ones with the blue borders, but the ones with the red borders. So consequently the books these are the reprints of I don't actually own.  I do have the Monstrous Manual, my Monstrous Compendium long since gone.

Monstrous Manual
Dungeon Master Guide
Player's Handbook

AD&D 2nd Ed feels like the forgotten edition of D&D.  Sure there might be others, but between OSRIC and Pathfinder 2nd ed usually gets ignored, especially by me.  2nd ed was the game I ran in college but it is also the game that almost put me off of D&D for a while.

These books are not cheap, $50 each, but they are nice and like I said, they are still somewhat new to me.
I am going to enjoy going through these to be honest, the books look really nice and frankly I like sending the message to Wizards that these types of product are welcome.   I also like supporting my Favorite Local Game Store.

Plus they look nice with my special edition 3.5 and the 1st ed AD

Though unlike the above editions, the 2nd eds do not have a ribbon.  A little disappointing, but I didn't want to pay $75 each for them.  Might have to play some 2nd ed some time.

Moms are Gamers too!

Bunch of sales coming up at DriveThru RPG.

Here is one of the first.


Tabletop Adventures, LLC is running their "Moms are Gamers too" sale for Mother's Day.
Get 20% off selected products between now and Wednesday.

Zatanna: Hellish Elementals

A couple of weeks back I put up a post about Zatanna vs Demons.

I wanted to come back to these monsters for the May Monster Madness.

In truth Zee doesn't fight a lot of monsters.  Bad guys, demons and arch fiends sure, but not your garden variety monsters.

The closest were a trio of demonic elementals that she fights in issues #4 and #5 of the recent Paul Dini run of Zatanna.

These creatures took the shape of old women, but underneath were hellish fire elementals in the shape of young women.

Zatanna wa able to defeat them by redirecting a swimming pool that had been blessed into holy water into her hotel room.

Hellions
Basic Era D&D / The Witch (because I can)

Armor Class:  3 [16]
Hit Dice: 6d8+4* (30 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 claws /  breath weapon
Damage: 1d4+2 / 1d4+2 / 1d8 (fire)
Special: fear, flame body, ignite. Double Damage from Holy Water
Movement: 90’
No. Appearing: 1-3
Saves As: Fighter 6
Morale: 8
Treasure: None
Alignment: Evil
XP: 300

Hellions cause fear as per the spell (Save vs. Paralysis to negate).  They also breathe out a lick of flame while attacking, save vs Breath Weapon for half-damge.
Their bodies are made of flame, but they are not fire elementals in the strictest since. They are demonic spirits and thus unlike elemental they are intelligent and have individuality.  They can disguise themselves as human by finding a human and burning them from the inside out.  They then can crawl into their skin and use that as a suit.


Hellion
Ghosts of Albion, Unisystem

Creature Type: Demon
Life Points: 30
Drama Points: 1

Attributes
Str: 3
Dex: 3
Con: 4
Int: 3
Per: 4
Will: 5

Ability Scores
Muscle: 12, Combat: 12, Brains: 10
Special Abilities: Demon, Fear, Hard to Kill, Lesser Sensing, Water Vulnerability, Breathe Fire, Resistance (Fire).

Anyone seeing a Hellion for the first time must make a Fear check (Willpower x2).
Hellions do not take damage from fire but take double damage from water based attacks (treat water splash as acid).

Manoeuvres
Name Score Damage Notes
Claw x2 +12 6 bash + fire*
Fire Breath +12 12 fire* (extra fire damage based on SL)
Deflect +11 - Magic defence action; deflects spell 45˚

Blogfest: Ray Harryhausen Aprreciation

Today is a celebration of the work of Ray Harryhausen and is hosted by +R.J. Thompson at Gamers & Grognards.  Like many gamers my age I saw Clash of the Titans and IMMEDIATELY grabbed everything in it for D&D (yes. even that owl).  But that is not what I want to talk about today.

No, my favorite Ray Harryhausen movie is "The First Men in the Moon".

I am not sure exactly when I first saw this movie, but I am sure it was on WGN's Family Classics movies on Saturday Afternoon. (or was is Sunday) and it was the same time I was really into gaming. Anyway, the movie was a great distillation of all my interests at the time; sci-fi, horror, fantasy, Victorian England.  It was a heady brew to be sure.

Plus those aliens.  The stop motion was glorious for the time and those monsters were just so creepy.

I remember spending sometime trying to figure out how to get these creatures into my games, or at least some of these ideas.  There is though some obvious homages to this movie to be found in Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

The most obvious "child" though of this movie (and the H.G. Wells book) is Space: 1899. The game even features Selenites and an adventure on the moon.

For the longest time I wanted bugs on the moon because of this film.

Selenite
Selenites are a race native to Earth's Moon.  They are named after the Greek Goddess of the Moon, Selene.
They are smaller than humans, 4'6" to 5'3" tall, they are of a slight build and not very strong.  They appear to be some form of humanoid insect. They are hairless and large compound eyes.  They do require oxygen to breathe, but not as much as a human.  Most Selenites are members of a working caste.  They work on the Selenite cities and help harvest the great moon cows that they use for food. The Selenites psychology and behavior was very much like that of ants or other social insects. (creatures in the book had wings and could fly, I don't remember if they flew in the movie) When not needed a Selenite can go into a self-imposed coma-like suspended animation.
Selenite cities and machines are all solar powered. They were able to keep their cities lit and oxygenated, but during solar-earth eclipses all non essential machines shut down.  The Selenites would also use  this time to enter a rest phase of their own.
The leader of the Selenites is the Grand Lunar.  This being is smaller in size but commands a keen intellect.

Selenite (Ghosts of Albion)
Motivation: Serve the Colony
Critter Type: Alien
Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Constitution 1, Intelligence 3, Perception 4, Willpower 3
Ability Scores: Muscle 8, Combat 7, Brains 9
Life Points: 30
Drama Points: 1
Qualities: Acute Senses (sight)
Drawbacks: Attractiveness -2
Skills: Armed Mayhem 1

Combat Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
claw(x2) 7 4 bash
stun gun 7 6 +Con check stun

Selenite (OSR/Basic/S&W/D&D)
Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 8 [11]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4) or solar gun (1d6 + stun, save vs. Paralysis)
Move: 18'
Save: F2
Alignment: Neutral
Challenge/XP: 2/200

The Grand Lunar has no move, lesser strength (1 and 5) but very high intelligence (7 and 20).
If you game uses psionics then there is a chance "he" has them.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else does!

I am also participating in the May Monster Madness.  So today is my first post for that.
http://www.anniewalls.com/2013/04/may-monster-madness-sign-up-linky-list.html

WIP it Good!

Ok so sue me.  I am participating in another blogfest.


The WIP It Good Blogfest
http://dlcruisingaltitude.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-wip-it-good-blogfest.html

I am going to be talking about Eldritch Witchery!

I know, I have been talking about EW since before The Witch came out.
But on May 31st I am also going to do my new cover reveal! I got a new cover that I am just dying to share.

May is another busy month here.

White Dwarf Wednesday #63

White Dwarf Wednesday is back!  Ok, I only took a week off, but hey.
We are up to issue 63 now which is from March 1985. So let's put on some old Cult, grab a New Coke jump into our Deloreans and have a go. The cover takes me back to some of the older WDs. Some orcs attacking courtesy of Gino D'Achille.

Ian Livingstone covers a lot of ground in his editorial on licenses and licensing.  The gist I get from it all. D&D is more or less a "brand" at this point (look at today in fact with Warner buying the D&D rights for a new film).

First up an article on Traveller vehicles, a follow-up to an article all the way back from Issue 43.

Open Box comes next with reviews of The Runemagic series, a game I have never heard of (there is an Obscure RPG!) from a company I have never heard of, Triffid Software Research.  Mike White gives it 8/10 but for the life of me I can't see why.  Not that the game sounds bad, it reads like RuneQuest Lite, but I can't figure out what the game is about beyond that.  This is followed by the classic Toon from Steve Jackson Games.  Interestingly enough the first RPG I ever knew about that did not have character death. Cause as we all know, cartoons can't die.  Stephen Kyle gives it a deserved 9/10 (10/10 for enjoyment).
We also get a couple of Starfleet Battles books (Star Trek III 8/10 and SFB Vol. II 7/10) and some D&D modules, B6 (9/10) and XL1 (4/10).  Graham Staplehurst saying the module XL1 is like everyone's first dungeon and this one seems to want to sell toys to you.

Part 5 of Eye of Newt is next. More on magic item creation for AD&D. This one focusing on Miscellanea.  I like this idea, but it also robs magic items a bit of their mystery.  Maybe the secret to crafting a Wand of Wonder is lost.
Part 3 of The Dark Usurper is after some ads.

The best entry in the issue is "Draw the Blinds on Yesterday" a Call of Cthuhlu adventure. A nice little adventure that draws together some neat ideas from the 1920s COC and modern age.

Tabletop Heroes covers doing settings for your minis.
Fiend Factory has some mountain encounters, only 4 creatures.
Starbase introduces "Imperial Trooper" to Traveller.
And Treasure Chest has some advice for the travelling Halfling in AD&D/D&D.

With the exception of the Call of Cthulhu adventure this was only a so-so issue. If you were not following some of the past issues then this one of Part 5s and Part3s would be lost on you.

Plays Well With Others: Amazing Adventures + Codex Celtarum

I am working on my review for the Castles & Crusades book Codex Celtarum (short version, I love it, I am so jealous I can't see straight, it is that brilliant!).  So I have been reading it and re-reading a bunch of my C&C books.  And it dawned on me.

Codex Celtarum is a "world book" so to speak for the C&C world.  It ads a Celt flavor to things, but most importantly it has rules for playing in a Fae inspired world.

Amazing Adventures is a Pulp Earth turned up to 11.

Since both are based on C&C they are 100% (or 95%) compatible with each other.  Here I thought I was going to gear up to play an awesome Celtic-infused game of Castles & Crusades, but I think now what would be 10x cooler is a Celtic/Fae soaked Amazing Adventures game!

Steal some ideas from Guardians of Order's Dreaming Cities and have a world where magic is real and everyone knows it and there are fae all over the place!

Yeah. This would be cool in the extreme.
Stay tuned for more on this.

Catgirls for Old Scool Games

Here is a version of the Catgirl for "Race as a Class" flavors of Old School Games.

Catgirl spotted at Gen Con 2009

Nekojin
Requirements: DEX 9
Prime Requisite: DEX and CHA
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 9
Weapons: Any (must be modified)
Armor: none or leather only
Poison/Oil/HolyWater: Yes to all

Nekojin, aka Catgirls/Catboys, are a humanoid race that have prominent cat-like features.  These include furry cat ears on the the top of their head, cat eyes, canine ..feline teeth and whiskers. Their pupils are slits like that of a cat. They also have long cat tails and their hands and feet resemble a cross between cat paws and humanoid hands and feet.  Their nails are in fact retractable claws.   They typically weigh about 110 pounds and are between 5 and 5½ feet tall. Their human-ish faces give them the look of kittens. This, in addition their size, often lead non-Nekojin to treat them as if they were younger than they truly are.

The typical nekojin can live to about 50 years of age. They reach maturity by age 7 and will begin adventuring between  ages 6 and 8. Nekojin have their own language, but they can also learn the language of humans (Common) and Elves (Sylvan).

Nekojin can use any weapon that has been modified for their hands (increased cost +25%), but they avoid armor except for leather.   A nekojin  must have at least 12 in both prime requisites in order to get the +5% to experience. They must also have a DEX of 16 and a CHA of 13 to get the +10% bonus.

Nekojin see very well int eh dark and they have ultravision out 120'.  This combined with their sense of smell and superior hearing means a nekojin is only surprised on a roll of 1 on a 1d6.  Nekojin though can not see in color.  They gain a bonus when facing illusions, adding a +1 bonus to any save on illusion or phantasm based magic.  Due their sight nekojin can also detect an invisible creature when actively looking on a 1-2 on a 1d6. This includes creatures such as ghosts that might be ethereal rather than just invisible.

Nekojin also have the following thief skills of thief of the same level: Move Silently, Climb Walls, Hide in Shadows, and Hear Noise.  The nekojin can add +1 point of damage per level (max +9) to any sneak attack.

Falling: A nekojin can reduce falling damage by twisting and landing on her feet.  For each level of experience or HD she can ignore 10 feet worth of falling damage.  So a 7th level nekojin can fall 70 feet with no damage. At 100 ft she would only take damage as if she fell 30 feet.  This ability is partially due to her agility and biology, but many scholars also feel it is supernatural in nature.

Nekojin have a maximum level of 9th.  At 9th level they they may settle down to form a small Pride.

Table 1: Nekojin Advancement and Saving Throws

Nekojin		HD	Saves
Level	XP Required	1d6	Death	Wands	Paralysis	Dragon Breath	Spells
1	0	1d6	12	14	12	16	15
2	2,000	2d6	12	14	12	16	15
3	4,000	3d6	12	14	12	16	15
4	8,000	4d6	10	12	11	14	13
5	16,000	5d6	10	12	11	14	13
6	32,000	6d6	10	12	11	14	13
7	64,000	7d6	8	10	9	12	11
8	128,000	8d6	8	10	9	12	11
9	256,000	9d6	8	10	9	12	11

Table 2: Nekojin to Hit vs. AC

To Hit
Level	-4	-3	-2	-1	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7
2	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7
3	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6
4	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6
5	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5
6	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5
7	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4
8	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4
9	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3

OGL Section 15
"Nekojin for Basic Era Games" Copyright 2013 Timothy S. Brannan
All text is released as Open under the Open Game License.

ETA: Thanks to +Benjamin Baugh for reminding me of falling.

Review: Tacky, Tawdry and Tasteless: the Reality Show RPG

I have been neglecting my reviews.
So I am going to feature some games I have bought in the last few months.

Tacky, Tawdry and Tasteless: the Reality Show RPG
From Spectrum Games

A great game that comes in at just under 10 pages. Spectrum Games has made a name for themselves in Genre Emulation.  Since Reality TV is often criticized as not needing any writers, the game brilliantly is equally as brief.  Foregoing the typical "this is an RPG" section, the game gets right into the various types of reality TV shows are discussed.  Once your group decides what sort of game they are going to do (or maybe your Director has decided for you) and then you go!
You then need to make your character. You figure out your name and stereotype then roll your stats. Figure out your positive and negative qualities and you are good to go!  Like other Spectrum Games these qualities are not listed; instead you decide what they need to be.  Typically these are needed to point out some character flaw your character has.
For rules, the only checks are ability checks (roll under, apply qualities as needed) and dramatic checks.
You also get "Edit Tokens" which work a lot like Drama Points.  Tokens are awarded for good roleplaying and Sticking to Genre.  You can also spend your tokens to change what is going on; such a "Oh No You Dit'unt!" and "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere!".
The basic structure of a game is also laid out, including Commercial Breaks.  These can affect the Shows "Popularity" this can affect the amount of Edit Tokens the players can get.

The game is fast and is great for a like minded group. Given the nature of reality TV you could have enough material here for several "episodes" of material.

Personally I'd like to try it out sometime with people bringing in characters from any game and do a reality "TV Show" where all these characters have to live together in a house in between their normal adventures.

Is the OSR Fundamentalism?

D&D, and by extension much of the OSR, has a problem.  It must innovate, or be considered "old fashioned" and yet it must also adhere to a certain set of expectations of be considered too far away from the concept.  For many 4e was a step too far, for others 3e was.
Wizards of the Coast gets to chart out the next version of D&D once more and they will have to make some changes to game to keep it financially viable.

Boing Boing has an interesting point of view on this in a new article by Peter Bebergal.
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/06/old-school-dungeons-dragons.html

You can read that article and come to your own conclusions and thoughts.  I want to focus on one bit of it though; is the OSR D&D Fundamentalism?

Certainly a lot of us are here because we think "the old ways are best" or even out nostalgia.
I have been pretty much focused on B/X D&D over the last year or so myself.  Part of it is fun, part of it is nostalgia for sure.

Do we though as a group eschew innovation for an "old school" feel?  Or more to the point, a "proper old school" feel.  For example I like drama points in my games. It gives the characters a chance to do heroic things, it works great in other games AND I can find examples of their use in the various "Appendix N" games.  Honestly, read the John Carter books and tell me he wasn't burning drama points when fighting the Green Martians, Thakrs or First Born in various books.

Sometimes using ability checks are nice, but so are skills.  Multiclassing in 3e was far better than anything before (or after).  Swords & Wizardry has some nice ideas above and beyond OD&D.  I have seen add-ons that allow skills, feats and other such "improvements" to older games.

I suppose the question lies in what sort of experience you want to have.  If that is the case I have had some fantastic "D&D experiences" using WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion, while having some games where I felt I was nothing more than a ref with some (unnamed) versions of the Grand Old Game.

I do know this.  Wizards will have to update D&D. It is going to be impossible to make it all things to all players.  Look at all the various retro-clone rules we have now.  We can't even as a group agree on what cloned version we like the best and we represent a tiny, mostly homogeneous, demographic.
True, all these games are really 95% or better compatible out of the box and 100% compatible with a little imagination.

What do you think?

Kickstarters for Monday

Here are some Kickstarters I am tracking this fine Monday morning.

The Victorian Academy of Magick Book
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/415194828/the-victorian-academy-of-magick-book

Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800609645/cartoon-action-hour-season-3

Adventure Maximus!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/adventure-maximus

Tome of Horrors Complete - 28mm Heroic Scale Miniatures
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/centerstageminis/tome-of-horrors-complete-28mm-heroic-scale-miniatu

Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deep-bestiary


Re-Creating AD&D Module Cover Paintings Part 1, by Jeff Dee
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/1227941745?token=95c6d060

That's quite a bit.  Most are already funded and are now hitting some cool stretch goals.
Adventure Maximus! is a new game by Eden Studios' own George Vasilakos.  It is an introduce kids to RPGs RPG and I think it has a quite a lot of potential. It's a bit more ambitious than the others I think.  Not in terms of amount needed to be raised, but also the audience.  I'd like to see it do well to be honest.

What is Obscure? Obscure RPGs.

I'll admit. I consider myself well informed on all sorts of topics related to RPGs.  I get to go to a lot of auctions, talk to people online and spent quite a lot of time editing and researching RPG articles on Wikipedia.
But there is always some game that comes up that surprises me. More to the point it also seems to be a game that has a small, but dedicated following.

That is why I am looking forward to the Obscure RPG Appreciation Day hosted by Mesmerized by Sirens.

I was in my game room looking over books.  The deal is the obscure RPG has to be Fantasy. I have a lot of Obscure Horror.  Hmm.

I have an idea of what I want to do, and I think it might even be a good choice for me in particular.

But mostly I am looking forward to see what everyone else is going to do.   So I'd like to see a lot of participants in this for purely selfish reasons.  I want to know what little hidden gems are in your collection that I might not know about.

Zatannurday: Tumblr

I have been playing around with Tumblr of late.

No idea what to do with it that I can't do here.  But all the cool kids seem to have it. http://timsbrannan.tumblr.com/

The thing is it seems to be perfect for pictures.
So I went on and searched for a bunch of Zatanna images.

http://comicbookcosplay.tumblr.com/tagged/zatanna
This one is great, all sort of Zatanna cosplay on Tumblr.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/zatanna
This is just a search of posts tagged "zatanna".

Here are some of my recent faves.

Cartoon Action Hour Season 3

A while back I reviewed Cartoon Action Hour Season 2. A great, really fun game. Especially if you grew up in the 80s.

Well Spectrum is up with their new Kickstarter for Cartoon Action Hour Season 3.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800609645/cartoon-action-hour-season-3

Open for only about and hour and half so far (at the time of this posting) and it is doing well.

Lots of levels to pledge at including some early-bird ones to get some discounts.

Looking forward to this one.

Blogfests

Doing the A to Z was not enough for me so I am signing up for a few more blogfests.

I like these things.  They help me stretch my creative muscles and give me something special to work for.
Plus it exposes my blog and work to others that might not seek me out.

May Monster Madness
http://littlegothichorrors.blogspot.com/2013/04/second-annual-may-monster-madness-blog.html
http://www.anniewalls.com/2013/04/may-monster-madness-sign-up-linky-list.html
http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com.au/

I love monsters as you might be able to tell.  So I am going to try to post something each day of this.  My hope would be to post something to promote Eldritch Witchery some more.

The Best and Worst Remakes Blogfest
http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-to-z-challenge-memento-meant-to-live.html

From the King of Blogfests, Alex Cavanaugh.  I am not sure what I going to do here yet, but I am certain it will be horror related.

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/03/hop-against-homophobia-and-transphobia_15.html

I have never been shy about the fact that I support equal rights for everyone. In particular I have been a strong supporter of gay rights and freedom to marry rights.  So I am very pleased to be part of this one.  Since this hop is focused on authors I am going to talk about some characters.  Honestly no idea who yet.

Towel Day Blogfest
http://lgkeltner.blogspot.com/2013/04/announcing-towel-day-blogfest.html

This one is easy.  I am going to talk about what is the best RPG to play a "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" game.

May ends with:

The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day
http://mesmerizedbysirens.blogspot.com/2013/05/announcing-obscure-fantasy-rpgs.html
(no image yet, but here is one from the site)

This will be a bunch of blogs talking about their favorite pre 90s fantasy RPGs.  I think I know which one I want to do.


Heroes & Villains Blogfest 
http://danibertrand.blogspot.com/2013/04/u-unfair-ultraviolet-blogfest-unveiled.html

This one is very new to me.  I am sure I can come up with something in the next month!

There you have it!  Watch for these over the next month.

Help a Brother Out? Part 2

So last month I posted about wanting a Dragon Age figure.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/04/help-brother-out-aka-d-is-for-dragon-age.html

Well thanks to +The House of Fun I now have my figure!
http://www.thehouseoffun.com/news.php

Yeah I opened her, I am not a big time collector.  I like them out of the boxes.

Mixing my video games a bit.

Comparing her size to some of my other witches. She is taller than most.

Quite a gathering in the Halliwell's attic.  Wonder what is going on to need all this magical firepower?

House of fun could not have been easier to work with!  Thanks so much.

Migraine...

Hey all.

I have to postpone White Dwarf Wednesday today due to a bad migraine.

I'll get it put up when I can.

A to Z 2013 Reflections

The April A to Z is over.

This year I stuck with a theme and I find that more enjoyable.  I posted a lot of new demons and demon types, all of which will appear (with many more) in my next book, Eldritch Witchery.

I managed to visit every single blog in the Challenge.  I saw far less dead blogs or advertising blogs this year, thanks to the teams each of the hosts had to patrol the blogs.  I did see a lot of posts and replies back to posts on blogs as well.  Few RPG blogs in the mix this year, but there were a couple that were new to me.

I am not sure how my numbers came in.  I have been suffering from worsening migraines all month. In fact I would not have been able to do this at all if I hadn't written many of these posts a while back.  I do know my hits were slightly up, but I have a bunch of new followers.  I followed a lot of new blogs too.

I am beginning to wonder though if the A to Z is now too big.  The idea was to visit a lot of very different blogs, but at the size it is getting makes me wonder about the utility of that.  While I did visit every blog, I didn't leave comments on all of them.  Maybe on that particular day they were not posting anything I wanted to comment on.   Also many blogs didn't have their Google Friend Connect set up to be followed.

There is the Reflections Blog Hop. It's not open yet, but will be tomorrow. So I am going to try to hit all of those blogs as well.

Once again I did two blogs. The Other Side and one I share, Red Sonja she-devil With a Sword.
Next year (if I do it) I'll include Amazon Princess, a Wonder Woman blog I also share.

If you are looking for another Blog Hop may I suggest L.G. Keltner's Towel Day Blog Hop.

I am going to do games that would be good to emulate Douglas Adams' Universe here and then talk about the man himself over at my other blog The Freedom of Nonbelief.  So please sign up and join me on this one!

Goodbye Marvel Superhero Roleplaying

Today is the last day.

Due to a licensing change with Marvel, Margaret Weiss Productions will no longer be selling Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

MHR is a great game, but you need the right group to do it.  That might have factored into the sales vs. licensing equation.  In any case get these game books today while you can.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Basic Game
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event Book (Essentials Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event Book (Premium Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Annihilation Event Book (Essentials Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Annihilation Event Book (Premium Edition)

At midnight tonight they are all gone.

Z is for Zsusr

This is it!
For the last demon I want to give you something completely original.

Back in the early 90s I was working on getting into grad school in psychology.  I wanted something on my resume that would looks good and give me the time at night to study for the GRE.  So I took a job as the night QMHP (Qualified Mental Health Professional) at a local group home for schizophrenics.
One night one of the patients was playing with the house's dog, Sussie. He came into my office later and informed me we needed to get rid of the dog because, as he said in his slurred speech, that "Zsusr" was another name for the devil and the dog was possessed.  I told him that was not the case.  He decided that he just wasn't going to talk to the dog anymore.

So I have wanted to bring Zsusr into my games now for a long time.

Little is know about the Demon Princess Zsusr. Occult scholars have had difficulty recording the experiences others have had of her since she tends to leave all who have contact with her as deranged imbeciles  She appears as a tall, dark skinned woman of middle age. Her clothing will vary, and sometimes she will appear completely unclothed, but that is not her most striking feature.  Zsusr has the head of a dog and her legs are the hind-quaters of a dog as well.  Her dog head is incapable of human speech, but she can communicate telepathically with anyone capable of speech.  Her "voice" sounds like a sonorus whisper; soft but clearly heard by all.  When hearing her voice for the first time a victim must save vs Will, Wisdom or Charm (whatever is appropriate) or permanently loose 1 point of Intelligence.  This save must be made on each new encounter with Zsusr.  Zususr also has other methods to keep those in her thrall.  She can regurgitate a worm that she places in the mouths of her victims.  They must save vs. Poison/Constitution/Fortitude or the worm will find its way to the victims brain, then they will permanently loose 3 points of Intelligence (1 in Ghosts of Albion/Unisystem).

As a demon Princess Zsusr has 700 legions of dog headed demons she may call upon; such as Umu, Glabrezu, Yeth, Hell Hounds and Shucks. But it is rumored that her ties lie elsewhere.  It said that despite being a powerful demon she is also a member, some say the highest member, of the Cult of the Whispering God.
Zsusr may also cast spells as a witch of 5th level.

Zsusr (OSR/Basic)
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 60'
Armor Class: 2 (17)
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 90 hp (18+9 HD)
Attacks: claw (x2), bite
Damage: 1d8+2 (x2), 1d10
Special: Immune to fire, Intelligence drain
Save: F18
MORALE: 10
Hoard Class: NA
XP: 6,000


Zsusr  (Ghosts of Albion)

Creature Type: Demonic Lord
Life Points: 60
Drama Points: 3

Attributes
Str: 5
Dex: 4
Con: 6
Int: 5
Per: 7
Will: 8

Armed Mayhem: 7, Fisticuffs: 7, Occult knowledge: 8,

Special Abilities: Demon, Fear, Hard to Kill, Increased Life Points, Intelligence Drain, Lesser Sensing, Magic 5, Occult Library (Good), Resistance (Fire).
Anyone seeing Zsusr for the first time must make a Fear check (Willpower x2) or loose 1 point of Int.

Manoeuvres
Name Score Damage Notes
Claw +11 12 Slash/stab
Bite +11 19 Slash/stab

Deflect +21 - Magic defence action; deflects spell 45˚

Spells +21 - varies by spell

Y is for Yaksas/Yaksha/Yakshini

I have a theory.  My theory is that the names of theological demons were all invented (this is not a theory, but true) by monks and theologians with a little spare time on their hands.  They started with A and worked their way down.  This is why we have so man "A" demons but almost no "Y" ones.  ;)
I know that theory has a lot of holes in it. But the data remains.  I think I could have posted an "A" demon every day.  Y on the other hand  doesn't give me a lot of choices.

Yaksas/Yaksha

The yakṣa or yaksha is nature spirit from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist literature/myth.  They can either be good (or least inoffensive) or evil.  There also seems to be a difference between the male yaksha and the female yakṣiṇīs or yakshini.  They share a relationship with the Rakshasa.

I had mentioned previously that myths and folklore rarely conform to the needs of any RPG.  In D&D terms the yaksha might be demons or even something like faeries.  There are numerous stories featuring these creatures, giving them the rough feel to me as fae.

Yaksha/Yakshini
Armor Class:  5 [14]
Hit Dice: 4d8+12* (30 hp)
No. of Attacks: 1 by weapon (long sword) or spell
Damage: 1d8+3
Special: immune to fear
Movement: 60’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 5
Morale: 10
Treasure: None
Alignment: See Below
XP: 550 / 650

The male Yaksha is a demonic creature related to the more powerful Rakshasa.  They appear as very tall humans with large tusks protruding from their lower jaw.  There is a claim that their eyes are one fire, but that is due to the orange/yellow coloring.  The Yaksha are very strong (18 str) and good fighters.  They are typically armed with a large curved blade.  Yaksha are almost always evil, though cases have been recorded of non-evil individuals.  Scholars have attempted to find a relationship between these creatures and the Oni.

Yakshini
Yakshini are the females of the Yaksha race.  They are very, very rare and in fact only 66 are known to exist.  Unlike their ogre like male counterpart the Yakshini are human looking.  They do not attack with weapons but rather rely on spells.  They can cast spells as a 4th level witch.  They are typically good (Law) in alignment.

Yakaha will not attack humans, if if ordered so by a Rakshasa if a Yakshini is present.  Rakshasas will seek out Yakshini as brides or consorts when possible.

Kickstarters of the Week

Y post up a little later today.  But here are some Kickstarters that caught my eye over the last week.

The Victorian Academy of Magick Book
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/415194828/the-victorian-academy-of-magick-book
Paul Voodini is running this one and it looks really cool.  I spoke with him a bit and it would make for a great background book in any magic-based Victorian era RPG.

To get an idea of what the book will be like, check out the Facebook page, The Victorian Academy of Magick, https://www.facebook.com/VictorianAcademyMagick

The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame for The Secret Fire RPG
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/georgestrayton/the-way-of-tree-shadow-and-flame-for-the-secret-fi

I reviewed the Secret Fire a while back and Tenkar brought this one up.  It looks pretty cool and I was pleasantly surprised with the Secret Fire.

Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose: Eleventh Collected Trade
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimbalent/tarot-witch-of-the-black-rose-eleventh-collected-t
Finally the 11th collected Tarot Witch of the Black Rose trade-paperback is up.
It already met it's funding so now it about the stretch goals.
I have stated up Tarot in the past and I like the character to be honest.

Dark Dungeons: The Movie
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/295102457/rpgs-are-evil-dark-dungeons-the-movie
I am not even sure what to say about this one.  You all know the Chick tract.
There was even an animated movie made of it once.

http://vimeo.com/17338896

I of course like my own MST3k treatment (two sites of many)
http://www.rpglibrary.org/inspiration/darkdungeons/intro.html
http://www.humpin.org/mst3kdd/

I might just have to throw some money at this one.

ETA:

The World's Worst Dungeon Crawl!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epiclevel/the-worlds-worst-dungeon-crawl

No idea yet. But it looks fantastic.  Though I do enjoy the line "Killing characters is easy, entertaining players is hard."

Zatannurday: X is for X-Rated

Ok so in "celebration" of today being X day, how about some Zatanna from the X-rated side of things.

The biggest trouble is with "porn" versions of superheroes is not that people are having sex (come on, that is WHY we get them) it's that often the producers of the adult movies do a better job than Hollywood does!  Not always, but sometimes.
I have a number of adult film actors and producers on my G+ and Facebook friends and they are every bit as geeky about this stuff as I am.
Here is a post by fellow gamer  Zak Sabbath on his site, Playing D&D With Porn Stars to pretty much the same conclusions.

So here are two examples of X-Rated Zatanna.  This post though will be safe for work.

I had previously mentioned Super-heroines in 3D before.  I bought it and watched, for research of course!
It stars Chanel Preston as Zee.

The movie itself is Point of View.  So it's like you are part of her...magic act.
Chanel looks great, but I didn't buy her as Zee at all.   I honestly only picked up for the Superhero content, I am not into POV porn.

The next one though is an example of what you can do if you pay attention to your source material.

The Dark Knight XXX: A Porn Parody works better as a B-rate Batman movie.  I also own this one (thanks to Vivid's on-demand service; we live in a Golden Age!). I am not going to get into it too deep to be honest, but there are a few things I did want to bring up.
First, for a Vivid porn, it is rather tame, but it also has a plot. Batman, upset about the defeat of Batgirl and Nightwing, is in exile.  Meanwhile, Bane is tearing up Gotham.

The scene with Joker and Batgirl is straight (more or less) from The Killing Joke.

The scene with Zatanna is what brings me to this movie.  It is Zee (Christy Mack) and Constantine. The actor is a better Constantine than Keanu Reeves was; he has the look and the accent.
Christy Mack looks more like Zee than Chanel Preston.   Though they forgot the fishnets.

She has a scene with Constantine (the impossibly named Clarke Kent), but that is it.

I give the producers credit for knowing their material and casting actors and actresses that look the part (Catwoman and Poison Ivy were great; Bane in here is scarier than Bane in TDKR).  I gotta say the Joker scene ala the Killing Joke made my geeky fan boy happy.

All in all this is still better than the Justice League Movie from 97 or the Doctor Strange movie from 20 years before that, and right now it is the closest we have to a Justice League movie.

X is for Xing-tian

Let's go to the other side of the world from the Wendigo to China, home of the Xing-tian.

The Xing-tian appears as an ogre with no head. Inspection reveals that if it had a head it had been cut off and healed; where the neck would be is a mass a scar tissue.  It has “eyes” where it’s nipple would be and a “mouth” over it’s navel, but these appear only to be markings.  The xing-tian can’t see, hear, eat, breathe, call out or communicate.  It is typically armed with a shield in one hand and an a large axe in the other.  It can feel the vibrations of people nearby.  They attack everything, including other xing-tian, and they always fight to the death.  When not fighting it can be found destroying anything in its path.

Xing-tian are literally about mindless destruction.  They attack anyone in their path and if no one is around they attack trees, rocks and animals.  They also represent a never-say-die spirit.

Xing-tian

Armor Class:  6 [13]
Hit Dice: 5d8+8* (30 hp)
No. of Attacks: 1 by weapon
Damage: 1d8
Special: immune to any spell that relies on senses, immune to gaze attacks, immune to fear
Movement: 75’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 6
Morale: 12 (will never, ever give up)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Evil (Chaos)
XP: 750


EDITED TO ADD: Jolie Du Pre' is doing Xing-tian too!
http://www.preciousmonsters.com/2013/04/blogging-from-to-z-accurate-xing-tian.html

W is for Wendigo

I grew up in Illinois.  At that time it was still possible for me to go to places like Dixon Mounds and see Indian/Native American burial sites and learn a lot about the people who lived here before I did.
I get that these were people and we were walking through their graves, but we were learning about them at the same time and that in my mind was much better.  Whatever the case it left me with a life long fascination with the native people of this area.

The Algonquin (and Illiniwek) people had a great mythology and SOOO under utilized in games or novels.  One creature that I always was fascinated with was the Wendigo. Yes. The Wendigo has been seen a lot in horror fiction, especially with the rise in popularity of werewolves and zombies.  But they are still very interesting.  The most famous one of course is The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood, followed by August Derleth's Ithaqua.

This is a creature that possess humans under conditions of extreme cold and hunger and gets them to become cannibals.  Also people that engaged in cannibalism were also at greater risk of possession.
The Wendigo is a spirit most times, unable to physically manifest in the world or interact with it.  That is until someone in a cold part of the world begins to despair and go hungry.  There are plenty of places in the world that are cold and these have hungry people, the Wendigo though chooses someone though that has or will resort to cannibalism to stay alive. Once this is done the Wendigo has access to the victim's heart.
With their heart frozen the victim becomes the physical Wendigo.  They appear lean and gaunt, but taller; as if stretched out.  Their hands become claws with vile blue talons.  Their entire appearance becomes more feral.  They appear to be something akin to a ghoul or even a starving were-wold mid transformation.  Their are constantly hungry, eating all the flesh they can though they never eat their fill.  Eventually the wendigo strains the host body too much and they die completely in a number of weeks.  Though there are rumors of giant wendigo, whose head reach the clouds that are thousands of years old.

Wendigo

Armor Class:  3 [16]
Hit Dice: 8d8+4* (40 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 claws / 1 bite / breath weapon
Damage: 1d6 / 1d6 / 1d6+3 / 1d8+5 (cold)
Special: breath weapon, fear, low-light vision (120’), scent, immunity to cold
Movement: 90’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 9
Morale: 9
Treasure: None
Alignment: Evil (Chaos)
XP: 1,000


The wendigo is completely immune to all cold based attacks.  It attacks with it's claws and bite and can emit a blast of freezing cold air up 4 times per day (save for half).
This demon shares a number of characteristics with were-creatures and undead.  A cleric can turn one as a Special Undead. Once a person is infected with a wendigo they can not be cured.

Superhero Friday!

My A to Z post will happen later today.
But I wanted to post on two of my favorite Superheroes Games.

I have talked about DC Adventures from Green Ronin many times and I still think it is one of the best supers games I own.  They currently have a new book out and sadly the last of the line.
DC Adventures Universe is what amounts to a campaign guide/world book, but it is also great history of the DC Comics world.  This makes it a good choice for gamers and fans of DC Comics.  What know the details of Gotham City or Metropolis?  They have them here!  What was the past like or what does the future hold?  Here you go.   I picked this up last night and I love it.   Plus if you are a fan of Trey's Warlord Wednesdays then they also detail the Hollow Earth of Skartaris.  As a gamer I think it is a great book.  As a fan of DC comics it is a fantastic book.

Sadly another line is ending too soon and the books will even be gone after today.
Due to a licensing change with Marvel, Margaret Weiss Productions will no longer be selling Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

I have also talked about Marvel here at great lengths.  MHR is a great game, but you need the right group to do it.  That might have factored into the sales vs. licensing equation.
But in any case get these game books today while you can.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Basic Game
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event Book (Essentials Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event Book (Premium Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Annihilation Event Book (Essentials Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Annihilation Event Book (Premium Edition)

Both games are great fun if you love super-heroes (and who doesn't?).

For new readers, here are the stats for both games for the Other Side's covergirl, Justice.
Justice for DC Adventures and Justice for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

Get these while you can!