October Movie Challenge: Female Vampire / Erotikill (1973)

Another Jess Franco / Lina Romay collaboration, although this is actually their first one.  In this she plays Countess Irina Karlstien (I think it was supposed to be Karnstien, of Carmilla fame) as a mute vampire that can only survive if she kills her lovers at the moment of orgasm.

The unedited "Female Vampire" version is more or less porn.  The edited "Erotikill" emphasized the horror elements.

Through out the movie Lina wanders around naked jumping from victim.
The characters seem to take magic and vampires as a given.  The medical examiner after an autopsy claims the victim was killed by a vampire and hardly anyone blinks an eye about it.  Maybe vampires were more common in Madeira then and I just don't remember it.

The most interesting thing about this movie are the number of different versions out there.  The version I have is 104 minutes. I have heard there is a 110 minute version as well but I have no idea what they cut from this one.

Erotikill had more blood than Female Vampire; which is to say it has some scenes of bloody mouths.  In the behind the scenes piece Franco wanted to be ambiguous about whether it was blood, semen or other fluids.  I guess the censors felt blood was less offensive.
Erotikill is only 70 minutes.



--
Tally so far:  5 Total Watched / 4 New (I am only counting these as 1 movie total)

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Fright Night 2 New Blood (2013)

Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013)

Fright Night 2 is described as a sequel to the 2011 remake, but really it is the exact same story as the 2011 and 1985 versions.  It is also listed as a horror/comedy, but there is really little of either.  Sure there is some gore and killing of victims, but nothing really compared to other ones I have seen.  Lots of fake blood splatters.

The differences are this one takes place in Romania and Jerry Dandridge is now Gerri Dandridge and is actuality Elizabeth Bathory.

All the same characters but they lack any of the charm of the earlier movies.

There is a neat scene where Gerri/Bathory uses a bat-like sonar to find some kids in a sewer.   The vampire creature she turns into in the end of the movie is kind of cool too, but that is about all the movie has going for it.

Too bad really, I was hoping for more.


--
Tally so far:  4 Total Watched / 3 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

Kickstart Your Weekend! Chill Edition

Once again we are being teased with a new version of Chill.

Chill 3rd Edition: A Horror Roleplaying Game
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playattentiongames/chill-3rd-edition-a-horror-roleplaying-game

My love of Chill is long, deep and well documented.  This new version looks really great.
The previous Chill 3.0 was good, but never made it out of playtest.

You can read more about the new Chill here: http://growlingdoorgames.com/chill.html

I have to say I am curious by what I see here!

October Movie Challenge: Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night (2011)

Remake of the classic 1985 Fright Night.  This time staring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell and David Tennant.

The original Fright Night blended horror and comedy quite well, this one...less so, but it is still an enjoyable flick.

Colin Farrell makes for a good vampire, but lacks the suaveness that Chris Sarandon brought to the role.  Though he does make for it in being dangerous.
Peter Vincent is changed from Roddy McDowall's horror host to David Tennant's creepy extreme magician.  It's not a bad change really, Tennant is great in anything he is in.

Like the first Fright Night this one is a fun romp through vampire mythos and generally doesn't take itself too serious.  Chris Sarandon even makes a cameo appearance.

It's a fun update, but no real new ground here.

--
Tally so far:  3 Total Watched / 2 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

Review: Actual Factual: Dracula - A Compendium of Vampires

Actual Factual: Dracula - A Compendium of Vampires is an unassuming book. The cover is stock art (I am guessing, not sure) and the preview is text with a small amount of art.  That and the $40 price tag (sale price $18) might scare some people off.

That would be a mistake.

Inside are 472 pages of detailed vampire types from all over the world.

In this book we are given a basic overview of vampires (aka the stuff everyone knows) and then we move quickly into the relationship between Vlad the Impaler and Vampires.  I will honestly say that this section, while entertaining seems tacked on.  The book would have been fine without it, but is likely better with it.

Next we get into the heart of this book.  The Compendium of Vampires.
The A to Z section detail vampires from around the world and not only represents the bulk of the book (340+ pages), but also the bulk of the research.

Each entry contains the name of the vampire, pronunciation and translation of the name. Also listed are it's country or area of origin, type of creature (creature, spirit, demon...), how it appears, prefered prey, how often it attacks or feeds, Modus Operandi, abilities, defenses against it and how to kill it.  Not every creature has everything listed, this is not a Monster Manual, but there are enough. In some cases the author has used her own imagination to fill in the blanks.  This is fine really, given that the author is Theresa Bane.
But I guess if you want something purer you can go to her pages of resources.

There is a bibliography, which is almost as interesting to read as the entries themselves.

What follows next really puts this book into a different category of usefulness, the indexes.
First is a more common index of words, names and other things you might want to find in the book.

Next is an index of Abilities.  So if you need a vampire that is Beautiful (as an ability) then you have GREEN OGRESS 124 and SUCCUBUS 274.

There is an index of Appearance.  So "barbed tongue" gives you:
ASWANG MANDURUGO 23
BICHOHINDU 44
GROBNIK 125
KRVOIJAC 164
UPIER 294
WIESZCZY 330 (one of my favorite barbed tongue vampires).

An Index on Creation.  Indexes of How Often it Attacks, How to Find, Origins, Prey, Types, and finally Weaknesses.

Now what would have been a nice touch would be to hyper link all these indexes to the main document.  But I am not complaining.

What the book lacks in art, there are only a few pieces, it makes up for in research and utility.
You can debate on whether or not Creature Y is a vampire or not, but I can't fault the authors for doing all this work.

All in all a great book.  A must have if you are at all a fan of vampires or use them in your games.

October Movie Challenge: Vampire Academy (2014)

Well this one was forced on me because my youngest wanted to watch it.  I am calling it horror...cause...well have you seen it?

Oh it is not good.

The plot is basically Vampires and their half-vampire/dhampir body guards all go to highschool together.  So vampires here age.  Ok.

And they go to High School.

Now to be fair this is based on a YA series and I don't think it translated well to the screen.  Sure. Harry Potter did (are there vampires in Harry Potter?) but not everything will.

There are plenty of horror elements and the vampires did remind me of the living and undead
vampires from the Hollows series. So I can at least get behind that.

The idea of a training ground for vampires has it's roots in the Scholomance.

--
Tally so far:  2 Total Watched / 1 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Lost Boys (1987)

Lets start this one off with a modern classic.
Lost Boys

I watched this one with my youngest and he loved it.  There is so much here that pretty much all modern interpretations of vampires have used.  True Blood, Buffy, Vampire$, even on to Underworld.  Though not Twilight.  Hell. There would be no Buffy without the Lost Boys.  Though I am sure there would have been no Lost Boys with out Anne Rice.  And...there is a lot of the Goonies in this, but still this is one classic movie.

I remember seeing this in the theaters back when it came out and I was expecting nothing.  Wow was I mistaken.   I pretty much turned around and saw it again.

Yeah there are some issues with how they handle vampire lore, but that scene where the David and the Lost Boys are hanging like bats in their coffin/cave.  That was pretty cool.

And lets not forget about that soundtrack.

It was pretty much a huge influence on me at the time and it came right when I had discovered Anne Rice after moving away a bit from Lovecraft.
So yeah I was a huge fan.

I wore the hell out of that black trenchcoat

Watching it again over 25 years later I noticed the movie had lost none of it's charm and even the parts I disliked I know looked on with amusement.  No one sparkled and the witty "current" language was kept to a minimum.

Normally I like to kick things of with something new, but this was a great way to start.

--
Tally so far:  1 Total Watched / 0 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

Movies Queued up so far

Here are some of the movies I am going to tackle in the next week or so.

Some I have seen, others I haven't.

Alucard (2008)
Alucarda (1978)
Billy the Kid vs Dracula (1966)
Black Sabbath (1963)
Blood + Roses (2010)
Count Yorga (1970)
Female Vampire / Erotikill (1973)
Fright Night (2011)
Fright Night 2 New Blood (2013)
Mario Salieri's Dracula (1994)
Return of Count Yorga (1971)
The Deathmaster (1972)
Zoltan Hound of Dracula (1978)

Should be fun!

Owl & Weasel Wednesday #12 January 1976

Sub-Titled *Special Late Edition* (a few days late according to the editorial).  The start of 1976 was an interesting time for me personally.  I am curious to see how the world looked through the eyes of a gaming zine across the ocean.

From now on when ever I am late for a schedule post I will simply relabel it "special late edition".

D&D-wise we start with a note on the front page that Blackmoor is now out. More on that on page 4.  I don't recall much in the way of fan fare when Greyhawk came out, but that could be due when D&D hit Britain's shores.

Page 3 goes into length about Games Day.

Page 4 details Blackmoor.  On one hand Steve Jackson claims it is Earth shattering, but on the other hand also says it is not quite as good as Greyhawk.  What he seems to like most about it are the revised to hit tables (thus giving characters a reason to wear a helmet) and more details on various monsters. He also claims that Temple of the Frog is a must for any Game Master.  Temple of the Frog was 10 years later republished as a new adventure.

Moving through the rest of the zine there is more on the game Organized Crime and a section of Pub Games (lest we forget this is still a more general game magazine and not yet an RPG one).

The "Orbituary" column is back to review games that have died or are no longer played (really, the idea of spend text space on something no reads or could read anymore...that's a special kind of obsessive!).  This month is Parker Brothers "Take the Brain". Which is described as a chess variant where pieces, Ninnies and Numbskulls, move about the board to capture a brain piece. Reviewer Kendall Johns decides that the game failed due to being marketed at the wrong audience. Aimed at children it really should have been dressed up more and aimed at adults.

Far less ads this issue and we are back down to our regular 12 pages, Page 1 is a page again, not a cover.

October is coming...

Starting at Midnight tonight October is here.

I have all my vampire movies queued up on Amazon and DVD.  Though a DVD I bought back in the summer to watch now is missing.  I am sure I will find it. Can't even remember what was on it to be honest.

http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/

My youngest wants to join in with me, so I am going to be watching some vampire movies that are good for him to watch as well.  Maybe some I have already seen. Lost Boys is on the list now.


It is also my oldest birthday coming up and he has requested a midnight D&D game.
It has to be scary (his request) and have vampires (mine).  I am thinking it will either be the original Ravenloft module or the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen.

I am leaning towards the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen.

The module is so gonzo. Plus this is a group of 14-15 year old boys.  So yeah.
I have run this group before and I have taken them through the Pacsetter Vampire Queen modules (here and here).

I am also planning on getting some more reviews done in October/November.

Busy month ahead!

Old Games

Contrary to some belief I am not an obsessive collector of games.  I have things I like and genres I follow and I usually stick to that.  Outside of those I am pretty much open.

This week the Games Plus Fall auction begins and I still have some time to get some of my books in.
I am planning on selling of some of my more recent Tunnels & Trolls purchases as well as the last of the True20 material I still have laying around.

I figure anything I have not played in 5 years is good to go and anything I am not likely to play in the next 3 is also good to go.  

Do ever pare down your collection?
If so, how do you decide what to sell and what to keep?

Kickstart Your Weekend - Gamer Pins

So I have a confession to make.  I love pins. I know, it's not big as far as confessions go.

Since I was in High School I would put pins on my book bags, backpacks or what ever.  I stopped when I started taking my laptop bag to work (save for a pink Breast Cancer Awareness one) but my gamer bag is almost covered in them.

Almost.

Which means I have room for some more!

The Sloping Companion Gamers Series Pin 1.0
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1551544047/the-sloping-companion-gamers-series-pin-10

This Kickstarter, now in it's final hours, have some great looking metal pins.
Frankly I love the d20 and d10 ones.  They even have the oft-neglected d12.

So please do them a favor, they are so close to making it and these look really, really nice.

Don't forget the Amazing Adventures RPG kickstarter is also in their final hours too.
Support them both!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/amazing-adventures-rpg

Doggerland = Middle Earth?

I saw this map on the internet last night.

It is Great Britain and North West Europe circa 15,000 BCE.

Tell that doesn't just fill you with all sorts of ideas.  This was during the Upper Paleolithic era, or late Stone Age.

NOW.  compare that to this map we all all know and love.

I don't know about you all, but my head is full of ideas!

The Amazing Adventures of Rachel Morgan

Wow. What a great week.  I finally got copy of "The Witch With No Name" and I have been doing a lot of stuff with Amazing Adventures.   I have also been going through all my material for the Castles & Crusades witch class.  

So I am seeing a lot of convergence here.

Amazing Adventures works well as a fully modern game as well as a Pulp era one.

I am toying with the idea that WIS is for casting Earth Magic, INT is good for Ley Line magic and CHA for Demonic and Elf magic.  Though I also really need for Rachel to be able to cast Astral Projection, she is 18th level.  True, the only real Astral plane is the Ever After so it should be a lower level spell.  But Rachel in WWNN is pretty damn powerful.

Camille as Rachel Morgan

Rachel Morgan
18th Level Witch (Amazing Adventures/C&C) (Arcanist)
Eclectic Tradition* (I have not worked out any traditions yet)
Race: Witch, now uncursed Demon

Strength: 12 (0)
Dexterity: 11 (0)
Constitution: 12 (0)
Intelligence: 15 (+1) P
Wisdom: 13 (+1) P
Charisma: 18 (+3) P

Hit Points:  70
Alignment: Chaotic Good
AC: 13 (Rachel likes leather)
BtH: +4
MEP: 114

Languages: English, Latin, Elven (native language is English)
Background: Runner (Law Enforcment) +4,
Traits: Spellgifted (demon curses)
Skill: Knowledge (Arcana)

Powers
Familiar: Bis the Gargoyle (ok Bis is not really her familiar, but close in this world).
Herb Use
Ritual Magic


Spells
Cantrips: (9) Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Light, Magical Aura, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Stun
First: (5+1) Change Self, Command, Daze, Identify, Shield, Sleep
Second: (5+1) Blur, Burning Hands, Hold Person, Knock, Pyrotechnics, Scare
Third: (4+1) Aid, Fear, Heat Metal, Nondetection, Remove Curse
Fourth: (4) Dispel Magic, Fear, Polymorph Self/Other, Seeming
Fifth: (4) Contact Other Plane, Magic Jar, Projection, True Seeing
Sixth: (3) Guards and Wards, Mislead, Veil
Seventh: (3) Power Word Stun, Teleport without Error, Word of Recall
Eighth: (2)  Symbol, Trap the Soul
Ninth: (1) Astral Projection

Magic Items
Splat-ball gun* (a paint ball gun with sleep potions in the paint balls).
Various charms, pain amulets, charmed handcuffs.

I like her!  I might need to fiddle with her stats just a bit to get the right feel, but I like what I have here.
Plus this will give a chance to try that Hollows/Dresden Files crossover I have been dying to do.

Don't forget the Amazing Adventures Kickstarter. Last Days!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/amazing-adventures-rpg

BTW Witch With No Name is Awesome! Love it.

Strange Brew Updates

You may have noticed a drop in posts here over the last month and half or so.

That is because I am working diligently on Strange Brew.

So far the spells, feats and skills are all done.  I should finish hexes in the next day or so.
I have completely re-worked my idea for witch traditions to play nicer with Pathfinder and I really like them a lot.

The Warlock class is done and we getting feedback from the backers now.

Still to do:
- Rework the base witch class just a little. Mostly some minor edits.
- Get the chapters on traditions, covens and patrons done.

When that is all done I will move on to the Castles & Crusades version.   I am so excited about that one.  I have so much I want to do with that.  The trick now is to edit things down to our promised page count.  Right now I am at 230% OVER page count.

I have other games on other burners too.  Lots of new Victorian stuff for at least 3, maybe three, different systems.

It's good to be busy!

Owl & Weasel Wednesday #11 December 1975

Today's look into the Owl & Weasel takes us all the way back to December 1975.  What do we have this month?  Well O&W has increased in size to 20 pages.  True the cover is now a proper cover and there are a lot more ads, oh and one page is for "notes" but still there is more content.

The biggest feature of this issue is the Game Day guide.  I love how intimate these old cons used to be.  Whether true or not it seems like everyone knew about everyone else.  The only thing I can relate it too was back in the 80s meeting up with various computer user groups; small, intimate and while not a lot to see, all of it very exciting.

Steve Jackson talks a bit on the changing nature of the British Gaming Scene and the "Adult Gaming Scene" in general.  His discussion links Monopoly to Diplomacy and to various "Com-Sim" games (Combat Simulation) and bookcase games (see Avalon Hill).  He discusses the growth of game magazines from 1974 on as well.  Of course he squarely puts the future of games on Dungeons & Dragons and Empire of the Petal Throne.  Though he also mistakenly states that games could give television a run for it's money.  Maybe not such a crazy idea in mid-70s Britain, but crazy by American standards (though TV here in the 70s was fairly dreadful).

Letters section is the first full page devoted to Empire of the Petal Throne.  A reader expresses his enjoyment of the game and Ian Livingstone gives us some more details about the game.   It's obvious that most fantasy is very Tolkien inspired at this point so EotPT must have felt like something so new and exciting.  Actually I still get that reading articles like this and only learning about the game much later in my gaming career.

There is another set of Chess variants mentioned.  Some ads. Actually, a lot of ads.
The "centerfold" covers Game Day events and a map.

The last page (ok page 18) is the Dungeons & Dragons page. It discusses hirelings and, interestingly enough, the release of the Strategic Review 4.  I guess at this point O&W and SR did not see themselves as competition to each other.  A nice change from how magazines today often work or act.  Even in the early days of White Dwarf and The Dragon there was more of a give and take between the two, at least until Imagine came on the scene.

I think what I am getting most out of these, as opposed to my overviews of White Dwarf, was the origins of the gaming culture.  Sure this is a very particular viewpoint based on a particular set of ethos.  The picture painted here is one were Wargamers and Role-Players (even if that word wasn't used just yet) got along in harmony or at the very lease stayed out of each other's way.  Given some of the posts on other gaming blogs, particularly Grognardia, that this was not always the case.
That being said there is a certain "yes we can do this!" attitude that is infectious and one I think would be good to adopt.  A time before edition wars.  I am not trying to glorify the "good old days" at all .  But the feeling of it is rather nice.

Feiya, Pathfinder Iconic Witch

I have been thinking and working a lot in Pathfinder for the last few weeks.  Gearing up for the release of Strange Brew.  I have been reading over all their witch material and that includes material on their iconic witch Feiya.

She certainly has an interesting background and one tailored to the Pathfinder/Golarian world.  But I have wondered, on a few occasions, on how she would fare in one of my worlds where witches have, how shall I say it,  a bit more freedom of expression.

So here is the Pathfinder Iconic Feiya as a Basic Witch.

In Pathfinder we have stats for her at 1st level, 7th level and 12th level.  Since I typically like to do stats at 1st, 7th and 13th level for witches this sounds good to me.

I am going to start with her 1st level stats and move out from there.  In the Basic Era abilities did not improve over time so they are locked in at 1st level.  I am going to swap her Intelligence and Charisma to reflect the different spell casting abilities.

Also given her background of being taught by Hags I am giving her the Faerie Tradition.

Feiya
Witch stats for the Witch for Basic Era Games
1st level Witch, Faerie (Hag) Tradition

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 18

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  13
Magic wand or devices: 14
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 13
Dragon Breath: 16
Rods, Staffs and Spells: 15

Hit Points: 3
Alignment: Neutral
AC: 7 (Leather Armor)

Occult Powers
Familiar:  Fox (+1 to Intelligence and Wisdom checks) "Daji"

Spells
Cantrips: Chill, Daze, Detect Curse, Object Reading, Open, Sound
First: Sickly

To hit AC 0: 20
Weapons: Dagger, Quaterstaff

Feiya
7th level Witch, Faerie (Hag) Tradition

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  11
Magic wand or devices: 12
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 11
Dragon Breath: 14
Rods, Staffs and Spells: 13

Hit Points: 19
Alignment: Neutral
AC: 6 (Leather Armor, Ring of Protection +1)

Occult Powers
Familiar:  Fox (+1 to Intelligence and Wisdom checks) "Daji"
Herb use
Lesser: Speak to Plants/Animals

Spells
Cantrips: Chill, Daze, Detect Curse, Object Reading, Open, Sound
First: Cause Fear, Charm Person, Sickly
Second: Levitate, Rose Garden
Third: Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic
Fourth: Emotion

To hit AC 0: 18

Feiya
13th level Witch, Faerie (Hag) Tradition

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  9
Magic wand or devices: 10
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 9
Dragon Breath: 12
Rods, Staffs and Spells: 11

Hit Points: 33
Alignment: Neutral
AC: 4 (Leather Armor, Ring of Protection +1, Bracers of defense +2 )

Occult Powers
Familiar:  Fox (+1 to Intelligence and Wisdom checks) "Daji"
Herb use
Lesser: Speak to Plants/Animals
Minor: Fae Shape (Hag)

Spells
Cantrips: Chill, Daze, Detect Curse, Object Reading, Open, Sound
First: Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Sickly
Second: Agony, Evil Eye, Levitate, Rose Garden
Third: Bestow Curse, Bewitch III, Dispel Magic
Fourth: Animal Growth, Emotion, Withering Touch
Fifth: Baleful Polymorph, Bull of Heaven
Sixth: Eye Bite, True Seeing
Seventh:Wave of Mutilation

To hit AC 0: 16


All in all similar powers but overall not as powerful.   But that is also part of the power growth between the Basic Era games and Pathfinder/3rd Era games.

But I really liked how she turned out.  I would love to use this character in a game someday.

Girls on Games

One of the things I will be forever thankful for from White Wolf is that it showed that gaming is for everyone.  Men, Women, diverse gender fluidity and sexual identities.

Yes D&D opened with Women in Gaming years before, but the approach was well...70s and 80s at best.  D&D is doing better these days, but if watching the battles our younger cousins over in video gaming are having then we still have a way to go yet.

To that end we have a new Kickstarter with just 3 days to go.

Girls on Games: A Look at the Fairer Side of the Industry
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/625614616/girls-on-games-a-look-at-the-fairer-side-of-the-in

It doesn't matter to me what your gender politics or your position on feminism is.
ANYTHING that make our hobby more inviting and inclusive is a good thing.

Plus, and here is the important bit, women still make the household buy choices in nearly all families (anywhere from 70% to 90%, Google it) and getting women into games gets the next generation into games.

So check out this Kickstarter and through some cash their way.

Advice for the Lapsed Gamer

+Erik Tenkar  over at his eponymous Tavern is starting a series on "OSR for the Lapsed Gamer" which is basically advice for people that have left the game and are now coming back.

http://www.tenkarstavern.com/search/label/osr%20for%20the%20lapsed%20gamer

This is a great thing.  I was just helping out someone this past weekend that wasn't really lapsed, but had no idea what to do with the OSR.

Looking forward to seeing what all he does with this.

Another Great 5e Weekend

It is the the first weekend of Fall (more or less) and that means a lot of yard work for me including cleaning up my wife's garden.  I don't mind. I love getting all the fresh veggies.

But this weekend was also a great 5th Edition D&D weekend.

Began our time picking up a couple copies of the newest Monster Manual.

The new Monster Manual is a damn attractive book.  Like so much of D&D5 it reads like a "greatest hits" of D&D.  Yest there is still plenty of room for more books especially a Fiend Folio.

Tonight the family explored the temple in Castle Amber.  They might more of the crazy Ambers and manged to get one character turned to stone.  Fortunately for the paladin, the sorcerer still had a wand of negation that could undo one magical effect.  So our paladin was back.

But the dice were cold tonight and we stopped after a couple of hours.  Still, more fun to be had at Castle Amber.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Amazing Adventures (again!)

It looks like it is going to be a great weekend!  Kids are doing good. The Monster Manual is out at my FLGS today. The weather will be nice.  I am sure I will be spending my weekend doing fall yard clean up; but even that is ok.

Let's talk Kickstarters.

Or more to the point let me draw your attention back to a Kickstarter I featured a couple weeks back.

Amazing Adventures RPG
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/amazing-adventures-rpg

If you like Castles & Crusades then get this.
If you like Pulp adventures, then get this.

IF you ever wanted to play an OSR-style game in a modern setting then this is a must have.

Normally I HATE level-based modern games, but this game really changed my mind.

They are trying to reach $20,000 which gives you a lot of nice perks. I'd love to see this game do well.

Tools of the Trade

None gaming post today.  I have been clearing out a bunch of old computers and software to either get rid of or sell on eBay.

Often times when we write about writing in general and blogging in particular we talk a lot about where ideas come from, how to get more readers or even how much writing everyday is important.  This is all true, and important, but that is not the type of tools I mean today.

Hardware

Look down.  There. See it, it's your keyboard.  What is your relationship with your keyboard?

I blog every day.  I write in addition to that and there is that day job too.  I spend a lot of time with my fingers on my keyboard.  My favorite keyboard is the one I have at home, the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000. It is the silver one and long, long out of stock.  I wrote Ghosts of Albion on it and it is by far the most comfortable keyboard I have ever used.  I never expected to find a replacement for my old beatup Gateway 2000 124 key programmable keyboard, but this one is fantastic.

Here is my main computer, Frankencomputer (I built it from spare parts).  It's not much more than a web-machine and word processor which is what I want when I am writing.  It run Ubuntu Linux and I use Google Drive for all my work. The keyboard is actually worth more to me than the rest of the computer.  If I am going to sit and pound away on a keyboard then it needs to be comfortable to me.

This is my second 6000 keyboard in truth.  I bought this one off of eBay for an ungodly price and still consider it money well spent.  It has the right curve for my hands and can elevate to the right height so I don't get fatigue while typing. Plus it is the same keyboard Weird Al has in his song "White & Nerdy".  A song that is not about me at all. Really. Honest.

Software

I was reading the other week that George R. R. Martin, when he is not plotting to kill every character you love, sits in front of his old DOS machine and types his books into WordStar 4.0.  Piers Anthony once mentioned that back in the day he paid a programmer to reverse engineer his favorite word processor from CP/M to MS-DOS. Laurel K. Hamilton did her first writing on a manual typewriter and still thinks of things in terms of page counts and not word counts.  I am sure there are many more examples, but the point is clear. We get used to something for our writing and we like to stick with it.   Myself, I am an Microsoft Word fan.  I have been using it for years, since version 1.1 and Office 4.3.  I have gotten very comfortable with it and have lost count of the number of hours I have spent in it.

So then am I switching over to Google Drive?
Well while I still use Word one of the things it promised and never really delivered on was real time collaboration.   With the Google Drive word processor I can work with others and see their edits real time. We can chat and discuss what it is we are doing and why.  Plus I have lost count of the number of docs I have lost carting them from one computer to another, either on floppy disk or flash drive. And then when I manage to get it to another computer (say from work to home) I have to deal with whether or not the computer can read the file format and version control.  The only thing worse than loosing a document is to spend hours adding to a draft that is already 3 revisions old.

So how about you?
What are your writing needs? Special keyboard? Software? Maybe it is your best comfy chair.

Building a 5e Warlock

I have been playing around a little (very little really) with the Warlocks in 5e.  My son has made one and I have two that I started but have not gotten back too.

Though I like what I have played with so far.  The 5e Warlock is a nice mix of the 4e Warlock and even a little bit of the 4e Witch.

Concept wise I can build a number of "witch like" characters and can build a number of other sorts of warlocks and witches.  Again, the class is so nicely set-up that their is no real need for me to build a witch for 5e.

I have a couple more experiments with the 5e warlock to try out, but so far so good.

This video came up in my feeds as something that I would like and you know what, I did.
It is too simple for anyone reading this blog, but still a nice walk through.

Owl & Weasel Wednesday #10 November 1975

Owl & Weasel #10 represents a shift in O&W.  The biggest shift is a slight change in layout and font that makes it look more like a magazine than a newsletter that a couple guys rolled off in their spare time. That's not a jab at it, that is exactly what it was/is and that is fine.  But now it is looking better doing it.

First up are some house rules for Diplomacy.  Again this is a game I have heard about forever but never played.  I think it is one of those games that really is the dividing line between the hard core board gamers and the the first RPG gamers that were solely RPGers.

Page 5 gives us something interesting and fairly unique.  An obituary column for "dead" games.   Obviously in today's market such a thing is self-defeating with so many games coming back.  But still it is kind of interesting.  The game in question is Pokol; which is described as a Scrabble-like game that uses cards instead of tiles.

A couple of chess variants are introduced such as "Random Chess" where the "Court" piece are drawn from a hat placed randomly on their row.  "The Maharajah and the Sepoys" which one side is set up as normal, but the other only has a King (the Maharajah) and he can move like any piece on the board including a knight.  Sounds interesting to be honest.

The second biggest shift is the inclusion of new D&D content.  In this case O&W republishes the Ranger class that had appeared in the pages of the Strategic Review #2 from the Summer of 75.  There is no mention of having permission to so that I can find, but I have not heard otherwise to be honest. There is a mention of "Joe Fischer © TSR" who was the author of the original.

Obviously D&D is still of interest to the guys at O&W but it is still relegated to the back of the zine.  Though keep in mind, this is still just 1975.  The Strategic Review is only 2-3 issues in and D&D is only a little more than a year old.  We are also only 2/5ths through the O&W zines.  It will be interesting to see where it goes.

October is coming

Well it is getting down in temperature here and my thoughts are turning to October.

October is usually a busy time around here. both here at home and at The Other Side.

This October I am planning to participate in two blogfests.

Horror Movie Challenge
As normal I am going to participate in the October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.
http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-october-challenge-2014-edition.html
To add a little extra challenge to my challenge I am only watching vampire themed movies this year.

Witches in Fiction
I am also participating in Magaly Guerrero's Witches in Fiction blogfest.
http://pagan-culture.blogspot.com/2014/08/witches-in-fiction-2014-crafting.html

This is an opportunity to complete some bit of witch related fiction that has been languishing on my hard drive or brain.   The challenge here is what NOT to do!  I have so much to choose from.

I am looking forward to both of these.

Still Alive

I am still here.

Have had a couple of sick kids (must be the start of the school year) so my "free" time has been reduced to nothing.  Plus we didn't do our planned gaming this weekend.

I am sure it is only a matter of time before I get what they got.

Zatannurday: Darwyn Cooke Alternate Covers

If any artist captures what I feel should be the soul of DC comics it is Darwyn Cooke.

Well Darwyn is doing alternate covers for the various issues #37 out in December and they look awesome.

http://www.newsarama.com/22076-dc-reveals-december-variant-cover-theme.html

The cover for JLDark looks great.

Though I would have wanted to see more Zatanna and John.

You can see all the covers here too.
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2014/09/darwyn-cooke-does-variant-covers-in.html

And to celebrate here are some more of his Zatannas!

Kickstart Your Weekend: That 70s Kickstarter

Today I have three new(ish) Kickstarters that all have their roots in the late 70s.  Either in tone, feel or in gaming.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marktaormino/maximum-mayhem-dungeon-2-secret-machines-of-the-st
Brought to us by the same group that gave us "The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen".  Only this time it is more of a tribute to Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.  Only more gonzo. And 100% more Chocolate Thunder.  If you liked "Hanging Coffins" (and I did) then this should be fun.
Some of the things that could have ended up looking gimmicky, like the 3D glasses, seem to work here.  It is funded but there are a lot of nice add-ons.

I was part of the Hanging Coffins Kickstarter and outside of the product Mark's communication was great.  There was a slight delay, but he let everyone know and still got the books out under his modestly revised schedule.  I can't complain at all.


Spirit of 77 - a Funky 1970's Tabletop Role-Playing Game
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monkeyfunstudios/spirit-of-77-a-funky-1970s-tabletop-role-playing-g
Another one that looks awesome is Spirit of 77.  I have talked about 70s-era role-playing before.  This game looks ridiculously fun.  For me the entire game was sold on this image,

Luchadore vs. Bigfoot?  Sign me the hell up!  The only thing that would have been more awesome would have been fat Elvis vs. Bigfoot.

This one is also funded.  I would love to get this, but use it as background material for my own Spirit of '76 game I want to run under Chill.

Time of the Dying Stars: Book One
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/665143704/time-of-the-dying-stars-book-one
Another one that takes it's cues from the 70s, but is really more of an early 80s homage is Time of the Dying Stars.  A collection of short stories set in the City of Dolmvay.
I love the idea of Dolmvay and am happy to see more support for it.

Plus it includes some classes designed by Barrel Rider Games as a Kickstarter bonus.

This one just started so it is not yet funded. But it is very, very close.


So put on some Parliament or Earth, Wind and Fire and check them all out and see what you can do to give them a hand!

Owl & Weasel Wednesday #9 October 1975

October 1975 is on the dial for the wayback machine today.  O&W seems to off of their D&D high for now and getting back into other games.  One of which is a new American game call Organized Crime. It is a board game, but sounds like a prototype for a cool crime related RPG.

Ian Livingstone has a bit on the local Monopoly championships and how he won't be going to the European or World rounds.

For D&D people are submitting house rules.
First is some advice for the novice player (which at this point is most people) and an alternative to dying and healing that offers more math than game rules.  Basically your death is a function of your HP and Con.  Nothing simple like negative Con or -10.

Not really a lot in this issue that interested me to be honest.  It is a good issue to show how the game industry was evolving.  Not every uncovered treasure is as significant as a "Lucy".

The Witch With No Name

Today the last Rachel Morgan book "The Witch With No Name" is released.

Rachel is one of my all time favorite witches. For the last few years I have enjoyed all 12 books (now 13) in the series. I have watched Rachel, Ivy, Jenks, Trent and even the demon Algaliarept grow into interesting characters.  It will be sad to see this at an end, but I am glad she is ending on the top of her game.
The Rachel Morgan/Hollows books are very much like another urban supernatural series I enjoyed and just ended on it's 13th book, the Women of the Underworld series by Kelley Armstrong. Both feature strong world building and great strong characters, male and female.   But Rachel as a character grabbed me more than Savannah, Eve, Elena or Hope ever did.  Armstrong's Savannah Levine might be the more powerful witch, but Rachel can think better on her feet.

My copy has not come yet.  I listened to the audio books while driving to Gen Con by myself one year and fell in love with Marguerite Gavin's portrayal of the characters.  So I have stuck with the audio books ever since.

Rachel Morgan for Classic Unisystem (WitchCraft/Armageddon)
I had done Rachel a while back for Cinematic Unisystem (Buffy/Ghosts of Albion) but in the later books she really becomes more and more a "WitchCraft" style witch. Even if there is really nothing like "Essence" in the books.
The Turn is, game wise at least, similar enough to the Reckoning discussed in WitchCraft and Armageddon to let me use the Armageddon book.  There are no gods per se, but there are some beings of great power like the Goddess of the Elves and of course the Demons.

Camille as Rachel Morgan

Rachel Morgan
Greater Gifted
Life Points: 39
Essence: 50

Strength: 3
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 2
Intelligence: 4
Perception: 5
Willpower: 5

Endurance: 35
Speed: 10 mph / 5 yrds/sec

Qualities
Acute Senses (taste, smell) (Witches in the world are more sensitive), Attractive 2, Contacts 3 (Weres, Demons, Witches, FIB), Gifted, Hard to Kill 3,  1, Increased Essence Pool 4, Nerves of Steel, Occult Library 2

Drawbacks
Adversary 4 (nearly everyone hates her wants her dead),  Honorable 2, Obsession (Help Ivy), Status -2 (she is a day walking demon)

Skills
Acrobatics 4, Craft (earth witch potions) 5, Guns (paint ball "splat" gun) 4, Humanities 3, Intimidation 3, Martial Arts 4, Occult Knowledge 8, Research 4, Riding (horse) 3, Rituals, Earth magic 3, Rituals, Ley Line magic 3, Rituals, Demon magic 5, Rituals, elf wild magic 1, Stealth  3, Streetwise 4

Metaphysics
Elemental (Earth Magic)
Lightning Bolt, Earth Tremor, Flame,

Find Person (Ley Line)

Shielding (Ley Line)
Essence Shield, Physical Shield,

Spirit Mastery  (Ley Line, Demonic)
Summoning, Dismiss, Compact

Spirit Travel (Ley Line)

Equipment
Earth magic charms, Red Splat gun with Sleepy-time potion ammo, cell-phone, knife

Camille *IS* Rachel Morgan

Can't wait to see what Rachel has in store for her last adventure and whether or not it will truly be her last.

Until you get your book check out Camille's Deviant Art Page for all her great Rachel Morgan cosplays.  One of the best, if not the best one I have seen.

Castle Amber by Candle Light

Running behind on posting (and reading).  We got slammed by a freak storm in Chicago and we were without power from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Friday we went out in the hope that the power would be back soon.  No such luck.  So we spent the night reading by flashlight and candle light.  I grabbed my old 2e Ravenloft Boxed set to flip through.

Saturday was spent grilling everything in the fridge so we would not have to throw it all out.

Eggs, toast and bacon on the grill. I might never eat inside again.

We then spent the day preparing and playing one of my favorite modules X2 Castle Amber.

And trust me, nothing was quite as fun as playing it all by candle light.

We played it under 5th edition rules.  Unlike Bone Hill, I did not have 5e stats for all the monsters in this adventure.  But fortunately the conversion process was very easy and most I could do one the fly.

Yeah that is my 1st Ed. DMs screen.  I had my kids grab everything and they also got that.

So far 5e is still working very nice for us.
Castle Amber is also a great adventure to play and run.  The kids are having a blast.  They managed to get through the west wing and they even found an intelligent magical sword.  I am not sure what do with that one yet. I hand-waved it for now since I have not found any D&D5 rules about intelligent weapons yet.

My family is loving this adventure so far and I have to admit I was rather gleeful inside at scene where they have to run from the "Grey Mists" to get into the castle.

The nice thing is that even though this feels like a "monster of the week" adventure there is a great tie-in to the overall "Cult of Chaos" plot I have been weaving through all the adventures.  Yeah, yeah I have seen the posts that D&D isn't supposed to be "cinematic" or "storytelling".  Screw that. I do what my family and I enjoy.   My youngest spends his time playing looking for any clues that might help him understand more about the mystery and my oldest wants to read Lovecraft now.

So next time they will finish the central forest and hit the East Wing and then beyond.

Zatannurday: The Amazing Adventures of Zatanna!

I have been spending the week with Amazing Adventures.

While Amazing Adventures is a "Pulp Era" game there is no reason that you couldn't use it for a Modern Game.  In fact it might be fun to try doing something more Silver Age.

A while back I did a Pulp/Golden Age version of Giovanni "John" Zatara for AA.  So I am saying this version of Zee exists in the same universe.

This is a young Zatanna. Maybe soon after her first appearance with the Hawks, but long enough that she has some magical experience.

Stephanie Buscema

Zatanna Zatara
Arcanist (CHA) 8th level
Human* Female, Chaotic Good
hp: 30
MEP: 60
AC: 14 (dex, stage outfit)
Move: 30'

STR: 10 (0)
DEX: 16 (+2)
CON: 10 (0)
INT: 16 (+2)
WIS: 12 (0)
CHA: 19 (+4)

*Zatanna is a member of the Home Magi race. She gains a +1 to CHA and a -1 to CON.
Zatanna, as a quirk of her own style of magic, must speak all her spells backwards in order to work.

Languages: English, Italian, Latin, Greek (native language is English)
Background: Entertainer (Actor/Performer) +4,
Traits: Spellgifted (transmutation), Spellgifted (illusion)
Skill: Knowledge (Arcana)

Gear: Top hat, wand (magical focus +2), tuxedo

Spells

0: Arcane Mark, Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Influence, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Prestidigitation

1: Change Self, Charm Person, Daze, Obscuring Mist, Silent Image

2: Alter Self, Blur, Misdirection, Pyrotechnics

3: Major Image, Suggestion

4: Mirage Arcana

A note about spells.  I opted for spells that look best on a stage or in front of a group of people.  So no fireballs or even a lot of damage causing spells.  Also I choose spells I felt she had access too; ones in her father's library.  Zee gets her own powerful collection of spells later on.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Amazing Adventures

I have been talking about Amazing Adventures all week and it has been a blast.

The Second Edition/Printing is being Kickstarted now and I think it blew past it's funding goal in the first few hours.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/amazing-adventures-rpg

It is not difficult to see why.

- It's based on the Siege Engine rules, the same that power Castles & Crusades.

- It's two-fisted pulp action 

- It's written by Jason Vey who worked on Buffy, Angel, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten among other games.

And if my posts this week have been any indication, it is a lot of damn fun.

Amazing Adventures: Spider Mutants

Spider scary the crap out of people. Despite the fact that we out-mass a spider by several orders of magnitude I have seen tiny spiders send 200lb+ grown men into paroxysms of fear.
So imagine what giant spiders can do?
How about giant mutant spider?
How about giant mutant spiders mixed with dogs, rats, bats or wolves?

Yeah. That is the recipe for fun.

Mutant Spiders

They could be the result of arcane experiments, mad science gone unchecked or aliens from another world.  In any case a mutant spider spells trouble for the PCs.




Mutant Spider-Dog

NO. ENC: 2-8
SIZE: Medium
HD: 4d8 (16 hp)
MOVE: 40 ft., 20 ft. (climb)
AC: 16
ATTACKS: Bite (1d8)
SPECIAL Poison, Web, Twilight Vision
SANITY: 1d6/1d8
SAVES: P
INT: Animal
ALIGN: Neutral (Evil)
TYPE: Animal (Aberration)
XP: 100 + 5/hp (180)

The Mutant Spider Dog looks like a large spider with the head of a dog.   It's eight legs end in a hook like appendage and gives it a distinct "clicking" sound when in runs.
The Mutant Spider-Dog is a carnivore and it's preferred meal are humans.

Web and Poison as per Large Spider.

Gigantic Mutant Spider
NO. ENC: 1-2
SIZE: Large
HD: 10d8 (40 hp)
MOVE: 20 ft., 10 ft. (climb)
AC: 20
ATTACKS: Bite (1d12)
SPECIAL Poison, Web, Twilight Vision
SANITY: 1d8/1d10
SAVES: P
INT: Animal
ALIGN: Neutral Evil
TYPE: Animal (Aberration)
XP: 1350 + 10/hp (1750)

Giant Mutant Spiders are true monsters.  Often towering 20' or more they can combine the features of a number of different animals with spiders.  Like all mutant spiders the preferred food for these creatures in the warm flesh of humans.

Want to battle these creatures?  Support the Amazing Adventures Kickstarter and you can!