Dirty Nellie for Victoriana

Ghosts of Albion takes place in 1839.  Rippers, Cthulhu by Gaslight, Masque of the Red Death and most other Victorian Age games typically take place in or around 1880s-1890s.  That leaves a huge swath of time that is Victorian but often covered by any game.   Except of course for Victoriana.

Victoriana is a game I want to hate but can't.  First, it is full of really cool Victorian goodness.  It is made (presently) by the cool guys over at Cubicle 7, the same guys that give Star Blazer and Doctor Who.  The second edition has been gone over by Andrew Peregrine (who also worked on Angel).  I like the "black die" mechanic they add to what could have been just another dice pool game.    There are some things in it I'd never try with Ghosts of Albion, but it all seems to work great in Victoriana.  The C7 guys describe it as "Victorian-age Shadow Run" and that is pretty dead on.  Most everyone knows about magic.  There are dwarves, gnomes, halflings, "eldren" (elves, but don't call them that), ogres, and beastmen.  So if my work on Ghosts of Albion is more "Hammer Horror" than Victoriana is more "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", something it shares with "Rippers", though I put Rippers closer to the movie "Van Helsing" or at least what we all wanted the movie to be, not what it really was.

I have played it a few times now, and try to get in a game at Gen Con with either Andrew or one of the other guys at C7 (I think I sat in a game with Marc once), and it is always a great time.  In fact outside of running my own games, or the nightly Catan games in the hotel room, it is my only Gen Con "tradition".
But of course they are the "competition" with Ghosts of Albion, so I have to hate them. ;) (ok not really).

Dirty Nellie, Street Faerie
So one of my favorite NPCs/Guest Stars is Little Dirty Nel, the Street Faerie prostitute.  I have detailed her early years with Ghosts of Albion, and her later years with Rippers.  I should also detail what she is doing during the middle Victorian period with Victoriana.  Like before, this is not a strict conversion, it is more of

Dirty Nel in Victoriana, 1867
Nel in this reality is still a Street Faerie dollymop, but she is doing a little bit better for herself.  In the Victoriana world the existence of magic is widely known, so Nel is often able to offer her trade as herself, complete with her peppered moth wings visible.  For stats, I put Street Faerie between Eldren and Halflings.  She looks like a small Eldren woman, with of course wings.  Like Eldren, Street Faeries are prone to a mental illness or two.  I kept her addictions and faerie arrogance in place since they would work fine in this world.
Like her Rippers and Ghosts of Albion universe counter-parts, Nel is a wealth of information about the occult and criminal worlds.  She is doing a bit better for herself money wise and her reputation is growing.

Dirty Nellie
Social Class: Lower
Race: Street Faerie
Nationality: British
Age/Gender: ??/Female
Build: Slim
Hair/Eyes: Black/Piercing Blue
Vocation: Prostitute
Personality: Loner, almost cynical
Social ethics: lower-class anarchist

Characteristics
Strength: 0 Presence: 3
Dexterity: 3 Wits: 3
Fortitude: 3 Resolve: 4

Imitative: 9 Movement: 8
Health: 5 Mana: 2+4 = 6

Racial Abilities
Innate Magic (Petty Magic)*

Skills
Art 6
Athletics 5
Bull 8
Charm 10
Conceal 6
Concentration 2
Dance 2
Dodge 4
Etiquette 4
Fisticuffs 4
General Knowledge 6
Hide & Sneak 6
Improvised Weapon (melee) 4
Perception 10
Streetwise 12

Conversation 4
Pick Pockets 6
Slight of Hand 4

Enchanting 5

Talents, Privileges & Assets
Beautiful, Glib, Ear of the Street, Street Informant, Bolt-Hole, Income (Lower class, prostitution)

Complications
Bad Reputation, Bon Viant, Criminal, Lecherous, Faerie Arrogance

Spells
Befuddle, Cloak of Shadows, Glamour (like “Liken Shape” but can change to human shapes), Instant Beauty

Unisystem 2d6

Eden's Unisystem, both Classic and Cinematic use a single 1d10 roll to determine all their random probabilities. It has the advantage of being simple and easy to do. But some games, a lot of games actually, roll dice instead of a die. Good examples that are close to Unisystem in terms of scope are BESM 3.0 and the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space which both use a 2d6 resolution.
So the question has come up what is the effect of using a 2d6 instead of a 1d10 roll. These are being discussed over on the Eden boards, http://edenstudiosdiscussionboards.yuku.com/topic/2772 and RPG.net http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=489038

Well for starters anytime you involve more dice, the probability curve is going to change. With a 1d10 the chances of getting a roll of 1 is the same as getting a roll of 9 or 7 or 3 or any other number. It's always 1 out of 10 (10%, or p=0.1).

When you add more dice than the number of potential rolls increases as due to the potential outcomes.

A 1d10 has 10 potential rolls and 10 potential outcomes.

A 2d6 has 36 potential rolls, but only 11 potential outcomes (2 to 12). Why the difference? Well a roll of 1 on one die and a roll of 6 on the other is 7 as is a roll of 2 and 4, and 2 and 5. So. This means some numbers will occur more often. This is obvious to anyone who has ever played any RPG really (unless the only thing you have played is Amber).

This also mean some outcomes are more likely to occur (high p) and others are less likely (low p), unlike a 1d10s flat outcomes.

This relationship is much closer to the way reality is modeled. We call this the Normal Curve. Now a 2d6 is not quite Normal, but it is much closer than the 1d10. Even better is the 3d4.

A quick look at Table 1 shows the 3 die types, their outcomes, the number of outcomes, their probability (p) and cumulative probability (cum p). I have also included the basic measures of central tendencies; mean, median and mode.

At first glance on the average, the 2d6 grants 1.5 points per roll (averaged out of course), and the 3d4 up to a 7.5 mean. There is also the nagging problem of both rolls cap out at 12 (not 10) and have no 1 rolls.

There is also a higher probability of rolling greater than a 9 in each case. I included 7 as well since you almost always add an attribute + a skill in many rolls. This results in far more success than the flat system. So how do we get the curve we want with the outcomes we need?

But This One Goes to 11
Simple, we subtract from the result. For the 2d6 we minus 1 (1 to 11 outcomes) and for the 3d4 we minus 2 (1 to 10 outcomes). So the 3d4-2 gives us the same range of outcomes, the same mean and median (flat distribution have no mode), but edges the probability down for success. The 2d6-1 gives us an extra point (an 11) and the averages are only .5 higher with comparable probable successes.

NOTE: I just noticed that these graphs are off by -1. The numbers are good, but I must have chosen the wrong range when making the graphs.

Now the question remains, why do it?

This brings a slightly grittier feel to your games. Successes now are less about blind luck and more about your skill. The outcomes are shot to the middle now (like reality) with fewer dramatic failures and successes. Want it even grittier? Take off another 1 from the rolls in every case to actually have a 0 outcome.
On the Eden Boards, we started calling these alternate dice methods "The Chicago Way" due to the number of Unisystem players we have here in the Chicago area.

Though I should point out while I really like the alternate dice methods, I still only use a d10 in my con games.

But I have also been playing the new Doctor Who game with a d12.

Outlaw Press uses Stolen Art and Content

Normally I try not get involved in issues online that are not directly involved with myself.  Past events aside, I just really don't have the passion or realy the time anymore.

 

But this is something that I can't ignore.

 

Outlaw Press, inc., run by James Shipman, has been using art he has stolen from the web. He claims he bought it from an "art broker" but too many people have since come out to claim they have never been paid. So his claims are likely another lie on his part.

 

The list of art verified stolen is staggering.

 

You can see a PDF listing it all here: http://stardust-publications.com/outlaw-press/OutlawPressCoversComparisonList.pdf

 

It is 30 pages of stolen art!


Now taking my word for it is not, and should not be, enough. So here is a stack of links of other discussing the issue, supporting the artists and otherwise providing evidence.

 

The RPG.Net thread that found the evidence, http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=483885

 

TrollBridge discussion forum, http://trollbridge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1163&page=1

 

EN World’s post on the subject, http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/269217-outlaw-press-stolen-artwork-accusations.html

 

Dragonsfoot. This one is interesting since it deals with Shipman and Outlaw Press stealing Mazes & Minotaurs a few months back, http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=31923

 

Concept Art forum, interesting because these are the artists themselves, http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=176392

 

A list of supporting Blog posts.

• http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/11/rpg-net-discussions-pirates-and-witches.html
• http://unclebear.com/?p=4344 Uncle Bear’s blog
• http://rpg.brouhaha.us/?p=1998&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamingBrouhahaRpg+%28Gaming+Brouhaha+%C2%BB+RPG%29
• http://theomnipotenteye.blogspot.com/2009/11/latest-bad-news.html
• http://dungeonmastering101.blogspot.com/2009/11/looks-like-i-bought-book-with-stolen.html

This is staggering. I am not sure what James Shipman thinks he is doing here? But this is unconscionable. The RPG community is small, the profits to be had are even smaller. Many of us do this for the love of the game, not for money. Then to have someone steal material so he can profit. Well it is certainly against every reason why I am in this business.

If you read this post, please re-post this posting or post your own somewhere else to let everyone know.

 

Dracula for Doctor Who

A quick one to try out my new toy Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space.
These stats might be a tad high since I quickly converted my Ghosts of Albion version.

Dracula


Awareness 4
Coordination 6
Ingenuity 4
Presence 7
Resolve 5
Strength 9

Skills

Athletics 6
Convince 5
Craft 1
Fighting 6
Knowledge 4
Marksman 3
Medicine 1
Science 3
Subterfuge 5
Survival 7
Technology 1
Transport 2

Traits
Alien (Great Vampire), Animal Friendship (Control), Fast Healing, Hypnosis, Keen Senses, Quick Reflexes, Psychic, Telepathy, Tough
Adversary (lots), Code of Conduct, Weakness (blood dependency, holy items (psychic block), sunlight)

The Time Lords destroyed the Great Vampires, but it is known that some escaped. One such vampire escaped to Earth and became the progenitor of all the Earthly vampires.

Several centuries later this vampire turned a Wallachian warlord named Vlad Tepes into the vampire now known as Dracula.

Stop! Hammer Time

Sorry had to do that.

I just picked up "To the Devil... a Daughter", the last Hammer Studios film produced and their first "occult" based one (unless you count "The Satanic Rites of Dracula"), rahter than their staples of Gothic Horror or even the odd "devil worshipping cult" films.  The film itslef is not very good either as a Hammer film or even as an occult thriller.  It would be forgetable really had it not been for the rather scandalous scenes of full frontal nudity from then underage Nastassja Kinski.  Though it does have some things going for it.  For one it was nice to see a Hammer film outside of the "Hammer Hamlets" and take place is urbane, even swinging, London.  Chritopher Lee is still great, if under-used here.  And this film does capture a zeitgiest of 70s occult revival very well.  Sure it is not as good as Rosemary's Baby or the Exorcist, but it is still a far cry better than the Omen.  I guess Satan really loved the 70s. It certainly does explain some things. 

I am not going to go too deep into Hammer film theory or analysis other than they are good fun.  I have not seen all of them and a few I have not seen in maybe 20+ years but they have always had a profound effect on the games I write.   Ghosts of Albion in particular is overflowing with my love for Hammer, as are most of my adventures.   My vampires are not modern mopey emos.  They are blood thirsty killers in the sauve exterior of Christopher Lee. 


Even in Eldritch Witchery I have tried t tap into that same vibe of Hammer Horror.  Even though most of their moveis were made in the late 50s and 60's, there is something very 70's about them to me.  Maybe that is when I watched most of them (then and the early 80's).  In this respect I would have to say that my view of Mal Havoc (previous blog post) was greatly affected by Christopher Lee's Dracula.

Hammer, I am glad to say, is on their way back, http://www.hammerfilms.com/.  While I am sure some of the old magic is gone I will hold my judgement till I see some of their newer movies.  In the mean time I have several hours of "Dracula" to keep me busy for sometime to come.

Here is old Dracula, very much inspired by "Dracula A.D. 1972".  You can see the full Mutants and Masterminds stats and background here: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=421189 or here: http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18364&p=274952

Count Dracula

PL: 18 (270 pp)

Born: 1431, turned 1476

Str: 26 (+8) Dex: 21 (+5) Con: NA (-) Int: 16 (+3) Wis: 15 (+2) Chr: 25 (+7)

SKILLS: Acrobatics 6 (+11), Bluff 10 (+17), Climb 4 (+12), Concentration 4 (+6), Diplomacy 10 (+17), Disguise 5 (+12), Drive 2 (+7), Escape Artist 6 (+11), Gather Info 6 (+13), Handle Animal 6 (+13), Intimidate 12 (+19), Investigate 6 (+9), Arcane Lore 8 (+11), History 8 (+11), Tactics 8 (+11), Theology and Philosophy 6 (+9), Streetwise 8 (+11), Medicine 2 (+4), Notice 8 (+10), Ride 4 (+9), Search 8 (+11), Sense Motive 8 (+10), Sleight of Hand (+5), Stealth 4 (+9), Survival 8 (+10), Swim (+8)

FEATS: Animal Empathy, Assessment, Contacts, Fascinate (1), Fearless, Fearsome Presence (1), Inspire (1), Leadership, Minions (4), Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Attack Focus (Melee) (5), Blind-Fight, Critical Strike, Elusive Target, Improved Critical (1), Improved Grapple, Power Attack, Rage (1), Uncanny Dodge

POWERS:
Animal Control (8), Drain Constitution (blood Drain) (1), Immunity (Fortitude Effects) (30), Insubstantial (mist) (2), Protection (7), Regeneration (blood drain based) (5), Shapeshift (Wolf, Bat) (2), Mind Control (visual dependent) (5), Weather Control (obscure, wind and fog) (3), Super-senses (Acute) (2), Super-movement (wall crawling) (1)

COMBAT: Melee 20 [Unarmed +8 (Bruise)] Ranged 15 [Unarmed +8 (Bruise)] Defense 25 (25 flatfooted) Init +5

SAVES: Toughness 7 (7 flat-footed) Fortitude 0 Reflex 10 Will 10

DRAWBACKS:
Weakness -Blood Dependence [Freq DC 10] [Sev DC 5]
Weakness -Holy Items [Freq DC 10] [Sev DC 10]
Weakness -Sunlight [Freq DC 5] [Sev DC 5]* Dracula can move about during the daylight hours, but he can not use his powers. (Gave him this as opposed to Power Loss).
Weakness -Garlic, Mirrors [Freq DC 5] [Sev DC 5]

Breakdown: Abilities 43 + Skills 42 (165 ranks) + Feats 27 + Powers 96 + Combat 60 + Saves 13 – Drawbacks -11 = 270

Mal Havoc: I was waiting for this?

So back in the day I gleefully stole pretty much anything for my games. It was the 80's and we were all doing it. But one thing I remember fairly well was from The World's Greatest Superfriends. The episode was "The Lord of Middle-Earth" and the villain of the week was this Anton Le Vey, vampire looking wizard called "Mal Havoc" (or maybe just Malhavoc). I was psyched about this episode because at the time I was sucking up anything related to Tolkien, or rather more to the point, anything related to the Hobbit having seen the old cartoon on TV recently (well back in 77 or 78).

Well......that is not what I got.

I got trolls, and something like a Drider and a dragon. Which was all fine, but even then I recalled the episode was weak. But I did like the character of Mal Havoc (and I guess I am not the only one). So I began to use him in my D&D games. Though I admit I messed with the character a little. He was still a wizard, but I turned him into a real diabolic one. Not that he was fiendishly clever (he was) but diabolic in the sense that he worshipped Beelzebub. Did I mention it was the 80's?  Oh. and he was also a vampire.  So Mal Havoc became a "hellspawned vampire of the court of Beelzebub" and a semi-reoccuring bad guy in my games.  When I later went on to develop "The Dragon and the Phoenix" for the Buffy game I was running I knew I wanted one of my old D&D bad guys.  Mal Havoc was a serious contender, ultimately he lost out to Yoln (another baddie) since I didn't want to confuse my game with anything Malhavoc Press was doing at the time.

Watching it now I am struck by how bad these things really were (and I own several Superfriends DVD collections) and yet how much potential could have been here.  I can attest that Mal Havoc can be one serious bad ass.  Ok so he smacks around Superman, but that is fine Supes always had a problem with magic.  But he also does the same to Wonder Woman and Batman.  Aquaman doesn't even try.  He also a serious evil vibe going on.  He enslaved a race of trolls (ok more like gnomes really) and has some inhuman or subhuman lackeys working for him.  His "ultimate power" can even kill all the trolls in "middle earth". That serious shit right there.

Given my love (yes, it remains) for the old Super Friends I decided to give Mal the "Bruce Timm" treatment.  I updated the character look to seem more of physical threat, think Glenn Danzig only taller and with a goatee.  He is a wizard still or maybe one of the very, very few cases where I would use the term "Warlock" in a modern game, and look fiendish (and might even worship some devilish or demonic lord), but his deal is he is a vampire crime lord.  "Crime" in he is not interested in crime for money, it's just the things he does keeps him on the wrong side of the law; ie murder, kidnapping, theft, not your typical saturday cartoon fare.  Though in the original SF he had enslaved trolls to mine diamonds, so slavery, forced labor and diamond smuggling is also possible.  He has group of followers, his "Coven"  (not "Camarila" to stay true to the 70's/80's vibe) and of course lackeys and conscripted labor (ie slaves).  Maybe a tad mature for games with kids, but a perfect foe for a group of adult gamers looking to rid the world of evil.

So given that, it looks like that stating him up in Muntants and Masterminds is a must!
My M&M is a bit rusty, but here it goes.

MAL HAVOC
PL: 13 (200 pp)

Str: 22 +6
Dex: 18 +4
Con: NA NA
Int: 16 +3
Wis: 15 +2
Chr: 22 +6

SKILLS: Acrobatics 2 (+6), Bluff 4 (+10), Climb 2 (+8), Concentration 4 (+6), Diplomacy 4 (+10), Disguise (+6), Drive (+4), Escape Artist 4 (+8), Gather Info 4 (+10), Handle Animal 2 (+8), Intimidate 7 (+13), Investigate 3 (+6), Arcane Lore 10 (+13), History 2 (+5), Tactics 4 (+7), Theology and Philosophy 2 (+5), Medicine 2 (+4), Notice 4 (+6), Ride 4 (+8), Search 2 (+5), Sense Motive 2 (+4), Sleight of Hand (+4), Stealth 2 (+6), Survival 4 (+6), Swim (+6)

FEATS: Assessment, Fascinate (1), Fearless, Fearsome Presence (1), Leadership, Minions (2), Blind-Fight, Improved Critical (1), Power Attack, Rage (1)

POWERS:
2 Supersenses
5 Mind Control
1 Drain Constitution (blood Drain)
2 Hellfire Control
30 Immunity (Fortitude Effects)
2 Insubstantial (mist)
7 Protection
5 Regeneration (blood drain based)
1 Shapeshift (Giant Bat)
5 Magic
   5 Mystic Blast ("Hellbolts")
   1 Trasform (humans to trolls)
   5 Teleport
   5 Drain Powers

COMBAT: Melee 13 [Unarmed +6 (Bruise)] Ranged 13 [Unarmed +6 (Bruise)] Defense 23 (16 flatfooted) Init +4

SAVES: Toughness 7 (7 flat-footed) Fortitude 0 Reflex 9 Will 10

DRAWBACKS:
Weakness -Blood Dependence [Freq DC 10] [Sev DC 5]
Weakness -Holy Items [Freq DC 10] [Sev DC 15]
Weakness -Sunlight [Freq DC 5] [Sev DC 5]

Witch Hunter Robin for BESM

Earlier I did Robin for the Witch Girls Adventures RPG, which you can see here, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/witch-hunter-robin-for-witch-girls.html

Now here she is in another fave of mine, Big Eyes, Small Mouth



It is Robin Sena, the titular character of the awesome anime series Witch Hunter Robin for BESM. Sadly BESM is out of print and Guardians of Order out of business.   I had hope that Arthaus would continue the game, but no chance.  I liked BESM, it had a lot going for it.  I should post something about BESM and GoO sometime.  Until here is our twisted little firestarter.

Robin Sena

Race: Witch

Occupation:Witch Hunter / Witch
Age: 15 (in 2002)
Gender: F
Height:5'1"
Weight: 105#
Eyes: Green
Hair: Auburn

Mother:Maria, dead
Father:Toudou, dead.
Grandfather(maternal): Juliano Collegrie, priest and high ranking officer of Solomon HQ.
Allies: Amon, Nagira, hunters from STN-J
Enemies:Rogue witches, rival hunters

Body: 4 Mind: 6 Soul: 8

Health Points: 70
Energy Points: 70
Shock Value: 14

Combat Value: 6
Defense Value: 4

Skills
Computers 1x2 = 2
Artisan 1x2 = 2
Driving 2x2 = 4
Police Sciences 3x2 = 6
Unique Character Skill 5x2 = 10 (Occultism)
Urban Tracking 1x3 = 3 Attributes
Appearance 2x1 = 2
Damn Healthy! 1x1 = 1
Organizational Ties 1x3 = 3 (Great Power, Solomon, STN-J)
Dynamic Sorcery 4x2 = 8
    One Discipline (Pyrokinesis)
Magic 4x4 = 16 (40 magic points left)

Defects 
Awkward 1x-1 = -1
Marked 1x-1 = -1
Nemesis 2x-1 = -2
Sensory Impairment 1x-1 = -1 (Vision when using magic)
Skeleton in the Closet 1x-1 = -1