Dracula: Mutants & Masterminds

More Mutants & Masterminds today.  Here is one of my favorite builds.

Dracula, Lord of Vampires, Prince of Darkness

Duncan Summers left the lecture hall to bright mid-day sun. It was, by all accounts, a beautiful day. The sun shone brightly, it was warm, not too hot for August, with a gentle breeze. Freshman Orientation had gone off with out a hitch and the new faculty hires he had made the previous semester were working out great. Pleased that everything was going so well today that he decided to take a more leisurely walk across campus instead of straight to his office; there was plenty of time for paperwork later.
That’s when he saw Him.

It was so much that he saw him at first but rather felt his presence. To see him there was too much, like a black eye on a beautiful model’s face, or like someone had taken a marker and defaced the Mona Lisa. Duncan wasted no time in hurrying over to where the man sat.
Not once did the intruder move or even turn his back. He continued to sit there, reading his newspaper as if he belonged there.

Duncan had finally reached the side of the intruder, he only just now saw his face, but he knew who his old enemy was long before that.

“Get the hell out of here!” Duncan hissed.
“Good Afternoon Raven.” The man said calmly, not once averting his gaze from the paper. “Or is it ‘Professor Summers’ now?”
“What do you want?” Duncan asked. He needed time to find some help.
“You killed my mate Duncan. I came here to return the favor. Much to my disappointment I see I am too late. No matter.” He folded up his paper. “Speaking of ‘Raven’ your daughter is lovely by the way. The very image of her mother, but I fear she is a fool like her father.”
“So help me if you so much as touch her I’ll…” Duncan began, but his words were cut in his throat.
“You’ll do what?” the man hissed in Duncan’s face. He had moved so fast that even Duncan had trouble keeping track. “You are a cripple, a mere shadow of who you were, and I am Lord of my kind.” Duncan felt the vampire’s will beating down on him, attempting to overpower his psyche.
“Yet…and yet I defeated you once.” Duncan reminded his old foe.
“And yet here I stand. She will be mine Summers. Her, this school, this city will all be mine. And you will live to see it all fall, and then, only then will I kill you.”
“Revenge? This is nothing more than simple revenge?” Duncan asked, hardly believing it was true.
“Professor, there is so much you still need to learn. There is nothing ‘simple’ about it.”
There was a blur and the intruder was gone. Duncan looked around, but even to his highly trained eye, he could not see any trace that he was even there.
He paused and composed himself. He pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial that would put him in contact with the members of the Freedom League.


“We have a situation. Dracula has returned.”

No literary person or creature in the English language (and many others) has gained the notoriety, the infamy, or prestige as Count Dracula. His story has been told and retold in thousands of pages of text, hundreds of hours of film and not to mention having gone up against nearly every comic book and action hero there is. He has been sinister and monstrous, as well as suave and sexy, but always dangerous. He is quite simply the biggest villain of all time. Who else can claim to have fought Batman, Blade, the X-Men and Buffy and still be around to tell the tale? Are your characters ready, or just next in line to die?

The Freedom City source book only gives us a brief tantalizing clue to what the Lord of Vampires aims were for the city. In 1973 Dracula was reported to be in the city and coincidentally there was a rise in “Satanic Cult” activity.
Given this time period, it is VERY tempting to base the Freedom City version of Dracula off of the old Hammer films. So think Christopher Lee.

History
I'll forego posting his history here. There are lots of places to get that story. Start with Bram Stoker's book and then move on to movies and then comics.
Here are some links for you to start with,
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/345 
http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/bram-stoker/dracula/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/draculav.htm
Dracula for the WitchCraft RPG

Dracula in Freedom City, 1972
Dracula’s actual involvement in Freedom City begins the year before he is claimed to have been spotted. The Vampire Lord books passage on the Aphrodite passenger liner (commonly, and somewhat despairingly referred to as the ‘Love Boat’ in later years) and arrives in Freedom City. His timing could not have been better, while a new ‘Zero-Tolerance’ campaign was taken against costumed Heroes (thanks to the CODE), Dracula infiltrated Freedom City’s wealthiest families. He was, inevitably, put at odds with Duncan Summers. While the two aristocrats (Dracula by birth, Summers by wealth) were entangled in their war of intrigue in social circles of Freedom City’s elite, the original Raven had been hearing rumors of a new crime lord that had “magical” even “satanic” powers. Both Lords of the Night met in battle for the first time and the Raven barely made it out alive. Dracula had taunted him the whole time, offering him true power and the chance to really be able to clean up the crime ridden streets of Freedom City. It was not long after that battle that both men discovered the true identities of their antagonist. Dracula taunts Summers during the daylight hours and Raven during the night time. Dracula even sends Duncan, via a possessed messenger, a letter with only a pressed Jasmine flower in it. Panicked the Raven sought out Dracula and the two fought amongst the spires of the abandoned St. Michael’s cathedral. The Raven fought harder than he had ever fought before, and many times Dracula almost bested him. Finally the roof gave way and Dracula and Raven fell. Raven fell and landed on the rotten pews below, Dracula fell and was impaled on an ornate cross below. The Raven, sure his foe was defeated, lit a magnesium flare and set the cathedral ablaze.

Using Dracula in Freedom City
The Freedom League heard that Dracula was once again active. He was spotted on the western coast of the United States in the later part of 2000 and in Detroit by 2004.
Dracula wants more than just revenge against Duncan Summers, though that is reason enough for his return, he also wants to control the greatest city of super heroes in the world. The following are some plot hooks you can use for Dracula.

Brave New World
Dracula comes to Freedom City and works with leading geneticists collecting samples of super-hero blood. While the scientists believe they are working on a cure for some disease, they are in truth working on a formula that will make Dracula more powerful than he already is.

School Daze
Dracula uses his power, both vampiric and his great wealth, and gets himself appointed the Claremont Academy Board of Directors. He finds a way to publicly embarrass Duncan Summers and gets him removed as Headmaster. With Duncan gone, Dracula begins to feed on the super powered students.

Urban Decay
The heroes believe that Dracula is targeting one of their own, possibly Raven II. Only once the heroes have Dracula cornered is his true plan revealed. His true target is Dr. Metropolis and Dracula believes that if he can turn Metropolis into a vampire the entire city will become corrupted. The dead rise and zombies walk the streets of a corrupted Freedom City.

War in Hell
Dracula has come to town to unleash some nefarious plot but is thwarted, not by the Freedom League, but rather by the Crime League. After several days of nearly no crime the Crime League goes to the Freedom League begging for help.
Subplot: Dracula is actually working with Medea and the two are lovers.

The Impaler Returns
For a much darker and grittier game take the War in Hell plot and have Dracula return to his zero tolerance ways with criminals. Several mooks and maybe even a major member (my money is on The Maestro) have been impaled outside the city limits.

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 Ranged 15 Defense 25 (25 flatfooted) Init +5

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

DRAWBACKS:
Weakness -Blood Dependence
Weakness -Holy Items
Weakness -Sunlight * 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

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

Creation Notes
I based this write up largely on my Erzsébet Báthory one and the “Vampire Lord” archetype from the Core Book. I also based the stats on my conversions of the Unisystem Dracula (both the WitchCraft and Buffy versions by Thom Marrion), the d20 Masque of the Red Death version and Dracula from “Chill: Vampires”. I was very pleased with the way all the conversions sort of dove-tailed into this one. In a way this represents an “Ultimate Dracula” for me. Speaking of which; one of the things I really wanted to capture was the Dracula of the old Marvel series and his later appearances in Marvel comics. I still have this picture of Colossus trying to punch Dracula and he stops him with one hand.   The M&M Dracula needs to be as cool as this.

Bottom line: Dracula needs to be powerful and a credible threat to a group of super heroes. Dracula is not a team player, he has minions of course, but they are minions-not equals.
If you are going to go through the trouble to add Dracula to you game it needs to be a memorable encounter for both your characters and your players.

Green Ronin to do DC

In what I am sure is already "old news" Green Ronin sent out a press release today about their new partnership with DC Comics to do a new DC Adventures RPG.

You can read the details here, http://www.greenronin.com/2010/05/dc_adventures_press_release.php

Personally, I couldn't be more thrilled.

Mutants & Masterminds is one of my favorite Supers RPGs and I have been more of a fan of DC over Marvel since pretty much the late 80's early 90's.  I loved the DC Animated universe (Batman, Superman, Justice League) and all the Batman movies.  In fact I was just talking to Greg this weekend about how much I prefer DC over Marvel.

Yes as a teen I read Spider-man and the X-men.  I loved Dr. Strange (especially all the 70s occult influences)  and Tomb of Dracula. But the the stories were getting to be retreads of things I had already seen before and I was not an avid comic reader by any means.  I actually read more comics in college than I did in high school and I read more now than I did then.
Sure I still think Wolverine is cool, but Batman is a hell of a lot cooler.  The older I got the more I appreciated what DC had to offer in terms of story.  Marvel went for the quick angst more times than not from my point of view.

Given my roots I also liked DC's take on magic and horror a bit better.  Sure they never had anything quite like Tomb of Dracula or even Blade, but they had Zatanna and John Constantine. Dr. Fate is not as cool as Dr. Strange, but he is still pretty cool.    Plus my kids like the DC universe more now.  I have a theory that most people start out liking DC,

So maybe I'll spend this week doing some posts on the DC universe and on Mutants and Masterminds.

Willow & Tara: WitchCraft RPG

I thought it would be nice on the Eve of Beltane to discuss my two favorite witches in my favorite witch rpg.

Back in the Spring/Summer of 2001 I started up a new game.  I had just purchased the WitchCraft RPG core about 16 months prior and I was looking for something new.  That something came to me in the guise of Willow and Tara.  I had been watching Buffy for a bit and I really enjoyed the character of Willow.  When she got together with fellow witch Tara I thought they were perfect.  I had become very involved in the online Willow/Tara fandom so I created a game, focusing on just them.

The game would focus on just these two, no one else from the show (which I would soon become an ex-fan of, but that is a different story).  Plus it gave me something to try out in a modern setting, something I have not done since my days with Chill.

The trickiest part of developing game stats of any fictional character that belongs to someone else is knowing how to strike a balance between the game's rules and the fictional pottrayal. A lot of "artisitc" license needs to be used in order to get a good fit. For example, how do you determine what some one's strength is when there is little to no on screen evidence? What spells would the girls have?

In the end I decided to play it a little loose, but I love where these stats ended up.  In many ways this is who Willow and Tara are to me, not the characters on TV or comics, but the ones that were my characters since that day back in May 2001 that I decided they needed their own chance to shine.

After this I went on to work on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG.  It should be no suprise then that the Willow and Tara stats that appear there are not that much different than my own.  I can be quite vocal in play tests.

Of course the show took a turn into suck, but game remained.  It was converted over to the Buffy system, and then eventually the Ghosts of Albion system.  Willow and Tara are as much a part of Ghosts of Albion as William and Tamara.
This work also allowed me to meet, work with and remain friends with Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.

No too bad for a little game focusing on two girls that happen to be witches and in love with each other.

Since that time I have also tried to convert the girls to a number of systems, each in hope to see how they manifest and how well does that system do to match my style of modern supernatural horror role-playing.  I will detail all that in future posts. Each one advances the girls through the various campaigns / seasons they have gone through.  "The Dragon and the Phoenix", where Tara is returned to life and a central figure in the season long arc in an alternate Season 7.  "Season of the Witch", where Willow, Tara and Tara's father must solve a 25 year old mystery that effects everyone's future and "Generation HEX" where the next generation is raised after the Earth-changing events of SotW.

Until then here are the WitchCraft versions.  These represent the girls while they are still on the show.

Willow Rosenberg
Wicce Seeker of Knowledge/Student
Gifted

Age: 20 (circa 2000/2001), Ht: 5'3", Hair: Red, Eyes: Green

Attributes: Str 1 Dex 2 Con 2 Int 5 Per 2 Wil 3
Life Points 28
Endurance 23
Speed 8
Essence 20

Channeling Level: 8

Qualities & Drawbacks: Gifted (+5), Essence Channeling (+4), Addiction, Magic (-2), Attractiveness (+1), Covetous (-1, Ambitious), Emotional Dependency (-1), Fear of Rejection (-1), Hard to Kill (+1), Honorable (-1), Minority, Lesbian (-1), Minority, Witch (-1)(though it should be noted that Willow does not view herself as a minority in either case.), Resources (-2, Hurting).

Skills: Computers (4), Computer Hacking (4), Computer Programming (3), Electronics (1), Engineering, Robotics (2), Humanities, Psychology (1), Magic Theory (1), Instruction (1), Medicine, General (1), Occult Knowledge (2), Research (3), Rituals, Wicce (2), Trance (1).

Powers: Flame (3), Farsee (2), Search Person (2)* (4 if that person is Tara), Physical Shield (2), Create Ward (3), Soulfire Blast (3), Float (2), Sending (2), Mindtalk, Strength and Art (3), Mindhands, Strength and Art (2), Mindfire strength (3), art (1), Visual Illusion (2).

Possessions: Laptop, books on magic, spell components, Doll's Eye Crystal focus (adds 1 to Channeling).

Tara Maclay
Wicce Student Gifted
Age: 20 (circa 2000/2001), Ht: 5'5", Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Blue


Attributes: Str 2 Dex 2 Con 2 Int 3 Per 3 Wil 4
Life Points 28
Endurance 23
Speed 8
Essence 40


Channeling Level: 4

Qualities & Drawbacks: Gifted (+5), Essence Channeling (+2), Increased Essence Pool (+5), Artistic Talent (3), Cowardly (-1)*, Emotional Dependency (-2), Fear of Rejection (-2), Hard to Kill (+1), Honorable (-2), Minority, Lesbian (-1), Minority, Witch (-1)(though it should be noted that Tara does not view herself as a minority in either case.), Resources (-2, Hurting).

Skills:Cooking (2), Craft, Candle Making (2), Craft, Simple Crafts (2), Humanities, Art History (2), Humanities, Psychology (1), Magic Bolt (3), Magic Theory (3), Myth and Legend, Folk Magic (1), Occult Knowledge (2), Research (3), Rituals, Wicce (2), Singing (2), Survival, Urban (2), Trance (2), Dancing (2)

Powers: Influence Emtional State (1), Blessing of Protection (2), One with the Land (2), Flame (2), Search Person (2)* (4 if that person is Willow), Percieve True Nature (2), Visual Illusion (4), Create Ward (3), Float (2), Sending (1).

Possessions: Books on magic, spell compontents, crystal ball.

*I do want to point out that I don't consider Tara a coward here, it is just she knows she has strengths and picking up an axe and swinging it at a demon is not one of them. (that comes later).

I started each character out with the number of points aloted to starting Gifted characters. Then to figure out how they advanced through Episode 100, The Gift, I gave them 1 point per episode. I thought that it would be a good average to use. I also gave Tara the benefit of the doubt of having more points. She did come in to play until episode 66, Hush, but we know that she has been a witch longer than Willow and may have had some formal training from her mother or grandmother. Plus Tara has been living on her own for much of her adult life.

I used this same logic in playtests and in determining other characters for other Unisystem games.

Everything has a start and mine was right here.

This was the genesis of nearly 10 years of gaming, playtesting and frankly a lot of text generated by myself. In a very real sense my freelancing career began with these two.  My game writing began with other witches, but these two helped me to get published.

Liches in Classic Unisystem

“I want to tell you a story.”

That was how she began our conversation so many years ago. I was annoyed, I wasn’t looking for a story, I was looking for answers. For years I had been searching obscure occult tomes for a shred of proof that there was something else out there; something no longer human and unbelievably ancient.

“Do you know of Immortals?” she asked, knowing full well I did. I would not have spent 10 years and travelled to length and breadth of the Earth if I had not heard of something. I would not now be sitting here in this small cottage in France if I had not actually seen some proof.

She was old, that was certain, but how old I could not begin to fathom. I had learned of her just few months ago. I attempted many times to contact her, but she had no phone, let alone email, and her address was not even known by the local post. So I travelled here and searched this pastoral countryside till I found her. She would not receive me and sent me away many times. Finally, after weeks, she allowed me a visit. My French was halting, but I was surprised (though I don’t know why) to discover she spoke English. She invited me to her home. Again I was surprised, no, I was dumfounded. In her possession were occult tomes and texts that many scholars search a life-time for only to discover one such artefact and consider themselves successful. Here tomes of unbelievable worth and antiquity were lying about as if they were a copy of the morning news or some tacky romance novel. There was a nervousness in the air, like I walked into a surreal alien world. Everything looked normal; normal that is, if this were a hundred years ago. Several clues were apparent to me then, but in my haste to learn what she knew I ignored them, or simply did not recognize them for what they were.

“Essence” she continued “is not just the key to life, but life itself. Do you agree?” I nodded affirmative. My throat was dry from my journey here and she had not offered me a drink. Unheading, or just uncaring for my discomfort she carried on. “Then is it any surprise that there are those whose lives are unnaturally long due to essence?” Again I indicated I agreed. I began to re-evaluate how old she really was.

“Essence then extends life.” She said and as a means of illustrating she drew out a long thread. She was treating me as if I were a child, but yet something held my tongue back. “It can lengthen life, but at cost. Most agree, the Wicce in particular, that the cost is too high. Others begin to feel that inventible pull towards Geburah, a wariness of the soul that no mortal sleep can cure, they slip away quietly, hardly a whisper.” She paused.

“There are others. Very, very few. Who never hear the call, never feel the wariness of the soul and they continue.” She turned and handed me an old tome, our fingertips briefly brushed and I felt a cold so profound, so aching, that I feared I would never be warm again.

“You may have this. But I doubt you will like what you read.”

I practically ran back to the hotel room. I was drained, exhausted beyond anything I could remember. I wanted to read that book, but when I got back I fell to bed.

I read that horrible tome, the ancient German difficult, but I struggled on. After a couple hundred or so pages sleep conquered me.

I awoke two days later to the hotel manager banging on my door, swearing at me in French. The book was gone. I went back to that small home but found nothing and no sign of life. As quickly as I could I began copy what I could remember from memory. Some images were blurry, on the edge of consciousness, others had burned themselves so deeply into my psyche that I doubt I will ever be the same.

Along with the nightmares I had been given the answers I sought.

I had spoken to a lich.

Lich
15-point Supernatural Quality

Prerequisites: The Gift, Intelligence or Will of 6 or greater, construction of a phylactery and potion. Must be a living human (no bast, vampyres, ghost, etc.)

There are those that are born immortal or gain unnaturally long lives due to Essence. There are those that covet this, or fear death so much that they seek out fell arcane means to extend their lives. These rare creatures are known as Liches.

Lich comes from the old middle English word Lyche, which means corpse. Indeed the lich is often very corpse like. A mere husk of a human form, the lich is most often a skeleton with dried leather like flesh drawn tightly over the bones. Its eyes are gone, replaced by pin points of malevolent red light. Some hair remains, in thin wispy strands and its hands have curved into talons with long yellowed fingernails. Liches can also appear as human, they are still powerful magicians and can alter their appearance.

The path to lichdom is fraught with peril. To begin the prospective lich must have a strong will or intellect to pursue this path. A strong constitution is favorable, but not required. Only Human Gifted may become liches. Other undead cannot transform into a lich; though it should be noted that there has been a rumor of vampyric liches. There is also some debate on whether other supernatural creatures, such as Bast or Ferals, or immortals can become liches.

The first step is to locate a book or tome with the knowledge. This book includes the rituals and incantations needed, the ingredients of the potion and directions for making the phylactery or soul object to house the lich’s soul. One such tome is known to exist, Das Buch des Leiche. Written in the early 14th century in a crude form of old High German, it is difficult to read and understand. A more common translation, The Book of Liches, is full of errors and will more likely kill the user outright. There are other tomes certainly, but they are only rumored to contain the necessary ritual, potions or materials. Once the proper tome is discovered most occult scholars agree it contains three important pieces of knowledge; construction and empowerment of the lich’s phylactery, the brewing of the poisonous draught, and the ritual of transformation.

The Phylactery
The Soul Cage or Phylactery is a small box or otherwise hollow object about the size of a fist. All reported cases have been made of lead. Lead is used for it’s dark, energy absorbing color and most likely for its malleability.
The would be lich needs to construct this himself or have one made for this purpose.
The Phylactery requires a Consecration Invocation to create the vessel and restrict it only to that caster. The magician must then atune the phylactery by the use of the Soul Projection Invocation and project his soul into the phylactery. This ritual is a perversion of Atlantean Arcana for empowering and energy crystal.
The would be lich must pour all of his Essence (except for 1-5 points) into the Phylactery. He must then regain all of this lost Essence normally before proceeding.

The Potion
On the lunar month before transformation the would be lich needs to brew the poison that will actually kill him. The poison consists of arsenic, belladonna, the venom of a poisonous snake or spider, the blood of a vampyre and the blood of a human whose life has been extended due to essence, or a true immortal or manifested demonic creature. Rendered down in this vile alchemical concoction are the silks of 13 Death’s Head moths (sp. Acherontia styx styx; Acherontia atropos styx). The potion then must ferment for 27 days in an air-tight container and never be exposed to light. Even the light of a single candle will be enough to render it useless. It is still quite toxic, just not suitable for use in the ritual.

The Ritual
The ritual of transformation is what binds the would be lich’s body to this world and his soul to the Phylactery hereafter.
The ritual though is largely unknown. One must discover it in one of the few books known to contain the proper ritual, and not one one of the many books that contain the false ritual. There are many faulty copies and some outright forgeries.
An Occultism check with 10 Success Levels is enough to determine if the ritual is legitimate, but not enough to determine why it might be wrong.
The ritual itself requires at least level 5 in one of the Necromancies listed in the WitchCraft core, but Death Mastery is the most common.
The ritual takes 24 hours to cast and the would be Lich looses 5 points of Essences permanently. If they are interrupted at any point they must start over anew. This includes brew a new potion and loosing another 5 points of Essence.
At the end of the casting the prospective lich drinks the potion and dies. If everything was performed correctly then they will rise as a Lich in three days. If not then they are dead.

Once the new Lich awakens they have the following:

Immortal, Nerves of steel, Photographic Memmory, Acute Senses (hearing and vision), Chill of the Grave (GoA)* (3), Ghostly Fear (GoA)*, Enhanced Vision Darkvision, Hard to Kill (3)
Intelligence +1, Will +2, Occultism/Occult Knowledge skill +2

Disabled senses (taste and smell), Delusions of Granduer, Obsessions (accumulate more knowledge), Unattractive, Inhuman form, Essence Dependence

*These qualities are found in the Ghosts of Albion Roleplaying Game. They are Cinematic but can be used in a Classic Unisystem game with no issues. They cost the listed Quality Points in either Quality or Metaphysics. Either costs 1 Essence point to use.

Like a Vampyre a Lich cannot replace their own Essence. They must spend an Essence point each day to retain their ability to mimic life and any Metaphysics they perform also deplete their Essense. Unlike Vampyres a Lich can absorb ambient Essence, but no more than 5 points per day. This is often why a Lich can be found in Essence rich areas. As long as they are pursuing more mundane research a Lich can persist unchanged and never requiring Essence for years.

Liches then can be played as sort of intelligent Zombies, taking any Quality or Drawback that a Zombie can including those regarding feeding. Liches normally do not feed on flesh but rare conditions (or badly translated rituals) do happen. Liches may also take appropriate Qualities, Drawbacks and Powers that are open to Vampyres or Ghosts.

Like Ghosts, Liches can “see” emotional states. Due to their gifted background they can also see magic and lines of magical force.

Reducing a Lich to 0 Life Points does not kill it, but it does force it’s life force back into their Phylactery. Reducing the Lich to zero Essence Points forces it back to it’s Phylactery as well, but then it must slowly rebuild their Essence at the rate of 1 per day till they reach their maximum. A lich can then re-enter their body and re-animate it. If their body has been destroyed then they enter any corpse within 100 yards of their Phylactery.

If a Lich is somehow reduced all the way to -10 Life Points then their body must make a Survival Test. Failure results in the body being destroyed.

To destroy a Lich one must reduce it to zero Life or Essence points, find and destroy their Phylactery and destroy the body. For this reason Liches often keep a false Phylactery while their real one is safely hidden and surrounded by corpses and animated dead to guard it.

A Lich may regenerate 1 Life Point per Con score per day. This costs the Lich 1 extra Essence Point.

For Classic Unisystem.  WitchCraft RPG, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, or Armageddon. 

D&D 4 Kids. Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod

Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod is a new type of D&D (4th edition nominally, but it is so stripped down it could be from any edition of D&D) adventure designed for younger kids.  They say ages 6 and up.

The adventure is free, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/monsterslayers and all you need to play is some people (kids), dice and some pencils.  There are character cards, monster cards, tokens and a map that can be printed out.  Any printer is fine, color or b/w.  You can use a d20 and d6. If you are so new to D&D that you don't have a d20 then you can still do this with 3d6 (that would be 3 six-sided dice).

The plot is simple.  Fight some monsters.
There is no real threat since characters can be healed by an NPC (have YOU ever killed the character of a 6 year old?  Well until you do you can't complain about this being too easy.)

The game time is 30 minutes and it is for one DM and 5 players.
Players need to work together to get through this, but there are no guidelines telling you how they need to do this.

What do I think?  Well I can attack this from three fronts, as a parent, as a curriculum design specialist and as a D&D player.  Here we go.

Tim the Parent
I love what they are trying to do here.  D&D looks fun to little guys (and girls!), but the rules (and lets be fair here, especially 4e) can be daunting.  Character sheets, even when everything is explained require a lot of reading and higher level comprehension.  Something the 12+ crowd can do, but maybe not the ones still playing Pokemon.   This adventure solves that problem easy.
IF I had one suggestion on this it would be to make it so you can subdue the monsters.  Think of the new movie "How to Train your Dragon" basically this is the same thing.  But the little red dragon here is so cute that I know my boys will want it as a pet.  Yeah a pet Bullette or Beholder is a bit of a stretch.  This is not coming out of any attempt of being PC; I like to kill monsters as much as the next guy and anyone that thinks kids don't have never been around kids.  It would be more of a challenge in some ways.  Plus years of Pokemon have taught me 2 things.  1. Kids like to collect the monsters they "kill".  2. You can say "knocked out" or "benched" all you like, my kids still tell me how they "killed" my Haunter or Ghastly (I like psychic Pokemon).

Tim the Curriculum Specialist

In my day job (and night time Ph.D. stuff) I am a Curriculum specialist.  Yeah I don't talk about it much here because they get for 13+ hours every day.  But I love what I am seeing here.  The potential for learning is fantastic.  For starters there is the working together aspect.  The players will need to work out how they are going to kill these little beasties.  And how they are going to protect their party.
There are the simple things like math, rolling the dice, comparing numbers and addition and subtraction.  Let's not over do it by talking probabilities here yet, but we can do fractions.
What is missing here though is a page on how the teacher-as-DM can do all of these things and meet some stated outcomes or goals.  It don't fault the authors in not including this.  That was not part of their design goal.  Maybe I can come up with something.

Let's see. Quickly this can be used to teach role-playing (something that is used in all levels up to MBAs), basic probability (what is the chance you will hit the monster?), computation skills (basic, you rolled a 3 and 2 and a 4, how much is that? does it hit?) team work (who has the most hitpoints?  Who can last in a fight better, who can hit the monster from far away?  How can you work together to bring down a bigger foe?), narrative storetelling (why is your wizard fighting the monsters?  You tell me what you think he/she is thinking),  and even simple cause and effect.  Wrap it all up in a nice Deweyian setting and get the kids to learn by doing.   I do it now with my kids and it has worked out really nice.
If something like this can get the kids to read the new Monster Slayer books from Wizards, then its a win-win.  Wizards gets another sale and kids read.  My son already loves his A Practical Guide to Monsters and A Practical Guide to Dragons so much we bought the Dragon Codex books.  If the adventures are aimed at the 6+ crowd then I hope the books are not too much above that.

Tim the 30+ Year D&D Player
Oh yeah. Killing monsters is great.  Putting them in a room and telling me to have at them, that is even better.
Sure these rules are not going to challenge me, or even hold my attention for too long.  They were never supposed too.  They do however do one thing really, really well.  They play just like D&D.  The only thing missing are some orcs and some treasure.
If you have a little guy or girl and they want to learn how to play, then this is a great starting place.
Call the characters "-1 level", after this they have worked their way up to 0 or maybe even 1st level of the D&D of your choice.

I like what Wizards is doing here and they should be applauded.  The fact they let it out for free is even cooler.  I would like to see more of these.

There are some discussions about this on Facebook, ENWorld and RPG.net.

How do you "cure" a vampire?

Tossing this out to the universe.

How do you cure a Vampire?

I my games (mostly D&D, but also Unisystem ones) there is no cure per se other than the final one, death.

But a situation has come up in game and I would like to find a cure for a vampire.  I'll give you some background specifics, but I want to find something that is more or less universal.

I have a vampire, and she has killed and taken blood.  Lets also assume she has lived past her normal life span.  So for a human she would be well over 100 years old by now, even if she still looks like she is in her 20s.

I would like it to be some sort of ritual.  Something to renew her mind, body and soul.  And preferably involving water somewhere (because of it's "purity") and sunlight.

Assume system-neutral. So high fantasy D&D, anime BESM or modern supernatural Unisystem; it should work regardless of magic levels in the game.

Ideas?

Pathfinder + Hero Lab

I have been playing in two separate Pathfinder games recently and I really like the system.  But the one thing that I didn't have that 4e gave me was a kick-ass character builder program.

I love character builder programs,   I think I have tried them all over the years.  I had the Core Rules CD-Rom, I had the character builder from Wizards for 3.0 and back in the day my DM and I built one for our Tandy Color Computers.  And I love DDi.  I know some people complain about it and others even claim that Wizard's or Hasbro are looking for more ways to make money.  To that I say how dare they give me an awesome product that does exactly what I want it to do for a fair and reasonable price! ;)  Seriously what is up with people.  Don't like the DDI, then don't pay for it.  I happen to love it.  I can play around with it and try out different characters, multi-classes and hybrids.  Yes I can do that with paper and pencil and books, but I don't alway have my books with me, say at work on my lunch break or relaxing in front the TV on the couch, or at the airport waiting for a plane.  The DDi is fantastic.

It's just too bad that I can't use it with Pathfinder.
I can't use it with Unisystem either, but that is not the point.

So I went out and I tried Hero Lab, from Lone Wolf development.  I remember getting a free CD from them one Gen Con and I couldn't find it anywhere, so I just downloaded it and tried it out.

Here is what I liked:
- I like that there are multiple games for this product.  Currently I use DDi, Uniforge, Simpson's M&M sheet, and Metacreator installed on my computer.  I like flexible systems.
- The interface is nice.  Not fantastic, but nice.
- Using it is rather easy after a few times.

Here is what I didn't like:
- Not 100% sold on the pricing structure here.  I think the d20 SRD derived content should be cheaper.
- I would like more systems, Unisystem is the top of my list.
- The interface, while nice, is old looking.

Comparing this to DDi though is not really fair.  They are designed to do similar, but different things.  Comparing it to Metacreator though is a better choice.

The pricing structure is about the same.  Metacreator though only charged 15.00 per module download, Hero Lab charges 20.00.  The core product is also priced similar with Hero Lab at about 30.00 (with a module) and Metacreator at the same with one module.
Both have the d20 SRD, Savage Worlds, and Call of Cthulhu.   Metacreator has Unisystem as well some others.  Hero Lab has WoD and Cortex.
Despite my nit-picking on the interface, Hero Lab is slightly better than Metacreator.  Both though look like "older" technology.  Metacreator in fact looks like something for Windows 95.
Both produce very function character sheets for printing or PDF.  Metacreator gets a not here since it produces sheets that look like the ones from the game itself.
Hero Lab is easier to navigate and the tabs are very nice.

In the end it depends I guess on what game you want to play.  If you play World of Darkness, Cortex, Ars Magica, Unisystem or Fudge then your choices are made for you.

Same with D&D4.  Yes, Hero Lab can do D&D4, but you need a DDi account to get the updates and if you are  going to do then just the D&D Character Builder.

Both have sizable fan-related content and forums.

So I broke down I bought Hero Lab because I wanted Pathfinder support.
I have to admit that some of the concerns I first had about Hero Lab changed after I bought it.  Now that could be because I had been playing around with more and knew the program better.

Side by side Hero Builder does actually compare nicely to the DDi Character Builder.
Here is a screen shot of my new Pathfinder Paladin and his D&D 4 alter-ego.  (big screenshot).

Having access to the new Pathfinder classes is nice too.
What would totally sell me on this of course is Unisystem support.  I would love to be able to put my Ghosts of Albion characters into something like this.
Chance are good I'll be getting the Cortex and maybe the SavageWorlds one in the future.  If/When I do I'll review them here.