October Movie Reviews: Dracula Prince of Darkness 1966

For my October Reviews I have another one from the Hammer Horror Collection.

This movie is a proper Dracula sequel since it features Christopher Lee as the Count; though he never speaks a line in it.  Unlike the Brides of Dracula before it, this one does not have Van Helsing.

Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966)

We are treated to a montage from Dracula (1958) of Van Helsing destroying the Count.  The movie starts proper with a funeral (in my memories all Hammer Films started like this) of a young girl who we soon learn is believed to be a vampire.  We are introduced to an Abbot or Monk (I was never sure of the difference) who claims she isn't and deserves a proper burial.

The scene changes to the Kents, two brothers and their wives, who are on holiday from London to travel.  Our Abbot meets up with them and invites to them to stay at his abbey and warns them to stay away from Carlsbad and the castle (which does not show up on their maps).
As fate would have it, they end up there due to a broken carriage wheel and are forced to take shelter.  They find the castle warm and inviting, with food laid out for four.  They meet the supposed sole inhabitant of the castle, Klove. He claims he is carrying out the final wishes of his master, Count Dracula.
They stay the night and one brother follows Klove to Dracula's tomb where he is killed and his blood is used to resurrect the dead ashes of the vampire.  Dracula goes after the brother's wife and vamps her.
The other brother wakes up to find his brother and wife gone.  He and his wife try to leave, only to be brought back to the castle by Klove.  Here Dracula and Helen attack.  The escape, only to be thrown in their stolen carriage and recued by the Abbot. 
The Abbot knows about vampires and claims that Dracula is their master and was killed 10 years ago (Dracula 1958).  While they rest, Dracula attacks Diana and takes her while Helen is left behind to be killed by the Abbot.
Charles and the Abbot ride to Dracula's castle where they manage to kill Klove on the way and rescue Diana.  Dracula is trapped on the ice surrounding his castle.  The Abbot shoots the ice cause Dracula to slip into the running water and "drown".

Ok. This is an odd one.  First there are no lines for Dracula.  That is no big really, he had few lines in the book too.  But Modern Dracula is a chatty guy-or rather we like our bad guys to be chatty.  Blame it on Bond I guess.
Of course this movie is really nothing more than a proto-80's slasher flick.  Replace Dracula with a psycho killer and the tourists with teens and you are set.  Of course instead of four we would need six and Drac would need to kill more, but the idea is the same.
There is no Van Helsing here which is not that big of a deal really.
This is one of the first Dracula "resurrection" movies.  No ceremony, just pour blood into vampire ashes and mix well.  It's simple and it works.  The effects for Dracula's return are great for the time and I am sure they were quite proud of how it turned out.

The movie is not bad as far as plot goes. The action is slow at times, but that is more due to the time in which is was filmed.

I can't recall if I have ever seen this one or not.  Some of the older Hammer films all blurred into one in time, and it has been 25-30 years since I have seen some of these.  I didn't recall anything specific about this one, so it is likely it was new to me.

Dracula: other stats

I have posted Dracula stats in the past.

Here are some links:

Big Eyes, Small Mouth 3.0
Mutants and Masterminds (2nd Ed)
Doctor Who, Adventures in Time and Space

Enjoy!

Dracula: AD&D 1st Edition

I have been watching a lot of Dracula movies of late. That has gotten me thinking about how much of a great D&D antagonist Dracula really is.

These differ from my B/X/C stats a bit. Mostly I wrote these many, many years ago.

Count Dracula, AD&D 1st Edition

DRACULA (Vlad Tepes)
FREQUENCY: Unique
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: -1 (-4 with dexterity)
MOVE: 12”/18”
HIT DICE: 13 (103 hp)
% IN LAIR: 50%
TREASURE TYPE: G
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 (by touch or weapon)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-8 (+7)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Blood drain*, hypnosis, +4 to hit in combat
SPECIAL DEFENSES: +1 or better weapon to hit
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
INTELLIGENCE: Exceptional
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: 204
Attack/Defense Modes: B,C/J
S: 19 D: 17 I: 17 C: 19 W: 17 CH: 17

*Dracula drains blood at the rate of 2 CON points per attack. He must succesfully attach to the neck of his victim and drain them of blood. His touch does not drain energy levels.

Getting Dracula to your AD&D world should not really be a problem. There are the Mists of Ravenloft, various Gate spells and even the Psionic Discipline Probability Travel. The how is not as important as the why. Why would you want to bring the King of Vampires to your world?

Long ago when playing AD&D 2nd Ed in college I ran an adventure where an Atlantean Mage summoned Dracula and was promptly killed.  Dracula the began his killing spree anew.

I am always looking for reasons to bring him back.

October Movie Reviews: Dracula 1958

Next for my October Reviews I am moving on to what is the first of a dynasty of movies.

The Dracula from 1958 would have not been a remarkable movie. Really. The pacing is slow, the script takes a number of liberties with the Stoker tale and the play as well for that matter. But it gave us Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and it was the first of many Hammer Horror films.  Hammer almost created it's own mythology of vampires and other creatures that nearly challenges the original tales.  Hammer surpass even the Universal Horror monsters in the minds of many fans, myself included.  It has been years since I have seen Dracula.  It was great to see it again with new eyes.

Dracula (1958)

Also sometimes called the "Horror of Dracula".  This is the first of many Hammer films on Dracula and starring Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.  Lee might be the quintessential Dracula, equal amounts of sinister monster and suave seducer.  He might not look like his counterpart from the book, but certainly he can pull off the menace very well.  Of the actors that have portrayed Dracula he might also be one of the best.   This movie though is also one of the greater departures from both the book and the play.  Harker is a vampire hunter working with Van Helsing.  Arthur Holmwood is here and works with Van Helsing later in the tale when his daughter, Harker's fiancée, Lucy is killed and his wife Mina is attacked.
Cushing's Van Helsing is younger than most portrayals, and more "English" but he displays such a calm resolve.  He is, if the comparison can be made, more like the Doctor.  He knows all and anticipates the Count's moves.  They are more evenly matched here than in previous films.
Christopher Lee brings a presence to the role of Dracula that was different than that of Lugosi.  Where Lugosi was a suave monster, Christopher Lee's Dracula is a barely contained beast.  Dressed in the veneer of a man, you know he is but one bad moment away from ripping your throat out.

This version of Dracula comes back from the dead more often than any other Dracula; which is good, cause Dracula in this movies goes down rather easily.  Van Helsing uses two candle sticks to form a cross and that keeps the count at bay.

Despite all of that, there is something here.  Something that shows the promise of the future Hammer films, not just the Dracula ones.

Dracula: B/X Companion

The new B/X Companion Rules give us the Greater Undead including a Greater Vampire.  This is awesome since it was also something I had done back when my Expert Set was still new.  Of all the Greater Vampires out there, what one is greater than Dracula himself?
Since I have been watching all the movies I figured now is a good time to see if my B/X skills are still good.

Dracula
Greater Vampire*
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 18*** (135 hp)
Move: 150', 180' Flying
Attacks: 2 (or 3)
Damage: 1-10 + Special / 1-8 + life drain
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: Fighter 18
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: G+H (in lair only x2)
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 6,000

Dracula is one of the most powerful of the greater Undead.  In life he was a great warrior and now in undeath he is even stronger.  Dracula can attack with claws doing 1-10 hit points of damage, if both claws hit, Dracula will then latch on with his fangs and drain blood from his victim equaling two energy levels.  He prefers to only drain his prey with his fangs; his claw attacks never drain life levels (though they can if he chooses).
Dracula is quite adept with a sword or spear, but prefers to use his bare hands.

If encountered in his castle he will also have 2-20 human gypsies to serve him (treat as Fighter 1) and his three vampiric brides (treat as normal vampires).   He will have double the normal treasure of his kind when encountered in his lair, but nothing on him outside of it.  He wears a ring of protection +1 with the Dracula family crest on it.

As per the Vampire, Dracula is immune to sleep, charm and hold spells.  HE may summon 10-100 rats (5-20 giant rats), 10-100 bats (3-18 giant bats) or 3-18 wolves (2-8 dire wolves).    Dracula may shapechange into a large bat or wolf, but his hit points remain unchanged.  Dracula may also regenerate 5 hit points per round as long as he has fed.

Dracula shares all the same weaknesses of other common and Greater vampires including revulsion to mirrors, holy items and garlic.  Running water will destroy him, but a stake in the heart will only immobilize him. Dracula may make a "Bend Bars/Lift Gates" check to remove the stake.  He must be beheaded.  Dracula can also move about during the daylight hours, but prefers not too since he cannot shape change.

October Movie Reviews: House of Dracula 1945

Lon Chaney Jr. returns, but not as Dracula, but as the Wolf Man.

This movie is a sequel to the House of Frankenstein and the second of the Universal "Monster Mash" movies. We have a Mad Scientist, Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster and even a hunchback. All the monsters are here and we even have an angry mob of villagers.

House of Dracula (1945)

Dracula comes to visit renowned scientist Dr. Edelmann searching for a cure to his vampirism.  At the same time Larry Talbot comes looking for a cure for his lycanthropy.    Oddly enough the two classic monsters never share any screen time.  Along the way Talbot, in a failed suicide attempt, discovers a cave where Frankenstein's monster is buried.

Dracula attempts to seduce one of Edlemann's nurses, one he had met before, so Edlemann tryies to deal with Dracula.  Dracula double crosses him and feeds him some of his own vampiric blood via the transfusion.  Edlemann later manages to kill Dracula, but the blood in his veins produces an odd Jekyll and Hyde like effect.

Edlemann, in one of his moments of clarity, manages to cure Talbot, but then also slips and kills a local.  The villagers attack while Edlemann is trying to revive the Monster.  He kills his nurse, but is shot by an now cured Talbot and the place goes down in flames with the Monster inside.

What I thought was interesting about this one was both Dracual and the Wolf Man come to Dr. Edlemann to seek a cure. Though I am certain that Dracula had other plans, Talbot I was sure was sincere.
The hunchback was a bit of a surprise.  This was not your ugly Quasimodo, but instead the attractive form of  Nina, played by Jane Adams. Whiled billed as a monster, she is more of a sympathetic victim.  Though our mad scientist, Edelmann, serves both that role and that of a Jekyll and Hyde.

Lon Chaney J.r is back where "he belongs" as the Wolf man and John Carirdine is taking a tour as the Count. I like Caridine as the count. He has the features and he acts like the nobleman that Dracula should be.  In fact in the movie poster linked here he looks a little bit like Christopher Lee.  I did enjoy seeing Dracula's top hat back.

Frankenstein's Monster is utterly wasted here and most of time he is on screen are archived footage from previous movies.  Which is interesting given his "top billing".  The Wolf man, like our hunchback, is more to be pitied than feared.

If you will pardon the pun, Universal's monsters were getting a little long in the tooth at this point.  The next movie after this one was "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein" a completely fun movie, but so far removed from horror.

Next:  Hammer Time! (had to do it)

B/X Companion is Mine!

I had this cool plan of doing some 4E writing tonight.  A couple of things that have been stewing in the back of my head.  That is till I came home to this:

Yes that is the B/X Companion in all her glory.  The product I think I have been waiting for for close to 30 years.  Sure I have had books that have covered the same ground, and books that made this book obsolete, but somewhere, deep in my psyche there is still that 12 year old version of me wishing he could take his cleric to 15th level.  

The B/X Companion does not disappoint.  Let me just say that if this isn't exactly how it was going to be, then I'd be hard pressed to know what it would have been.  I am reading through it all now and I am purposefully NOT comparing it to the BECMI version of the Companion rules.  Maybe later, maybe even later but before this is posted.  But right now I only want to compare it to the B/X books of which is it is, well, a companion too.

The cover of course is very much part of the original scheme.  The three principle characters, the fighter and the two wizards (or maybe she is a cleric, that could be a "light" spell, though she has a torch too) stand in front of their followers.  They braved the dungeon, the wilderness and now they are ready for the next adventure.  So are we.

For those of us that grew up with the Moldvay/Cook Basic and Expert sets, the Companion book feels very familiar.  The layout is similar, the flow is similar and even the art has a familiar feel.  If you own the Basic or Expert books then finding something in the Companion book is trivial.  I turned right to the character rules and took a glance at all the tables.  Yes sir they run from 15 to 36, just like promised.  Clerics still top out at 7th level spells, but eventually they get 9 of them.  Wizards still go to 9th level, and get 9 of those too.

Fighters get more attacks per round (as they should) and thieves get more abilities.

There are plenty of new spells here.  Many look like they take their inspiration from the products that came after, the Player's Handbook or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, but nothing is an out right copy.  It does have the feel like Becker sat around one day and thought, what are some good spells and what level should they be.

There new monsters and advanced versions of some others.  The Greater Vampire nearly made me laugh out loud as I had done the exact same thing after reading and playing the Expert book for so long.  My Greater Vampire was a photocopy of Ptah from Deities and Demigods with some fangs drawn in.  I never claimed to be an artist.  Te monsters all seem to be appropriate for the levels, though a few more in the 30 HD range might have been nice, but not really needed.

The BIG additions here though are the ones that were most "advertised" back in the day. 

Running a High Level Game  is great advice for ANY edition of the game.  It gives this book the same place as say, the Epic Level Handbook for D&D 3.0 or even the Epic Tier for D&D 4.  Chances are very, very good I'll be using the B/X Companion in my next D&D 4 game in fact.

Related are running a domain and running large armies.  Battlesystem would later give us these rules for AD&D, but here they are much simpler to use.  Again, something to consider to port over to other versions of the game.

I loved the new magic items and can never get enough of those.  I also liked the part on the planes and how it is totally left up to design of the DM.  I wonder how many people out there will re-invent the Gygaxian Great Wheel for their B/X/C games?

Others have reviewed this book already and my insights won't add or subtract to those.  A particularly insightful one is by James over at Grognardia.  I concur with a lot of what he had to say, with the possible exception of his take on demi-humans and frankly I have no idea what I would have done in Becker's place as I am not fond of level limits or even demi-humans as classes.  That being said lets put this product in context.

I would have liked thicker covers to be honest. This book I am afraid will not wear so well.  I would also LOVE to have it as a PDF.  I don't bring a lot of books to the table anymore, I bring a laptop.  So can you hear me JB!  Sell me a PDF! :)

Companion to Basic/Expert Rules

Obviously this is where it works the best.  But there is something here that I don't think others have tapped into just yet.  Companion makes the Moldvay/Cook rules a complete game.  With these three books you now have a complete D&D game.  The only thing really missing is a "C1" module or maybe a BXC one.

Companion to Labyrinth Lord/Basic Fantasy

The new Becker Companion has a lot it owes to Labyrinth Lord (LL) and Basic Fantasy (BFRPG).  While maybe not directly, these two games showed that there is a market out there for "Basic" styles of play.  Both LL and BFRPG take the modern 1-20 level limit for human classes.  Companion is 15 to 36.  So some adjustments need to be made.  There are a few differences in the how each of these books calculate XP per level, and how they do spells.  But nothing so complicated that a a good DM couldn't figure out.  

Personally if I were playing a LL/BFRPG game, I'd go to 15th level and then switch over to B/X Companion. for the next levels to 36.  OR even go to 20 and use B/X Companion as a guide to levels 30 or even 36.

Frankly the homebrewiness of it all has me very excited for anyone that has decided to throw their lot in with "Basic" D&D.

The B/X Companion vs. the BECMI Companion

Ok, I know I said above I wasn't going to do this, but after re-reading James's post over at Grognardia and his post on the Mentzer Companion I felt it was worth a look.

Now I am no expert on the Mentzer era of the rules.  I had moved to AD&D by the time they were out and I never owned them.  I picked up the Rules Cyclopedia a while back and got all the BECMI boxes on PDF back when Wizards sold them on DriveThru.

Both Companions cover similar ground.  The spell progressions and XP look about the same (given that they use simple math, no surprise).   The BECMI Companion only goes to 25th level, not 36 like the B/X Companion. The BECMI Companion generally speaking has more detail than the B/X one, but that is not really a nitpick since the abstraction of the rules in B/X is greater to allow more with less; just like the B/X books it was modeled after.  

Final Tally

I like this book. A lot.  It makes me want to pull out my ratty Basic and Expert books and play Moldvay/Cook era Basic D&D again.   In the mean time, I think I'll just have to satisfy myself with converting some D&D 3.0 or 4e characters over to Companion,  just for the fun of it.

One thing that did disappoint me though was the lack of the OGL.  There is a lot of really cool stuff here and it could be shared.  I suppose that something like this, talking to Johnathan Becker is always the best the way to go.