My favorite things about the OSR

In my effort not to add to the negativity of a spate of recent blog postings and discussions I have had I wanted to talk a bit on what I like best about the whole OSR movement/phenomena.

DIY D&D
Back in the paleolithic days of the internet TSR was the big bully on the block.  There were plenty of great email lists (MPGN) and sites (The Great Netbook Site, Morpheus') that had a ton of great content.  Not all of it was good, in fact most of it was bad, but there was an honestness about it all that I liked.  When WotC came around they opened up the game with the OGL and even had a pretty open web-site license as well.  D&D was no longer in the dark corners of the web.  Everyone was now a "publisher".  The OSR takes the best of both worlds really.  There is a gritty honestness about all the products and they are not hidden in some dark site or list that you can't get access too (STILL waiting on my password to Morpeus' site).
The products are high quality and fun.  And damn some of them look really great.  I am not a fan of LotFP but it is a sweet looking set.

What Ifs and the Path Not Taken
Playing D&D in the early 80's was often a guessing game.  You could get a game going at school and have 5 guys show up each with a different rulebook (LBBs, Holmes, Moldvay, AD&D, some homebrew).  Sometimes this was an issue, most times it was not a problem at all.  The OSR captures that feel well.  Spellcraft & Swordplay is a great OD&D "what if", Basic Fantasy RPG is a great example of how many of us actually played D&D when we sat at a table with Basic and Advanced books in hand. The various S&W books are like watching OD&D morph into AD&D if it had all been done with a solid plan in mind.  *I* may not ever need another retro-clone ever again, but I can't begrudge anyone for wanting to try to make their own particular version.  I do think we have reached the maximum amount of clones, near-clones and forgotten half-brothers the market can stand.

It's like having everything I always wanted, all at once
When growing up there were a lot of things I wanted for my game that I never got.  Most times it was because the things I wanted were not sold in my area (though talking to friends now I see I had it better than most), could not afford what I wanted, or it simply didn't exist.  I had to make my own Witch class when I was not 100% satisfied with what I found available to me.  Same with the Hearler class I made back in the day.  But now all of that is out there somewhere.  Part of this is because of the 'net obviously, but there are others out there that felt like did and are now making those things.  B/X Companion is a great example and one I'll continue to praise for a long time. Basic Fantasy RPG is another one and there are countless more out there.  It is like having a subscription to Dragon, White Dwarf and Dungeoneer circa 1978-1983 all at once.

Old School games, new school aesthetics
I have had the chance to be part of some of the most awesome publications in the RPG biz.  The old books are fun, but production wise, art wise, style AND writing most can't stand up to newer books.  The OSR applies that same aesthetic to their works.  Even a one shot with clip art still has the aesthetics of a modern book.  It is what people expect.  Now this is something of a stickler.  I love my beat up worn out copy of Eldritch Wizardry, but have you looked at it with modern eyes?  Not only is the art cartoony it is poorly edited and difficult to read.  I can't fault the original books for their production values, it is just easier and faster to do a better looking product today.   But the OSR can make an old school book AND give it the readability and look of books of today.  Afterall wasn't that what OSRIC was all about?

There is so much cool stuff going on that I wonder why anyone even has the time to complain about what someone else or what other edition is doing?

This is why we don't have nice things...

To the 4-Haters, 3-haters, the 3.5-but-still-like-3-haters, the OSR-haters, the Orcs-with-lasers-haters, the Orcs-with-lasers-haters-haters, the ones that like Orcs but not Orks and that One Guy.  And to all one-true-wayers and anyone that thinks that it is part of a company's business plan just to screw you over.

This is all for you.



I have seen fewer cat-fights and bitching in a Spanish soap-opera.

Look, I like some of the points made by the blog-cognoscenti but the constant complaining about "that other game" (whatever that is for them) is getting old again.

Tell me why you like you game, but try to do it without resorting to "it is the only true way to play because the new/old/different way sucks."

ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog: Where's our EPT and Blackmoor? Is the "OSR" doomed to retreads?

Some good discussion over at ChicagoWiz's blog.

And there is a good point here. Can we continue to keep cranking out clone after clone? The truth is we can't and maybe we all should have stopped a bit back, but that being said what is next for the OSR?

ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog: Where's our EPT and Blackmoor? Is the "OSR" doomed to retreads?

Willow and Tara: Season of the Witch

So what is "Willow and Tara: Season of the Witch"?

Well for starters Season of the Witch had three major purposes. First was to show that Willow and Tara could hold a series on their own. I think I showed that well enough in "The Dragon and the Phoenix", but I really wanted to emphasize that here. So to that end there was a format change from the Original Series. To force our hand I decided that we could not even say the words "Buffy" or "Vampire", though vampires I was not so successful with. I have a cut scene near the end of the series when a witch hunter comes to town. She is surrounded by a pack of vampires, then with out a word at all she cuts them all down. I figured in that case I was also further distancing myself from the Original Series since I showed that slaying vampires was no big deal. The other was one I just couldn't help doing and that was Vampire Tara. More on those two though when the time is right.

The second major purpose of this series was to have no big bad.

That's right, none. The Big Bad formula was getting old. Every season on the Original Series was a Big Bad that had to up the ante on the last one. What was next? Galactus? So instead I came up with this idea of the Awakening. Now I kept the Awakening vague for most of the series simply because I also didn't know what it was! I knew it was something that all the magical factions in the world were looking upon with fear, uncertainty and doubt. I knew that Tara's parents discovered the most recent clues about it in 1976. And I knew it dealt with Willow and Tara directly.

In the end, like some of these kinds of things it was a convergence of many ideas into a whole. Which gets to my third major purpose.

The third thing I wanted to do with the series, and this is mostly tangential, is I wanted to work in features from other games. You saw this as my big conversion efforts. Season of the Witch began with elements from WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion, but I began working in the concepts from other, mostly supernatural horror, games into it. This was not part of the plot, only as a means to give a fuller experience of a much larger world. The Original Series was very narrow in it's focus, something I did not realize till I started to take the series apart. Like in The Dragon and the Phoenix, I wanted the players to feel they were part of a larger world and they did not live in a vacuum. In Season of the Witch there are other things going on, there are other factions, other players and other threats and allies. To help me out I borrowed from other games. There are factions from Mage the Awakening, SAVE from Chill. The Bureau is loosely based on various government bodies found in Conspiracy X, DarkMatter, Bureau 13 and Delta Green. This helped shape the world they lived in, not just some small corner of Southern California.

But this got me thinking, how is that all these games where "magic is real but hidden" work? How is it that magic can stay hidden when there are so many vampire related killings? Are all cops on the take? What is happening? How can this keep going on? And then the answer became clear. It can't. If you read Chill and WitchCraft you get the idea that long ago magic was more common. Then something happened that caused it to be less common. Now something is happening again to make more common. Both Chill and WitchCraft say supernatural occurrences are on the rise. But even the average 2-3 games of WitchCraft have more supernatural things going on than an entire campaign of Chill. Which is fine IF you consider there is 20 years separating them. Then look at Armageddon, 2018 magic and the supernatural are out and in the open. I had my answer.

The Awakening is the falling of the Veil between our world and the magical one. After the awakening we will be living in a world were magic is real and everyone knows about it.

The characters have to decide whether or not this is a good thing and which of the factions working for/against them they can trust if any.

But I also needed to stay true to my first major purpose; Willow and Tara. So if the world was going to go full on magic, or not, something needs to happen to these two as well. Given the research I was doing, and again taking an idea from my contributor and playtester Lisa Countryman, I decided that Willow and Tara were also going to become the first Mages.

Exactly what a Mage is will detailed soon.

Characters

Obviously Willow and Tara, but that is almost too small of a group. But still all I had them in was Bob's '67 Ford Thunderbird. I needed to be very clever or lucky. I was both.

The other main character was Robert Maclay, Tara's father. He was a ghost ala Ghosts of Albion (I'll post his stats soon). He had been the team leader back in '76 so his insight was needed. He also had the whole repentant thing going, he needed to prove to his daughter that he was not really a heartless bastard. Well. He was, but he had his reasons, and those reasons are the same ones why he did not want Tara in Sunnydale, that he lied to her for years and inventiblly why her mother died.

Plus if you were a young lesbian on a road trip with your girlfriend who is the last person you want tagging along? That's right the ghost of your strict and very conservative father! He made it in on comedy alone!

I also needed another character. For this I needed someone with fighting ability. I love Willow and Tara, but in physical combat they suck. Bob is fine, as long as whomever he is hitting is also a supernatural creature. A mundane can't be hit by him, hell they can't even see him. So I needed some one with some firepower, some physical ability to fight, and someone that could fit in a convertible with two other people.

I considered using Ms. Kitty as High Bast, but truth be told, I dismissed it as soon as came up with it. No good reason, and even while typing this now I can't think of a reason not to do it. But it wasn't what I wanted really.

In the end I went with another character I felt got shafted, Cordelia, as a Charmed style White Lighter. It fit really. I had a Charmed crossover coming up. I had already used her once in "Will We Burn in Heaven?" and the Ascension quality I gave her was not very different than the White Lighter one. She could pop in and out as needed and then didn't have to be in the car the whole time. I gave Cordy other "charges" to explain why she could not get them out of every mess. And the girls needed to drive to recreate Bob and Megan's (Tara's mother) original mission. Plus, and lets be really honest here, Charisma Carpenter is hot.

Willow and Tara get Bob's car and Megan's journal/Book of Shadows (things that can help them or be stolen if I need them to be) and the adventure is ready to begin!

Here is my original outline for the season:

Main plot is witchcraft and magic. With seasonal issues of family.

Season of the Witch - Cinematic game set in 2003-2005. Set in the same universe as "The Dragon and the Phoenix". Heavy WitchCraft RPG elements (with many elements from "Ghosts of Albion").

Willow and Tara travel back to Tara's home town for the funereal of her father. While there they discover that Robert and Megan Mclay (Tara's parents) were involved with a secret society of hunters of the supernatural. Visited by Robert's ghost, Willow and Tara retrace the steps of Robert and Megan's failed 1976-1980 mission. Tara's mom had a vision of the world in Chaos, magic open and running amok. Thousand's kill themselves in crises of faith, others began to hunt down and kill witches.

Watching them are the Government (the Bureau), SAVE, the Daughters of the Flame, the Witches Committee and Lilith. All know about the "Awakening", or a fundamental change in the nature of magic. Most believe it means magic will be exposed (it has already begun).

The Awakening: Magic is going to be exposed. The various groups, Cleaners, Guardians, Protectors all know this and there is nothing they can do to stop it. But Willow and Tara are going to give it a try.

This will certainly throw society into chaos. To stop it the girls need to shut down several key portals. Willow & Tara stumble on this reality and learn that Tara's mother and father, while working for a small team of psychic investigators discovered this in 1976. Now 30 years later the prophecies are coming true.

FACTIONS:

The Witches' Committee wants this to happen and are poised to take control in the ensuing chaos. Human witches.

Lillith wants to keep the status quo since she knows that the mundanes will turn on witches and slaughter them. Lillith runs "L Enterprises". (have a report of how W&H were destroyed by her). She is running the auction in San Francisco. Approached by Lillith. Anya is there, she is now divorced and working for Lillith. Lillith does not reveal all her plans yet.

Governmental Bodies. The Bureau (introduced last season) is working on a "final solution" for the problems with magic and demons. Bob knew of them, but never trusted them. Of course they want to stop the awakening as well, but have other plans too.

Daughters of the Flame. This group of witches has a different view on what the Awakening means and they are convinced it has to do with Willow and Tara specifically.

RESOURCES: Cordy, Bob Mclay, Megan's journal.

NOTE: I do not remember who originally did that image above. It was a desktop image that I most certainly downloaded from the Kitten Board. I added the text myself later. If the creator sees this then please contact me for your proper credit or removal of the pic.

Google Analytics - One Year Later

Last year at this time I remembered something cool.  I remembered I had a Google Analytics account.  I put the code on my Blog and watched the hits come in.

All 25 of them.

My first day tracking hits and pages gave me a whopping 25 visitors.  I am sure three of them were me (home, work and phone).

On Tuesday, Jan 4, 2011 my hits for the day were 425.  Not too shabby.   Sure nothing like some of the big name blogs, but quality not quantity right!

But in general I am trending up and that is good. I deleted the code in July by mistake and went to 0 hits on July 6th.

Here is to seeing me break 500 daily hits in 2011!

Blog updates

So if you are reading this via a newsfeeder or on Facebook then there is not much in the this post.  But if you come to my site I have made a couple of minor changes.

New Banner: The "very metal" Orcus from Dragon Mag #42 graces my new banner for 2011.  I liked my "Chicago" one a lot, but I have not played my Chicago game in a very long time.

Characters and Builds:  I have a new page to the right of this post called Characters and Builds.  If there is a character I have stated up you can find the links here.

Enjoy!

It's all in the (Fortune) cards

Back when I was experimenting with d20 games to play with my son I spent some time with Big Eyes, Small Mouth d20.  In that game there is a character class call Pet Monster Hunter, which is supposed to mimic the anime tropes of various monster fighting shows. Think Pokemon, Yugi-oh! and others.  My son, being a huge Pokemon fan opted for this class right away, and since he was very young at the time most of his pet monsters were various Pokemon critters.  Now I am not sure about you, but I have not run into many stats for cute fuzzy fighting monsters.  To me it was just easier to use Pokemon.  One day my son wanted to bring his actual Pokemon cards and use them in play, sort of a game within the game.  I knew that A. it would work, but B. I needed to limit the cards he brought to the table.  So based on the power level of his character (the book tells you how many monsters you can have) I said he could bring in X number of cards.  It worked out well.
We later discovered that it worked just as well for his small collection of Yugioh cards, some deck of monster cards I got free at a Con sometime back and nearly everything.  The cards did their own damage (as dictated by their own game) to each other it worked great.

When playing C. J. Carella's WitchCraft I have a deck of Tarot cards I use sometimes in place of dice.  The cards are shuffled and drawn instead of rolling a d10.  If a suit card comes up then we play it like the "Rule of 10" plus something extra.  If a Major Arcana comes up then something weird and special happens.

Where am I going with this?

Well WotC has announced that they are going to start implementing a new set of "Fortune Cards" to D&D. And of course people are complaining.

Man, somedays I swear dealing with gamers is worse than dealing with 3-year olds.

Fortune cards, briefly, are sold in packs of 8 for about 4 bucks.  The cards basically detail something that can happen in an encounter.  The example they give is when you or an ally adjacent to you fails a save, you can pull a card for a re-roll.  Game shattering to be sure.

I also should point out that these cards are designed to be used with "Wizards Play Network programs and other D&D organized play games in 2011" and "It's important to point out that Fortune Cards are not a requirement for D&D play".
But that has not stopped the cries of "Oh noes! Its teh death of D&D!  Wizards is ruining it!!"

I hope Wizard's makes an absolute ton of money on these.

I might allow them in my game, I might not.  I'll have to buy a couple packs to be sure (see there, WotC is at least getting 8 bucks from me and I am not even sure I'll use them).  It's just a funky little edition to the game.

Who knows the text on the cards might even be worded generically enough that they can be used with ANY version of D&D.  Miss a saving throw in the Tomb of Horrors?  Not now! I have my "Re-roll a save card" who is to say that save is a D&D4 style death saving throw,  a D&D3 Fortitude save or a Save vs. Poison?

Just like Pokemon, I'd limit the number of cards a player could bring to the table.  And is this such a big deal? I mean who am I talking about here?  My "players" are my kids and I have control what they the rest of the time as well and that includes what they buy and how often they get to the game store.  But even if someone new comes in I can still say "house rules are no Drow and only 1 Fortune card for every 3 levels".

And it is nothing new. Paizo has their Plot Twist Cards and didn't Torg have some sort of fate card as well? And according to some, Dave Arneson even used something very similar.

Much ado about nothing I say.