Zatannurday: Killing Joke

There are pivotal comics in in world.  Ones that change everything.  One such comic is "The Killing Joke".  It is the story of Batman and the Joker. But it is also the story of Barbara Gordon and how everything changed for her in one day.  How Batgirl was no more and paved the way for Oracle.

But take any game changing moment like that and it is ripe for others to want to look at it anew.

The "Brave and the Bold" banner is for various team ups from across the DC line.  One of last year's best was The Brave and the Bold #33, a team up of Z, Wonder Woman and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon).  OR My three top comicbook loves of all time.  Of course it is a powerful piece, but not in the way you expect.

Now I was never a fan of Babylon 5, but I have always sorta liked J. Michael Straczynski as a writer. He has given me reasons not to like him in the past, but this does not disappoint.

It takes place the day before Barbara's shooting and Zatanna has a vision.  We don't know that though.  We just know it Z and WW and they want to take Barbara for a girls night out of dancing.

You can see more here: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1855423.html

Obviously if you have not read The Killing Joke then the emotional impact will not be the same, but if you have then...well, you will have to read it for yourself I think.

-- Spoilers --

Honestly that is some pretty powerful stuff there.
Close up, http://www.dadsbigplan.com/2010/04/comic-rack-the-brave-and-the-bold-33/

Here are some reviews I found interesting, each having a slightly different take
http://allthiscrap.blogspot.com/2010/04/brave-and-bold-33-ladies-night-review.html
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=2155
http://acomicbookblog.com/channel/dc-comics-blog/the-brave-and-the-bold-33-review/

I had no problems with Zee and Wonder Woman not being able to help Babs.  Afterall Zatanna doesn't know when it will all happen anyway and she is sure that if she interferes it will only make things worse.  I also don't have an issue with her precognition; she is magical and weird stuff like that happens sometimes.

And because I can, here is a pic of Batgirl and Zatanna reading the comic.

Review: Haunts and Horrors

Haunts and Horrors

I love horror games. I love reading new ones, trying new ones and each time I try to do or learn something new. So it was is with great interest that I got the new “Haunts and Horrors” RPG (H+H RPG).

H+H RPG is a 126 page book. The art is predominantly public domain with some other pieces that are newer, but all are black and white. I bring this up for two reasons, first off the art is sparse which gives the book a “less than polished look” but the art is also thematically appropriate for the tone of the game. While I like newer art in a game, I think this works well for this game. The layout looks like a simple affair with clip-art borders.

H+H RPG is a fairly typical RPG, it starts out with “What is an RPG?” to Character Creation. I like the starting age effects starting XP section. It is an interesting take on how to deal with starting at different ages.

Points are given to buy attributes, skills and edges and disadvantages dependent on starting age.

Attributes are mentioned (Strength, Size, Willpower…) and then abbreviations are used (STR, SIZ, WIP) but nothing connecting the two. Granted a semi-experienced gamer could figure it out, but a novice will be scratching their head for a second or two. There are some generated secondary attributes as well, including something called “Killing Power Adjustment” which seems a bit off in a horror game; not that things don’t kill things, but often killing is not the focus, but I am fine with it. There is a section of previous experience which is interesting.

Lots of disadvantages (not sure why hay fever is worth more than partially deaf or partially blind, or why it was not just folded into Allergy). Though it does a much better job with the mental drawbacks than most games (eg it makes Multiple Personality Disorder different from Schizophrenia, a pet peeve of mine). Disadvantages are bought with points, any extra disadvantage points have to be bought off with experience points. I like that to be honest. It casts disadvantages in a different light. Instead of using disadvantages as a means to gain extra points, but rather as something that must be bought off. For a horror game it is a good model.

The skill system reminds of me a bit of Chill. Some will find this refreshingly “old school” others might find it “old” or “out moded”. I think given the atmosphere the game is trying go with I am going with “Classically oriented” and think it works fine for this game. There are a lot of skills too, which is also very old school in feel as opposed to more “cinematic” games that try to get more done with less skills.

There is a good section on Weapons which deals with a lot of standard weapons (guns, sticks, and archaic stuff).

The next section is on Psychic abilities and mention they can be bought by anyone with a high Perception, so a little different than saying buying a “psychic edge” and then buying the abilities.
The psychic abilities seem work fine and feel right here. Again, I am feeling a bit of Chill here, though the magic and psychic powers are not the same as Chill’s magic, it’s the overall vibe; more magic than Call of Cthulhu, less than C.J. Carella’s WitchCraft.

Next up is magic.
(Speaking of magic, on page 41 the formatting shifts down by an inch or so for the rest of the magic secction. Nothing is unreadable, but looks odd.)

Magic is divided up into traditions (like that) and talks about what a tradition is and how they have access to some spells, but not all (like that too). Each tradition also has various mechanical things that can happen to them via their magic, so each one does feel different than the other.

Spells are supposedly bought like Psychic abilities, but I have not found a guide anywhere in my reading.

Combat is next (odd that it is not with Weapons) along with misadventures, healing and diseases.

The chapters on creatures and their powers are next and it is full of the horror show mainstays and a few new ones. I like that there are multiple types of vampires for example.

A section on curses is also provided which would be useful for any game with curses.

All in all there are some interesting things in this game, though nothing terribly unique. I like some of the character creation options. The magic system has some neat points but not quite unique in and of itself really. My biggest issue with the game is that I expected more, and the layout is far below what I would have expected from an established game company. There are also a number distracting typos, while I normally would ignore these, but some made it difficult to understand the text.

The game itself looks like it would fun with the right mindset. There is a darker tone to it that puts it somewhere between Chill and Call of Cthulhu. Though it lacks a bit of focus; is it Victorian, is it Modern? And what do characters do in the game? The motivations of the characters are unclear too. What do they do, why are they doing it? I think this needs to be better defined.
I would have liked to see some character write-ups so we could see how characters look when done.

Season of the Witch: Episode 8

Episode 8: Heart of Light

Winter 2005
Area 51

Cordelia voice over: Previously on “Willow & Tara: Season of the Witch”

The Thunderbird rolls into Roswell, NM.
Willow and Tara on the bed making out, Bob walks in.
Tara yelling at Bob, then following him outside.
Willow following Coyote out of the hotel room.
Tara panicking asking where Willow is, blows up the TV.
Scrying crystal landing on Area 51, Tara peels out in the Thunderbird and driving into the night.
Coyote turns into Oz.
Tara driving, but falling asleep. Bob yelling at her to wake up she crashes the Thunderbird into an invisible wall. See Tara bleeding and unconscious.
Coyote-in-Oz’s-form telling Willow “You are going to destroy the world and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Tara, Bob and Cordy in military custody. The base commander speaks to them. "Everyone knows what happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. But I am here to tell you ladies and gentlemen, that everyone is wrong."
While speaking pan to the hanging angel. Hear Cordy say “Oh. God. It’s Uriel.”


Roswell, 1947
Scene changes. Black and white, a man in uniform, an Air Force Captain, looks into a room were electrical charges can be seen reflecting on the wall along with sounds of electrical discharge and a high pitched screaming. He looks on in horror then turns away to a General examining some debris on the floor of the office. The material looks shiny, like flexible metal. There are the remains of a long sword, shattered and covered in runes.
“General! We can’t keep him here, this office is in no way equipped to deal with…with that!”
“I know son. That is why he is being transferred to a more secure facility.” Off the captain’s look. “No worries son, we have dealt with his kind before. Well maybe not exactly like his kind, but close enough.”
“Is he? Is… What is he?”
“He is a threat, a threat to the sovereignty of the United States of America. And we do not deal with threats, we eliminate them.” A pause. “This entire fiasco will covered up and forgotten. Is that understood?”
Snaps to attention. “Yes sir!” a pause. “But sir, what do we tell the press, they will be here shortly.”
The General looked over the silvery material on the ground, it was light and flexible like cloth, but nothing they had could even tear it a little. “Tell them.” Pause. “Tell them it was a weather balloon.”

Present Day

Lieutenant General Ashby informs them that this “monster” was shot down by the U.S. Air Force and that is what crashed in Roswell. The metal everyone thought was “Spaceship metal” was really his armor. The Lt. General takes them to their own cells and tells them not to worry, that a solution to the Supernatural Menace has been discovered and will be used shortly. The doors close on them. Bob cannot phase out and Cordy can’t orb out. But they have larger concerns. Tara has blacked out again and is muttering in Gaelic, more gaelic than she actually knows. Her tempature is spiking and Cordy guesses it must be at least 107. She has been trying to heal her, but her magic is not working due to the cell. Tara does come around and asks about the angel upstairs. Cordy (with the Director’s help) explains that he is Uriel and he has been missing for 60 years. A long time for humans, but for angels a blink of the eye. What is so important is that Uriel stands in front of the gates of Hell and keeps the demons from getting out. Since he has been missing the demons have been getting to Earth. Tara feels Willow is near, Cordy does not. Feeling stronger Tara uses her own heat to focus on the lock and melt it. They are able to leave their cell, but still can’t use magic. They manage to get up a level before being captured again. Ashby decides that some time in the common area with the other prisoners is what they need. So they are all locked up with various other supernatural monsters. We see demons of all sorts, a werewolf and other things. All the creatures approach them.

Willow has subdued her guards (Director Fiat, I just said she did it) and is walking around the facility. She sees the Lt. General, but not Tara. At this point Willow’s player asks if she can use magic to talk to the computer the system. There is no spell so I set a SL for her to hit and asked her to use an Int + Magic + Computers + d10 and treat it like a spell of PL 5 or 6 I think. She rolls, made it of course and communicates with the base main frame. This is the first use of her mage powers. The ability to make on the fly magical effects using a variety of skills. I let her do this one now, but another one, jumping up a few dozen feet with STR + Magic + Acrobatics I did not (even though that would have been the way to do it as a Mage. She is not all the way there yet.) She does discover that the government has a plan. They have created a virus that will kill all supernaturals, angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, and witches.

Willow finds Uriel, is mostly left alone, and manages to talk to him. She tells him she will free him. He agrees, but it won’t be now. Uriel tells her that he has been waiting for her for a very long time. She quips that is the Coyote only told her last night. Uriel warns her not to trust the Coyote, he doesn’t lie, but he hardly ever tells the whole truth. Willow tells Uriel that Coyote said she was going to destroy the world. Uriel stops and then says that may be the one time when Coyote has told the whole truth. Uriel tells Willow her path is before her, but she will not walk it alone, that her Anamchara is here, and she must find her and then they will free him. But like her, he has his love, and Willow must find her as well. Willow asks who it is and Uriel says Sherazza. He tells her there is a plan for them all to escape, they were waiting for the sign. The sign of course is the arrival of the Cast.

Back at the common cell, all the creatures are approaching Bob, Cordy and Tara. A female voice shouts stop and the creatures stop and look over their shoulders. Approaching is a tall, beautiful red skinned demoness, a Lilim. Her wings are tattered and she has obviously not been well treated, but she still has a commanding presence here. She looks at each cast member in turn. Growling at Cordy. She approaches Tara. She begins to sniff her, looking her all over. She places her clawed hands on Tara’s stomach and before Tara can say anything or react, the Lilim turns to the others and says “It is her! She has the Allaidh!” The other creatures roar in triumph. Finally asking what the hell is going on, the Lilim tells them that it had been foretold to them by the Seer that they would be freed by the one possessing the Allaidh. The demoness only smiles and says “Mother said you have questions. But I don’t have to answer them.” Mother of course is Lilith, and the Lilim tells them that they will honor the pact made by her sisters the Mormo and the one made by their mother. As long as she is here, there will be no harm to the cast. But the Lilim wants Tara to break them out now. Tara tries but she can’t do it like she did before.

Willow shows up, drawn to her Anamchara. Together the girls manage to melt the locks on the door (my players wanted to blow it up, but were talked out of it by Bob). The meet, the lilim touches Willow’s face and smiles, saying “Two? Two with the Allaidh? What engines of destruction you will become!” Willow gets ranty about no destroying anything. Tara tells her they have to go and get Uriel. Willow says they will once they rescue Sherazza. The lilim laughs and tells them they already have.

The Cast and the demons are running helter skelter through the base. Willow tells them about the virus, but the military is starting to open fire. Sherazza, flies into the crowd and begins to subdue, but not kill they notice, the airmen. The other demons do not show the same restraint.
Sherazza, goes to Uriel to free him, but she can’t. I now let Willow use a Strength + Magic + Kung-fu +d10 to rip the locks off. It works (but I give her a penalty to her magic rolls next, seeing right away that mages can be game breaking) and have her take some damage.
The rush to the room where the virus is kept to encounter Lt. General Ashby. Sherazza grabs the virus and a stand off begins.

For this I had Willow and Tara’s players take on the role of Uriel and Sharazza respectively and hit them with the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Ashby asks Sharezza for the virus, he has a gun pointing at her. He tells her he can shoot her and kill her, shoot the virus and kill them all (except him) or she can give it to him. It is the only sample. Ashby eludes to a supposed double cross where she was supposed to be freed only to betray Uriel. She denies this (I told Tara’s player it wasn’t true, but not Willow’s player). Basically then I gave both players a choice. Turn in themselves, or turn in their lover. If they turned in a lover and the other turned in themselves then that one would go back and the other would be free. So if Uriel turned in Sharezza and Sharezza turned in herself, then Ashby would shoot Sharezza dead and Uriel would go free. If they turned in each other, then Ashby shoots them both, if they turned in themselves, they went back to prison. Leave it to my Tara player to find the other option. She flies into Ashby, burning a drama point and kills him, but is killed herself.

Uriel seeing this weeps for his lost love and before “sterilizing” the base he teleports the Cast back to the Thunderbird. The cast watches as the base is destroyed. They are sure it is Uriel. Cordy “heals” the car (Whitelighter thing) and they drive on. It is late in the day now.

Willow tells Tara about Coyote. We end the episode with car driving on and entering California.

Notes: We are introduced now the fourth and last faction dealing with the Cast, the Government. Like S.A.V.E. their primary goal is to protect humanity. But of course unlike S.A.V.E. good old Uncle Sam adds, “by any means necessary”. Now one thing we didn’t want to do was paint the government as a one sided, one dimensional entity. In fact their cause is in fact noble. They just have their facts a little wrong and tend to be a bit paranoid. They make other appearances later, but mostly as a threat.
There are also other clues here to the girls oncoming mage powers. Tara blows up a TV is the obvious one, Willow talking to gods and super hacking are others, but the subtle one are the girls themselves. I told my players that they were much more amorous with each other. They ran with it and had them having sex at every chance. Which is fine, not what I had in mind 100%, but hey when life hands you hot girl-on-girl action….make lemonade and watch I guess. (????) Of course my players, who were involved in the in-world-myths, knew what was happening. This is the start of their powers growing. In game this was dubbed “Allaidh” (the “wilding” in Gaelic) by my Tara player. Sharezza makes note of it. Again another Charmed influence…the Seer is mentioned. I don’t say which one, the Charisma Carpenter or the Debi Morgan one. As much as I like Charisma Carpenter I am inclined to say it’s Debi Morgan. http://charmed.wikia.com/wiki/Seer

Ever wonder why in the 50’s we had some many UFO stories and then nothing. Then next thing you know, little bit by little bit we get flooded with tales of demons, vampires, and other supernatural baddies? Well that’s because we were being visited by angels more often then, we thought they were UFOs, and then the big bad ass angel that guards the gates to Hell and keep demons away was shot down by the U.S. Air Force. While he is in a cell for almost 60 years (not long enough for the side of Good to notice, but Evil sure did!) demons run amok. Buffy is busier than any other Slayer before, the Charmed Ones have more work to do than all the Warren Witches combined and we get thousands of supernatural themed TV shows. Of course it doesn’t help that the Veil is weakening.
One way or the other the fit is going to hit the shan.

The Uriel/Sharezza was going to play out differently. She was going to be redeemed and go to Heaven with Uriel. But we thought that that was not as interesting. Plus there is the issue of the government base. They needed to be weakened and only Uriel was strong enough to do that and he wouldn’t if he were all happy. But as the Angel of Vengeance, well that is different. Originally then Sharezza was going to be shot while they were making their escape, but I couldn’t let them get to the virus without Ashby being there. So there he was. I also was going to have him die from the virus, but that would imply he was also a supernatural, and I have seen that too many damn times in X-men, so I figure he was human with a gun that could kill supernaturals.

Another subtle nod to what will happen in the finale is here. Can you spot it? ;)

Next up… The girls are home and stars of their own X-Rated web show???
Plus the return of Amy and Beth.

The Sheen

This might be the coolest product I have seen in a long time.

Totally worth the price.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88778&affiliate_id=10748

This one is for Scot!

Review: Witch Hunter: the Invisible World

Witch Hunter: the Invisible World

I have a real love-hate relationship with this game. I played it right after it first came out at Gen Con and thought the game was great. The rule system was easy to pick up in game and I liked the dark history feel of it. It felt like one of the modern horror games that I loved to play set in the 17th century. I bought a copy then and there and took it home. Once I started reading through it all I was less enamored with it. The funky alt-history never worked for me, and as a player that likes to play witches in many games I disliked the vibe of the game that all witches were evil and had to be hunted.

Also on future playing I began to dislike the system. I sold the book to a friend about 6 months later. I wanted to give it another chance so I picked it up at DriveThruRPG about a year after I bought it in hardcover. I have given the game it's due attention (bought it twice in fact) and still could not make it work for me. To be 100% fair I think that has much more to do with me than this game.

I think there is a lot of really good material here. A lot of things I would love to use elsewhere, maybe running it under WitchCraft or True20. The book itself is well laid out and just a cool book to look at. The PDF here comes in both the full version and a printer friendly one. There is a vague World of Darkness feel about it and it does remind me a bit of Mage the Sorcerers Crusade. I do like the magic system here and I do keep coming back to the game wanting to do more with it.

Character creation is very good, I like the spells and the magic system. The overview of the world is very nice and I like the background information on the Orders of Solomon.

There is an odd mix of new and old thought in this book, some of them contradictory. Examples: The Sumerlands are mentioned (from Wicca) but witches are supposed to be all evil. Werewolves are shown with a pentagram etched into their hand/paw but that is something that only came out in the movies. The Aztecs are still around, even if other parts of history depicted here could not have happened unless the Spanish had had a firm hold on the New World.

The book has a ton of atmosphere, and you know right away what this game is all about.

A few things I like:
- Atmosphere. Like I said it has oodles and gobs of it. Solomon Kane left feeling "eh", but this one, you know right away what you are doing.
- Closest thing I get to a WoD-like game set in a period I really wanted to try.
- Support, the Paradigm Concepts website has tons of cool things, in fact seeing the website made want to seek this game out when it was first available at GenCon (2007 was it?) I bought a book there and then later bought the PDFs.
- Solomonic-based magic systems always rock.
- Beautiful book.
- The Orders, I can see why the exist, what they do in the world and why someone (the PC) would be part of one.

Things I didn't like, but could easily live with:
- Very WoD in feel and execution.
- Dice pools. Don't like them, but I can live wit them.
- Talents seem very "Feat" like. I like feats mind you, just not everywhere.
- would have liked more monsters.
- "Satanists". Too many modern conotations. I would have prefered to see "Diaboloists" (which the book does also use) or "Luciferians".

Things I didn't like:
- Some of the alt history doesn't make sense, even with magic. But that can be an opinion.
- I dislike the entire black & white-ness of the good and evil here. If it were just that I would say it is an artifact of the times they are trying to emulate and be fine with it. But I like to play "good" witches also and the rules (or my interpretation of them) didn't support that.
And by good witches I don't mean spiritualists or animists or alchemists. I mean witches. That practice witchcraft, worship the Goddess and all that. Granted that is MY bias and maybe this is not really the game for this.
- Along with good witches (and the spells for them). I'd would have liked to see evil members of the Church. Sure their are "foils" in the shape of the Jesuits. But I work for a couple of Jesuit universities, I was not buying it as a real attempt to make them evil. Rather just overly dogmatic in their views.

In the end, I am going to give it 4 stars out of five. I think it does what it does well, even if it leaves me scratching my head at times. It is an attractive book and the online support and community for it is really top notch.  I would have given it 3, but everything I think is "Wrong" with it is really my own bias.

Am I a 2nd or 3rd Generation gamer?

I was thinking about generations of gamers today and wondering where it is I fit in.

I am an old school gamer, I started in 1979 with a copy of the Holmes Basic set (Blue Book) and the AD&D Monster Manual.  I kicked my gaming into high gear the next years though with the Moldvay Basic.

I learned from guys that learned from their older brothers.  I played with a guy that had learned how to play from Gary himself using the White Box.

I am certain I am not a 1st Gen.  Those are the luminaries of our hobby.  The 2nd Gen either learned at their feet as Plato did from Socrates.  OR are they all part of the 1st generation?  I guess I must be the 2nd generation removed from the source.

I know plenty of "old school" players that were not even alive when even the first Red Box was out.  I know plenty of just plain "old" players that love the newest games.  So age is not the issue I think.

Where are you?  Can you trace your gaming lineage back to one of the Old Great Masters?  Should that even matter?

ETA: Cyclopeatron has a nice list of the Generation of Gamers.
http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2011/03/defining-six-generations-of-d-players.html

Justice is Blind, Issue 3: M&M3 / DCA

I have mentioned before about how pleased I have been that Mutants and Masterminds 3 and DC Adventures share the same system.  Here is one of those reasons.
My latest super-hero character Justice.

Justice, as she is known is a Paragon, of the likes not seen since Superman left he Earth and Wonder Woman retired.   Many know she is the newest force for Truth, Justice and the American Way, but not many know that she shares more with the those paragons of old than a costume design.
Justice is also Astra Kal-El, daughter of Superman (Kal-El) and Wonder Woman, Diana of Themyscira.

I have detailed Justice in previous posts.  Her introduction and Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed stats, and stats for the BASH! RPG.

I like her M&M 3.0 stats as well and think this is the best system for her.  Issue 3 of "Justice is Blind" would deal with her current troubles of establishing herself as her own hero with some flashbacks of her time on Themyscira.

Justice - PL 10
Strength 11, Stamina 10, Agility 4, Dexterity 2, Fighting 5, Intellect 3, Awareness 3, Presence 4


Advantages
All-out Attack, Attractive 2, Benefit, Alternate Identity (Astra Kal-el, Astra Kent), Benefit, Wealth (well-off), Connected (Bruce Wayne), Defensive Attack, Languages 1

Skills
Athletics 1 (+12), Close Combat (Grab) 2 (+7), Deception 2 (+6), Expertise (Law) 4 (+7), Insight 1 (+4), Investigation 4 (+7), Perception 3 (+6), Persuasion 2 (+6), Ranged Combat (Heat Vision: Blast 8) 3 (+5), Stealth 4 (+8)

Powers
Flight: Flight 8 (Speed: 500 miles/hour, 1 mile/round)

Heat Vision: Blast 8 (DC 23; Distracting)

Invulnerability
   Immunity: Immunity 10 (Life Support)
   Impervious Defense: Impervious Toughness 5
Super Senses: Senses 8 (Acute: Vision, Hearing, Distance Sense, Extended: Vision, Hearing 2 (x100), Penetrates Concealment: Vision; Limited (Lead))
Super Speed: Quickness 4 (Perform routine tasks in -4 time ranks)
Super Strength: Enhanced Strength 2 (+2 STR; Limited (Lifting only))

Offense
Initiative +4
Grab, +7 (DC Spec 21)
Heat Vision: Blast 8, +5 (DC 23)
Throw, +2 (DC 26)
Unarmed, +5 (DC 26)

Complications
Power Loss: Exposed to Kryptonite
Secret: Is the daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman. Raised by the Batman.
Secret: Secret ID, Astra Kal-El, aka Astra Kent.
Weakness: Magic

Languages
English, Greek

Defense
Dodge 4, Parry 5, Fortitude 10, Toughness 10, Will 3

Power Points
Abilities 80 + Powers 49 + Advantages 8 + Skills 13 (26 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 150

What I like about Justice is she has power, she has a pedigree even (daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman, trained by the Batman) but she is still young and she does not always know what she is doing or what she needs to do.  She only knows that she sees injustice and suffering in the world and she needs to do something about it. She is not an brooding, agnsty hero, but she is a dedicated one and maybe even a bit of a naïve one. She just knows she has to do something. No existential struggles with her, just action.

Now here is to seeing if my regular GM will let me use her in one of his adventures one day.

ETA: I updated her based on some conversations