Some magic books reviewed.
Most of these are older books, but they could still be used with Pathfinder or even converted to a retro-clone.
Dark Ladies: Villainesses in RPGs
A collection of femme fatales to sick on your players. From the subtle to the savage this are not your typical "Bad Guys". From myth, legend and folklore and sometimes even history.
These 17 are not your typical "monsters" but fully developed NPCs.
My only issues are with some of the choices for feats or skills, but that is what you get sometimes. If you need a good NPC and what something different, then this is a good choice.
For d20.
4 out of 5 stars
Internet Arcana
You can never have too many spells. Internet Arcana culled the best of the of OGC spells and put them one easy to use book. The format is for 3.0, but it would not take much at all to convert these to 3.5 or Pathfinder or even "downgrade" them to your favorite retro-clone. Not a "must have" but certainly a worthwhile purchase.
4 out of 5 stars
A Touch of Magic
11 great looking graphics to use as NPCs or characters in your games. They are all CGI and approach more "pinup" than character, but it is fantasy after all. There are also paper minis to use as well. For the price not bad at all.
4 out of 5 stars
Dweomercraft: Enchanters
This one is a bit of a mixed bag. There is a lot of fluff, which is fine really, but I might not ever use any of it. The cover art is great, the interior art, less so (though not bad). There are some new feats that are good and some new gods. The best part though are the spells. There are a good number of useful spells here. Plus some interesting tomes and magic items.
It might take some tweaking to fit some of the background information into your game, but there is still enough here to make it worthwhile to buy.
4 out of 5 stars
Necromancer's Legacy - Gar'Udok's Necromantic Artes
An interesting little book. Full of all sorts of necromantic fun. There are spells, some creatures, an NPC and magic items.
There are also some new races and a bunch of background material on these necromancers.
I bought it for the spells and the monsters.
4 out of 5 stars
Behind the Spells: Vampiric Touch and Behind the Spells: Sanctuary
An interesting idea. The "Behind the Music" or "Ecology of" a particular spell. It gives you some fluff and background material on how the spell was created and used and even has a couple of newer spells. This will not be everyone's idea of a good supplement, but certainly helps keep the magic fresh and interesting in the game. Plus it is a great idea for researching new spells or even finding "lost" spells.
Every spell has a story, this one costs you a buck-50.
4 out of 5 stars
The Primer of Practical Magic
Designed for the Dying Earth campaign setting there is a ton of material suitable for any fantasy d20 game. Scores of new spells (most with suitably fantastic names), magic items and prestige classes. The magic items are pretty interesting and there are a number of magical books to be had as well. There are even a few new creatures and feats thrown in for good measure.
There is an interesting appendix on the Dying Earth world, but you don't need it to get the full advantage of this book.
The spell component price list is very useful to have as well.
4 out of 5 stars
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Season of the Witch: Episode 10 Teaser
Episode 10: Through a Glass Darkly
Introduction
Willow and Tara were standing in front of a full-length mirror. Willow was looking very pleased, Tara looked uncomfortable. Tara was wearing a simple black skirt and blue sweater. The sweater's neckline plunged to reveal some cleavage, not much, but enough, and in a way to make her neck look longer. The skirt itself was cut a mid-calf above her knees.
"I don't know Will." Tara said after looking at herself from a couple of different angles.
"What? You look beautiful." Willow admonished.
"But is this appropriate for dinner with your parents. I mean they are coming here to give us their stamp of approval, and I want to make a good impression. I don't want." Willow covered Tara's lips with a finger. Then replaced it with her own lips.
"First. You look beautiful. Second. Mom and Dad are both in town at the same time anyway. Third. We don't need their stamp of approval. Fourth. You look beautiful."
"You mentioned that one twice." Tara said with a crooked smile.
"Because it is true." Willow turned Tara around to face the mirror. "You are a young, beautiful woman. You should let the world know and see."
"But I have never been very comfortable showing off so much." Tara said, then a side long glance. "But if you had your way I'd be in corsets and mini-skirts all the time."
"Well not all the time." A slight raise in Willow's voice and the innuendo was clear. "So, I like girly-girls, and you girly-girl are hot."
"You really think I am hot?" Tara said still looking in the mirror. "It's weird, I never could see myself as hot." Fade into the mirror.
A flash in the same mirror, only now it is dark and there is no reflection.
"It's weird" said Tara. "I can't see myself and yet I still know I am f**king hot."
Tara was standing in front of the mirror. She was wearing a flimsy blue blouse that barely covered her chest. A black lace bra pushed her pale cleavage upward and showed off her assets well. The bottom half of the blouse was unbuttoned to show off her navel ring against pale skin. The black leather skirt was split almost up to her hips, offering a just a tease of what might lie beneath. The dark red lipstick she was wearing contrasted so sharply with her pale skin that her lips almost seemed black.
"Now. To get what I want." She turned from the mirror to a small table covered with lit candles, an athame and a cup. The cup looked like it was filled with blood. She picked up the athame and slid it into a sheath in her boot.
She reached down to grab a sheet of parchment and a picture.
She read the spell with a hand placed on the picture.
Coming soon.
Introduction
Willow and Tara were standing in front of a full-length mirror. Willow was looking very pleased, Tara looked uncomfortable. Tara was wearing a simple black skirt and blue sweater. The sweater's neckline plunged to reveal some cleavage, not much, but enough, and in a way to make her neck look longer. The skirt itself was cut a mid-calf above her knees.
"I don't know Will." Tara said after looking at herself from a couple of different angles.
"What? You look beautiful." Willow admonished.
"But is this appropriate for dinner with your parents. I mean they are coming here to give us their stamp of approval, and I want to make a good impression. I don't want." Willow covered Tara's lips with a finger. Then replaced it with her own lips.
"First. You look beautiful. Second. Mom and Dad are both in town at the same time anyway. Third. We don't need their stamp of approval. Fourth. You look beautiful."
"You mentioned that one twice." Tara said with a crooked smile.
"Because it is true." Willow turned Tara around to face the mirror. "You are a young, beautiful woman. You should let the world know and see."
"But I have never been very comfortable showing off so much." Tara said, then a side long glance. "But if you had your way I'd be in corsets and mini-skirts all the time."
"Well not all the time." A slight raise in Willow's voice and the innuendo was clear. "So, I like girly-girls, and you girly-girl are hot."
"You really think I am hot?" Tara said still looking in the mirror. "It's weird, I never could see myself as hot." Fade into the mirror.
A flash in the same mirror, only now it is dark and there is no reflection.
"It's weird" said Tara. "I can't see myself and yet I still know I am f**king hot."
Tara was standing in front of the mirror. She was wearing a flimsy blue blouse that barely covered her chest. A black lace bra pushed her pale cleavage upward and showed off her assets well. The bottom half of the blouse was unbuttoned to show off her navel ring against pale skin. The black leather skirt was split almost up to her hips, offering a just a tease of what might lie beneath. The dark red lipstick she was wearing contrasted so sharply with her pale skin that her lips almost seemed black.
"Now. To get what I want." She turned from the mirror to a small table covered with lit candles, an athame and a cup. The cup looked like it was filled with blood. She picked up the athame and slid it into a sheath in her boot.
She reached down to grab a sheet of parchment and a picture.
She read the spell with a hand placed on the picture.
Coming soon.
DriveThru Reviews: Fantasy Heartbreakers
The term "fantasy heartbreaker" is a term coined at The Forge to describe a then new breed of fantasy games that were very detailed, but obviously not far from the root game that spawned them, D&D. To me Fantasy Heartbreaker games always come across as someone's house rules of D&D or how they would have made D&D. Now sometimes they are supposed to be a game in their own right, a supplement to another game or in the case of more recent years, an OGC/d20 ruleset.
Most times the rules are nothing more than D&D with a different coat of paint, though sometimes were are treated to something new. Take Pathfinder. It is basically a Fantasy Heartbreaker that cleaves very close to the original source. So close in fact that it even has some of the same staff on it as the 3.x version of the D&D rules. Plus it gives a few new things.
World of Lykarnia
World of Lykarnia certainly feels D&D-ish. There are 6 traits that map perfectly onto the 6 standard abilities of D&D. There are skills, classes, levels, the standard races. Everything we expect in a FRPG. The equipment list the same weapons we have seen dozens of times. Granted I am not expecting much there.
A couple of things I felt were odd. The table of contents is huge, even for a 169 page book. I think the author could have collapsed a level or so; give us the broad categories, not ever thing to a Level 3 Header. Secondly the book starts off with (Chapter 2) with an example on combat. We don't even know what some of the words being used are (Spirit Score?) but we are supposed to follow along? Didn't like that.
The system is a simple d10 based one, not all that different than Unisystem or True20 (with a d10 instead). I found that more interesting since I could use this with Unisystem fairly easy (Characters are even ranked 1 to 5 on their traits). The magic system is interesting, but the spells are not all that different than what can be read in the Basic D&D books. I do like how they were grouped into classical elements.
The bit about psychotic disorders seemed way too modern for a fantasy game to be honest.
The monsters are just descriptions with their stats at the back of the book in a big table. Like OD&D.
There is a introductory adventure in the back as well, which I thought was a nice touch.
The author obviously put a lot of work into this book but there is nothing here that we have not seen already.
The included JPG map is very nice.
I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
Tome of the Lost Realms Players Handbook
Released not long after the world had heard about 4th Edition, Tome of the Lost Realms does what Pathfinder also sat out to do, extend the life of the 3.x ruleset. Also like Pathfinder, this is a massive book at near 480 pages. The fonts and typography are meant to bring another Realms to your mind I am sure. The realms themselves are interesting as far as that sort of thing goes. the races section is rather large with all sorts of fantasy races, again many we have seen before. The same classes as 3.x/Pathfinder, with the Warlock replacing the Sorcerer in all but name. There are skills, feats, equipment and spells just like 3.x but it is hard to tell if anything here is new or not since there is so much of it. The Section 15 of this book leads me to believe that there is a ton of stuff in this book above and beyond the SRD, but nothing jumped out at me.
In the end this is 3.x or maybe 3.6. It is not quite Pathfinder and it has not moved past it's D&D roots to be completely unique either.
I gave 3 stars out of 5 since there is nothing really new here. But the price puts it at a fifth of the cost of Pathfinder, so maybe 3.5 out of 5.
I think the issue here is that if you are going to make a new fantasy RPG you have ask yourself what are you giving us to overcome D&D-inertia. What is new, interesting or otherwise different than before. Retro clones will start to fall into the same issues, if they haven't already.
Most times the rules are nothing more than D&D with a different coat of paint, though sometimes were are treated to something new. Take Pathfinder. It is basically a Fantasy Heartbreaker that cleaves very close to the original source. So close in fact that it even has some of the same staff on it as the 3.x version of the D&D rules. Plus it gives a few new things.
World of Lykarnia
A couple of things I felt were odd. The table of contents is huge, even for a 169 page book. I think the author could have collapsed a level or so; give us the broad categories, not ever thing to a Level 3 Header. Secondly the book starts off with (Chapter 2) with an example on combat. We don't even know what some of the words being used are (Spirit Score?) but we are supposed to follow along? Didn't like that.
The system is a simple d10 based one, not all that different than Unisystem or True20 (with a d10 instead). I found that more interesting since I could use this with Unisystem fairly easy (Characters are even ranked 1 to 5 on their traits). The magic system is interesting, but the spells are not all that different than what can be read in the Basic D&D books. I do like how they were grouped into classical elements.
The bit about psychotic disorders seemed way too modern for a fantasy game to be honest.
The monsters are just descriptions with their stats at the back of the book in a big table. Like OD&D.
There is a introductory adventure in the back as well, which I thought was a nice touch.
The author obviously put a lot of work into this book but there is nothing here that we have not seen already.
The included JPG map is very nice.
I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
Tome of the Lost Realms Players Handbook
In the end this is 3.x or maybe 3.6. It is not quite Pathfinder and it has not moved past it's D&D roots to be completely unique either.
I gave 3 stars out of 5 since there is nothing really new here. But the price puts it at a fifth of the cost of Pathfinder, so maybe 3.5 out of 5.
I think the issue here is that if you are going to make a new fantasy RPG you have ask yourself what are you giving us to overcome D&D-inertia. What is new, interesting or otherwise different than before. Retro clones will start to fall into the same issues, if they haven't already.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Young Ones for Ghosts of Albion
Being sick made me think of the Young Ones episode "Sick" and that made me realize I had not posted my Ghosts of Albion stats for the Young Ones here yet. So without further ado.
The Young Ones
Once in every lifetime
Comes a love like this.
I need you and you need me.
Oh my darling cant you see.
The young ones,
Darling were the young ones,
And young ones shouldnt be afraid.
To live, love
Theres song to be sung,
For we wont be the young ones very long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meioyAthGDw
(Character descriptions stolen from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Ones_%28TV_series%29 )
Rick: Oh no, the front door's exploded. Vyvyan.
Mike: Vyvyan.
Vyvyan: Vyvyan, Vyvyan, Vyvyan. Honestly, whenever anything explodes in this house it's always 'Blame Vyvyan'.
Neil Pye
Name: Neil Pye
Alias: Neil the Hippie
Played by: Nigel Planer
Type: Pacifist Hippie
Neil: Oh, look, I know, I know, why not put "boomshanka"?
Mike: Ahh... that's hard to tell, Neil. What does it mean?
Neil: It means "may the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman".
Life Points: 25
Drama Points: 10
Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 1
Intelligence 3
Perception 4
Willpower 4
Qualities
Hmm...he is the only one that cleans the house. Hard to Kill (though he does manage to get killed) 2, Natural Toughness.
Drawbacks
Emotional Problems (Depression, Severe; Fear of rejection, Severe), Bad Luck 3, Honorable 1, Humorless, Mental Problems (Delusions Sleep will give you cancer, Severe; Obsession pacifism, vegetarianism, Severe; Paranoia Deranged) , Outcast, Resources (Miserable),
Skills
Acrobatics 0
Art 2
Computers 0 (he hates technology)
Crime 1
Doctor 1
Driving 1
Getting Medieval 0 (Pacifist)
Gun Fu 0 (still a Pacifist)
Influence: 0
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 0 (yeah)
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 3
Notice 3
Occultism 2 (only because he has a personal devil)
Science 1 (limited to Natural Sciences)
Sports 1
Wild Card
Neil Pye, the hippie, is a clinically depressed, suicidal pacifist, vegetarian and environmentalist working towards a Peace Studies degree. He is victimised by other housemates (especially Rick and Vyvyan) and forced to do the housework, including shopping, cleaning and cooking. He is never acknowledged for it unless it goes wrong.
Neil is pessimistic and believes everyone and everything hates him, a belief which is mostly true, though he does have some friends, two hippies, one also named Neil and one named Warlock. He dislikes technology (except for videos) and speaks out for Vegetable Rights and Peace. He is a chronic insomniac, believing that "sleep gives you cancer".
Neil wants the others to feel sorry for him, or even just to acknowledge his presence. His attention-seeking antics range from repeatedly banging himself on the head with a frying pan to attempting suicide. He claims that "the most interesting thing that ever happens to me is sneezing". This is because whenever he sneezes, it causes a large explosion.
In the second series his parents (who appear in the episode "Sick") are revealed to be upper middle class. They are conservative Tories who look down on Neil for starring in such a disreputable comedy series.
He also says 'heavy' a lot.
Neal in Modern Games: Neal is still living in the house and working on his Peace Studies degree. He does not know that the other guys have left, since they never told him, and thinks they just have been avoiding him for 25 years.
Rick
Name: Rick
Alias: Prick (the p is silent), The Peoples Poet, Rick the Complete Bastard
Played by: Rik Mayall
Type: Communist Bastard
Rick: Neil, the bathroom's free. Unlike the country under the Thatcherite junta.
Life Points: 22
Drama Points: 15
Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 1
Intelligence 3
Perception 2
Willpower 2
Qualities
Is complete and utter bastard a quality? If so Rick has it in supernatural levels.
Drawbacks
Adversary (Vyvyan), Emotional Problems (Easily Flustered; Fear of rejection, Mild), Bad Luck 1, Mental Problems (Coward, Severe; Cruelty, Mild unless it is directed towards Neil then Severe; Delusions is charming and intelligent, Severe; Obsession Cliff Richards, Severe; Paranoia Severe; Zealot(communism, socialism, Rickism), Severe), Resources (Miserable), Talentless/Dullard
Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art 2 (he thinks its 5)
Computers 0
Crime 2
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 1 (but it refers only the medieval police state he is living now)
Gun Fu 0
Influence: -2
Knowledge 2
Kung Fu 1
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 0
Notice 1
Occultism 0
Science 2
Sports 0
Wild Card
Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who is studying sociology and/or domestic sciences (depending on the episode). Rick writes poetry and calls himself "The People's Poet".
Rick is a hypocritical, tantrum-throwing attention-seeker who loves Cliff Richard. Rick tries to impress the others with his non-existent wit, talent and humour. He verbally insults (and often physically assaults) Neil at every opportunity. He fights and bickers with Vyvyan and often attempts to impress Mike.
Rick is also vegetarian and wishes all men to love each other like brothers. However, he rarely does anything that can be attributed to brotherly love.
Rick is portrayed as unlikeable and so self-absorbed that he believes he is the "most popular member of the flat" even though his housemates hate him (Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P"). Despite the fact that the other members dislike and disregard Rick, at one point he is heard to say that they "really are terrific friends."
Believing himself to be the 'People's Poet' or the "spokesperson for a generation", Rick often greatly exaggerates or lies about his political activism and class background and is exposed in the final episode "Summer Holiday", when it is suggested he comes from an upper class, Conservative background.
While he perceives himself as an anarchist, he is actually very fond of ideals produced by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and states his interests in them in several episodes. However, he claims to have a dislike of Margaret Thatcher, as is noted by his efforts to threaten her with a bomb in the eponymously named episode "Bomb." This is also noticed in "The Young Ones Book," first published by Sphere Books, wherein negative references are made to both Thatcher and The Conservative Party.
Rick speaks loudly and cannot pronounce his "r"s.
Rick in Modern Games: Rick died in 1985 before receiving his degree in a student protest march. Rick thought it was for an anti-Thatcher march, but it instead was to protest the replacement of Coke with New Coke in the student commons.
He is now haunting a castle in Scotland that houses a magic school.
Vyvyan Basterd
Name: Vyvyan Basterd
Alias: Vyvyan the punk rocker
Played by: Adrian Edmondson
Type: Anti-social Bastard
Vyvyan: What we need is a large consignment of very hard drugs.
Life Points: 49
Drama Points: 15
Attributes
Strength 5
Dexterity 2
Constitution 4
Intelligence 3
Perception 3
Willpower 2
Qualities
Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill
Drawbacks
Mental Problems (Anti-Social impulses, Deranged; Cruelty, Deranged; Obsessions, Mild; Paranoia, Mild; Recklessness, Deranged), Resources (Miserable),
Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art -1
Computers 0
Crime 3
Doctor 2 (he is pre-med after all)
Driving 2
Getting Medieval 4 (practically his middle name)
Gun Fu 1
Influence: 3
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 2
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 2
Notice 1
Occultism 1
Science 2
Sports 3
Wild Card
Vyvyan is an orange-haired, mohawked punk rocker and medical student. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. He never harms Mike, whom he respects. He despises Rick more than he does Neil, taking every opportunity to insult and attack him. For example, when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode "Boring", he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but not Rick, whom he refers to as "a complete bastard." Ironically, the antagonistic relationship between Rick and Vyvyan makes them all but inseperable; by a wide margin, the two spend more time together than apart or with the other housemates.
Vyvyan owns a yellow Ford Anglia, with red flames painted along the sides, and a Glaswegian hamster named Special Patrol Group ("SPG" for short) which he is very fond of, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence. His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan displays feats of inhuman strength on occasion (moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head), and eats just about anything; televisions, dead rats, cornflakes, or cornflakes with ketchup.
Despite being a homicidal maniac, Vyvyan seems quite sociable and creative; In one episode ("Flood"), he has developed his own potion to transform a person into an axe-wielding homocidal maniac (he claims "it's basically a cure...for not being an axe-wielding homocidal maniac...the potential market's enourmous!"). He has more friends than the others but apparently "he doesn't like any of them." He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb and adding a 289 CID Ford V-8 engine to the vacuum cleaner which proceeds to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's (the vacuum also prompted one of the few clashes between Vyvyan and Mike; when Mike admonished Vyv not to use it anymore, Vyv replied by calling him a "poof"). Disturbingly, Vyvyan also appears to be the only member of the group with a driving licence.
Vyvyan in Modern Games: Vyvyan became a very successful plastic surgeon.
Mike
Name: Mike
Alias: "the Cool Person"
Played by: Christopher Ryan
Type: Con-artist
Mike: Neil, have you upset the neighbors?
Neil: No, I've blown them up.
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 15
Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Constitution 2
Intelligence 4
Perception 4
Willpower 5
Qualities
Charisma 1, Criminal (Con Man)
Drawbacks
Covetous (Greedy, Desperate; Lechery, Serious; Ambition, Desperate; Conspicuosness; Serious), Mental Problems (Anti-social, Mild), Resources (Miserable),
Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art 2
Computers 1
Crime 5
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 1
Gun Fu 2
Influence: 6
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 1
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 2
Notice 4
Occultism 0
Science 1
Sports 2
Wild Card
Mike was the odd-one-out of the four. He is the assumed leader of the group, despite his diminutive size, and does not involve himself in the battles between the other three. He makes puns, which are either deliberately cheap or humorous but over-celebrated.
He frequently utters confusing, profound-sounding phrases which baffle the others (for example, when asked by Rick if he stole his apple, Mike replies "Well, if you're gonna sin you might as well be original."). Mike is supposedly the ladies' man of the bunch and brags about his prowess with women, although he is eventually forced to admit his virginity to the others in "Nasty." Though he is a virgin, as are the rest of the housemates, he makes every attempt at wooing the opposite sex, being quite forward and unsuccessful.
A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick money such as renting out Rick's bedroom as a roller disco and soliciting bids for the unexploded atom bomb that fell into the house. Mike attends Scumbag College only nominally as he has blackmailed his tutor and the Dean of the school for grants and apparently passing grades. In "Summer Holiday" he muses "I think I'll ask for one of those Ph.D.s next year."
While Mike often does things at the expense or detriment of his housemates, he rarely expresses the sort of open hostility that the others do, and seems to cause them trouble only when it benefits him, rather than out of sadistic joy. He has, however, managed to nail his own legs to a table, and knocked Neil out during a game of cricket, albeit unintentionally. We only see violence inflicted on him once (at the end of the "Living Doll" video, when Vyvyan knocks him unconscious with a hammer).
Mike in Modern Games: Mike bought and conned his way to a seat on the House of Lords where he was instrumental in working on the committee to elect Mr. Harold Saxon.
The Young Ones
Once in every lifetime
Comes a love like this.
I need you and you need me.
Oh my darling cant you see.
The young ones,
Darling were the young ones,
And young ones shouldnt be afraid.
To live, love
Theres song to be sung,
For we wont be the young ones very long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meioyAthGDw
(Character descriptions stolen from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Ones_%28TV_series%29 )
Rick: Oh no, the front door's exploded. Vyvyan.
Mike: Vyvyan.
Vyvyan: Vyvyan, Vyvyan, Vyvyan. Honestly, whenever anything explodes in this house it's always 'Blame Vyvyan'.
Neil Pye
Name: Neil Pye
Alias: Neil the Hippie
Played by: Nigel Planer
Type: Pacifist Hippie
Neil: Oh, look, I know, I know, why not put "boomshanka"?
Mike: Ahh... that's hard to tell, Neil. What does it mean?
Neil: It means "may the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman".
Life Points: 25
Drama Points: 10
Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 1
Intelligence 3
Perception 4
Willpower 4
Qualities
Hmm...he is the only one that cleans the house. Hard to Kill (though he does manage to get killed) 2, Natural Toughness.
Drawbacks
Emotional Problems (Depression, Severe; Fear of rejection, Severe), Bad Luck 3, Honorable 1, Humorless, Mental Problems (Delusions Sleep will give you cancer, Severe; Obsession pacifism, vegetarianism, Severe; Paranoia Deranged) , Outcast, Resources (Miserable),
Skills
Acrobatics 0
Art 2
Computers 0 (he hates technology)
Crime 1
Doctor 1
Driving 1
Getting Medieval 0 (Pacifist)
Gun Fu 0 (still a Pacifist)
Influence: 0
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 0 (yeah)
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 3
Notice 3
Occultism 2 (only because he has a personal devil)
Science 1 (limited to Natural Sciences)
Sports 1
Wild Card
Neil Pye, the hippie, is a clinically depressed, suicidal pacifist, vegetarian and environmentalist working towards a Peace Studies degree. He is victimised by other housemates (especially Rick and Vyvyan) and forced to do the housework, including shopping, cleaning and cooking. He is never acknowledged for it unless it goes wrong.
Neil is pessimistic and believes everyone and everything hates him, a belief which is mostly true, though he does have some friends, two hippies, one also named Neil and one named Warlock. He dislikes technology (except for videos) and speaks out for Vegetable Rights and Peace. He is a chronic insomniac, believing that "sleep gives you cancer".
Neil wants the others to feel sorry for him, or even just to acknowledge his presence. His attention-seeking antics range from repeatedly banging himself on the head with a frying pan to attempting suicide. He claims that "the most interesting thing that ever happens to me is sneezing". This is because whenever he sneezes, it causes a large explosion.
In the second series his parents (who appear in the episode "Sick") are revealed to be upper middle class. They are conservative Tories who look down on Neil for starring in such a disreputable comedy series.
He also says 'heavy' a lot.
Neal in Modern Games: Neal is still living in the house and working on his Peace Studies degree. He does not know that the other guys have left, since they never told him, and thinks they just have been avoiding him for 25 years.
Rick
Name: Rick
Alias: Prick (the p is silent), The Peoples Poet, Rick the Complete Bastard
Played by: Rik Mayall
Type: Communist Bastard
Rick: Neil, the bathroom's free. Unlike the country under the Thatcherite junta.
Life Points: 22
Drama Points: 15
Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 1
Intelligence 3
Perception 2
Willpower 2
Qualities
Is complete and utter bastard a quality? If so Rick has it in supernatural levels.
Drawbacks
Adversary (Vyvyan), Emotional Problems (Easily Flustered; Fear of rejection, Mild), Bad Luck 1, Mental Problems (Coward, Severe; Cruelty, Mild unless it is directed towards Neil then Severe; Delusions is charming and intelligent, Severe; Obsession Cliff Richards, Severe; Paranoia Severe; Zealot(communism, socialism, Rickism), Severe), Resources (Miserable), Talentless/Dullard
Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art 2 (he thinks its 5)
Computers 0
Crime 2
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 1 (but it refers only the medieval police state he is living now)
Gun Fu 0
Influence: -2
Knowledge 2
Kung Fu 1
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 0
Notice 1
Occultism 0
Science 2
Sports 0
Wild Card
Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who is studying sociology and/or domestic sciences (depending on the episode). Rick writes poetry and calls himself "The People's Poet".
Rick is a hypocritical, tantrum-throwing attention-seeker who loves Cliff Richard. Rick tries to impress the others with his non-existent wit, talent and humour. He verbally insults (and often physically assaults) Neil at every opportunity. He fights and bickers with Vyvyan and often attempts to impress Mike.
Rick is also vegetarian and wishes all men to love each other like brothers. However, he rarely does anything that can be attributed to brotherly love.
Rick is portrayed as unlikeable and so self-absorbed that he believes he is the "most popular member of the flat" even though his housemates hate him (Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P"). Despite the fact that the other members dislike and disregard Rick, at one point he is heard to say that they "really are terrific friends."
Believing himself to be the 'People's Poet' or the "spokesperson for a generation", Rick often greatly exaggerates or lies about his political activism and class background and is exposed in the final episode "Summer Holiday", when it is suggested he comes from an upper class, Conservative background.
While he perceives himself as an anarchist, he is actually very fond of ideals produced by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and states his interests in them in several episodes. However, he claims to have a dislike of Margaret Thatcher, as is noted by his efforts to threaten her with a bomb in the eponymously named episode "Bomb." This is also noticed in "The Young Ones Book," first published by Sphere Books, wherein negative references are made to both Thatcher and The Conservative Party.
Rick speaks loudly and cannot pronounce his "r"s.
Rick in Modern Games: Rick died in 1985 before receiving his degree in a student protest march. Rick thought it was for an anti-Thatcher march, but it instead was to protest the replacement of Coke with New Coke in the student commons.
He is now haunting a castle in Scotland that houses a magic school.
Vyvyan Basterd
Name: Vyvyan Basterd
Alias: Vyvyan the punk rocker
Played by: Adrian Edmondson
Type: Anti-social Bastard
Vyvyan: What we need is a large consignment of very hard drugs.
Life Points: 49
Drama Points: 15
Attributes
Strength 5
Dexterity 2
Constitution 4
Intelligence 3
Perception 3
Willpower 2
Qualities
Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill
Drawbacks
Mental Problems (Anti-Social impulses, Deranged; Cruelty, Deranged; Obsessions, Mild; Paranoia, Mild; Recklessness, Deranged), Resources (Miserable),
Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art -1
Computers 0
Crime 3
Doctor 2 (he is pre-med after all)
Driving 2
Getting Medieval 4 (practically his middle name)
Gun Fu 1
Influence: 3
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 2
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 2
Notice 1
Occultism 1
Science 2
Sports 3
Wild Card
Vyvyan is an orange-haired, mohawked punk rocker and medical student. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. He never harms Mike, whom he respects. He despises Rick more than he does Neil, taking every opportunity to insult and attack him. For example, when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode "Boring", he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but not Rick, whom he refers to as "a complete bastard." Ironically, the antagonistic relationship between Rick and Vyvyan makes them all but inseperable; by a wide margin, the two spend more time together than apart or with the other housemates.
Vyvyan owns a yellow Ford Anglia, with red flames painted along the sides, and a Glaswegian hamster named Special Patrol Group ("SPG" for short) which he is very fond of, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence. His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan displays feats of inhuman strength on occasion (moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head), and eats just about anything; televisions, dead rats, cornflakes, or cornflakes with ketchup.
Despite being a homicidal maniac, Vyvyan seems quite sociable and creative; In one episode ("Flood"), he has developed his own potion to transform a person into an axe-wielding homocidal maniac (he claims "it's basically a cure...for not being an axe-wielding homocidal maniac...the potential market's enourmous!"). He has more friends than the others but apparently "he doesn't like any of them." He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb and adding a 289 CID Ford V-8 engine to the vacuum cleaner which proceeds to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's (the vacuum also prompted one of the few clashes between Vyvyan and Mike; when Mike admonished Vyv not to use it anymore, Vyv replied by calling him a "poof"). Disturbingly, Vyvyan also appears to be the only member of the group with a driving licence.
Vyvyan in Modern Games: Vyvyan became a very successful plastic surgeon.
Mike
Name: Mike
Alias: "the Cool Person"
Played by: Christopher Ryan
Type: Con-artist
Mike: Neil, have you upset the neighbors?
Neil: No, I've blown them up.
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 15
Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Constitution 2
Intelligence 4
Perception 4
Willpower 5
Qualities
Charisma 1, Criminal (Con Man)
Drawbacks
Covetous (Greedy, Desperate; Lechery, Serious; Ambition, Desperate; Conspicuosness; Serious), Mental Problems (Anti-social, Mild), Resources (Miserable),
Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art 2
Computers 1
Crime 5
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 1
Gun Fu 2
Influence: 6
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 1
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 2
Notice 4
Occultism 0
Science 1
Sports 2
Wild Card
Mike was the odd-one-out of the four. He is the assumed leader of the group, despite his diminutive size, and does not involve himself in the battles between the other three. He makes puns, which are either deliberately cheap or humorous but over-celebrated.
He frequently utters confusing, profound-sounding phrases which baffle the others (for example, when asked by Rick if he stole his apple, Mike replies "Well, if you're gonna sin you might as well be original."). Mike is supposedly the ladies' man of the bunch and brags about his prowess with women, although he is eventually forced to admit his virginity to the others in "Nasty." Though he is a virgin, as are the rest of the housemates, he makes every attempt at wooing the opposite sex, being quite forward and unsuccessful.
A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick money such as renting out Rick's bedroom as a roller disco and soliciting bids for the unexploded atom bomb that fell into the house. Mike attends Scumbag College only nominally as he has blackmailed his tutor and the Dean of the school for grants and apparently passing grades. In "Summer Holiday" he muses "I think I'll ask for one of those Ph.D.s next year."
While Mike often does things at the expense or detriment of his housemates, he rarely expresses the sort of open hostility that the others do, and seems to cause them trouble only when it benefits him, rather than out of sadistic joy. He has, however, managed to nail his own legs to a table, and knocked Neil out during a game of cricket, albeit unintentionally. We only see violence inflicted on him once (at the end of the "Living Doll" video, when Vyvyan knocks him unconscious with a hammer).
Mike in Modern Games: Mike bought and conned his way to a seat on the House of Lords where he was instrumental in working on the committee to elect Mr. Harold Saxon.
Sick
Hey all.
Blog posting will be a bit slower this week. We are going through some virus here at home. I am sick and so is my youngest.
Blog posting will be a bit slower this week. We are going through some virus here at home. I am sick and so is my youngest.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Upcoming Projects
I have been very busy over the weekend.
In addition to all the normal stuff I do (work, being a dad, being a student, doing this new consultant gig) I also finalized some projects I hope to get out to you all soon.
The playtesting and writing is done for the most part, the longer editing process is now underway. All three of these products are related and each one has different focus and a different goal in mind.
Without further ado...
This book is designed to be used with Basic era games, such as the Basic Set and Expert Sets as well as the clones they inspired, Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy and so on. I am not making it explicitly compatible with any version/edition/brand but instead making it something that can be used with any "Basic" game circa 1978-1983.
The book features the witch class, as well as traditions, hundreds of new spells, tons of new magic items and even some monsters to use in your game. Plus plenty of ideas to use in your game and material for other classes.
Right now there is just too much material in the book to make it a viable download/book for a basic game. So editing is on going.
I am hoping to have this ready by Halloween.
This book was announced a bit ago for Jason Vey's Spellcraft & Swordplay, though it should be fine with any Original Edition game clone.
This witch is actually a bit different than the Basic Witch. This will have two classes, the Witch and the Warlock, present a couple of new races, monsters, as well as a bunch of new spells and magic items.
This book will also feature demons and devils and new magical combat options.
The last one (no picture yet) is an untitled Pathfinder options book.
I might actually have that one done first.
So that is what I am doing. Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
In addition to all the normal stuff I do (work, being a dad, being a student, doing this new consultant gig) I also finalized some projects I hope to get out to you all soon.
The playtesting and writing is done for the most part, the longer editing process is now underway. All three of these products are related and each one has different focus and a different goal in mind.
Without further ado...
The Witch
A Class for Basic Era Games
The book features the witch class, as well as traditions, hundreds of new spells, tons of new magic items and even some monsters to use in your game. Plus plenty of ideas to use in your game and material for other classes.
Right now there is just too much material in the book to make it a viable download/book for a basic game. So editing is on going.
I am hoping to have this ready by Halloween.
Eldritch Witchery
For Spellcraft & Swordplay
This witch is actually a bit different than the Basic Witch. This will have two classes, the Witch and the Warlock, present a couple of new races, monsters, as well as a bunch of new spells and magic items.
This book will also feature demons and devils and new magical combat options.
The last one (no picture yet) is an untitled Pathfinder options book.
I might actually have that one done first.
So that is what I am doing. Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Zatannurday: Justice League of Amazons
A couple of pics from the comic "Justice League of Amazons" from 2001. Typical end of the millennium eco-friendly story about eco-terrorists or something. It looks like it was an excuse to show off some skin.
Mind you I have nothing against that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)