Demons Run...when chased by Madame Vastra and Jenny

WARNING: There are some MINOR Spoilers here for the new Doctor Who episode, A Good Man Goes to War.  If you have not seen it yet, you might want to come back here after you do.

Ok?
Good.

Back?  Ohmygodwasthatthecoolestthingyoueversawinthehistoryofdoctorwho!!!???

And of course by that I mean the Victorian Silurian katana wielding Consulting Detective and her human paramour Jenny.
That's makes them perfect for Ghosts of Albion in my book!

I am going to have to do a bit of speculation, but I have some good sources and I consulted Jason Vey who did the EXCELLENT Doctor Who game guide for Unisystem.

Background: Madame Vastra came up from her home deep underground when she thought underground workers were trying to invade. They were not, they were only working on the underground subway system. She was ready to go to war on them when the Doctor arrived to help her.  He was able to save the humans and the Silurians.  Vastra, indebted to the Doctor vowed to repay him helping her.  She knows quite a bit about the Doctor and about Time Lords.  She knows about regeneration and even calls the Doctor "old friend" on many occasions.

At some point she met a young serving girl named Jenny and the two entered into a partnership. They shared adventures as disguised vigilantes/detectives and a romantic partnership as well.

In 1888 Madame Vastra had just ended the career and life of serial killer Jack the Ripper when a blue box appeared in her parlor...

We have little to go on of these two. But if the web traffic out there is any indication then they are already wildly popular with people asking for a spin off!
You can read their TARDIS files here, Vastra and Jenny.
They have their own Facebook page, Deviant Art page,  and an article on After Ellen.  All before the show even airs in America.

Madame Vastra
Very Experienced Master

Life Points 50
Drama Points 10

Attributes
Strength 3
Dexterity 6
Constitution 4
Intelligence 4
Perception 4
Willpower 4

Qualities
Silurian (Homo Reptilia)
Attractiveness +1 (+2 with Perception Filter on)
Charisma
Hard to Kill 4
Fast Reaction Time
Natural Armour (+2 to Armor)
Nerves of Steel
Perception Filter (acts as a Glamour, disgusses her true form) (see below)
Resources 8
Situational Awareness
Status 4

Drawbacks
Honorable (Minimal)
Love (Jenny)
Mental Problems (Mild Cruelty)
Minority (Woman)
Obligation (The Doctor, Important)
Obligation (The Yard, as a consulting detective, Minimal)
Secret 3 (is really a Silurian pretending to be human)
Secret 2 (Lesbian living with another woman)

Useful Information
Initiative +11
Actions 2/1
Natural Armor +2
Observation 1d10 +9
Fear +5

Skills
Armed Mayhem 5
Art 0
Athletics 5
Crime 3
Drive / Ride 1
Engineering 3
Fisticuffs 4
Influence 4
Knowledge 3
Knowledge (Silurian Technology) 3
Languages 2 (Silurian, English)
Marksmanship 5
Notice 5
Occultism 0
Physician 1
Wild Card

Combat

Maneuver	Bonus	Damage	Notes
Dodge / Parry	+11	-	Defence Action
Grapple	+11	-	Defence Action
Katana	+11	12	Slash / Stab
Punch	+10	6	Bash
Tongue Lash	+11	3	Sting
- Poison	-	Special	Strength 4 (same as Con Score)

Madame Vastra in the Ghosts of Albion world is a hunter of criminals.  She is not above killing them herself, she is a trained Silurian Warrior after all.  She does posses a Perception Filter which acts as a Glamour allowing her to pass as human.  Though due to the nature of the device, and it's fragility, she prefers to don a cloak and hood when "hunting".

Vastra as a human. 

(in reality Neve McIntosh who played Vastra)

The Silurian Tongue Lash has a lethal poison in it that has a Strength value equal to the Silurian's Constitution score.  Vastra, like all female Silurians, can choose whether or not her lash injects the poison or not.

Vastra is very devoted to Jenny, her companion and love.

Jenny Flint
Experienced Journeyman

Life Points 40
Drama Points 10

Attributes
Strength 3
Dexterity 4
Constitution 3
Intelligence 3
Perception 3
Willpower 4

Qualities
Attractiveness +2
Hard to Kill 2
Fast Reaction Time
Nerves of Steel
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks
Adversary
Honorable 2
Love (Vastra)
Obligation (The Doctor, Minimal)
Secret 1 (Lesbian living with another woman) (Jenny's is less than Madame Vastra's since she is of a lower class and has less status to loose)

Useful Information
Initiative +9
Actions 1/1
Observation 1d10 + 6
Fear +5

Skills
Armed Mayhem 4
Art 0
Athletics 3
Crime 2
Drive / Ride 2
Engineering 1
Fisticuffs 3
Influence 2
Knowledge 3
Languages 1 (English only)
Marksmanship 2
Notice 3
Occultism 0
Physician 3
Wild Card

Combat

Maneuver	Bonus	Damage	Notes
Dodge / Parry	+8	-	Defence Action
Grapple	+8	-	Defence Action
Katana	+8	12	Slash / Stab
Punch	+7	6	Bash

Jenny is the human companion and paramour of Madame Vastra.  To normal people they keep up the façade of a Lady and her servant girl. Jenny had been a servant but she was also already knowledgeable in the healing arts. A skill that has served the combat prone Vastra well.  Jenny herself is not slouch at combat, having trained with Vastra many times.  She is just as deadly with her katana as is her mistress.

Using Vastra and Jenny in Your Game
The question is why not use them? Or. How can you not use them?  Seriously.
If you are not happy with the Doctor Who connection then make Vastra a reptilian alien from Conspiracy X or a type of demon or even go out further and make her an Unseelie Lady, working to remove the taint of dishonor she sees her people have done.
The Victorian Era is so full of crime and mystery that there is enough for these two to do.

Good to see my regular GM already thinking of things to do with these two.
http://rhoninsramblings.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-really-want-to-do-something-with.html

On Blogfests, Part 2

My numbers held out.

I had a huge gain in followers according to Cyclopeatron's rankings.
http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2011/06/fastest-growing-osr-blogs-of-april-and.html

Up 40 by his count and another 3 since he did the list.  43 new followers is not a bad deal.

Thank you all for thinking I have enough interesting things to say to keep on coming back!!

I have some updates on Liam's book, the next Dragonslayers game, the Witch book, what I am doing for Gen Con and how interspecies, intergalactic, Victorian, lesbian crime fighters might just be the next big thing.

Stay tuned!

On Blogfests

Yesterday I participated in the It's All Fun and Games blogfest and before that I participated in the A-Z blogfest and the Horror Movie Challenge.

It was fun to do them all and the numbers of hits, new followers and comments speak for themselves; they were very successful as getting The Other Side some attention.

I know these sorts of things have been derided or mocked in the various OSR/Gaming blogs before, but the impact something like this can have can't be overlooked. While I can't say that it increased the sales of Ghosts of Albion or even Chill (WitchCraft, the only other game I linked is free), I do know from clickthroughs that people looked at the games.

Not gamers mind you.  People. The Normals.  ie. The People we need to bring into the fold of this hobby if we are expected to see it survive to the next generation.

Whether it has a significant impact or not, mine is just one site and an admittedly loose focus.  I am likely to talk games as well as horror movies, comics, and anything else.  This is not a platform blog unless the platform happens to be random stuff that is no longer confined to just my brain.

Later in the month I am going to participate in the Queer Film Blogathon. I am going to explore the meme/trope of the Lesbian Vampire in horror films as the ultimate outsider and compare how she is more often portrayed as a tragic figure than that of a monster.  This can be extended to the Homosexual Vampire too (Lestat, or any of Rice's vamps) and even due to race (Blackula).   This of course will necessitate a discussion on the Evil or Dead Lesbian Cliché and whether or not even a sympathetic vampire still qualifies.

This has almost nothing to do with gaming (but I'll give it the old college try*), but it will expose my blog to a completely new audience that has no idea that we even exist or think that D&D died out sometime in the 80s.

If we want to grow our hobby we should be looking for any chance to go out there and evangelize it.





*Since I went to Southern Illinois University for both my undergrad and graduate degrees that means I'll have to have a few beers and then think about it. ;)

All Fun and Games

I am surprised I didn't see this one before hand, but there is a new Blogfest out there and I am a sucker for these things.

It's All Fun and Games hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

I guess since we all talk about our favorite games anyway this is lest of a fest and more of a "Monday".

But anyway here we go!

1. Dungeons and Dragons:  D&D is the 800-lb gorilla in the game world for a reason. It provides what is to many the ultimate experience in a table top RPG.  I started playing this game back in 1979 and I still play it today.  I enjoy all the editions, warts and all, and it is still the game I enjoy coming back too the most.
Not much more I can say about this one really.  It has kept me entertained for over 30 years now.

2. WitchCraft RPG. I was half-tempted to list "Ghosts of Albion" but I thought that might be incredibly tacky and self-serving. Instead I want to list the game that eventually got me to Ghosts.  It was the late 90s and everybody was going crazy for "Storytelling" games.  Games not about killing things and taking their stuff, but about exploring characters, that may or may not be monsters themselves, in a world of...well...darkness.  C. J. Carella's WitchCraft did this better than any other game out there in my mind.  Picking up this book filled me with the same awe as holding that Monster Manual back in '79.
WC paved the way for so many other games for me, not just in terms of playing but in writing.  If it were not for WC then we would not have had Buffy, Angel or Army of Darkness.  Conspiracy X would have remained in the it's original system. There would be no Terra Primate or All Flesh Must Be Eaten and certainly there would be no Ghosts of Albion.
The cover also is one of my all time favorite bits of artwork for a RPG cover ever.
If you have not discovered this game, then I suggest you get a copy now.
It is 100% free at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=692&affiliate_id=10748

3. Chill.  If D&D was my first and WitchCraft is my current favorite horror game, then a special place must left in my heart for Chill.  Chill is a horror game of normal people in an abnormal world.  It's not as dark as say Kult or as dangerous as Call of Cthulhu and character never get to the levels of WitchCraft, but it was a perfect game for the time I was playing it (the early to mid 80s).
Chill, either 1st ed or 2nd ed, doesn't hold up as well in today's world where characters have as much firepower as the monster they hunt (or even are the monsters), but back in the 80s it was a huge shift in my understanding of how games could be played.  Traveller also represented such a shift for me and it almost made the #3 slot here.   I also have a big post coming up about Traveller here in the near future, so it will get some love.
You can get the 2nd Edition (Mayfair version) of Chill from DriveThruRPG:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=2888&affiliate_id=10748

That is my Top 3.  I have played scores of RPGs and own or owned many more I haven't played.  And that is not even talking about other games I like such as Dungeon! or even other board and card games.

Zatannurday: Gilbert Monsanto

I have not seen this one before, but I like it.

Gilbert Monsanto

Someone to Witch over me

By now many regular readers know I have been putting together a number of posts for an eventual Basic Era book for a Witch class.
Here is a link to the announcement I made back in March.

Also you may know that Jonathan Becker over at B/X Blackrazor is also doing a witch class for his "The Complete B/X Adventurer".  I personally think that is very cool, and I dig the name of the book too.

I am looking forward to seeing else JB will do with his witch.  I am sure it will be different than what I am doing and I think the Basic Retro-clone market is large and now getting diverse enough to support more than one view on the witch.

I want to talk about his ideas in a bit, but first I want to talk about my own ideas, as they are right now.

Presently this book has about 63 pages of game material and an additional 52 pages of nothing but spells.  Frankly that is WAY too much material for what is essentially just one new class.  Though I have much more than just that of course.  The spells can be used for other classes and there are some new monsters and magic items.

Here is a small sampling of what I'll be offering, though edited to fit the narrative of the book better.

• Cantrips for Original and Basic-Era Games
• Druthers 
• Earth Trolls
• Familiars 
• Gnomes for Basic era FRPGs 
• Gypsy Elves 
• Level Titles for Magic Using Classes 
• Magic Hats 

Plus I am very keen on doing a witch that was likely to have been built back when the Moldvay boxed set was still new.  So I have spent a lot of time thinking about the role of witches and what they do in a game. Again, taking my cues from Tom Moldvay as detailed here, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/01/tom-moldvay-on-witches.html.  I have tried to address all these points (and then some) in my new witch.

The other issue that is important to me is that the witch must have a role that does not take away from the Cleric or the Magic-User/Wizard.  There should be overlap, that is fine, just like a fighter and thief can both use weapons to attack a monster. The cleric, magic-user and witch all use spells.  They just use them in a different way.

I have done witch books for *D&D before including one for AD&D 2nd Ed and another for D&D3/d20.  There will be some similarities of course, but I am more focused on the Basic Witch to create a book that feels like it was made in the later 1970s/early 1980s.  I am reading witch and occult material that was popular at the time.  I really want a good old-school feel, but while still taking advantage of all the research I have been doing over the last 25+ years.

Now lets go back to JB's Complete B/X Adventurer Witch.

His links are here:

• The B/X Witch
• Ooo-oo, Witchy Woman...
• and an earlier one, Something Wicked this Way Comes...

Jonathan has a good idea of what he wants and I think he is going about it in a very cool way.

His Something Wicked... goes over a lot of the same ground I have gone over here, but he also points out that we get a lot of references to witches without any witches themselves.  Now he mentions he has never read the the classic Dragon Magazine articles on witches (#5, #20, #43 and most famously #114), but I think there is a lot in those articles that bear reading.  One of which is the Tom Moldvay list from my previous post.

I am looking forward to seeing how these two different, but related, interpretations are welcomed by the OSR community.

AD&D1 in Dragon #400

Just was reading through some of the new articles that will be in Dragon #400.  Current WotC employees are talking about their favorite Dragon moments.  Mike Mearls brings back Roger Moore's Jester and keeps it as 1st Edition AD&D.   Odd seeing a 1st ed character in 4e trade dress.

Anyway here it is, but you need to be a subscriber.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dra/400jester#74712