Rethinking Immortality in my games

I never played the "Basic" D&D game all the way through to the Immortals set.  Mostly because I was more B/X than BECMI.
I had also gone on to AD&D and "looked down" on the "kids game" of Basic D&D.  But some characters in my games did achieve immortality, others had it thrust on them.
Like many gamers of my age I saw Immortality not as a pathway to Godhood, but rather a Kewl Way of Not Dying.  Eventually what was considered immortality became heavily influenced by the Highlander movie.  And that was that for a number of years.  I only have one immortal character and I don't play him very often.

A while back I was watching "Morgane et ses Nymphes" for the October Challenge and I started thinking about immortals and immortality some more.   Over the weekend I re-watched one of my favorite old Doctor Who episodes, The Brain of Morbius and this got me thinking about it again.  In BoM there is the Sisterhood of Karn, protectors of the Sacred Flame.  I have used them as inspiration before for my own Daughters of the Flame coven.  Like the "nymphes" of Morgan Le Fay, this was a sisterhood of immortals.  They also had something else in common, they never changed.  They not only never grew old, they never learned anything new, never experienced anything different.  In one scene in "Morgane" two girls are play chess and one complains she has never won.  Why? Simple she could never learn anything from all her past games their ability was frozen in time at the point they became immortals.

Now think about vampire tales of the last few years.  Where is it you usually find vampires?  Well not crypts anymore and if it is outside of Bon Temps, then it seems to be in High School.  Buffy, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, My Babysitter's a Vampire; the list goes on.  The issue is vamps, like other immortals, are stuck in the mentality of when they were made immortal.  Yes Anne Rice goes in a completely different direction with this.  Ignoring Lestat's "I'm the super vampire and perfect in every way" schtick, there is the horrifying reality of Claudia; a intelligent woman trapped in the body of a child.

Immortals then need to work hard to overcome this lack of inertia. In games with skills I think I will have Immortal characters have to pay twice the listed cost for skills. This would help explain why and how an immortal character/npc is stuck in older modes of thinking and doing things (or just hanging out at high schools all the time).

Now with D&D like games?  Maybe I'd follow the lead of the demi-human races.  Since an immortal can't die, I'd have to give them a huge bump in XP per level.  Maybe a 20% penalty.

Just some random thoughts.

TRPBTNTWA

I know I am about a week late on this one.  But here is my contribution to "Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About".  You can see the original posting at Monsters and Manuals, followed by Back to the Keep, Tower of the Archmage and Stargazer's World.

Book binding.
Maybe I have been lucky, but even some of the most notorious examples of crappy binding in RPG biz have held up for me.  So it hasn't been an issue.

"Doing a voice".
I do voices all the time.  It helps set the tone of the game and the NPC I am portraying.  Plus my kids like it.

Breaks. How often do you have breaks within sessions?
At least one break for snacks or lunch.  The characters can get a short rest, why not the players.

Description. Exactly how florid are your descriptions?
Description is the difference between a game and an immersive experience. I want the players to be able to see in their minds eye just as vivid as their characters would.

Where do you strike the balance between "doing what your character would do" and "acting like a dickhead"?
As a player I don't play dick-heads.  I think PC-on-PC violence is stupid (see below) and regardless of the story at hand the group is supposed to be acting like a group of heroes.

PC-on-PC violence. Do your players tend to avoid it, or do you ban it? Or does anything go?
As  a player I don't do it.  As GM I forbid it. It has no place at my table.  Act like the heroes you are supposed to be, not the asshole you think you can get away with being. I don't find it fun and that is not why I play.
(Actually bloggers tend to talk about this one a lot)

How do you explain what a role playing game is to a stranger who is also a non-player?
Most people know about D&D so I say it is like that.

Alcohol at the table?
Eh. I did it a couple of times in college and it never really worked out.
Now I am at an age where I don't need to have a beer at every social gathering.  Mt. Dew is still fine with me.

What's acceptable to do to a PC whose player is absent from the session? Is whatever happens their fault for not being there, or are there some limits?
Players have lives outside of the game.  If they can't make it they can't make it.  If so then I work out an excuse for the character to be absent or GM-PC them in passive mode.  They are there, but not contributing as much.

Delays

Hey everyone.

I know. I am late with a few projects.
Not to get into too deeply, but have had some illnesses and surgeries at home (everyone is fine, except for me and I have a bad cold) and work has been really, really busy.

So without further ado here is the status of various projects.

Eldritch Witchery
Done.  In the hands of the editor now.  There might be rewrites.

The Witch
85-90% done.
I am working on some of the spells and had to redo how I do ritual magic in Basic Eras games.
This one I am going to hold off on till Dec. 22.  The release will include blog posting on Befana, The Christmas Witch.

Vampire Queen Adventure
Done.  Need to get it typed up and sent off.

Here There Be Dragons...
Slower progress here.  But we have a lot of ideas and have been working on it a lot.
Bought some more art yesterday for it too.
We are hoping to release it on April 23, 2012; St. George's Day.

In the meantime Ghosts of Albion should be out in stores by the end of this month!

Having a Wicked time in Oz

File under: You Knew This Was Coming Sooner or Later

Ever since I was little, I mean really little, I have enjoyed "The Wizard of Oz".  I can recall being about 4 or so and being frightened of the flying monkeys, the Winkies and of course the Wicked Witch.  I also remember we had this old copy of the Wizard of Oz book in the house and I remembered how different it was than the movie.

Oz is a fascinating place really, and I was amazed the first time I learned how much of it was there beyond Dorothy and her friends. I learned about names like Mombi and Ozma.
I will admit I have always wanted to put a "pumpkin head" in my games largely in part due to "Journey Back to Oz".  In my WitchCraft games we also used to call witch hunters "Dorothies".

So I was thrilled when I heard of Douglas Wall's Adventures in Oz RPG.
http://fdouglaswall.blogspot.com/  and
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575175333/adventures-in-oz-beyond-the-deadly-desert
It is, like the literary Oz, a great game for the younger set. The rules are fast, simple to learn and you can be up and playing in no time at all.
They game is also really, really fun. If you never play it, the book offers a good resource to using Oz in your own games.

I think Oz is a bit under rated to be honest.  It's not the drug referenced lands of Alice or even the purely fantasy of Peter Pan, it is, in a way, pragmatically American.  But it is fertile land as well. It gave us "The Wiz" and "Tin Man" and of course, "Wicked".

I never saw Wicked on stage, despite living in Chicago.  I did read the book and enjoyed it.  The world of Wicked is not exactly the same as that of Oz.  The names and places are familiar, but there is some differences.  Most notable is the character of Elphaba.

Elphaba is the Wicked Witch of West.  Though here she is a smart, green skinned young woman with a talent for sorcery and getting into trouble.  In the musical (and in the book) she is friends with Glinda (the good Witch) and learns that the Wizard is nothing more than a fake.

She fights against the Wizard, and for animal rights. Falls in love. Creates the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman. Plus she is the protector of her younger sister Nessarose, aka the Wicked Witch of the East.

The main feature of the musical (and the book to a lesser extent) is the close friendship that Glinda and Elphaba have.  After all, check out those posters for the musical.

Running a game in a "Wicked" version of Oz is not that difficult. It just takes a bit creativity on the Narrator's part.

Elphaba
Template: Sorcerer

Basic Skills
Athletics: 1
Awareness: 4
Brains: 5
Presence: 3
Sneaking: 2
Wits: 4

Traits: Sorcery, Magical Toolkit, Yookoohoo Magic

Elphaba also possesses the Grimmerie, the most powerful book of magic in all of Oz.  She can cast any known spells and only Glinda is her equal in magic.  She also made a pair of Ruby Slippers for her sister to help her walk (takes the place of the Silver Slippers of the game and novels).

In musical Elphaba is the daughter of the Wizard, so she is both of Oz and Earth. Despite rumor to the contrary she has no particular dislike of water.

Playing in this world the characters could encounter Elphaba since after her supposed murder she found a life outside of Oz.  Maybe even in the desert.

If you want more Oz goodness then check out Doug's Kickstarter for his next Oz book, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575175333/adventures-in-oz-beyond-the-deadly-desert

Horror is everywhere

I have recently seen some posts on how to do horror games.  Inevitably someone posts something like "You can't do Horror with XXXX system."

To which I always mentally add "Maybe YOU can't, but the rest of us have."
Horror is about tone. It is about style. The system can support it, even add to it.  Think about the game Dread and it's Jenga block mechanic or Call of Cthulhu and it's sanity system. Those are system supported horror.  But can you do horror with say Toon or d20?  Yes. But expect it to be a little different.

In d20 systems the characters will have more power as the level up.  You could take the cheap path and up the baddies too, but that isn't horror really.  You need to get them where their fears live.  Even the most powerful character will find themselves in a situation they can't control or even properly understand.  Lovecraft said it best, the greatest fear is the fear of the unknown.  So keep players in the dark.  The powers they have are not the ones they need.  Modern supernatural books do a good job of this.  When solving a problem Harry or Rachel have all the magic they need, but what they don't have are answers. They have allies, they don't have knowledge of who or what their enemy is.

What about Toon?  Well if a picture is worth a 1,000 words then here are 100 score words to illustrate my point.

Toon:

Toon + Horror:

Artist here: http://sideshowmonkey.deviantart.com/art/CASPER-ISSUE-41-by-Hartman-191809383
Yes that is the same Hartman who did animation for Rob Zombie.  So Wendy here is cut from the same cloth as The American Witch.

I'll keep talking about how you can do horror in future posts.

Jeff Dee kickstarter

Jeff Dee has new Kickstarter project to recreate all his old Egyptian gods art from the original Deities and Demigods (one of my favorite books).

I guess at some point TSR threw out all the art he did. So he is not only redoing them, but also doing some new ones for gods not pictured.

You can read more and donate some money here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-egyptian-art-from-deities-and-demig

I have supported other Kickstarters in the past and would love to support this one too.

Zatannurday: Zee with ink?

The new cover for Justice League Dark #5 is out now.

Is it me or does Zee look like she has a tattoo on her right arm?

Hard to say at this point.