New Basic Class, The Vampire

Want to playtest something for free?

Well I want you all to have a look at my new class for Basic Era Games and their Retro Clones.

The Vampire Class

Art copyright 2012 by Jason Rainville

This is a class/race combo for the system that also had Elf, Dwarf and Halfling as a class.

From the document:
"Vampires are among the most powerful of the Undead.  But unlike other undead, the vampire can retain a bit of their own humanity. Thus a vampire can also become an adventuring class much like that of an elf or dwarf.  A vampire character still retains their original soul, trapped inside an undead body full of dark necromantic power.  Eventually even the most pure of heart will succumb to the darkness of undeath."

This is a complete class 1st to 14th level, with additional notes to 20th level for exceptional characters.
All the vampiric powers and weaknesses are detailed to allow your vampire character plenty of options to grow.

There are few things I am testing out here.  First, whether or not the word will get out about this without much fanfare.  To test Dropbox as a delivery method. Also to test my class creation algorithms.

If you can please drop me a note here (what the hell, let's call it an Open Playtest) and let me know what system you used this with and how it worked.  As my regular playtesters will attest, I don't mind it when things get broken, as long as I know why.

So. Let me know your thoughts in the replies below.

I am looking forward to seeing how this class works for everyone!

Click here to download the PDF: The Vampire Class

More Free Downloads

In the interest of providing you, the reader of the Other Side, only the finest in gaming accessories I give you a couple more more character sheets I have used in the past.

• Willow & Tara RPG Sheet
• Willow & RPG Character Journal

These were designed for my "Willow & Tara RPG", which was a mix of Eden's Buffy, WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion games.

The Character sheet is a one page deal.  The Journal is nine pages to track everything for your Unisystem character.

Happy 90th Birthday Christopher Lee!

Sir Christopher Lee is 90 years old today!

Congrats on this milestone to man that was (is!) Dracula, Saurman, Count Dokku, Lord Summerilse, The Jabberwock, Sherlock Holmes, and not to mention he played Death in numerous unrealted movies and TV shows. Oh, and was Special Forces in WWII.

Chuck Norris can suck it!

Read more here: http://news.moviefone.com/2012/05/24/christopher-lee-90th-birthday_n_1543929.html

Zatannurday: Other Days of the Week

We know you have a choice when it comes to super-heroine cheese cake and here at the Other Side are happy you have chosen Zatannurday for your DC Heroine needs.

But did you know there are other days in the week?!?

Love this picture by the way.  

It is true.  And one of the great things about being a part of the blogging community is the ability to see and share what others are doing.  So just as there are other days of the week and super girls, there are other blogs doing something similar too!

I have posted this one before from Adam Hughes.  That is because I like it.

First off I have to give a big shout out to Toyriffic. It was his posts about Harley Quinn ever "Qwednsday" that gave me the idea to do this!

• Wednesday: Harely Quinn - Qwednseday
• Thursday: Cat Woman - Purrrsday
• Sunday: Poison Ivy - Poisunday Ivy

Hero Press has sent me 1000s of hits over the last few years, it is always nice to send some back. Tim also has a few features.

• Wonder Woman Wednesday
• Super Girl Sunday

Cal up in Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool is an old friend to the Other Side.  His posting schedule dwarfs all of the blogs mentioned above, including my own.  In addition to being the Fortress of Solitude for some nice little witches, he loves his super girls.  Maybe none more than Batgirl herself.

• Wednsedays with Wonder Woman
• There's always room for Batgirl (typically Fridays)
• Supergirl
• Fridays with the Furies (which includes a lot of super heroines)

By my count that leaves plenty of DC Women and Monday and Tuesday with no love.
Ones that could use (and support) their own days are Starfire, Black Canary, Raven (she fits with the theme of my blog), Vixen (though she is given a lot coverage over at Justice League Detroit), Batwoman (maybe not enough of her yet since the Kate Kane version is still pretty new), Renee (The Question) Montoya and personal favorites, Fire and Ice.

I should point out some other great blogs featuring DC women.

• Amazon Princess, dedicated to Wonder Woman
• DC Women Kicking Ass talks about the women of DC and some Marvel
• Justice League Detroit for Vixen, Gypsy and sometimes Zatanna. 
• Supergirl Comic Box Commentary
• Who is The Question?
• Comic Knockouts, featuring DC and Marvel women

IF you know of any more let me know!

Dropbox

I am adding some Dropbox functionality to my blog so you can download items or share them with me.

You can click on the link above and get your own Dropbox account, but I am also going to open up some public folders for everyone to use.

The Other Side

Let me know what you think!

D&D Next Playtest: First Thoughts

Ok. I have the playtest docs in hand now.
Now there is lot here, and there is a lot I can't say due to the NDA.

Let me take a bit and talk about the NDA.
Every game company on the planet uses an NDA. There are exceptions of course, but those companies are exactly that. Exceptions.  Plus the two that are often mentioned, Pathfinder and Dungeon Crawl Classics, are so derivative of the SRD that there is not really much in the way of new material to protect.  Plus the "beta" of Pathfinder was much more polished than this playtest of Next/5e.  This is not kick the tires or looking for bugs, this is a real play test.

That's out of the way what did we all get?
Well.....I can say there pages of rules, a bunch of pre-gens, a descent set of monsters and an entire adventure based on B2.

My thoughts, in no particular order.
- Someone put all their favorite rules from all editions of the game in a blender and hit frappe.
- Very much like 3e, with some 4e ideas.  I have noticed things though from 1st ed and 2nd ed.
- Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good are back
- like how they are doing hit points.
- advantage and disadvantage.  neat ideas. Not sure yet on how much I'll like them.
- Monster stats can now be written in one line of text!  Just like AD&D1

Characters now have Race, Class, Background and Theme (this is all old news) but damn it is nice to see it all working on one page of a character sheet.  Heck once you have your class, race, backgroun and theme down you can put your entire sheet on a half piece of paper.

On the character sheet I see bits from 3e, 4e, 2e and a lot of Basic D&D.  I also see things that are new.  Not new-new, but certainly new to official D&D rules.

I have often asked for a rule set that combines the best features of all of D&D from the last 40 years.
Damn if D&D 5/Next doesn't come really, really close to all of that.

We are going to play it this weekend.  I'll let you know how it goes.

D&D Next

I now have it in my hands and while I am not 100% sold yet, man it is a lot neater than I thought it would be.

I am much more excited now.

There is an Old School vibe to this game, yet it still has the things from 3x and 4e that I liked.  Did WotC hit a home run here?  No. But it is was a solid Double moving the runner to Third.

I don't even mind it took a long time to get.