October Challenge: Solomon Kane (2009)

Solomon Kane (2009)

Pity poor Robert E. Howard.  Considered one of the best of the pulp writers of the age, the movies made from his works, Conan and Solomon Kane, have languished.  In the case of Conan, three movies across two franchises and not a one is considered true to the character.  Then there is Solomon Kane.  His movie is out in theaters now despite being filmed over three years ago.

Now I have just started reading some Solomon Kane, so I will say this.  The movie is brutal but it holds close to the books at least as far as I can tell.

While this could have descended into the pits of hell know only as "made for the SciFi channel" this is actually a very good movie.  James Purefoy is almost Hugh Jackman like in his portrayal of Kane.

The build up to the end is slow, but it starts with a very bloody fight, so it does pull you right in.

While it could be classified as horror, dark fantasy might be a better term for it.


Tally: Watched 5, New 4

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Review: Doctor Who Defending the Earth (2012)

The latest Doctor Who source book is out for the "Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Game".
This book is the UNIT source book, "Defending the Earth".

Like all the Who books this one is full color.  While it skews more to the new Who series, there in a lot of Classic Who material here including stats for the 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee).

The UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce) is tasked by the UN with protecting the Earth from Alien threats.  This book allows you to create UNIT bases, personal and comes with two sample adventures.

In many ways a UNIT based game can be more interesting that a Doctor-based one.  In this everyone can have a nicely defined role.  You have field scientists, soldiers of all sorts and even civilians.

Among the features of this book are the expanded firearms and mass combat rules. The History of UNIT. Personnel, which includes plenty of new traits for military, science and civilians. And two UNIT based adventures.

This is one of my favorite sourcebooks for DW so far.  Not just because of the limitless possibilities, but also because there is more attention paid to the older series than other books (note I am not saying this is a flaw of the other books, but it is a nice feature of this one).

I also see this as one of the more flexible books.  You can set up a small UNIT command base and let the wackiness ensue. In fact, my own playtests adventures with DW could easily be converted into a UNIT game.  Think back to the 3rd Doctor's adventures, these were mostly Earth based with UNIT.  All of those are great ideas for a game.  Or even the Sarah Jane Adventures.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out the cross-game compatibility with this and Primeval.  While such a thing is never stated in either book and I am certain that it was not design consideration, there is nothing the ARC can't do that UNIT can't also do and visa-versa. By adding them together you get something very cool AND adventures to last for a couple of campaigns.

As with all books in this line, it is full color, well laid out and full of stills from the show.

A great addition to the collections of gamers or Who fans.

October Challenge: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008)

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008)

I might be stretching the definition of "movie" here, but at just about 2 hours I challenge you to find something more frightening than the Vashta Nerada aka "The Shadows that Melt Flesh".

We have mysterious deaths, a monster that hides in the shadows that can strip your flesh bare in seconds AND then use your bones and space suit as a means to walk around.  This is the scariest monster in the Doctor Who universe.  Daleks, aim for the eyestalk. Sontaran, back of the neck.  Cybermen, gold in their chest plate.  Vashta Nerada, just run.

Doctor: "Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark, but they’re wrong, because it’s not irrational. It’s Vashta Nerada."

All against the man that monsters have nightmares about;
The Doctor.  When they come after him this is the exchange.

Doctor: Don't play games with me! You just killed someone I like, that is not a safe place to stand! I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the Universe. Look me up.
The monsters move  back.

This is a pitch perfect horror episode and no one comes out of it scarred.  I think this quote near the end sums it up.

Donna: How about you, are you alright?
The Doctor: Oh, I'm always all right.
Donna: Is "All right" special time-lord code for... not really all right at all?
The Doctor: Why?
Donna Noble: Because I'm alright too.

Plus not only did this give us one of the scariest monsters for a show known to send kids hiding behind the sofa. It also gave us River Song who might be one of the most interesting characters in the history of Doctor Who.

"When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end. But however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call everybody lives."
- River Song.

Tally: Watched 4, New 3

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Rabbit's Foot and other Lucky Charms

Adventurers live a dangerous and sometimes short life.  They are constantly looking for any edge they can fine.  Many spend years questing for even the most minor of magics, others though turn to older magic to aid them.  For these characters these older, simpler magics provide them with the edge they need.

Many times these minor talismans can be purchased, but more often than not they are nothing more than a gaff or a non-magical variety.  Unfortunely these items posses such minor magics that they are difficult to detect with the use of the standard Detect Magic spell.

4-Leaf Clover
These naturally occurring, but rare variety of the common three-leaf clover provide a minor luck bonus.
Once per day it can provide a  +1 bonus to any roll the player makes.  The player must state this intent before the roll is made.  The clover can be used 4 to 7 (1d4+3) times before it becomes inert.
GMs have to decide how rare these are but typically a roll of "00" on a percentile die.

Horse Shoe
If blessed by any priest or cleric (not necessarily by a Bless spell), this item gives the processor a +1 to all rolls (attacks and saves) vs. Fae folk.  This includes all sorts of nymphs, pixies, dryads and even elves.  It is not effective in the hands of an elf or those with elfish blood.

Rabbit's Foot
A specially prepared left hind foot of a white rabbit killed during a full moon and enchanted by a witch using her Create Talisman power (or feat).   This item provides a +1 to anyone one type of roll per day.  So in one 24 hour period it can add +1 to an attack, +1 to a save, +1 to damage and so on.
Witches cannot use these items themselves.

Lucky Copper
Adventurers can be a superstitious lot.  One of the more common ones is to keep the first copper piece from their first treasure hoard. If they do they gain a +1 to any roll till they gain their next treasure.  The +1 can only be used once.

OGL statement Section 15 "Lucky Charms.  2012 Timothy S. Brannan"

October Challenge: Ginger Snaps (2000)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

The best thing about cable during Halloween is all of the horror movies you can find.  I remember hearing about this one when it was out and then promptly forgot about it.  No fault of the movie, just me.

The relationship between emergent female sexual  urges and horror/monsters is old ground here at the Other Side.  This though is the first time I have tackled the link between it and the werewolf myths.  We will see later how this plays out in "Jack and Diane", but tonight we have Ginger.

Ginger and her sister Brigette are the weird girls in school. Obsessed with death, dying and all that fun stuff and ignoring the in crowd when they can.  That is till something not-quite a dog bites Ginger.

There is serious Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibe about this flick.  Came out right around the same time to be honest, so that is no surprise.

The movie was not was I was suspecting and the ending was a surprise.
I enjoyed it to be honest, I am not a big fan of werewolf movies in general.  The leads were great and I am going to look for them in other movies to see if they are as good as this in all flicks.

Tally: Watched 3, New 3

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White Dwarf Wednesday #34

White Dwarf #33 takes us to the state of gaming of October 1982.   Unless I did my math wrong this is the last time I will write about a month in the same month I am writing in till issue 49 (Jan 1984).  Give or take.

So let's talk about this October some 30 years ago.  What do we know?  Well the cover always reminds me of the Hawkmoon RPG cover.   Ian Livingstone talks about Game Day '82.

Andy Slack is up first with Droids for Traveller.  It is easy to poke holes in Traveller tech; computers that only run one type of program and the like, but for some reason I never liked Droids in Traveller.  Maybe it was because they seemed to be too "Star Wars" and Traveller was more "Dune" and "Star Trek" to me.  There are lot of different types of functional droids, robots and even an android here.  Though there are some obvious ones that are missing; and I don't just  mean Galaxina (1980) or Cherry 2000 (1987).
The article takes a lot from Asimov's ideas on robots too.  So ingrained are these "Laws" that I never thought to question them, despite the inclusion of a Warbot in the article.  Assassin droids were something we all knew about from Star Wars, at least in concept, so there seemed to be a mismatch here to me.

Mike Costello is next with a new feature, Microview, to cover computers.
This first installment, Space Invader, is about how "microcomputers" (we will be using this term for sometime to come) can have an affect on your gaming.  Mostly in this brief first issue it is about what he calls GAP or Game Assistance Program.  I am sure will hear more on this exciting new world!

In the "Clip and Save" file Lew Pulsipher is back with a Guide to Dungeonmastering, Part 1 Setting up Adventures. There is some great advice here that can be applied to any game, but D&D is assumed.  Again, unlike the previous two articles that have dubious quality in today's age (again, no fault of the original authors), this article is just as useful today as it was 30 years ago.

Open Box is next with out independent reviews.  First up is Cults of Terror for RuneQuest by Chaosium. Oliver Dickson calls it "essential reading" though he has some issues with some of the content.  Mostly due to it not fitting together in the way he likes. It gets a 6/10.  Aftermath! from FGU is next.  We have been seeing the ads in WD now for a little bit and now we get to learn about this Post-Apoc game.  Andy Slack loves it and gives it a solid 10/10.  Worlds of Wonder is next and it is a very interesting one.  WoW was Chaosium's first entry into the Generic RPG market, or one system for multiple games. We would see this many times over and over.  GURPS became the undisputed king of "Generic" systems, but WoW was one of the firsts.  Based on the Basic RPG system that powered RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu you got various "Worlds" to play in.  Trevor Graver gives it a 7.10 and marks it down for being only the bare bones.  These days that same criticism would be touted as a feature in a Sandbox game.

RuneRites for RuneQuest is next with some monsters.  I always liked the monsters for RuneQuest, they seemed so much more strange to me.  I worked out conversions based on Call of Cthulhu so I could use them in my D&D games.

After that are some letters and then on to an AD&D adventure from Paul Vernon, Troubles at Embertrees.  Designed for 5-8 1st to 2nd level characters. It is a densely packed 4 pages.  The adventure itself seems fine. The inclusion of the new monster sets it up above a simple wilderness adventure.

Starbase introduces us to Morality in Traveller (oh nos! Alignment! not quite...)  and new race, the Mahwrs, a large, bi-pedial bat like creature.

Fiend Factory gives us our 200th monster since WD #6.  These monsters are all undead or something like that; appropriate for October.  Morbe are neither undead or alive. They feed on Con points and once they get to 18 they are human again. The Unborn are souls that died in childbirth.  The Rusalka is an evil, dead female magic-user, the Wraith Warrior and the Goldfinger, which are like an undead battery.

Treasure Chest has some magic weapons.  Of note is the Houri's Dagger, though it does not mention the Houri from issue 13 specifically. We get some Hellfire arrows, demon's knifes and the Druid's Cudgel.

We end the issue with some ads, including an ad for Gangbusters.

A lot of interesting bits in this issue.  First it is nice to see that WD can transition ot monthly format without too many hiccups.  I did not feel any part of this issue was filler. This issue continues the trends of the previous ones, but doesn't start any, save for the feature on computers. Traveller, D&D and RuneQuest still reign supreme as they have from the early days.

I will note that WD has not raised their price from 75p in a while.

Also the ENTIRE time I was re-reading this and writing this post I was humming "Winds of Change" by Jefferson Starship.  I went back and checked, Winds of Change was released October 4, 1982.  I must have been listening to that the first time I read this magazine.

Baker Street Justice Society 1899

A very, very cool piece from Paul Hanley.


The Baker Street Justice Society by *PaulHanley on deviantART

Featuring some of my favorite characters from Doctor Who in Victorian times.
This upcoming Christmas we will get another Victorian tale and a new companion, and much to my delight, Vastra and Jenny are back.

Of course I have stated Madame Vastra and Jenny for both Ghosts of Albion and Doctor Who. I really should do some more.  Sherlock Holmes is certain on my to do list.  Jago and Litefoot might also be a lot of fun to do as well.

Maybe a Doctor Who Victorian Age Source book is in order!