October Challenge: Girl vs. Monster (2012)

Girl vs. Monster (2012)

So I was not originally going to count this one till my wife pointed out that it is actually better and scarier than  some of the other movies I have forced her to watch with me.  This one was obviously my kids' choice but it turns out it is kinda fun.  There are homages to Buffy, Ghostbusters (lots), and Beetlejuice in this.

Skylar, a fearless teen discovers near her 16th birthday that she is a 5th generation monster hunter. Not a bad premise really. Her mom and dad have a Steampunk-looking Ghostsbusters like lab. Where they keep all the ghosts, vapors and spooks they catch.

The special effects are not bad. Not great mind you, but not bad.  The message is not a bad one either; you are going to have fears, but they don't have to control you.

From my point of view it would make a cool game for kids.  I can certainly see Disney doing a sequel to this one.

I'll count this one as a horror movie, but I am going to have watch something scarier soon.


Tally: Watched 23, New 18

What are you watching?

Something Wicked this way comes!

I am proud and excited to finally say my Old School source book The Witch is finally out!!

Currently available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG with the Print copy on the way.

Grab my latest project!

Compatible with most "Basic Era" games.

Zatannurday: More Art

Some more Zatanna art that I have found the last few weeks.

No theme, just some great art.



Zatanna by *Protokitty on deviantART


Zatanna Print by ~OzWonderland on deviantART


Zatanna 2_ Commission by *tombancroft on deviantART


Pooof by =MrLively on deviantART


Baltimore Zatanna Sketch by *RandyGreen on deviantART


Zatanna by *RandyGreen on deviantART


Zatanna by ~jadecks on deviantART


Zatanna Commission by *calslayton on deviantART


ZATANNA by *Vinz-el-Tabanas on deviantART


Zatanna by ~iurypadilha on deviantART


Zatanna by ~arielmedel on deviantART


sdrawkcaB eltiT by *Dangerous-Beauty778 on deviantART


Zatanna by ~digiland on deviantART


Zatanna and the Justice Bunnies by ~13wishes on deviantART


Zatanna, sweet sweet Zatanna ! by ~El-Jerko on deviantART


Zatanna Color by ~Youngjusticeaddict on deviantART

Enjoy!

October Challenge: The Raven (2012)

The Raven (2012)

John Cusack stars as Edgar Allen Poe in the last few days of his life in the murder mystery with horror elements.   It's not exactly horror, but it has it's moments.

Of course this is a completely fictionalized account of Poe's last days and a murderer that is using his poems and stories to act out some grisly murders.  There are some issues with the movie from a historical perspective; the first that jumped out at me was a newspaper talking about a "Serial Killer" a term that was still 130 years away from being invented.

There are twists and turns and Cusack is great.  The movie did feel slow in some spots, but overall I rather enjoyed it.  I am not 100% sure it was horror though.








Tally: Watched 22, New 17

What are you watching?

Binders full of Women?

Yeah have that too.

And men, elves, dwarves, halflings, superheroes....but still mostly witches.

October Challenge: Children of the Corn (2009)

Children of the Corn (2009)

Caught this on the Sci-Fi channel recently.  I have not watched the Sci-Fi (or SyFy) is years, but I'll get to that.

This is a remake of the original 1984 film (which I enjoyed) and the Stephen King short story (which I also enjoyed).  If anything this movie does cleave closer to the original story than the 84 movie did.  There are no overt demons and in some ways that almost makes the movie creepier.

This movie though has it's own problems.  Despite the issues with the first movie this one will always come up short compared to it.  There is no "He's waiting for you Malachi!" moment here.
The other is that our protagonists are completely unlikable. Don't get me wrong, Kandyse McClure is very easy on the eyes, but her character is so annoying.  In fact the only character you can related to in this is Malachi's pregnant girlfriend.

I give it a plus for adhering better to the source material but many minuses for poor execution.  My wife, who grew up in the country, though has a deeper issue with it.  She loved the first, but wants to know why city people are so afraid of the country.  I didn't have a good answer for her.

In other concerns, WYF happened to the SciFi Channel??

Once upon time you catch a decent enough movie (to be fair CotC was not bad, just not great) and some good sci-fi or horror related TV shows.  Now it is all "reality" based ghost hunters, terrible movies and Wrestling??


Tally: Watched 21, New 16

What are you watching?

Getting Ready for the Witch

I just sent my final copy of The Witch back to the publisher to get uploaded to DriveThruRPG soon.

I honestly can't wait to get this out to you all.  It seems like I have been working on it forever. I started this blog in fact as a design blog to talk about the development of Eldritch Witchery and The Witch.

A number of the monsters, magic items and spells that appear in the book I have posted here.

My desire to do this book for "Basic Era" games was partially due to my involvment in the old-school game movement, but also because I had been going back to my copy of Moldvay's Basic Book and some of his ideas on what a witch should be.  I also wanted this book to capture what I felt were some of the best books on witches from the early days of the game.

My goals were simple.

• Make the book feel like something I would have wanted to buy in 1982/83.
• Make the witch more than just another type of magic-user, but still allow her to be easily added to a game.
• Keep what was best of the old school, but still keep in mind all the developments of the last 30 years.
• Elmore art.  I might get grief for this, but ever since Dragon #114 came out I wanted a witch book with art from Larry Elmore in it.  I am in a position to do that now.  It's not the  entire book, but there are some choice pieces in the 120 pages.

So what do you get in The Witch?

Well I was reading that selling points that do nothing but list a bunch of numbers turn people off. On the other hand I have had some people ask me what they are getting.

• The Witch class
• Five traditions of Witchcraft with Occult Powers
• Rules for Familiars for Witches and Magic-Users
• New rules for Cantrips for your Basic game 
• Over 300 spells
• Witch Ritual magic and spells
• Rules for Covens, Covensteads and example covens.
• New witch related monsters
• Magic items and artifacts
• Plus appendices on
• Using the Witch in your Advanced game
• Demi-human witches for games that have class and race seperate
• The Wizard, a magic-user class that is different from the Witch

All with years of playtesting.

I am hoping to get a preview up for you all here soon.