Return to the Dungeon!

So last month I picked up the newest version of the classic Dungeon! broad game.  Now like many of the gamers my age I also had one of the earlier versions of Dungeon.  The one I had is not depicted below.

How does the new one measure up?

Well quite well to be honest.  The older character "classes" of Elf, Hero, Super Hero and Wizard are now gone.  Replaced with Rogue, Cleric, Fighter and Wizard.

The rules really have not changed.  So any house rules or mods you did back then will still work today.

The board really has changed much.  It is smaller than the "1st Edition" or "3rd Edition" versions depicted above.  This puts it closer to the overall feel of the "2nd Edition" version (that I originally owned, but don't have anymore) with the "RIP" cards.

So in this version you don't lay the cards on the map, you instead keep them in a stack and when a room is empty you put a little RIP marker on it.

In the older versions you could use your D&D minis on them.  The newer board is slightly smaller so it makes using the D&D minis harder.   There are no plastic pawns or small monochrome plastic minis, this version has heavy card stock.

It's not any closer to D&D than it ever was. The board is the same. The rules are the same and we still had a blast.

If you never played Dungeon! then you can still play it now.  If you have a younger child in your family or extended family then this is a great game.  And maybe just maybe it is also a good introduction to D&D.

Another Review for the Witch!

Stelios over at d20 Dark Ages has a very good review up for my latest book The Witch!

http://d20darkages.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-witch-by-timothy-brannan_16.html

He gives it 4.5 out of 5 stars, so that is great!

He did mention that a bibliography would have been nice and I agree.  Part of my "d20 upbringing" was being very active on the old OGL and OGF email lists and there was much discussion on whether or not a bib could be part of an OGL product.  Well eventually I think it came down on the said of yes it was ok, but I err on the side of caution when it comes to these things.

That all being said I think I will post a quasi-annotated bibliography.  I'll just need to put it all together.

So thank you Stelios!  I am very please you liked my book.

I talked to the publisher today and the files for the print version have been sent in so we should know once the proofs come back.

Zatannurday: For the Cosplayers!

Not sure how tuned in to geek/nerd subculture you all are.
I consider myself fairly knowledgeble and yet something still pops up that I either didn't know about or leaves me scratching my head.

This one though just irritates me.
Here are some links, you can read them.  Long story short comic book illustrator Tony Harris doesn't like cosplayers.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/comic-book-illustrator-tony-harris-hates-women-co
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/35644420254/tonyharris
and one from Other Side favorite Strikes Twice, http://strikes-twice.deviantart.com/#/d5l04ol

I am not going to have this conversation. Again.  If there is someone in fandom and you don't like them or think they don't belong there then the trouble might be with you, and not them.

Today has been declared as Cosplay Appreciation Day!
http://sourcefednews.com/nerd-porn-google-tvs-and-sexist-geeks/

So I am going to celebrate the cosplayer today.
Thank you. To all the cosplayers out there that take the time, the money and the interest to share our fandom. Whether you are dressing up as a comic book character, game character or someone from a movie you have helped improve the total social standing of geeks and nerds (of which I am a proud member) everywhere.



Completed Zatanna by ~Strawberry-Photo on deviantART


Zatanna by ~Lola-Gainsborough on deviantART


Lady Z by ~Lola-Gainsborough on deviantART


Zatanna by ~Riddle1 on deviantART


My Zatanna Zatara Cosplay by *MissLola-art on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara by *MissLola-art on deviantART


Steampunk Zatanna by ~sphingosine on deviantART


Steampunk Zatanna Cosplay by Sphingosine by ~SNTP on deviantART


Zatanna Cosplay 5 by ~Refugeewolf on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara (YJ) by ~TrineMeincke on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara - Otakon 2012 by ~mariegreycosplay on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara - Otakon 2012 by ~mariegreycosplay on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara teaser 2 by *ParLitphotography on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara Is Here To Stay by ~AmeZaRain on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara Cosplay by *MissLola-art on deviantART


Zatanna Zatara Cosplay by *MissLola-art on deviantART


annataZ by ~Cujo-Escariot on deviantART

They all look fantastic!

Bathory for M&M3

As many of you all know I am huge fan of the Erzsébet Báthory story/mthyos.  Well, fan is an od word for a woman that mostly likely killed hundreds of young girls.  But you know what I mean.

Anyway there is a new product out now adding her to the Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition game and you all also know what a fan I am of that!

Bathory - AoV Solo (M&M3e) from Xion Studios is now out.

Here is my review:
--
Vampires have an odd role to play in a supers game, something this book recognizes.
This takes one of the most iconic vampires in myth and one of the most notorious real-life killer and adds her to the Mutants & Masterminds 3.0 game.
The author gives us an  interesting back story that should be familiar to most anyone with an interest in vampires.  There is a new, more up-to-date backstory of her activities from 2001 and on.

The crunch part, her stats and powers are good and they look "right" to me.
There is also a template for a Bathory-lineage vampire, which is a good one to use in a game.  Her PL is only 9, which makes her a good threat against normal humans or PL5 young supers.

Her PL is 12. That puts her at the same level I would expect.

I am not 100% sold on her being in a Goth Metal Band myself, but it certainly looks like it works here.

6 pages: cover art, condensed OGL statement and a lot of stuff to use in your game.  You are getting a lot for your buck here.
--

So yeah I am going to give this one a go.   I have stated up Elizabeth many times including Mutants & Masterminds 2nd ed, so if I use her again I might stick with my own backstory.  I DO like the idea of a vampire fronted goth band.  Maybe I will save that for another vampire.

For your enjoyment here are the stats for Erzsébet Báthory other games.  Mine are a little higher, but that is ok.

• Introduction
• Classic Unisystem (WitchCraft)
• Mutants and Masterminds (2nd Edition)
• Chill
• Witch Girls Adventures

Witch Traditions

With print copy of the Witch on the way and the ebook/print version of Eldritch Witchery also coming along I thought I'd spend some time talking about Witch Traditions.

What is a Tradition for the Witch class?

Historically Tradition is like a style or even a denomination of Witchcraft.  In my books Traditions are styles of witchcraft too, but it is also a bit more.

On the roleplaying side a Tradition helps define what sort of witch they are.  Their background, how they learned to be a witch and how they get their Powers and Spells. It also help define what their familiar is like.  For example a witch might roll and get "Toad", but for a Faerie witch this toad could be a nature spirit, for a Maleficia it is a small demon.  In both cases it just happens to look and act like a toad.
On the crunch side it tells you what sort Occult Powers you gain

Each book has a different set of Traditions so if you do get them both then there is something new in each one (there are more difference than just this, but this is what I am talking about today).  The Traditions are roughly set up the same way and have particulars according to their supported rules, but translation is easy.

Halfling Herb Woman - Daniel Brannan

The Witch
Aquarian
Classical
Faerie
Family
Maleficia
Eclectic

Demi-humans
Xothia (Dwarf)
Kuruni (Elf)
Good Walker (Gnome)
Bogglebos (Half-orc, orc, goblinoid)
Herb Woman (Halfling)

Eldritch Witchery
Witches (Traditions)
Craft of the Wise
Tradition of the Magna Mater (Great Mother)
Demonic
Faerie
Gypsy

Warlocks (Lodges)
Goetic Scholar
Hermetic Brother
Scholar of the Scholomance
Secret Masters of the Invisible College

There are even new Traditions in the upcoming Player's Companion for the Adventurer Conqueror King System.  I had some input on how the new ACKS Witch works (not a lot but some) and some of it was based on some of my earlier work.  Bottom line for you. The ACKS witch is very compatible with the witch from "The Witch" and "Eldritch Witchery".  There are also Shaman and Warlock classes in ACK-PC that would mix in great with any game that has a witch in it.

ACKS though is based on 14 levels, Eldritch Witchery on 20 levels and The Witch on the classic B/X 36 levels.  So you will need to move the powers across the levels some.

The ACKS-PC witch gains special powers by Tradition at 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th level.
The Witch gets occult powers at 1st, 7th, 13th, 19th, 26th and 31st levels.
In Eldritch Witchery the witch gains her Occult powers at 1st, 7th, 13th and 19th level.
For my witches the 1st level power is a familiar.  The Witch and EW can be played just as easily with 14 or 20 levels. Well...13 and 20 actually works better in my mind (make the 21st level witch the Queen of Witches).

I am not going to mention the traditions in the ACKS Player's Companion.  I will wait till it comes out.  Sufice it to say there are two that are roughly the same (and this gives a base to compare) and the others that are new.  All of them are given the ACKS-world twist.
Charles Myers, a contibutor to the ACKS Witch class has even put up some new Traditions on his own blog.

• Razor Hag Tradition
• Kindred Witch Tradition (similar to my Family witch in many ways)
• Winter Witch Tradition (this one might be am favorite)
• Tempestarii Witch Tradition

I have not tried to convert these yet, but my rough eyeballing of them tells me they should work fine.

If you picked up Joesph Bloch's wonderful Adventures Dark and Deep Witch or Jonathan Becker's Witch from the Complete B/X Adventurer then you can also use this with them and visa versa by implementing the Tradition idea.

Joesph Bloch's presents a deliciously evil witch I really want to run under B/X rules.  I would probably call her a Malevolent Witch (Malefic was already taken).  This witch is limited to 13th level so she is a good fir with ACKS-PC.  Or use this witch in place of my Malefic one.  Joe makes a lot of great points in his book on how to play an evil witch.

Jonathan Becker's witch is harder to fit in, though I do love how it works.  In this case choose one or the other witch and then take the things you like from the other books.

Daniel Proctor put together a "Diabolic Witch" for OSRIC that would also port over nicely.

One thing that ALL the books have that will thrill the witch player is spells.  Lots and lots of spells

These are not the only Traditions you can use (but it is a lot!).  You are certainly free to make up your own.

Amazing Adventures!

I picked up Amazing Adventures at this past Gen Con and I have been having some fun with it.

Despite my fondness of Victorian and Modern games I am not a big "Pulp" gamer.  I am however a new(ish) big fan of Castles and Crusades.

I have had this idea of mixing the games for some time now.  AA has a lot of features I like.  For example I like the idea of some mad science in my "D&D" like worlds.  I like the AA sorcerers as well since they save the effort of coming up with a lot of new magic types (which I enjoy, but is time consuming).

I also like that one of "my" favorite house rules is now part of the game.  Instead of the 12/18 split for primes for CBs AA has a flat CB of 15 with bonuses (and this gives it more of a cinematic feel in my mind).

This gives me the feel of a more pulpy-cinematic style C&C game.  I mean that is how I played it in the 80s anyway, fresh out of Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Has anyone else picked this up?
Are you using it, mixing it with C&C or any other game?

Links
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/106153/Amazing-Adventures%21?affiliate_id=10748
http://www.trolllord.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=211

More WotC Reprints and New Material

So you might have seen all of this in the blogs already.  If not here are some links.

• http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2012/11/wotc-to-publish-new-ad-material.html
• http://aventurasroleras.blogspot.com/2012/11/wizard-sigue-con-suplementos-old-school.html
• http://5stonegames.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-revolution-is-over-we-won-lets-play.html

Here are the links to the WotC pages for the upcoming products,

• Unearthed Arcana, http://wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/1Eunearthedarcana
• Hardcover A-series, http://wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/a-series
• Hardcover S-series, http://wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/s-series

This is awesome of course.     The A-series even comes with an all new A0 introduction adventure.

My thoughts on these.

Unearthed Arcana. For me nothing draws a cleaner line between the "Generation 1" old-schoolers and the "Generation 2" old-schoolers than their opinions on Unearthed Arcana. Generation 1 hates it. Generation 2 loves it.

I loved Unearthed Arcana.  Not just because it gave me new classes and spells but it meant that this wonderful game I had been playing will continue to grow.  So yeah I loved the goofy Barbarian and Cavalier. I didn't care that the Paladin I had been playing all this time now suddenly was changed, I thought it was great.

I like how this new version looks.  I will agree though with the Generation 1 old-schoolers on one point.  The original UA had terrible binding.  This one can only be an improvement and I understand that it includes all the errata.

The A Series is an odd one for me.   I never sought out to collect it, never really considered it much back in the day except when going through it and my new Assassin character was killed.  It is also the one I am looking forward to the most.  For starters it will be perfect for my kids new AD&D game.  Secondly and the most important is it will include the first new AD&D adventure to be published by WotC since they took over TSR.  They are supporting an edition other the current version.  I don't care how jaded you are this is a big deal.  Yes, of course it is about making money. It is ALWAYS about making money, but they are doing it in a way that supports old-school gaming.

The S Series was one of my favorite series of modules.  I have many copies of the original adventures and even some I have for all 4 editions of D&D/AD&D.  I even have the softcover "Super  module" they released years ago. I went and had it bound into a hard cover. So while I am happy about this one, I am less excited about getting it.   I bet I still will though.  My kids have already gone though half of the S modules though.

Again I will say if you are  an "OSR" publisher I would be getting your A game ready.  We seem to be in an odd lame-duck period between 4e and 5e.  Maybe WotC (who has nothing else so far on their calendar) is going to fill this with 1e products.