The Other Side blog

Monday, December 10, 2012

Reminder: Adventures Dark and Deep

Just a reminder that there is only just about a week left for the Adventures Dark & Deep Kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deep-players-manual

This is the best thing to a no-brainer Kickstarter. The book is already done and the author is looking for some art to improve it.

So please stop by and support this really cool "What if" project.

Selling my Soul to Google

I am very active on Blogger. All my RPG related email goes to my Gmail account. I use Google Analytics to track trends on my blog. I own an Android phone and tablet. So I am pretty sold on this Google idea.

Well this weekend I found the one thing my gaming life needs more than anything else.
I discovered the new Chrome Book.

It runs the new Chromium OS and uses all the same tools I use now for my RPG work.
Not only that, but last week I began a new RPG book. No surprise there. But this deal is that this is the first time since 1989 that I have started one on something other than Microsoft Word.
I was an early adopter of MS Word. The first copy I ever bought was Word 1.1 for Windows, I quickly upgraded to 2.0. I have tried other software. I had used many others before this; PC Write was a big one for me. I spent untold hours in front of a screen using WordStar. I even, briefly, tried WordPErfect (and hated it). I would guess that in the last 23 years I have spent about 30,000 hours using Word. That's about 5-6 hours a day. Work really adds to this number since everything I do there is in Word.

Last week I started a new RPG book in Google Docs. I have used Docs before for other things and even have written a number of things for work or pleasure in it. But I usually started them in Word. So this is a big deal for me.

This new Chrome Book would give me all the tools I am using now. Sure I have a laptop and a computer. The computer is in my office and not portable. The laptop is for work. My tablet is great, but not great to write with.

I like the idea of having a separate RPG computer to hold all my PDFs and works-in-progress.
Now if I can only get one for Christmas!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Google+ Communities

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Zatannurday: the Amazing Adventures of Zatara!

I have been spending the week with Amazing Adventures the new Pulp Game from Troll Lords.
The cool thing about the "Pulp Era" is it more or less coincided with the "Golden Age of Comics". There are a lot of reasons for that which I will leave to others more knowledgeable than me. There is one thing I do know pretty well that covers both the Pulp and Golden Age of Comics and this blog.
Giovanni "John" Zatara.

Giovanni Zatara is the father of Zatanna Zatara. I have talked about and stated him up before, but this might be my favorite version. It seems to fit rather nicely. Again, I started with his M&M3 stats as a base line. I also wanted to make him a CHA based Arcanist since I felt that it worked best, given his career as a stage magician wold have mostly been about illusion. I also felt the description of a CHA-based Arcanist fit my idea of who Zatara, and Zatanna, are.

Giovanni "John" Zatara

Arcanist (CHA) 12
Human* Male, Lawful Good
hp: 50
MEP: 120
AC: 14 (dex, ring of protection)
Move: 30'

STR: 12 (0)
DEX: 16 (+2)
CON: 10 (0)
INT: 16 (+2)
WIS: 14 (+1)
CHA: 19 (+4)

*Zatara is a member of the Home Magi race. He gains a +1 to CHA and a -1 to CON.
Zatara, as a quirk of his own style of magic, must speak all his spells backwards in order to wrok.

Languages: Italian, English, Latin, Greek (native language is Italian)
Background: Entertainer (Actor) +4,
Traits: Spellgifted (transmutation), Spellgifted (illusion)
Skill: Knowledge (Arcana)

Gear: Top hat, cane (magical focus +2), tux

Spells 9/5/5/4/3/2/1

0: Arcane Mark, Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Influence, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Prestidigitation, Stun

1: Change Self, Charm Person, Daze, Obscuring Mist, Sleep, Silent Image

2: Alter Self, Blur, Detect Thoughts, Hypnotic Pattern, Misdirection, Pyrotechnics

3: Blink, Clairvoyance/Clairaudience, Hallucinatory Terrain, Major Image, Suggestion

4: Confusion, Dispel Magic, Mirage Arcana

5: Major Creation, True Seeing

6: Mass Suggestion

I am very, very pleased with this. So pleased in fact that if I ever get a chance to play AA I want to play Zatara.

Links for Amazing Adventures

http://www.trolllord.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=211

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/106153/Amazing-Adventures%21?affiliate_id=10748

Friday, December 7, 2012

Willow and Tara: Amazing Adventures

Amazing Adventures is a fun game. When I first got my hands on the playtest copy the first thing I noticed (granted I was looking for it) was the Arcanist class. What I enjoy about it is how flexible it is in concept. It's not just a wizard, cleric or witch. It is one class that can do all of that.

So of course I wanted to test it out. I grabbed my binder of witches and thought about who would be good for a Pulp Age witch. Or more to the point, which three since I wanted to try this out using the three types of "builds" the Arcanist can use, INT, WIS and CHA based. My choices really though were made for me.

The great thing about using Willow and Tara is it does give me the chance to try out the INT and WIS based Arcanists. Also they are characters I know quite well so stating them up usually is only as slow as my familiarity or unfamiliarity with the system.
Plus I have stated them up for d20 before, so I had a base idea of what they needed to look like. For these builds I used my base Modern d20 and little bit of my Macho Women with Guns d20 one.

The hard part isn't that, but it is deciding on how it is they could be in a Pulp World, 50 years before they were born. For this I go back to the Uber concept. Last month I posted the Call of Cthulhu versions of the girls. In many ways the AA versions are the same as the CoC versions, but these AA versions cleave a little closer to my own Dragon and the Phoenix canon.

I have to admit the idea of a Pulp-ish Willow and Tara came to me from the strangest of places. I was watching "If These Walls Could Talk 2" and there was an older lesbian couple in the first sequence. While older in 1961, they could have been the adventuresses of the early Pulp Era. In the 1920s and early 30s they would have been in their late 20, early 30s. So why not.
I guess think of these stats as the continuation of the CoC ones from the early 1920s.

Willow and Tara in Amazing Adventures
Willow and Tara in the 1930s are just out of college. They discovered each other from their shared use of magic and now they much adventure across the world search for more arcane secrets, stopping the forces of evil in both human and nonhuman form all while being perused by cultist and Nazis.

Willow Daniel Rosenberg

Gagdeteer 1/ Arcanist(INT) 12
Human Female, Lawful Neutral (Good),
hp: 45
MEP: 114
AC: 12 (locket of protection)/ 15 (when in physical contact with Tara)
Move: 30'

STR: 9 (0)
DEX: 11 (0)
CON: 11 (0)
INT: 18 (+3)
WIS: 16 (+2)
CHA: 17 (+2)

Languages: English, Latin, Hebrew, French* (extra language)
Background: Scientist +4 (+2 initial, improved at 5th, 10th level), Mathematician +2
Traits: Spellgifted (offensive), Reckless
Skill: Knowledge (Arcana)

Spells per Level

9/6/6/5/3/2/1
0: Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Open/Close, Prestidigitation
1: Arcane Bolt, Burning Hands, Identify, read Magic, shocking Grasp, Sleep
2: Bullet Proof, Darkness, Enhance Attribute, Invisibility Scare, Shatter
3: Blink, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Fly, Lightning Bolt, Magic Circle
4: Confusion, Locate Creature, Scrying,
5: Telekinesis, Telepathic Bond
6: Chain Lightning

Tara Ann Maclay

Arcanist (WIS) 11
Human Female, Lawful Good
hp: 42
MEP: 100
AC: 12 (locket of protection)/ 15 (when in physical contact with Willow)
Move: 30'

STR: 12 (0)
DEX: 9 (0)
CON: 12 (0)
INT: 16 (+2)
WIS: 18 (+3)
CHA: 16 (+2)

Languages: English, Latin, Greek* (picked this one up along the way)
Background: Historian +4 (+2 initial, improved at 5th, 10th level), Artist +2
Traits: Spellgifted (defensive), Polite
Skill: Knowledge (myth and legend)

Spells per Level

9/6/6/5/3/2
0: Blinding Flash, Detect evil, Detect magic, First Aid, Know Direction, Light, Purify Food & Drink, Message, Prestidigitation
1: Animal Friendship, Command, cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear, Shield of Faith
2: Aid, Darkness, Delay Poison, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration, Speak with Animals
3: Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic, Magic Circle against Evil, Remove curse, Spiritual Weapon
4: Dismissal, Restoration, Wall of Force
5: Dispel Evil, Scrying

I like how they turned out and am looking forward to trying out some of this flexibility.

Links for Amazing Adventures

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

I am all social and stuff

I am looking to expand my social presence some more so I have started using my Twitter account more.
Many times I "tweet" links to this blog, but I also use it to do some simple broadcasts that might be outside of this blog's realm.

If you want to follow me here is the link.
https://twitter.com/timsbrannan

I am now also on Tumblr. I am not exactly sure what Tumblr does for me that Blogger doesn't, but it seems easier to upload pictures. So I might be using that to upload various pics.
You can find me at http://timsbrannan.tumblr.com/.

I am still on Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Now I just need something to say!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Run Booster! Run Blue!

Ok. So I got sucked into this contest.

The contest is take this photo of cosplayers Jettie Monday and Katy Mor:

And make them run from something scary.

My photoshop skills are only ok. But my thoughts went immediately to what would be the scariest thing they could be running from? Ron Jeremy. Atomic Ron Jeremy dress as Mario.

How's that for horror! I should have made his eyes glow.

I should stat him up for Mutant Future to be honest. 12' tall Atomic Ron Jeremy.

No idea if I won the contest or not.