Goodbye Marvel Superhero Roleplaying

Today is the last day.

Due to a licensing change with Marvel, Margaret Weiss Productions will no longer be selling Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

MHR is a great game, but you need the right group to do it.  That might have factored into the sales vs. licensing equation.  In any case get these game books today while you can.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Basic Game
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event Book (Essentials Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event Book (Premium Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Annihilation Event Book (Essentials Edition)
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Annihilation Event Book (Premium Edition)

At midnight tonight they are all gone.

Z is for Zsusr

This is it!
For the last demon I want to give you something completely original.

Back in the early 90s I was working on getting into grad school in psychology.  I wanted something on my resume that would looks good and give me the time at night to study for the GRE.  So I took a job as the night QMHP (Qualified Mental Health Professional) at a local group home for schizophrenics.
One night one of the patients was playing with the house's dog, Sussie. He came into my office later and informed me we needed to get rid of the dog because, as he said in his slurred speech, that "Zsusr" was another name for the devil and the dog was possessed.  I told him that was not the case.  He decided that he just wasn't going to talk to the dog anymore.

So I have wanted to bring Zsusr into my games now for a long time.

Little is know about the Demon Princess Zsusr. Occult scholars have had difficulty recording the experiences others have had of her since she tends to leave all who have contact with her as deranged imbeciles  She appears as a tall, dark skinned woman of middle age. Her clothing will vary, and sometimes she will appear completely unclothed, but that is not her most striking feature.  Zsusr has the head of a dog and her legs are the hind-quaters of a dog as well.  Her dog head is incapable of human speech, but she can communicate telepathically with anyone capable of speech.  Her "voice" sounds like a sonorus whisper; soft but clearly heard by all.  When hearing her voice for the first time a victim must save vs Will, Wisdom or Charm (whatever is appropriate) or permanently loose 1 point of Intelligence.  This save must be made on each new encounter with Zsusr.  Zususr also has other methods to keep those in her thrall.  She can regurgitate a worm that she places in the mouths of her victims.  They must save vs. Poison/Constitution/Fortitude or the worm will find its way to the victims brain, then they will permanently loose 3 points of Intelligence (1 in Ghosts of Albion/Unisystem).

As a demon Princess Zsusr has 700 legions of dog headed demons she may call upon; such as Umu, Glabrezu, Yeth, Hell Hounds and Shucks. But it is rumored that her ties lie elsewhere.  It said that despite being a powerful demon she is also a member, some say the highest member, of the Cult of the Whispering God.
Zsusr may also cast spells as a witch of 5th level.

Zsusr (OSR/Basic)
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 60'
Armor Class: 2 (17)
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 90 hp (18+9 HD)
Attacks: claw (x2), bite
Damage: 1d8+2 (x2), 1d10
Special: Immune to fire, Intelligence drain
Save: F18
MORALE: 10
Hoard Class: NA
XP: 6,000


Zsusr  (Ghosts of Albion)

Creature Type: Demonic Lord
Life Points: 60
Drama Points: 3

Attributes
Str: 5
Dex: 4
Con: 6
Int: 5
Per: 7
Will: 8

Armed Mayhem: 7, Fisticuffs: 7, Occult knowledge: 8,

Special Abilities: Demon, Fear, Hard to Kill, Increased Life Points, Intelligence Drain, Lesser Sensing, Magic 5, Occult Library (Good), Resistance (Fire).
Anyone seeing Zsusr for the first time must make a Fear check (Willpower x2) or loose 1 point of Int.

Manoeuvres
Name Score Damage Notes
Claw +11 12 Slash/stab
Bite +11 19 Slash/stab

Deflect +21 - Magic defence action; deflects spell 45˚

Spells +21 - varies by spell

Y is for Yaksas/Yaksha/Yakshini

I have a theory.  My theory is that the names of theological demons were all invented (this is not a theory, but true) by monks and theologians with a little spare time on their hands.  They started with A and worked their way down.  This is why we have so man "A" demons but almost no "Y" ones.  ;)
I know that theory has a lot of holes in it. But the data remains.  I think I could have posted an "A" demon every day.  Y on the other hand  doesn't give me a lot of choices.

Yaksas/Yaksha

The yakṣa or yaksha is nature spirit from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist literature/myth.  They can either be good (or least inoffensive) or evil.  There also seems to be a difference between the male yaksha and the female yakṣiṇīs or yakshini.  They share a relationship with the Rakshasa.

I had mentioned previously that myths and folklore rarely conform to the needs of any RPG.  In D&D terms the yaksha might be demons or even something like faeries.  There are numerous stories featuring these creatures, giving them the rough feel to me as fae.

Yaksha/Yakshini
Armor Class:  5 [14]
Hit Dice: 4d8+12* (30 hp)
No. of Attacks: 1 by weapon (long sword) or spell
Damage: 1d8+3
Special: immune to fear
Movement: 60’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 5
Morale: 10
Treasure: None
Alignment: See Below
XP: 550 / 650

The male Yaksha is a demonic creature related to the more powerful Rakshasa.  They appear as very tall humans with large tusks protruding from their lower jaw.  There is a claim that their eyes are one fire, but that is due to the orange/yellow coloring.  The Yaksha are very strong (18 str) and good fighters.  They are typically armed with a large curved blade.  Yaksha are almost always evil, though cases have been recorded of non-evil individuals.  Scholars have attempted to find a relationship between these creatures and the Oni.

Yakshini
Yakshini are the females of the Yaksha race.  They are very, very rare and in fact only 66 are known to exist.  Unlike their ogre like male counterpart the Yakshini are human looking.  They do not attack with weapons but rather rely on spells.  They can cast spells as a 4th level witch.  They are typically good (Law) in alignment.

Yakaha will not attack humans, if if ordered so by a Rakshasa if a Yakshini is present.  Rakshasas will seek out Yakshini as brides or consorts when possible.

Kickstarters of the Week

Y post up a little later today.  But here are some Kickstarters that caught my eye over the last week.

The Victorian Academy of Magick Book
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/415194828/the-victorian-academy-of-magick-book
Paul Voodini is running this one and it looks really cool.  I spoke with him a bit and it would make for a great background book in any magic-based Victorian era RPG.

To get an idea of what the book will be like, check out the Facebook page, The Victorian Academy of Magick, https://www.facebook.com/VictorianAcademyMagick

The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame for The Secret Fire RPG
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/georgestrayton/the-way-of-tree-shadow-and-flame-for-the-secret-fi

I reviewed the Secret Fire a while back and Tenkar brought this one up.  It looks pretty cool and I was pleasantly surprised with the Secret Fire.

Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose: Eleventh Collected Trade
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimbalent/tarot-witch-of-the-black-rose-eleventh-collected-t
Finally the 11th collected Tarot Witch of the Black Rose trade-paperback is up.
It already met it's funding so now it about the stretch goals.
I have stated up Tarot in the past and I like the character to be honest.

Dark Dungeons: The Movie
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/295102457/rpgs-are-evil-dark-dungeons-the-movie
I am not even sure what to say about this one.  You all know the Chick tract.
There was even an animated movie made of it once.

http://vimeo.com/17338896

I of course like my own MST3k treatment (two sites of many)
http://www.rpglibrary.org/inspiration/darkdungeons/intro.html
http://www.humpin.org/mst3kdd/

I might just have to throw some money at this one.

ETA:

The World's Worst Dungeon Crawl!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epiclevel/the-worlds-worst-dungeon-crawl

No idea yet. But it looks fantastic.  Though I do enjoy the line "Killing characters is easy, entertaining players is hard."

Zatannurday: X is for X-Rated

Ok so in "celebration" of today being X day, how about some Zatanna from the X-rated side of things.

The biggest trouble is with "porn" versions of superheroes is not that people are having sex (come on, that is WHY we get them) it's that often the producers of the adult movies do a better job than Hollywood does!  Not always, but sometimes.
I have a number of adult film actors and producers on my G+ and Facebook friends and they are every bit as geeky about this stuff as I am.
Here is a post by fellow gamer  Zak Sabbath on his site, Playing D&D With Porn Stars to pretty much the same conclusions.

So here are two examples of X-Rated Zatanna.  This post though will be safe for work.

I had previously mentioned Super-heroines in 3D before.  I bought it and watched, for research of course!
It stars Chanel Preston as Zee.

The movie itself is Point of View.  So it's like you are part of her...magic act.
Chanel looks great, but I didn't buy her as Zee at all.   I honestly only picked up for the Superhero content, I am not into POV porn.

The next one though is an example of what you can do if you pay attention to your source material.

The Dark Knight XXX: A Porn Parody works better as a B-rate Batman movie.  I also own this one (thanks to Vivid's on-demand service; we live in a Golden Age!). I am not going to get into it too deep to be honest, but there are a few things I did want to bring up.
First, for a Vivid porn, it is rather tame, but it also has a plot. Batman, upset about the defeat of Batgirl and Nightwing, is in exile.  Meanwhile, Bane is tearing up Gotham.

The scene with Joker and Batgirl is straight (more or less) from The Killing Joke.

The scene with Zatanna is what brings me to this movie.  It is Zee (Christy Mack) and Constantine. The actor is a better Constantine than Keanu Reeves was; he has the look and the accent.
Christy Mack looks more like Zee than Chanel Preston.   Though they forgot the fishnets.

She has a scene with Constantine (the impossibly named Clarke Kent), but that is it.

I give the producers credit for knowing their material and casting actors and actresses that look the part (Catwoman and Poison Ivy were great; Bane in here is scarier than Bane in TDKR).  I gotta say the Joker scene ala the Killing Joke made my geeky fan boy happy.

All in all this is still better than the Justice League Movie from 97 or the Doctor Strange movie from 20 years before that, and right now it is the closest we have to a Justice League movie.

X is for Xing-tian

Let's go to the other side of the world from the Wendigo to China, home of the Xing-tian.

The Xing-tian appears as an ogre with no head. Inspection reveals that if it had a head it had been cut off and healed; where the neck would be is a mass a scar tissue.  It has “eyes” where it’s nipple would be and a “mouth” over it’s navel, but these appear only to be markings.  The xing-tian can’t see, hear, eat, breathe, call out or communicate.  It is typically armed with a shield in one hand and an a large axe in the other.  It can feel the vibrations of people nearby.  They attack everything, including other xing-tian, and they always fight to the death.  When not fighting it can be found destroying anything in its path.

Xing-tian are literally about mindless destruction.  They attack anyone in their path and if no one is around they attack trees, rocks and animals.  They also represent a never-say-die spirit.

Xing-tian

Armor Class:  6 [13]
Hit Dice: 5d8+8* (30 hp)
No. of Attacks: 1 by weapon
Damage: 1d8
Special: immune to any spell that relies on senses, immune to gaze attacks, immune to fear
Movement: 75’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 6
Morale: 12 (will never, ever give up)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Evil (Chaos)
XP: 750


EDITED TO ADD: Jolie Du Pre' is doing Xing-tian too!
http://www.preciousmonsters.com/2013/04/blogging-from-to-z-accurate-xing-tian.html

W is for Wendigo

I grew up in Illinois.  At that time it was still possible for me to go to places like Dixon Mounds and see Indian/Native American burial sites and learn a lot about the people who lived here before I did.
I get that these were people and we were walking through their graves, but we were learning about them at the same time and that in my mind was much better.  Whatever the case it left me with a life long fascination with the native people of this area.

The Algonquin (and Illiniwek) people had a great mythology and SOOO under utilized in games or novels.  One creature that I always was fascinated with was the Wendigo. Yes. The Wendigo has been seen a lot in horror fiction, especially with the rise in popularity of werewolves and zombies.  But they are still very interesting.  The most famous one of course is The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood, followed by August Derleth's Ithaqua.

This is a creature that possess humans under conditions of extreme cold and hunger and gets them to become cannibals.  Also people that engaged in cannibalism were also at greater risk of possession.
The Wendigo is a spirit most times, unable to physically manifest in the world or interact with it.  That is until someone in a cold part of the world begins to despair and go hungry.  There are plenty of places in the world that are cold and these have hungry people, the Wendigo though chooses someone though that has or will resort to cannibalism to stay alive. Once this is done the Wendigo has access to the victim's heart.
With their heart frozen the victim becomes the physical Wendigo.  They appear lean and gaunt, but taller; as if stretched out.  Their hands become claws with vile blue talons.  Their entire appearance becomes more feral.  They appear to be something akin to a ghoul or even a starving were-wold mid transformation.  Their are constantly hungry, eating all the flesh they can though they never eat their fill.  Eventually the wendigo strains the host body too much and they die completely in a number of weeks.  Though there are rumors of giant wendigo, whose head reach the clouds that are thousands of years old.

Wendigo

Armor Class:  3 [16]
Hit Dice: 8d8+4* (40 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 claws / 1 bite / breath weapon
Damage: 1d6 / 1d6 / 1d6+3 / 1d8+5 (cold)
Special: breath weapon, fear, low-light vision (120’), scent, immunity to cold
Movement: 90’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 9
Morale: 9
Treasure: None
Alignment: Evil (Chaos)
XP: 1,000


The wendigo is completely immune to all cold based attacks.  It attacks with it's claws and bite and can emit a blast of freezing cold air up 4 times per day (save for half).
This demon shares a number of characteristics with were-creatures and undead.  A cleric can turn one as a Special Undead. Once a person is infected with a wendigo they can not be cured.