Go get your copy of this classic from DNDClassics.com
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Temple of Elemental Evil - For Free!
Not sure how this one got missed. But WotC is giving away a free copy of The Temple of Elemental Evil.
Go get your copy of this classic from DNDClassics.com
Go get your copy of this classic from DNDClassics.com
30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 19: Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)
Day 19: Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)
The classifications here show a really strong 3.x bias. Elementals orplants never really impressed me much. But I do rather like Effrit. I talked about them a bit in April with my A to Z of demons. I touched on them under Iblis and Jann. Though this is really a cheat since I treat them like a type of demon. Truthfully if I were rebuilding the D&D cosmos I'd make all the elementals closer to demons. At least very, very chaotic.
The classifications here show a really strong 3.x bias. Elementals orplants never really impressed me much. But I do rather like Effrit. I talked about them a bit in April with my A to Z of demons. I touched on them under Iblis and Jann. Though this is really a cheat since I treat them like a type of demon. Truthfully if I were rebuilding the D&D cosmos I'd make all the elementals closer to demons. At least very, very chaotic.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
White Dwarf Wednesday #80
The cover seems to be a bit of a throw back to earlier issues, or at least earlier themes.
The new editor and staff waste no time and hit us up with a new reader survey. More on that in a bit.
Open Box gives us Call of Cthulhu 3rd Edition. I do not recall any edition wars around this.
We have reviews for the FASA Doctor Who advnetures "The Hartlewick Horror" and "The Legions of Death". I just picked up Legions of Death last Friday. The Hartlewick Horror gets the edge, but I fear it was because of the inclusion of the 4th Doctor's stats. Palladium is breaking into the gaming scene more and more with The Mechanoids. Yes I know they were around before this, but two issues in a row of product reviews is still better than they had been doing. And the AD&D module Destiny of Kings is reviewed. I blame my braces at the time but I always called this one "Density of the Kings". Realms of Magic for MSH and OA1 Swords of the Daimyo are also reviewed. Three TSR products with two of them AD&D. Not so bad really.
The Doctor Who RPG gets some love with a section on Combat. Ok. So the irony here is that there actual little combat the characters should be doing in Doctor Who. The FASA game though was a little more combat focused than the current C7 RPG is. The biggest problem comes from the author's own point of view that he normally runs a D&D game. Ah well.
Critical Mass bemoans the recent injection of so many Lovecraftian elements in the recent batch of Sci-Fi books.
Some more Abilities for the Judge Dredd game.
"Clouding the Issue" by Chris Barlow covers detection powers in a game and how to make it more difficult or easy depending on your tastes. This is one of those articles that were common at the time; adding more realism to your game or at giving the game another layer of complexity.
Graeme Davis has an article on crime in the 20th Century. Focus is on the Pulp Era with such suggestions as Call of Cthulhu, Dardevils, and Indiana Jones.
The star of this issue though is "Ancient & Modern" a scenario for AD&D and Call of Cthluhu. Each player gets two characters, one for each system and they run through the linked scenarios. I love crazy stuff like this. The adventure is long (10 pages and nicely done) and it is still continued next
'Eavy Metal covers painting various textures.
The Back to the Readers Poll is up. 33 questions. Notable are the inclusions of questions about computers and LARPing. Of course there are also more games.
Letter is next and now two pages long.
There is an article about leveling up in MERP. Again, another example of adding a level of "realism" to the games. Or if you would rather role-playing. I get where this is coming from, you get your points from leveling up and they should be spent with some sort logic. By the way to keep this topical the article could just as easily work for Superbabes or any other game where gaining a level gives you points for buying new skills, powers, magic and so on.
Fracas, the rumors and news column covers the new wargame coming out for the Trek Universe/Star Fleet Battles. A plug for Dagon 13, a magazine for Mythos fiction is made. The Immortals set from TSR is announced as well.
We end with ads.
Ok so there is something a little sterile about the recent couple of issues. Sure the content of the last two has been better than the content of the dozen or so issues before it, but it is lacking some of that White Dwarf charm. For a lack of a better word it feels a lot like Imagine.
Justice Issue 7: Superbabes
Doing something a bit different from the supernatural characters I wanted to try out my other supers character "Justice".
You can read about the character in my various posts and her introduction here.
Justice is very much a perfect fir for Superbabes. She is young, good looking and of strong moral fiber. Where she doesn't fit really is she not really a good candidate for "Good Girl Art" she is more a straight forward super-hero. Plus she has some angsty background elements (she did nearly kill someone with her heat vision). But besides all that she was a fun character to stat up.
So continuing the the theme of Justice's posts here being an issue in her comic what does Issue 7 give us? Well this is the time that Justice had to team up with a bunch of other Superbabes from across the multiverse (Taryn, Tarot,... to stop a threat. If it is going to be something that requires all these heroes (including a younger version of her own mother) then it would have to been something that had also took out the original Superbabes team.
How about this. The big bad is this fetish dude known as The Refrigerator. He captures women and freezes them. Plenty of subtle and overt S&M and dominance context that makes this guy a bit creepier than Mr. Freeze or Captain Cold, yet fits rather well in this. After all the perfect foil for a Good Girl is a creepy misanthrope. All these heroes are gathered together, kick his ass and rescue the original team. Yeah it's a bit like the X-Men #1 that introduced us to Wolverine, but that's fine. Or any similarities to this scene are probably totally intentional.
Character: Justice
Secret ID / AKA: Astra Kal-El, Astra Kent
Age: 24 Apparent Age: mid 20s
Origin: Extrateristrial (25cp) Closest thing really.
25 CPs
Primary Stats
Muscles: 32 Damage: +2d6 Max Press: 3,200
Health: 22 ("Amazon" natch) Regen, Combat: 1/10rds Regen, At rest: 1pp/1rd HTK/Day: 3d10
Moves: 51 Bonus to hit: +5 Movement: 11" Hittability: 11 Initiative Bonus: 5
Brains: 16 Mental Attack Bonus: +1 Mental Hittability: 5
Will: 17 ("Driven") Regen Rate: 1pp/4rds HTK Regen/Day: 1d6+2
Personality: 20
Looks: 75
466 CPs
Secondary Stats
PP: 233
HTK: 60
Fame: 8
Bimbo Points: 1
XP:
Level: 6
CPs: 32 more to spend (still has some skills to learn but I want to improve her Flight later on).
Powers
Flight 10 40cp
Don't Breathe III 20cp
Invulnerabilty 12 60cp
Hit Em Harder 2 +2d6 10cp
Blast (Heat Vision) 2d6 12cp
Super Senses
- See Far Away 10cp
- See Through Things 25cp
- Good Hearing 15cp
222 CPs
Gizmos
none
Skills
Melee Weapon (Sword) 10cp
Blind Fighting 25cp
Law Student 20cp
Contacts (Criminal) 20cp (thanks to the Batman)
Contacts (Government) 20cp
Detect & Deactiveate Alarms & Traps 30cp
Streetwise 10cp
Acrobatics 20cp
155 CPs
Character Description
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue (but wears a blindfold)
Skin: Caucasian
Unique Characteristics: Wears a red blindfold.
Movement
Ground: 11"
Flight: 40"
Again, I am pretty pleased with this build. Justice and the build I did for Wonder Woman showed that you can spend the points really fast.
You can read about the character in my various posts and her introduction here.
Justice is very much a perfect fir for Superbabes. She is young, good looking and of strong moral fiber. Where she doesn't fit really is she not really a good candidate for "Good Girl Art" she is more a straight forward super-hero. Plus she has some angsty background elements (she did nearly kill someone with her heat vision). But besides all that she was a fun character to stat up.
So continuing the the theme of Justice's posts here being an issue in her comic what does Issue 7 give us? Well this is the time that Justice had to team up with a bunch of other Superbabes from across the multiverse (Taryn, Tarot,... to stop a threat. If it is going to be something that requires all these heroes (including a younger version of her own mother) then it would have to been something that had also took out the original Superbabes team.
How about this. The big bad is this fetish dude known as The Refrigerator. He captures women and freezes them. Plenty of subtle and overt S&M and dominance context that makes this guy a bit creepier than Mr. Freeze or Captain Cold, yet fits rather well in this. After all the perfect foil for a Good Girl is a creepy misanthrope. All these heroes are gathered together, kick his ass and rescue the original team. Yeah it's a bit like the X-Men #1 that introduced us to Wolverine, but that's fine. Or any similarities to this scene are probably totally intentional.
Character: Justice
Secret ID / AKA: Astra Kal-El, Astra Kent
Age: 24 Apparent Age: mid 20s
Origin: Extrateristrial (25cp) Closest thing really.
25 CPs
Primary Stats
Muscles: 32 Damage: +2d6 Max Press: 3,200
Health: 22 ("Amazon" natch) Regen, Combat: 1/10rds Regen, At rest: 1pp/1rd HTK/Day: 3d10
Moves: 51 Bonus to hit: +5 Movement: 11" Hittability: 11 Initiative Bonus: 5
Brains: 16 Mental Attack Bonus: +1 Mental Hittability: 5
Will: 17 ("Driven") Regen Rate: 1pp/4rds HTK Regen/Day: 1d6+2
Personality: 20
Looks: 75
466 CPs
Secondary Stats
PP: 233
HTK: 60
Fame: 8
Bimbo Points: 1
XP:
Level: 6
CPs: 32 more to spend (still has some skills to learn but I want to improve her Flight later on).
Powers
Flight 10 40cp
Don't Breathe III 20cp
Invulnerabilty 12 60cp
Hit Em Harder 2 +2d6 10cp
Blast (Heat Vision) 2d6 12cp
Super Senses
- See Far Away 10cp
- See Through Things 25cp
- Good Hearing 15cp
222 CPs
Gizmos
none
Skills
Melee Weapon (Sword) 10cp
Blind Fighting 25cp
Law Student 20cp
Contacts (Criminal) 20cp (thanks to the Batman)
Contacts (Government) 20cp
Detect & Deactiveate Alarms & Traps 30cp
Streetwise 10cp
Acrobatics 20cp
155 CPs
Character Description
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue (but wears a blindfold)
Skin: Caucasian
Unique Characteristics: Wears a red blindfold.
Movement
Ground: 11"
Flight: 40"
Again, I am pretty pleased with this build. Justice and the build I did for Wonder Woman showed that you can spend the points really fast.
30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 18: Favorite Monster (Immortal/Outsider)
Day 18: Favorite Monster (Immortal/Outsider)
This one should be another obvious one. Demons. I have always been fascinated with them both as a subject and as a monster in *D&D. Unrepentant engines of destruction or vile schemers and tempters. What's not to love? When I am playing a Paladin then I love nothing more than to fight against them. When playing a witch I love summoning them and binding them to gain infernal knowledge and boons.
Plus, as they say, they are legion I will never run out of ideas or uses for them.
There is the argument that sometimes they are played like nothing more than high-level goblins with magic, I think there is room for those kinds and other kinds of demons as well.
This one should be another obvious one. Demons. I have always been fascinated with them both as a subject and as a monster in *D&D. Unrepentant engines of destruction or vile schemers and tempters. What's not to love? When I am playing a Paladin then I love nothing more than to fight against them. When playing a witch I love summoning them and binding them to gain infernal knowledge and boons.
Plus, as they say, they are legion I will never run out of ideas or uses for them.
There is the argument that sometimes they are played like nothing more than high-level goblins with magic, I think there is room for those kinds and other kinds of demons as well.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Tarot Witch of the Black Rose for Superbabes
I have posted about Tarot before. Unlike the characters of Superbabes and Femforce, Tarot is often considered to be part of the "Bad Girl Art" type. Not that she is the opposite of the Good Girl Art, but rather the situations she gets herself in never would have happen to Nightveil or Miss Victory.
I am not going to lie. I like Tarot. Its a guilty pleasure to be sure, but my enjoyment of it is honest. Plus +HOlly Golightly and creator Jim Balent are both really cool.
Tarot in Superbabes is actually a good fit. She has some magic, some skills and combat ability and certainly the chance to earn Bimbo Points. If you read the comic then yeah. She does some really cool comic things, but then ends up loosing her clothes while sledding due to some faeries (ok to be fair the whole vacationing lot, Jon, Mother and Raven, did too).
Character: Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose
Secret ID / AKA: Rowan
Age: she isn't saying Apparent Age: mid 20s
Origin: Supernatural Pupil (50cp)
50 CPs
Primary Stats
Muscles: 14 Max Press: 700
Health: 17 ("Buxom" seems right) Regen, Combat: - Regen, At rest: 1pp/3rds HTK/Day: 2d10
Moves: 19 ("Fast") Bonus to hit: +3 Movement: 8" Hittability: 8 Initiative Bonus: 1
Brains: 16 Mental Attack Bonus: +1 Mental Hittability: 5
Will: 19 Regen Rate: 1pp/2rds HTK Regen/Day: 1d6+3
Personality: 18 ("Sparkling")
Looks: 51 ("So gorgeous she is hard to look at")
308 CPs
Secondary Stats
PP: 154
HTK: 50
Fame: 5/15 (normal/supernatural world)
Bimbo Points: 1 (there will be more)
XP: 15,002 ("Big Leaguer")
Level: 9 ("Junior Heroine")
CPs: 4 more to spend
Powers
Magic Spells (Tarot admits she is still a student here)
- Blast 4d6 (48cp)
- Flight 10 (80cp)
- Force Field 10 (60cp)
- Go Places (teleport) (200cp)
Healing II 100cp
Visions of Elsewhere 40cp
Visions of the Past 30cp
588 CPs
Gizmos
Armor (Invulnerability 4)
Sword of the Goddess (free gizmo)
20 CPs
Skills
Occultist 50 cp (gained for free at 1st level)
First Aid 20cp
Melee Weapon (Sword) 10cp
Persuasion 20cp
Blind Fighting 25cp
Contacts (Supernatural) 20cp
Survival 20cp
Weaponsmith 25cp
140 CPs
Character Description
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 140 lbs
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Skin: Caucasian
Unique Characteristics: She has a black rose tattoo/birthmark on her left shoulder.
All in all not a bad fit. I like her at 9th level which lines up nicely with her other builds.
She has a winged cat familiar named Pooka as well as a two lovers, Skeleton Man (Jon Webb) and Boo Cat (a werecat). Given how often they are endangered or get Tarot into trouble they should be worth a couple of Bimbo incident-free Bimbo Points.
Links to other Tarot stats
I am not going to lie. I like Tarot. Its a guilty pleasure to be sure, but my enjoyment of it is honest. Plus +HOlly Golightly and creator Jim Balent are both really cool.
Tarot in Superbabes is actually a good fit. She has some magic, some skills and combat ability and certainly the chance to earn Bimbo Points. If you read the comic then yeah. She does some really cool comic things, but then ends up loosing her clothes while sledding due to some faeries (ok to be fair the whole vacationing lot, Jon, Mother and Raven, did too).
Secret ID / AKA: Rowan
Age: she isn't saying Apparent Age: mid 20s
Origin: Supernatural Pupil (50cp)
50 CPs
Primary Stats
Muscles: 14 Max Press: 700
Health: 17 ("Buxom" seems right) Regen, Combat: - Regen, At rest: 1pp/3rds HTK/Day: 2d10
Moves: 19 ("Fast") Bonus to hit: +3 Movement: 8" Hittability: 8 Initiative Bonus: 1
Brains: 16 Mental Attack Bonus: +1 Mental Hittability: 5
Will: 19 Regen Rate: 1pp/2rds HTK Regen/Day: 1d6+3
Personality: 18 ("Sparkling")
Looks: 51 ("So gorgeous she is hard to look at")
308 CPs
Secondary Stats
PP: 154
HTK: 50
Fame: 5/15 (normal/supernatural world)
Bimbo Points: 1 (there will be more)
XP: 15,002 ("Big Leaguer")
Level: 9 ("Junior Heroine")
CPs: 4 more to spend
Powers
Magic Spells (Tarot admits she is still a student here)
- Blast 4d6 (48cp)
- Flight 10 (80cp)
- Force Field 10 (60cp)
- Go Places (teleport) (200cp)
Healing II 100cp
Visions of Elsewhere 40cp
Visions of the Past 30cp
588 CPs
Gizmos
Armor (Invulnerability 4)
Sword of the Goddess (free gizmo)
20 CPs
Skills
Occultist 50 cp (gained for free at 1st level)
First Aid 20cp
Melee Weapon (Sword) 10cp
Persuasion 20cp
Blind Fighting 25cp
Contacts (Supernatural) 20cp
Survival 20cp
Weaponsmith 25cp
140 CPs
Character Description
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 140 lbs
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Skin: Caucasian
Unique Characteristics: She has a black rose tattoo/birthmark on her left shoulder.
All in all not a bad fit. I like her at 9th level which lines up nicely with her other builds.
She has a winged cat familiar named Pooka as well as a two lovers, Skeleton Man (Jon Webb) and Boo Cat (a werecat). Given how often they are endangered or get Tarot into trouble they should be worth a couple of Bimbo incident-free Bimbo Points.
Links to other Tarot stats
And Tarot's home on the Internet http://www.jimbalent.com
30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 17: Favorite Monster (Animal/Vermin)
Day 17: Favorite Monster (Animal/Vermin)
I am not sure I really have a favorite Animal or Vermin type. I do recall a character getting into a fight with a large bear back in the AD&D days and he was a lot tougher to kill than some so-called "monsters" I had faced up to that point. He even clawed the face of my character and he got a permanent reduction in Charisma.
I am not sure I really have a favorite Animal or Vermin type. I do recall a character getting into a fight with a large bear back in the AD&D days and he was a lot tougher to kill than some so-called "monsters" I had faced up to that point. He even clawed the face of my character and he got a permanent reduction in Charisma.
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