October Movie: The Asphyx (1973)

This one has been on my list to see for years. With the Redemption Blu-Ray out now (they really should be paying me at this point!) I finally got to see it.

Worth the wait!

Great Victorian setting and like any good Victorian tale it mixes science with the supernatural.  In fact see if you can spot the portrait of Mary Shelly.
The story deals with a scientist that finds a way to photograph the moment of death.  On his plates he sees a shadow and believes he has captured the soul leaving the body.  On a happenstance he is filming his son and wife to be with his new moving pictures camera. His son loose control of his boat and dies.  On developing the film he sees the dark smudge rushing towards his son, not away.
Some experiments with a man being publicly executed our scientist, Hugo Cunningham, concludes he has found the fabled Asphyx or spirit of death.  Each living thing has it's own Asphyx so Cunningham devises a way to capture an asphyx and thus render someone immortal.  The try it on a Guinea Pig and it works.  Later Cunningham tries it on himself it works as well.

I don't want to give away more than that to be honest. The movie is a touch slow to get going, but you can tell it must have scared the crap out of people in the theatres back then.

I am glad I finally got to see this one.

Tally: Watched 27,  New 23

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White Dwarf Wednesday #84

December 1986 issue of White Dwarf seems a little smaller that I thought it was supposed to be.
That is is explained by the new editor Mike Brunton.  The 8 new pages are being held till later and Paul Cockburn seems to be out.
The cover art by the way can best be described as Lovecraft's Night Before Christmas.  "Sanity Clause" by Ian Miller.  Cute.

Again we have 4 pages of Open Box.  Of note to me: the Children of the Atom for Marvel Super Heroes and the Advanced set is up.  This is about the time I was getting out of Marvel, both the game and the comic.  I still have some of the books and might revisit it one day.  I said that a WDWs back, but I haven't got around to it yet so I am not thinking I will any time soon.   Likewise DC Heroes, a game I wanted to like but never got into, has The King of Crime and Internity Inc.  Pete Tamblyn reviews all four books and enjoys them.  Graeme Davis doesn't care for the new Immortals module for D&D, Immortal Storm.  I can't say I disagree with him.  Though my experience with it comes much later and through the eyes of nostalgia.

Simon Nicholson has an interesting article on how to get messages across to or from player characters (and players) to other parts of the world in "Don't Call Us".  We tend to forget that the instant communication that we enjoy today is not the way it has been for the vast majority of human civilization.  I remember going to Epcot once at Disney World and going on their World of Tomorrow ride or something.  They showed us a world where communication was instant. My son, who must have been 6 or 7 at the time told me "Dad, we can do all this stuff now."  One of the things I think Ebberon does well that other campaign settings don't is show how magic is used in place of technology.  Communication is just another facet of that.

Shadow Magic is an adventure for AD&D for 8th to 9th level characters by Carl Sargent. It features some dragons in a domestic fight and some of the newer demons from MMII.  It is short and can work well as one of those "on the road" sort of adventures.

There is a trivia game made up to look like a Miskatonic U exam booklet.  Cute.

Wolves of the Sea is a bit more ambitious. It covers sea going adventure for role-playing games. Again there must have been something in the aether then since there seemed to be a lot of sea going adventures in magazines and the few groups I knew.  It is an interesting read and adaptable to most Fantasy RPGS.

A Paranoia Adventure. These all look the same to me.

Couple pages of letters...
Finally in Fracas we get the results of the Reader's Poll.
Gobildegook and Thrud are the most popular, 2020 Vision is the least.  I had the exact opposite opinion.
Best Cover was 79, the one I disliked.
Most people replying approve of the choice to do away with the departments.  If you recall I lamented that.
Most people liked Multisystem scenarios/adventures.  At least we agree!

I question my biases on continuing reading WD at this point!

I have to admit this issue seemed rushed.  Like they had a bunch of odds and ends at the end of the year and needed to use them.

October Movie: Little Witches (1996)

Another one on my list of movies to see.

I think I expected this one to be a little bit like The Craft. Yeah...not so much.
It is fairly derivative of other movies I have seen.  Though one is tempted to compare this to the TV version of Buffy, it did come out before Buffy hit the airwaves.
School girls, underground temple, ancient evil cult.  Though there are a couple of highlights.
First it is the acting debut of Clea Duvall.  Zelda Rubinstein is in it.  Sheeri Rappaport is not bad in it. And it was only filmed in two weeks.

There is a kernel of a good movie here, buried under cliches and mediocre acting, again Clea Duvall and Sheeri Rappaport are the exception here.   The demon at the end was neat, kinda like a poor man's Demogorgon.

Not much I could find in this to extract for a game that I haven't seen elsewhere.  Even though, a good take on this kind of story would be nice.  Though it would make for a rather thin plot for a Hellcats and Hockeysticks.

I was hoping for something more to be honest.

(not Fairuza Balk)

Tally: Watched 26,  New 22

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October Movie: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

Of course I had to see this one.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is a problematic movie.  For starters it really can't make up it's mind on what kind of movie it wants to be. Horror, action, comedy, camp.  It has it all, but unlike say Army of Darkness the mix here isn't quite right.

Hansel & Gretel are brother and sister like the Grimm Fairy tale, but they are now all grown up and hunting witches.  The seem to be immune to powers of witches, but not the power of candy.  Hansel is diabetic.

The film mixes a historical setting (never quite sure when it is supposed to be taking place) and modern sensibilities. The guns seem bigger for the time for example.

The story though itself is kind of neat.  A gathering of witches of various types is cool.  Two former victims immune to witch magic has a TON of potential.  Even mixing a couple of good witches and troll for good measure is nice.  So all the elements are there, but they never quite jell for me.  Though I won't lie, I had a lot of fun with this one.

Tally: Watched 25,  New 21

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The Art of Eldritch Witchery

One of the things that I love about working on RPG books is looking for art.  Sure there are other aspects I enjoy, but once I am done I love looking for art. It's like a treasure hunt for me.  But for Eldritch Witchery I knew EXACTLY what I wanted before I began.

Back when I was younger and wrote what would become by first ever witch I loved books on witchcraft, demonology and the occult.  I still do in fact. I love all the great artwork from these books, whether medieval woodcuts, drawings on pamphlets denouncing witchcraft on up to the art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

One of the more influential books on my writing was Rossell Hope Robbins's "Encyclopedia of Witchcraft of Demonology".

For me it was not just a great book of ideas for my class in particular and D&D in general, it was also a manual of style.

It features fantastic works of art that I just knew I wanted to include in a book of my own.
Since Eldritch Witchery is my ode to Original D&D, I didn't want to include anything really new.

I also enjoyed adding art about fairy tale witches; an equally important aspect of my witch as the mytho-historical one.

While some of these (or similar ones) appeared in The Witch, for Eldritch Witchery I wanted just these sort of images.

I hope you enjoy this art as much as I do.  For me it really is like picking up a copy of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology or even a copy of Eldritch Wizardry.

Eldritch Witchery is available now at DriveThruRPG!

October Movie: Les deux orphelines vampires (1997)

You would think I had nothing left to say about Jean Rollin or he would have nothing left to say about vampires.
You would be wrong on both counts!

Les deux orphelines vampires or The Two Orphan Vampires surprised me on a number of levels.

For starters it was much newer that I thought it was.  It was also bigger budget, though not by much.  It also gave us another twist on the vampire story.
In this one two girls, Henriette and Louise, are blind orphans living in a Catholic orphanage.  But these girls have a secret, they are only blind during the day.  But at night they can see and they hunt for food.

The girls seem to recall past lives, of being in New York and other places, and they are the same; blind vampires.

They get adopted. They meet what we suppose is a werewolf woman and later another, but different sort of vampire.  The girls imply, but never really confirm, that they are Aztec Goddess that remember great blood sacrifice.

I like the link to the Aztecs and being blind during the day, really neat touch.

Rollin regular Brigette Lahaie makes a cameo appearance which is cool.
All in all I rather liked this one.

Tally: Watched 24,  New 20

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Eldritch Witchery is LIVE!

Eldritch Witchery is now live!

Here is the official press release:

ELF LAIR GAMES PRESS RELEASE 10/21/2013

Elf Lair Games is pleased to announce that our long-awaited second sourcebook for Spellcraft & Swordplay, entitled Eldritch Witchery, is now available for purchase as an ebook! The print edition will follow soon.

A Return to the New Class of Old School!

Witches & Warlocks.
Monsters, demons and devils. What horrors await you in dark caves and passages forgotten by mortal-kind? What eldritch secrets await in the dark? Will they be yours to claim or will you be claimed by them?

Eldritch Witchery takes you back to the roots of fantasy role playing, back to a time when witches cast mighty spells and demons were new to the lands. Inside this book you will find:

- Two new elite paths, the Witch and the Warlock
- Hundreds of new spells
- New monsters, such as the vile Hags
- Demons, including the vile Calabim, the rageful Shedim, the seductive Lilim, and the Baalseraph, the rulers of the Nine Hells, amongst others.
- New magic items and treasure
- Complete guidelines for running witch-centric adventures or incorporating these spellcasters into your existing game
- And more!

Everything you need to add witches, warlocks, and demons to your Spellcraft & Swordplay game is here...what are you waiting for? Eldritch Witchery awaits...

Due to the nature and content of this book, as well as to some of the artwork involved, we are marking it as an adult product. User discretion is advised.

Get your eBook/PDF copy now.  Print book on the way.