October Movie: Mama (2012)

I had to wait till everyone went to bed for this one.  Glad I did cause this is one creepy ass flick.
This was another Must See on my list for this year.

There is no new ground covered here, the fear of loosing a parent or a child too soon is so visceral, so deeply implanted into our DNA that any portrayal is going to touch a nerve.  Maybe more so because I am a parent. This was no exception and it happens to be a very scary movie.

This movie works on all the primal fears. Husband loosing it and killing the family. Mother dead. The Thing in the woods. The girls left alone and of course the fear of inescapable fate.

I am not going to say too much about this one.  Chances are I'll be up in a few hours anyway!
But I also don't want to spoil any of it.  If you have not seen this, please do.

This movie has Guillermo del Toro's name on it, but he acted as Executive Producer.  The director is Andrés Muschietti and I am expecting some big things from him in the future.

Tally: Watched 33,  New 29

What are you watching?

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What is Spellcraft & Swordplay?

One of the questions I have been getting a lot this week is "How does Spellcraft & Swordplay play" followed by "What is Spellcraft & Swordplay".

Spellcraft & Swordplay is Jason Vey's old school game based on the Original edition of Dungeons & Dragons.  It is a retro-clone, or more precisely a "near clone".

The feel of S&S is extremely old-school and when I played it with my son when it first came out it reminded me so much of OD&D that I wanted to make it my old-old-school game of choice.
You can read my original review here if you like. But there some things about it that I would like amend.
Just like you can't judge a game by reading it, you get a totally different perspective when you write something for it.  Somethings I now like more than I did then.

Here are some quick tips to help you learn about S&S.
- Saving throws are based abilities. So you can make a Dexterity save to avoid getting hit with something, or a Constitution save to avoid the effects of a poison.  Keep in mind S&S did this YEARS before it became the newest feature of D&D Next.
- The die mechanics are based on a 2d6, not a d20.  Need an 18 to hit something? Better hope you have pluses because you can only roll a natural 12 at best!  This makes everything grittier.  The 2d6 produces a near normal curve (ok a pyramid) so it means you will roll a lot of 7s and almost no 2s (snake eyes) or 12s (box cars).  This by the way was the original mechanic used in D&D, the d20 is the alternate method.

While there some differences S&S is one of those systems that become systemless after a while.  The focus is less on rolling dice and more on adventure and roll playing.  For that reason I find anything written for OD&D, Swords & Wizardry or Basic D&D can be translated and used in a snap.
In fact, as much as I enjoy Swords & Wizardry I find Spellcraft & Swordplay closer to OD&D in terms of game play and feel.

If you want to try out Spellcraft & Swordplay for free, there is a "Basic Set" available and a free character sheet.
If you like that then the Spellcraft & Swordplay rules can be had for cheap.

I even have some character write-ups if you like:
Asa Vajda
Dracula
Elizabeth Bathory (monster stats)
Hex (from Skylanders)
Red Sonja
Sir Gannon and Del The Necromancer
Xena & Gabrielle
Hope you enjoy this game as much as I do.

October Movie Challenge: Weekend round up

Bunch of movies under my belt this weekend.  Though all disappointed me or fell short.

The Witching (1993)
This one gets my vote as the worst movie I have seen this entire challenge.  And I was on a Jean Rollin kick.
Awful.  Going after the acting in this one is a cheap shot...but I am doing it anyway. The actors where not just terrible I have seen better work from High School plays.
The plot such as it is concerns a 300 year old witch locked away in Limbo with demons and her pet demon dog-rat "Scully".  The gate to Limbo opens up in this guy's refrigerator.   Some one really liked Ghostbusters.  It is listed as Comedy/Horror. It's neither.

R.I.P.D. (2013)
Another gate opening and dead things coming back.  This time it's sorta-cooked, but all dead cop played by Ryan Reynolds and even more dead "law man" played by Jeff Bridges.  Cliches all over the place. Kevin Bacon (who should know better).   The only performance I liked was from Mary Louise Parker.
If you have seen Men in Black then you have seen this one.

The Countess (2009)
This on the other hand was a very good film. Julie Delpy wrote, directed, starred and produced this bio-drama about Countess Erzsébet Báthory.  Everything about this movie was good, save for my expectations of it.  There was little to no blood, and no horror save for the psychological kind. The film even makes a credible case that all the stories of the "Blood Countess" were nothing more than rumor and political power plays.  Which could be true.  Or not.  The film still retains the infamous scene where a maid pulls Erzsébet's hair and the Countess strikes her so hard that she is covered in blood.  The countess proceeds to bleed her for her precious virgin blood.
There is no vampirism. No allusions to Dracula. This is a historical piece and frankly a nice change of pace.

Interestingly enough Julie Delpy was 39 when she made this movie.  Delphine Seyrig was also 39 when she played Báthory in Daughters of Darkness (Ingrid Pitt was 34 when she was in Countess Dracula).

I kind of hoped to finish up this weekend, but I feel I need to see a few more, just to make sure I saw enough real horror.

Tally: Watched 32,  New 28

What are you watching?

hosted by Krell Laboratories

Lazy Sunday

This is really more of Twitter post than a real blog posting.

Checking out blog posts from around the gaming blogs.

So much cool stuff going on!  Just great fun stuff.

More thoughts later, making more more coffee and reading more.

October Movie: The Coven (2002)

So I watched The Craft...er no wait. I watched a crappy little ripoff called The Coven last night.
Like The Craft it has four witches, one good, one bad and one shy and the other scarred.
The good witch is also the new girl and her arrival finishes the coven.

I could go on from there, but the movie was largely derivative, even more so than Little Witches.

Also not The Craft

Even bits taken from Charmed.  But to be fair Charmed was on for 8 years and they did a little bit of everything.

There are some interesting scenes (no not the extended sex scenes), and liked the character of Spence. She was one of the more interesting characters even if she didn't really contribute much to the plot other than to die. Spoilers? yeah not like you were going to watch this one.

The whole Christians vs. Witches thing was more funny than anything.  Imagine every stereotype and it is there somewhere.  So much so I almost have believe that that the writers knew what they were doing.

The special effects, such as they are, are terrible.  I could write it off as a student film and get some enjoyment there, but it was filmed in 3D, so there is some money in this just not in the right places.

The outtakes at the end were funny.

Still though. Bad movie.

Tally: Watched 29,  New 25

What are you watching?

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My RPG Person Profile

This was cooked up by +Zak Smith over at his blog Playing D&D With Porn Stars.
It's a pretty cool idea really. I have seen a few others (linked below) so I figure I throw in my 2cents.

I'm currently running (at home):  D&D 3.5 Epic level game and AD&D 1st Ed start up

Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (at home) include: See above.

I'm currently running (online): nothing

Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (online) include: Pathfinder

I would especially like to play/run: Basic D&D, WitchCraft, Mutants & Masterminds, Monster Hearts, Vampire the Masquerade, any version of Mage, Call of Cthulhu (any ed), Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space.

...but would also try: Feng Shui, Victoria, Victoriana 3rd Ed.

I live in: The NW Burbs of Chicago

2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like:  AD&D 1st Ed, WitchCraft, Chill

2 or 3 novels I like: Dracula, Lord of the Rings, most horror

2 or 3 movies I like:  Too many to name.  Most all horror, especially horror from the 70s.

Best place to find me on-line: Everywhere. Facebook, email, my blog Google+

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: Horror or Victorian

I really do not want to hear about: Nothing. I am pretty much open to everything.

I think dead orc babies are ( circle one: funny / problematic / ....well, ok, it's complicated because....): Depends on the game. In D&D they are usually collateral damage, in ShadowRun they are a plot point, in Orkworld they are a campaign about taking their souls back to wherever John Wick thinks Ork souls come from.

Game I'm in are like (link to something): Little guy or Anti-hero taking back the world from the grips of evil.  Plenty of monsters and over the top action, metal music and roots deep in the 80s  Or Trippy weird, gothy magical stuff or Sword & Sorcery with a bit of tongue in cheek humor, also with roots deep in the 80s.

Free RPG Content I made for OSR and Unisystem are available here on my Downloads page.
Also the Ghosts of Albion Quick Start Rules.

You can buy RPG stuff I made at DriveThruRPG, Amazon or at your FLGS

• Liber Bestarius (d20)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG (Cinematic Unisystem)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Slayer's Hanbook (Cinematic Unisystem)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Magic Box (Cinematic Unisystem)
• Ghosts of Albion (Cinematic Unisystem)
• The Witch (Basic Era OSR)
• Eldritch Witchery (Spellcraft & Swordplay) 
• Dr. Challenger's Guide (Gaslight RPG) Coming Soon
• Darwin's Guide to Creatures (Gaslight RPG) Coming Soon

If you know anything about Dragons it'd help me with a project I'm working on

I talk about RPGs on mostly my blog and Facebook under the name Timothy S. Brannan or Tim Brannan. You  can find me on some forums (RPG.net) and going back to the Usenet under the name Web Warlock.

• My Blog
• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
• DeviantArt
• My reviews at DriveThruRPG
• My reviews at RPG.Net
• My RPG Bio at LeGrog (in French)

I've Been Blitzed!

My recent post on the release of Eldritch Witchery is getting Blized by the Blog Blitz Team!

I have participated in all the Blog Blitzes before and it has been a great way to visit new blogs that I might not otherwise know about.  Many thanks to DL Hammons for setting this up.

I plan to visit everyone's blog that leaves a post, so please also leave a link back to your own blogs.