First Blog Challenge of the Year - Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

I read a lot of books all year round.  I have them on my phone, on my tablet, I listen to them in my car. I have even been known to pick up an honest to goodness dead-tree paperback or hardcover.

So a reading challenge is right up my alley really.  What makes it even better is this challenge is made up of "Witch" books.

http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/2015-witches-witchcraft-reading-challenge-sign-up-post/

It should be fun. And as always as a "value add" for my own readers I will translate what I can into game terms.

So. Time to start gathering up some books!

Edited to add:
Here is my first book for the Challenge!
http://www.amazon.com/Witches-Echo-Park-Amber-Benson-ebook/dp/B00ISEOLZU/

New Year, New Game 2015

It's a new year and DriveThruRPG is running their New Year, New Game sale for 2015.

There some great games here all at 15% off.  Many I have talked about here in the past.

Here are some of my top choices.

• Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road
• Amaranthine: Romance, Vendetta, Forever
• Basic Roleplaying
• BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) 3rd Edition
• Calidar, In Stranger Skies
• Call of Cthulhu
• Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks
• Colonial Gothic: Rulebook Second Edition
• Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG
• Exalted Second Edition
• Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG
• ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying: The Assembled Edition
• Legend
• Meddling Kids
• Mythic Britain
• OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game (the new version)
• QAGS Second Edition
• Rise of the Drow
• THE SECRET FIRE Roleplaying Game
• Sex, Lies and Ultraspies
• Silver Age Sentinels Standard Tri-Stat Edition
• Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
• Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition
• The Victory System: Core Rulebook
• Victoriana 3rd Edition
• Weird Adventures

So lots of great choices here and even more on the site.
Do yourself a favor and try something new.

Plans for 2015

So what are your gaming plans for 2015?

Personally I want to get more gaming in with my 5e group.  We have been having a great time and it has been a blast.

Get my Kickstarter projects done before +Erik Tenkar features me on his blog!

Maybe get some other smaller things out too.  I have a Healer class for the OSR that I have kicked around and used for a number of years.

I have some ideas for some AD&D 1st ed / OSRIC / LL AEC material.  But my current joy is 5e, so who knows really.  I do know that there is still demand for old-school material.

For my blogging I want to wrap up the last couple of issues of Owl & Weasel.
Not sure if I want to pick up another magazine to go through or not.  I have all these copies of Imagine and a few others.  I have some Challenge mags, not a full set, all issues of Pegasus (I think).  But not sure if there is any demand really.  I enjoy them. There is a lot I get out of them.

Right now I don't have any other special features in the planning stages.

I would like to give a shout out to some more new blogs for "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading".  Have someone you want me to cover?  Send the link here.

I am going to cut WAY back on the Kickstarters.  Both supporting and posting about them.  I have been burned a lot recently with things I have backed.

More reviews of course. More goings on in my own games.  More blatant self-promotion.


Let's bring on 2015!

On the Road to Averoigne

So over the weekend my D&D5 group completed the castle portion of Castle Amber and the adventurers have entered Averoigne.  They are currently taking a long rest before heading out to find the four items they need to return home.

So far this adventure has been fantastic.  I forgot how much fun X2 was, both as a player and as a DM.

I am still playing around with the 5e rules.  I might use the option that makes healing more like AD&D, but so far I still very happy with how things go.

Story wise I have been dropping hints of the "Oncoming Darkness" with both the ghouls and the Brain Collector/Neh-Thalggu mentioning it.   Once they complete their quest here typically they are brought back to their own world.  Instead I am going to have them go directly to Ravenloft via the mists and defeat Strahd.  In both adventures they get items necessary for them to survive the adventures to come.

I am going to try out this Ravenloft I6 D&D 5 conversion I found here.
Ravenloft is one of my favorite adventures and I am really looking forward to it.

I still need them to come up with a name for their group.

Zatannurday: Happy New Year!

It's 2015!  Happy New Year!





Take a Bow Girls by Atlas0 on DeviantArt


zatanna -new year card by J-Estacado on DeviantArt


NEW YEAR CARD -SUPERHEROINES VERSION by J-Estacado on DeviantArt


Happy New Year everyone!! :D by Ivy95 on DeviantArt

A Witch Class for 5e

Brian McDaniel has created a new witch class for 5e D&D and I am going to give it a spin.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?401243-Witch-Class

It has some really nice features.  It is not a one to one conversion of any of my witches, though my Basic Witch is listed as an inspiration (among a bunch of other witches).

I thought I had heard that we were eventually going to get a "witch" build for the wizard class in 5e.  I have not really thought much about it or even considered making a 5e witch myself.  I am too busy with my new Pathfinder and Castles & Crusades witch right now.
Maybe in a year or so.  I like to play the game a while before I rework classes for it.

But this one is a great class to try out.  Not sure how it will play yet, but I think I will introduce it in my next free session.

Happy New Year!

Happy New 2015 everyone!

First game of the new year is tomorrow.