Zatannurday: Videos

Been on YouTube a lot lately; listening to music, watching a lot of videos of a lot of topics. It's been fun.

I found a few Zatanna videos out there. If you need some more information on the character then these are worth a watch.  Yeah some are a bit annoying, but hey you get what you pay for.

First up is a nice history of Zee from ItsSuperEffective.




Next is a topic that gets a lot of coverage. Well it does if you are me.
Who would win in a fight, Zatanna or Scarlet Witch?  ComicBookCast2 asks.




I loved seeing all the various Zatanna's on the Animated DC universes.  Here is a nice little guide to all her voice actresses.




I never watched Smallville, save for a couple of episodes, but here is Zee's introduction on that show.




There are some more. But this is a good batch.

Friday Night Videos: Steampunk Videos

Welcome once again to Friday Night Videos!

To celebrate the newest member of the Victorian / Steampunk RPG gaming community I thought some Victorian Chap-hop was in order.

Of course I love Victorian games of all sorts. Just love the time period and the endless possibilities.  You can have adventure, science, magic, occultism, spiritualism and the entire world is both at your fingertips and still large and mysterious at the same time.

So let's open it up with some good old Professor E!

+Professor Elemental donning his Fighting Trousers.




Professor Elemental might be the first name you think of when it comes to Victorian era chap hop but he is not the only one.   So just like Biggie had Tupac, the good Professor has Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer.





I am not sure how one can describe Abney Park.  They are steampunk yes. But in more of a Forgotten Futures sort of way.  They have their own RPG, Airship Pirates which comes to us from the same people that brought us Victoriana. In fact it even uses the same system as Victoriana 2nd Edition.



+Lindsey Stirling might not be the first name you think of when it comes to Steampunk music, but her Roundtable Rival certainly has the right look and feel to it.  Plus Lindsey has upped her own geek street cred by providing a song for the Dragon Age soundtrack.  So there is that.
So here is the girl that my friend Cal refers to as a "magical musical pixie" or how I think a Ghosts of Albion Occult Musician would look.  Frankly I think she is amazing.



And lastly tonight back to the good Professor to remind us that we can all enjoy different things, but we are all in it together.  One of the reasons why many of us in the Victorian RPG community get along so well with each other.  We all enjoy each other's games and talk about our favorite bits.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Victorious

I was going to cut back on these, but this is very much a Peanut Butter and Chocolate situation for me.

Victorious is the newest RPG from the Troll Lords.
It is a Victorian Era / Steampunk game using the SIEGE Engine system, the same that powers Castles & Crusades and Amazing Adventures.   So you can see why I am interested.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/victorious-the-role-playing-game

It should be 100% compatible with Amazing Adventures, but I won't know till I get it obviously.

I am certainly NOT in the market for a new game, let alone another Victorian Era one (I have them all), but damn if it's not attractive.

This being Troll Lords they were funded long before I ever saw the page.  I have supported them well in the past and I am on the fence on this one.  Yes I am going to buy it, that isn't even a question.  I just think this time I might wait and give my FLGS the money instead.

I am going to keep an eye on it for what ever bonus levels and features they add.

Skylla: D&D 4th Edition

For a while now I have wanted to see how the various spellcasters of D&D4th edition would stack up.  In particular the Witch (Wizard) vs. the Warlock.  Also I having just done this with Skylla for D&D 5 I thought it would be good to see how the 4th Ed Witch would work out.

For this conversion I am doing it completely by hand. No character builder what so ever.
My sources are:

• Player's Handbook, for Wizard and Warlock
• Player's Option: Heroes of the Feywild, for the Witch
• Arcane Power, for additional powers for the Wizard and Warlock

I have to admit that these (Feywild and Arcane Power) are two of my most favorite D&D books.  One day I want to run an adventure series, maybe small, set completely in the Feywild or Faerie Lands and use D&D4 for it.  I think it would be fantastic.

In this case however I think I am going to find that the Witch build (based on the Wizard) is going to be closer to what I want.  Though I am willing to be surprised.

In this case since so many of the ability scores are expected to rise I started her slightly lower than her Basic D&D counterpart and raised score by the rules.  She did end up with a greater score in Intelligence.  While getting high for a Basic D&D character this actually puts her on the "low average" side of a D&D4 character.

Skylla, level 7
Human, Wizard (Witch)
Moon Coven Option: Dark Moon Coven
Dark Apprenticeship (+2 to Intimidate)

ABILITY SCORES
STR 9 (+2)
CON 10 (+3)
DEX 11 (+3)
INT 17 (+6)
WIS 12 (+4)
CHA 11 (+3)

AC: 16 Fort: 14 Ref: 17 Will: 17
HP: 49 Bloodied: 24 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 12

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +14, Dungeoneering +9, History +11, Insight +9, Intimidate +10, Nature +9

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +3, Athletics +2, Bluff +5, Diplomacy +3, Endurance +3, Heal +4, Perception +4, Religion +6, Stealth +5, Streetwise +3, Thievery +3

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack, Staff  +2
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack, Dagger (thrown) +3

CANTRIPS
Chameleon's Mask

AT-WILL
Magic Missile
Ray of Frost
Witch Bolt

ENCOUNTER
Dread Presence
Color Spray
Lightning Bolt

DAILY
Acid Arrow
Sleep
Bigby's Icy Grasp
Web

UTILITY
Feather Fall
Dimension Door
Invisibility
Shield

FEATS
Arcane Familiar (Dragonling), Action Surge, Toughness, Skill Focus (Arcana), Ritual Caster, Arcane Reserves

ITEMS
Battle Staff +1 x1
Delver's Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +1 x1
Cloak of Resistance +1 x1
Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing)
Adventurer's Kit
Staff Implement x1

While going through this I am very sure what the Warlock class would give me.  Skylla is a seeker of knowledge so a pact with a demon or vestige might work, but the spells are rather different.
Still. I could see it working.

This build shows again how powerful the 4e characters are vs other editions.  Skylla here has 14 spells she can use at least once per day, often more.  I have always said that D&D4 characters are about 2-3 levels in power compared to a same "name" level character of other editions.
5e really scales this back.

Compare the stats above to her BECMI, Pathfinder and 5th Edition D&D versions.

I like this witch class, just not sure if it works as well as I want here.

In case I forgot them, here are some more links about Skylla and her proposed appearance in the classic Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon.
http://www.dungeonsdragonscartoon.com/2009/08/yugol-and-curse-of-stone.html
http://www.dungeonsdragonscartoon.com/2009/08/skylla.html

The A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal

I am participating in this year A to Z Blogging challenge again.

While the challenge for me is not to post every day, I already do that, but to post with the proper subject letter AND to stick to my theme.

The theme reveal this year will be on March 23.   Come back and see what I choose...although I have not been very secretive about it.

You can see what others are doing as well. If you are interested in doing the challenge (and I would suggest you try it at least once) and thinking of a theme the head on over to the sign up list.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2015/02/the-great-and-powerful-to-z-theme.html

Even if you don't sign up for the Theme Reveal, you can see what others are doing in time to sign up for the A to Z yourself.

White Dwarf Wednesday: Games Workshop History

I know, sort of a cheesy way to use my supposed retired weekly feature.  But a couple of things came up in the past week to make it seem worthwhile.

First up is Part 1 of a History of Games Workshop. It also covers the same time I spent discussing White Dwarf here.  From Unplugged Games.
http://www.unpluggedgames.co.uk/2015/02/13/games-workshop-the-inside-story-part-one/

Honestly it is a fascinating read and gave me some insight to what I was reading "between the lines" in White Dwarf.

Ian and Steve

The map of Ian Livinstone's first dungeon just begs to be used somewhere.

There is some great anecdotes here too. For example they had a bigger issue with the cover of White Dwarf #44 than I did.

And then from ENWorld, a posting about how the first ever Games Workshop store is now going to be demolished.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2344-First-Ever-GAMES-WORKSHOP-Store-Is-Being-Demolished#.VOSN6vnF_ZQ

Opening day in 1978

And today

While Games Workshop went into new directions around the end of my reviews, I still enjoy all the fun and wonder those early days gave me.

President's Day Gaming - Converting to 5e from 3.x

Had yesterday off so wanted to spend the day doing some gaming.

My boys wanted to play our 5e game, but we were a player down, so I suggested we wrap up our 3e game.  That didn't go over as well to be honest.
Both boys said they were burned out on 3e and everything took so long compared to 5e.  I reminded them that their 3e characters are nearing Epic levels and all combats will take forever at that level.

So long story short, we all decided to convert the 3e game to something else.  I was pushing pretty hard for 1st Ed but the boys wanted 5th ed.  I cant say that I blame them really.

Converting adventures is easy. I do that on the fly 90% of the time anyway.  Converting characters is a bit more involved.  The group's wizard converted fine. For the paladin/dragon-rider we went with a straight paladin.  The rogue/ranger/sorcerer/arcane archer required me to get more creative. In 5e the character became a rogue (arcane trickster)/ranger (hunter).  I let him take spells from the sorcerer list or the druid list where appropriate for the character concept and what he had been able to do in the past.

My 3.e Witch GMPC was more difficult.  I started out by converting her to a Warlock with a pact of the Tome feature.  This gives me access to more spells.  I then took the Magic Initiate feat and the Ritual Caster feat to gain some extra spells.  I like it, but I am not 100% happy with it.

It occurs to me that that old 2nd Ed Witch Kit and the 4th Ed Witch "sub" class might be good starting points for what a 5th ed witch might look like using the wizard as a base.

I compared the Wizard and Warlock in form of Skylla for 5th a while back.  With her I Was happier with the Wizard build even though the Warlock build had some interesting things going for it.

It is worth a little extra research.  I am NOT in the market to build a 5e Witch class right now.  I still have other commitments to finish.  Plus I enjoy playing 5e and not necessarily having to play and play-test with the same game.

Besides I think I would like to see some other people's take on a witch class.