Friday Night Videos: Supernatural Collection

So my family and I binge watched Supernatural this past summer.  And by binge watched I mean just that. Nine Season on DVD/Blu-Ray all summer long.

I watched the show when it first came out but it freaked my wife out.  I kept up with it on my own for a bit, but that is hard to sustain really.  I followed the fandom more than the show itself after that. Had the RPG, sold it for something like $100 later on. Wish I had kept it though.

So my sister is really into the show and she let us borrow her season DVDs.  Well the rest was history.  My youngest loves it. Around Season 3 my wife REALLY got into it. Around Season 5 my oldest did too.  IT became our Summer Friday nights really.  Order pizza, watch Supernatural till past 11.  We only stopped for Gen Con.

Of course one of the best features of Supernatural is not just the good writing and characters that are likable and relatable, but also the music.

Sam: ...I swear man; you gotta update your cassette tape collection.
Dean: Why?
Sam: Well for one they are cassette tapes, and two— (Pulls out a few cassette tapes) Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It’s the greatest hits of mullet rock.
Dean: (Grabs a cassette from Sam and pops it in the player) House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole.

I can totally relate. Growing up on a steady diet of metal and classic rock it was what growing up in the midwest meant.  I know my wife and kids don't get that part like I do, but that is fine.  Besides my kids love the music.

The best thing?  The music of Supernatural already plays like my "Greatest Hits" anyway!

If I ever get around running Chill again each adventure/episode is going to be named for a different classic rock song and I'll play it before we play.  Cheesy? Maybe. But I like cheese.

AC/DC are pretty much the go-to band when one mentions classic rock, Supernatural and even gaming.  Back in the 80s when D&D was getting a bad rap, AC/DC was right there with us.
"Back in Black" was featured in the pilot episode and is appropriate for the storyline.  From the album of the same name it debuted in 1980 and was the first to feature new lead singer Brian Johnson.  In fact can usually tell the age of an AC/DC fan by whether or not they still refer to Brian Johnson as "new".




Rush has enough street cred with gamers that there is little need anymore for me to give my reasons for posting this.  But "Fly By Night" also from an album of the same name, has a little bit more than average.  It was featured in the Episode 2 of Season 1 of Supernatural. Ok. It was featured in episode 2 of the Dead Alewives skit on D&D with an elf singing "Fly by Night" while carrying Mt. Dew.
Flyby Night was also the song I was listening too in the weekend I had my very first overnight D&D session in 8th grade.  I also listened to it when I wrote the very first draft of the witch.




Another group that barely need justification is Blue Öyster Cult.  Many songs from BÖC have been a part of Supernatural, my gaming and geekdom in general.  I could go on and on about the level of importance that "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" has had to my games, but that song has not been in the show yet.  One song though stands out both in terms of Supernatural and in my gaming life.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was one of the first songs I ever heard from BÖC and band I associated with D&D from the earliest days.  It was also featured in Supernatural as a "theme" song for the Reapers, Angels of Death and psychopomps for souls.




CCR might not come to mind right away when thinking about RPGs or D&D but they are a staple of classic rock.  "Bad Moon Rising" has been used by me in any game that has a werewolf in it and I am certain I am not alone.  This song bridged Season 1 to Season 2.




"Hammer of the Gods...Valhalla I am coming..."  Was there ever a more D&D song than this?  Well...maybe "No Quarter", but either way it is Led Zeppelin. "Immigrant Song" has been played here before, buy like I said, just like the original Friday Night Videos, there will be repeats.




There are a lot of reason why Def Leppard needs to be included in this rather august group.  First, "Rock of Ages" was played in a very pivotal scene in Season 5 (and also in season 1).  Also Def Leppard was ALWAYS on MTV back in the days where we played D&D with MTV on in the background, hopping to get that one Iron Maiden song.  But also, and lets be honest.  Watch the video.  It's obvious they had no clue what the hell they were doing but who cares. Big swords. Big hair. Filmed in dungeon. Hooded cultists. A maiden playing chess with death.  This might not be the most 80s video out there.  But it is up there.




I don't recall if a Motörhead song actually appeared in the show or not.  I know Dean (or maybe Sam) used the alias of "Lemmy Kilmister"  but fuck it. Here is "Ace Of Spades".




"Carry on Wayward Son".  This song has been with me for so long.  I mentioned before I first heard it when I saw the movie Heroes, the Henry Winkler and Sally Field one.  Supernatural has really made this song their own.  This will feature in the season finale of what ever supernatural-like game I run.



Have not seen Season 10 yet.  Waiting for the Blu-Rays.

Kickstart Your Weekend - Castles & Crusades Mythos

I LOVE Castles & Crusades.  Really.  I love the game, the Troll Lord guys are great, and their books are all works of art.

I also love how C&C plays.  It really feels like AD&D 3rd edition to me. (NOT D&D 3e, but AD&D).

One of my favorite things about AD&D was using real world myths in my games.  Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes, Deities & Demigods, countless other books from other publishers...these were my go to books back in the day.

So I am really happy to see that this one is funded and doing well.

http://bit.ly/mythosks
Not one, but three new book from Brian N. Young who brought us the Codex Celtarum and the Codex Nordica.   This time we have books for German, Slavic and Classical Greek myths.  Sure to be excellent.

RPG a Day 2015, Day 14

Day 14: Favorite RPG Accessory

I have had a lot I have sworn by over the years.  Many of those are now forgotten.

But there is one that has had staying power due to it's utility.
Dice Trays.

When you game with little kids two things tend to happen with dice.  They get lost and rolls get fudged.  It is what it is.

With these all rolls are made in the open and dice are not rolled off the table.

Plus my oldest son loves dice made from metal and those things will destroy a table top.
These trays have been great.

RPG a Day 2015, Day 13

Day 13: Favorite RPG Podcast

Hmm. Ok. I don't really listen to a lot RPG Podcasts...or podcasts in general.

I do like Dr. Lewis "Lew" Pulsipher's Youtube channel  +Game Design which is audio only so it could be a podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHWWViIuBsOrSm2HXeBj2kA

Check it out!

Class Struggles & PWWO: The Blood Witch

Yesterday I reviewed the newest book from +Johua De Santo New Class Options.  One of the classes in the book, the Blood Witch, struck me as familiar.  I remembered I had seen an earlier version of it in Dungeon Crawl #3.  Today I want to go into a bit more detail about this class.

Class Struggles

The class is an old archetype of a blood mage or a blood witch going all the way back to ... well forever really.  Right up into the Enlightenment people believed that there were magical properties to blood.   This is why "witches" signed contracts with the devil in their own blood.

There have been other blood witches in the past. Notablly the Blood Witch Prestige class from Relics & Rituals and from Mongoose's Ultimate Prestige Classes vol. 1. Both books have the same class.  Blood Witches used whatever spells they gained from their previous spell casting class.

The Blood Witch in New Class Options is a bit similar. It uses magic-user spells.  This is perfectly fine really, but some new spells would add some more flavor.

I was looking forward to this class the most and I still think it works well, but I have some issues with it.  Let's start at the top.

The Blood Witch uses Constitution as her main stat.  Very, very appropriate.
She needs a Con of 13 or higher. Again appropriate.  Constitution scores above 16 also grant an additional +1 to hit points.  Nice. She is going to need that.

Then we get to the next bit, quoting from the text.

Shattered Soul: Every day the Blood Witch has a 60% chance of losing herself in the song of magic. If this occurs the Witch  will be able to cast 1 level above her level, however, she cannot know what is real or delusion.

Ok. A neat bit a of flavor.  But 60% every day? That seems a bit high and then she can cast as a level higher?  Well sometimes that helps.  But who makes this roll the GM or the player?  Personally I would have it at 25% myself.  Or tie it to the phases of the moon or time of day.   THEN also a 25% where she can cast as a level lower.  I GET what is trying to be done here, but I would need to play it over a few sessions to see.

Here is the part I am not crazy about.  The Blood Witch needs to roll against her Constitution in order to cast spells.  So the high her Con score, the less of chance she has of success.  Again, from the text.

The first is that the Blood Witch must roll her constitution score + the spell level or higher in order to cast her spells. If the Blood Witch fails her spell roll the spell is swept away in the song of the magic and will not return to her for a day. The second is that for every spell cast the Blood Witch must sacrifice 1 + spell level of her health in order for the spell to be effective. If the Blood Witch refuses to make the sacrifice the spell and 1d4 other spells will be swept away in the song of magic for a two day period.

Ok. So mechanically I get what Johua is trying to do here. I also spoke with him. It is to limit the amount of spells a witch can use. Since a witch can use theoretically ANY spell once she gets to the right level.   In some ways her spell casting is more similar to the witch in +Jonathan Becker's The Complete B/X Adventurer than it is to anything else.
So a witch with a 16 Constitution could only cast spells up to 4th level, unless of course a 20 allways means a success.

I think what might work better here is limit the number of spells known.  The blood witch might be able to cast this she completely out of blood (not advised) but maybe she only knows X per level.  Like the 3rd Edition Sorcerer.  This would impose a limiting factor.
Then give her a bonus to her roll equal to her level.

So our Blood Witch with 16 Con and 5th level would need a 15 or better to cast a 4th level spell (16 + 4 -5 =15).   That seems to work well.

The experience levels for Blood Witch seem a bit high, granted this class has the potential for a lot of power.  I'd still like to play one sometime just to be sure.

Somethings you see in the the myths and stories of blood magic is sacrifice (which is covered here as personal sacrifice) and proxies.  So could this blood witch use an animal sacrifice for some spells?  I think where appropriate yes.  Proxies could be things like the animal but also proxies for blood itself, like purified water (possibly for healing spells if you use one of the witch spell lists) or even wine (blood of the vine).  Personally I would allow such proxies for some of the more benign or even mundane spells.

The Blood Witch is any interesting type of character and something that could add a air of different to a game. A Blood Witch doesn't have to be an evil character, but it not likely she is going to be trusted by a party and certainly looked down on by other casters especially proper wizards.

Plays Well With Others

The best thing about the Blood Witch is that fits a great niche in any gaming group or campaign. It also works with a number of great OSR books.  Obviously the blood witch will work mechanically with 99% of all the OSR and old-school books out there, the real question is will it work thematically.  For example, the blood witch would work fantastic with Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but thematically it might be a bit redundant since all magic-users are assumed to have some sort of dark(-ish) pact.

I already mentioned The Complete B/X Adventurer. The witch class as presented in that book works as a great base for the Blood Witch.  Combine the two classes into one works rather nicely.  The B/X Witch has spells up to 10th level which is nice, but the New Class Options Witch only goes to 7.

I mentioned that the Blood Witch is really missing some really cool spells. The Vivimancer from +Gavin Norman's Theorems & Thaumaturgy and Complete Vivimancer offer some really nice choices.   I created  a few for both my witch and the vivimancer here.  In particular I would suggest Blood Augury, Feel My Pain, Share My Pain, Stay Death's Hand, and of course Hell Hath No Fury because every witch needs that spell.

A while back I made some suggestions about witch spells for the vivimancer and vivimancer spells for the with.  The nice thing is the blood witch is perfect cross section of both classes and can use all these spells.

The blood witch also works great with +Jeff Talanian's Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.  The style and type of magic used by the blood witch would be very much in tune with AS&SH.  Sacrificing blood for magical effects...yeah very much in tune.  There are also plenty of great witch spells in that book as well.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my own book, The Witch: A sourcebook for Basic Edition fantasy games.  I am going to have to play a Blood Witch sometime, but I also think I want to try her out as Blood Witch "Tradition" using my own rules and see how well they work together.  Maybe twins...same level but one is a DeSanto Blood Witch while the other is a Brannan one.  Interesting idea really.

If you are in the mind to some conversions, there is a great set of blood magic rules and spells in +Owen Stephens' magnum opus Deep Magic for Pathfinder.  The blood magic system in that book could work nicely for a blood witch as well as a blood mage.

Again this passes the most basic test for a class for me.  Can I think of a character for it and would I play it.

Kimbra & Kelleigh

Kimbra and Kelleigh are twin sisters with magic deep in their blood.  They often have said to each other that it is because they have shared blood that their ties to each other and magic was so strong.
Though in their darker moments they felt their connection to magic and to blood came from the moment they were born. Kelleigh was first.  Right after her birth their mother died. Kimbra was born when the midwife noticed that there was still someone in the lifeless body.  To this day Kelleigh has had a great connection to blood and Kimbra to death.  Kelleigh acts as the older sister.  The sisters only trust each other.

Luis-Salas

These are two characters I have had for a while now.  They began as modern characters for a WitchCraft RPG game and then morphed in a life-span development project I never quite finished.
Yes, the names are based on Kim and Kelley Deal. But also an homage to Kim Harrison and Kelley Armstrong, two of my favorite authors in the modern supernatural genre.

Kelleigh 
5th level Blood Witch, Female
Neutral

Strength: 11
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 12
Charisma: 16

Hit Points:  24
AC: 9
Saves: 12,  +2 vs. Magic
To Hit: +1  / THAC0: 19

Spells:
Kimbra can cast the follow spell levels.  Will choose spells based on the official list.
First: all
Second: 4
Third: 6
Fourth: 3
Fifth: 6
Sixth*: 1


Kimbra
5th level Witch, Blood Witch Tradition, Female
Neutral

Strength: 11
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 12
Charisma: 16

Hit Points:  16
AC: 7

Occult Powers
Familiar: Blood Spirit of her dead mother (treat as a ghost, neutrally aligned)

Spells 
Cantrips: (5) Analyze Fertility, Detect Poison, Inflict Minor Wounds, Object Reading, Warm
First: (2+2) Bad Luck, Bewitch I, Cause Fear, Tattoo
Second: (2+2) Agony, ESP, Fever, Hold Person
Third: (1+1)  Bestow Curse, Lifeblood

I like these two. I like that they are twins and really mostly the same but have classes that are different takes on the same thing.

I would not make these two part of the Witches' Nest.  I feel their back story is too tragic and their personalities are not one to take advantage of others.   Though they will have a place in my new WIP "West Haven", mentioned briefly here.

When I try this class out more I will let you all know.

RPG a Day 2015, Day 12

Day 12: Favorite RPG Illustration

Why do I have to choose!

Actually this one it pretty easy. I love the cover for WitchCraft by George Vasilakos at Eden Studios.
I just love it.

Review: New Class Options

Picked up +Johua De Santo's New Class Options the other day and wanted to spend some time with it.

I love new classes, I love trying them out, taking them apart and seeing what makes them tick.  I also like thinking of potential characters to use with the new classes.  So grabbing this product was a no brainer for me.  Plus, I will admit I am a fan of Kaitlynn Pealer's art, so that attracted my attention right away.

The book is overtly for Swords & Wizardry Core rules, but it can be adapted to any old-school game. The book is 24 pages, 3 are cover, table of contents and the OGL.  So 21 pages of solid content.
There are nine classes and one "Advanced Class Option".  There is no unifying theme to the classes, save for maybe a rough fae or celt theme.

First up is the Blood Witch which is a reprint/revision/update of a class the author did for Dungeon Crawl #3.  The class is an alternate take on the magic user.  This one, naturally, uses blood to power her magic. A very classic archetype. Equally naturally this one uses Constitution as the primary stat.
The blood witch has higher hit die (d6) and needs more experience than the stock magic-user.
The casting of spells required the expenditure of blood (again naturally) in the form of HP.  Good thing she has a higher HD.    One of the problems I see with this class is that the blood witch needs to roll higher than her Con + Spell level.  So a Blood witch with the minimum Constitution (13) needs a roll of 20 (on a d20 presumably) to cast a 7th level spell.  So her most powerful spells have only a 5% chance of working.  In any case the blood is spent.   So does have access to potentially every spell in the book, but this limiting factor seems to be too much really.

I am going to go into the Blood Witch in more detail tomorrow.

The Chesh are next. These are a race of cat-girl-like fae creatures.  They have a some interesting abilities and would work very well in a game that has other faerie races in it or one if you want to get younger kids to play.  They have some magical abilities based on music, though most of the abilities are support in nature.

The Forrester is akin to a archer-like ranger.  Not as powerful as say the stock Ranger of AD&D but within the limits of S&W.

The Highlander is a somewhat romanticized version of a celtic themed barbarian.   The barbarian  rage ability is replaced by a fury ability which is like a super cleave.  You can attack another victim if you kill the first. Though this one can be up to 12 feet away.

The Mermaid of the In-Land Sea is interesting.  It's a mermaid, which is neat choice, but there was nothing here about how long she can live away from water.  Maybe to keep the rough theme here they could be renamed to "Merrows".

The Mythwood Elf is actually very interesting.  These are elves that look forever young and can summon up various elemental spirits.  There is a list of the domains (Earth, Water, Air...) and what they can summon and do.

The Pixie. Pretty much what it says on the tin!  Play a pixie. Actually a lot going on for this little thing.

The Prodigal is sorta like a traveling jack of trades.  They pick up companions, spells, knowledge and some thieving skills.   Actually a very, very workable class.

The Ruca is a dog-like humanoid character.  Again a workable character and certainly more of a role-playing challenge than a game rules one.

The last class is for "Advanced" games, ie games where class and race are seperate.

The Draken-Knight and their companion the Drake are dragon riding, or drake riding, knights.
The class has some odd experience point requirements.  In fact it acts more like a "Prestige Class" for AD&D 1st ed than anything else, much like the Thief-Acrobat.  The idea is you start out as a fighter till 5th level then you can switch over to Draken Knight.  Not a bad plan really.  Also reminds me of the old Knights in the Dragonlance books.

All in all this is a good book. Each class had something that felt a little off to me, but the proof is not in the reading, but in the playing.  It passes my basic test when reading classes; would I play a character of that class?  The answer was typically yes.