Today is heads down editing. I have three projects that I need to get to editors/publishers.
Back tomorrow!
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Class Struggles: The Dark Druid
I am have a great time here planning out my "War of the Witch Queens" adventures. My 5th Ed game is running like a well oiled machine and there is nothing I need to plan for it for many more months (I need a high level adventure to cap it off).
This week I finally got a copy of an adventure I have been wanting forever; Dark Druids by Robert J. Kuntz. It is a real treat and worth the wait and money I paid for it.
I had been researching Irish myths and legends and read about how Liath, Bodhmall, and Finn defeated an enemy known as the Dark Druid. It was quite a fascinating tale and I loved the idea of an evil druid.
I want to talk today about the Dark Druid class, but first a little background.
Many years ago I wrote an adventure for the Buffy RPG called The Dark Druid. Actually it was the first ever published Buffy adventure. The adventure was a Willow and Tara focused adventure dealing with their past lives, Liath and Bodhmall, Finn MacCool and the Dark Druid "Fer Dorich".
The idea was compelling enough that Irish author Brian O'Sullivan took the same characters and same myths and put his own spin on them in his books the Fionn MacCumhail series. Like I did he has Liath and Bodhmall as lovers and he even has a Dark Druid, a "Tainted One". I bring this up because HIS Dark Druid is much cooler than mine. Mine is simply evil. His is a perversion of nature. In gamer circles we might want to describe this in terms of undeath or even Cthulhoid like nastiness. O'Sullivan is better than that. His Tainted One radiates a level of "wrongness" that it is noticed my Ban-drui Bodhmall from miles away and even puts fear into the legendarily fearless Liath.
(BTW get his books. They are great!)
Back to my Dark Druid for a bit. The adventure was designed to be a modern tale (thus the Buffy) system. Part 2 took place in Victorian times as Ghosts of Albion: Blight. The main enemy was an unnamed necromancer that is imprisoned in a faerie ring. In publishing it was the necromancer, Lord of Dragons from Ghosts of Albion: Embers. In my personal games it was the same Dark Druid.
Part 3 was supposed to take place back in Mythic Éire and deal with Liath, Bodhmall, and Finn defeating the Dark Druid for the first time. Three parts separated by time. Part 3 was going to be called "All Souls Night" (after the Loreena McKennitt song). It would have been for *D&D-ish and included the new classes the Dark Druid and the Green Knight. I did write bits of of it for 3.0 and the Dark Druid and Green Knight live on as Prestige Classes (but I am not going to talk about those today).
I was going to release it, but now I don't have too.
Brian Young gave us the wonderful Codex Celtarum and the adventure Night of the Spirits for Castles & Crusades. Night of the Spirits does pretty EVERYTHING I wanted to do with All Souls Night. It even has a Dark Druid.
Dark Druids is a similar adventure. I am not reviewing the adventure yet, but I do want to talk about the class it offers; The Dark Druid.
The class is like the Druid of AD&D source; only this time OSRIC. It can be any evil alignment or Chaotic Neutral. This has some logic to it. The book includes the Dark Druid class and two different sects of Dark Druids. Dark Druids eschew hierarchies so there are no "high priests" but many that might claim that title. There are "Dread Hierophants", but that really can be more about power than actual religious hierarchies. Advancement wise they are like Druids. The only thing I didn't care for was that the Dark Druids are controlled by a demon. I would think that they are controlled by something older and more evil. An Eodemon or Urdemon or even some other horror from beyond; something outside of reality. The book also comes with 42 new spells. I did not see an OGL statement with any of this.
Given all this The Dark Druid would also make for a great class in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
I would avoid giving the Dark Druid too many necromantic spells. Sure he can have some, but that is not their role. Some of the vivimancer spells from the Complete Vivimancer are a good choice. Obviously there are some good witch spells as well.
There is a lot of potential for a class concept like this.
This week I finally got a copy of an adventure I have been wanting forever; Dark Druids by Robert J. Kuntz. It is a real treat and worth the wait and money I paid for it.
I want to talk today about the Dark Druid class, but first a little background.
Many years ago I wrote an adventure for the Buffy RPG called The Dark Druid. Actually it was the first ever published Buffy adventure. The adventure was a Willow and Tara focused adventure dealing with their past lives, Liath and Bodhmall, Finn MacCool and the Dark Druid "Fer Dorich".
The idea was compelling enough that Irish author Brian O'Sullivan took the same characters and same myths and put his own spin on them in his books the Fionn MacCumhail series. Like I did he has Liath and Bodhmall as lovers and he even has a Dark Druid, a "Tainted One". I bring this up because HIS Dark Druid is much cooler than mine. Mine is simply evil. His is a perversion of nature. In gamer circles we might want to describe this in terms of undeath or even Cthulhoid like nastiness. O'Sullivan is better than that. His Tainted One radiates a level of "wrongness" that it is noticed my Ban-drui Bodhmall from miles away and even puts fear into the legendarily fearless Liath.
(BTW get his books. They are great!)
Back to my Dark Druid for a bit. The adventure was designed to be a modern tale (thus the Buffy) system. Part 2 took place in Victorian times as Ghosts of Albion: Blight. The main enemy was an unnamed necromancer that is imprisoned in a faerie ring. In publishing it was the necromancer, Lord of Dragons from Ghosts of Albion: Embers. In my personal games it was the same Dark Druid.
Part 3 was supposed to take place back in Mythic Éire and deal with Liath, Bodhmall, and Finn defeating the Dark Druid for the first time. Three parts separated by time. Part 3 was going to be called "All Souls Night" (after the Loreena McKennitt song). It would have been for *D&D-ish and included the new classes the Dark Druid and the Green Knight. I did write bits of of it for 3.0 and the Dark Druid and Green Knight live on as Prestige Classes (but I am not going to talk about those today).
I was going to release it, but now I don't have too.
Brian Young gave us the wonderful Codex Celtarum and the adventure Night of the Spirits for Castles & Crusades. Night of the Spirits does pretty EVERYTHING I wanted to do with All Souls Night. It even has a Dark Druid.
The class is like the Druid of AD&D source; only this time OSRIC. It can be any evil alignment or Chaotic Neutral. This has some logic to it. The book includes the Dark Druid class and two different sects of Dark Druids. Dark Druids eschew hierarchies so there are no "high priests" but many that might claim that title. There are "Dread Hierophants", but that really can be more about power than actual religious hierarchies. Advancement wise they are like Druids. The only thing I didn't care for was that the Dark Druids are controlled by a demon. I would think that they are controlled by something older and more evil. An Eodemon or Urdemon or even some other horror from beyond; something outside of reality. The book also comes with 42 new spells. I did not see an OGL statement with any of this.
Given all this The Dark Druid would also make for a great class in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
I would avoid giving the Dark Druid too many necromantic spells. Sure he can have some, but that is not their role. Some of the vivimancer spells from the Complete Vivimancer are a good choice. Obviously there are some good witch spells as well.
There is a lot of potential for a class concept like this.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Demons Run...
Picked up the latest D&D5 adventure Out of the Abyss this weekend. Part of their whole Rage of the Demons.
I am not planning on running this but there are a lot of cool ideas in it. Heck it was worth it for me just for the D&D5 stats of the various demon lords.
There is a lot of similarities between this and the GDQ series, which is good for me. Since I am still planning on running GDQ with my kids this all fits nicely. The events of this module are what is going on in the Forgotten Realms while over in my little corner of the multiverse Lolth, Camatoz and *maybe* Orcus are doing their thing.
Time for good men and good women to go to war.
I am not planning on running this but there are a lot of cool ideas in it. Heck it was worth it for me just for the D&D5 stats of the various demon lords.
There is a lot of similarities between this and the GDQ series, which is good for me. Since I am still planning on running GDQ with my kids this all fits nicely. The events of this module are what is going on in the Forgotten Realms while over in my little corner of the multiverse Lolth, Camatoz and *maybe* Orcus are doing their thing.
Time for good men and good women to go to war.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Friday Night Videos: Iron Maiden, Part 2
I figured since they have a new video, album and tour coming up it was time for that Part 2.
They cool thing about Maiden having new material out is the number of people that I have seen excited about it. The cross-over with the people that I know who are all old-school gamers is both a little expected and cool at the same time.
Plus I am planning on some Amazing Adventures this weekend and Iron Maiden IS the official band of Amazing Adventures. Ok, not really. But they should be.
Let's start off with their newest "Speed of Light". The video is an homage to all sorts of video games and styles from the last 4 decades. Even if you don't like Maiden this is a cool video.
"Run to the Hills" is one of my favorite Maiden songs. Another great from Maiden's golden age of Number of the Beast. I have not seen this particular video for it before.
"Holy Smoke" is a fun video. Plus it is a great message that rang pretty clear to a young atheist. From No Prayer for the Dying.
1984. We played D&D while outside the world inched closer and closer to nuclear armageddon. Maiden knew this even while tried to ignore it. "2 Minutes to Midnight" from Powerslave reminded us everytime we played it.
Ever play a fighter? Ever play one in 1983? I bet this song came up at least one or twice. "The Trooper" from Piece of Mind.
I mentioned it last time but "Wasted Years" is one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs. So imagine my delight when I find an all girl cover band The Iron Maidens doing a killer cover of Wasted Years.
Irons Up ladies, cause you fucking rock!
Kickstart Your Weekend: What THIS is REALLY about
So I like to support smaller game companies or lines on Kickstarter and I like letting you all know about them.
In the end THIS is what it is all about.
My recent haul from the Amazing Adventures Kickstarter from Troll Lords.
Iwant need to do something with this soon.
Just so much fun.
In the end THIS is what it is all about.
My recent haul from the Amazing Adventures Kickstarter from Troll Lords.
I
Just so much fun.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Class Struggles: The Halfling Classes
Welcome back to Class Struggles. Today I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of focusing on one class or product I wanted to focus on a general theme of classes.
The theme this time is halflings.
I often find that halflings don't get a lot of respect. Maybe it is the size or the fact that they are all universally depicted as home-bodies. In any case a lot of us owe our gaming career to halflings, or at least one in particular; Bilbo.
If you were like me you discovered Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit around the same time as D&D and RPGs. I think we owe the humble halfling a little better. Thankfully I am not the only one.
To start with lets look over to +Richard LeBlanc at Save Vs. Dragon and a product that is not even out yet. The Halfling Warslinger is a D&D Basic/Expert class that will appear in his CX1 Character Class Codex. The Warslinger is an alteration of the basic halfling class. This one focuses more on the halfling weapon of choice, the sling. Now while there are some very obvious David-and-Goliath imagery going on here there is also plenty of flavor text to really make this class it's own thing. Not only that but it also makes sense with a community of halflings. The sling taking the place of the yew bow and arrow of Medieval England. The art that accompanies the write up makes it very easy to imagine an army of halflings all armed with slings. It makes for a compelling picture.
I have also spent a lot of time with Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. This book includes a couple of different halfling classes. The Folk-Champion and the Scout. The Folk-Champion is described as something akin to the halfling knight in shinning armor. Like the Warslinger, this class gets benefits from using slings, but this class is also more than that. They also can boost the morale (and some rolls) of their allies and have a bit of luck on their sides. Folk Hero would be another good way to describe them. The Scout is the halfling ranger and thief mixed into one. Though more ranger than thief. They also have some proficiencies with the sling, but they are also adept to hiding in shadows.
These characters, like all the characters in FH&W can advanced to 14th level. The scout also has a Legend Lore ability as well, which I thought was very cool. It makes it difficult not to imagine the Shire being patrolled by scouts but the villages protected by Folk-Champions and Warslingers.
Next we have not only the archetype treasure finder but also from a guy that I think might be a hobbit himself. The Burglar from +James Spahn's Barrel Rider Games should invoke images of halflings stealing treasure from dragons. Personally, James is my go to guy when it comes to hobbits/halflings. Not only does he have this but he is doing some work with Cubicle 7 on the One Ring game. That is pretty close to being an expert in this field as you can get. So it goes without saying that his burglar class (more so than any of his other classes) really captures the feel of a new class. Yes..yes you can argue it is nothing more than a reskinned thief, but there is more here than that. I refered to this class as BRG's signature class. I still stand behind that. Plus you have to like a class where the artwork looks like John Belushi with mutton-chops.
There are few more in his Class Compendium book as well, but this one is my favorite.
There have been others books of course, the old 2nd Ed The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings had the kits. In that my favorite was easily the Halfling Whistler, a Bard kit that could be reskinned as a Basic/LL class.
I also presented rules/guidelines for the Halfling Herb Woman, their version of the Witch class.
It is great to see so many choices for halflings. I think someone now needs to come up with a magic system that is unique to them. Maybe something associated with singing or music.
The theme this time is halflings.
I often find that halflings don't get a lot of respect. Maybe it is the size or the fact that they are all universally depicted as home-bodies. In any case a lot of us owe our gaming career to halflings, or at least one in particular; Bilbo.
If you were like me you discovered Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit around the same time as D&D and RPGs. I think we owe the humble halfling a little better. Thankfully I am not the only one.
To start with lets look over to +Richard LeBlanc at Save Vs. Dragon and a product that is not even out yet. The Halfling Warslinger is a D&D Basic/Expert class that will appear in his CX1 Character Class Codex. The Warslinger is an alteration of the basic halfling class. This one focuses more on the halfling weapon of choice, the sling. Now while there are some very obvious David-and-Goliath imagery going on here there is also plenty of flavor text to really make this class it's own thing. Not only that but it also makes sense with a community of halflings. The sling taking the place of the yew bow and arrow of Medieval England. The art that accompanies the write up makes it very easy to imagine an army of halflings all armed with slings. It makes for a compelling picture.
I have also spent a lot of time with Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. This book includes a couple of different halfling classes. The Folk-Champion and the Scout. The Folk-Champion is described as something akin to the halfling knight in shinning armor. Like the Warslinger, this class gets benefits from using slings, but this class is also more than that. They also can boost the morale (and some rolls) of their allies and have a bit of luck on their sides. Folk Hero would be another good way to describe them. The Scout is the halfling ranger and thief mixed into one. Though more ranger than thief. They also have some proficiencies with the sling, but they are also adept to hiding in shadows.
These characters, like all the characters in FH&W can advanced to 14th level. The scout also has a Legend Lore ability as well, which I thought was very cool. It makes it difficult not to imagine the Shire being patrolled by scouts but the villages protected by Folk-Champions and Warslingers.
Next we have not only the archetype treasure finder but also from a guy that I think might be a hobbit himself. The Burglar from +James Spahn's Barrel Rider Games should invoke images of halflings stealing treasure from dragons. Personally, James is my go to guy when it comes to hobbits/halflings. Not only does he have this but he is doing some work with Cubicle 7 on the One Ring game. That is pretty close to being an expert in this field as you can get. So it goes without saying that his burglar class (more so than any of his other classes) really captures the feel of a new class. Yes..yes you can argue it is nothing more than a reskinned thief, but there is more here than that. I refered to this class as BRG's signature class. I still stand behind that. Plus you have to like a class where the artwork looks like John Belushi with mutton-chops.
There are few more in his Class Compendium book as well, but this one is my favorite.
There have been others books of course, the old 2nd Ed The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings had the kits. In that my favorite was easily the Halfling Whistler, a Bard kit that could be reskinned as a Basic/LL class.
I also presented rules/guidelines for the Halfling Herb Woman, their version of the Witch class.
It is great to see so many choices for halflings. I think someone now needs to come up with a magic system that is unique to them. Maybe something associated with singing or music.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Rage...Across the Multiverse.
Wizards of the Coast is pulling out the stops for it's new Rage of the Demons campaign and I have to admit I am rather excited about it myself.
There is a lot going on here. Including the new Out of Abyss book and Rage of the Demons minis.
Though how is any of this going to affect the Order of the Platinum Dragon? Simple. This is a multiversal event. While all that stuff is going on in the Realms and the Sword Coast, over here in my world we are still running through what I call the "Great Greyhawk Campaign" in my campaign of the Endless Darkness.
The two campaigns are obviously linked. I'll adapt bits and pieces from the Rage of Demons to put into my campaign.
I am excited to see Demogorgon in this and the mindflayers. Mindflayers working with Orcus, that is like custom made for my games.
There is a lot going on here. Including the new Out of Abyss book and Rage of the Demons minis.
Though how is any of this going to affect the Order of the Platinum Dragon? Simple. This is a multiversal event. While all that stuff is going on in the Realms and the Sword Coast, over here in my world we are still running through what I call the "Great Greyhawk Campaign" in my campaign of the Endless Darkness.
The two campaigns are obviously linked. I'll adapt bits and pieces from the Rage of Demons to put into my campaign.
I am excited to see Demogorgon in this and the mindflayers. Mindflayers working with Orcus, that is like custom made for my games.
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