I have some projects I need to get done today before I can truly celebrate Halloween this weekend.
Posting might drop off a bit in November as well. I have some projects that NEED to get done and something has to give a little.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Organizing via Diigo
Doing some research for my day job and I came across Diigo. It's a social bookmarking site that allows users to bookmark and share websites, pages, articles and so on. There is more to it than that, but I am just getting going on it.
I thought it might be fun to create a group where we could all share various OSR and RPG blogs and sites. There is very little RPG on Diigo so far (at least what I could find) so this would be helpful.
To that end I created a group and I am inviting everyone to join and link your sites or site you like.
Right now there is only me.
I am on a free account but I am likely to upgrade to a full professional account if this works half as nice as I hope. Once I do that then the group will have some more features.
I have added some blogs. Mostly those from my own blogroll starting from the bottom up, but I would love it if you all added your own and commented on the ones added. Just keep it nice, we are community here.
You can even add this to your own blog or website.
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://groups.diigo.com/user_mana/link_roll_data?group_name=OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites&icon=true&width=250&count=10&title=Group%20OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites's%20best%20content&tags=&token=03f4ad7c34cfe7a31674868e9a7499eb" ></script><noscript><a href="https://groups.diigo.com/group/OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites" >Group OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites's best content</a></noscript>
I know we have sites out there that list all of these blogs, but this is something we can all contribute to and help maintain.
Plus it is kind of fun.
Edited to add: I just discovered I can "auto-post" from Diigo to here. So as we add things an automated posting can go out say every Sunday.
I thought it might be fun to create a group where we could all share various OSR and RPG blogs and sites. There is very little RPG on Diigo so far (at least what I could find) so this would be helpful.
To that end I created a group and I am inviting everyone to join and link your sites or site you like.
Right now there is only me.
I am on a free account but I am likely to upgrade to a full professional account if this works half as nice as I hope. Once I do that then the group will have some more features.
I have added some blogs. Mostly those from my own blogroll starting from the bottom up, but I would love it if you all added your own and commented on the ones added. Just keep it nice, we are community here.
You can even add this to your own blog or website.
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://groups.diigo.com/user_mana/link_roll_data?group_name=OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites&icon=true&width=250&count=10&title=Group%20OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites's%20best%20content&tags=&token=03f4ad7c34cfe7a31674868e9a7499eb" ></script><noscript><a href="https://groups.diigo.com/group/OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites" >Group OSR-Blogs-Groups-and-sites's best content</a></noscript>
I know we have sites out there that list all of these blogs, but this is something we can all contribute to and help maintain.
Plus it is kind of fun.
Edited to add: I just discovered I can "auto-post" from Diigo to here. So as we add things an automated posting can go out say every Sunday.
Endless Darkness vs. The Outer Darkness
No game this weekend. It's my son's birthday so he is taking over my game room this weekend.
This gives me some time to work on their next adventure (well, future adventure), the D series.
I have been re-reading the D series for a bit now. It's funny how when reading it today I have a really different perspective on things than when I was going through the adventure 30 years ago. That's not a surprise really, nor is how much of it I had forgotten. What is the surprise is how much of it I remembered. Not from reading it or even the printed page, but what my characters were doing at the time.
I remembered how much I HATE Blibdoolpoolp.
Not the goddess herself actually, but the deception. 20 foot tall nude human with a lobster head? Why would Kuo-toa worship something that looked so different than themselves? Well the answer was obvious even to my then pre-teen and teenaged mind. It was an excuse to draw a naked woman.
Now generally speaking I don't have a problem with this, but I would like to think I am a bit more sophisticated today.
Since Kuo-toa are supposed to be stand-ins for Deep Ones anyway, why not go all the way and use Mother Hydra instead of Blibdoolpoolp. I can keep all the same names, Kuo-toa are a more "fishy" offshoot of the Deep Ones and they call their Goddess Blibdoolpoolp instead of Mother Hydra, but they are the same thing. She would become one of those things that is a mix of demon, goddess and what those things are from the outer darkness of Lovecraft's mind.
vs. 
I have been adding more "Lovecraft" to this adventure series anyway. Castle Amber was already very steeped in the mythos of Clark Ashton Smith. I have a bunch of Yithan minis now too. Plus I have wanted to bring the Mind Flayers closer to their Lovecraftian step-fathers. So in this sense it all works out. I also have all of these books at home with the monster stats; Deities and Demigods, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Realms of Crawling Chaos and what I call neo-Mythos books like the Teratic Tome.
My kids are really into reading about the mythos, but not the actual stories yet. My oldest doesn't read horror and my youngest is working his way up to Lovecraft now.
Ok. For the record, I know there is so much more to Lovecraft than the Mythos. But that is the part I want to use here.
I am not planning on bringing in the big C himself. But I can see Dagon showing up sometime.
In any case it is going to be a lot of fun.
This gives me some time to work on their next adventure (well, future adventure), the D series.
I have been re-reading the D series for a bit now. It's funny how when reading it today I have a really different perspective on things than when I was going through the adventure 30 years ago. That's not a surprise really, nor is how much of it I had forgotten. What is the surprise is how much of it I remembered. Not from reading it or even the printed page, but what my characters were doing at the time.
I remembered how much I HATE Blibdoolpoolp.
Not the goddess herself actually, but the deception. 20 foot tall nude human with a lobster head? Why would Kuo-toa worship something that looked so different than themselves? Well the answer was obvious even to my then pre-teen and teenaged mind. It was an excuse to draw a naked woman.
Now generally speaking I don't have a problem with this, but I would like to think I am a bit more sophisticated today.
Since Kuo-toa are supposed to be stand-ins for Deep Ones anyway, why not go all the way and use Mother Hydra instead of Blibdoolpoolp. I can keep all the same names, Kuo-toa are a more "fishy" offshoot of the Deep Ones and they call their Goddess Blibdoolpoolp instead of Mother Hydra, but they are the same thing. She would become one of those things that is a mix of demon, goddess and what those things are from the outer darkness of Lovecraft's mind.
vs. 
I have been adding more "Lovecraft" to this adventure series anyway. Castle Amber was already very steeped in the mythos of Clark Ashton Smith. I have a bunch of Yithan minis now too. Plus I have wanted to bring the Mind Flayers closer to their Lovecraftian step-fathers. So in this sense it all works out. I also have all of these books at home with the monster stats; Deities and Demigods, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Realms of Crawling Chaos and what I call neo-Mythos books like the Teratic Tome.
My kids are really into reading about the mythos, but not the actual stories yet. My oldest doesn't read horror and my youngest is working his way up to Lovecraft now.
Ok. For the record, I know there is so much more to Lovecraft than the Mythos. But that is the part I want to use here.
I am not planning on bringing in the big C himself. But I can see Dagon showing up sometime.
In any case it is going to be a lot of fun.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Class Struggles: The Warlock
There have been a number of warlock classes, but unlike the wizard, fighter, cleric or even thief, everyone has had their own take on what a warlock should be.
I have talked about the warlock as a class, distinct from the witch, in the past.
I do like keeping my warlocks separate from my witches in terms of class. In my mind they are just too different. Similar yes, but still very different. I would allow any warlock to use the same spell list as a witch unless there was a good reason not to do it.
I think the first ever warlock class I ever saw was the "Warlocks: A New Magic-User Sub Class" by Anthony Barnstone in The Dungeoneer #16. It had some great spells, "Pentacle of Fire", "Aura of the Occult", "Curse of the Bloody Revenge" to name a few. This was certainly meant to be an evil character class to play, not just as an NPC. Interestingly enough this the same issue that featured the mystic class. I have to admit it was one of the things that made me like the Dungeoneer magazine. It didn't treat it's audience like little kids.
To my knowledge, there has never been a warlock class in the pages of Dragon magazine. I know there was not one in the pages of White Dwarf.
The Arcanum and Bard Games had a witch/warlock class, making them the same thing. I am not a fan of that really.
In my mind the witch and the warlock began as the same class, but the warlocks broke off from the witches sometime in the ancient past. Either warlocks wanted to become more like wizards and mages OR they were responsible for the first wizards.
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea has a great Warlock class. It is a sub-class of the fighter but calls upon dark powers to give them some magical power and spells. Mor to the point I like how the warlock and the witch are very different sorts of classes.
The AS&SH warlock is something more akin to a swordmage. We see something similar in D&D4 Essentials Hexblade. In general I liked the D&D4 Warlock. They were a class that wanted quick access to power and none of the work that Wizards had to do. That was a fine role-playing excuse, but not something that played out in the rules. Warlocks gained powers just like the Wizards did and had no more or no less requirements.
There is a Warlock I created in Eldritch Witchery. It is a type of Wizard really. I liken it to "Wizard Grad School" to be honest. They use the same spells as the witch and gain a few extra powers.
The Warlocks in Fantastic Heroes & Witchery are another sort. It is a chaos aligned wizard and has a lot of the same features really. It uses the same xp per level tables, same HD and same spell progressions. The FHW Warlock does gain some power, similar in many ways to my own witch, but at a cost. On the surface this doesn't make it much different than a wizard, with a different selection of spells. What makes this class, and really this book, different are the selection of spells (the book has 666) and the additional rules for acquiring magic and casting spells. Adding this material makes the Warlock a much more interesting character.
The Pact-Bound in Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is another warlock-like class. Again the idea here is a class that takes a quick path to power for a price, usually to an other-worldly power.
There is a similar one in the pages of the ACKS Player's Companion. Again the nice thing with this book is that the witch and warlock are separated.
In the 3e era we have a couple of "warlocks". There is a warlock in the Complete Arcane and the witch in Pathfinder, which always felt more like a warlock to me. Just staying focused on 3e we have a warlock class from WotC and a witch class for Pathfinder. For 4e there were also very different witch and warlock classes. 5e only has a warlock.
In the case of the official D&D warlock, he is less of a spell caster and more a raw magical power wielder. His pacts give him this power.
The question becomes one of whether the warlock should have spells or just weid raw magical power and thus have "blasts". I am torn myself. I like the warlock to have access to spells to be honest, the idea is these guys have sold their souls for power, but the "blasty" warlock really isn't all that powerful compared to a "spelly" warlock or wizard.
A good example of what I call a "blasty warlock" is Jeremy Reaban's The OSR Warlock. Like his Witch Hunter book this book has a number of nice features in addition to the class. The class does not cast spells, it does have lot of special powers. This is by design and owning to the stated OGC and pulp sources. The warlock here does get some spell like abilities in place of powers. It actually works rather nicely What I think makes this book special is the level advancement tables for "First Edition", "Original Edition", "Basic/Expert" and "Cyclopedic Edition". Plus the author has a section of notes on the class.
I have to admit one of my favorite "warlock" books and one that captures the Pulp Era warlock well is Green Ronin's "Warriors & Warlocks" book. Yes it is for their superhero game Mutants and Masterminds (2.0 version) but it was my goto guide for a proper pulp warlock will AS&SH came out, and it is still a lot of fun.
I am certain I have missed some here. Let me know in the comments below!
I have talked about the warlock as a class, distinct from the witch, in the past.
I do like keeping my warlocks separate from my witches in terms of class. In my mind they are just too different. Similar yes, but still very different. I would allow any warlock to use the same spell list as a witch unless there was a good reason not to do it.
I think the first ever warlock class I ever saw was the "Warlocks: A New Magic-User Sub Class" by Anthony Barnstone in The Dungeoneer #16. It had some great spells, "Pentacle of Fire", "Aura of the Occult", "Curse of the Bloody Revenge" to name a few. This was certainly meant to be an evil character class to play, not just as an NPC. Interestingly enough this the same issue that featured the mystic class. I have to admit it was one of the things that made me like the Dungeoneer magazine. It didn't treat it's audience like little kids.
To my knowledge, there has never been a warlock class in the pages of Dragon magazine. I know there was not one in the pages of White Dwarf.
The Arcanum and Bard Games had a witch/warlock class, making them the same thing. I am not a fan of that really.
In my mind the witch and the warlock began as the same class, but the warlocks broke off from the witches sometime in the ancient past. Either warlocks wanted to become more like wizards and mages OR they were responsible for the first wizards.
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea has a great Warlock class. It is a sub-class of the fighter but calls upon dark powers to give them some magical power and spells. Mor to the point I like how the warlock and the witch are very different sorts of classes.
There is a Warlock I created in Eldritch Witchery. It is a type of Wizard really. I liken it to "Wizard Grad School" to be honest. They use the same spells as the witch and gain a few extra powers.
The Warlocks in Fantastic Heroes & Witchery are another sort. It is a chaos aligned wizard and has a lot of the same features really. It uses the same xp per level tables, same HD and same spell progressions. The FHW Warlock does gain some power, similar in many ways to my own witch, but at a cost. On the surface this doesn't make it much different than a wizard, with a different selection of spells. What makes this class, and really this book, different are the selection of spells (the book has 666) and the additional rules for acquiring magic and casting spells. Adding this material makes the Warlock a much more interesting character.
The Pact-Bound in Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is another warlock-like class. Again the idea here is a class that takes a quick path to power for a price, usually to an other-worldly power.
There is a similar one in the pages of the ACKS Player's Companion. Again the nice thing with this book is that the witch and warlock are separated.
In the 3e era we have a couple of "warlocks". There is a warlock in the Complete Arcane and the witch in Pathfinder, which always felt more like a warlock to me. Just staying focused on 3e we have a warlock class from WotC and a witch class for Pathfinder. For 4e there were also very different witch and warlock classes. 5e only has a warlock.
In the case of the official D&D warlock, he is less of a spell caster and more a raw magical power wielder. His pacts give him this power.
The question becomes one of whether the warlock should have spells or just weid raw magical power and thus have "blasts". I am torn myself. I like the warlock to have access to spells to be honest, the idea is these guys have sold their souls for power, but the "blasty" warlock really isn't all that powerful compared to a "spelly" warlock or wizard.
A good example of what I call a "blasty warlock" is Jeremy Reaban's The OSR Warlock. Like his Witch Hunter book this book has a number of nice features in addition to the class. The class does not cast spells, it does have lot of special powers. This is by design and owning to the stated OGC and pulp sources. The warlock here does get some spell like abilities in place of powers. It actually works rather nicely What I think makes this book special is the level advancement tables for "First Edition", "Original Edition", "Basic/Expert" and "Cyclopedic Edition". Plus the author has a section of notes on the class.
I have to admit one of my favorite "warlock" books and one that captures the Pulp Era warlock well is Green Ronin's "Warriors & Warlocks" book. Yes it is for their superhero game Mutants and Masterminds (2.0 version) but it was my goto guide for a proper pulp warlock will AS&SH came out, and it is still a lot of fun.
I am certain I have missed some here. Let me know in the comments below!
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
October Movie Challenge: 1970s Collection
Women, Warlocks and Weirdos...
Here are few I have seen over the last week that I have not had the time to review properly yet.
All are 1970s flicks (with one exception) and most have to do with Satanism or the Occult. All of these have been on my "too watch" list for sometime.
La plus longue nuit du diable (1971)
Also known as "The Devil Walks at Midnight" and "The Succubus". A cursed woman returns to her father's home and proceeds to kill everyone seven deadly sins style long before "Se7en". She is described as a Succubus, but she seems to be a cursed woman. I saw this one originally on VHS many, many years ago. Right around the same time I first saw "Vampyres", so it had to be mid 80s. Been looking for it for years.
Status: Seen
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)
NOT part of the "Living Dead" movie franchise nor really about zombies. In truth it would not be Halloween if I didn't watch a Jesús Franco movie. He even appears in the cast as a weird servant that can only utter gibberish. I have to admit I enjoyed that. This movie actually has a little in common with my next two movies. A woman arrives at a castle in England after her father has died only to be drawn into her weird uncle's family of living dead. Like some of Franco's work it is surreal at times, but this was still a fun movie with some nice surprises.
Status: First Time View
Evil Heritage (1976)
Also know as "Satan's Slave". This time, the girl comes to her uncle's home and they are Satanists instead of the living dead. Yes her parents are both dead in this one too. This one features Micheal Gough as the evil uncle and a young Barbara Kellerman who will later play the White Witch of Narnia on the BBC. This one also has a nice twist on the ending.
Status: First Time View
Black Candles (1982)
Ok, not the 70s, but it does have that late 70s feel to it, though the hair and clothes are very much 1980. Stop me if you have heard this one before. A girl travels to England on the death of her...brother this time. Here she met by her sister-in-law who also happens to be the high priestess of a Satanic coven. Her boyfriend gets pulled in and well, wackiness ensues. I liked the ending of this movie the least. I am a little surprised what they got away with in this movie. Depictions of incest, bestiality...it makes the ritual killings look so passe.
Status: First Time View
Moral of the story here? If a family member dies and leaves you a castle...just sell it and keep the money instead.
Stats
26 Watched / 20 New
Here are few I have seen over the last week that I have not had the time to review properly yet.
All are 1970s flicks (with one exception) and most have to do with Satanism or the Occult. All of these have been on my "too watch" list for sometime.
La plus longue nuit du diable (1971)
Also known as "The Devil Walks at Midnight" and "The Succubus". A cursed woman returns to her father's home and proceeds to kill everyone seven deadly sins style long before "Se7en". She is described as a Succubus, but she seems to be a cursed woman. I saw this one originally on VHS many, many years ago. Right around the same time I first saw "Vampyres", so it had to be mid 80s. Been looking for it for years.
Status: Seen
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)
NOT part of the "Living Dead" movie franchise nor really about zombies. In truth it would not be Halloween if I didn't watch a Jesús Franco movie. He even appears in the cast as a weird servant that can only utter gibberish. I have to admit I enjoyed that. This movie actually has a little in common with my next two movies. A woman arrives at a castle in England after her father has died only to be drawn into her weird uncle's family of living dead. Like some of Franco's work it is surreal at times, but this was still a fun movie with some nice surprises.
Status: First Time View
Evil Heritage (1976)
Also know as "Satan's Slave". This time, the girl comes to her uncle's home and they are Satanists instead of the living dead. Yes her parents are both dead in this one too. This one features Micheal Gough as the evil uncle and a young Barbara Kellerman who will later play the White Witch of Narnia on the BBC. This one also has a nice twist on the ending.
Status: First Time View
Black Candles (1982)
Ok, not the 70s, but it does have that late 70s feel to it, though the hair and clothes are very much 1980. Stop me if you have heard this one before. A girl travels to England on the death of her...brother this time. Here she met by her sister-in-law who also happens to be the high priestess of a Satanic coven. Her boyfriend gets pulled in and well, wackiness ensues. I liked the ending of this movie the least. I am a little surprised what they got away with in this movie. Depictions of incest, bestiality...it makes the ritual killings look so passe.
Status: First Time View
Moral of the story here? If a family member dies and leaves you a castle...just sell it and keep the money instead.
Stats
26 Watched / 20 New
October Movie Challenge: Oculus (2013).
Think about it for a bit. Vampires avoid them. Many cultures cover them or turn them around during funerals. Witches use them to communicate or even pass through. Then there is whole Bloody Mary thing. So Oculus capitalizes on this fear with a scary mirror, two siblings and a warped sense of time with murders.
Karen Gillian drops her normal Scotish accent in favor of an American one in this thriller. She and her brother witnessed something horrible 11 years ago. So bad that we are not told at first, only that her brother, now 21, is just getting out of a mental facility.
Over the course of the movie we learn that their mom went crazy, their dad did too, shot their mother and then tried to kill the kids. Tim, the brother, believes it was because their father was having an affair and their mother caught them. Kaylie believes it is the mirror the family once owned and it is possessed. She runs down the list of all the previous owners and the deaths and tragedies that befell them. Kaylie also has elaborate systems put into place to watch the mirror and keep them safe.
But you know that will all fail.
It was fun seeing Karen Gillian in something very, very removed from Amy Pond.
The movie had a good creep factor to it and the "monster" looked really cool. I was not totally thrilled with the end, but it was also not a surprise to be honest.
It gave me some ideas to use for mirrors in an adventure I am working on.
Stats
22 Watched / 17 New
Monday, October 26, 2015
October Movie Challenge: The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Ok. So this movie is not going to win any awards. But it was still a lot of fun. I have been a Vin Diesel fan since Iron Giant. In this one, he gets to punch things, stab things and generally have a good time.
Vin Diesel is good as the eponymous witch hunter Kaulder. I guess "Melkior" was out of the question. Kaulder is the "no spells" type of Witch Hunter.
Rose Leslie is a lot of fun as "Dream walker" witch Chole and of course Micheal Caine is great in whatever he does. Elijah Wood was also fun to see in a role that goes against type.
Don't go into this movie with high expectations. Go into it know it is a Vin Diesel flick. Though from a gamer's point of view it is geek-worthy to know that he is basically playing his D&D character on screen.
Ok. What else did I like. The Witch Queen was really cool looking and I am happy they kept her "monstrous" rather than turning on the sexual charm.
The "witch bar" was really cool. A place where witches try out different potions and magical concoctions. That is something I could totally steal for my own games (but obviously not of publication).
I also liked the mirror-ish, flashy, "Witch eyes" from the movie. Basically this was so the audience could tell who was really a witch. In my games witches can always tell who is who. Some witch hunters can also learn this. There is the tacit assumption that witches in this world are a different species, much in the same manner as in Kim Harrison's "Hollows" books, Harry Potter and a lot of other media. Interestingly the movie contends that the Black Plauge was cooked up by witches to purge the Earth of humans. So like the Hollows, human diseases do not effect witches. There has to be diseases then that can infect witches that do not harm humans.
Even Kaulder's sword can be easily stated up. Here it is with some liberties taken.
"Hexenbane"
+1 Sword, +3 Flaming vs. Witches*
Hexenbane is normally a +1 magical sword but in the presence of witches, warlock or evil-aligned spell casters it becomes a +3 Flaming sword. Witches know this sword on sight and any witch below 5th level must save vs. Petrification (or Will or Wisdom) or act as if a fear spell has been cast on them.
I think I want to detail the Dream Walkers in another post.
Stats
21 Watched / 16 New
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