Class Struggles & PWWO: The Intergalactic Rogue

The Scoundrel. The Rogue. The Thief.  If you are going to have a galaxy full of Knights, law-enforcement or otherwise protectors of the public trust and law and order then it behoves someone to give all those people work to do.

This is where the rogue comes in.

It doesn't matter how advanced we get as a society there will always be the fringe element that does not want to play by the rules, either as a lovable, if "scruffy" scoundrel or the actually evil thief.

By chance I picked up a number of print copies of some OSR books. I grabbed hardcovers of White Star from +James Spahn, Between Star & Void by +Matthew Skail and a softcover of the B/X Rogue from +Gavin Norman.

One of the first things I noticed was how well the Star Knights might work as a Green Lantern like police force.  And that the galaxy needed more rogues.

Thankfully Gavin Norman's B/X Rogue is so flexible that we can swap out the bits that make it B/X (sorry) and add in the same bits from Swords & Wizardry.  In truth it is not even that complicated.
In the B/X Rogue all the "Thief Abilities" have been replaced by "Rogue Talents".  You start with 4 and  work up to more.   Talents have a high margin of success, only failing under rare circumstances.  So that makes the Rogue into something more versatile.

Magic Talents are an issue and should be taken out.  But I mentioned before that +Richard LeBlanc's Basic Psionics Handbook can be used to add some of wild talents for rogue talents to create a rogue with some power.  Maybe they are a failed mystic, Knight or Sister but still have some powers.

I would also assume that anything like pick locks would extend to their futuristic White Star analogues.   Same with pick pockets.  Instead of actually taking money out of their pocket the rogue has a device that captures transaction codes and allows them to steal credits.

While our model of a classic rogue is often The Grey Mouser, Shadowspawn and even Bilbo our White Star rogue is Han Solo (to a degree), Neo (at the start of the Matrix), mostly James "Slippery Jim" Bolivar DiGriz from "The Stainless Steel Rat" series, Peter "Starlord" Quill (movie version at least), and 90% of the patrons of the Mos Eisley Cantina...I assume.

Now we have a Scoundrel class already which fits some of this thanks to Tenkar.  But the rogue is something a little different.  This now practically begs someone to build a Bounty Hunter class ala "Cowboy Bebop".

Plays Well With Others
A total cheat on my part here.  Both White Star and the B/X Rogue are so flexible that feats of Game Master legerdemain  are not needed here.
There are some features of the B/X Rogue though that make it more suited for White Star than saw the thief from S&W.  This allows for differences in Starlord and the Stainless Steel Rat.

Actually this gives me an interesting idea, but that is for another post.

Mail Call, Part 2

When it rains it pours around here!

Look what else was in my mail box today.

A collection of Basic Psionics books from +Richard LeBlanc including a sticker and a pin.

Alpha Blue and Liberation of the Demon Slayer from +Venger Satanis!

Looks great with the batch I got on Saturday.

Now to come up with something that ties all these together!

Though I do want to point out that the Basic Psionics and White Star books have been BEGGING me to mix them up into something different.  I already talked about how well the B/X Rogue and the Psionics books work together.

Dawning of the Age of Aquarius

By some calculations today, January 19th is the day that the Sun enters the constellation of Aquarius.  So it seems like an astronomically good time to make this announcement.

I am proud to announce my next book.  I give to you, The Sisters of the Aquarian Order for the White Star RPG.

(maybe not the final cover, but close)

Coming in February 2016.

This book will detail the Sisterhood of the Aquarian Order from their early, pre-historical roots to the present day and their uncertain future.  It will cover their roles in the White Star game, their goals and motivations, The Capricorn Heresies, and of course, their near-mystical Rituals and the mystery of the Gestalt.  

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I have had working on it.

The Return of Strahd

The news is finally out, Ravenloft is coming back.
I have known about this for a while now from multiple reliable sources but obviously could not say anything.

Curse of Strahd is the next campaign for D&D 5.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/return-ravenloft

http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/curse-strahd

So yeah...I am REALLY excited about it.

I just hope that Barovia is not relocated to the Forgotten Realms. We all know it is from Mystara!

But in any case this looks great and I can't wait till March 5th!  (Yeah I get new releases 10 days early).

Mail Call!

Look what came in the mail yesterday!

Hardcovers of White Star from +James Spahn, Between Star & Void by +Matthew Skail and a softcover of the B/X Rogue from +Gavin Norman.

They all look great and since they came in at the same time I am thinking a Plays Well With Others is in order.

Zatannurday: Happy New Year

Not quite ready to put the wraps on this one just yet...

I have a few more posts yet to do.



Winter Zatanna by AaronNSN on DeviantArt


Zatanna by gintrax13 on DeviantArt


Call it magic by CharlieRobin on DeviantArt


Namtab Nrut ot Tibbar - flat by kurt5494 on DeviantArt


Zatanna By Petervale by petervale on DeviantArt


Zatanna Zatara by Layeyes on DeviantArt


Zatanna Wand by Dan-DeMille on DeviantArt


Zatanna's Bunny by Mary-Margret on DeviantArt


Zatanna by irvintustin on DeviantArt


Zatanna Zatara - Cosplay II by Jacilia on DeviantArt


London Super Comicon 2015 18 - Zatanna by cosmicnut on DeviantArt


Zatanna Mistress of Magic by Agr1on on DeviantArt


Zatanna Jk19 by RaffaeleMarinetti on DeviantArt

Friday Night Videos: Women Rock!, Part 2.

A while back I posted a bunch of videos from women that rock.
It was quite popular.

I said then that a part 2 was in order.  So here it is!



K's Choice wis a band from Belgium that had some notoriety in the mid to late 90s.  The biggest album was 1995's Paradise in Me which gave us the hit "Not An Addict". This was a huge song for me during my Sojourn in Hell period, for what should be obvious reasons.  My biggest issue with K's Choice is that for years I swore they were Canadian.   This is the European version of the video which I prefer.




Speaking of the 90s, no one, and I mean no one, does angry like Tori Amos.  Don't think so?  Listen to her lyrics sometime, especially songs like "Me and A Gun", "Pass the Mission", "Spark" and "Cornflake Girl" or to a lesser degree "Crucify".  Taylor Swift sings about someone and it is fodder for Twitter. Tori Amos sings about someone and it is Primal Scream Therapy.
Though the song that always gets me is the first time I saw her.  "Silent All These Year" from the phenomenal Little Earthquakes.

My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think there's a heaven
Where some screams have gone

Never fails to get to me.




I am not all about pathos.  Last time I mentioned my love of Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees.  That is still true. But I was thinking back to the first song I ever heard of theirs.  Without a doubt it has to be "Cities in Dust".  I remember hearing this all the time in the hey of MTV. I actually sat down to listen to the lyrics once and realized it was about Volcano Day.




At this point do I really need to explain why I am including Stevie Nicks?  No. Ok good.  But I will add that this is my favorite song from the fantastic The Other Side of the Mirror.  This is a more adult and more mature Stevie.  This is a woman that knows who she is and where life is going.  At 31 she was more interesting than the "Wild Heart" girl of her early to mid 20s.




Last time I also mentioned Joan Jett, but I really need to give a shout out to the band that gave us Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Cherie Currie, The Runaways.  The Runaways have been given their due more lately. There was the bio-pic in 2010 and appearances of their signature song "Cherry Bomb" in both Lollipop Chainsaw and Guardians of the Galaxy.   The version from the movie is not too bad, but lacks something raw that original had in droves.




Taylor Momsen may have gotten her start as "Cindi Lou Who" but thankfully for all of us she sold her soul to darkness.  Just kidding...mostly.  Well years later she is fronting the band Pretty Reckless and she seems to be constantly trying to shed that wholesome image.  She is, in some sense, the spiritual successor to The Runaways.   She looks like Cherie Curry and tries to sing like Joan Jett.  She isn't bad and the band has some good songs.  "Heaven Knows" might be the most recognizable.




So who are your favorites?