Monday, February 25, 2019

Monstrous Monday: The Social Justice Witch

File Under: Well...it was only a matter of time really.

EDITED TO ADD: Check out Justin Ryan Isaac's version for Vigilante City.

This is for those guys on Reddit who seem to be easily irritated at what I post!

Alexandria  Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force: New Party Who Dis?
Thought I might do something a little different for my Monstrous Monday.  This is not really a monster in the classical sense but would make for a great NPC who battles injustice, the local patriarchy, or whatever mouthbreathing douches are in your game.

Plus I was inspired by these articles:
Here are some of the fun bits from the video.  Remember there are people that believe this is 100% true.
The good news about the midterm elections is that there is a great opportunity for evil to be exposed in the days and weeks to come,” he said. “It’s been widely publicized that there is a coven of witches that cast spells on President Trump 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This particular coven is found in the southern portion of New York City.”
...
“So, right in the middle of all of this, the southern district, in the middle of where these witches are doing the 24/7 spell-casting, we find the territory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Kubal added. “Her district is in the center of all of this going on. Is this a coincidence? Maybe … Is there an evil thread running through this area, trying to dispel diabolical power?”
So how about it.  Let's make a Social Justice Witch!

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
7th level Witch Aiséiligh Tradition
Lawful (Good)

Strength 12
Dexterity 15
Constitution 15
Intelligence 18
Wisdom 16
Charisma 18

hp: 32
THAC0: 17
Saving Throw: 9

Occult Powers
Familiar: Small blue bird named "Twitter".
1st level power: Healing Touch
7th level power: Immune to Fear

Spells
First (3): Feel My Pain, Glamour, Minor Fighting Prowess
Second (2): Burning Gaze, Mind Obscure
Third (2): Call Lightning, Witch Wail
Fourth (1): Instant Karma

Yeah, I like it.  Give them Hell AOC!

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Zatannurday: New DC Super Hero Girls Series

WHAT? A Zatannurday post??
Yes, it is and there is something cool coming.

Years ago we used to get an animated short, Super Best Friends Forever featuring Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wondergirl in crazy little adventures.  It was created by Lauren Faust, the same creative genius behind PowerPuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Creatures.

A little bit later a new multimedia merchandising line came out, DC Super Hero Girls. It featured books, toys and some animated shorts as well featuring a lot of DC's most famous superhero women, such as Supergirl, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, as well as Poison Ivy, Killer Frost, and Harley Quinn.

Well now DC has combined the two and Lauren Faust is once again in charge.
So premiering next month is the New DC Super Hero Girls Series.
The visual cues are DC Super Hero Girls, but the execution is Super Best Friends Forever.

Why am I posting this here, now and bringing Zatannurday out of retirement?  Well, take a guess.



Like I mentioned, the style is a nice mix of SBBF and Super Hero Girls.





You can get more information here:



Friday, February 22, 2019

Kickstart Your Weekend: Codex Egyptium

The next book in the Castles & Crusades Mythos Series is now being Kickstarted.

Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/castles-and-crusades-codex-aegyptus?ref=theotherside

If this book is half as researched as the others in the line then it will still be awesome.

Brian Young is a solid scholar in the true sense of the word but also a solid gamer. This will not be a dry treatise on 3,000 years of Egyptian history, but a living breathing game supplement to add the realm that pretty much gave birth to our modern ideas of magic.

Among the other options is a chance to get the book that started it all, Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum.  I love this book and think it is something every C&C fan should have.

Some much great stuff for this one.

Still heading to the finishing line is Justin's Cade's Big Book o' Booze.

Cade's Big Book o' Booze
An alcohol-related zine for use with 5th edition fantasy.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1988380379/cades-big-book-o-booze?ref=theotherside

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Busy Week, But Nothing to Show For It!

Been a busy week here at The Other Side HQ.

Got a new project I am working on that I think is fantastic and I can't wait to get it out to you all. No spoilers yet.

It's also near term start for me and I had to completely rewrite an entire Biostats course from the inside out. Still, don't have my videos for it.

But not all is work over here.

My youngest son got some really nice accolades this morning in our annual Parent Teacher conference.


He got his gaming club off the ground and it's been running great! 

They are playing D&D 5th edition and some board games.  I plan on donating one of my copies of Dungeon! to the group.  Connor, my son, already bought enough dice with money he made for the entire group to all have their own set.

They have about 25 kids they are the most ethnically and gender diverse group I have ever seen.  Pretty cool really.  The state of the hobby could not be in better hands in my mind.

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

TBBYANR: The Wasted Lands

Whoa. A Best Blog You Are Not Reading post? 
Yes!  This is a feature I wanted to bring back for 2019 to give a shout out to some lesser know, lesser read blogs or at least ones people may not talk about much.

Today I want to feature a blog that has been around forever, out there doing his own thing.

Jason Vey runs the Wasted Lands blog


Now I have known Jason for years.  We worked at Eden together, worked on the Buffy RPG at the same time.  He playtested my Ghosts of Albion for Eden I playtested his All Flesh Must Be Eaten books for Eden.  I playtested his Spellcraft & Swordplay retro-game and many other games.
So we have been working together for nearly 20 years really.

Among other things Jason also is the author/designer of the Amazing Adventures game from Troll Lords and did a lot of work on various Castles & Crusades projects.  So he has a solid game design reputation and CV.

The Wasted Lands is his deep dive, scholarly work into older editions of D&D, in particular, OD&D and AD&D first edition

He covers a lot of OD&D topics.  In fact I bought my white box OD&D 5th printing off of him because he had an extra.
He covers AD&D First Edition, he is now up to Part 45 of his read through of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide.
And more recently he did a long series of posts on Psionics in the OD&D and AD&D games.

And today, much closer to our shared roots, he posted stats for the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for OD&D.

Jason is also something a legitimate Robert E. Howard and Conan scholar.

So do yourself a favor and check out his blog. Start with what I have linked above and don't ignore his Star Wars posts.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Monstrous Monday: Fiend Folio POD

More Old-School mail call from the weekend.  Two boxes from different printers for some Old School joy.


I will admit it, it's not a popular opinion, but I love the Fiend Folio.  I goes back to the time when I was just getting into AD&D and I equated everything British/English as being better than American. (In many ways I still think that!)

So imagine my delight when I saw that the Fiend Folio on DriveThruRPG was now offering a Print on Demand option.  So, of course, I had to get it.  It was soft cover only, but I thought it would work nicely next to my Games Workshop printing softcover Monster Manual.
I was not wrong.



Other than one is a hardcover and the other is a softcover it is very difficult to tell them apart.


Even the interiors compare well.



Compares well to the mini version out a few years back (I guess a "few" now means 20).

Around the same time I ordered this I found a mock-up of an "orange spine" version of the Fiend Folio made by R Nelson Bailey.

A little bit of Lulu legerdemain and I now have something from a parallel universe.


I didn't get the cover perfect, but that is fine really.




The interior of this one looks pretty good too.

My next project needs to be a Fiend Folio II.

Friday, February 15, 2019

Kickstart Your Weekend: Gods, Monsters and Superheroes

A couple of good ones today.

First up is a tactical miniatures game with some fantastic looking minis.

Theosis: Godslayer


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamcraftgames/theosis-godslayer?ref=theotherside

This one has some really awesome looking minis.  I know nothing about the game itself, but that is fine.  It looks cool.


Yes. That is a 120 mm base.






It looks fantastic and ending soon.

Also ending soon is a new supers game and I do love Supers games.

Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/sentinel-comics-the-roleplaying-game

This one looks really fun and I like the art. The game play looks pretty easy to pick up as well.

Want to see how it plays?  Grab the Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game Starter Kit on RPGNow/DrivThruRPG.