Character Creation Challenge: Mina Murray Harker

Longtime readers here will know of my love of Mina Murray Harker, the true hero of the Dracula novel.  I have talked about her here a few times, but in short, she is the one that puts all the pieces together, she is the one that has the forethought to transcribe everyone's notes.  She is the one that really has the tools to go hunting for Dracula.  She is also the prototype of the "Final Girl" a trope that will only grow for the next 120+ years.

One thing I have never cared for though was the whole reincarnated lover of Dracula.  Mina is interesting enough without needing to add anything else to her character.  That being said, I did not mind Alan Moore making her into a vampire.  But that is not what I am going with her.  This is Mina from the book and most of the movies.

Here she is for Night Shift. NIGHT SHIFT is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

Mina Murray Harker
3rd level Survivor (Human)
Archetype: Survivor

Strength: 10 (0) 
Dexterity: 12 (0) 
Constitution: 15 (+1) S
Intelligence: 16 (+2) P
Wisdom: 12 (0) 
Charisma: 16 (+2) S

HP: 11
Alignment: Light
AC: 8
Attack: +1 

Fate Points: 1d8

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+1/+0

Melee bonus: 0 Ranged bonus: 0

Saves: +3 to death saves. +1 to all others.

Powers:  Stealth skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3), Sneak Attack x2, Read Languages, 

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 35%
• Bypass Traps: 30%
• Sleight of Hand: 40%
• Move Silently: 40%
• Hide in Shadows: 30%
• Perception: 50%

--

Mina is a vampire attack survivor, more so that she survived an attack by Dracula.  That has to count for something. 

Want to see more of the #CharacterCreationChallenge? Stop by Tardis Captain's Blog and the #CharacterCreationChallenge on Twitter for more! 

Character Creation Challenge: Jonathan Harker

Harker is the first character we meet in the novel Dracula. You would think this would make him the most important character, but that role will be discussed tomorrow.  Harker is a means to end, both to the novel Dracula and the character Dracula.  He provides the Victorian England point of view of the story.  

He is not a particularly useful character, either in the novels or many of the movies. Though he gets more limelight in the 1979 John Badham, Frank Langella staring Dracula and in the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola.  I do remember at the time really ripping into Keanu Reeves' portrayal, but looking back over others and re-reading the book, Harker is kinda weak. 

He does get to fair a little better in the "Alternate" Dracula, Powers of Darkness, and in the RPG Rippers.

Here he is for Night Shift. NIGHT SHIFT is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

Jonathan Harker
3rd level Survivor (Human)
Archetype: Survivor

Strength: 11 (0) 
Dexterity: 12 (0) 
Constitution: 16 (+2) S
Intelligence: 14 (+1) P
Wisdom: 12 (0) 
Charisma: 15 (+1) S

HP: 14
Alignment: Light
AC: 8
Attack: +1 

Fate Points: 1d8

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+1/+0

Melee bonus: 0 Ranged bonus: 0

Saves: +3 to death saves. +1 to all others.

Powers:  Stealth skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3), Sneak Attack x2, Read Languages, 

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 35%
• Bypass Traps: 30%
• Sleight of Hand: 40%
• Move Silently: 40%
• Hide in Shadows: 30%
• Perception: 50%

--

Harker is pretty much the archetypical vampire-attack survivor.  

Want to see more of the #CharacterCreationChallenge? Stop by Tardis Captain's Blog for more! 

Character Creation Challenge: R. M. Renfield

One of the more interesting characters in the Dracula novel and movies is "zoophagous maniac" R. M. Renfield.  He is one of Dracula's first victims, though we never see the attack, we know that he is under Dracula's thrall. 

We first meet Renfield in Dr. Seward's sanitorium where we learn he is very excitable and very strong.  His defining features are his diet of bugs (though he hopes for a cat) and his deference to his "Master."

Given all of this, I thought with the new NIGHT SHIFT Night Companion going out to backers today, I'd give Renfield a try as a Ghoul.

Here he is for Night Shift.

R. M. Renfield
5th level Survivor (Supernatural, Ghoul)
Archetype: Thrall

Strength: 16 (+1) P
Dexterity: 16 (+1) S
Constitution: 15 (+1) S
Intelligence: 11 (0) 
Wisdom: 8 (-1) 
Charisma: 8 (-1) 

HP: 20
Alignment: Dark
AC: 8
Attack: +2

Fate Points: 1d8

Feed: Live flesh, prefers insects

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+2/+1

Melee bonus: +1  Ranged bonus: +1

Saves: +3 to all Constitution-based saves and are immune to poison. +3 to death saves.

Powers

Rake attack, paralysis, Stealth skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3), Sneak Attack x3

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 55%
• Bypass Traps: 50%
• Sleight of Hand: 60%
• Move Silently: 60%
• Hide in Shadows: 50%
• Perception: 60%

--

A few things here.  First I think this works great as Renfield. He works great as a Survivor, especially with his sneak attacks and his ability to escape.  He also works great as a Ghoul.  His bug-eating is covered well by his "Feed", a new rule feature in the Night Companion for Supernatural characters.  

Additionally, his alignment is listed as "Dark" another new feature of the Night Companion.  He is evil, but not irredeemable. Though in truth he never gets the chance. 

 

Character Creation Challenge: Prof. Van Helsing

In many ways, it was Van Helsing who was my true gateway to D&D.  

While I will wax poetically about the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, it was really Hammer Horror that fueled my desire for adventure games.  And while Christopher Lee's Dracula was the unchallenged star of many of the films of my youth it was Peter Cushing's portrayal of "doctor, professor, and meta-physician" Abraham Van Helsing that was the obvious model my first character took.

Here is the good professor for Night Shift.

Professor Abraham Van Helsing
5th level Theosophist/5th level Sage (Human)
Archetype: Vampire Hunter

Strength: 11 (0)
Dexterity: 13 (+1) 
Constitution: 13 (+1)
Intelligence: 18 (+3) P
Wisdom: 18 (+3) S
Charisma: 15 (+1) S

HP: 45
Alignment: Lawful Good
AC: 8
Attack: +2

Fate Points: 1d10

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +5/+3/+2

Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +1

Saves: +3 (+6 total) to Spells and magical effects, +3 to all saves

Powers

See dead people, Turn Undead, Summon the Dead, Channel the Dead, Protection from the Dead, Sage abilities, Survivor skills, Lore,  Read Languages, Suggestion

Languages: English, Latin, Greek, German, Dutch, Flemish, French, Hebrew, Romanian, Russian, Arabic, Middle English

Spells
First Level: Bless, Detect Evil
Second Level: Find Traps, Knock

--

Van Helsing, MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc., combines the powers of a sage and a theosophist.  The sage is easy to see, but the theosophist is a little different.  His powers are not those of a "necromancer" but rather own that studies the undead and wants to fight them. 

The balance of powers each class gives is important to give the character the right feel.  The Sage gives him his languages and survivor skills.  The theosophist gives him some undead fighting ability.   Though you never see him casting spells, save for rituals that would help him fight Dracula. 

Character Creation Challenge: NIGHT SHIFT

Welcome to 2022!  Last year I participated in TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding's Character Creation Challenge. It was a lot of fun and I got to do a lot of really cool witches.

This year I am going to do something a little different.  This year I want to explore just one game, but show how versatile the system is and what I can do with it.   That game is obviously going to be my own NIGHT SHIFT.

The Game: NIGHT SHIFT Veterans of the Supernatural Wars

NIGHT SHIFT Veterans of the Supernatural Wars is a modern supernatural monster hunting game written by Jason Vey and myself.  We took all of the work we have collectively done with Old-School RPGs along with all the experiences we had while working on Buffy, Angel, Army of Darkness, Ghosts of Albion, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten and poured it into this new game.  My personal goals here were to make a game that I could play any type of witch I wanted and to fill the Buffy-shaped hole in my life.  I feel I succeeded in both.  

NIGHT SHIFT is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

For this challenge, I am going to focus on characters you can use in any sort of campaign.  I am going to draw from a couple of different campaigns I have been playing around with for a few years.  The first is a Dracula-focused one I have picked at for a number of years decades. Dracula is always fun and I have a blast using him in an adventure.  

The others will be NPCs from my Spirit of '76 game, set obviously in 1976.  I'll also include some modern ones.   In all cases, I want to show off how well NIGHT SHIFT can do these characters and even show off some of the features of the new Nights Companion for NIGHT SHIFT. Coming Soon. 

Dracula
16th level Veteran (Supernatural, Vampire)
Archetype: Master Vampire

Strength: 22 (+5) P
Dexterity: 18 (+3) S
Constitution: 18 (+3)
Intelligence: 13 (+1)
Wisdom: 14 (+1)
Charisma: 22 (+5) S

HP: 120
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
AC: 5

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +7/+5/+3

Melee bonus: +12  Ranged bonus: +8

Saves: +5 to all

Powers

Vampire Powers

Veteran Abilities

 

My Old School Gaming Project

Spend any time here and you know that I do love my old-school gaming.  Also for me, my introduction to RPGs coincided with my introduction to computers.  For me, RPGs and computers have always gone hand-in-hand. 

So it should be no surprise then that if I am going to spend so much time working on bringing old-school games back to life I might be doing the same with old-school computers.

Here is my current project.  

This a "proof of concept."  It is a 3D printed case, housing a Raspberry Pi with 8Gigs of RAM.  It is wifi enabled and has HDMI ports.  Currently running the CoCo-Pi software.

Back in 1985, I bought my first computer. It was a Tandy Color Computer 2 with 16k of ROM, a tape-cassette drive for storage and I  plugged it into a color TV.  One of the first things I did with it was to write programs to roll dice, do character abilities and even mimic combat.  Eventually, my DM and I would spend our gaming sessions working on some software we called "BARD" and it was a combat manager.  We could load 10 characters in at a time, roll for initiative and have them battle any number of monsters we wanted.  Some special abilities were a problem (beholders gave us no end of grief) but we had it worked out so that even dragons with breath weapons worked well. I even had a character, my one and only even ninja, killed by a black dragon, taking 70 hp of damage in the first attack. The death was so spectacular that my DM and I sat back and laughed our asses off as this black dragon attacked only the ninja and kept on attacking him until he was at -400 hp. 

It was great fun and I still have the source code.

Fast forward to later this year when my brother got me this:

That's not just any CoCo2, that is the one my DM and I wrote BARD on.  He had sold it to my brother years ago because one of the EPROM pins broke off and at the time it was too costly to replace and better computers were out.  I have even gone from my CoCo2 to a CoCo3, to a Tandy 1000, to an 8086, and then to an Intel 286 by that time.  I was getting ready to buy my next computer, my Gateway 486 that I upgraded for years until it got to be so full I needed to keep the case off and have fans blowing in. 

But I digress.  This "new" machine is close to 40 years old and I have been spending my Christmas break cleaning it, upgrading the internal components, and even 3D printing new parts for it.  What I have not be able to make or re-use I have been ordering online.

I hope to show her off soon.  Right now I need to stop so I can transfer some files to USB.  Yes, I got it working with some new USB ports.

This will be a lot fun.  Scratch that, this has been a lot of fun already.

Monstrous Monday: Aamon, Grand Marquis of Hell

Another social media-inspired post today.  My wife was reading something on Geek Girls and she got very excited about the idea of there being border-lands in Hell. Which naturally got us talking about my Demons for Basic Bestariy III.  Not knowing anything about the D&D Blood War, she thought the idea of multiple demonic species in "Hell" a really fun idea.  She was really excited when I mentioned that my Basic Bestarity Demons come in 12 different species, or what I am calling Lineages.

What D&D calls unique devils I refer to as the "Baalseraph" or the Devil Lords.  These are the ones that fell to Hell after losing the War in Heaven.  Each Baalseraph is unique and each one had a previous name from when they were spirits of good.   

Today I want to investigate both of these topics and also show why I also like using OGC monsters.  In this case, I am updating "Amon" from the Tome of Horrors Complete from Necromancer Games and Frog God Games.

Aamon, Grand Marquis of Hell

"Amon, or Aamon, is a great and mighty marques, and commeth abroad in the likeness of a Wolf, having a serpents tail, [vomiting] flames of fire; when he putteth on the shape of a man, he sheweth out dogs teeth, and a great head like to a mighty [night hawk]; he is the strongest prince of all other, and understandeth of all things past and to come, he procureth favor, and reconcileth both friends and foes, and rule forthy legions of devils."

- Johann Wier (1583) Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.

Large Fiend (Diabolic, Baalseraph)

Frequency: Unique
Number Appearing: 1 (1)
Alignment: Chaotic [Lawful Evil]
Movement: 180' (60') [18"]
Armor Class: -2 [21]
Hit Dice: 22d8+44****** (143 hp)
 Large: 22d20+44****** (165 hp)
To Hit AC 0: 6 (+14)
Attacks: 1 weapon or 2 claws, 1 bite

Damage: 2d6+6 (+3 weapon, +3 strength) or 1d6+3 x2, 1d8+3
Special: Baalseraph powers and immunities, magic resistance (75%), regeneration (3 hp/round), spell-like abilities, summoning, teleapthy 100 ft. (see below)

Save: Monster 22
Morale: 12 (NA)
Treasure Hoard Class: XVI, XII (G,K)
XP: 16,250 (OSE) 16,750 (LL)

Str: 19 (+3) Dex: 17 (+2) Con: 16 (+2) Int: 18 (+3) Wis: 16 (+2) Cha: 18 (+3)

Aamon, also called Amon and Nahum, appears as a wolf-headed humanoid standing 9’ tall. His fur is brownish-black and his eyes and teeth are yellow. His great clawed hands are brownish in color and covered in shaggy fur.  He has a long tail like a snake.  

Aamon is a vassal in service to Geryon, commanding no less than 3 legions of bone devils and 40 legions of lesser shedim (devils) on his home plane in Hell. Amon wields a +3 great-mace with two hands. He can also bite in the same round for 1d8+3 hp damage.  If pressed he can attack with his two massive claws instead of his sword. Amon is only harmed by +3 or better weapons. Amon is very strong (STR 19), receiving +3 to hit and damage in melee combat. He regenerates 3 hp per round.

Aamon has the following spell-like abilities, usable at will: animate dead, charm monster, detect invisibility, detect magic, dispel magic, fear (as the spell), fly, geas, know alignment, polymorph self, produce flame, read languages, read magic, suggestion, teleportation, wall of ice, and limited wish (for another being only). In addition, one time per day he may employ a symbol of hopelessness and gate (60% probability of success) 1d4 bone devils. He is able to summon all wolves in a 1-mile radius and control them to do his will.

Like all Baalseraph, Aamon has the following damage modifiers.  He takes no damage from fire (mundane, magical or dragon), normal weapons, or poison (ingested).  He is immune to the effects of mind-affecting magics like charm, ESP, hold, and sleep.  He takes half the damage (and saves for no damage) from cold, electricity, and poisonous gases.  Finally, he takes full damage (or saves for half where applicable) from acid, magic missile attacks (or similar magical energy), blessed, magical, or silvered weapons.   He has magic resistance of 75%. 

Prior to his fall, he had been the spirit known as Nahum, which means "who induces to eagerness."   He was summoned as an impartial judge in disputes between friends.  Now as one of the fallen he creates strife between friends. 

As a Grand Marquis Aamon commands his troops to fend off the hordes of invading Asuras, Calabim, Tarterians.

--

Aamon is not just a great example of a Grand Marquis, he is a great example of an OGC monster.   He is used in Pathfinder, Swords & Wizardry, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, and others along with its original use in AD&D.

Section 15 for this monster follows:

Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Swords & Wizardry Core Rules. Copyright 2008, Matthew J. Finch
Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebook. Copyright 2010, Matthew J. Finch.

Tome of Horrors Complete, Copyright 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God Games.

Amon from the Tome of Horrors Complete, Copyright 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God Games; based on original material by Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Gary Gygax.

I am choosing to cleave close to the original material and the OGC material because I feel that anyone using this monster (or later using the Basic Bestiary) to be able to slot him right into an ongoing game without too many "continuity errors."  So I include his "mythological" background (description, legions controlled) and his "D&D" background (allegiance to Geryon).  I also include more details that are solely from my own games (Baalseraph, borderland disputes). 

My Aamon is expanded and changed, but I can see where you can use Amon and Aamon interchangeably. The ability to pick up one of my monsters and use them in any game is one of my main design goals.

Links

• Wikipedia, Aamon
• Wikipedia, List of Demons in the Ars Goetia
• Pathfinder, OGC
• Swords & Wizardry, OGC
• Amon, Duke of Hell (D&D Wiki)