Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 1 August Log of the Demeter (Cont.)

The Demeter hits a patch of fog.

1 August.—Two days of fog, and not a sail sighted. Had hoped when in the English Channel to be able to signal for help or get in somewhere. Not having power to work sails, have to run before wind. Dare not lower, as could not raise them again. We seem to be drifting to some terrible doom. Mate now more demoralised than either of men. His stronger nature seems to have worked inwardly against himself. Men are beyond fear, working stolidly and patiently, with minds made up to worst. They are Russian, he Roumanian.

Notes

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Here we see Dracula's ability to control the weather some more, a power often forgotten in some modern retellings of the Dracula story and almost completely ignored in other vampire tales.

We are now down to a crew of four.

#RPGaDay2024 First RPG bought this year

That was a tough one to figure out. I bought a lot of RPG-related items this year from adventures to minis, but I think the first full RPG I bought this year was the Spanish Language version of CJ Carella's WitchCraft RPG.

The Spanish Language version from Edge most resembles the Eden Studios 2nd Edition. The text is the same and the art is the same.

The difference, of course, is this new Edge version is in Spanish.

I am happy to have this as this was one of the other "Holy Grail" items for my Spanish collection of RPGs. It was also the last CJ Carella WitchCraft book I am likely able to buy. 

I am pleased that I was able to read a lot of it. Granted, my Spanish is still very limited, but I know this book very, very well. 

My collection of Spanish Language RPGs is not huge, but it covers my favorite games and about 85-90% of the games I like to play.

Not a lot, but enough to keep me busy for a while.

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

 Since it makes sense, here is Roberto Micheri's Spanish translation. You can find Roberto (and me often making a fool of myself with my pre-school-level Spanish) in the Puerto Rico Role Players Facebook Group.

Si es tu primera vez, todos los días de agosto mira la sugerencia y escribe, haz un blog, vlog, podcast, dibuja, haz manualidades o lo que sea como respuesta. Si no te gusta la pregunta completa, por ejemplo, en el Día 3 la pregunta es "RPG (juego de rol) más jugado", la palabra "más" está en negrilla y puedes usar sólo esa palabra como respuesta si quieres hablar de otra cosa. 

También hay una opción alternativa al final, por si acaso. Si no te gusta ninguna de estas sugerencias, sigue leyendo.

1. Primer RPG comprado este año
2. RPG jugado más recientemente
3. RPG más jugado
4. RPG con gran arte
5. RPG muy bien escrito
6. RPG fácil de usar
7. RPG con "buena forma"
8. Un accesorio que aprecies
9. Un accesorio que te gustaría ver
10. RPG que te gustaría ver en televisión
11. RPG con “one-shots” bien respaldados
12. RPG con campañas bien sustentadas
13. Entornos evocadores
14. Personajes fascinantes
15. Gran equipamiento para los personajes
16. Rápido de aprender
17. Una comunidad RPG cautivadora
18. Momentos de juego memorables
19. Sesión sensacional
20. Aventura increíble
21. Campaña clásica
22. Notable personaje no jugador (NPC)
23. Jugador sin igual
24. Aclamados consejos
25. Dados deseables
26. Magnífica pantalla
27. Maravillosa miniatura
28. Excelente artilugio para “gamers”
29. Impresionante aplicación (app)
30. Persona con la que te gustaría jugar
31. Juego o jugador que echas de menos

Alternativa - Una anécdota sorprendenteSi no te gusta ninguno de estas sugerencias, ya sé que son de última hora, puedes optar por un conjunto de temas para #RPGaDAY completamente diferente. Sugeridas por Skala Wyzwania, estas ideas son muy divertidas e incluso hay un gráfico muy atractivo para esta versión. 

Sólo tienes que mirar el día a la izquierda, elegir el tema y tirar un d10 para descubrir qué deberías hacer con ese tema ese día. 

Genial, gracias Skala.

1. Runas
2. Bosque
3. Demonología
4. Cosmos
5. Hadas
6. Portal
7. Ciudad olvidada
8. Experimento
9. Héroes
10. Steampunk
11. Invasión
12. Mundos paralelos
13. Zombis
14. Despertar
15. Genética
16. Mazmorra
17. IA (inteligencia artificial)
18. Maldición
19. Holograma
20. Batalla 
21. Desastre
22. Espacio interdimensional
23. Ritual
24. Antiguo
25. Mutante
26. Tatuaje
27. Transformación / Cambiar de forma
28. Mimeto (Mimic)
29. Caballero
30. Trampa 
31. Dragones

Cada día tira un d10 para seguir la sugerencia

Resultado

1. Describe un monstruo
2. Crea un personaje no jugador (NPC)
3. Escribir una misión para el tablón de anuncios
4. Inventar un objeto
5. Escribe una leyenda o un rumor 
6. Crear una tabla al azar
7. Crear una mecánica sencilla
8. Presentar una idea para un encuentro aleatorio
9. Escribir un diálogo escuchado a escondidas
10. ¡Dibuja!

---

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 30 July Log of the Demeter (Cont.)

The Demeter nears England, but so few crew remain.

30 July.—Last night. Rejoiced we are nearing England. Weather fine, all sails set. Retired worn out; slept soundly; awaked by mate telling me that both man of watch and steersman missing. Only self and mate and two hands left to work ship.

Notes

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Dracula must be absolutely gorged at this point. 

The High Witchcraft Tradition

I have been on a mini vacation to see my wife's family. They all moved down south. Personally, I dislike going south of Joliet, IL but that is me.  Anyway they are all huge card players staying up till the wee hours playing. That is cool, I got to watch the Olympics. You don't see me talking a lot about sports here though I am a life-long St. Louis Cardinals fan and a complete Olympics junkie. I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I love the Olympics.

With some projects done, and others on hold (Basic Bestiary. Waiting for more art), I started a new project over my extended weekend.

The High Witchcraft Tradition

Well..."new" might be the wrong word.  

I have a lot of notes from other projects that didn't quite fit or didn't get developed enough to get added. Plus this is a book I have been picking at for a while and have been calling my "Last Witch Book."  If it is that remains to be seen, but I do have some great ideas.

Here is the shape of the book so far.

High Magic

It will include the use of High Magic, so magic that invokes spirits, demons, angels and the like. I would also like to include High Magic options for Magic-users. A bit like my Hermetic Mage Prestige class I did for 3.x.

Advanced

This book will be my first "true" book for the Advanced era. So compatibility with OSRIC, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, and Old-School Essentials Advanced is implied. Originally this book was going to be part of my "Basic Witch" series and focus on how I mixed AD&D 1st ed with the Expert set back in the day. I still might do that. I have a lot of ideas for that sort of play, but this is not the book for that.

Plus I will freely admit I am not as enthusiastic for D&D's future as I once was. I will buy D&D 5R, I will even likely play it a few times. But as much as I love digital and online games, that is not my preferred mode. 

So instead of endlessly complaining about it, I am just going to focus my efforts into the types of games I DO enjoy playing. If you are looking for ragey click-bait, you won't find it here.

Best of the Old, Best of the New (Maybe)

I love my old-school games. I also am rather fond of new-school games as well. For me it has always been about maximum fun. So I would love to go back over some of the newer developments in games and see what can be ported back over. This one is not a guarantee. My focus first and foremost is a witch book from circa 1986.   

Cover Art

For this book I am going to commission some original cover art. I have already been sending out emails to artists I want to work with and ones I have worked with in the past for this. And as much as I love the Pre-Raphaelite covers I have used in the past, I have something specific in mind for this one.

Waterhouse's "The Magic Circle" above was one of the ideas I originally had. I am, of course, sad not to use it for this book, but I also want something new. 

I want this book to be really good. I want it to challenge my writing ability and game design ability. Plus I also want it to be able to cover any "so-called" witch written about in the "Advanced-era."  If someone else's book/game/adventure set in the same era with the same or similar rule system and they have a witch character, I want my rules to be flexible enough and comprehensive enough that you could play that character using my rules. Lofty? Maybe. Do able? Certainly.

Potential High Witches

• Iggwilv, The Witch Queen of Perrenland
• Rhiannon
• Skylla
• Syluné, Witch of Shadowdale and a ghost.
• The Simbul, the Witch-Queen of Aglarond.

I have been tossing this idea around for a few years now. I finally hit a critical mass of notes to make it a real book. For me as much as for you, here are my posts about it. 

Links to relevant posts

• The High Secret Order: The High Witchcraft Tradition
• Warlocks, Monsters, More Basic, and the LAST Witch Book
• Basic Bestiary and High Witchcraft
• Current Works In Progress: Basic Bestiary & High Witchcraft
• This Old Dragon: Issue #20
• This Old Dragon: Issue #114
• What Should an OSR Witch Do or Be?
• More thoughts on the Witch
• Which Witch is Which? Basic Era Edition
• Spell Research
• #RPGaDAY 2020: Day 11 Stack
• New Page: Appendix O and the Purpose of Research
• October Horror Movie Challenge: Witchcraft of the 70s
• "Excuse me, can you repeat that in Olde Arcane?"
• Prestige Class: Witch Priestess
• Prestige Class: Queen of Witches

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 29 July Log of the Demeter (Cont.)

The Demeter suffers more deaths.

29 July.—Another tragedy. Had single watch to-night, as crew too tired to double. When morning watch came on deck could find no one except steersman. Raised outcry, and all came on deck. Thorough search, but no one found. Are now without second mate, and crew in a panic. Mate and I agreed to go armed henceforth and wait for any sign of cause.

Notes

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Dracula is hungry, and he will make himself appear younger by using the blood and life of this crew. 

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 28 July Log of the Demeter (Cont.)

The Demeter travels through storms.

28 July.—Four days in hell, knocking about in a sort of maelstrom, and the wind a tempest. No sleep for any one. Men all worn out. Hardly know how to set a watch, since no one fit to go on. Second mate volunteered to steer and watch, and let men snatch a few hours’ sleep. Wind abating; seas still terrific, but feel them less, as ship is steadier.

Notes

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

These storms are caused by Dracula. Both to weaken the crew and speed his journey to England.

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 27 July Mina Murray's Journal (Cont.)

 Still no news from Harker.

27 July.—No news from Jonathan. I am getting quite uneasy about him, though why I should I do not know; but I do wish that he would write, if it were only a single line. Lucy walks more than ever, and each night I am awakened by her moving about the room. Fortunately, the weather is so hot that she cannot get cold; but still the anxiety and the perpetually being wakened is beginning to tell on me, and I am getting nervous and wakeful myself. Thank God, Lucy’s health keeps up. Mr. Holmwood has been suddenly called to Ring to see his father, who has been taken seriously ill. Lucy frets at the postponement of seeing him, but it does not touch her looks; she is a trifle stouter, and her cheeks are a lovely rose-pink. She has lost that anæmic look which she had. I pray it will all last.

Notes

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

The plot, unbeknownst to our heroes is moving forward. 

The Ring is the Holmwood Family estate.