Review: Children of the Night Vampires

 We are getting to the end of the AD&D 2nd Ed era of Ravenloft. Well...there are still a lot of products to cover but we are getting to the end of my coverage of them.  

AD&D 2nd Ed was really the golden age of campaign settings. Sure, that gold was only a very thin veneer, maybe even just electroplating.  But instead of focusing on that I want to enjoy what was great about that time and that was the depth of products.  TSR must have known the writing was on the wall by 1996 because the Children of the Night books, starting in 1996, were an attempt to build bridges across the campaign worlds.  

Children of the Night Vampires

1996. By Paul Culotta and Steve Miller with Carol L. Johnson and Jonathan Ariadne Caspian. Cover art by Daniel Home. Interior Illustrations by Jason Burrows. 96 pages.

For this review I am considering the PDF and PoD from DriveThruRPG and my memories of my original print copy.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Nigel D. Findley, who created Rudolph Van Richten. Findley had died of a heart attack at age 35.

This first of the Children of the Night series features 13 unique vampires to challenge PCs. "Challenge" doesn't always mean "fight."

I should point out that this is not the first time we have seen a "Children of the Night" for Ravenloft. The first one was "MC15 - Monstrous Compendium - Appendix II Children of the Night." 

The concept is a solid one. Ravenloft breathed new life (heh) into Vampires with the very first adventure, so it makes sense that it would continue to do so and then expand on that. The book starts out by saying that while these are all unique takes on vampires native to Ravenloft's mists, they don't have to stay there, and they can be added to your own campaign world. 

Each entry includes a stat-block, description and history, usually with how they became a vampire. There is also a mini adventure/plot hook you can use with the vampire in question.

Among the famous, or about to become famous, vampires include Ravenloft's Jander Sunstar, the eleven vampire introduced in the novel "Vampire of the Mists." Jander is a Chaotic Neutral (which as close to Good as it gets) vampire from the Forgotten Realms. He is just as likely to help the PCs fight vampires as he is to want to be left alone. 

Also, here are Lyssa von Zarovich, Strahd's great-niece (or something like that) and one of the members of his family line that was not killed when Barovia was pulled into the Mists. Don't mistake her hate for Strahd as "goodness" she is still quite evil. She will later go on to appear in Curse of Strahd.

We get a desert vampire, Moosha, the Ixitxachitl vampire Myxitizajal, and the vorlog Don Pablo among the others. 

The one I liked the most back then, because the concept was novel to me, was Lady Heather Shadowbrooke, the Druid Vampire. She is quite evil and a tragic character, really. 

I certainly think this is a great addition to any AD&D 2nd Ed game, Ravenloft or not. 

Note about the PoD

The Print on Demand copy I have does show some fuzziness, but all in all it is a very good copy. There are two PDFs you get from DriveThruRPG. Once is quasi OCR and the other is image. Neither seems as clear as the PoD which I find weird. 

This PoD is a worthy replacement for my original book from 1996. 

Children of the Night vs. Vampires

Children of the Night Vampires is not the first time a collection of various vampire NPC/Antagonists has been done for an RPG. The first one I ever bought was Vampires for the Chill RPG (1st Ed). The 2nd edition version is available on DriveThruRPG.

Both books do the same thing for their respective games, and both do it well. I give a slight nod to the Chill one since it came first.  The Ravenloft/AD&D one has 13 vampires vs the Chill's 11 (10 entries), so it has that in it's favor. 

Advent-ure Dice: Day 21

  Day 21

Spider venom d20

Advent-ure Dice: Day 20

  Day 20

Ok. This is new. Not the sparkly purple, but a true black die with moon phases on it. Very cool.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Body Snatcher's Night

 Managed to squeeze in all three of a theme today/tonight. Now, I don't trust who anyone says they are.

You all know the plot. Alien pods rain down. People get caught and duplicated. As fun as these all are, I have seen all three. Though it has been a while.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

This one is a classic in every sense of the word. The pacing is a bit slow, but better than I remembered. Speaking of which I can't actually recall the last time I saw this one. Kevin McCarthy is great in this, and it quite possibly put him on the map in terms of character acting.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

It is rare that a remake does as well as the original. It is even rarer still when that remake can one up or do better. Well 1978's Body Snatchers does exactly that. I mean really is there a more iconic movie moment than Donald Sutherland's Pod person scream at the end? Or maybe when Harry and his dog are combined into one creature? That one always freaked me out. 

This one also features the talents of Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy, and Kevin McCarthy(!) in a cameo role saying the same line, "You're next! You're next!" from the first movie. I have to admit, I love it when they do that. 

Body Snatchers (1993)

A remake or a sequel? Or a bit of both? Hard to say, I am a bit tired now, and the sleepier I get, the more like a sequel I can see it. 

This was the first real big film roles for then rising star Gabrielle Anwar. The scene of her in the bathtub is the iconic one from this movie. Somehow it doesn't quite measure up to Kevin McCarthy's frantic warning or Donald Sutherland's alien scream.

Though this is the movie that my wife and I saw when it first came out that started us using the term "Pod People." As in "You know I have been replaced by a pod person when..."

Featured Monster: Doppelgangers

The idea of Doppelgangers goes way back. So there is no way, no matter how iconic the movie, that I can claim these movies had any influence on the AD&D Monster Manual. I can guess, but can't make the claim with any certainty. 

I can, however, claim that the Ravenloft AD&D monster, Doppelganger Plant, was.

Personally, I like having both sorts of doppelgangers in my games. The trickster fae types and the destructive alien pods.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 28
First Time Views: 14

Advent-ure Dice: Day 19

  Day 19

Sparkly d10

October Horror Movie Challenge: Lemora

I was on Tubi, which is hands down the best place to find old and obscure horror films, watching Messiah of Evil last night. When it was done, I was shocked to see that it was none other than Lemora, a movie I have wanted to see for years!  So I had to save it for tonight.

Lemora (1973)

Also known as Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural, The Legendary Curse of Lemora, and Lemora, Lady Dracula.

Lila Lee (Cheryl Smith  in one of her first ever roles) is a girl in trouble. He father is a notorious Prohibition-era criminal and he has just killed his wife and her lover. Lila goes to live with the local minister where she becomes a paragon of Christian goodness and values.  One day, she gets a letter from a mysterious Lemora, who tells her that her father has shown up three years later and is now dying. She is supposed to meet them in the town of Astaroth.

She goes there to find her father and told to watch out for the locals, who are said to have that "Astaroth look." 

Lila meets Lemora (Lesley Taplin) and it is pretty obvious from the start she is a vampire. It is like the writer (Richard Blackburn, who is also the Director and plays the minister) took the beginning of Dracula and merged it with Carmila. 

Lila figures out what Lemora is and tries to run away, only to encounter the rest of the townsfolk who try to kill her. She ends up killing her own, not bestial, father.  During this time the minister is looking for her and has found Astaroth. 

The minister gets to town and falls asleep in a barn. He is awakened by Lila who begins kissing him, he tries to get her to stop only to start kissing her back. Lila reveals her vampire fangs and bites him as Lemora, smiling, looks on.

So...happy ending I guess! 

I have been looking for this movie for ages, so there is no way it is going to measure up. There is far less witchcraft in it than I was led to believe, and the supposed sexual themes were blown completely out of proportion. There was a lot more in The Vampire Lovers (1970). Still though, it is a nice moody flick with some nice horror elements.

Our lead in this, Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith, would have a career into the 1980s, including the rather notorious erotic "Cinderella" playing the titular role.  Sadly, as expected, Smith died young. Liver disease and hepatitis due to being addicted to heroin for two decades. 

Featured Monster: Vampires (again)

There is not much else to say here that I have not already said. BUT I am struck by how similar in tone this movie is to Messiah of Evil.  For starters both deal with remote towns with ancient backgrounds (for America), both feature a central undead figure. Both feature undead monsters that are not quite vampires and not quite zombies, but something in between. Both feature central female leads. Both are also what has been described as a sub-genre of Horror, "American Nightmare" usually films set in American and produced between 1968 and 1976. It's not quite occult-themed horror, but it's related. 

For a game, I might mix the two up a little. Lemora turned Lila in the 1930s. What would they be like now, nearly 100 years later? Maybe the "Blood Moon" prophecy of "Messiah of Evil" is about Lemora's death at the hands of a stronger, more powerful vampire? Lots to choose from, really.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 25
First Time Views: 14

Kickstart Your Weekend: Adventures in Teaching and Learning with TTRPGs

 Here is one that combines my professional life with my hobbies. I think they are going to so great things.

Adventures in Teaching and Learning with TTRPGs

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grm/adventures-in-teaching-and-learning-with-ttrpgs?ref=theotherside

This group of TTRPG professionals and educators are getting together for this new startup, Tabletop EDU, to provide the tools of TTRPGs to educators.

I can't even tell you how excited I am for this. 

While many of the Kickstarters I cover are aimed at gamers, this one is aimed at educators (teachers, curriculum experts, instructional designers) to work with the tools we play with everyday. I think it is great.

Check out what they are doing and back them if you can!