So we had our "Little Kids" game today. We had been playing Pathfinder with the boys, but the DM showed up with something else in mind. He re-did all the Pathfinder characters using only D&D Essentials and we went through the adventure from the Red Box. We had, as he described it, the D&D Essential experience.
It was awesome!
The boys picked up on the rules quickly, but they had all played 3.x, Pathfinder and D&D 4 before. The characters were familiar to them all, that was also a plus. The tokens worked great, the maps are cool and the new Rules Compendium made looking things up a breeze.
We got through three encounters in about 4 hours, not too bad really.
Greg, the DM, and I are going to talk, but this might be the game we play with the boys. I still ahve our 3.x game to wrap-up and then start their 4.0 game. Greg and I are still going to do Pathfinder for our "Big Kids" game, so this makes crossovers between the two groups more problematic, but not impossible.
Looking forward to more of this. I am really, really enjoying the 4e Essentials stuff.
And yes, I played a Fey-Pact Warlock. Gotta stick to what works for me.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Pathfinder today
Have the "Little Kids" game today. Playing Pathfinder and going to the Keep on the Borderlands (again).
I am actually playing, not running, this one. Playing the new Pathfinder witch, which I like but it needs some tweaking to be perfect.
Now the biggest obstacle. Getting my game room cleaned before the other players and the DM gets here. ;)
I am actually playing, not running, this one. Playing the new Pathfinder witch, which I like but it needs some tweaking to be perfect.
Now the biggest obstacle. Getting my game room cleaned before the other players and the DM gets here. ;)
Friday, November 12, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 12
Episode 12: No Other Troy
Yoln: You brought an army to stop me Slayer?
Buffy: No. I brought two.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 12 “No Other Troy”
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
- William Butler Yeats, No Second Troy
Oh, I love you
God, I love you
I'd kill a dragon for you
I'll die
But I will rise
And I will return
The Phoenix from the flame
I have learned
I will rise
And you'll see me return
Being what I am
There is no other Troy
For me to burn
- Sinéad O'Connor, Troy
No time, no date (Cast returns on May 19, 2003. Monday)
The cast leads an army of demons and an army of angels to Leviathan’s plane, but they discover it may require the death of one of their own to seal the portal forever. Release the souls of all the Slayer’s Leviathan has been feeding on for years. Buffy must defeat Yoln, but Willow and Tara must find a way to stop a God on his home realm.
Story Arc Elements: Willow and Tara are shown their pasts and futures by the Mouth of Leviathan, how everything they have done was constructed to bring them to this point to allow Leviathan to enter this realm. Leviathan had meant for Willow to be his instrument to be powerful enough to allow him to enter this realm. Tara was the factor he did not count on, her influence was turning Willow away from the path she was on to one more in balance with magic. Without Tara, Leviathan will enter the realm through Willow at anytime he chooses.
Game Mechanics: Stats for various Slayers from the past. Dragons.
Soundtrack: Sinead O’Connor “Drink Before the War” and "Troy". Megadeth “A Tout Le Monde”, Sarah Maclachlan “Elsewhere”
Notes and Comments:
This is the big one. The finale. Designed to be both the series finale for “Buffy” and the start of a new spin-off series “Willow & Tara” and there is a lot going on.
Let’s start with the big stuff. The Cast comes through Dawn’s rift using the Spear as a guide. It takes them to a cave in an outcropping overlooking a valley. A valley filled with demons (40,000 to be exact), when they see Buffy they all begin to shout “Slayer! Slayer!” It was quite a visual.
The first act of course is to get a grip on this new demonic army. The leaders are the Mormo demons from before. The cast is also joined by a smaller, but no less effective, army of angels. Among them is Kara, who has taken Tara’s place in the armies of Heaven. In fact she has surpassed even Tara’s previous achievements. Once the cast can convince the demons and angels to fight together against the forces of Leviathan then the action begins.
For the battles I used the Army of Darkness mass combat rules with Buffy as the general, but I made sure everyone had a chance to shine.
Upon entering the realm of Leviathan the cast notices that their Con and Wills are being drained. So, we have a time limit here. Both Faith and Buffy know that the realm is draining the source of their power, though they can’t figure out why.
Dawn has to hold the portal open, so she is given a group of angels to protect her. Spike has the Hand of Yoln as a weapon and Buffy has the spear.
We spend some time battling the armies of Leviathan. His creatures combine the worse aspects of dragon, snake and demon, for lack of a better word I called them Draconians.
The cast enters Leviathan himself, anyone with a soul takes another hit to Will. Anyone without a soul is absorbed into the walls, floor, everything. Thus newly re-re-ensouled Anya and recently souled Spike are fine. Well, fine as can be. I struggled with this for a bit, do angels have souls? In the end I decided no, they have spirits like demons. So the angels that went in with the cast are lost. This is done for the obvious reasons; the cast needs to shine here, not the armies.
Buffy fights Yoln. Until next season she is the star and the big guy is going after her. Now I don’t know how many of you all use the Original Slayer in games, but she is one deadly character. I had to up Yoln to obscene levels just to deal with her. Faith and Spike are fighting at her sides (I am sure there is metaphor here, but I am not going there) and these three can quickly mow down (and did) most opponents. Spike gets his arm chopped of by Yoln (yeah I did that first too) and dumps the ash out of the glove and puts it back on.
There is truth in Yoln’s quote since this was an adventure I had planned to do for AD&D 1st ed back in 1987. It took place during the same battle as the “flashback” from Episode 5. Then, as in now, the story focused on a battle with Yoln and his Master, then known only as “The Whispering God”, and two lovers; Morganne (the Slayer from episode 5) and a young swordsman. So this adventure had been in the works long before Buffy and crew were ever “born”. Yoln was then a demonic-human that became a death knight.
Anya and Xander meanwhile are off to discover the reason why their “souls” are being drained. They discover that the spirits all of the Slayers that have died before are stuck on Leviathan’s plane. Literally. They are stuck in the wall of the dead god’s flesh and are slowly being consumed. Anya and Xander work to free them while fighting lesser minions (giant white blood cell things). They manage to free some of the Slayers who can fight (but are still dead, but at least now they can move on) till Spike come running up telling them it is a trap.
Willow and Tara confront Leviathan “himself” in the form of The Mouth of Leviathan played by Malcolm McDowell at his evil best.
From the Mouth of Leviathan we learn Leviathan worked through Set and other gods and demons to get things done. He empowered Willow when she first gave Angel back his soul. Willow was supposed to be his instrument, a force strong enough to bring Leviathan into this world, then he would feed on Willow. In a way she was working like another one of my old AD&D influences (or rather my DM’s), Raven from the Teen Titans. Though Willow is not Leviathan’s daughter, he does need her to enter the world.
What Leviathan never worked into his plans was how much of an influence Tara was having. Tara was pulling Willow away from the self-destructive forms of witchcraft (Sorcery) and too the more “natural” Magic. At first he worked on Glory and her minions to redirect Glory to a vulnerable Tara, but that was short lived. The Mouth shows the girls thousands of alternate realities where they are together, but in each one Leviathan manages to kill Tara (or somehow turn Willow) and consume the world. So Leviathan through his agents stopped the bullet from hitting Willow and instead redirected to Tara. The various realities shown are all various fan-fictions of my playtesters and our friends on the Kitten Board. There are also scenes of various alternate versions of Willow and Tara. Lots of ones on their past lives, including one where they both die in Atlantis; a pair of Chinese sorceresses; Liath and Bodhmal from Episode 5 and “The Dark Druid” and others. There are also alternate versions of Tara, the Tara that really was part demon, the nature sprite Tara that Whedon talked about doing, vampire Tara, even the “original” plan for Tara to make her what the Amy character eventually became; the dark magic junkie. The outcome for any alternate though is the same, the destruction of the world.
The mouth offers Willow a choice now, they can leave together, all she needs to do is drain all of her’s and Tara’s magic into Dawn. Then Leviathan will enter the world via Dawn. They can then live on Faith’s old magic dead world. Of course everyone they know or love will die.
Now at this point we had planned to go in a bunch of different directions, but the winning one, the plan that made the most sense won out.
Standing on spires (really his spine) of Leviathan’s plane Willow and Tara see their friends running back to the portal, being perused by devilish, dragon monsters, the armies still fighting. They see torn and battered Slayers limping to attack Leviathan’s creatures, even though they stand no hope of even slowing them down. Meanwhile with Yoln’s death the conduit to the mortal realm is breaking up. Dawn is fighting to keep the portal open and the land (which is really Leviathan himself) is reacting violently with “earth quakes” and volcanoes. The Earth can be seen (blocking out the sun) and rising. The Mouth tells the girls that all Leviathan needs now is enter the world through the gate, either through Willow now or Dawn (since she is holding it open) and then drain his “hosts” magic to manifest fully.
Seeing the death and destruction they realize there is only one way to keep it from getting worse. Grabbing hands, they jump into the gapping maw of Leviathan’s plane. Yup. I went for the “Thelma and Louise” ending.
Now everything goes berserk. Demons are running amok, trying to get out of the place. Angels find they are fighting the hordes of Leviathan AND retreating demons, the land is throwing fits more than ever, and then silence.
From the maw that Willow and Tara threw themselves in comes the reborn Leviathan. He was “force feed” all of Willow’s and Tara’s combined magic. Given the Anamchara rules that is quite a bit. He now stands over 200 feet tall and getting taller by the second, seven heads and full of anger. There is no way he can go through the portal now, so he is going to settle for killing everyone and everything on his plane. Time for the cast to run.
Of course I gave them the chance to get to the portal. Leviathan is chasing them down, roaring in anger. Then I need to decide what I should do with the characters. Leviathan is not a stated out monster, he is pure plot device. But I want the surviving characters to well, survive. Yeah I really, really wanted to off Spike. I felt he was representative of everything that I considered wrong with the show. The plan was that he was going to take the remote detonator for his chip and wait till the armies got on top of him then he was going to blow his own head off. But Garner convinced me otherwise. Plus I was already working on “Season of the Witch” at this point and he never showed there, but I figured I’d need him later. I did in fact for a Ghosts of Albion/Buffy crossover. I wanted to make him into a ghost and said as much very early on, but he ended up being a ghost in Angel, so I figured I could do better than that. So his player and I agreed that Spike was going to buy the rest of the cast time. He stood and fought the on coming demons and draconians to keep them a little bit at bay. That way if I needed him back I could, or if I needed him evil again then I can say Leviathan had been whispering in his ear all this time, the same thing he did to Yoln. At this point anyway I was borrowing heavily from Charmed so Leviathan’s plan was the same as the Demonic Wasteland. There were plenty of powers laying around there for someone with the will to use them. Spike could have come back (and still might who knows) like Cole did in Charmed.
The remaining cast get through the portal. Beaten, broken, but alive. They leave the ruins of the High School (they are shot out of the Hellmouth) and Dawn says the mouth is closed completely.
Cut back to a grey void where Willow and Tara are. Luna, the Seraphim, returns and offers them a choice. They can go to Heaven together as their reward, or the Summerlands if they prefer, or they can be sent back to Earth. Tara will loose some of her divine power she had before (the aura around her that induced fear in demons), but they will let her keep the ability to heal by touch.
They come back and we wrap up the game. Scenes of Xander’s and Anya’s wedding (this time a small private ceremony), Giles ends up catching the bouquet. Buffy’s martial arts class is still a big hit, we see her going on dates with Tony, the cop from Episodes 6 and 7. There are a few demons left in town, but most have cleared off. The last scene is Willow and Tara enjoying themselves (not like that!) at home. I don’t have it my notes, but they talked about how their lives are theirs to do with as they please. At that point Dawn comes in to tell Tara the phone is for her, it is her brother.
Covers
This may be one of my most favorite cover of the series. The idea was to only going to get Willow and Tara fans to write the episodes, play test and do the covers, and in particular only members of the Kitten Board. This one was done by Chris Cook who runs a website devoted to Willow and Tara in every universe. Called “Through the Looking Glass” it has tons of art, stories, and even games for the Willow and Tara fan base. The premise really mirrors that of this episode. I showed the multiverse where Willow and Tara are together in every reality. I also showed that in realities that they are not together are doomed to destruction. Chris shows us the realities where they are together. Have a look, http://www.uberwillowtara.com/ there is even some Dragon and the Phoenix art there as well. The various realities are all from various W/T fan fiction. The sources for them were stories from the Kitten Board, Different Color Pens fiction board and the old Willow and Tara fiction site, Extra Flamey.
And of note. This is my 100th post tagged "witch".
Next time, DS al Coda.
Yoln: You brought an army to stop me Slayer?
Buffy: No. I brought two.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 12 “No Other Troy”
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
- William Butler Yeats, No Second Troy
Oh, I love you
God, I love you
I'd kill a dragon for you
I'll die
But I will rise
And I will return
The Phoenix from the flame
I have learned
I will rise
And you'll see me return
Being what I am
There is no other Troy
For me to burn
- Sinéad O'Connor, Troy
No time, no date (Cast returns on May 19, 2003. Monday)
The cast leads an army of demons and an army of angels to Leviathan’s plane, but they discover it may require the death of one of their own to seal the portal forever. Release the souls of all the Slayer’s Leviathan has been feeding on for years. Buffy must defeat Yoln, but Willow and Tara must find a way to stop a God on his home realm.
Story Arc Elements: Willow and Tara are shown their pasts and futures by the Mouth of Leviathan, how everything they have done was constructed to bring them to this point to allow Leviathan to enter this realm. Leviathan had meant for Willow to be his instrument to be powerful enough to allow him to enter this realm. Tara was the factor he did not count on, her influence was turning Willow away from the path she was on to one more in balance with magic. Without Tara, Leviathan will enter the realm through Willow at anytime he chooses.
Game Mechanics: Stats for various Slayers from the past. Dragons.
Soundtrack: Sinead O’Connor “Drink Before the War” and "Troy". Megadeth “A Tout Le Monde”, Sarah Maclachlan “Elsewhere”
Notes and Comments:
This is the big one. The finale. Designed to be both the series finale for “Buffy” and the start of a new spin-off series “Willow & Tara” and there is a lot going on.
Let’s start with the big stuff. The Cast comes through Dawn’s rift using the Spear as a guide. It takes them to a cave in an outcropping overlooking a valley. A valley filled with demons (40,000 to be exact), when they see Buffy they all begin to shout “Slayer! Slayer!” It was quite a visual.
The first act of course is to get a grip on this new demonic army. The leaders are the Mormo demons from before. The cast is also joined by a smaller, but no less effective, army of angels. Among them is Kara, who has taken Tara’s place in the armies of Heaven. In fact she has surpassed even Tara’s previous achievements. Once the cast can convince the demons and angels to fight together against the forces of Leviathan then the action begins.
For the battles I used the Army of Darkness mass combat rules with Buffy as the general, but I made sure everyone had a chance to shine.
Upon entering the realm of Leviathan the cast notices that their Con and Wills are being drained. So, we have a time limit here. Both Faith and Buffy know that the realm is draining the source of their power, though they can’t figure out why.
Dawn has to hold the portal open, so she is given a group of angels to protect her. Spike has the Hand of Yoln as a weapon and Buffy has the spear.
We spend some time battling the armies of Leviathan. His creatures combine the worse aspects of dragon, snake and demon, for lack of a better word I called them Draconians.
The cast enters Leviathan himself, anyone with a soul takes another hit to Will. Anyone without a soul is absorbed into the walls, floor, everything. Thus newly re-re-ensouled Anya and recently souled Spike are fine. Well, fine as can be. I struggled with this for a bit, do angels have souls? In the end I decided no, they have spirits like demons. So the angels that went in with the cast are lost. This is done for the obvious reasons; the cast needs to shine here, not the armies.
Buffy fights Yoln. Until next season she is the star and the big guy is going after her. Now I don’t know how many of you all use the Original Slayer in games, but she is one deadly character. I had to up Yoln to obscene levels just to deal with her. Faith and Spike are fighting at her sides (I am sure there is metaphor here, but I am not going there) and these three can quickly mow down (and did) most opponents. Spike gets his arm chopped of by Yoln (yeah I did that first too) and dumps the ash out of the glove and puts it back on.
“You think you came here to stop me and my lord. You can’t. Everything is in motion, everything had been planned before you were even born. This is not my defeat, this is my apotheosis. You are not heroes.Yoln becomes fully human again (or at least as human as he was before), he tells them it is a trap and the attack start anew. Yoln is stronger now, but can be killed. Buffy does kill him, which just starts the whole place to start exploding.
You are sacrifices.”
- Yoln, the Shadowreaper
There is truth in Yoln’s quote since this was an adventure I had planned to do for AD&D 1st ed back in 1987. It took place during the same battle as the “flashback” from Episode 5. Then, as in now, the story focused on a battle with Yoln and his Master, then known only as “The Whispering God”, and two lovers; Morganne (the Slayer from episode 5) and a young swordsman. So this adventure had been in the works long before Buffy and crew were ever “born”. Yoln was then a demonic-human that became a death knight.
Anya and Xander meanwhile are off to discover the reason why their “souls” are being drained. They discover that the spirits all of the Slayers that have died before are stuck on Leviathan’s plane. Literally. They are stuck in the wall of the dead god’s flesh and are slowly being consumed. Anya and Xander work to free them while fighting lesser minions (giant white blood cell things). They manage to free some of the Slayers who can fight (but are still dead, but at least now they can move on) till Spike come running up telling them it is a trap.
Willow and Tara confront Leviathan “himself” in the form of The Mouth of Leviathan played by Malcolm McDowell at his evil best.
From the Mouth of Leviathan we learn Leviathan worked through Set and other gods and demons to get things done. He empowered Willow when she first gave Angel back his soul. Willow was supposed to be his instrument, a force strong enough to bring Leviathan into this world, then he would feed on Willow. In a way she was working like another one of my old AD&D influences (or rather my DM’s), Raven from the Teen Titans. Though Willow is not Leviathan’s daughter, he does need her to enter the world.
What Leviathan never worked into his plans was how much of an influence Tara was having. Tara was pulling Willow away from the self-destructive forms of witchcraft (Sorcery) and too the more “natural” Magic. At first he worked on Glory and her minions to redirect Glory to a vulnerable Tara, but that was short lived. The Mouth shows the girls thousands of alternate realities where they are together, but in each one Leviathan manages to kill Tara (or somehow turn Willow) and consume the world. So Leviathan through his agents stopped the bullet from hitting Willow and instead redirected to Tara. The various realities shown are all various fan-fictions of my playtesters and our friends on the Kitten Board. There are also scenes of various alternate versions of Willow and Tara. Lots of ones on their past lives, including one where they both die in Atlantis; a pair of Chinese sorceresses; Liath and Bodhmal from Episode 5 and “The Dark Druid” and others. There are also alternate versions of Tara, the Tara that really was part demon, the nature sprite Tara that Whedon talked about doing, vampire Tara, even the “original” plan for Tara to make her what the Amy character eventually became; the dark magic junkie. The outcome for any alternate though is the same, the destruction of the world.
The mouth offers Willow a choice now, they can leave together, all she needs to do is drain all of her’s and Tara’s magic into Dawn. Then Leviathan will enter the world via Dawn. They can then live on Faith’s old magic dead world. Of course everyone they know or love will die.
Now at this point we had planned to go in a bunch of different directions, but the winning one, the plan that made the most sense won out.
Standing on spires (really his spine) of Leviathan’s plane Willow and Tara see their friends running back to the portal, being perused by devilish, dragon monsters, the armies still fighting. They see torn and battered Slayers limping to attack Leviathan’s creatures, even though they stand no hope of even slowing them down. Meanwhile with Yoln’s death the conduit to the mortal realm is breaking up. Dawn is fighting to keep the portal open and the land (which is really Leviathan himself) is reacting violently with “earth quakes” and volcanoes. The Earth can be seen (blocking out the sun) and rising. The Mouth tells the girls that all Leviathan needs now is enter the world through the gate, either through Willow now or Dawn (since she is holding it open) and then drain his “hosts” magic to manifest fully.
Seeing the death and destruction they realize there is only one way to keep it from getting worse. Grabbing hands, they jump into the gapping maw of Leviathan’s plane. Yup. I went for the “Thelma and Louise” ending.
Now everything goes berserk. Demons are running amok, trying to get out of the place. Angels find they are fighting the hordes of Leviathan AND retreating demons, the land is throwing fits more than ever, and then silence.
From the maw that Willow and Tara threw themselves in comes the reborn Leviathan. He was “force feed” all of Willow’s and Tara’s combined magic. Given the Anamchara rules that is quite a bit. He now stands over 200 feet tall and getting taller by the second, seven heads and full of anger. There is no way he can go through the portal now, so he is going to settle for killing everyone and everything on his plane. Time for the cast to run.
Of course I gave them the chance to get to the portal. Leviathan is chasing them down, roaring in anger. Then I need to decide what I should do with the characters. Leviathan is not a stated out monster, he is pure plot device. But I want the surviving characters to well, survive. Yeah I really, really wanted to off Spike. I felt he was representative of everything that I considered wrong with the show. The plan was that he was going to take the remote detonator for his chip and wait till the armies got on top of him then he was going to blow his own head off. But Garner convinced me otherwise. Plus I was already working on “Season of the Witch” at this point and he never showed there, but I figured I’d need him later. I did in fact for a Ghosts of Albion/Buffy crossover. I wanted to make him into a ghost and said as much very early on, but he ended up being a ghost in Angel, so I figured I could do better than that. So his player and I agreed that Spike was going to buy the rest of the cast time. He stood and fought the on coming demons and draconians to keep them a little bit at bay. That way if I needed him back I could, or if I needed him evil again then I can say Leviathan had been whispering in his ear all this time, the same thing he did to Yoln. At this point anyway I was borrowing heavily from Charmed so Leviathan’s plan was the same as the Demonic Wasteland. There were plenty of powers laying around there for someone with the will to use them. Spike could have come back (and still might who knows) like Cole did in Charmed.
The remaining cast get through the portal. Beaten, broken, but alive. They leave the ruins of the High School (they are shot out of the Hellmouth) and Dawn says the mouth is closed completely.
Cut back to a grey void where Willow and Tara are. Luna, the Seraphim, returns and offers them a choice. They can go to Heaven together as their reward, or the Summerlands if they prefer, or they can be sent back to Earth. Tara will loose some of her divine power she had before (the aura around her that induced fear in demons), but they will let her keep the ability to heal by touch.
They come back and we wrap up the game. Scenes of Xander’s and Anya’s wedding (this time a small private ceremony), Giles ends up catching the bouquet. Buffy’s martial arts class is still a big hit, we see her going on dates with Tony, the cop from Episodes 6 and 7. There are a few demons left in town, but most have cleared off. The last scene is Willow and Tara enjoying themselves (not like that!) at home. I don’t have it my notes, but they talked about how their lives are theirs to do with as they please. At that point Dawn comes in to tell Tara the phone is for her, it is her brother.
Covers
This may be one of my most favorite cover of the series. The idea was to only going to get Willow and Tara fans to write the episodes, play test and do the covers, and in particular only members of the Kitten Board. This one was done by Chris Cook who runs a website devoted to Willow and Tara in every universe. Called “Through the Looking Glass” it has tons of art, stories, and even games for the Willow and Tara fan base. The premise really mirrors that of this episode. I showed the multiverse where Willow and Tara are together in every reality. I also showed that in realities that they are not together are doomed to destruction. Chris shows us the realities where they are together. Have a look, http://www.uberwillowtara.com/ there is even some Dragon and the Phoenix art there as well. The various realities are all from various W/T fan fiction. The sources for them were stories from the Kitten Board, Different Color Pens fiction board and the old Willow and Tara fiction site, Extra Flamey.
And of note. This is my 100th post tagged "witch".
Next time, DS al Coda.
Willow & Tara: Cartoon Action Hour Season 2
I have covered a lot of this ground already, but I am surprised I had not actually posted this yet.
To follow-up on my review and write-ups of Cartoon Action Hour 2 I wanted to present my two witches. The power scale here is a bit different than say the Hex Girls, but it is still very do-able in CAH:2. In fact the power scalability here maybe one of Cartoon Action Hour's greatest strength.
So I am obviously going to start with my versions of Willow and Tara from BESM 3.0 and OVA. I think they both do a good job of capturing an "animated universe" version of the girls. CAH should actually do a bit of a better job really since it is so flexible.
With BESM 2r I was going more for a different universe deal. Same characters, different situations. With this I think I am more likely to go with the characters as they are in the Dragon and the Phoenix/Season of the Witch time lines. Just different viewpoint on the same characters and events. Plus it makes filling out the sheets easier since I have a very clear idea of who these characters are and what their motives are.
So going with Season 3 here there are somethings that are new to the world. Like for example everyone knows magic is real. While they don't hide they are witches they do hide how powerful they really are.
(For details on this world, you will have to wait till I post all of "Season of the Witch".)
Willow Rosenberg
Series: Willow and Tara, Season 3
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with red hair.
Factoids
- Is off-the-charts smart
- Fantastic computer hacker
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Tara
- Sold her computer company at age 25 so is very rich
- Can still be a bit insecure
Subplots
- Has anger issues
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears loosing Tara and loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 8 (24 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 2
Computer Expert/Hacker, AF 6
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Anger issues x1
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5
Threshold 18
Battle Rating 8
Tara Mclay
Series: Willow and Tara, Season 3
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with blonde hair.
Factoids
- Is empathic
- Artist
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Willow
- Is a councilor
- Can heal by touch
Subplots
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears Willow loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 7 (22 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 1
Books of Spells
- Albus Codex 2
- Journals of Tamara Swift 2
- Journals of Megan Mclay 2
Familar (MKF, adds +2 to Oomph), 4
Healing Touch (revives), AF 3
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5+2 (7)
Threshold 19
Battle Rating 7
To follow-up on my review and write-ups of Cartoon Action Hour 2 I wanted to present my two witches. The power scale here is a bit different than say the Hex Girls, but it is still very do-able in CAH:2. In fact the power scalability here maybe one of Cartoon Action Hour's greatest strength.
Keeping with the 80's vibe of the game, I'll use pictures of action figures.
With BESM 2r I was going more for a different universe deal. Same characters, different situations. With this I think I am more likely to go with the characters as they are in the Dragon and the Phoenix/Season of the Witch time lines. Just different viewpoint on the same characters and events. Plus it makes filling out the sheets easier since I have a very clear idea of who these characters are and what their motives are.
So going with Season 3 here there are somethings that are new to the world. Like for example everyone knows magic is real. While they don't hide they are witches they do hide how powerful they really are.
(For details on this world, you will have to wait till I post all of "Season of the Witch".)
Willow Rosenberg
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with red hair.
Factoids
- Is off-the-charts smart
- Fantastic computer hacker
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Tara
- Sold her computer company at age 25 so is very rich
- Can still be a bit insecure
Subplots
- Has anger issues
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears loosing Tara and loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 8 (24 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 2
Computer Expert/Hacker, AF 6
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Anger issues x1
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5
Threshold 18
Battle Rating 8
Tara Mclay
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with blonde hair.
Factoids
- Is empathic
- Artist
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Willow
- Is a councilor
- Can heal by touch
Subplots
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears Willow loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 7 (22 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 1
Books of Spells
- Albus Codex 2
- Journals of Tamara Swift 2
- Journals of Megan Mclay 2
Familar (MKF, adds +2 to Oomph), 4
Healing Touch (revives), AF 3
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5+2 (7)
Threshold 19
Battle Rating 7
Thursday, November 11, 2010
D&D4 Essentials: Druids and Rangers
So long time readers here know of my struggles with finding a good druid in D&D4. When the Player's Handbook 2 came out I was thrilled. I was getting a Druid and Bard class. Well the druid class was very disappointing to me. Concept wise it was more of a shaman than the shaman was i thought.
You can read the details of my search here:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/07/hybrid-class-playtest-and-character_28.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/few-updates.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/bodhmall-druidess-er-nature-priestess.html
In particular that last link where I attempt to re-build a character I have played in the past. Bodhmall is a druidess from the Fenian Cycle of Irish myth. She was one of the fosters of Fionn MacCumhail. Fionn, Bodhmall and Liath all feature rather prominently in the myths of my modern-era Unisystem games. So I have a pretty clear idea of who Bodhmall and Liath are and D&D4 didn't cut it. I was ok with Liath as a Ranger, and I'll admit I opted to change a few things about the character to fit the Ranger idea more.
Well now I have "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms" and all of that has now changed.
The new Druid class, the Sentinel, is almost EXACTLY what I wanted a druid to be. No more shape-shifting half-bestial attacks, the new Druid has an animal companion and no sight of any shape change. The powers do reflect what I want in a druid, though still not a perfect fit for Bodhmall. Though there is a simple fix for that. I can take some of the powers from PHB2's druid that I want. Things like "Primal Storm" come to mind and the Paragon Path "Keeper of the Hidden Flame" which is almost exactly what I had in mind for Bodhmall.
So not a 100% fit, but certainly 95%.
Her animal companion is a wolf; something that I did for a slightly different version of Bodhmall back in 3e. So I am pleased with that. Her wolf companion is named Cú Chulainn after the legendary hero.
Liath, her trusted companion and body guard (not that see will need this later on), is one of the new Scout sub-classes of Ranger. She takes the two weapon fighting and the wilderness tracker knack.
Bodhmall nic Tadg
1st Level Druid (Sentinel)
Human Female, Good Alignment, Deity: Brigit
HP: 26, Surges: 9
Initiative: +0 Speed: +6
Skills: Arcana +7, Heal +11, Insight +9, Nature +9, History +7
Languages: Common, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Primordial
Feats: Linguist, Jack-of-All Trades (both fit with my concept that Tadg, Bodhmall's father was a Druid of great learning and passed this down to his daughter).
Acolyte of the Natural Cycle: Druid of Spring
Prof: Staffs, Totems, Scimitar.
+1 Scimitars, spears, daggers and sickles
Animal companion: Wolf
Combined Attack
Healing Word
Reap the Harvest
Shillelagh
Herb Lore
Weapons: Staff (+2, 1d8), Scimitar (+3, 1d8)
Leather Armor (+2)
Liath Luchara
You can read the details of my search here:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/07/hybrid-class-playtest-and-character_28.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/few-updates.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/bodhmall-druidess-er-nature-priestess.html
In particular that last link where I attempt to re-build a character I have played in the past. Bodhmall is a druidess from the Fenian Cycle of Irish myth. She was one of the fosters of Fionn MacCumhail. Fionn, Bodhmall and Liath all feature rather prominently in the myths of my modern-era Unisystem games. So I have a pretty clear idea of who Bodhmall and Liath are and D&D4 didn't cut it. I was ok with Liath as a Ranger, and I'll admit I opted to change a few things about the character to fit the Ranger idea more.
Well now I have "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms" and all of that has now changed.
The new Druid class, the Sentinel, is almost EXACTLY what I wanted a druid to be. No more shape-shifting half-bestial attacks, the new Druid has an animal companion and no sight of any shape change. The powers do reflect what I want in a druid, though still not a perfect fit for Bodhmall. Though there is a simple fix for that. I can take some of the powers from PHB2's druid that I want. Things like "Primal Storm" come to mind and the Paragon Path "Keeper of the Hidden Flame" which is almost exactly what I had in mind for Bodhmall.
So not a 100% fit, but certainly 95%.
Her animal companion is a wolf; something that I did for a slightly different version of Bodhmall back in 3e. So I am pleased with that. Her wolf companion is named Cú Chulainn after the legendary hero.
Liath, her trusted companion and body guard (not that see will need this later on), is one of the new Scout sub-classes of Ranger. She takes the two weapon fighting and the wilderness tracker knack.
Bodhmall nic Tadg
Human Female, Good Alignment, Deity: Brigit
| Abilities | Defenses |
| AC: 14 | |
| STR: 10 | Fort: 15 |
| CON: 14 | |
| DEX: 10 | Ref: 13 |
| INT: 14 | |
| WIS: 18 | Will: 15 |
| CHA: 11 |
HP: 26, Surges: 9
Initiative: +0 Speed: +6
Skills: Arcana +7, Heal +11, Insight +9, Nature +9, History +7
Languages: Common, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Primordial
Feats: Linguist, Jack-of-All Trades (both fit with my concept that Tadg, Bodhmall's father was a Druid of great learning and passed this down to his daughter).
Acolyte of the Natural Cycle: Druid of Spring
Prof: Staffs, Totems, Scimitar.
+1 Scimitars, spears, daggers and sickles
Animal companion: Wolf
Combined Attack
Healing Word
Reap the Harvest
Shillelagh
Herb Lore
Weapons: Staff (+2, 1d8), Scimitar (+3, 1d8)
Leather Armor (+2)
Liath Luchara
1st Level Ranger (Scout)
Half-Elf Female, Good Alignment, Deity: Brigit
Abilities | Defenses |
AC: 16 | |
STR: 10 | Fort: 11 |
CON: 10 | |
DEX: 18 | Ref: 14 |
INT: 10 | |
WIS: 16 | Will: 14 |
CHA: 11 |
HP: 22, Surges: 7
Initiative: +4 Speed: +6
Skills: Endurance +5, Stealth +9, Heal +8, Insight +5, Nature +7, Perception +10, Diplomacy +2
Languages: Common, Elven, Giant,
Feats: Alertness
Knack for Success
Flashing Blade Mastery
Dual Weapon Attack (Dex vs. AC)
Prof: Simple Melee and Ranged,Military Melee and Ranged
Attack finesse (dex instead of str)
Power Strike
Aspect of the Cunning Fox
Wilderness Tracker
Weapons: Spear (+6, 1d8), Short Sword (+7, 1d6)
Leather Armor (+2)
Now how does this Bodhmal compare to the one I had done before? Well the "Nature Priest" from Advanced Player’s Guide is still rather close. But this new Sentinel Druid is much better now. I could for my own games see Druid as a Parent Class and have three sub-classes, Beast Master, Nature Priest and Sentinel. Sorta like we did back in the AD&D 2nd ed days.
All in all I am very pleased with the changes to the classes in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. I have some Warlocks I want to do next.
All in all I am very pleased with the changes to the classes in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. I have some Warlocks I want to do next.
Leverage RPG is now out
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85727&affiliate_id=10748
Like Smallville and other games from MWP, this uses a variant of the Cortex rule system. The system in Leverage is a streamline version designed to focus on what Leverage the TV show does best, crime and con games. So there is not the complexity of character building as you see in Smallville.
What is most interesting about this is that it really opens up the system to different types of play. You are no longer "killing things and taking their stuff", you are pulling a con...and taking their stuff.
What appealed to me right away is that with some tweaks you could run any type of Law and Order or CSI style game right away. Given the proliferation of these types of shows that would have some appeal.
So far I like the rules quite a bit even though I know nothing of the show it is based on. I do miss the classic skills listing though.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Cantrips for Original and Basic-Era Games
So following in the footsteps of the game's Advanced cousin and introduce the idea of cantrips, or 0-level spells.
These spells by their nature need to be simple things, plus they should also be useful to the magic-user in question. Little spells they learn to see the effects of spells in a teaching environment and something they can safely use while practicing. So given that cantrips must satisfy these requirements for me.
- They need to be simple effects.
- They should not cause damage.
- All the cantrips a magic-user knows will be learned in school before 1st level.
Also, given their nature, cantrips cannot be reversed. Unless otherwise stated a cantrip has no effect on a living creature. So a wizard cannot place an Arcane Mark on a person or animal nor can Warm be used to warm up a person. It can be used on a bed or blanket and then the person can use the now warmed bed or blanket.
Magic users know three (3) cantrips before 1st level + a bonus number equal to their Intelligence modifier. So a magic-user with Intelligence of 18 knows 3 + 3 cantrips, 6. This gives this 1st level magic use a total of 7 spells (6 cantrips and 1st level), a magically potent number.
Alarm Ward
Level: 0
Range: 50' radius
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: sets up an area of warning
With this spell the magic-user can set up a area of alarm 50' around his/her person. Any creature larger than a cat entering the radius will set off a mental alarm within the caster. They will not know what sort of creature had entered their area but they will know one has and the general direction.
Arcane Mark
Level: 0
Range: 1 object touched
Duration: Permanent
Effect: Leaves a permanent mark on an object
By means of this spell the magic-user can place a personal mark on any non-living item. This mark is usually a personal glyph or sigil that is recognizable to all other magic users. They may not know who the owner is, but they will know it is owned by another wizard. The mark itself is not magical.
Black Flame
Level: 0
Range: 1 normal fire
Duration: Instant
Effect: Colors one normal flame
This spell changes a normal fire into one with dark flames so it casts no light, but still provides heat. The fire loses some of it's heat. While the flames do provide heat they do not burn, though they are uncomfortable to the touch.
Chill
Level: 0
Range: 1 object touched
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: Lowers the temperature of one object to a few degrees
The magic-user can use this spell to lower the temperature of any non-living material up to 1 cubic foot. Typical uses are to cool food or drinks or even to cool the air in a room that is too warm. The temperature cannot be lowered to a degree where it would cause anything damage. The temperature can lowered to just above freezing.
Clean
Level: 0
Range: 1 object touched
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: cleans one object
This spell can be used to clean a single object. The object can be anything, clothing, armor, weapons or even a area of a home. Unlike other cantrips this one can be cast on a willing living participant. A magic-user casting clean on themselves will appear as they would if they had recently bathed and donned fresh clothing. This spell can clean 1 cubic foot of space or an area 10' x 10'.
Close
Level: 0
Range: Within 10' of caster
Duration: Instant
Effect: Closes an open, un-barred door or window.
This spell creates allows the caster to close one door or window that is not locked or otherwise barred. This cantrip will not lock the door or window unless by the action of closing it naturally becomes locked.
False Glamour
Level: 0
Range: One item
Duration: Instant
Effect: Makes one object appear to be an illusion
This simple illusion will cause a solid object or creature to flicker and blur faintly, as if it were a flawed image. Failed attempts to disbelieve the illusion will appear to succeed, giving the object or creature the false appearance of a translucent outline.
Flavor
Level: 0
Range: One item
Duration: Instant
Effect: Flavors one serving
This minor spell flavors one serving of food. The flavor can be changed but it does not change the nature of the food item nor does make poisoned food or spoiled food edible, similar to Freshen. The flavor can be chosen by the magic-user.
Freshen
Level: 0
Range: One Item
Duration: Instant
Effect: Removes wrinkles, flavors or brightens one object
This minor spell allows the magic user to "freshen" one object up to 1 cubic foot. Typical uses are to remove the wrinkles in a garment, brighten the color or some non-living object, or even make bland food more favorable, or polishing metal or glass. All these effects are considered to be a minor illusion. This spell cannot make poisoned or spoiled food edible.
Lift
Level: 0
Range:
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: Slowly lifts 1 pound or less of non-living material
The magic user may use this spell to lift an object via magic alone. The object needs to be non-living and weigh less than 1 pound. The object will remain floating in mid-air for up to one-hour as long as the magic-user is paying at least some attention to it. If the magic-user is distracted at all, say in combat or casting another spell (including a cantrip) then the object drops.
Mend
Level: 0
Range: 1 object touched
Duration: Instant
Effect: Fixes minor wear and tear in non-living and non-metal apparel
By means of this spell the magic-user can mend or repair non-living and non-metal material. Typically this spell is used on clothing to reattach a button, fix a tear or rip or other minor repairs. The amount of material mended cannot exceed 1 cubic foot. This spell can also be used on minor household wear and tear as well. It cannot fix a dented piece of armor or sharpen a sword, but it can reattach a leather strap to armor or fix a pane of glass if all the pieces are present.
Message
Level: 0
Range: 1 known person
Duration: Instant
Effect: Sends a quick message to a single person
By means of this spell the magic-user can end a brief message, no more than a dozen words, to a person they know. This person can be any distance away and be able to understand the magic-users language or at least the language of the message.
Mote of Light
Level: 0
Range: Within 10' of caster
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: Creates a small mote of light equal to candle light
This spell creates a small mote of light roughly equal to candle light that hovers near the magic-user's head. The spell is typically used for reading or lighting a small area (1 cubic foot). It is not a replacement for the Light or Continual Light spells. This spell cannot be cast into someone's eyes. The spell is not useful for lighting dark passages unless that passage is very well known (such as the magic-users' own home).
Open
Level: 0
Range: Within 10' of caster
Duration: Instant
Effect: Opens an unlocked, un-barred door or window.
This spell creates allows the caster to open one door, window, chest or other item that is not locked or otherwise barred.
Palm
Level: 0
Range: 1 small object
Duration: Instant / 1 hour
Effect: the caster can hide one small object
This spell allows the caster to take an object that would normally fit into a closed fist and make it disappear. The item is not invisible, it is simply gone. The item can be recalled up to one hour later. After one hour the item returns to the caster's hand.
Puff of Air
Level: 0
Range: Within 10' of caster
Duration: Instant
Effect: Creates a small puff of air. Enough to remove dust or put out one candle
This spell creates a small puff of air; enough to blow away dust from objects or to put out a candle, but not enough to put out a torch or lantern. The puff can move very light items as would a puff of air blown from natural means. This spell can be used to blow dirt from an item or area 10' by 10'.
Quick Sleeping
Level: 0
Range: 1 willing subject
Duration: 8 hours till woken up
Effect: Puts a willing target falls asleep
This spell allows the caster to make a willing creature fall asleep. The spell will not work if used against an unwilling subject. The caster can cast this spell on herself, but obviously, this will be the last spell that she casts in that day.
Sound
Level: 0
Range: Within 100' of caster
Duration: One Sound
Effect: Creates a ghostly moan 100' from the caster
By means of this spell the magic-user can create a ghostly moaning sound that appears to come from 100' from the caster. The moan is not loud nor can it quite cause fear, but any that hear it will know of it's "unnatural" nature.
Spark
Level: 0
Range: Within 100' of caster
Duration: Instant
Effect: Creates a small spark, enough to light a candle
The caster can light a single candle up to 100' feet away. This spell is not enough to start a torch, ignite oil or start a campfire unless there is something that burns very easy used; such as paper or old leaves. The effect is the same of a spark from a set of flint and steel. Some magic-users will use this spell to light a pipe.
Warm
Level: 0
Range: 1 object touched
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: Raises the temperature of an object a few degrees.
This spell will warm 1 cubic feet of material a few degrees. Typical uses are to warm food or drinks or even to warm the air in a room that is too cool. The temperature cannot be raised to a degree where it would cause anything damage.
Section 15 Copyright Notice
Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Reference Document Copyright 2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Bruce R. Cordell, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks is Copyright© 2003, Timothy S. Brannan and the Netbook of Witches Team.
Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game Copyright © 2006-2008. Chris Gonnerman.
Labyrinth LordTM. Copyright © 2007, Daniel Proctor. Author Daniel Proctor.
"Cantrips for Original and Basic era FRPGs" Copyright ©2010, Timothy S. Brannan
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