Heartbreak & Heroines

Today I stumbled on this new RPG on Google+ and was lead to it's page over at Kickstarter.  It has me very intrigued.

The game is called Heartbreak & Heroines and you can find it's Kickstarter page here, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/caoimhe/heartbreak-and-heroines-rpg

Now my first reaction to this game was one of excitement.  This sounds like a great game and it fills a needed place in the RPG community.    My later reaction, after reading some of the other hype about this game, was we couldn't get this game fast enough.

Here is something about the game from the site.

Heartbreak & Heroines is a fantasy roleplaying game about adventurous women who go and have awesome adventures -- saving the world, falling in love, building community, defeating evil. It's a game about relationships and romance, about fairy tales and feminism.

You play a fantasy heroine (or hero, if you prefer) whose heart has been broken. She's experienced some loss so great that she's taken up her sword, her tome, her staff, or her wand and walked away from her place in society -- by becoming one of its defenders, fighting back the darkness that endangers everyone.

Heartbreak & Heroines is first and foremost a fantasy adventure game. It's not preachy and it isn't a textbook about feminism, but it's written from a feminist point of view. It challenges some of our assumptions about the role of gender in gaming but at the heart of H&H, it's about being a heroine (or hero) and finding your way to happiness in a dangerous world. I hope to produce something that Dwayne (McDuffie) would have enjoyed reading.

And the art looks good too. Here is a sample of the cover.

I have to admit it reminded me of this:

The author, Caoimhe Ora Snow, is unknown to me, but she has a blog or two or three, and a couple of threads over at RPG.Net one of system notes and another that is a FAQ.  This of course has lead to the predictable thread denouncing the game (a game none of the posters have read mind you) on RPG.Net as well.   Though the one thing, the one fact really, that stands out is this game made it's goal and then some in 48 hours.  I have known some Kickstarter games that can't do the same in 48 DAYS.

The system is the same as found in Wandering Monster High School, which is here, http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/wandering-monster-high-school  and may just a little related thematically to another game the author has done, Awesome Women Kicking Ass, http://boldpueblo.com/downloads/awka/awesome-women-kicking-ass-1.0.pdf

It is also beginning to make some noise on the various blogs.  But it should not surprise anyone that these are generally more positive.
http://nitessine.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/delicious-flamewars-heartbreak-and-heroines/
http://errantgame.blogspot.com/2011/07/heartbreak-heroines.html
http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=5800
http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/from-the-mailbag-heartbreak-heroines-win-mtg-wtf/
http://gmskarka.com/2011/07/19/inclusion-in-rpgs/

I think the idea is an interesting one and I am glad to throw some support behind it.

These Dwarves...

Look freaking awesome.

I am glad they don't look like D&D dwarves or Rankin/Bass dwarves or even the ones I pictured in my head when I read the Hobbit the first time.

I am so looking forward to this movie and I have every faith in Peter Jackson's vision.

Alas, Borders

I have waxed on about Borders and it's previous incarnation Waldenbooks before.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/04/o-is-for-otherworlds-club.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/09/reflecting-on-d-sometimes-you-cant-go.html

Sad to report that Borders is now facing it's final doom.

I will miss Borders, even if I rarely if even buy gaming material there anymore.

The trouble I think is the same reason why you don't see that many old-school record stores anymore.  The digital media revolution came and Borders did not change fast enough.  Yes there was also that revolving door of CEOs, and I have heard others complain about how the quality of the stores just went down hill.

I feel bad for the employees; this is a hard time to be out of work.  I still feel bad for the company too, they seemed to have been doomed really since the start of the 2000s.  And I also can't help but feel a tinge of guilt.  Sure there was nothing *I* could have done.  But I did choose to buy from Amazon and my FLGS instead, though my involvement one way or the otehr would not have helped Borders.  It will help my FLGS though.

I hate to see this happen all the same.

Pipes of the Susurrus: Sleeping not yet dead...

"I watched as the faerie woman produced a long flute that appeared to be carved from the leg bone of some animal.  At least I hoped it was animal.  She began to play the horrific looking instrument and despite her effort the music, if indeed it could be called that, never rose above the level of a whisper.  The small army of undead soldiers chasing us suddenly stopped and began to sway to her phantasmagorical playing.  She paused briefly and took the flute from her lips.
'Come now.' She said, winded from her playing. 'The dead do not sleep long under the susurrus.'"

- From the Journal of Larina Nix

In many role-playing games that feature vampires, zombies, and other forms of the walking dead, one feature is fairly constant.  The Undead are immune to sleep, charm, and other mind-affecting magic.  In Ghosts of Albion for example the dead do not sleep, in most fantasy RPGs you also can't charm them or use some form of mind-affecting magic to get them to do your bidding unless you are the necromancer that summoned them.

Given that undead are frequently encountered (even outside of horror games) and used as adversaries then it should stand to reason that someone would have found a way around this.  Well in my games it is the fae or maybe the elves in yours.

The following text is released as Open Text under the OGL.  No other part of this post or art is released under the OGL.

Pipes of the Susurrus

Pipes of the Susurrus or Susurrus Pipes appear as a variety of different woodwind instruments.  The most common is that of a flute, but pan pipes are also common enough.  Rumor persists of a greater Pipes of the Susurrus in the form of a set of bagpipes and created by the Queen of the Seelie Court herself.

In all cases, the pipes are made of bone.

In order to use the pipes, the wielder must have the appropriate skill (Perform, Music, Instruments, or what is acceptable in your system) and spend time practicing the unique music that comes from the pipes.
Once done then they may use the pipes to induce a sleep-like state in all undead that can hear the music.  The stupor remains with them for the duration of the playing and for half that time again.  If the undead are attacked then the spell is broken.

Alternately a spellcaster can spend some time with the pipes and use it as a new material component when casting spells that would normally be ineffectual against the undead.  This extends to sleep, charm, and hold spells, but not to ESP or other mind-reading spells.

Pipes of the Susurrus are very rare. The secret of their manufacture are not known to many and the ones that have been made are often destroyed. Intelligent undead (Vampires, Liches, Ghosts) know them on sight and will make all attempts to destroy them.  The undead fears the pipes since they induce not a sleep-like state for them, but a death-like state, and most undead fear death more than mortals do.

Section 15
"Pipes of the Sururrus" Copyright 2011, Timothy S. Brannan

Monster Mash Movie Blogathon

I am joining the ranks of the Monster Movie Blogathon over at Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear.

For my participation I'll be watching the 1958 classic "The Screaming Skull".  It's for research.  I promise.

ENnies Voting

The 2011 ENnies Voting has begun.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/

Please go now and vote for your favorite product or company.

For me I am voting a fairly straight ticket of Dresden Files and D&D like products.

I'd also like to put out a plug for Kurt Wiegel from Game Geeks as a 2012 judge.
He is a huge RPG evangelist and he gets to try out a lot of games.  I think his honesty (and frankly his exposure to all sorts of games) makes him a great potential judge for 2012.

So please. Make your voices heard.

Zatannurday: Justice League Dark

I have not talked about the big DC Reboot coming up in September.
For the most part I am looking forward to it, but I am not happy about loosing Oracle.   But today is Saturday and that means we are talking about Zatanna.

Here is the cover for the new title Justice League Dark.

The title deals with all the DC magical heroes dealing with all things dark and dangerous.  So Zee, John, Madame Xanadu.  I am hoping to see some Raven there too.

Here is JLD #1.

Looks like they are going after Enchantress.  This should be fun.
More information is here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_League_Dark

This might be one of the first comics I buy on a regular basis. Hope it is good.