New Book: Darwin's Guide to Creatures, Mythical and Mundane

My current big project is "Darwin's Guide to Creatures, Mythical and Mundane" a creature book for the Gaslight RPG (OGL and Savage Worlds)

I got on this since it covers many of my interests well.  I love old bestiaries, the Victorian age and my interest in Darwin himself.

I thought that since today was Darwin Day, Id spend some time talking about this book.

For starters it is a monster manual.  Creatures mythical and mundane to pit against your Gaslight characters.
It is circa 1888 and we are at the height of the Late Victorian Empire.

The book is written as a naturalist guide, similar in some respects to Darwin's work on the Galapagos Islands in his study of finches.  I tried to put myself into Darwin's shoes and write about orcs and trolls as if he had seen them himself.  Not an easy task.  I also tried whenever possible to avoid any supernatural agencies.  That was particularly difficult.   I rather like what I did about elementals, but less so about undead and will have to edit them a bit.

To prep for this book I reread Darwin's greatest work, "On the Origin of Species".  If you have never read this, then please do.  It is a masterwork and so ahead of it's time.  This man, through careful and painstaking observation put together this theory of common descent and change of species over time.  I know from reading his autobiography that this was not an idea he took lightly.  He knew that this would not sit well with the clergy and especially his religious wife.  But he also knew it had to be done.

Reading his autobiography got me to one of the key conceits of the book.  The book is "published" in 1885 or thereabouts.  Darwin was of course dead by that time.  It is edited from years worth of notes by his son William Erasmus and his daughter Etty.

I wanted to stay true to the spirit of Darwin, if not the letter, but I also wanted to stay true to the game system and world.  Gaslight is a world where Dracula preys on maidens in their bedchambers while Sherlock Holmes peruses Jack the Ripper and Mr. Hyde in the streets of White Chapel.

This is also giving me a chance to stat up some monsters that I have not had the chance to try out yet.  In particular some dinosaurs.

Looking forward to getting this one out there too!

Cross posting this to The Freedom of Nonbelief.

Unearthed Arcana

Was going to play some 1st Ed AD&D yesterday.  Didn't quite get around to it, but I did get to my FLGS and pick up a copy of the new limited reprint of Unearthed Arcana.

As with the first reprints, these are very similar.  Though these new ones are supposed to include all the errata.  I have not looked closely enough to be able to tell.

The only main difference outside of the covers and errata is the copyright page.

It fits in well with my other reprints.
Unlike the PHB, DMG and MM there isn't a page for the Gygax memorial.  I don't think and have not heard if any money from this is being donated.

In any case this is a nice book to have.  Unlike others of the old school mindset I don't hate UA. In fact I rather liked it. I loved all the new spells and class options.  The cover is not quite as iconic as the others, but it looks fine here.

Useful Links

Good morning all.  Lazy Sunday here at the Other Side today.

Might get some 1st Ed AD&D today.  Might not.  No idea yet.

But here are some links for you to enjoy.

First is AnyDice.
I have seen this on a few blog posts.  But you can use it to figure out any dice distribution.
Here are the AnyDice calcs for my own "Chicago Way" of running Unisystem games.
As a stats geek (actually former stats professor) I like this site and can appreciate the work that went to it.
I you can, take the time to send them a dollar or two.

Another is Pulp-O-Mizer.
This comes to me courtesy of Rebecca's Dystopia.
Create your own Pulp magazine cover.  I saw this and immediately thought of Call of Cthulhu and Amazing Adventures.
In my mind adventures for pulp games should look like pulp magazines.

Natural History of Dragons

Just saw this over at one of my favorite blogs All Things Urban Fantasy.

A Natural History of Dragons. With some kick ass art by Todd Lockwood and written by Marie Brennan.

I need to get this for my son!

I have been following the books of Marie Brennan for a bit.  I have some, but have not read them yet.
I am looking forward to this.

And they are also giving away 3 copies.

Zatannurday: World's Finest

This image is floating around the various game blogs this week.
It comes from Kyle Latino and it is pretty cool.

http://kylelatino.deviantart.com/#/d5t9pg6

All my favorite DC characters playing a game of D&D.  And to further make this more about me (!!) I also worked at Pizza Hut in college.  The Mt. Dews are a nice touch.

Kyle has a lot of cool stuff on his Deviant Art page and his own webcomic.

So what characters do you think everyone is playing?
I'd like to think Zee would try out something like a Barbarian like Dresden did when he played "D&D" in the books.  Batgirl plays the cleric, Black Canary plays the Wizard (to irritate Zee) and Hawkgirl plays the thief, but she is not enjoying it as much as she might like.

He also a cute retro Zatanna.


Zatanna by ~kylelatino on deviantART

Stop by his DeviantArt page and comic and have a look!

Maleficent

Why didn't you people tell me about this?

Staring Angelina Jolie, produced by Disney (they own everything we just need to get used to it) and written by Paul Dini???

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587310/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maleficent_(film)

I swear it's like I don't know any of you anymore. Or you all me.

EDITED: Adding another image.

"Fate"ful Friday

One system that I have been wanting to do more with is Fate.

I didn't pledge on the recent Fate Kickstarter mostly because it slipped my mind and I am not actively playing Fate right now.  My loss really.

This week I discovered two very EXCELLENT reasons for me to start looking into Fate more.

First are the Thematic Fate Dice.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1343279035/thematic-fate-fudge-dice-mystic-rose

Honestly these things are awesome looking and that Pentagram and Rose die would be perfect for a WitchCraft game even if I never used it for Fate. If you like Fate or Fudge, then there is certainly something there for you.

The other is part of the Fate Core Kickstarter that I am kicking myself for not paying better attention to is a campaign setting, "White Picket Witches".  If you know anything at all about me then honestly it is like this game was custom made for me.  Modern horror with a slight Cinematic bent featuring an unique location with families of witches?  How can I possibly say no?

Here are some sites that I have been able to find that talk a bit about it.
Fate of the Drowning Woods blog is running playtests/demos, http://wingsfate.blogspot.com/search/label/White%20Picket%20Witches and it sounds very interesting.
This lead me to http://www.gamingaswomen.com/posts/2013/01/design-diary-borrowing-far-and-wide/.

From here I was able to find the author, Filamena Young and the company she works for, Machine Age Productions.  I was able to talk with Filamena for a bit and she sent me a prelim draft of WPW.
Yeah. It is something I would play in a heartbeat.

I am not 100% clear on all the Fate rules yet.  But this setting of five families on "Moon Island" grabs my attention.  I have waxed on (and on and on) about WitchCraft and Witch Girls Adventures, this is of the same ilk, though it covers completely new ground.  The name is appropriate.  In WitchCraft the world is your stage, in Witch Girls you are at a school.  Here the campaign is your backyard, your office, your school, or neighbor's house.

There is a solid "TV" feel to this and frankly this could easily be a "teen drama" on the CW or a more adult one on ABC, or a lot more adult one on HBO/Showtime.  If this gives you ideas for things you could do, then this could be your new game.

I love the ideas in this game. Even if I never play it in Fate (which I do think would be a crime if I didn't) I would love to try it in WitchCraft, Witch Girls or even Ghosts of Albion.