We are in the last few hours of voting for the ENnies. So here is my last ditch attempt to beg for votes.
Also, I wanted to test out this Facebook embed functionality.
So yes please. Vote for me!
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I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Plays Well With Others: Dark Albion: Cults of Chaos
A bit of history, I worked with author Dominique Crouzet quite a bit back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I know what sort of thing he likes (or at least liked) in this area, so I know I was going to be pre-disposed to like this. +Kasimir Urbanski is also the author and his contributions were going to be a bit more of a mystery. But I liked Dark Albion so my expectations were pretty good. Like Dark Albion, this book can be played with any flavor of D&D you like. It is simple enough and light enough on the "crunch" it can actually be played with just about any RPG really. While reading I Was thinking about it in terms of Pendragon, Cthulhu Britanica and other games.
Dark Albion: Cults of Chaos is the cults and cult-like groups book for the Dark Albion campaign setting/rules. The book itself is 92 pages (94 with covers). This includes 2 pages of character sheets, a cult sheet and the ogl. Minus title page and various bits we are looking at 80+ pages of solid content.
The art is all black and white and is a mix of newer art and woodcut designs. I am rather fond of the woodcuts myself, I love seeing these in books. I recognize a number of pieces as belonging to Dominique; so he is one of the artists as well as one of the authors.
The first part of the book deals with the cults. In particular their size, composition, what social class they come from (very important really) and of course their motivations and where their secret lair might be. Life of the cultist within the cult is also detailed to a degree. Enough anyway to get you thinking more about them. In particular what they do in the cult, why they might have joined and possible mutations. That one needs some more explaining.
Some cults are so exposed to the forces of Chaos that their cultist can begin to mutate. A great idea that I am glad to see here. Dom and I did something similar for Warlocks back in my 3.0 edition of my Witch book. So immediately I grabbed on that as something to use. The idea though has a lot of traction. There are similar ideas in Lamentations of the Flame Princess and I believe Dungeon Crawl Classics.
The next section covers running advnetures involving these cults. Obviously these cults are not menat to be a one-time adversary. They are meant to be reoccuring antagonists and potentially even the "Big Bads" of your game. This includes a number of NPCs, mostly normal level humans, that are involved in the their cults. Don't assume though that "0 Level" = powerless. Nobility wield a lot of power regardless of level, a noble in a cult can be very bad for a party of adventurers.
I might as well acknowledge the inclusion of the "Frog Cults". I still think "Frogland" is kind of dumb to be honest, but I don't mind these cults at all. In fact wasn't "Temple of the Frog" the first real adventure played in D&D and certainly one of the first ever published. The "Keepers of the Frogs" from Blackmoor could certainly fit as a DA cult.
Packed amongst all of this information are also tables of rumors and other information PCs can learn. I thought of this as the "Scooby Doo" section of the book; the PCs split up and search for clues.
We next get some sample cults and some examples of some cults in various dungeon settings. These are split up into low, medium and high level.
The appendicies are very interesting and include a section on Elves in Albion. This section reminded me a bit of a similar direction given in Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum. Indeed, one could use both books together to get a large, more detailed picture of the elves/fae/sidhe. DA tends to be low-fantasty compared to the C&S High(er) Fantasy. Still in niether case are these "D&D Elves", they still have more incommon with the likes Obereon, Titania and Puck than Tanis or Legolas.
The next appendix details a score cults of various types. All ready to drop in your game. The last appendix details sorcerery and chaos and the strange things that can happen when they mix.
We end with a cult creation sheet and a character sheet. The character sheet should be offered for free download, I think people would like it.
All in all a fun book. There is nothing here we have not seen before in one form or another, but to have it all one place with this particular presentation is great. I am reminded a bit of the old Witches and Pagans book from White Wolf that covered similar territory. I even pulled out my Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade to see if this would work well enough with it. It would take some work, but it could be done.
What strikes me most is how easiy it is to integrate this into any game you like. The crunch that exsists is easily converted. Since a lot of the die rolling deals with tables and their results, conversion is a simple process.
I mentioned in the past that Dark Albion is particularily friendly to +Jeff Talanian's Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Using a page from DA:CoC one could easily add DA style elves (and of course their cults) into the world of AS&SH. AS&SH style witches and warlocks seem particularily suited for the the chaos magic of DA.
In the end I thought this was a fun purchase. Glad to have it and glad to mine some ideas from it.
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I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Who You Gonna Call in 2016?
The 1986 version of the Ghostbusters RPG uses a proto-version of their later to be the wildly famous D6 system.
The nice thing about this version of the system is it so damn easy to use that I could recreate the characters in a very, very short time.
The system has you build your characters on a 12-point economy. Well, I took some cues from the cast as presented in the books and went with a 13-point economy on points. Maybe a little less for Kevin. One of the features (it's not a bug) of the Ghostbuster movies and cartoons is the characters are all pretty much characters. Look, I don't care how much you love the first movie. I love it more and Venkman is pretty one dimensional. Two-dimensional at best. Egon? The same. Ray has a bit more going on I think and so does Dana. Louis Tulley? No. BUT that is fine! It works for this game really, really well. So representing this cast with only 2 hours to get to know them is not a big deal.
So here they are, the class of 2016! I am presenting them in the style of the Ghostbuster ID Cards (dropping "telex" and putting in email).
Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy)
TRAITS (Talents)
Brains 5 (Paranormal research)
Muscles 3 (Brawl)
Moves 3 (Throw things)
Cool 3 (convince)
Brownie Points: 20
Goal: Prove Ghosts are real
email: DrAbby@gbi.net
Dr. Erin Gilberts (Kristen Wiig)
TRAITS (Talents)
Brains 6 (Physics)
Muscles 2 (Run)
Moves 2 (see)
Cool 3 (orate)
Brownie Points: 20
Goal: Pure Science
email: egilberts@gbi.net
Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon)
TRAITS (Talents)
Brains 6 (Engineering)
Muscles 1 (Brawl)
Moves 2 (fire weapon)
Cool 4 (charm)
Brownie Points: 20
Goal: Build cool stuff
email: SciBabe@gbi.net
Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones)
TRAITS (Talents)
Brains 3 (Local NYC knowledge)
Muscles 3 (Break Things)
Moves 3 (Drive)
Cool 4 (Charm or Fast Talk)
Brownie Points: 20
Goal: To protect her friends and city
email: pattyNYC@gbi.net
Kevin (Chris Hemsworth)
TRAITS (Talents)
Brains 1 (Basic life skills)
Muscles 4 (Lift)
Moves 3 (Attract Attention)
Cool 3 (Bluff)
Brownie Points: 20
Goal: To be a Ghostbuster, and maybe figure out the phone
email: yournamehere@gbi.net
I like it. They fit well.
I'll need to delve deeper into this system in the future.
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I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Monday, July 18, 2016
Alas, 4e (Part 2)
Over a year and a half ago I lamented the final loss of Fourth Edition D&D.
Whether it was the loss of the plans I had for the game, the game itself or the sizable investment I made in the rules I am not sure.
Tonight it is late, and I am working and looking across the room from my office to my game room where my Fourth Edition collection sits.
I loved the art. I loved the attention that was made to the design of the game. Was it D&D? I can't answer that for you. For me it was "near D&D" just like Pathfinder was/is. In some ways Pathfinder was more D&D 4 than D&D 4 was. They were cousins, born at the same time and whose grandparents had trouble telling apart as their favorite.
Since that post, I have been dipping every so little back into 4e. I am not planning on getting back into it anytime soon that is for certain. But I do wonder if someday I will.
I am also wondering about going all digital with 4e.
DrivethruRPG has a sizable collection now of Fourth Edition PDFs. A few I have already bought.
I could simply unload a few of those books, not sure how or where, and then rebuy them on PDF.
I love that 4e was very modular in layout. I very easily could cut up all the books and reshuffle them to have all the classes in one place, all the skills and feats in another. All the monsters, mostly alphabetic in yet another. The organization appeals to my innate sense of order and collection (or is that OCD?).
The real question is, is it worth it? Obviously, if I played the game more then yes. But I only dabble. Here and there now. I like the fluff. One day maybe I'll run the HPE Orcus vs. the Raven Queen arc in the Forgotten Realms under 4e. But not anytime soon.
Meanwhile, till I decide it is going to sit there and stare back at me. Taunting me.
What would you do?
---
I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Whether it was the loss of the plans I had for the game, the game itself or the sizable investment I made in the rules I am not sure.
Tonight it is late, and I am working and looking across the room from my office to my game room where my Fourth Edition collection sits.
I loved the art. I loved the attention that was made to the design of the game. Was it D&D? I can't answer that for you. For me it was "near D&D" just like Pathfinder was/is. In some ways Pathfinder was more D&D 4 than D&D 4 was. They were cousins, born at the same time and whose grandparents had trouble telling apart as their favorite.
Since that post, I have been dipping every so little back into 4e. I am not planning on getting back into it anytime soon that is for certain. But I do wonder if someday I will.
I am also wondering about going all digital with 4e.
DrivethruRPG has a sizable collection now of Fourth Edition PDFs. A few I have already bought.
I could simply unload a few of those books, not sure how or where, and then rebuy them on PDF.
I love that 4e was very modular in layout. I very easily could cut up all the books and reshuffle them to have all the classes in one place, all the skills and feats in another. All the monsters, mostly alphabetic in yet another. The organization appeals to my innate sense of order and collection (or is that OCD?).
The real question is, is it worth it? Obviously, if I played the game more then yes. But I only dabble. Here and there now. I like the fluff. One day maybe I'll run the HPE Orcus vs. the Raven Queen arc in the Forgotten Realms under 4e. But not anytime soon.
Meanwhile, till I decide it is going to sit there and stare back at me. Taunting me.
What would you do?
---
I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Review/Preview: Crimson Dragon Slayer 1.11
A while back I reviewed the Crimson Dragon Slayer game. I had some nitpicks with it but overall I liked it. This new Crimson Dragon Slayer, version 1.11, is a little different. IT is free, and if you bought the old one you can also get a combine version for the price of a click.
This "new" game streamlines CDS into a game that can be setup, taught and play begins in one hour.Not a small feat really. The new game distils everything that made the first CDS different and makes it work. The die system revolves around a d6 set of rolls, sometime 1d6, 2d6 or 3d6 (or even a 4d6) depending on the difficulty or even the new 0d6.
Everything is stipped down. Three basic races (human, elf, dwarf) and four classes (warrior, cleric, wizard, thief). Everything from combat to leveling up is designed to be simple. I see the same design philosophy here that I see in other stream-lined games. There is enough here to really attach some very interesting ideas to not counting the built-in campaign view. There is even a simple 3-page adventure to get your characters from level 1 to level 2.
There is still some work that needs to be done before this is a full product but so far there is a lot of promise here. I am very interested in seeing where this goes and what sort of options are available for higher levels. Right now the game is very fast and open and has a lot of potential.
For the right crowd of gamers this would make for a great afternoon diversion and for others it would become their game of choice. For the price you really can't beat it.
I think there are somethings here (and the promise of others) that I could steal for my own OSR games.
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I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Monstrous Mondays: Baby Bestiary Vol. 1
A while back I posted support for the Baby Bestiary vol 1 and 2. Volume 1 is now up for the Best Interior Art and Best monster/adversary ENnies and it is no surprise. The book is absolutely gorgeous.
+Andreas Walters has put together a fantastic book that is part monster manual, part field guide, part ecology book and a huge part art book.
The book is a densely packed 81 full-color pages. Easily one of the best-looking books to be nominated for an ENnie. Each monster description comes with details on what the young of each monster is called (a baby Hippocampus is known as a "fry" for example), how hard it is to train the young and other vital facts such as danger and intelligence levels.
The book would make for a great coffee table book really and I hope there is a nice leatherbound option in the future collecting both volumes.
Of course, the obvious choice here is the older gamer that has kids that LOVE monster books.
I have forgotten how many times I have had to go on rescue missions to my kids rooms to find my D&D books. I still have a Pathfinder book that I can't account for in fact! For younger kids a "baby monster" game, ala Pokemon, gotta catch them all, would be fantastic.
Since there is little to no "crunch" in this book it is compatible with a wide variety of games. Play your favorite game, use this book as your guide and go monster hunting with your kids.
In any case, this is a really fun book and I am really looking forward to Volume 2.
Don't forget to include the hashtag #MonsterMonday on Twitter or #MonsterMonday on Google+ when you post your own monsters!
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I am up for an Ennie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Ghostbusters (2016)
This weekend we went and saw the new Ghostbusters movie. Before I get into that I want to talk about the original Ghostbusters from 1984.
I love movies. I have seen thousands over the years, and Ghostbusters is one of my favorites. I love comedy and horror and grew up on a pretty steady diet of Saturday Night Live. Because of Ghostbusters I picked up my first psychology book. Ten years later I was getting a Ph.D. of my own in Psychology. I spent hours going over the paranormal section in my town's small, but fairly decent library. I was already a fan of horror and the occult by then, Ghostbusters made it all cool and new again.
For my games, I tried to make my cleric into the rough D&D equivalent of a Ghostbuster. I created two new spells, the sixth level "Father Werper's Crystal of Containment" and the seventh level "Father Werper's Crystal of Disruption". Both spells needed a pure quartz crystal, a round one for the containment spell and a prism-like one for the disruption. Yeah not really all that original, I was 15.
I even tried adapt bits of Chill for my use.
For years Ghostbusters ruled as my favorite all-time movies. I even recall sitting in my basement office about six or seven years ago wrapping Christmas presents while watching the Ghostbusters DVD commentary thrilled like it was brand new to me.
So it was with no small amount of trepidation and a lot of excitement when I heard about the new Ghostbusters.
I should not have worried.
The new Ghostbusters is every bit as good as the first and in some ways even better.
Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones are brilliant in their respective roles. McCarthy and Wiig make a great team that paly well off of each other. Plus I could totally buy into them being friends and rival scientists and then friends again. Leslie Jones is fantastic and Patty is a great and logical addition to the team, she certainly (as a character) hold her own with the crazy mad-science antics of the other three.
But I have to say this. Kate McKinnon steals every single scene she is in. Dr. Jillian Holtzmann is now my new favorite Ghostbuster ever. She is not just fantastic in her acting, but in everything, she is in and does. I have been a fan of hers for a while and this movie is finally allowing others to see how great she is.
The movie, by the way, is fantastic. The trailers do not do it any justice at all. There is a good story here, which the trailer never gives away, and a great villain. The cameos are fantastic and a nod to the true fans of the 1984 movie. Stay for all the credits for all the cameos. Unlike the first movie, this movie sets everything up for a sequel. A sequel that is very likely to happen given this weekend's box-office. Anything that gives us more McKinnon and more Holtzmann is fantastic in my mind.
If you are one of those complaining about an "all woman remake" because it is all women. Get over it.
This movie is great on its own merits and one I want to see again.
If you don't like remakes on general principle, well I can't help you there save to say that you should see this anyway.
The prevailing wisdom in Hollywood has been that an all-female cast is box office poison. I hope this starts to change things.
I grew up with Ghostbusters. Now my kids have a Ghostbusters they can grew up with. I think they have a pretty good deal.
---
I am up for an ENnie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
I love movies. I have seen thousands over the years, and Ghostbusters is one of my favorites. I love comedy and horror and grew up on a pretty steady diet of Saturday Night Live. Because of Ghostbusters I picked up my first psychology book. Ten years later I was getting a Ph.D. of my own in Psychology. I spent hours going over the paranormal section in my town's small, but fairly decent library. I was already a fan of horror and the occult by then, Ghostbusters made it all cool and new again.
For my games, I tried to make my cleric into the rough D&D equivalent of a Ghostbuster. I created two new spells, the sixth level "Father Werper's Crystal of Containment" and the seventh level "Father Werper's Crystal of Disruption". Both spells needed a pure quartz crystal, a round one for the containment spell and a prism-like one for the disruption. Yeah not really all that original, I was 15.
I even tried adapt bits of Chill for my use.
For years Ghostbusters ruled as my favorite all-time movies. I even recall sitting in my basement office about six or seven years ago wrapping Christmas presents while watching the Ghostbusters DVD commentary thrilled like it was brand new to me.
So it was with no small amount of trepidation and a lot of excitement when I heard about the new Ghostbusters.
I should not have worried.
The new Ghostbusters is every bit as good as the first and in some ways even better.
Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones are brilliant in their respective roles. McCarthy and Wiig make a great team that paly well off of each other. Plus I could totally buy into them being friends and rival scientists and then friends again. Leslie Jones is fantastic and Patty is a great and logical addition to the team, she certainly (as a character) hold her own with the crazy mad-science antics of the other three.
The movie, by the way, is fantastic. The trailers do not do it any justice at all. There is a good story here, which the trailer never gives away, and a great villain. The cameos are fantastic and a nod to the true fans of the 1984 movie. Stay for all the credits for all the cameos. Unlike the first movie, this movie sets everything up for a sequel. A sequel that is very likely to happen given this weekend's box-office. Anything that gives us more McKinnon and more Holtzmann is fantastic in my mind.
If you are one of those complaining about an "all woman remake" because it is all women. Get over it.
This movie is great on its own merits and one I want to see again.
If you don't like remakes on general principle, well I can't help you there save to say that you should see this anyway.
The prevailing wisdom in Hollywood has been that an all-female cast is box office poison. I hope this starts to change things.
I grew up with Ghostbusters. Now my kids have a Ghostbusters they can grew up with. I think they have a pretty good deal.
---
I am up for an ENnie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".
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