Happy Birthday Larina!

Sort of.  I actually rolled the character up in July of 86 but I put her birthday down as October 25. It was one of those character quirks I gave her. She was born on the 25th but told everyone that her birthday was the 31st.  Yeah, a weird thing. We used real-world dates since we could never really liked the World of Greyhawk ones.

So for 32 years, she has been one of my favorite characters and my iconic witch for my books. She is also one of my favorite characters to get art of.   The most recent one comes from artist Hassly.

I discovered Hassly from his Patreon site with his Alice Kyteler, the "First" Irish Witch post.
My post was here and his is here.  I loved it.  She looked like, to me, that she could have been one of Larina's ancestors. I had to get a commission from him for my witch.

He posted his version of my witch today.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/larina-22225140

I love it. I wanted something that showed off her back tattoo and I am not disappointed.

So check out his Patreon, he has a bunch of other great pin-up style art.

I absolutely love getting art of my characters and love how every artist gives me something new. I have something REALLY special coming up next month.  Can't wait to share it with you all.

Which Witch is Which? Swords & Wizardry Edition

This month see the release of my version of the Witch for the Swords & Wizardry White Box.  If things go as planned I'll have the Winter Witch out this Yule and some others after that.

It has gotten some people asking if the books are all compatible (they are) and what features each book has to make it "Special".  I hope this help clears some of that up.

For starters, yes, there is some overlap.  The table of experience points and spells per level are all 100% the same.   There some spells in common.  For example, the 3rd level spell Bestow Curse appears in multiple books since a curse is so central to the archetype of the witch.  There is also a lot new material in each one.

The Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box

• The Witch class, levels 1-10
• The White Witch Tradition
• 76 unique spell (out of 183 total spells)
• Monsters, treasures, and magic items

The Witch: Hedgewitch for the Hero's Journey RPG

• New Race: The Gnome
• New Professions
• The Witch class, levels 1-10 
• Hedge Witch Tradition
• 80 spells new to The Hero's Journey
• 15 new monsters

The Green Witch for Swords & Wizardry

• The Green Witch tradition 
• The Green Knight and Huntsman classes
• New race for S&W Complete: Forest Gnomes
• 200+ witch spells
• 91 Druid Spells
• 61 Magic-User spells
• 43 Cleric spells
• Places of Power for Witches and other Spellcasters 
• Monsters
• Magic Items
• The Grand Coven of the Earth Mother for Witches and Druids

The Warlock for Swords & Wizardry

• The Warlock class and Traditions
• New race: The Tieflings
• Rules for goblin, hobgoblin and bugbear warlocks
• 160+ spells
• 50+ Warlock invocations
• New monsters including the Baalseraph, Calabim, Lilim and Shedim demon groups.
• Animal Lords and Faerie Lords
• New magic items

The Witch: Aiséiligh Tradition for Swords & Wizardry

• The Aiséiligh witch Tradition
• The Daughters of the Flame Coven
• 70+, new to Swords & Wizardry spells including never before published spells.

The Witch for Swords & Wizardry Continual Light

• The Witch for S&WCL
• Three new Traditions, The Light, The Dark, and Twilight Witches
• New Spells
• Seven New Monsters

The Witch for Swords & Wizardry Light

• The Witch for S&WL

Additionally, I have my other two OSR Witch books.

The Witch: A sourcebook for Basic Edition fantasy games
This book is designed with the "Basic" rules in mind.  So Holmes, Moldvay, or Mentzer or them modern clones like Basic Fantasy or Labyrinth Lord.  Largely compatible with my Swords & Wizardry line.  In includes:

• The Witch Class
• Six Traditions (Aquarian, Classical, Faerie, Family, Maleficia and Eclectic)
• 381 New Spells
• Monsters
• Magic items

Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay
Again this book is largely compatible with the S&W line, though in different ways than the Basic Witch is.  It includes.

• The Witch and Warlock classes (slightly different than the ones above)
• New Witch traditions, Craft of the Wise, Tradition of the Magna Mater,  Demonic, Faerie and Gypsy.
• New Warlock Lodges, The Dark School of the Scholomance, Fraternity of the Bones, Goetic, The Hermetic Lodge and The Secret Masters of the Invisible College.
• New Demons, the Calabim, the Shedim, the Lilim, and the Baalseraph.
• 248 spells

So 17 Witch traditions and 761 total spells!

Currently in the works:

The Winter Witch. the Winter Witch tradition, the Pact of Winter for the Warlock. New monsters and magic items. Lots of new spells.  New races

The Black Witch.  A B/X dedicated witch, levels 1 to 13.  The Black Witch Tradition (no, it's not what you think it is), lots of new spells, new magic items and maybe some monsters. Hags as a playable race.

and finally The Complete Witch a book that combines all these books into one.  Maybe...have not decided yet.

Mary Poppins: The White Witch (Swords & Wizardry)

It is no shock or surprise, but the White Witch has it's roots in Disney as much as it does in D&D.

There is no one character I can point to and say "that is it, that's her!" but a lot that I can take aspects of.  It all gets jumbled up a bit to be honest as the same character can also inspire different interpretations. 

No one is a better example of that than Mary Poppins.
In grade school, I forget what grade, I remember my teacher taking us all out of the classroom and we went out to this atrium area that was large and domed outside of the library and she read Mary Poppins to us.  I remember being very interested in it once she mentioned Mary knew a girl from the Pleiades. 

I have talked about Mary before.  I have even given stats for her as a witch and as a Time Lord.
My good friend and blogger Tim Knight over at Hero Press has a trailer up for the new Mary Poppins Returns and of course, he says she is a Time Lord.  I will admit I am very fond of that idea myself.

The new movie is coming out and I adore Emily Blunt. I can't think of a single thing I have seen her in that I didn't like and think she was the reason it was as good as it was.

So in the case of going back to my roots, here is Mary, as a White Witch.

Mary Poppins
10th Level White Witch Tradition
From Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 18

HP: 42

Alignment: Lawful

AC: 7 [12] (coat equal to leather)

Saves Base: 6

Occult Powers

Familiar: Jackdaw (Raven)

4th level: Herbal Healing (with a little drop of sugar)

7th level: Create Magic Items

10th level: Coven* (Mary gets the benefits of a coven when she is with a family)

Spells 
Cantrips: (6) Alarm Ward, Animate Tool, Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, Object Reading, Warm
First: (4) Analgesia, Animal Friend, Detect Danger, Speak with Animals
Second: (3) Augury, Healing Broth, Raven Spy
Third: (3) Animal Summoning I (Ritual), Calm Animals, Fly
Fourth: (2) Cleanse, Joyous Tidings
Fifth: (2) Animal Summoning III (Ritual), Enchant Item (Ritual)

Equipment
Bag of Holding, Umbrella (serves as staff and witch's broom), Bowtie, Jaunty hat (witch's hat), tea-set.

Using Mary in Your Games
Mary, of course, works best when there are children about. If your game has younger children as the Player Characters then Mary practically, as she often does, invites herself in.
For me, I am planning on using her in various "flashback" episodes with the current characters.

Charmed Season 1, Episode 2 "Let This Mother Out"

Last night's Charmed episode felt like a "proper" Charmed episode in tone, but not one we would have ever seen on the Original Series. 

The girls, still grieving for their lost mother are also dealing with new sister issues.  While in the original series it took Piper a while to really accept Paige as her sister, since her and Prue were so close, here we see Mel as the one more reluctant to "replace" her mother with Macy.  Maggie, the empath, is the one that acts as the bridge much the same way Phoebe did.

Of course Original Charmed would not have used Grams or Patty in the same way they used Marisol here.  And in the case of Prue they really couldn't have done it nor I think would they have tried.  In this way, the New Charmed ups their horror game a little.  These are demons and they will play dirty; no one is off limits.

We also get some very-Charmed like shenanigans of the truth potion getting mixed up and Maggie hearing every thought whether she wants too or not.

Also, the plot here of not trusting the Whitelighter is something you not have seen in Charmed before.  Leo was immediately trustable. Plus I don't see Harry falling in love with any of the Charmed ones anytime soon.

I would call this one a step up from last week, though last week was still a good showing.  Last week's was Macy's spotlight (though all the girls shined) and this week was Maggie. 

Next week look downright scary!

RPG Applications
I figure if I am going to do Charmed reviews each week I might find something in every episode to use in my games. Here are a few things I was working on.

Veritas (Truth Spell)
Level: Witch 1
Range: Touch*
Duration: 1 hour per level
By means of this spell anyone touched by the witch will be forced to speak nothing but the truth for the duration of the spell.
Material Components: The south facing bark of a willow tree, the pin feathers of a migratory bird, and the moss from the north side of a stone.

Spirit Boards
These boards, sometimes known as spirit boards, witch borads, or even Yes/No or Yes/Yes boards, are used to contact the spirits of those departed. Using one a witch or other spellcaster gains a 5% or +1 to any roll that may be required or -1 or -5% on any roll used to oppose the contact.
There is always a chance that a trickster demon known as an Imposter will answer the call instead.

Trickster Demon, Imposter
Hit Dice: 3
Armor Class: 8 [11]
Attacks: 2 claw (2x1d4)
Saving Throw: 15
Special: unique kill, +1 better to hit.
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1
Challenge Level/XP: 5/240
Trickster demons are notoriously chaotic and never appear the same way twice.  Imposters though are Tricksters that appear as a recently passed loved one.  Despite how they may look they are not undead. These demons usually find ways into our world via spirit boards.  (Trickster Demons that attach themselves to spirits coming through are known as Travellers.)
These demons are immune to all non-magical weapons.  The only way to permanently destroy these demons is to reduce them to 0 hp and then show them their own reflection.

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Don't forget the Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box is now out! Featuring the White Witch Tradition.  It is 100% compatible with my other Swords & Wizardry witch books.  Each one with a new tradition, occult powers, magic items, spells, and rituals.  Many even include new monsters.

Basic Instincts, Part 2

Last week I posted a Lulu version of a possible POD for the D&D Basic book; B/X flavor.
I think it went a long way in showing that a Basic book POD is a viable solution.

To further that end, here is a book from roughly the same time period and with a similar scan. 
The Gamma World boxed set is more of a contemporary with the Holmes D&D boxed set but it is also currently in POD on RPGNow/Drivethru RPG and I got my book in the mail last week.

The cover is the same as the box art. As opposed to the cover of the book inside the box.

All of the box contents are reproduced in the book. Except for adventure and dice.

The text is rather clear and very easy to read.  In fact reading through this again today I found things in the rules that I either forgotten about or never knew!

It is in much better shape than my old GW book.

The PODs from WotC/DriveThru keep getting better and better.  So there is a reasonable expectation that a Basic set POD will look much better than my 15-minute effort.

Looking forward to seeing more PODs from Wizards/DriveThru and hopefully, Basic/Expert D&D will be part of that!

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Don't forget the Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box is now out! Featuring the White Witch Tradition.  It is 100% compatible with my other Swords & Wizardry witch books.  Each one with a new tradition, occult powers, magic items, spells, and rituals.  Many even include new monsters.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Heart & Souls 2nd Ed

So sorry this is late.

Today's Kickstarter is one I just found out about and it looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Hearts & Souls 2e

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041295240/hearts-and-souls-2nd-edition-tabletop-role-playing?ref=theotherside

I have the first edition of the game and it is fun.  It's a different system from other Supers games, but still one that I enjoy.

According to author Tim Kirk this game will be cleaned up and some example made more clear.  Also new art.

Please give this one a check! It should be a lot of fun.

If I get the chance maybe I'll stat up some characters using the 1st Ed version.

The Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box

It's 13 days till Halloween.
What better way to celebrate than with

The Witch for Swords & Wizardry White Box!

A complete set of rules for the witch class for the Swords & Wizardry White Box RPG.

Inside you will find:

• The Witch Class (levels 1-10)
• The White Witchcraft tradition
• 183 witch spells
• 76 brand new spells
• 18 monsters 
• New treasure and magic items

All for your Swords & Wizardry White Box old-school games!

And 100% compatible with all my Swords & Wizardry witch books/traditions.

Cover art by A.E. Short.
Some interior art by Anna Marine:

Available NOW in both PDF and Print on Demand formats.

Joyous Samhain and Happy Halloween!!