With some projects done, and others on hold (Basic Bestiary. Waiting for more art), I started a new project over my extended weekend.
The High Witchcraft Tradition
Well..."new" might be the wrong word.
I have a lot of notes from other projects that didn't quite fit or didn't get developed enough to get added. Plus this is a book I have been picking at for a while and have been calling my "Last Witch Book." If it is that remains to be seen, but I do have some great ideas.
Here is the shape of the book so far.
High Magic
It will include the use of High Magic, so magic that invokes spirits, demons, angels and the like. I would also like to include High Magic options for Magic-users. A bit like my Hermetic Mage Prestige class I did for 3.x.
Advanced
This book will be my first "true" book for the Advanced era. So compatibility with OSRIC, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, and Old-School Essentials Advanced is implied. Originally this book was going to be part of my "Basic Witch" series and focus on how I mixed AD&D 1st ed with the Expert set back in the day. I still might do that. I have a lot of ideas for that sort of play, but this is not the book for that.
Plus I will freely admit I am not as enthusiastic for D&D's future as I once was. I will buy D&D 5R, I will even likely play it a few times. But as much as I love digital and online games, that is not my preferred mode.
So instead of endlessly complaining about it, I am just going to focus my efforts into the types of games I DO enjoy playing. If you are looking for ragey click-bait, you won't find it here.
Best of the Old, Best of the New (Maybe)
I love my old-school games. I also am rather fond of new-school games as well. For me it has always been about maximum fun. So I would love to go back over some of the newer developments in games and see what can be ported back over. This one is not a guarantee. My focus first and foremost is a witch book from circa 1986.
Cover Art
For this book I am going to commission some original cover art. I have already been sending out emails to artists I want to work with and ones I have worked with in the past for this. And as much as I love the Pre-Raphaelite covers I have used in the past, I have something specific in mind for this one.
Waterhouse's "The Magic Circle" above was one of the ideas I originally had. I am, of course, sad not to use it for this book, but I also want something new.
I want this book to be really good. I want it to challenge my writing ability and game design ability. Plus I also want it to be able to cover any "so-called" witch written about in the "Advanced-era." If someone else's book/game/adventure set in the same era with the same or similar rule system and they have a witch character, I want my rules to be flexible enough and comprehensive enough that you could play that character using my rules. Lofty? Maybe. Do able? Certainly.
Potential High Witches
- Iggwilv, The Witch Queen of Perrenland
- Rhiannon
- Skylla
- Syluné, Witch of Shadowdale and a ghost.
- The Simbul, the Witch-Queen of Aglarond.
I have been tossing this idea around for a few years now. I finally hit a critical mass of notes to make it a real book. For me as much as for you, here are my posts about it.
Links to relevant posts
- The High Secret Order: The High Witchcraft Tradition
- Warlocks, Monsters, More Basic, and the LAST Witch Book
- Basic Bestiary and High Witchcraft
- Current Works In Progress: Basic Bestiary & High Witchcraft
- This Old Dragon: Issue #20
- This Old Dragon: Issue #114
- What Should an OSR Witch Do or Be?
- More thoughts on the Witch
- Which Witch is Which? Basic Era Edition
- Spell Research
- #RPGaDAY 2020: Day 11 Stack
- New Page: Appendix O and the Purpose of Research
- October Horror Movie Challenge: Witchcraft of the 70s
- "Excuse me, can you repeat that in Olde Arcane?"
- Prestige Class: Witch Priestess
- Prestige Class: Queen of Witches
7 comments:
South is definitely not a fun direction to go in mid-summer like this, though it's pretty much hot and humid everywhere right now. And I'm still stinging over that 2006 World Series.
A new witch book from Tim Brannan? Count me in!
So, the original "Witchcraft Supplement" (one of my treasured articles from Dragon #5) had Low Orders, High Orders, and Secret Orders. I've always wondered how that would actually look in a game. Usually Orders have grandiose names and histories, personalities, trappings, etc. What would that look like in the Witchcraft, envisioned by the author? He has good witches (apparently "Lawful") with the ancient witches being Priestesses (of whom?) Chaotic witches do Black Magic, with Low Orders doing a few minor spells and High Orders having access to major spells. Finally, the Secret Order witches sought "darker and more Godly" powers of devastation; from whom? Who did they bargain with? The supplement did a great job whetting my appetite, with questions I haven't had satisfactorily answered since. Your witch supplements come closest!
i prefer not to go south of CT/NYC, which is roughly the same latitude apparently, so total agreement there. :)
This sounds fantastic, really looking forward to using it in our 1e/2e hybrid.
@Anonymous, It should be perfect for it really.
@Slar, happy to hear that!
@The Malum, I have that as well. I am going to be re-reading it to get the right vibe. I won't copy it for obvious reasons, but I do want to be sure that my witch and that witch could co-exist in the same world.
@PT Dilloway and Nathan Irving, yeah I just love Chicago too much ever to leave it. Though I am still a St. Louis Cardinals fan.
Perfect! That's the right way to approach it! Much appreciated!
Post a Comment