Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Why 1986?

So, one has to ask: why 1986?

It is a legitimate question and one that lingers under both Jackson, IL, and Advanced Witches & Warlocks.

I am not talking about the 1980s as a whole, or nostalgia for its own sake. You will find your share of cassette tapes and denim jackets here, horror paperbacks and D&D books with well-worn corners; they are part of the ambiance and atmosphere. I mean this year in particular. Why 1986?

State of the Art for AD&D 1986

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, it is a strange and handy vantage point. If you go back to the 1974 boxed set, Dungeons & Dragons was almost thirteen years old by then. It was no longer a child. It had acquired a history, some scars, a few good arguments, and traditions. It was a teenager now. At times awkward, at times brilliant, occasionally too sure of itself, and sometimes hard to put a name to, but full of potential. In other words, a bit contradictory. A Witch book from this time should also be like that.

The first flush of the D&D/AD&D gold rush was done with. The game was a culture in its own right, having made its way from college clubs and basements into hobby shops, school lunchrooms, news stories, and even church warnings. With the Monster Manual, the Player’s Handbook, and the Dungeon Master's Guide, AD&D had a core identity and dictated how you were to think about fantasy adventure.

And yet it was in flux. Ravenloft was already on the scene, making a theatrical and tragic impression with its brand of gothic horror. Dragonlance had happened that placed more emphasis on charcaters as characters than previously. Note: Both Ravenloft and Dragonlance became part of what has been called the Hickman Revolution, and often the start of the Silver Age of D&D. The Forgotten Realms were coming, destined to be one of the big shared campaign worlds. So yes, 1986 has a liminal quality to it. AD&D was past its rawest beginnings but not yet the highly branded ecosystem it would turn into. Things were changing. 

That is exactly where the Witch belongs. In the space between the little brown books and the grand campaign worlds, between a dungeon crawl and some gothic melodrama. Between the wargame heritage and the kind of character play we were doing, even if the rules didn’t quite say so. That is what I am are after with Advanced Witches & Warlocks. Not some modern witch retrofitted for AD&D, nor a twenty-first-century class in old-school dress. I want a witch who could have been there, one you might have found on the same shelf as the old hardbacks in a used bookstore, in an era when parents got nervous seeing their kids sketch pentagrams in their notebooks.

She was always in AD&D waiting to be written down, but 1986 is when I can see her most clearly.

As for Jackson, IL, 1986 is important for another reason. It is one of the last moments before "the world wakes up from history."  You get the sense of it from "Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones, though that song is from the early 90s, after the walls came down and things were moving too fast to keep up. 1986 is still on the other side of the mirror. The world was not yet as small as the internet would make it. You couldn’t check a fact in five seconds flat or send off a text to all your friends from the cemetery. From the comfort of your bedroom, you were not going to put your hands on a satellite map, or some scanned newspaper archive, or find what you needed on a message board. Information was something you had to go and get. It had a place.

So you went to the library to check the archives. You hopped on your bike and made the trip across town. You put in a call to someone’s home with the hope their parents would not be the ones to pick up. You made notes, copied down an address, and then you waited. The world was bigger like that, which is why it was so easy for shadows to take hold.

Horror needs that.

In Jackson, secrets have a way of surviving because the town is local enough for them to. Rumor has speed, but it is not even. There are things the adults know that the teenagers do not, and vice versa. And while there are records, they are sitting in a file cabinet, a yearbook, the church basement, or a box in some attic. A haunted town requires some friction. 1986 provides it.

But one must be careful with 1986; it is not as innocent as it seems. That is the trap when you write about the eighties. You can make the decade into set dressing with its neon and synthesizers, its malls and hairspray and horror films. I am fond of all that, but it does not cut it. If the year is to have any meaning, it must also have horror and pain; it has to hurt a little.

January 28, 1986, hurt.

When the Space Shuttle Challenger came apart 73 seconds into its flight, all seven on board were lost. NASA will tell you it was the STS-51L mission, and with Christa McAuliffe involved, many a schoolchild was tuned in. It was supposed to be routine. Easy. For my generation, it was one of the first times we saw a public tragedy in real time.

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Reactor 4 suffered a catastrophic meltdown. All our fears about nuclear power played out for us on our TVs. The great specter of nuclear meltdown was now on our evening news, delivered by Tom Brokaw.

We had known the world was not safe, but this was different. It came into the classroom and put an end to the promise we had been fed. Space was our future, the shuttle was routine, the teachers were going up there, and the adults were in charge. Then the sky opened up, and you could see the horror on the faces of the very same adults.

That is what I want in Jackson. Not as a plot device to be used up, but as atmosphere. A fracture in the adult world. A teenage witch in 1986 is surrounded by grown-ups who will tell you they have everything under control despite the evidence to the contrary. You come to realize there are no paladins or wizards; they do not have the spell memorized, and sometimes they built the machine without heeding the warning that it might break. Once you see that, the world is a different place. It is more than innocence lost. It is the thin veil of lies about innocence. 

I talk about it a lot here, but even the Satanic Panic has its part to play in both projects. With Advanced Witches & Warlocks, it is the cultural Zeitgeist that makes D&D seem perilous to those who cannot fathom it, lumping in heavy metal, the occult, and a teenager’s imagination as one great threat. It was stupidity, but stupidity has a way of shaping a culture. Just watch the news today.

In Jackson, IL, it is more than useful. A moral panic lets the respectable sort act on old fears. The girl was always a bit odd; the house was already off-limits, and the symbols in the notebook were being noticed. The Santic Panic just gave them leave to do something about it.

You don’t need the Satanic Panic to make a witch. What it makes is an excuse for one to be hunted, feared, and reviled. And that is the more frightening part.

Then there was the music. By 1986, you could still hear the early synth-pop and New Romanticism of the decade’s opening, but the center had moved. The hair metal era was on its way to taking over the landscape, though not yet in full force. 1986 is the space between those things. It is not one note. That is significant.

It is a year of transition. You can feel the afterglow of Live Aid from ’85, and Farm Aid had only just been held back in September out of concern for American family farmers. I put some weight on that because Farm Aid was in Champaign, Illinois, and that puts you in Jackson’s orbit, in the Midwest.

The music wasn’t merely an escape. It was making an effort, if a bit awkward at times, to be something more: political, useful, global. A mix-tape was your confessional, a message for when words would not do. Put in a request at the local station and hope someone heard it. It had the power of a spell.

Take Paul Simon’s Graceland in ’86, with all its complicated influence, as he brought South African sounds to the American mainstream. Or Peter Gabriel’s So, which managed to be art-rock and pop at once, and the end of his cult following days. Run-DMC put out Raising Hell that year, too, a necessary step for hip-hop to be seen by the rest of us.

I don’t see this as mere soundtrack trivia. It tells me what sort of year we are in. The old categories are dissolving, and the voices that were left out are being heard. Parents have their worries, the kids are tuning in regardless, and the culture is at odds over who has the right to speak and what is deemed dangerous.

The whole Parental Advisory row comes of this time. The Parents Music Resource Center was founded in 1985, aiming to label anything with objectionable lyrics. Much like the Satanic Panic, it made youth culture a battleground of fear and control.

Witches find that handy.

A witch is someone who will be labeled. Dangerous, immoral, corrupting, or unnatural. Too loud or too quiet. Too independent, too well read, too strange to be put in a box. You will find it in a fantasy village or a modern high school, in any small town where they think virtue is the same as conformity.

So 1986 puts pressure on me from both sides.

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, it is an AD&D moment; the Witch has her place in a game that is between phases. The old stuff still counts but the new is coming, and horror has already made its way into the castle. For my purposes in Jackson, IL, it is a modern setting where a teenage witch can be left to her own devices, misread and watched, and have to go about things the old way. You could say the world is in a state of flux, but it is not yet all one piece. There are still secrets a town can hold. A girl can come across something in a library drawer and have no simple means of telling whether another soul has ever laid eyes on it.

Then there is 1986. It presents me with a culture that is afraid of its children. In some ways, that is the point of it.

Take the D&D crowd, the metalheads, the kids into horror or punk or goth. The queer kids, the smart ones, the strange boys and girls with their notebooks of symbols, the ones who read too much and ask questions they should not. They do not fit the narrative adults have put together for them.

The Witch is to be found there, at the fringes of what is approved. She is not the trouble. She is merely the one to see that the trouble was there to begin with.

That is why 1986 works. Do not mistake it for being simpler or better; it was neither. But it sat on a threshold. You had AD&D old enough for its own mythology yet young enough to leave some rooms empty. The modern world was tied in enough to feel global change but not so much as to put an end to local mystery. The whole culture was loud and nervous and moralizing, creative and frightened and very much alive.

A good year for witches. For mirrors. For secrets.

Mirror Shard: 1d12 Things Found in a 1986 Witch’s Room

This will work for Jackson, IL, or any modern supernatural game you want to set before the internet made doing your research too convenient. A teenage witch does not have a wizard’s tower. Her room is more perilous than that. Private, half-hidden, temporary, and only a knock from her parents away from being found out.

Make a d12 roll or pick and choose.

1. A spiral notebook with dream fragments and song lyrics, plus a page of symbols she cannot recall putting there.
2. An overdue library book on folklore, three months past due. The checkout card has the same name on it every eleven years.
3. Cassette tapes in a shoebox. Put in the unmarked one, and you will hear a voice going through the names in the town cemetery.
4. A hand mirror with a crack in it, wrapped up in a scarf. Works fine until after midnight.
5. A black cat charm on a broken chain. You can tell when spirits are close by how warm it feels.
6. A Polaroid of four of her friends in front of the school. If you look between them, there is a fifth shadow.
7. An old coffee mug with a candle stub in it. Lies in the room, and it will burn blue.
8. A note from class. Open it up, and the handwriting is different each time.
9. Some clipping from the paper on a death half a century back. She keeps it, though she has no reason to.
10. A flower pressed from the cemetery fence. Picked months ago, and yet it has not dried.
11. An old mixtape that says "DO NOT PLAY SIDE B." There is no music on side B, just breathing and a bell tolling in the distance.
12. A character sheet for a red-haired witch in purple and black for D&D. The player will tell you she never created her; she created herself.

Fantasy Fridays: Forgotten Realms Book of Lairs

 Working through my Forgotten Realms books. I’ve been wanting to put in some time with the Forgotten Realms reviews. In part because I have a pile of them here staring at me. Taunting me. 

The one for today is an odd little utility book of the sort TSR excelled at in the late 80s and early 90s.  Don’t expect a campaign-shaking mega-adventure or a big boxed set. Nor is it one of those "here is an entire country, good luck" affairs. It is far more straightforward. "Here are some monsters and their lairs. Go on and have an adventure."

Book of Lairs [Forgotten Realms] (2e)

1994. By Nicky Rea and Sam Witt. Cover art by Larry Elmore, interiors from Valerie Valusek, and cartography by John Knecht and Rob Lazzaretti. 96 pages.

For this review, I am considering my PDF and PoD versions from DriveThruRPG.

This book follows the previous Book of Lairs format TSR has put out in the past, only this is tailored for the Forgotten Realms and for AD&D 2nd edition. Inside you will find 35 short scenarios, each with a monster at its heart. The product copy touts "over 30" adventures for a single session full of danger and humor and the like; I would say that is as apt a description as any.

One thing I do want to point out right away in reading this. Hidden in the math is an ersatz or even proto-Challenge Rating. Each monster lair listing has recommended total levels and recommended average party level. Divide the total levels by 6 to get close to the average party level. It works much in the same way Monster Mark did, and Challenge Levels do. We almost had this in 1994. 

Also note that this is not a monster book, nor an adventure book in the full sense. It is a collection of mini-situations and encounters. And that is where you will find both the merit and the flaw in it.

They do make some assumptions about your library, namely that you have the Campaign Setting and the Monstrous Compendium appendices for the Realms. The latter is key.

You won’t be looking at the usual suspects. We have alguduirs, asperii, beguilers, belabras, bhaergala, bichirs, cantobeles, cildabrins, crawling claws, crimson death, dimensional warpers, dracoliches, fachans, firenewts, frosts, hauns, inquisitors, loxo, monkey spiders, morins, orpsus, revenants, saurials, sha’az, silver dogs, thylacines, wemics, and so on. This is strength really. It makes this a Realms book and not the same as the previous Book of Lairs. IT does mean you need the Forgotten Realms Monstrous Compendium pages, though.

With the old Monstrous Compendium type books/pages you are given some wonderful, oddball creatures and left to your own devices. I don’t mind that; I enjoy my monster books for the reading. But a monster ought to have context, a place in the world, something more than a roll on the random encounter table to justify its presence.

Book of Lairs provides that. Each entry is brief, a page or two at the most. There is the creature, the setup, the lair, a few complications. You can run it with hardly any prep. You will find another reviewer has it right: the bulk of the encounters in here run to 2 or 3 pages and are drawn from the monsters in MC3 and MC11, the appendices for the Forgotten Realms Monstrous Compendium. It is a quality that makes the book feel like something you can put to good use at the table.

Then again, not all of them are "Realmsy" (if you want to call it that). You could take some of these and put them in Greyhawk, Mystara, my own Mystoerth, or wherever your world is with no trouble. I would say that is the best way to employ the book these days. Sure, it is a 96-page tome of weird AD&D monster encounters and a product of the Realms, but I can make use of it anywhere. My oldest is currently using it in his own world using AD&D 1st edition, so it has flexibility. 

The setting does make its presence known. You will come across Harpers, Zhentarim, Tyr, Moander, places like Westgate, Yhaunn, Calaunt, the Shining Plains, and Sembia. But do not expect the kind of lore you get in The Code of the Harpers; this is a working DM’s book. I think that is why I like it.

My only real gripe (and this is a minor one) is with how it is put together. An alphabetical list by monster is well and good when you have decided on a dracolich or revenant, but what if you are looking for something to throw at a 5th-level party in a swamp? So an index by level or difficulty (dare I say, Challenge Rating) would be great.

But then, it is 1994 TSR. This is the sort of thing you were meant to read, mark up, and leave next to your DM's screen. Find an encounter, make it your own, and be done with it. There is a very AD&D sensibility to that.

In many ways, the Realms at this time still has that huge, messy quality to it, with things left unexplained. I see that as a feature, not a bug. The Forgotten Realms is at its best when it seems you have only seen one inn or one haunted ruin, and there are a hundred other things about to step out of the torchlight. This book gives you that sense.  I mean, despite the fact that we are now sitting on the other side of 40 years of published Realms lore, I am still new to all of this.

There is your dracolich lair, the big ticket item, but I am more inclined toward the odder, smaller fare. A silver dog, a saurial, a wemic, or the thylacines (I am a fan of The Howling III, and I think at least someone on the Realms staff is as well.). They are the kind of creature that tells you the Realms is more than generic fantasy with Elminster tacked on. These are places where oddities have families, enemies, and a history.

That is what the book is worth. It shows you a monster is not a stat block. It has a place, a situation, and motivation. And the lair itself is often the adventure.

Sinéad, Nida, Arnell, Jaromir, and Rhiannon

Since my characters are still heading east, this book is immediately useful to me. I could drop one of these encounters into their path without too much trouble. A strange beast on the road. A ruined tower with something nesting inside. A village dealing with a problem that is bigger than they understand. That is exactly the sort of thing this book is built for.

I don’t know that Book of Lairs is essential Realms material. If you are building a Realms library, you want the boxed sets, the regional books, the big lore books, and probably the deity books before this one. But if you are actually running AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms, or any old-school fantasy game, this is the kind of book that earns its keep.

It is not flashy. It is not a grand tour of Faerûn. It is not going to explain the Time of Troubles or give you the secret history of the Harpers. It will give you a monster in a lair and a reason for the characters to investigate. Which, honestly, is how most good monster encounters should work.

The PDF and PoD are both legible and easy to read for a scanned product.

The PoD suffers from faded text typical of a scan, but this one is a little better than most, to be honest, and unless you are looking for it, you might not notice it. 

All in all, pretty happy with my purchase.

This Old Dragon: Issue #44

 I talked about Gardner Fox and his contributions to the Appendix N yesterday. I thought I'd pull out a very old Dragon magazine, #44, and feature his contributions from it today. As I mentioned previously, he is one of the rare few authors in the Appendix N who would later also publish within the pages of Dragon. So let's set the controls all the way back to December 1980. At this point, I have been playing D&D for a little more than a year. Playing was rare, but it always filled me with excitement.  Clint Eastwood stars with an orangutan in "Any Which Way You Can." In a sad note, the orangutan, Buddha, who played Clyde, was clubbed to death by his trainer for stealing a doughnut. There were no laws about the treatment of animals on the books at the time, so nothing happened. "Lady" by Kenny Rogers is all over the airwaves, and on tables and game store shelves everywhere is This Old Dragon #44.

Our cover is from none other than Phil Fogolio, featuring the new included game, Food Fight. Other artists include Mike Carroll, Jack Crane, Jeff Dee, Tracy Lesch, Kenneth Rahman, Roger Raupp, Jim Roslof, and Bill Willingham.

I have to start by noting how thick the paper is for this one. At 100 pages, this issue is heavy. Yes, there is the Food Fight game inside, but still, the paper is quite thick. Compared to the similar page count of Issue #85 (my first purchased issue) they feel very different.

So already this is a big issue in more ways (weighs?) than one. 

We have two Editorials: one from Bryce Knorr on his Food Fight game, and another from Assistant Editor Kim Mohan on all the features of this issue. 

Letters is still known as Out On A Limb at this point. The topic of the month are Dwarven Women, Beards or No. 

Up first, and foremost, is The Lure of the Golden Godling, a Niall of the Far Travels tale by Gardner F. Fox. While this is not a Dragon I owned back in the 80s, I looked up once I got my Dragon CD-ROM and I was completely surprised that Fox had written for Dragon.

The Super Spies for the new Top Secret game is up by Allen Hammack. This covers the Top Secret stats for various movie and TV Spies like James Bond, Napoleon Solo, John Steed, Emma Peel, and even Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. I rather love things like this and have done my own fair share of multimedia witches here. So I can appreciate this level of obsession. This is not something you would see anymore; corporations are far too litigious. 

Mark Simmons has a review of the King of the Mountain board game. The game is for 2 to 10 players. The premise is simple: get your character to the top of the mountain first and claim the wizard's prize with one player controlling the actions of the Wizard and the monsters. It sounds like it could be fun, but it doesn't trigger my "Traveller Envy," which I guess is good.

We get to an early featured topic section in Dragon with Fantasy Genetics. These articles all attempt to take a scientifc point of view on the various humanoid species in D&D. 

Gregory G. H. Rihn is up first with Humanoid Races in Review, which builds upon The Dragon #29 article from Gygax about the Half-ogre and the issues it caused back then. Among other things, we get some quasi Linnaean taxonomy on the various species. Humans are Homo sapiens sapiens, elves are Homo sapiens sylvanus, and orcs are Homo sapiens orc. The implication here is that humans are fertile with both elves and orcs. Cavemen are Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, dwarves are Homo faber (and both genders feature beards), and the Sasquatch is Homo sasquatch. Gnomes are a subclass of Homo faber. So both dwarves and gnomes are "makers." That works. Halflings are not covered, but 24 years later, we get the discovery of Homo floresiensis, who are called "Hobbits."

Half-ors in a Variety of Styles by Roger Moore takes us to Fantasy Genetics II. Here, our focus switches to the orc family and the various cross-breeds they can have. Here Moore contends that orcs are a member of the genus Australopithecus. These include: Kobold (Australopithecus boisei), Goblin (Australopithecus africanus), Hobgoblin (Australopithecus robustus), and Bugbear (Australopithecus giganticus). Even ogres (Ramapithecus robustus) and hill giants (Meganthropus giganticus) are covered.  The science is a bit bonkers, but it is a lot of fun. I mean if dragons can have a taxonomic nomclature, humanoids certainly should.

Fantasy Genetics III kicks off with What Do You Get When You Cross...? by John S. Olson. He is also building off of the Half-Ogre idea from The Dragon #29. He makes the radical suggestion that nearly any sort of creature can crossbreed with another. But not all of their offspring are going to be suitable for play.  In fact there is a section here that is close to the hearts of many new players that most old players seem to have forgotten was first introduced in 1980.

Finally, in Fantasy Genetics IV, Paul Montgomery Crabaugh takes us back to high school biology, Mendelian genetics, and Punnett squares in Half + Half Isn't Always Full. Well, a really simple overview of inheritance by genes. Examples are given with humans and orcs. 

None of the four articles really solves any problems and likely introduces new ones. I'll have to pick ahead and see if there are any letters about this issue. 

Nice big ad from J.J. Brodsky & Sons, Inc. Hobby Distributors. Featuring all the hobby stores in the Midwest that offer Dungeons & Dragons. This gives a little bit of evidence to my whole Illinois Pipeline idea. There are a ton here whose addresses are well known to me, but sadly, there are no hobby stores left there. One of which would have been a 10 min drive or less from my home. 

Sage Advice covers some AD&D rules questions.

Dave "Zeb" Cook (of the Expert Set, Isle of Dread, and so much more) is next with a new Giants in the Earth featuring two more NPCs taken from novels. We have C.S. Lewis's Reepicheep and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger. I don't know the first, but I am a fan of Challenger, who in my mind should be played by Brian Blessed. Though I don't think he is a 16th-level fighter, really. He would make for a great NIGHT SHIFT character.

My late friend Len Lakofka is up with Leomund's Tiny Hut Monsters: How Strong is Strong? where he attempts to give some monsters some Strength Scores. His logic is sound IF the damage types and spreads are good. I have gone through many, many monsters in my oft-languishing "Basic Bestiary," and there is some good data here. But as well know, really, that Gygax often did not build his monsters using the same rules that characters use. That is not something we will see until the new editions of D&D, starting with 3rd. Len, though, makes a solid showing here, and his numbers look really good.

The Simulation Corner is up with A History of Games and Gaming from John Prados, noted Wargame designer, and here about two years shy of his Ph.D. in Political Science. He is lamenting the lack of any written history of games and gaming and is actively looking for such documentation. 

Food Fight is our mini-game this issue, but it does take up quite a lot of the issue, to be honest (24 pages and a cardstock insert) . The game was designed by Byce Knorr, and the art is from the amazing Bill Willingham and Jeff Dee.  You can read a bit about the game at Board Game Geek, but it does make this your better-than-average value Dragon magazine. Honestly, reading it over more I kinda want to adapt it somehow to my Jackson, IL game! Though it doesn't really fit the vibe I am going with.  Though there is a really convenient map.

After this, we get the continuation of the Gardner Fox Niall tale. 

Here Comes the Judges Guild, by William Fawcett, is an overview and review of nine products from Judges Guild. These are some of the classics of the early days of JG; Modron, Escape from Astigar's Lair, The Treasure Vaults of Lindoran, Inferno, Portals of Torsh, Spies of Lightelf, Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Legendary Duck Tower, and City of Lei Tabor. Great content. Too bad JG went to complete shit. 

The agents for Top Secret continue, as does the review of King of the Mountain. 

Glenn Rahman is up with his classic Minarian Legends for the Diving Right game. This time about The Black Knight. I will admit that I know next to nothing about this game. But there is a wiki for it, so maybe I will check it out.

The Electric Eye from Mark Herro offers early examples of computer software for playing D&D-like games (Dungeon of Death). Keep in mind, we are talking Atari 2600-level games at this point, and this is the end of this column's first year. The games include  Dungeon of Death by Instant Software for your solo gaming needs. Android Nim by 80-US, and Time Traveller by Krell Software. Software companies came and went like leaves in the wind back then. Few survived to today.

There is even a little BASIC program at the end. 

Dragon's Bestiary gives us three new AD&D creatures. The Koodjanuk, Cyroserpent, and Ice Golem.

Another ad for a Hobby Game Distributors, with more stores in Illinois than in nine other states combined. 

Nothing But the Ho-Ho-Ho Truth by Douglas Loss is an odd one, since WotC has it online for you to read.

Comics include Wormy and Darlene's The Story of Jasmine. The art for Jasmine is still above and beyond anything you should expect from a magazine.

So this is a really good issue and filled with some really fun content.

Makes me want to check out more from this era.

The Witches of Appendix N: Gardner Fox

Gardner Francis Fox is an interesting member of the Appendix N canon. Fox is one of a small few I can find that has also published in the pages of Dragon Magazine (Issue #44 and Issue #55) (L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's "The Green Magician" was published after Pratt's death). He also had a celebrated career at DC comics, where he created some of my favorite characters, including Zatanna. 

Since today is his birthday, let's dive into his mentions in Appendix N. 

Kothar Series

Kothar is a giant blonde-haired, blue-eyed barbarian from the far north, weilding a mighty sword. His world of Yarth seems to exist at the very end of time. There are five Kothar books, and they are largely collections of shorter novellas. There is a continuity between them, so they do follow one from the other. Here, demons and gods are used somewhat interchangeably. 

The Sword of the Sorcerer

The first Kothar tale gives three different sorts of witches. First is Red Lori, the beautiful redheaded half-succubus witch; she is a proper witch whose skills seem to be both "necromantic" and "priestessly." She haunts Kothar throughout his series. She spends half her time wanting to kill Kothar, the other half taunting him, making me think she actually likes the barbarian. 

Queen Elfa is a Queen, but she is also described as a witch and the main antagonist of Red Lori. She has some sort of relationship with the witch Fristhia, who is our old, hag-like witch.

This tale also gives us hydras, dragons, and a lich. His other books follow a similar pattern of Kothar being broke, hungry, and/or thirsty (for ale, but yeah that other one too) and stumbling into trouble.

The Woman in the Witch-Wood. Here we get a witch, the Lady Alaine, and a warlock. 

The Demon Queen. Queen Candara of Kor is a Queen and part demon. She has some magic and serves a demon-god for youth and beauty. She serves demons, but not so much that she seems to be a warlock.

The Conjuer's Curse. We open the story with Stefanya, who is about to be burned as a witch. She served a wizard named Zoqquanor. Her life is linked to that of Zoqquanor so that if he dies, she dies, and vice versa. Stefanya reminds me a bit of Myrnis later on.  She isn't a witch, but that doesn't stop the angry mob.

There is a flashback to younger Kothar meeting a "wild woman" named Ursula. Later on, he meets another wild woman named Lupilina. They could be described as a "Bear Witch" and "Wolf Witch" respectively.  

In Kothar and the Wizard Slayer, we see Kothar team up with his "arch enemy," the witch Red Lori. I say in quotes because they have been having a love-hate relationship throughout the books. They travel and work together to see who is killing all of the mages and necromancers in the world of Yarth. 

I can't help but think about what I would have done differently with my own witches if I had read about Red Lori beforehand. Would Larina have ended up different? Maybe. Red Lori would have been something like a spiritual godmother to Larina had I read these first. Who knows, maybe some of Red Lori's DNA filtered down via the pages of AD&D to Larina anyway. 

Kyrik Series

Kyirk is, wait for it, a giant blonde-haired, blue-eyed barbarian from the far north, weilding a mighty sword.

There are three Kyrik books. Kyrik starts his tale dead. But we are not going to let that stop him. We actually get a witch, or a sorceress, Aryalla, before any other character. She finds a statue of Kyrik and, with the help of three demons, brings Kyrik back from the dead after a thousand years. 

His girlfriend, Myrnis, sometimes shows witch-like powers, but that usually happens when she is possessed by the demon-goddess Illis. 

Kyrik is described as a warrior-warlock. He does not cast spells, but he does get help from the demon-goddess Illis.  

--

So I have some issues with both series. In Kyrik's series, he was "dead" for 1,000 years, but he finds a gem in a room he had been in 1,000 years earlier, and his hunting lodge is still standing. Maybe if he had been trapped in the statue for 100 years, it would have been more believable. It is a complaint I have for many of Fox's tales. You can reduce any time he gives by 10x and get a better number. Same with Kothar, but here it is 100s of thousands of years. True Kothar is at the very end of time and would be more at home in the Hyperborea RPG than, say, Wasted Lands.

Kyrik seems a little more lustful for life than Kothar. Kyrik also finds the "Romany" girl, Myrnis, and stays with her for the whole series. The only time he is "unfaithful" to her is with a deposed Queen who looks exactly like her. Kothar, for all his lusting, seems relatively tame. Unless the girls he meets, he spends his nights with "off page", his only true obsession (and may I add equal) is the witch Red Lori. Sure, there are, that are more than implied, a serving girl and Queen Candara, for Kothar in particular.

Pretty tame, really, given he was also the author of "Cherry Delight" and "The Lady for L.U.S.T." vintage sleaze spy novels.

The biggest issue between these two tales is that Kothar and Kyrik might as well be the same person. Both are "giant" barbarians with blue eyes and blonde hair. Kothar has the sword "Frostfire," and Kyrik has the sword "Bluefang," both of which are described in remarkably similar ways. OH, take a drink anytime either is described like some sort of cat. You won't make it.

The stories are not great, but they are fun. Not every tale needs to be a full-course meal. These tales are sliders. Again, sometimes you want a steak, other times you want a slider. As far as sliders go, these are pretty good. I mean, it is hard not to like Kothar and Kyrik despite their clichés, or maybe even because of them. 

There is a lot here that is foundational to the AD&D experiences. Fighting demons, ghouls, and undead. Epic quests for gold, glory, and more. And lots, and lots of witches, wizards, and necromancers. "Lich" gets mentioned more than once and almost always in respect to a long-dead/undead wizard. Given everything from these books that did make it into AD&D, it feels odd that witches did not, given how much they feature in all these tales. 

There is one thing to consider. A lot of what made it into AD&D (and D&D) here also came from elsewhere. Kothar and Kyric feel like AD&D adventures because they are dipping into the great well of ideas that AD&D also dipped from: Conan. 

Oerth and its near clones are obviously influenced by Fox's Yarth. It would have been fun to see more of Kothar and Red Lori traveling together; him with Frostfire and her with her magic, going back and forth between wanting to kill each other and still ending up in each other's arms. Especially with the scene where Red Lori shows she is more than a match for Kothar.  I think, honestly, that would have been a much more interesting tale. Something that would have elevated this from just being a Conan clone. 

I wonder if there are any tales like that out there? I mean, there is Thundarr and Ariel from the Thundarr series, but there was never a love/hate relationship between the two of them. I suppose Silverglass also counts. Corson as our fighter/barbarian and Nyctasia as our witch, their relationship is fairly love/hate at the start until they gain mutual respect for each other. 

Final Thoughts

I was prepared to like these at first, but didn't, but once I got into them, I began to enjoy them a lot more. I have been a Gardner Fox fan for a while and these were a lot of fun. Just don't take them very seriously.

Jackson, IL: NPCs, the Adults in the Room

No game for me this past weekend. They were doing their "Pokémon meets D&D" game and no time for the 1980s. That's fine, I have a bit more world-building I need to do.

The thing about Jackson is that not every adult in town is clueless about the Supernatural. Many are, most are too thick to know. But there are some who know the truth, and some of them have fought these battles before. Here are some of the adults I want to put forward as my actual "Veterans of the Supernatural Wars." 

Old Jackson Public High School

Most of these adults don't really need stats; they won't be doing any fighting unless it is off-screen. Though it is possible that they could need them later on. For the most part, these are either 0-level humans or maybe 1st or 2nd level in something.

Lars Nichols

Lars is Larina's father. He is a good one to have in the game, whether or not Larina remains a named NPC. Like Larina as the New Girl, he is the New Teacher. He is a professor of Anthropology at MacAlister College, so he will make a good resource for the characters. 

Lars came to mind nearly fully formed. I knew he had the same hair color as Larina and that he had brown eyes. He sings, he loves music, he has an impressive music collection. And he LOVES Yes. Like obsessively so. And Larina is a complete Daddy's girl. Of course, "Larina" means "daughter of Lars." But Larina came first, and Lars came around later. Her mother is/was named Siân Stephens Nichols (my homage to Bewitched). She was blonde with blue eyes, the same eye color as Larina. I spent some time with Lars and Siân as OSE characters, and they were a blast. 

In Larina's original AD&D 1st ed version, her mom and dad both died when she was 19, necessitating her adventuring.  In my Dark Places & Demogorgons version, her parents are both still alive. Here, her mother died, and Lars and his daughter moved up from Southern Illinois so he could take a job at MacAlister. 

Lars is likely a Sage, maybe level 4. Yeah, I know I said 0 or 1, but he is going to be a solid resource. Plus, Lars knows about the supernatural; he prefers to avoid it when he can, but that is difficult when his daughter is one of the most powerful witches in the game.  

I like Lars. He is a good guy and acts all happy, but he is still mourning his wife. Because of this he will be protective of the characters.

Archetype: The cool, but heartbroken, single father
Quote: "Love what you love while you can, and never apologize for playing the record one more time."
Quirks: Has a huge record collection. Loves Yes, still misses his wife.
Theme song: "Wonderous Stories" by Yes

Malcolm "Mac" McGowan

Malcolm "Mac" McGowan is first and foremost the grandfather of Rowan McGown, the presumptive Spirit Rider of Jackson. His son, Jake, was the Spirit Rider for this area, but he and his wife were killed in a car crash leaving only the baby Rowan to survive. She was supposed to die as well. They were killed by supernatural agents. Mac has always known this and has done everything in his mortal-mundane power to keep Rowan safe. But he knows that sooner or later she is going to need to take up the mantle if Jackson is to remain safe. 

He is an older man who moved here from Scotland many years ago with his Irish wife. Their son Jake was born here in Jackson, and they settled down. Mac got a job caring for the horses at the Thompson Stables, hired by Andy's grandfather, who always respected Mac. It was their idea to have young Anderson come to the stables to learn how to care for the animals and destiny was forged when Andy fell in love with Rowan.

Yes, that is the flannel shirt Rowan wears now. She stole it when she was 12 and never gave it back. Wearing it reminds her of her grandfather.

Mac likes Andy, he sees more of Andy's own grandfather in him than his father, which is good. He also knows he will be kind to Rowan.  MAc respects people who work hard, but has a lot of issues with those who deal with the supernatural, especially Valerie Beaumont. These two have a history, and he is one of the very few people who know her secret.  Valerie wants to train Rowan in sword fighting to prepare her for her role as Jackson's Spirit Rider, and conveniently keeping all three away from directly helping and stealing the spotlight away from the PCs.

Valerie: "Good morning, Mac. You going to invite me in for coffee or shoot me with that revolver you are hiding in your jacket?"
Mac: "I have not decided yet. Maybe both."

If Mac has a class, he would be a level 1 or 2 Veteran. 

Archetype: The Protective Grandfather
Quote: "Horses don’t care what you say you are. They only care what you actually are."
Quirks: Talks to horse like they understand him. Maybe they do.
Theme song: "The Skye Boat Song" - The Corries

There are a lot of parallels between Lars and Mac, just as there are between Larina and Rowan. Almost like they are similar characters with different paths and choices. I like to explore these ideas. If Larina and Rowan are very similar, it might also explain why, in my mind, they are friendly to each other, but not friends. 

Of course, none that might matter in the actual game. So far, the players and the characters have only seen them in the background.  The teachers in the school are more important right now.

Here are a couple more.

Thomas Avery

Mr. Avery is the school's "cool" teacher. He is known to be a little eccentric, a little odd, and his classes are a lot of fun. He teaches Classical Literature, Senior Honors Lit, and Freshman English. He quotes Shakespeare in class, and he directs the Fall plays. 

Mr. Avery's big secret is that he is gay. He tries to keep his personal life to himself because, well, it's just 1985-86 and people are still bigoted. When he was younger, and the AIDS crisis began, he got "The Talk" by the school board. He was so embarrassed and frustrated that he considered leaving teaching altogether. Now he makes sure he is never alone with a student, always meets in the open, and never, ever touches anyone. He knows how quickly misunderstandings turn into rumors and rumors become more.  To that end, Keri Moreau flirts with him openly and often, which he finds amusing. She told him that she was willing to do whatever was needed to ensure he was protected. She is also at his side during the school plays as the "Assistant Director" of the plays. The other English teacher, Glenn Daniels, wants him gone, but he is intimidated by Keri, and she makes sure he never has an excuse. 

Thomas Avery is a lot of students' favorite teacher, and they will say he is one of the few who listen to them. Really listens to them. Again, I like to think Avery is a good guy. He loves teaching and he loves when students read something that really means something to them. 

Thomas and Elaine have been sharing their observations, and they are coming to understand that some students are more than they appear. And there are some things that hide in the dark. 

Thomas is likely just a level 1 Sage. 

Archetype: The Fun Teacher
Quote: "Words are not harmless. That is why we teach them."
Quirks: Quotes Shakespeare whenever he can.
Theme song: “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel

Elaine Bellweather

Elaine: "Some things work whether you believe in them or not. That is why you must be careful."
Faye: "Are we still talking about Jazz, Miss Bellweather?"

Miss Elaine Bellweather is Jackson Public High School's music teacher. She teaches Music Appreciation and History, Choir, and is the orchestra conductor. She doesn't teach band, though. The students think she is a bit old-fashioned; she still dresses like she did in the 1960s, and most students think she is older than she really is. She is only 45. 

Miss Bellweather is from one of the "first families" of Jackson. Along with the Thornes, Thompsons, and Vales, the Bellweathers were among the first to settle on the Mauvaisterre Moraine that would become Jackson. She never married, so she will be the last Bellweather. Like the Vales and Thornes, the Bellweathers produced a number of witches. The Thornes are hags, though many don't know that, and the Vales have a history of magic. The Bellweathers were Hedgewitches. As Elaine would say, her "grandmother could see around a few corners."  Elaine herself has no magical ability, but I do say she has some sensitivity. In game terms I say she is a 2nd or 3rd level Sage. She knows a couple of simple spells. 

Elaine lives in a small house with Marian Fitzpatrick, her long-time friend from their days at MacAlister.

Elaine Bellweather is also gay, but she doesn't get the same level of discrimination that Thomas does. That is the double standard of the 1980s that, for once, works in her favor, just for the wrong reasons. 

Not many students consider her their "favorite teacher," but she loves her job, and music is her life. She keeps a detailed set of notes on all the strange things she sees. She shares these notes with Mr. Avery and Mrs. Gloria Haskel, the school Librarian. Between the three of them they know about the monsters and work where they can to protect the students.

Elaine would be at best a level 1 Sage.

Archetype: The Shockingly Perceptive Teacher / Hedge Witch
Quote: "No, I do not know magic. I know songs. People are always confusing the two."
Quirks: Never married. Grandmother was a witch.
Theme song: “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles

Thomas and Elaine are also my subtle nod to the Monsterhearts game I played a while back, which was also almost like a Proto-Jackson. Much like Stranger Things did a flashback involving the previous generation, I like to think that Thomas and Elaine may have known something back when they were kids struggling on their own. I don't think they were in school together, at least I have not worked out their histories or backstories much more than what I have here, but I am leaving it all open. Mac would have been here, but he would have been an adult then as well. 

These are more of my "veterans of the supernatural wars." Just in this case, the last war.

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Teenage Witches and the Haunted Midwest

Last week, I examined the witch in AD&D. As a class and a monster in a game of spell lists, curses, familiars, old women living at the edge of villages, mysterious maps, and a host of others. Advanced Witches & Warlocks is a project that aims to give her proper due among the iconic elements of classic fantasy RPGs.

But there is another mirror.

If the Advanced Witches & Warlocks is interested in exploring the witch as an element of a fantasy game in 1986, then the Jackson, IL project is a consideration of how the witch would fit in the modern horror world of 1986.

By the "modern," I don't mean contemporary times. I mean an era of landlines, lockers, cassette tapes, libraries, horror movies at midnight, school rumors, and parents who believe they can keep secrets from teens

These are very different takes on witches.

In the world of AD&D, the witch is always on the edge of the village. By the old road, the swamp, the shrine in ruins, or the sinister forest. In the Jackson, IL setting, she is on the edge of town, near the cemetery, an abandoned structure, the stream, the college, a different neighborhood, or a lonely road.

The map is different, but the location itself is not.

Jackson, IL, is where my imagination has found its new home. This place isn't Salem, nor New Orleans, nor some gothic European village under the full moon, despite my affection for those locations. No, Jackson is in the Midwest. It is a small town in central Illinois. A town with brick school buildings, college halls, county roads, corn fields, old graveyards, tiny churches, pizza shops, book stores, hardware stores, Friday night football games, Friday night dances, and houses where three generations have kept the same secret.

In Jackson, the supernatural does not require thunderous declarations or Latin incantations to reveal itself. Instead, it is rather subtler.

Perhaps it is the teacher who hasn't aged since 1569. Perhaps a door in the library, locked for no apparent reason. Perhaps a statue at the cemetery changing directions at midnight. Perhaps the name of a creek that no one remembers where the name came from. Or perhaps it is the mirror reflecting something other than yourself.

This is the haunting of the Midwest. It is not empty. It is a place filled with ghosts.

Every town in the Midwest has its stories: the house that has never been sold, the road where headlights disappear, the creepy old lady that kids are told not to approach, the rail road tracks where strange things occur, the auditorium in the school where lights flicker even with the power shut off, and the place outside town known only by its ominous name of "the Bad Land."

These are stories that form the Jackson, IL environment. Not simply the background, but the actual foundation on which the Veil between what is "Real" and what is considered "Supernatural" is constructed.

Most people in the town interact with the supernatural indirectly, in fleeting moments. A shadow. A whisper. A dream. A cold sensation down the spine. A name spoken out of nowhere. And they explain it away, because that is what humans do. It is simpler to believe that everything is ordinary than to accept that ancient tales still speak truth.

Teenagers are not good at keeping their thoughts and opinions to themselves. That is why a teenager is perfect in a game about supernatural activity.

Adults follow routines, have reputations, jobs, mortgages, church groups, seats on the school board, and myriad reasons to preserve the "official" story. Teenagers care about other things. Why does that room stay locked? Why are they avoiding that particular teacher? Why did Mom go silent when I mentioned that name? Why does the school bell ring differently to me? And why do I see the woman in the black cloak and purple dress in the mirror?

Thus, the teenage witch belongs in this place.

Not only is she a character living between two worlds. At least partly, but not entirely. She is not a kid anymore, but she is not yet an adult. People look at her, underestimate her, boss her around, dismiss her, and correct her, all before she even knows who she truly is.

And then comes the magic.

She begins having dreams. Strange marks appear on her skin. She finds books at the library with strange titles. A stray cat starts following her wherever she goes and never leaves. Her reflection starts speaking to her. And perhaps she discovers that the story about the dead girl haunting the bathrooms at school was not just a story.

That is the importance of their first experiences.

Whereas in the world of AD&D, the witch appears with powers, spells, and a clear-cut purpose, here she is noticed. The world recognizes something in her, and she recognizes it back.

This can be terrifying, but also terribly tempting.

I played this scenario with Larina. There is a young girl named Larina. Some kids call her "Creepy." She has visions and talks to ghosts, but she tries to hide her magical abilities because she knows that using them attracts attention from things in the darkness.

This scenario is perfectly designed for Jackson, IL. But I also realized there was a lot more I could do with it. That starting with powers is one type of game, but developing them as the game progresses is something else. 

Being magical in the Jackson environment means revealing oneself. Every casting of a spell is an exposure to the darkness seeking light. Every magical act draws eyes. 

Jackson, IL, is still a modern reflection of the AD&D-inspired fantasy world in Advanced Witches & Warlocks. The witch concept remains the same, but the clothes are different.

The group of friends is the coven. After hours in school are the dungeons. Rumors around town turn into gossip in hallways. The wise woman standing at the edge of the village is now someone's aunt, a school teacher, a local shop owner, or someone who has waited patiently for the right girl to ask the right questions.

The familiar becomes a pet that manages to enter the school for reasons that no one understands. A notebook under the bed takes the place of the spell book. The place beyond the fence at the cemetery is the ruined shrine. An ancient deity is a name scrawled in pencil at the abandoned classroom.

But Jackson, IL, cannot merely be a simple adaptation of fantasy RPGs. 

Not only would it be uninteresting, but it would lack necessary depth. It would be uninspired. 

Modern horror has to have its own logic.

While in a fantasy game, the main heroes are expected to take up swords and bravely venture into the dungeons, their counterparts in the modern horror world still have homework to do.

They have to attend classes, deal with parents, curfews, training, work after school, live up to peer expectations, compete with rival schools, maintain reputations, deal with their younger brothers and sisters, and people who would certainly notice if they were gone for three days straight.

This makes a big difference.

A teenage witch cannot just leave town on adventures, and she has to find a way to come back, to cover the stains on her jacket, to explain why her homework was done in the library, why she is late for algebra after having seen something crawling out of the drain at night. And yet, this is not a restriction; it is the essence of the game.

The ordinary world, which is often a barrier in games of the supernatural, is, in fact, what makes them scary.

An isolated haunted school becomes frightening precisely because it is her school. A cursed road is terrifying precisely because her best friend lives on the other side of it. The monster at the cemetery terrifies her, because Grandma is buried there, while the witch's mark makes her fear going to gym class. The ordinary makes the scary parts scarier. 

This is where the theme of the Satanic Panic emerges as well, but in the background.

Not as a simple decoration, but as the very core of the game, because the town uses that panic as a vehicle to express existing fears that otherwise remain untapped. The odd girl has always been creepy, the abandoned house - terrifying, the mysterious books at the library – suspicious. While the rumor makes the witch, it provides a ready-made justification for the search. This is horror, not because of accusations, but because of the town's desperation to believe that it has reason.

Since the community is already scared of her dark clothes, her books, her music, her art, and the woods she loves, the Satanic Panic gives this fear permission. It transforms gossip into social concern, suspicion into righteousness, and parents into monstrous beings, not changing their appearances in the slightest.

Because this is Jackson, IL, the choice of setting is critical. Where in a grand gothic landscape, the supernatural would sprawl. Here it is concentrated in the small-town Midwest. Everyone knows someone; everyone is related to someone; there are always witnesses to secrets; and there are always connections between the town monster and this place, even if no one has figured them out yet.

The ghost is not just a ghost. She used to be someone's sister, student, patient, or an innocent victim of a horrible event. The hag is not a creature that came here to terrorize. She may be an aunt, a landlord, a neighbor at church, the one whose home everyone avoids because of some terrible sin, or the very reason that three generations of women in one family never drink tea after dark. Local legends are not just myths. They are a necessity. People share their tales with such inaccuracy because the truth demands too much action.

Here is the haunted Midwest I imagine for Jackson: the place familiar enough to evoke a sense of security, and unfamiliar enough to hint at inherent dangers.

It is the time that makes the adventure unique as well. 1986 is not chosen by coincidence, although the brand recognition factor cannot be denied. It represents not nostalgia, but distance in time. No smartphones, GPS systems, online investigations, instant messaging apps, or fast transportation are available for the characters. If something terrible happened at night, they needed a phone line, a bicycle, a car, a payphone, or the guts to go to see it.

Rumors spread quickly, but not evenly. Information is stored in filing cabinets, yearbooks, church hallways, newspaper archives, and the library collection.

Which means that all the investigations are hands-on. The characters have to move from place to place, talk to people, and expose themselves. Which is important because in Jackson, IL, knowledge is bound to a place. The public library is important not because it is there, but because it has archived newspapers. The occult shop is valuable not for supplies but for the chance of someone seeing a teenager there. The school is necessary because almost everyone in town once studied there and left something behind. And the cemetery is crucial, because names are inscribed in stone, but not necessarily in the right manner.

As you remember, the power of the witch in Advanced Witches & Warlocks is bound to fantasy conventions and expectations. It is associated with danger, complexity, and power. Magic comes at a price. It creates bonds and produces unexpected results. In Jackson, IL, everything is different because the flow of magical powers has changed. 

This is the reason why these two projects complement each other.

While the Advanced Witches & Warlocks focuses on how witches look in a classic AD&D fantasy world, Jackson explores how a sixteen-year-old witch attending a class on Tuesday morning realizes that her destiny is tied to something far older than the town.

I am not yet sure whether this second project will eventually lead to a full-fledged book. And it may take quite a bit of writing and effort, probably surpassing 80,000 words before I finally figure out the full vision, there is one thing that I am sure about.

Jackson, IL, is a perfect reflection. While the witch at the edge of the ancient village is the witch wearing the black cloak on the old road in Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the witch sitting quietly at the high school is the girl on the bus looking at the old road with fascination.

Because the fantasy witch and the teenage witch are not different.

They are reflections of one another through the glass.

Prof. Lars Nichols with his daughter, Larina

Mirror Shard: Larina, the New Girl Witch

Every good haunted school needs a new girl.

It is one of the staples in teen horror literature and movies, and yet it works so well because it is not a gimmick. From Buffy Summers arriving at Sunnydale High to start a new life to Sarah Bailey transferring to a new school to become the missing fourth link in a teenage coven. The new girl arrives in the adventure exactly when it is born in the audience member's mind. The new girl does not yet understand the rules of the game, so we get to learn with her.

This is important in a horror RPG.

The long-time local heroine already knows what is better to remain unsaid. She knows the forbidden hallways, the names of the families whose conversation must be cut abruptly, and the teachers whom one has to joke with and not argue. She was taught by experience. While she may not fully believe in the town tales, she knows what they are about or at least what to avoid.

The new girl doesn't know anything. Not yet, at least.

• She wants to know why the third-floor room is locked all the time.
• She is curious why no one ever swims in the creek downstream.
• She wonders why there is a gap in the school's trophy case.
• She would like to understand why the librarian keeps local histories in the drawers rather than on the shelves.
• She would like to know why people fall silent whenever someone mentions "Mauvaisterre" or "Blackthorne."

This makes her useful. This also makes her dangerous.

The character of Larina fits the concept perfectly because she is known and unknown. We know where she can evolve into. The Witch Queen. The occult historian. The redhead witch, who wears black and purple clothing and stands in the way of the bad things trying to get into our world. 

But this is not the case in Jackson, IL.

Larina might have just moved into town because of her father's transfer to the college. She might be a newcomer attempting to blend into normality, failing to do so by noon. She might already be aware that ghosts exist in her town, but she has yet to comprehend their meaning. The other students might consider her creepy before she even introduces herself.

This is useful at the table.

The role of Larina as a New Girl Witch is not to figure out the details for players but to expose the mysteries by noticing things that everyone else failed to see or has learned to ignore.

I use Larina here because she is a great character for me. She is a stand-in, though, for any character the players bring to the table. 

• She observes the reflection's weird movement.
• She listens to a ringing of the bell that no one else can hear.
• She realizes that a stray cat hanging around the school has come there with a specific purpose.
• She discovers that the dead girl haunting the school bathrooms knows her name.
• Her first lesson of magic is not about casting a spell.
• It is about revealing her to the supernatural world.
• The ghosts can see her.
• The entity residing beneath the railroad tracks sees her.
• The teacher who has not aged since 1769 sees her.
• So do students who needed reasons to regard her as creepy.

So use the New Girl Witch when you want to start your campaign with a supernatural revelation. She can be a player character, NPC, rival, friend, or a stranger whom the other characters need to trust or not.

And just like the PCs, she does not have to know everything.

She just has to know enough to be scared.

EGG Con III Tickets

 EGG Con III is just two months away.

I will be out with Elf Lair Games to run some games of NIGHT SHIFT.

You can get a badge now and buy game tickets. 

I am running two NIGHT SHIFT games.

Elf Lair Games Presents: Spector Detectors!

• Thursday, July 16th - 1st day of gaming from 11:00 am to 12:50 pm
• Friday, July 17th - 2nd day of gaming from 10:00 am to 11:50 am

And one Thirteen Parsecs game.

Elf Lair Games Presents: Abraxas Down

• Thursday, July 16th - 1st day of gaming from 3:00 pm to 4:50 pm

It should be a great time.

It is a smaller Con than Gary Con, but they are just getting going. I am expecting the same sort of vibe, really. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone!