Watching Bigfoot this morning made me think of this oldie and how much it freaked me out as a kid.
This movie typifies the later 70s, post Exorcist, mood of American Horror. Lots of psychic phenomena, some satanism, and if you can work in Native American or Eastern mysticism all the better.
Tony Curtis is great as a fake psychic and tarot card reader that gets pulled into the drama around a tumor growing on his ex-girlfriend's, Susan Strasberg's, back. X-rays show the tumor to look like a rapidly growing fetus.
Karen (Strasberg) goes to see Harry (Curtis) the day before her surgery (and they drink a lot of wine before hand). Harry does a tarot card reading for her and they all come up the same (the tower, the moon, the devil, and death).
That night Karen mutters something in her sleep in a language that Harry doesn't understand (he thinks it is Swahili).
Karen goes into surgery but the doctors are prevented from cutting into the tumor. At the same time, Harry's psychic ability becomes real. They take part in a séance and learn about the Manitou. They go and see Dr. Snow (Burgess Meredith in a surprise role) and learn more.
The contact a Native American Shaman played by the always amazing Michael Ansara (Kang of Star Trek and Kane of Buck Rogers) and learn that this tumor is really the ancient Shaman Misquamacus. At one point Misquamacus tells John Singing Rock (Ansara) not to help them. I was half-hoping he would stand up and tell them "you are on your own white people."
Misquamacus is born (I seem to recall it being scarier in 78) but is held in place at first by John's circle.
The "demons" summoned by Misquamacus are quite cool. They have a sort of Lovecraft/August Derleth quality to them. They are even called "the great old ones." In the end, the evil spirits are destroyed by computers, manifesting as laser blasts from a naked Karen. Lest we forget this was the 70s.
This really is a cut above my normal fare in terms of acting ability even if the story is a little silly.
First, there is a wealth of material in Native American folklore that I just have not explored and honestly, I am just not even remotely familiar or even qualified to write about them despite all the stories I have read or watched over the years.
I'd love to get more of this sort of thing for my Valhalla, AK game. While the Bigfoot stuff from earlier today went on the silly side, this would be more of the horror side of things.
I talked about this movie back in June. So I added it to my Amazon watchlist. And then I forgot about it. I decided to pull it up for today.
This one can only be described as Previously Watched. I think I might have watched it a few dozen times back when my family got Showtime back when it was new to our town. Not a bad choice though for my first re-watch of the season.
The movie is a pseudo-documentary about the "North American Wildlife Research" group taking a group into British Columbia. It had the same feel of a lot of pseudo-documentaries on various "alternative science" that were popular in the late 70s.
Watching it then, when I was about 10 or so, it seemed like the real deal. Watching it now? Yeah, I am a little embarrassed I was taken in.
The movie is not great, or even good, but it was a good distraction. And for a G-rated movie it has some scares in it. I still remember that howl of the Bigfoots.
It is not a stretch of the imagination at all to consider this movie the "Event Zero" of what became my Valhalla, AK game. Of course, the sasquatch in Valhalla is a bit different than this one.
In a normal NIGHT SHIFT game, the Sasquatch would be more of a threat, like this movie. In my Valhalla, AK game...well the sasquatch was more of a nuisance.
Every night the townspeople of Valhalla would be awoken by the sounds of moose braying in the night followed by the unholy sound of something else. I would play the sasquatch sounds at this point. The old locals of course know this is a sasquatch. So the PCs investigate, expecting to find dead moose. They don't find any at all. Quite the opposite really, they find all these female moose just hanging about this one strange clearing. Turns out that there is a young male sasquatch, a teen really, and has been having sex with the female moose (mooses, moosen, miice?) after the sun goes down. The townsfolk have been hearing his amorous escapades. The adventure resolves when they can lure the sasquatch back to his own people.
A bit silly? Yes. A bit ribald? Sure. But that is exactly the sort of thing I want to happen in Valhalla, AK.
I am sure I had seen this one. But like SO MANY Italian, French and Spanish horror films from the late 60s and early 70s plots, scenes and even whole movies were recycled. I mean this one even has the same music as "The Night She Rose From the Grave" which I am getting too later and is on the same DVD as this movie. Though that could even be because of the disk.
This movie has been known as "Malenka", "Fangs of the Living Dead" and "The Vampire's Niece" with various dates between 1968 and 1969.
Anyway, this one features Anita Ekberg, so that is a good reason to check it out.
The movie starts with a nice creepy, "Dracula's Guest", feel to it. Sylvia Morel (Ekberg) learns she has inherited a fortune, a castle, and a new title. Julián Ugarte plays the Count, Sylvia's uncle, Count Walbrooke. Sylvia becomes the Harker stand-in and Walbrooke is Dracula.
I think I was getting this one confused with the Thirst from 1979. But while the beginnings are similar, they become quite different movies. This movie was the obvious prototype for Satan's Slave (also known as Evil Heritage) in 1976 and many Franco movies like A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973).
We learn that Sylvia's grandmother was burned at the stake as a witch and she was able to turn her children into vampires.
The basic story cleaves very, very close to the Dracula tale. So nothing really new here.
Until the end, and there is a neat little twist. It really saved the movie for me.
So many of these movies have old cursed families with a suspension of witchcraft and vampirism.
I think what I need, both for NIGHT SHIFT and maybe even my various witch books is a family of witches, in decay, whose members become vampires after death. Not all are powerful vampires, some are little more than ghouls really, but a few. Take notes from the Karnsteins and movies like this.
In some ways the Montblancs in NIGHT SHIFT's "Ordinary World" can cover this. Maybe this is a direction I could take them. The American Montblancs are an old family, but the European Montblancs are ancient and maybe a little more evil. Combine this with my Byleth idea from last week.
Maybe that is how I separate them, the American Montblancs are featured in NIGHT SHIFT but the "European" Montblancs would be featured in my Witch books for Basic-era. I would need to have a map for the run down, but still better than anywhere you have lived, Château Montblanc.
Tonight is the premiere of the FINAL season of Supernatural. I can't believe it.
With the Supernatural RPG out of print, NIGHT SHIFT is the best choice for playing a Supernatural-style game, where the PCs are largely normal people fighting against something far beyond their own power levels.
So this seems like a perfect time to bring back my favorite show that never was, Wayward Sisters!
Note: If Jody is the mom, then Donna is the fun aunt.
Annie Jones
3rd Level Survivor/1st level Sage, Human
Strength: 12 (0)
Dexterity: 12 (0)
Constitution: 15 (+1)
Intelligence: 15 (+1) s
Wisdom: 16 (+2) s
Charisma: 15 (+1) P
HP: 19 (3d4+1d6)
AC: 9
Fate Points: 1d6
Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+2/0
Melee bonus: +0 (+1) Ranged bonus: +0 (+1)
Saves: +3 to death saves
Special Abilities: Open locks 35%, Bypass traps 30%, Sleight of Hand 40%, Move Silently 40%, Hide in Shadows 30%, Climb 75%, Danger Sense 50%, Perceptive 50%, Sneak Attack x2, Read Languages 80%, Lore 25% (special bouns +5% for vampire lore)
Skills: Medicine (Int), Science (Int), Notice (Wis), Deceive (Cha)
Languages: English, Spanish
Notes: Use to be "bait" for a vampire family and was a vampire once. Now she is a nurse. Of all the Wayward Sisters Annie/Anne/Alex wants to have a "normal" life the most.
Claire Novak
1st Level Theosophist/3rd Level Survivor, Human
Strength: 12 (0) s
Dexterity: 13 (+1) P
Constitution: 15 (+1) s
Intelligence: 15 (1)
Wisdom: 14 (+1)
Charisma: 14 (+1)
HP: 22 (1d6+3d4)
AC: 8
Fate Points: 1d6
Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+2/0 Melee bonus: +0 (+1) Ranged bonus: +0 (+1)
Saves: +3 to all wisdom saves
Special Abilities: See Dead People, Turn Undead, Protection from Undead, Open locks 35%, Bypass traps 30%, Sleight of Hand 40%, Move Silently 40%, Hide in Shadows 30%, Climb 75%, Danger Sense 50%, Perceptive 50%, Sneak Attack x2, Read Languages 80%, Lore 25% (special bouns +5% for angelic lore)
Notes: She Began as a theosophist due to her religious background and her ability to be a perfect angelic vessel for Castiel. Was a werewolf once. She is in love with Kaia. She is the one Wayward Sister that is most like the Winchesters.
Patience Turner
3rd Level Psychic, Human
Strength: 12 (0)
Dexterity: 14 (+1)
Constitution: 14 (+1)
Intelligence: 18 (+3) P
Wisdom: 16 (+2) s
Charisma: 17 (+2) s
Notes: Kaia is a Dream Walker which can be covered by the Psychic class. Her stint in the "Bad Place" gave her a level of Survivor. Kaia is also a former drug user to keep herself from dreaming. She is in love with Claire. #dreamhunter.
Episodes/Adventures would have to be named after rocks songs by women-fronted bands; like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Halestorm (naturally), The Pretty Reckless, Doro, Garbage, and Lacuna Coil. Taking a page from Supernatural music would have to play an important role. Come to think of it, you could just use my Daughters of Darkness playlist. At 39 songs, that's 3 "seasons" of 13 "episodes" each. I love it when a plan comes together.
I am a sucker for a weird Klaus Kinski movie. The trouble with this one was that he really wasn't in it much nor very central to the plot.
We watch the disjointed (and told in weird flashback) events of the life and death and life of Greta. She is dead and mourned by her brother Franz. We later learn that Franz used to abuse and rape Greta till she ran off with a mysterious Dr. von Ravensbrück. Then we jump to a scene where Greta is in a coach accident. Her driver is killed and she is rescued by a young married couple, Walter and Eva. Greta has no memory and is soon living with, and having sex with, Walter and Eva.
Klaus Kinski comes in as their doctor and he sees an amulet on Eva's neck that perplexes him. He goes off to run experiments on corpses. Meanwhile, Gertrude is bothered by Greta and keeps seeing Greta's rapey brother in hallucinations.
Gertrude eventually flees the house but is shot in the face by someone she knows but we never see.
Later Eva finally gets jealous of the sex Walter is having with Greta (she wants her to herself) and seals Greta up in a vault The Cask of Amontillado style. Of and around this time Kinski's Dr. Sturges has revealed that Greta's amulet is a formula for bringing the dead back to life. He succeeds but is killed by someone soon after.
A few weeks later the search for Greta is winding down and Eva and Walter throw a party. At the party, Eva sees Greta and chases her throughout the house. Greta's face is young one moment and a corpse-like visage the next. Greta kills Eva, but no one sees her do it.
Greta goes on to kill Walter, Walter's father who was...wait for it...Dr. von Ravensbrück! We learn then that Greta was pregnant with Dr. von Ravensbrück's child but she died in childbirth. The whole thing was witnessed by Gertrude!
Rapey Franz then brought her back to life, but she kills him. She also kills the butler of the von Ravensbrück's just because she can.
We see Greta in the end. I guess she must be immortal now.
Not a bad flick, but very disjointed. Ewa Aulin as Greta is great to look at, but she isn't much of an actress. Granted my copy is dubbed, so it is harder to tell. Klaus Kinski is his typical weird-ass self.
Woman with amnesia is found, either by the characters or people they know. Turns out she is a reanimated corpse intent on killing everyone that was responsible for her death.
What separates this from say the plot of "The Crow"? Well, in this case, she is killing everyone even remotely associated with her death whether they had an active role or not. So less "The Crow" and more "Dr. Phibes."
I have heard that some people didn't care for this one, but you can't watch it thinking it is a Lovecraft movie. Lovecraft never translates well on screen. Watch this one thinking it is a crazy Nick Cage movie.
Sadly I did not see this one when it came out, but I had heard a lot of good (and bad) about it. Well the movie itself did not disappoint. I mean really, Lovecraft, Nick Cage? This has disaster written all over it but it gets pulled together well.
So the movie follows the story rather well. Well, as can be expected.
Our narrator, the unnamed surveyor, becomes Ward Phillips a hydrologist played by Elliot Knight. I have to admit I did enjoy that the narrator, our POV character, is played by a mixed-race, Nigerian-British actor who is very active in gay rights. Lovecraft would be so happy.
Nick Cage is at his Nick Cage best. Super serious when he needs to be, and bat-shit insane with an accent when the movie needs that. He reminded me of his characters in Vampire's Kiss and National Treasure. And let's not forget, Cage has won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award. He is great as troubled Nathan/Nahum Gardner.
The sons are changed and there is a daughter, Lavinia played by Madeleine Arthur (who has some solid geek cred with credits in "Supernatural", "Legends of Tomorrow", "Tomorrow People", "X-Files", "Magicians", and "Spooksville"). Oh, and Lavinia, who plays a Wiccan, also has a copy of the old 1980 Simon Necronomicon. That made me rather happy to see, to be honest.
And Tommy Chong. Seriously.
Tommy Freaking Chong playing the "crazy man" Ezra/Ammi Pierce.
The hardest thing I think is to capture the horror of Lovecraft on film. I am not sure how many half-failed attempts I have watched over the years. In fact, I think the only good ones have been "From Beyond" and "Re-Animator". Maybe, MAYBE, 1970 The Dunwich Horror with Dean Stockwell.
What I REALLY enjoyed about this was I watched it with my two boys. We all love Lovecraft and we all love Nick Cage movies. So this was a nice treat.
This is supposed to be the first of a shared universe of Lovecraft films, but it did rather poorly in the box office.
What NOT to use here? Might need to grab my 5e Cthulhu Mythos book and give this one a go using the Night Shift game. The characters can play the parts of investigators to the scene. My kids would LOVE that.
Wait...didn't I watch this one last night? Well, you would think so just comparing the posters.
Also known as "Sex of the Witch" this one came out a year after Byleth did. Though in fairness BOTH movies do have a scene that the cover could represent.
An old wine merchant is dying so he curses his family, in particular his greedy grand-children.
One by one people start to die.
The plot, minus the sex and witchcraft, could have been a thriller or even a comedy. There are some parallels to some murder mysteries like Clue and Knives Out. In the sense that people keep dying and there are a bunch squabbling children trying to get Daddy's wealth.
There is lots of sex and nudity and it is pretty much the ultimate evolution of the Italian Giallo, Eurosleaze flick. It was only missing a deformed henchman in my mind. Though there is a creepy dude in black.
I will admit that I am now likely to use "fondling the goldfish" as a sexual euphemism after watching this movie. The said scene is about 40 mins into my copy.
It is notable that Camille Keaton of "I Spit On Your Grave" fame appears in this one as well as one of the nieces, Anna. she gets clawed by the previously mentioned creepy dude.
The movie's biggest crime though is that it is a slog and actually kind of dull.
Maybe a Byleth + Il Sesso Della Strega supercut is needed. In fact, I know just how to do it.
The rich brother writes his sister out of his will because she was a witch and seduced him when they were younger. Now their illegitimate daughter is back. She is also a witch (more powerful since her blood is "concentrated") and begins to kill off all her half-siblings (they think she is "just" a cousin) so she can have all the inheritance for herself.
Since she is a diabolic witch her patron is Byleth, the Demon Prince of Incest.
While Byleth, or Beleth, has a history this version is closer to the D&D/Pathfinder demon Socothbenoth.
Now, this would obviously be a more R or even NC-17 rated game.
To borrow a Scooby-doo trope one of the characters is a distant relative to the brother's wife (so no weird blood relations here).
Zombie Witch Medium Undead (Corporeal) Frequency: Very Rare Number Appearing: 2d4 (2d4) Alignment: Chaotic [Chaotic Evil] Movement: 90' (30') [9"] Armor Class: 5 [14] Hit Dice: 4d8+4** (22 hp) Attacks: 2 claws + 1 bite, Cause Fear Damage: 1d6, 1d6, 1d4 Special: Only harmed by silver, magic. Cause Fear 1x per day as per spell. Curse. Size: Medium Save: Witch 4 Morale: 12 (12) Treasure Hoard Class: None; see below XP: 100
When a powerful lord or lady dies they are often interred with fine weapons, treasures, and other grave goods that will support them in the after-life. But these lords also know that these good are desired by the less pious and greedy. So the lords will often arrange for a coven of witches to be sacrificed in a dark ritual and buried with the grave goods. The witches do not volunteer for this task, they are captured and sacrificed after the lords' death. It is believed that the anger of the witches will transcend death and the tomb will be protected.
This is true and the undead witch, now a mindless zombie will attack anything living that enters the tomb. Appearances may differ, but they are all undead witches in various states of decay or mummification.
Often lower level witches are used (under 6th level) and the only remains of their magic is a cause fear ability they can use as a group 1x per day. They then attack as fast-moving zombies (normal initiative). They will fight until they are destroyed. If the last zombie witch is destroyed and there are still combatants alive they will lay their final curse. Anyone taking goods away from the tomb must save vs. death or be afflicted with a rotting disease that drops their HP by 1d6 per day until death. Healing magics, potions, or other means will not stop the spread of the curse. Only a remove curse or similar magic can stop this curse. Then the victim can be healed.
If destroyed, zombie witches will reform by the next new moon. Only a cleric casting bless or a witch casting hallow or remove curse on the tomb will stop their return.
Zombie witches are turned as wights or 4HD undead.
This is another one from last year. The Blu-Ray was not available till November, so here we are. This is another one of those notorious movies of the 70s Euro-sleaze horror. One I had been looking for a while mostly because I never thought I'd find it.
Byleth: The Demon of Incest is a little Italian gem that features murders, gratuitous nudity and enough brother/sister incest for an episode of Game of Thrones.
Let's get right to the point. It's not good. It is slow and the lead Mark Damon as Duke Lionello is not great.
The movie revolves around Duke Lionello, his sister Barbara and Barbara's new husband Giordano. This is a problem of course since Lionello and Barbara have been having an incestuous affair. An affair that Lionello is loathed to give up.
The movie does make use of the demon Beleth, which is expected. At one point Barbara asks her brother, Lionello, if he still has his white horse. They later talk about "Byleth" on his white horse.
Of course, you are never sure if Lionello is possessed by Byleth or just crazy. I like to think possessed because that is what I do here.
The Severin Blu-Ray version is really good. There are some color issues from the original negative, but otherwise, it looks great. Too bad the movie could not live up to the hype.
This was a fun one. It reminds me a bit of "The Mephisto Waltz" and a little bit of the "Music of Erich Zahn", only in reverse.
Rose Fisher (Freya Tingley) is a world-class violinist and she learns that her estranged father, and brilliant strange composer, Richard Marlowe (Rutger Hauer) is dead.
She inherits his home and all his belongings including a very strange violin sonata. Her agent Simon Abkarian(Charles Vernais) investigates and learns that the sonata was part of a work linking it to a cult of Satan worshipers in France and it appears to have been written just for Rose.
The movie is more of a thriller, but there is the summoning of the antichrist and the ghosts of the children sacrificed by Marlow in the process of composing his masterpiece sonata.
The movie was rather good. Frey Tingley is great as Rose and I wanted more Rutger Hauer.
The end was a nice little twist so I enjoyed that.
I am a sucker for any story that mixes music with magic.
Frankly, I would lift this plot wholesale to use as a NIGHT SHIFT adventure. Investigate the scary mansion of a composer that commits suicide. Horrible tapes found in the basement. All sorts of great things here. Though stopping it would require an active antagonist.
This might be the most "1976" movie I have seen in a long time. Lots of drugs, naked hot tubbing, and a busted up Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.
The main character, our "Witch", Molly is fairly insane. She tries to repress the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father while lusting after all these different men.
She also seems to be killing men but not remembering it.
Molly is not just deranged, she is also very simple like she is still stuck somehow back at being a child.
Molly keeps spiraling deeper into madness and the police are quickly on to her.
In some of her flashbacks, it's hard to tell what was real and what is only her delusional state. So she either killed a few men or a lot of them.
What I don't get is how in the hell did she get up and kill people with all those drugs and alcohol in her system.
IMDB said this movie had witchcraft in it, but not really.
There is horror here, but not of the conventional sort.
Not every supernatural occurrence is a bad one as I have tried to show in Ordinary World. Some times the supernatural occurrence is not even really supernatural. In the case of this movie, there is a supposed "witch" but really it is just a mentally disturbed woman that kills men. A ruse like this only works once to be honest so use it sparingly. Too much and you turn your "Supernatural Horror" into "Scooby-Doo."
Well. One of the words in the title is a lie, but one is spot on.
Also known as "El Vampiro De La Autopista" this is a movie that never really knows what it wants to do. Both titles tell us this is a Vampire film, but it is often treated (right up to the end in fact) as a mundane murder mystery. They make a big deal of the murders happening every 28 years, but the ending does nothing to explain that.
Not to spoil it, but the movie is kind of dull, the police detective pins the murders on an escaped mental patient. One we don't even hear about till the very end. This is despite the fact that the murders have an obvious supernatural element to them. How obvious? Well, the killer is invisible.
Now under other circumstances, this might be interesting, but here it is just cheesy.
Sadly some interesting ideas lost in this Spanish "Hammer-envy" movie.
Well. The best thing to do with this one really is to have a serial killer in your games. Everyone thinks it is a vampire, but it really just a human psychopath. This works well in Ordinary World if all the characters are supernatural and they are worried that one of their own is going to get them exposed.
As typical, I start with some of the left-overs from last-year. This one was high on my list due to some chatter online. I guess the deal is that it was supposed to have been a Doctor Strange movie with Jeffery Combs playing the Strange role. Here he is now Anton Mordrid, and it suits him better I think. Brian Thompson is in this as well, playing, what else, the bad guy.
The effects are a little cheesy, but that is to be expected, this was low budget even 1992 standards. It was fun to see some old-school stop-action effects.
The horror is roughly on par with the Doctor Strange comics. All the elements are there, but you are never really expected to be afraid.
Combs and Thompson make for great adversaries, it is a shame we have not seen them in something else together. Both look so damn young in this. But I guess this movie is nearly 30 years old.
The "I'll see ya again I promise," leads me to believe that there was going to be more, but sadly we never got it.
Doctor Mordrid's world is so adaptable to Night Shift that one wonders why I never watched it before this! He is in all respects a version of Doctor Strange, but there is more to it than that. Mordrid, for example, seems to be much older than Strange having waited 150 years for the return of Kabal.
Anton Mordrid, Ph.D.
20th Level Warlock
Str 12 (+0) Dex 10 (+0) Con 17 (+2) Int 18 (+3)* Wis 18 (+3)** Cha 15 (+1)**
XP: 4,000,000
Hit Dice: 11d4+18 (20) Hit Points: 66 AC: 7
Attack Bonus: +6
Check Bonus: +8*/+6**/+4
Armor: Magic cloak
Saves: +7 vs. spells and magical effects
Fate Points: 10
Class Abilities: Arcana 150% (knowledge about magic, rituals, cults, and spellcasting), Spellcasting 150% (160% if he has his Amulet of Kronos).
Other Special Abilities: Arcane Bond (Amulet of Kronos, adds +10% to spellcasting), Blaster, Enhanced Senses, Telekinesis
I am getting ready for my annual October Horror Movie Challenge!
This year lacks a real theme save for "movies I have had laying around forever and I need to watch them or sell back the DVDs" and "movies I have been meaning to watch forever".
I am going to lean heavily on my preferred time of the late-60s to mid-70s. And I have more than a few Italian horror films.
I have about 110 movies here. Some I have already seen so won't do those. There are also more than a few overlaps. I'll try to hit more than one per day, but often that is not really doable. I'll also hit more over the weekends.
I am going to also try to include as much NIGHT SHIFT content as I can.
Let's see where I end up at the end of the next month!
Melinoë (Moon Nymph)
Medium Faerie
Frequency: Very Rare
Number Appearing: 0 (1-3)
Alignment: Neutral (Chaotic Neutral)
Movement: 120' (40') [12"]
Armor Class: 7 [12]
Hit Dice: 4d8+4** (22 hp)
Attacks: None
Damage: None
Special: Madness, Nightmare, only harmed by cold iron, witch magic
Size: Medium
Save: Witch 4
Morale: 6
Treasure Hoard Class: None
XP: 225
Melinoë, or Moon Nymphs, are only found in the wilderness under the light of the moon. They are found "clothed in saffron (yellow)" which is actually just moonlight.
Like all nymphs, they are unearthly beautiful. Any mortals that gaze upon them must save vs. Paralysis or be struck by moon madness for 1d4+2 turns. A character with moon madness can't take actions save for muttering to themselves. The only intelligible things they can say are about the moon and how beautiful it is.
If three melinoë are present and they are observed they can cast the Nightmare spell (q.v). The subject has a +2 to their saves vs. Spells since the moon is known to all.
Otherwise, a can cast spells as a 4th level witch (2 1st level, 2 2nd level spells). They have no physical attacks. They also have no treasure.
Jason makes a lot of fantastic points. So many in fact that I do not feel the need to reiterate them here and now. Save where I want to talk about why I wanted to make this game. And even here I am going restate something Jason already said.
NIGHT SHIFT: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars was designed to be familiar.
For me though not just in terms of game design, in terms of the types of games I have been playing over the last 20 some odd years.
In 1999 I was facing something of a crisis of my RPG playing. I had been playing D&D for 20 years solid by that point, with minor breaks due to college, grad school, and getting married. I had bought a house and had a kid on the way. Plus in 1999 D&D was feeling tired and old. I had played some other games, namely World of Darkness and other horror games. I had recently picked back up Chill, but none of these had lit the spark the way D&D had.
That is until I found CJ Carella's WitchCraft RPG. Now here was a game I loved and it relit the long dormant fires of RPG creativity. From here I picked up Kult, found more and more games. Soon I was freelancing at Eden. Then Jason and I were working together on Buffy, Angel, Army of Darkness, and more. But D&D was still that first love. At the same time the d20 boon was happening and there were a lot of new great games coming out based on the d20 OGL and more still based on the principles of the OGL. I went from a "dark time" to a new Golden Age in just a couple of years.
NIGHT SHIFT hooks into that familiarity.
The rules are a streamlined version of the d20/OGC with an "old-school" bend. The situations are modern supernatural, so there feels like there is a "world continuity" with games I was playing using Chill, Kult, CoC, Mage, WitchCraft, and Buffy.
I want a game that can take me to the next 20 years of gaming and I truly think this one is it.
I am a sucker for anything to add to my games. Cards. Stange dice to use only special occasions (not required to use like a d7), board games, props. I know I don't *need* any of those things, but I like them and they are fun. I'm going to spend some time talking about some of these items and how I am using them in the next couple of months.
Up first is something I grabbed at the recent Free RPG Day.
Path of Horror is a Story Path Card collection From Nocturnal Media.
The Game Master keeps the "Theme" cards and then deals out 2-3 cards to each player. The play can then play their cards at appropriate times. In the end the Game Master can play the Climax cards.
The theme cards include things like "Lost Cause" or "Hint of Madness." Other cards are "Remembered Dream" or "Found Item" or "Lurker." The cards are all numbered, so lower number cards are played before higher ones. They add a bit of color to your game and a bit more roleplaying and input from the players. They also require the Game Master to think a little more on their feet than usual since not everything can be planned out.
Currently, my son is using them in his "Curse of Strahd" D&D 5 game and I am planning on using them in my "Ordinary World" for Night Shift and "War of the Witch Queens" for Basic-era D&D.
There is quite a lot that can be done with these cards and since they rely on player input they can also be reused a lot.
What attracted me to them originally was the cover of course. The art reminded me of this card deck I had as a kid.
It's September. The start of Meteorological Fall; the actual Autumnal Equinox is still three weeks away. But change is in the air and there is a change at the Other Side as well.
I have a new banner up. I am planning to do a lot more with Night Shift in the coming months.
Night Shift was designed to replace many games in my library, but that doesn't mean I am ready to stop playing or talking about those games yet.
In fact last night I was reminded about a game I really love and I really should do more with.
Part of the Storytellers Vault (a bit like DMSGuild, but for White Wolf/Onyx Path games) this book is about...well...Mage, made easy.
Now. Anyone who has ever played any version of Mage is likely to be incredulous about now. I mean, Mage is many, many, many things. Sometimes too many. But easy? No. Easy is never a word used with Mage. But Phil is the Mage expert. Mage: The Ascension 20th is close to 700 pages and he wrote the bulk of that. So if he is telling me that MME is something I can read in 60 pages, well I am going to pay attention.
And I am glad I did.
While I am conversant in most Mage matters, I do not by any stretch consider myself an expert, or even an advanced player. I am quite enthusiastic though. I found Mage Made Easy to be a nice breeze guide of solid advice that did two things right away for me. First, it made me want to play Mage: The Ascension again and secondly it gave me solid advice that is good for many modern supernatural games.
The book is very heavily focused on Mage and Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary in particular.
It shows you how to use the vast Mage meta-plot OR discard it altogether (that's me!). It gives you some fantastic archetypes to try out and even solid advice on Mage's biggest issue, Paradox.
Plus the art, as expected, is fantastic.
While I do say there is good advice for any modern supernatural game, the advice is also very Mage specific. This means to use this book it helps to have a basic working knowledge of the Mage RPG. Once you have that then translating this advice to your own game, be it Mage or something else, is pretty easy. BUT that is going beyond the scope of the book and not the fault of this book if it doesn't work out. But advice like "start small" or "start with the characters" is ALWAYS good advice.
While the focus is on Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Ed. (Mage20), I found there was good advice here to apply to my particular favorite flavor of the game in Mage The Sorcerers Crusade.
Makes me wish I had a Mage game going, to be honest!
Wynonna Earp is the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp and heir to the Earp curse. She is the one that must rid the Ghost River Triangle of all the revenants, or "demon-adjacent" dead that return to battle with the Earp heir.
Waverly Earp is Wynonna's younger half-sister. She only recently discovered that she is not in fact and Earp, but instead the offspring of Michelle Earp, nee Gibson, and the Angel Julian. She knows the most about the Earp family and curse. She is currently engaged to former Sheriff Nicole Haught.
Nicole Haught AKA "Red", "Sheriff Hot", "Hot Sheriff" 4th level Veteran, Human "Did I just hit my head and wake up in patriarchal bullshit land?"
Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+2/+0 Melee bonus: +2 Ranged Bonus: +2 Saves: +2 to all saves
Special Abilities/Skills Combat Expertise, Increased damage, Supernatural attack, Tracking
Equipment Shotguns, handguns
Sheriff (formerly) Nicole Haught is the only survivor of an attack of demons lead by Bulshar, the demon responsible for all the demonic activity in the Ghost River Triangle and the town of Purgatory. She is smart and resourceful. She is in love with Waverly Earp and just said yes to Waverly's proposal.
John Henry "Doc" Holiday AKA "Doc", "Holiday" 5th level Veteran, Vampire "Careful, Earp. Doing what’s right, even in the face of ridiculous odds … you are beginning to sound like a hero."
John Henry "Doc" Holiday was cursed after his friend Wyatt Earp died and had been trapped in a well for 130 years. He was released by Wynonna and they went from being colleagues to friends to lovers. Though with his aging catching up to him Doc went to his ex-wife Kate and became a vampire.
