Advent-ure Dice: Day 22

  Day 22

Two d2s! "Drink Me" and "Drank Me." Nice. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Wolf-Man

 Making up for lost time (ok, not really) but thought I dip into some classics.

The Wolf Man (1941)

"Even a man who is pure at heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms
And the moon is full and bright."

I mean really? Has there been a better quote for a horror movie?  I had mentioned in my interview last night that I think I knew the name "Lon Chaney" before I even knew the name of the President.  So I think it behooves me to re-watch this one.

This is the story of Lawrence "Larry" Talbot, a man who becomes a were-wolf when the moon is full. 

We have had a number of werewolf and wolf-man movies over the years, some of which are really good. But this one is the original, as it were, and it is a really great story. Yeah, maybe it is a bit slow by today's standards, but still very watchable.

The Wolfman (2010)

This newer one, with big name stars like Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving is a remake of the 1941 movie. 

It is slick and it is stylish with updated special effects.

And it is nowhere near as good. Though it is better than I remembered.

Featured Monster: Lycanthropes, Werewolves

Werewolf legends predate movies. But there is no doubt that the original 1941 had an impact on the AD&D game. In fact Van Richten Monster Compendium Vol 1 features the "big 3" Vampires, Flesh Golems, and Lycanthropes. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 30
First Time Views: 14

Advent-ure Dice: Day 21

  Day 21

Spider venom d20

Advent-ure Dice: Day 20

  Day 20

Ok. This is new. Not the sparkly purple, but a true black die with moon phases on it. Very cool.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Body Snatcher's Night

 Managed to squeeze in all three of a theme today/tonight. Now, I don't trust who anyone says they are.

You all know the plot. Alien pods rain down. People get caught and duplicated. As fun as these all are, I have seen all three. Though it has been a while.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

This one is a classic in every sense of the word. The pacing is a bit slow, but better than I remembered. Speaking of which I can't actually recall the last time I saw this one. Kevin McCarthy is great in this, and it quite possibly put him on the map in terms of character acting.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

It is rare that a remake does as well as the original. It is even rarer still when that remake can one up or do better. Well 1978's Body Snatchers does exactly that. I mean really is there a more iconic movie moment than Donald Sutherland's Pod person scream at the end? Or maybe when Harry and his dog are combined into one creature? That one always freaked me out. 

This one also features the talents of Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy, and Kevin McCarthy(!) in a cameo role saying the same line, "You're next! You're next!" from the first movie. I have to admit, I love it when they do that. 

Body Snatchers (1993)

A remake or a sequel? Or a bit of both? Hard to say, I am a bit tired now, and the sleepier I get, the more like a sequel I can see it. 

This was the first real big film roles for then rising star Gabrielle Anwar. The scene of her in the bathtub is the iconic one from this movie. Somehow it doesn't quite measure up to Kevin McCarthy's frantic warning or Donald Sutherland's alien scream.

Though this is the movie that my wife and I saw when it first came out that started us using the term "Pod People." As in "You know I have been replaced by a pod person when..."

Featured Monster: Doppelgangers

The idea of Doppelgangers goes way back. So there is no way, no matter how iconic the movie, that I can claim these movies had any influence on the AD&D Monster Manual. I can guess, but can't make the claim with any certainty. 

I can, however, claim that the Ravenloft AD&D monster, Doppelganger Plant, was.

Personally, I like having both sorts of doppelgangers in my games. The trickster fae types and the destructive alien pods.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 28
First Time Views: 14

Advent-ure Dice: Day 19

  Day 19

Sparkly d10

October Horror Movie Challenge: Lemora

I was on Tubi, which is hands down the best place to find old and obscure horror films, watching Messiah of Evil last night. When it was done, I was shocked to see that it was none other than Lemora, a movie I have wanted to see for years!  So I had to save it for tonight.

Lemora (1973)

Also known as Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural, The Legendary Curse of Lemora, and Lemora, Lady Dracula.

Lila Lee (Cheryl Smith  in one of her first ever roles) is a girl in trouble. He father is a notorious Prohibition-era criminal and he has just killed his wife and her lover. Lila goes to live with the local minister where she becomes a paragon of Christian goodness and values.  One day, she gets a letter from a mysterious Lemora, who tells her that her father has shown up three years later and is now dying. She is supposed to meet them in the town of Astaroth.

She goes there to find her father and told to watch out for the locals, who are said to have that "Astaroth look." 

Lila meets Lemora (Lesley Taplin) and it is pretty obvious from the start she is a vampire. It is like the writer (Richard Blackburn, who is also the Director and plays the minister) took the beginning of Dracula and merged it with Carmila. 

Lila figures out what Lemora is and tries to run away, only to encounter the rest of the townsfolk who try to kill her. She ends up killing her own, not bestial, father.  During this time the minister is looking for her and has found Astaroth. 

The minister gets to town and falls asleep in a barn. He is awakened by Lila who begins kissing him, he tries to get her to stop only to start kissing her back. Lila reveals her vampire fangs and bites him as Lemora, smiling, looks on.

So...happy ending I guess! 

I have been looking for this movie for ages, so there is no way it is going to measure up. There is far less witchcraft in it than I was led to believe, and the supposed sexual themes were blown completely out of proportion. There was a lot more in The Vampire Lovers (1970). Still though, it is a nice moody flick with some nice horror elements.

Our lead in this, Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith, would have a career into the 1980s, including the rather notorious erotic "Cinderella" playing the titular role.  Sadly, as expected, Smith died young. Liver disease and hepatitis due to being addicted to heroin for two decades. 

Featured Monster: Vampires (again)

There is not much else to say here that I have not already said. BUT I am struck by how similar in tone this movie is to Messiah of Evil.  For starters both deal with remote towns with ancient backgrounds (for America), both feature a central undead figure. Both feature undead monsters that are not quite vampires and not quite zombies, but something in between. Both feature central female leads. Both are also what has been described as a sub-genre of Horror, "American Nightmare" usually films set in American and produced between 1968 and 1976. It's not quite occult-themed horror, but it's related. 

For a game, I might mix the two up a little. Lemora turned Lila in the 1930s. What would they be like now, nearly 100 years later? Maybe the "Blood Moon" prophecy of "Messiah of Evil" is about Lemora's death at the hands of a stronger, more powerful vampire? Lots to choose from, really.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 25
First Time Views: 14

Review: Van Richten's Guides

 Today I will cover a lot of ground very quickly as a retrospective review. I have talked about these about books off and on over the years here and they stand as some of the best deep dives for monsters I have ever seen for the AD&D game. Yes, Elmimster's Ecologies are very good and the Monstrous Compendiums sat the stage for detailed monster coverage, but where these sources fall short of the Van Richten Guides is the level of detail; in terms of monster coverage, variations of the monster, and of course hunting the monsters.

Van Richten's Guides

The Van Richten's Guides began in 1992 with the publication of Van Richten's Guide to Vampires, which I already covered in detail. The other guides that came after followed a similar format, each detailing a different monster.

They were all largely agnostic in terms of system, though they were all still AD&D books and the fluff was still very much set in Ravenloft. I personally felt they could have been used in any AD&D campaign setting, and I even felt that a few were useful enough to use in any system.  For example, I used the Liches book for WitchCraft/Unisystem to great effect. 

The original Guides were single volumes of around 96 pages each. The product numbering was a little haphazard, they were all "Ravenloft Reference" but Liches also had the code RS and the last two had no codes at all. 

In 1998, after TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, the books were combined into a compendium of three monster books, each with a third, Guide to Witches, new. It also had a bit of a different feel than the others. Though it's most similar to the Vistani one.  The books were grouped by theme rather than publication dates. Volume 1 featured the "Classic" Universal monsters. Vol. 2 was undead, and Vol. 3 what can best be described as "occult" related.

• RR3 Van Richten's Guide to Vampires (2e)
• RR7 Van Richten's Guide to Werebeasts (2e) 
• RR8 Van Richten's Guide to the Created (2e)
• Compiled in Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol 1
• RR5 Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts (2e)
• RS1 [RR6] Van Richten's Guide to the Lich (2e)
• RR9 Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead (2e)
• Compiled in Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol 2
• Van Richten's Guide to Fiends (2e)
• Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani (2e)
• Van Richten's Guide to Witches (not published as a single book)
• Compiled in Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol 3

I owned all of these back in the 1990s. I recall sitting in my apartment after getting married reading them all. There were subtle differences between the single (TSR-era) books and the compiled (WotC-era) books. Nothing I can recall off the top of my head, mind you, and nothing that was game-changing, save for maybe the notion that Van Richten was dead.

I unloaded all of these after I went over to other games and then later D&D 3. I don't regret it, but I kinda wish I had kept the Compendiums. Unfortunately, the PDFs, while great for reading, are not really good enough for Print on Demand.  Printing them all out for a binder would be fun, but we are talking about a lot of pages (800 or so for the single volumes) and a lot of ink.

Van Richten's Guide to Witches

For obvious reasons, I want to focus on this one. Not only is it germane to this blog and my interests, it is also the odd one out. 

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to this book. Obviously, the Guides to Demons (renamed from Fiends) and Vistani were still top-notch. The Guide to Witches really should have been called the Guide to Hags and Witches because it dealt with both. I'll break it down here.

Guide to Hags

        I really liked this part.  Hags should be part of Ravenloft, and this section did a great job of presenting another monster type in a far more complex light.  It is on par with the Guide to Liches or Vampires.

I would have liked to see more on linking Hags to Night Hags.  I liked the second change idea that other hag types change into Night Hags, but it does not have to be the only way they are linked.  The Monster Manual 2 (1st Ed.) states that the Annis are relative to the Night Hags, and the Greenhag are relative to both the Annis and the Sea Hags.

I liked the Irdra/Ogre link to Hags, but I liked the "Dark Fey" theory much better.  My hag, the Makva (or Wood Hag), is more of a dark faerie type than an ogress.  Plus I don't play Dragonlance, so the Irdra are not part of my worlds.

For Hag reproduction and powers, the Makva are most similar to Greenhags. Except, most Makva only live about 800 years.  Mavka is usually spawned from elves and half-elves rather than humans.  Makva may join Coveys, but there will be only one Makva per covey. In spawning rituals, Makva picks elves or half-elves as victims. They can perform them only on nights of the new moon.

Guide to Witches, Warlocks, and Hedge Magicians

        I was prepared to find witches that were very different than my own, but I did not expect that they would be this different. Witches have had a spotty history with D&D since the beginning, and it seems that every few years, a new rule book comes up that gives us a different vision of the witch.  To begin with, this witch is not a class or a subclass, but a kit.  It is also different from the Complete Wizards Handbook witch kit.  What I did like was the information on the Church of Hala and the acknowledgement that witches could be good or evil, overall I did not like it.

        I am not saying I did not like the new kit, I just do not like them as Witches.  The author, Steve Miller, got the points right about witchcraft being based in faith and I really liked the whole idea of the Weave, I just did not feel that these were the same kinds of witches from fantasy and horror literature. For example where was any mention of the occult? Or how about familiars? These witches lacked a few of the things that made witches special.

The witches and warlocks here are interesting classes, and looking back at them now, a quarter of a century later, I find that I like them a lot more than I did then. Maybe I have seen more witches since then, or maybe my tastes have changed.

All of these books, though, are essential to anyone playing in Ravenloft, a must-have if you are playing a horror game in AD&D, or really any version of D&D, and still pretty useful for other games.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 18

  Day 18

Kitty d4.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Messiah of Evil (1974)

 I have wanted to see this one for some time, based on the movie poster alone. It was not exactly the movie I thought it was going to be, but glad I finally caught it. The poster claims "From the makers of American Graffiti," and that is true. The Husband-and-wife team Huyck and Katz (writers-producers-directors) did write "American Graffiti" and then would go on to direct and write "Howard the Duck," and write for Indiana "Jones and the Temple of Doom."

Messiah of Evil (1974)

This movie follows some old tropes. Old, even by the time of this movie and certainly one we have seen a lot. A woman, this time Arletty played by Marianna Hill, is searching for her artist father who has ended all communication with her. Told in flashback to her psychiatrist she talks about how she arrives in the coastal town of Point Dume, formerly "New Bethlehem," to find him.  She finds instead an odd man Thom (Michael Greer), and his two young groupies Toni (Joy Bang) and Laura (Anitra Ford). They are also interested in Arletty's father.

We learn, through various means, that the town is cursed and that during the Blood Moon the people will change and begin to eat raw flesh. This is told to us a few times to make sure we remember it. Even dear old dad comes back from the dead to tell us.

Anyway, town's people start dying, Arletty reads some of her father's notes talking about how he is changing, and she notices she is changing the same way.  The groupies get picked off and eaten by the townsfolk and soon they come after Arletty and Thom.

In the end, Arletty is in the mental institution, but you get the idea that she is already dead.

The movie is all mood with some standard 70s-era zombies for blood and gore (and not a lot of that). It is not great, but not terrible either. We have seen the "Woman searches for lost family and only finds dead people" trope many times here. Hell, this isn't even the first one this month. But maybe there is something to that. Instead of a castle in Europe, it is an artist colony in California. 

I think this film had high aspirations and a limited budget for achieving them. 

Featured Monster: Ghouls

The movie is unclear on what sorts of undead the town's folk are. But the connection to "new religion" and Donnor Party made in the tales of the Blood Moon lead me to conclude they are ghouls. Granted not the grave robbing undead, but something a little more intelligent than a zombie and less powerful than a vampire. 

Now. It would be foolish of me to think this movie had any influence on the Monster Manual at all. But that doesn't mean we can look at ghouls a new way because of this movie.

The film's dream-like, or more to the point, nightmare-like quality makes it a good model for a Ravenloft adventure. Especially if you imagine Point Dume as part of Ravenloft.

The whole trope (woman seeks out weird family) really is a model for Ravenloft. Adding in the walking dead just seals the deal.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 24
First Time Views: 13

Review: Ravenloft Domains of Dread (2e)

 I am skipping over the otherwise great Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Revised for the last core book of the Ravenloft AD&D 2e line for a few reasons.

First and foremost, I don't have a copy of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Revised boxed set anymore. I had the box, but it was lost somewhere along the way. I have the PDFs, but that really isn't the same, is it. Also, the Revised set is just that, Revised. It came out in 1994, only a couple of years after the original boxed set. It takes some details from the Core set and Forbidden Lore plus other material current at the time and gives us a new boxed set complete with more Tarroka cards.

All of this would then be surpased with the publication of Ravenloft Domains of Dread.

Ravenloft Domains of Dread (2e)

1997. By William W. Connors, Andria Hayday, Steve Miller, and Bruce Nesmith. Art by  Paul Carrick, Henry Higgenbotham, Scott Johnson, Robert Lazzaretti, David G. Martin, Val Mayerik, Mark A. Nelson, Arnie Swekel, and Peter White. 288 pages.

We are nearing the dawn of several eras. The end of the 90s, the end of the 20th century, and the end of TSR. Wizards of the Coast had just recently purchased TSR and saved it and D&D from bankruptcy oblivion. The changes were subtle at first, but one of the first clues was the shift in trade-drees and art for the Ravenloft books. Domains of Dread was a new hardcover, the first, for Ravenloft. I am not sure when the hardcover novels (and I think it was just "I, Strahd") were published.

For this review, I am considering my PDF and Print on Demand versions from DriveThruRPG and my memories of my original hardcover.

This is a good-sized book of the sort that was popular in the waning days of TSR. Notable about this one is the copyright page which includes the address for Wizards of the Coast, located in Renton, WA and not Lake Geneva, WI, and the use of the website www.tsrinc.com. You can still buy that if you like.

This book covers the same ground as the two previous core Ravenloft sets and updates them to reflect the recent events in the lands. 

I am happy to report that this one does indeed have 13 chapters and extra appendices to cover all the matieral. For example Darkon was gone and The Necropolis was in it's place

There are subtle as well as overt changes here. Some Domains are gone, others sent off to be Islands of Terror, and all due to the Grand Conjunction. Now I have mentioned this in terms of some of the adventures I have covered this month. If you buy this version, as opposed to say Realms of Terror, it is going to assume that the meta-plot of the Grand Conjunction has already happened. Does that mean you can't run say, Feast of Goblyns or Ship of Horror? No, but they are not going to work the exact same way.

I think this was one of my big disappointments with this book.  By 1997 I had began to not play much AD&D at all. So a lot of the Grand Conjunction and later plots were still new to me when they were old news to everyone else. While this was certainly the shape of all AD&D settings at the time it did make entry, or re-entry a lot harder.

That all being said if you are new to AD&D Ravenloft OR you don't care about the meta-plots then this is a great place to start. Everything is revised and brought upto date with all the other Ravenloft rules published. It is the book I recommended to my oldest when he wanted to read more about Ravenloft in AD&D.

Of most use here to all Ravenloft players and DMs are the appendicies which cover various character creation rules. This helps with creating Ravenloft-native characters. Ability scores, races, and classes all get an individual appendix. New races and classes are also covered. Among the new classes are Avengers, new rules for Elementalists, Arcanists, and Anchorites. There is even a new "Gypsy" class as well as Psionicist.

There is also a fairly robust index.

About the PoD version

The PoD version is actually rather nice. It compares well to the original hardcover version to be honest.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 17

  Day 17

dark purple d10

October Horror Movie Challenge: King Kong (1976)

 King Kong, the original from 1933, holds a very special place in my heart. I watched it with my dad when I was very young and it was the start of a love affair with "monster movies" that lives on to this day. I have seen it honestly hundreds of times. Anytime it was on and my dad and I were near a TV we would watch it. 1976's remake, the first also holds a special place for me, but not for all the same reasons. It was, even in my young mind then, supposed to be "my" King Kong, the one I was watch and think back on when I was older. Did it do that? Well...not really. I am watching it tonight for the first time in many years, decades even.

King Kong (1976)

This first remake features many stars who were not quite big, well, at least not yet: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, René Auberjonois, Jack O'Halloran, Ed Lauter, and a newcomer, Jessica Lange. This remake takes an environmental angle with an expedition by an oil company, Petrox; they suspect there is an island in the middle of an uncharted sea, and that island is filled with oil.

The rest. Well, it pretty much follows the original movie and movies after that. 

There are a few unique things about this movie. First, WOW, Jessica Lange was really young here. Her acting is not great, but it is much better than I remembered.  Though they do spend a lot of time on her in the early part of the film. Granted, she is the only woman in the film. 

Seeing the Twin Towers again in a movie is really odd. 

The film was produced by the legendary Dino De Laurentiis for Paramount, which got them into some issues with the original Kong studio Universal. 

Rick Baker, the special effects genius of the 1980s, had an uncredited role in the Kong suit. 

Rewatching the movie now, so many years later, I judged this one unfairly. Jessica Lange, too. In some ways, it is better than the 2005 Peter Jackson remake.

It has been so long that I forgot a lot of details. Lets be honest, though, there are three remakes, I have seen this one a lot.

Featured Monster: Giant Creatures, Dinosaurs

There is no doubt that the original King Kong had a huge effect on the monsters found in D&D. Module X1 The Isle of Dread, is practically Dave Cook and Tom Moldvay's love letter to King Kong.

The notion of a lost island filled with monsters is such a compelling one that D&D did it again with WG6 Isle of the Ape. It might be well-trodded ground, but it still works.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 23
First Time Views: 12

Review: Night of the Vampire (2e, Mystara)

 A side step today, but one that is important to me. I have been talking about how I believe that Barovia, the core domain of Ravenloft, was originally part of the World of Mystara and from Glantri in particular. Today I am providing some more fuel for that fire, but with the runner-up land of Karameikos. 

Night of the Vampire (2e)

1994. Adventure Design: L. Richard Baker III. Editing: Michele Carter. Project Manager: Andria Hayday. Cover Art: Jennell Jaquays. Interior Art: Dan Frazier. 32 pages. 

This review is considering the PDF file from DriveThruRPG only.

A couple of points about our creative team. First, more art from the legendary Jennell Jaquays. Rich Baker would go on to have a very good career at TSR and then Wizards working on D&D 3.x, D&D 4, and Gamma World. Andria Hayday, who does not often get mentioned (she is not even on the DTRPG page for this) would later go on to be one of the main developers of the Ravenloft: Domains of Dread hardcover. 

I never owned this boxed set, but after buying it from DriveThruRPG, I really wish I had. It is, CD-Audio aside for the moment, a fun adventure for low level characters.

The task set before Richard Baker and his designe team was to created a low-level (levels 1-3, or possibly 4-6) adventure where the big bad was a vampire. A daunting task. A well-played vampire can wipe out a party of even mid level, and an exceptionally well-played one is a challenge to higher level characters, especially in what is now a Post-Ravenloft I6 world.

Baker gets by this issue by having some magic items available to the PCs to use. And even provides some rules for grappling and taking down a vampire en masse. 

The adventure starts with a shipwreck trope, in which the PCs end up on an island off the coast of Karameikos. Now, there are a lot of ways to spin this; my choice? The shipwreck is not about the sea but instead the Mists of Ravenloft. 

The adventure is a bit rail-roady and there are a LOT of NPCs to keep track of. The vampire-plot is reminiscent of the Strahd-Sergei-Tatyana tragedy so much that this adventure could be used as stand-in prequel to I6. Granted, there is a LOT more going on here. Namely all the NPCs, but an enterprising DM could re-mold it into this prequel. Great for heroes and players familiar with the tale of Strahd already in a strange time-travel adventure.

About the PDFs

Ah, the 90s. There was a lot of role-playing, and that often meant lots of handouts. The PDF allows you to print out all the handouts you want.

Plus, printing out the PDFs also allows me to edit them as I need. For starters I would make the PCs higher level and get rid of some of the aids given to them. The pages are all filled with color so 

About the Audio Tracks

There are 72 audio tracks on the CD, which is not included with the PDF. BUT you can find them on YouTube. 

The pros include proper pronunciations of the names of the various NPCs and some eerie background music. 

The cons include audio tracks putting words into the PCs mouths and it doesn't always jive with the adventure itself. It's not a perfect fit. For example the PCs are treated as well known heroes in the tracks. At 1st to 3rd level this is not really likely. Also, there are some spoilers in the audio tracks. Personally, I would listen to them all first and be a little more selective. That is if I used any of them at all.

Despite the shortcomings, this is a rather interesting adventure with a lot of potential. It also satisfies my desire to use Ravenloft and Mystara together. 

The layout and trade dress are very good and bright, which is typical of the Mystara products of the time. I rather love them, to be honest. It is a shame everyone was fighting online (at the time) about Forgotten Realms this or Greyhawk that while Mystara fans were off on their own enjoying some really fun products.

I think my FLGS might have a copy of this in the store now that I think about it.

Advent-ure Dice: Day 16

 Day 16

Sparkly d12

October Horror Movie Challenge: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Is this a D&D monster movie? Well, Beetlejuice (1988) was for me, at least regarding ideas for undead monsters. Tonight's movie, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, is actually a real treat.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

This movie follows Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) now the host of a ghost reality show. She is still dealing with her stepmother, Delia (the always amazing Catherine O'Hara who can do no wrong in my mind), and her estranged daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). The death of her father, Charles (formerly played by outcast Jeffrey Jones, now played by a combination of actors, creature effects, and old photos), brings them all back together at their old home.

In the meantime, our old friend Betelgeuse (the still fantastic Michael Keaton) is still in the afterlife, working as a bio-exorcist and still pinning for Lydia. In another part of the afterlife a janitor (Danny DeVito in a surprising cameo) accidentally freeing a soul sucker and Betelgeuse's ex-wife Delores (in another bit of great casting, Monica Bellucci). She sucks out DeVito's soul, making him dead dead, and proceeds to go on the hunt for Betelgeuse.

A lot is going on here, and all of it is fantastic. I loved this movie, and it was a worthy sequel.

I don't want to get too much into it since it is so new, so it has spoilers, but Willem Dafoe (Wolf Jackson actor turned Ghost Detective) and everyone were just great.

I loved seeing Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega interact. After all, without Winona Ryder, there would not have been Jenna Ortega. How? Well, Christina Ricci was in Mermaids with Winona Ryder. She based her performance of Wednesday Addams on Ryder's Lydia. Ortega, in turn, based her Wednesday on Ricci's. We honestly missed a great opportunity to see all three together. 

But still, this movie was a treat. Loved seeing all these characters and actors again.  

Featured Monsters: Ghosts, Spectres, Zombies... and maybe a Succubus

Lots of undead here. Betelgeuse himself is described as a "demon," but in AD&D terms, he is more likely something like a Spectre. Bob and the other shrunken heads could be considered Zombies. Monica Bellucci's Delores was a witch in life and seems like a succubus. The line between demon and ghost is a little blurry here.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 22
First Time Views: 12

Review: Ravenloft Gothic Earth Gazetteer and A Guide to Transylvania

 Today I continue my exploration of Ravenloft's Gothic Earth. But first I want to set the proper stage. These next two products were released in 1995 and 1996, respectively. I had moved to Chicago already and I had gotten married. I moved to the suburb of Mt. Prospect, the point? Well, after years of buying my Ravenloft material from Carbondale's Castle Perilous, I was buying again from Games Plus, a place I had mail-ordered from since the 1980s. I bought my copy of Chill Vampires via mail order from Games Plus, so buying these two from their physical store seemed like a sort of homecoming. 

This is also when I  began to feel the shortcomings of the AD&D system. I loved the idea of Gothic Earth, I wanted that to be a world I played in, but that AD&D 2nd Edition rules just didn't quite cut it for me. I began to go back to Chill, this time the 2nd Edition, and most importantly to CJ Carella's WitchCraft RPG. But before I get to that, let me talk about these two products and why I still love them. 

For this review, I am considering the PDFs from DriveThruRPG and my originals purchased in the mid-1990s.

The Gothic Earth Gazetteer (2e)

1995. by William W. Connors. Cover art by Robh Ruppel. Interior art from Dover Publications. 64 pages, detached cover and poster map.

I want to state out of the gate that this is an indispensable guide for playing in the 1890s. While some Ravenloft-isms are here, I have used this guide with countless Victorian-era RPGs. 

The Gothic Earth Gazetteer goes into greater details than the similarly named sections in the Masque of the Red Death boxed set. 

We start with an Introduction and an overview of the 1890s in the form of Headlines. A set of bullet points covering the biggest news items around the world from 1890 to 1899 and The Spanish-American war. Even in the days prior to easy to access resources like Wikipedia (and I practically wore out my copy of Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia CD-ROM looking all this up back then!) there is enought here in the first 16 or so pages to keep an enterprising Game Master* busy. Sorted by date and then by continent. 

I say Game Master instead of the more accepted Dungeon Master here for two reasons. Gothic Earth is really a significant step away from the dungeon-crawling ideas of Dungeons & Dragons. While yes there could be dungeons here, that is not what Gothic Earth does best. The back street of London, Paris, or New York is where this game does well. Also, I have already mentioned that this guyid can be used anywhere. This first section typifies what I mean. You can just as easily use this in Victorian Age Vampire, Cthulhu by Gaslight, or any other later Victorian-era game. 

This section is then expanded in the next section with other events more closely tied to the setting. Events of the 1890s covers The Ghost Dancers (and man, did I ever want to make ShadowRun the future of Gothic Earth!), Arctic Exploration, Railroads, Spiritualism, and a lot more.  Each section gives a real world background, and then in true Ravenloft fashion some "Forbidden Lore."

We then have a similar section, Who's Who on Gothic Earth, that covers specific people. There are more people covered than events, so the section on each is smaller. Not everyone has a Forbidden Lore section, but enough to keep any Game Master busy. This book + a little research would allow the GM to create even more if they wanted. If there is a figure from the Late Victorian era you can think of, then they are likely covered here. Sadly one of my favorite figures from the time, Harriet Tubman, was not listed. Maybe I could fix that.

Our last section covers various groups and cabals active in the 1890s (and beyond) on the Gothic Earth. 

The original print copy has a poster of the calendars for the 1890s, complete with images of ephemera from the time. At the time of publication, it was an amazing resource.  The only thing it is missing are moon phases.

There are no AD&D stats or rules in the book at all. It still assumes AD&D and the Ravenloft universe, but the book itself has no "crunch" only "fluff." But it is extremely useful fluff.

While similar details are to be found in other Victorian Era games, I still find myself going back to this one time and time again.

It is a resource I highly recommend. 

A Guide to Transylvania (2e)

1996. by Nicky Rea. Developer and Editor Steve Miller. Cover art Dawn Murin, interior art Val Mayerik. 96 pages.

This is another book I have used with many games. For some reason that I can't quite figure out, this one feels more like a Ravenloft core book than the Gothic Earth Gazetteer does. Maybe because Dracula's Transylvania was the model of for Strahd's Barovia and thus the core of the Ravenloft concept. While I stand by my assertions that Barovia is from Mystara, I have entertained the idea that it was really from Gothic Earth. 

A little more stage-setting, this was released after the wildly successful and critically acclaimed "Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)" while the author and developers do a very good job of sticking to the novel and history, the movie still casts a long shadow.

The book's dedication is to various noted Dracula scholars; Radu Florescu, Raymond T. McNally (In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires), Dan Richardson, Tim Burford (Guide books), Rosemary Ellen Guiley (various encyclopedias), and Julian Hale (Historical guidebooks). 

Chapter One details the history of the lands in and around Transylvania with a bulk of this covering the conflicts between the Roman Catholic people of the area and their struggles against the Ottoman Turks. Special attention is given to the family of Vlad Dracul and Vlad the Impaler.  As with previous works the text is largely game-stat free and has only a few mentions of the Red Death and other "Ravenloft" details. More "game" details are given in the Forbidden Lore boxed text.

Chapter Two is a "current" sketch of Transylvania with entries on the geography, cities, and various landmarks such as the various castles. It reads like an 1890s travel guide, with Forbidden Lore boxed text. 

Chapter Three covers the peoples of Transylvania. This includes the various native Romanians, Magyars, Szeklers, and Germans as well as the Romanii and Jewish populations. Language is covered a bit which is good since this place really does feel like a crossroads of Eastern Europe just before one enters the East. There is even a bit on vampires in this land.

Chapter Four, Personalities, has the most Game-related information in the book. For example, it has stats for all sorts of highly detailed NPCs. In addition to Gothic Earth's particular flavor of AD&D 2nd ed stats, there is Forbidden Lore boxed text. We learn that Jonathan Harker is a 6th-level Tradesman, Dracula is a 13HD Vampire, and Van Helsing is a 12th-level Metaphysian. Dracula's write-up is similar in feel to the write-up Count Strahd got in Ravenloft I6. 

Finally we end with an AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous compendium style page for the Dhampir.

There are maps throughout the book and on the inside covers.

Both books are still quite serviceable today and work well with any Victorian era game you might want to play. 

Advent-ure Dice: Day 15

  Day 15

Another 2 for 1! Purple d% and d4.

Almost half-way through!

October Horror Movie Challenge: Starve Acre (2023)

 Something a little different tonight. I saw this one had Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and Morfydd Clark (Rings of Power) and it was British Folk Horror, so I thought it would be a good choice. Was it? Well, lets find out.

Starve Acre (2023)

This British folk horror film based on the novel by Andrew Michael Hurley. The story follows Richard (Smith) and Juliette (Clark), a troubled couple who move to Richard's childhood home on the Yorkshire moors. Their idyllic rural life quickly takes a sinister turn when their young son, Owen, begins to act strange. Well, stranger than usual. 

As Owen's condition worsens, Richard becomes convinced that a malevolent force is at work, tied to the land and its dark history.

While this is going on, Owen dies from an asthma attack, sending the couple into a deep mourning. 

Richard delves into local folklore, uncovering tales of a malevolent entity that haunts the area. The line between reality and the supernatural blurs as Richard and Juliette grapple with the terrifying truth about their son and the ancient evil that threatens to consume them. 

Staying with them is Juliette's sister Harriet, played by Gotham's Erin Richards. They are also visited by locals Gordon and his wife. Gordon had told Richard tales of the sprites that lived on the land and told them to Owen as well.

We learn that Richard's father believed in the ancient pagan spirits of the land and tried to sacrifice Richard to them, but failed. When Owen dies, they take him as the sacrifice.

It is a slow-burn folk horror piece, as most are really, and the true horrors don't come in until the end. It has some good tension and couple of good scares, but no monsters to speak of.

So I liked it. I like folk-horror, but not a great fit for this month's theme.

Featured Monster: Sprite??

While no monster is ever seen, the effects or at least the shadow of "Jack Grey" are felt. Was he/it doing all the whistling? Was he/it the rabbit? One thing is certain Richard and Juliette believe in him in the end. 

It DOES, however, work in the sense that British folkloric fae creatures used to be a lot darker and lot scarier than they are today or as depicted in the Monster Manual. If a sprite, or a group of them, could cause madness in people then they would seem more of a threat.

Sprites are often used in place of hobgoblins or other faeries*. The Monster Manual might draw very strict lines around these creatures, but folklore did not. 

*(Robin Goodfellow of "Midsummer's Night Dream" was called a Spite and a Hobgoblin.)

Maybe we need to make these creatures a bit darker in their outlooks and intent.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 21
First Time Views: 11

Monstrous Mondays: The Ravenloft Monstrous Compendiums

 I have been covering the AD&D 2nd Ed version of Ravenloft all this month. I have also been covering the the Forgotten Realms and currently in the AD&D 2nd Edition era. One thing they both have in common is that a few of the books feature new monsters in AD&D 2nd Monstrous Compendium format.

I reviewed the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendiums sometime back. Since I have been reviewing the various books I have been printing out the Monstrous Compendium pages and adding them to my three-ring binder for Ravenloft.

As I run across a monster page for these reviews OR from Dragon magazine in my This Old Dragon feature, I print them out (or cut them out as the case may merit) and add them to my binder.

It has taken 30+ years but I feel that the Monstrous Compendium concept is finally living up to its potential for me.

I have been doing the same thing with my Forgotten Realms monsters as I talked about a while back.

Again, I might start mining my other MCs to see what would fit here. I already have one filled with demons and devils, so I wont add those, but I am considering taking the Death Knight from Krynn and putting in this one.

The truth is I am not likely to play AD&D 2nd ed Ravenloft again. BUT my son is running his 5e group through Castle Amber using AD&D 1st ed. So it is possible I could run an AD&D 2nd Ed game again one day. I have mentioned that I am running an AD&D 2nd Ed Forgotten Realms game with my oldest, though we have not played in a while. So I guess never say never.

Despite my concerns with Ravenloft under AD&D 2nd ed, it was my game for the 90s. 

In any case I feel like an archivist in some dusty library, collecting tomes for my own pleasures. 

This is another entry for my RPG Blog Carnival for October!