100 Days of Halloween: Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood

Head back to not only just the OSR but to Old-School Essentials. This one is from Knight Owl Publishing who has been putting out some really great stuff lately.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood

PDF. 73 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art.

This book is a sequel and elaboration on The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia. I don't know much about that other product save that it seems to be a wild "anything goes" sort of setting.  This has a similar feel. 

This product includes both the Worm Witch and Worm Warden, classes.  Witches and Wardens are classes I have also explored in my various book so I am quite excited to see these.

The Worm Warden is like a paladin, ranger, or guardian for the witch cult. They are fighter types. Their primes are Strength and Charisma. 

The Worm Witch is a witch class and it shares many similarities with other witch classes. This is largely due to books we all read and the various means we all use to make classes.  Personally, I find this great. The Worm Witch could fit in well with all the witches I have played and still have enough unique features to make her special. What makes her special of course is her connection to worms. Even the worm witch's special abilities could be mapped on to my Occult Powers.

Both the Warden and the Witch share a secret language. 

The Worm Witch also gains witch spells. And there are some great ones here.  There is the expected ones like Animal Friendship and Charm Animal, and some really interesting ones like Infect with Worms, Mass of Maggots, Wave of Worms, and more.  Yeah, they do pretty much what you expect.

This is all about one-third of the book. And this was all then I would be really happy. I am glad someone wrote this book. This is a needed sort of witch that I would not likely write. Ok. I would have never done this one. Worms are great for my wife's garden, and that is about all the use I have for them.  So kudos to Wind Lothamer and Ahimsa Kerp for doing this.

We still have the rest of the book. 

The next section covers the land of Annalida, a land near Meatlandia. This is another third of the book and it is interesting, but I have no context for it. Still, the Witch Wood is very cool. 

The last third (or so) covers the monsters of the land, which as you can imagine, is full of worms. 

The NPC witch, Belinda Blood, is also presented. She was a very powerful Worm Witch and could fit the bill as a Witch Queen for my War of the Witch Queen Campaign.  It is also all written for Old School Essentials so that is another good fit. Alive or dead she would be a great Witch Queen.

As I mentioned this book is written for OSE and fits well.

So I bought this hoping for a class and a few new spells. I got that. I also got another class, a campaign setting, some monsters, AND a new Witch Queen to add to my Old-School Essentials campaign. 

That's pretty nice if you ask me.

100 Days of Halloween: Stranger Stuff & Teenage Witchcraft (TinyD6)

I am jumping around on systems like a meth-addicted moth this week.  Tiny D6? Sure, why not!

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Stranger Stuff and Teenage Witchcraft (TinyD6)

Tonight's game uses the Tiny D6 game system and is a supplement for Fat Goblin Games' Stranger Stuff game. Stranger Stuff is described as "80's Inspired Adventure, Horror, and Science Fiction."  I think it is pretty easy to tell where this inspiration is from and frankly, that is good enough for me.

I love how the book cover aims for an old-school writing journal look for the core RPG and a "Sweet Valley High" look to the Teenage Witchcraft book.  Really nice.

Stranger Stuff

PDF. 124 pages. Color covers and interior art; sort of. It is black & white with accents of red.

Both books use a similar notebook-style art as their background watermark.  So these books look like they were written in a notebook. 

Stranger Stuff is a Tiny D6 game, based on the Tiny D6 engine released by Gallantknight Games.  IT is also based on Fat Goblin's own vs. Stranger Stuff game.

Essentially you are playing a kid in the 1980s in a small town where things are, well, strange. There is a list of movies to watch to get the proper feel for this time, but I honestly feel that most of my readers have seen them. 

Character creation is simple. Come up with a concept, give them some traits, and disadvantages and you are set to go! There are only two stats, Toughness and Stress.

The system is based on the venerable D6 system, but stripped way down. 

The book is rich in background and has plenty of details about playing in this odd world during the year 1984.

Teenage Witchcraft

PDF. 44 pages. Full-color cover and black & white interior art with accents of red. 

This book takes the basics of the Stranger Stuff game and adds in the ability to become a witch and cast spells.  So if you are thinking the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or The Craft, but in the 80s, then you have the right idea here.

Most of the rules involve the casting of spells, as appropriate, There is an example walk-through with two spells and many examples are given, but the fun, of course, is making your own spells. OR as in the case with The Craft or Charmed, finding the right mix of witches to work with.

The two combined look like a ton of fun and since the rules are easy, something you could pick up and do in an afternoon.

100 Days of Halloween: Witches & Spellcraft

Another little departure tonight, another story game, and this one looks like fun.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Witches & Spellcraft

PDF. 15 Pages. PWYW. Full-color art.

Ok, to start off I have to say I really love the art in this. It is not a lot and it is mostly character art, but since characters are the focus of this game that is 100% fine with me. And the art is good. You can see the cover and those might be my least favorite, but I still like them a lot.

The game is designed for one Head Witch and four other witches, but that number is variable. You fill out your school sheet and witch sheet as a group.  The Head Witch then helps guide the story along as a game master/GMPC.

Rolls are simple, largely a 2d8 plus or minus various modifiers. Rolls of 10 or greater are a success and you can get even better success with higher rolls. There are also failures. 

The game covers spell creation and there are worksheets for your witch and school.

I think it is lacking a good example of play BUT I also see how such an example could also be limiting to new players. They might end up just following the example. 

While you could use this game to say make your own school of witchcraft in the Scottish Highlands, it feels better suited to properties like Sabrina or the Magicians or even something like the mobile game Switchcraft or a new take on The Craft. 

There is an actual play video. It is 4 hours long, but gives you some ideas how the game can be played. 

If I were the developers here I would do this but break it up into chunks for new players to digest. 

In any case, this is another fun game. I am so pleased I found it.

100 Days of Halloween: Paragon Hags and Occult Covens

More hags and more Pathfinder tonight!  Really getting in the mood for some witchy hijinks this Halloween!

In Pathfinder (much like AD&D 2nd Ed) there is a deeper connection between hags and witches. I have looked at a few products here that explore that. This one looks promising as well.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Paragon Hags and Occult Covens

PDF. 28 pages. Color cover. Black & White interior art. 1 cover, table of contents, 1 OGL page, rest content.

We start off with some history and the in game assumption that all hags are the daughters of hags and mortal men. These offspring are known as changelings, and will eventually become hags once they reach 15 years of age.

We get a new race, Hag, for player characters, and a new class, the Paragon Hag. 

Paragon Hags get a number of powers above and beyond that of just what the Hag race gets. Among these is the ability to cast Witch spells up to the 6th level. 

Different Hag families are detailed. Many of these are familiar. They are the Annis, Blood, Bone, Green, Hearth, Moon, Night, Sea, Storm, and Winter.

We get new archetypes to go along with the new class. There is the Cauldron Hag, Coven Mother, Focused Hag, and Mother of Steel.   So by choosing different archetypes and different hag families you can get a wide variety of hag types. 

New races and new classes mean new feats, and we have them here. Pretty good mix really. Mostly "Coven" feats, which could be used by witches as well. 

There are new Rituals and new Spells. 

Finally, we get monster stats for the Bone Hag, Hearth Hag, and another take on the Moon Hag.

I have to admit I rather like it all and will add to my growing pile of Pathfinder material to use.

100 Days of Halloween: Blood and Broomsticks - Sorcerers & Witches

Getting back to some Pathfinder tonight. There is just so much great material for this game I feel I am barely scratching the surface.  One thing is certain though.  Morpheus is the witchiest of all the fonts. 

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Blood and Broomsticks - Sorcerers & Witches

PDF.  41 pages. Front and back covers. Credits (including art credits). Compatibility and References. Table of Contents. 1 ad.  2 pages of OGL.  About 30 pages of content, minus various bits of art.  Full-color covers and interior art.

This book gives us one sorcerer bloodline and two witch archetypes. 

We open with a word about magic and spells and how Sorcerer magic differs from Witch magic. There is a bit on what are some of the best spells for both classes to take. 

New Sorcerer Bloodline: The Altered. This is the offspring of a witch whose patron altered them in the womb.  An interesting concept and one I have also played around with myself.  These sorcerers get access to the Patron's spells as their own bonus spells.  They also gain access to a handful of Hexes.  Not as many as the witch of course, but enough to keep the class interesting.

New Witch Patrons: These are also related. The Blood Patron and the Family Patron are the direct extensions of the offspring of witches. Others include Greed, Kinetics, Metal, Pyre, and Sunlight.

New Witch Archetypes: The Ink witch is a tattoo witch and various powers linked to markings.  The Pyre witch is all about fires and flames. 

There are 14 new hexes (of all levels) and five new magic items.

There are also 13 new spells. All can be used by the witch, and most can be used by sorcerers. 

I like how the book looks and the game material also looks pretty solid and fun.  Certainly something I would use in my games.

100 Days of Halloween: Love Witch

Something a little different tonight. NUELOW Games has given us a lot of off-beat supplements for d20; many using old comics that have fallen into the public domain. It is a good idea really, some of these older comics are actually good and some are kinda creepy and many lend themselves well to all sorts of games.  That is what we have tonight.  Though I will admit I am not 100% sure if the comic used IS public domain OR if it is one they licensed for this use.  The copyright notice seems to indicate that Marv "Teen Titans" Wolfman still owns and it is used with his permission. 

Love Witch

PDF. 56 pages. Color Cover. Black & White interior art.

Not to be confused with the similar-sounding movie out the same year. 

This product is split into four major parts.  Parts 1 to 3 are the comics about the "Love Witch" and Part 4 is the OGL d20 rules to use some of the magic.

Burnick is our titular Love Witch. The first comic introduces us to this beautiful but evil witch. The next two deal with her various battles, with the last one dealing with her battle with her arch enemies the Druids.

The Game related sections start on page 36 and deal with the fall of Atlantis and the migrations of the Atlanteans.  The magic of Atlantis, at least in terms of the d20 rules are a bunch of different feats that can be taken to provide magical effects.  Not a bad method and it certainly feels different.

In the modern eras, we get two groups that continue the Love Witches fight. The Daughters of Burnick continue in the steps of the Love Witch and the Watchers of the Stones who are the modern-day Druids.

It's fun and I could easily see a "Daughters of Burnick" coven that I could use with my own witch books or even better with the Hyperborea RPG. 

100 Days of Halloween: The Pantheon and Pagan Faiths

Tonight I am doing my third Samurai Sheepdog product, but this was not planned out that way.  Also, this is another former Mystic Eye Games product that Samurai Sheepdog has brought back.  It is also one of my favorite books from the early d20 days.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

The Pantheon and Pagan Faiths

PDF. 208 pages. Color cover. Black & White interior art. 

Released originally in 2003 by Mystic Eye Games this was part of their campaign "Hunt the Rise of Evil" for their World of Gothos world.  I remember at the time thinking it was a touch cliché but still fun and it kept my attention.  This was my favorite book in all their publications to that point. 

Samurai Sheepdog is, as far as I can tell, the same people that made up Mystic Eye Games. So this is not a case of a new publisher buying the right to old stock, it is a new publisher re-organized from the remains of the old.  Does this mean we could get more "Hunt the Rise of Evil" products? Maybe!  But until then let's discuss this older product.

The obvious spiritual parent of this book is AD&D 2nd edition Faiths & Avatars book. Right up the art of the various priests, shamans, and witches of the various faiths in a lineup. I will not lie, it did appeal to me and help me know right away what this book was about. 

While this book is overtly for the Hunt the Rise of Evil campaign and the World of Gothos I used it rather nicely with my D&D 3.x games where I feel added materials from a lot of different d20 publishers.  It is "labeled" but also flexible.

This is also a good-sized book at 208 page and 10 Chapters. 

Introduction

This covers what this book is and how to use it. 

Chapter 1: Piety and Conversion

This covers the rules of dealing with the various gods and how they can grant favor. This is where we get to see our lineup of clerics. Additionally, there are rules for conversions. So if you are playing clerics in a d20/D&D 3.x game then this a great source of information. 

Chapter 2: Core Divine Character Classes

Covers the expected classes like Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers. We also get Shamans and Witches/Warlocks. Both classes are well-detailed. These witches are, naturally, divine spellcasters not arcane. The witch can also choose to be a White Witch or a Black Witch which is also called a Warlock.  Witches are even further divided into covens associated with a different god of faith. The covens are actually very interesting and kept me coming back to this book. They are also fairly tied to this world and these gods. 

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes

I will not lie. I do like Prestige Classes.  I like the idea of being able to further differentiate your character later inplay.  I do wish that 5e had prestige classes not tied to their base classes so much. 

These Prestige Classes are tied to this world but it looks a little easier to detangle them given the way Prestige Classes were most often constructed at the time. Here we have the Beast Friend, Covenant to the Hunt, Furies of Destruction, Hammers of Justice, Inquisitor of Justice, Ovate Bards (one of my favorites here), Slaughter Priest, Sorcerer Priest of Vlag, Strictor, and The Taken.  I did not try many of these but I did try the Ovate Bard and thought it was really great.

Chapter 4: Feats

There are some interesting feats tied with faith, birth, and how people can approach the divine.  It takes a game mechanic and weaves it back into the structure of the world. I rather like it to be honest. But, let's be honest, there are a lot of feats here. Maybe more than we really need.

Chapter 5: Spells in Gothos

Ok. You know I love my magic and this chapter does not disappoint. We get new cleric domains and new witch and shaman spells. Nearly 40 pages worth. There are new spells as expected for Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers. There are even some new one for Sorcerers/Wizards. 

Chapter 6: Saints and Sainthood

Now, this is an interesting chapter. Back in my starting days of D&D Basic I played a Cleric. We decided that this cleric would later be a Saint of those who fight undead and demons in my AD&D world. (Interestingly enough that same said cleric is a Patron Saint in the Duchy of Valnwall now.) This chapter lists a numbers of saints and the benefit to having a patron saint. There are both good and evil ones here.

I think most gamers of a certain age will agree that the Patron Saint of Adventures is St. Aleena the Brave. 

Chapter 7: The Pantheon

This covers the gods, the major clerics, and centers of worship or divine power in the world of Gothos. The gods are wonderfully detailed though like gods should they are tied to their world.  

Chapter 8: Outscat Gods

Ah, now here is something not often covered in campaign books. (well. the Forgotten Realms does a good job here too). This covers all the gods that have fallen, been kicked out, or have left the main pantheons including our cover boy Chargrond.  The gods here also get some special rituals.  These gods are all evil.

Chapter 9: Outsider Gods

Like the outcasts, these gods are not part of the main pantheons. Unlike the outcast gods, they never were a part of it to begin with. Their alignments vary. Like the previous two chapters in addition to gods, we get major clerics/worshipers and some rituals. 

Chapter 10: Pagan Gods

 In modern parlance, these are the "Old Gods" to The Pantheon's "New Gods." These are the gods followed by Druids and Witches. Like the previous three chapters we gets gods, major worshipers including some specialty priests, and rituals. 

We end with the OGL and a very nice index.

This book packs a lot into its 200+ pages and for less than the price of a Grande PSL you get a good value.

The print option has long been OOP, but sometimes you can still find them on eBay or Noble Knight. 

I unloaded mine in my D&D 3.x purge. Well. At least I still have the PDF!

100 Days of Halloween: Beyond the Mundane

This one is not a witch book, per see, but rather for all sorts of spell-casters for Pathfinder. I grabbed it for this and also because it uses the same Dean Spencer cover I did for my Winter Witch book. I thought it might be fun to use them together. 

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.  

Beyond the Mundane

PDF. 30 pages. Title page, 1-page OGL.  Color cover and interior art. 

This book has archetypes for all the spellcasting classes for Pathfinder.

Among the ones I like the most are the Choreographer (Bard), Blood-Spiller (Bloodrager), Primal Growler (Cleric), Lunar Touched (Druid), Agent of the Green (Hunter), and Cupbearer (Witch).

There are a lot here and each one does ad something interesting to their base class. It is really good and if you play Pathfinder and want to try something new then grab this.

There is also a new race, the Shadiir, who are naturally magic, so a good race choice for any and all of these archetypes.

I did not see anything I could use with my witches or my Winter Witch in particular, but it was fun all the same. 

 

100 Days of Halloween: Witch The Road to Lindisfarne

One of the things I talk about here is something I call Traveller Envy. This is the feeling I got from watching Traveller and their interconnected RPGs and Board Games.  It is something I would love to replicate for my D&D games and for my War of the Witch Queens campaign in particular. 

I can't always find board games that fit the bill for me, but I have tried.  While not a board game this GM-less "story game" does fit the bill of this notion for me.  But how is it?  Let's find out.

Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne

PDF. 32 pages. Multiple files.

So this is a story game, not something I have a ton of experience with.

It says 4 to 6 players, no dice, pencils, or extra paper needed. 

The game takes place in London in 1350 but you head to the Abbey at Lindisfarne; the same that was rather famously attacked by the Viking raids. 

Each player gets one of the characters included in this file. The special character is Elouise our central witch, or at least a confessed witch. There are two outcomes her player can choose, Elouise is Guilty or she is Innocent. Depending on which one is chosen determines the end of the game.

The purpose of the game is to take Elouise from London to Lindisfarne.  There are many stops along the way and the players describe what their characters do along the way. The other players (and characters) do not know the Truth of Elouise so they seek to discover it. It is entirely possible that Eloise is found guilty and burned at the stake or found innocent and set free independently of the truth.

If this sounds like the 2011 movie Season of the Witch, well the designers agree with you.

The game is very interesting and it does give me a lot of ideas of things to do with my own games.

The game does have re-playability, with different characters being played by the same group, but I can also see that it is a little limited in that respect.

Still, a fun game to play on a cold wet afternoon in late October.

 

100 Days of Halloween: Otherworldly Invocations Advanced Witch Patrons

If you are like me and love witches then Pathfinder is the system that just keeps giving and giving. A case in point today is one of many products I have picked up from Necromancers of the Northwest.

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.   

Otherworldly Invocations: Advanced Witch Patrons

PDF. 51 pages. 1 page each for cover, back cover, title, and credits. 2 pages of ads. And 2 pages of OGL. 43 pages of content.  Color cover and interior art.

This product contains 10 HIGHLY detailed witch patrons for Pathfinder 1st Edition. 

Each patron is given some history, how they most often appear to mortals and witches, their goals, their typical followers and witches, as well as what sorts of familiars they have.

There is "mechanical" information as well. This includes what spells they offer with their pact, pact boons, and Pact Prices. Think of these as "anti-boons." Often these are tied to the boons they grant. 

They are all great, but for me the section on Baba Yaga is worth the price of the PDF alone. The rest are gravy.  Though Thyrvinistar, Don of Dragons is also rather fun.

Obviously, these are for use with Pathfinder.  BUT a little tweaking would make them work well with my own OSR witches or even D&D 5e's Warlocks. 

The artwork is largely stock photos but they make them work for this. Again the text here is what is important to me. 

It is just under $8, so figure about 80¢ per patron. Not bad really. 

100 Days of Halloween: Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches (DTRPG)

Something different tonight.  

Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches (DTRPG)

This is the full text of the Public Domain "Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches" by Charles Godfrey Leland published in 1899.

There is no additional text or game content included. You are paying for the formatting and the cover. While I am happy to have another copy in my digital library there is nothing additional to what you can get for free on the Internet.

I would have liked to have seen some RPG content since this is on DriveThruRPG.

If you have not read it you can find it just about everywhere.

Here is the Sacred Texts version.

 

100 Days of Halloween: Witchfinder - A Swords & Wizardry Class

Let's try a little S&W tonight. You can have witches and not expect the occasional witch hunter.

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews. BUT also in this case I want to evaluate whether or not the various witch hunters are a good match for my witches.

Witchfinder - A Swords & Wizardry Class

PDF. 2 pages. One page content, one page OGL. Price: Free.

Let's hit the big points first. This PDF is small, BUT it is for Swords & Wizardry so a page for a class is good really. My own class books notwithstanding.  The second one is this PDF is free. 

For the price the click you have a new class.  Is it worth it?

The class has flavor and enough crunch to make it worthwhile. The details work for me. The XP calcs feel right, the powers they get also track.  I would switch the 17th level Holy Word power to 14th level myself. Clerics of 14th level can cast Holy Word so it tracks for WitchHunters to be able to do the same.  I would also have given them some sort of, well, witch-finding ability. But this was written likely with no specific witch class in mind. 

If you are using this with one of my S&W Witch classes then I would rule that Witchfinder can spot the magics of one of my witches and identify them. 

So yeah, I rather like this one.

In Search of Nocticula

I want to introduce what I hope will be a new semi-regular feature here at the ole' Other Side.  

"In Search of" will delve into odd, esoteric topics from my games in search of their origins and their relationship to myths, legends or even just a good story.  The obvious tribute to the old 70s-80s TV series "In Search of..." featuring Leonard Nimoy.  I am going to go back and retag some posts with this new "In Search of" label since this is not really a new idea for me.  My hope here is this takes the place of "One Man's God" in my rotations of posts.

Let us start my first In Search of looking for a demon who captured my attention back in the 1980s.

Back in the Monster Manual II days, we were treated to a long list of demons that were also powerful members of the abyssal Hordes. These included a few demon lords (L) and oddly enough some that were tagged as being female (F).  It seems odd to call that out now, but this was the 1980s.  

But that is not why I am posting today.  I was cleaning up some minis the other days and noticed one in particular.  Maybe because I have been thinking of various monsters and monster books I decided to go back to an old search.

Who Is Nocticula: Part 1 History

This is the mini and an entry in question.

Originally she was obviously some sort of demon related to the night.  She is not listed as a "Lord" so we assume she must be of higher rank along with Lolth and Zuggtmoy. 

Obviously, the name caught my attention then as it does now.  Though there is almost nothing about her in any products outside of the MMII. 

She does get name-dropped in the 1981 made-for-TV horror movie Midnight Offerings. When I saw it back in 2019 I wondered at the time if Gygax/TSR got the name from the movie. Though now it seems likely the name came from various occult books from the 1970s.

It would not be until the 1990s that I would run across her again.  

My first encounter with her was during the Netbook craze of the Pre-OGL Internet.  While many people were still blissfully unaware of what the Internet could do AD&D players were on LISTSERVs on Bitnet sharing "Netbooks."  These fan mad creations often lacked any sort of editorial control, art, or often even playtesting. But they made up for all of that in pure enthusiasm.  If you were lucky you found one that had been formatted like a "real book" in Microsoft Word 2.0.  One such book was "The Complete Netbook of Demons and their Relatives." This ancient and dusty tome was full of new demons.  It was a great little treasure, to be honest.  It did have an entry for Nocticula and Socothbenoth (I'll get to why that is important later).  Their entries were:

Nocticula(F)-a patron of witches. Could only find one reference on her.
...
Socothbenoth-Another female (harem) like deity turned into a male demon.

That obviously had my attention. So I was already doing deep dive research into witches at this point for my "Netbook of Witches and Warlocks" so I added her name as one to be on the lookout for.  Now keep in mind that at this time people were very, very wary of being sued by TSR for any copyright violations.  So I had no real plans to use Nocticula in my books, I was just curious about her.

In my reading, I came across "Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens" by Paul Huson, 1970.  Nocticula is mentioned many times. Likely as a "dark aspect" of Hecate or Habondia (or Habundia). That name is not in my "Dictionary of Classical Mythology" by J.E. Zimmerman. Huson adds that Noctiula is "Ruler of the Dead and Warden of the Tower Adamantine" and she walks at night.  He also claims that the title of "Nocticula" meaning "little night" comes from the 12th century.

I do have to admit that the paperback cover of Mastering Witchcraft makes for a good depiction of Nocticula. 

Gerald Gardner, the father of modern Wicca, even mentions her in his "Witchcraft Today" (1954). He also associates her with the figure of Bensozia. I guess that removes the fear of copyright issues, but I was still hesitant to use her preferring to come up with my own.

While all this is going on I got a copy of Dungeon #5 and found the adventure with Shami-Amourae, the demon queen of Succubi. She, along with Nocticula and Malcanthet have all been contenders for the title "Queen of the Succubi."

This bit didn't last long really and with the publication of Green Ronin's Armies of the Abyss and later the Book of Fiends we get a new look on Nocticula. 

Part 2: Green Ronin & The d20 Years

Green Ronin brought Nocticula into the new Millennium with the various fiend books. Chris Pramas had worked on a few Planescape and devil-related books for Wizards of the Coast in the waning years of TSR.  So he was in a great position to bring all of that knowledge to Green Ronin during the d20 boom.  Armies of the Abyss (2002) covered demons and introduced us to a new Nocticula. Or rather, gave us Nocticula since so little detail had really been published about her so far.  (Note. I am coming back to the Armies of the Abyss later in this series.)

Here she is demon lady of night yes, but also of women, dark fey, the natural world, psychotropic drugs, and earthly sensuality.  Known as the Princess of Moonlight she revels in all things pleasurable, earthly, and chaotic. She very much is the patroness of "living deliciously."  The description of her followers can only be described as "witches."

She has a twin brother, Socothbenoth, the demon lord of perversion, with whom she has an incestuous relationship with. Socothbenoth is basically the mind of Aleister Crowley in the body of Lord Byron and the sexual appetites of both.

I have used him before as a witch's patron based on the movies Byleth: The Demon of Incest (1972) and Il Sesso Della Strega (1973).

She only gets a mention in Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, a little more than what she got in the MMII nearly 20 years prior.  She gets the title "The Undeniable" and her concerns are "Night" and she makes her realm on the 72nd layer of the Abyss called Darklight.

Part 3: Pathfinder

Our Queen of the Night fares better in her Pathfinder version where she is a major Demon Lord.  Her history is largely that of what was seen in the Green Ronin books. Indeed all of that is kept to the extent the OGL will allow. However, she is taken further in Pathfinder when she is given the ability to kill other demon lords. This gives her a connection to assassins.  

Here she appeared in a number of Pathfinder products, in particular the Book of the Damned, which covered the demons and devils of the Pathfinder game.

At some point, she grew tired of killing demon lords and sought out redemption as the Goddess of Artists. I am not sure I completely like this idea, but hey Pathfinder can do what they like really.

Now to be fair, Pathfinder added a ton of material to Nocticula, and a lot of it is good. I could easily use any amount of it, to be honest.  

Part 4: Nocticula in my World

I have a lot of great information and details. But not all of them are great for my games. So. How can I rebuild Nocticula for my games and in particular my War of the Witch Queens campaign?

Part of her background is she was one of the first Succubi. That's fine and all, but I feel there is a tendency to make a female demon a type of succubus. Sure I get it and her background supports it to a degree, but it feels lazy to me. I mean there are SO MANY "first" Succubi. There is Malcanthet, Shami-Amourae, Xinivrae, and Lynkhab. Do we need Nocticula to be a succubus? Not really.

I do like keeping Socothbenoth as her brother/lover. I like keeping them both as being fairly depraved as well. They are demons after all.  I even like the assassin idea from later Pathfinder books. Given her name I would like to get back to her association to the night and things of the night. In some ways the evil counterpart to my Nox.

In this, Nocticula is the demon lord of Night. She is honored by witches, warlocks, prostitutes, and assassins. Anyone committing an evil act at night will say a benediction to Nocticula. She is the daughter of Nox by Camazotz, the demon lord of bats and vampires (or maybe Orcus?). She is the twin sister to and lover of the demon lord Socothbenoth (the demon lord of perversion). 

Given that her first "D&D" appearance was in the Monster Manual II from 1983, I would draw on sources from 1982 and before for my influences on her. 

Obviously, I would need to write her up for AD&D 1st Edition.  I would use some of her Pathfinder details (what is allowed under the OGL) and go back to the earliest ideas about her. 

--

NOCTICULA 
FREQUENCY:  Unique (Very Rare)

NO.  APPEARING:  1 
ARMOR CLASS: -2
MOVE: 18" / 24" (MC: C)
HIT DICE:  13+39 (97 hp)
%  IN  LAIR:  0%
TREASURE  TYPE:  Q (x10), U
NO.  OF  ATTACKS:  2
DAMAGE/ATTACK:  Whip 1d6+1d4 (fire) (x2)
SPECIAL  ATTACKS:  Witch spells
SPECIAL  DEFENSES: +2  or  better weapon to hit
MAGIC  RESISTANCE:  25%
INTELLIGENCE:  Genius
ALIGNMENT:  Chaotic Evil
SIZE:  M  (6')
PSIONIC ABILITY:  See below
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: IX/8250 +  18/hp (9,996 xp)

Nocticula is the Demon Lady of the Night. Witches, warlocks, assassins, and all those who make illicit trades or bargains under the cover of darkness are her followers. She hears their prayers when none of the gods will. She is also the patron of creatures of the night like vampires, shadow creatures, and even alu-demons and succubi.

She will always appear as a very attractive member of the gender and species the observer prefers. In a mixed company, she will attempt to provide as many attractive qualities as she can.  She can do this via a limited form of telepathic awareness that is not quite ESP.  It is a subtle power, like many of her gifts, and can only be blocked by magic or psionic ability specifically designed to do so. It also gives her the ability to speak any language known.

Nocticula is a lover, but also a capable fighter. She wields a whip of fire that she can attack with twice per round. The whip will do 1d6 points of damage and the fire an additional 1d4.  She can cast spells as a Mara Witch of the 13th level. 

She also has the following spell-like powers.

• At will: Detect Good (Law), Detect Invisible, Detect Magic, Darkness 10' Radius, Glamour, Telekinesis (250 lbs / 25,000 GP weight), Tongues.
• 3 times per day: Astral Projection, Charm Monster/Person, Read languages, Read magic, Shape change, Teleport without Error, Trap the Soul.
• 1 time per day: Gate, Polymorph any object.

Like all demons, she is affected by acid, iron weapons, magic missiles, and poison, (full).  Cold, electricity, fire (dragon, magical), and gas (half). She has 25% magic resistance, but this does not apply 

She has wings, but these can be hidden away. Despite her appearances and appetites, she is not a succubus or any sort of Lilim. She does have many succubi attendants and servants.  Her preferred servants though are humans and some elves and fae. She may gate in 1d6 Succubi or 1d8 alu-demons to aid her. These are from her personal retinue and not easily replaced. She can also summon 2d8 shadow demons to do her bidding. Either of these can be done once per day (1/day). She can compel any vampire she encounters (as a charm-like ability they are not immune to) to do her bidding, but she can't summon vampires.

Rumors of her always appearing nude when summoned were created by clerics and scholars who rarely left their scriptoriums. However, to approach her in her layer in the Abyss one must be completely unclothed. This includes armor and weapons. 

Relationships

Nocticula has the best relationship with her brother and lover Socobenoth, the Demon Lord of Perversion. It is a good relationship as far as two chaotic evil demons can have.  She respects Lilith, the Demon Queen as the two are fine as long as they remain out of each other's business. Her rivalry with, and enmity of, Malcanthet is legendary. Equally so is her distaste of the demon Lord Graz'zt but none remember how this all began. Her relationship with Camazotz is one of pure hatred and each hates the other's claim as the demonic patron of vampires.  A hatred she does not extend to Lilith or even Orcus, whom she refers to as "Grandfather." Whether this is an acknowledgment of paternity or an honorific is unknown.  Orcus also extends this recognition to Nocticula. 

Unknown to most, Nocticula is an assassin of demon lords and even a minor god. She has discovered that when she kills them she can take on their powers. She successfully assassinated Vyriavaxus, the former demon lord of shadows. Now shadow demons begrudgingly show her patronage.  Presently Nocticula sits and carefully plans her next kill.

--

Looking forward to seeing what I can do next in my new In Search Of feature.

--

Links

• The Greyhawk Wiki
• Nocticula
• Malcanthet
• Shami-Amourae
• The Succubus Wiki
• Nocticula
• Bensozia
• Malcanthet
• Shami-Amourae
• Xinivrae
• Lynkhab
• Pathfinder SRD
• Nocticula
• Pathfinder Wiki
• Nocticula
• Socothbenoth
• Shamira

100 Days of Halloween: Legendary Villains: Wicked Witches

A little more Pathfinder tonight. This one promises some wicked witches. Let's see if it delivers. 

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.  

Legendary Villains: Wicked Witches

PDF. 36 pages. 1 title page, 1 table of contents, 1 page OGL. Color cover and interior art.

I went into this expecting some NPCs, and I got that, but this is also more here. 

There are three new archetypes presented here, the consort of fiends, the curio collector, and the shadow sister.

All are presented as being evil, which is great fun really. I do love an evil witch.  All of these are quite fun too, but it is the consort of fiends and shadow sister that have the most of my attention.

Each archetype has appropriate powers to call on. The Consort of Fiends for example has powers and fluff thatmake it feel like a 5e Warlock.  The Shadow Sister works with any of the various Shadow prestige classes we have had since the early 3e days.

Speaking of which there is also a prestige class offered here, the Hag Matron, which makes the connection between witches and hags stronger. The witch in question actually transforms into a hag as she gets stronger. This reminds me a bit of the old Van Richten's Guide to Witches from the AD&D 2nd Ed Ravenloft days.  This would certainly fit in well with that.  Also different sorts of hags have different powers.

We also get a bunch of Patron Oaths, which are different ways at looking at the patrons. 

There are new witch hexes, new magic items, and a lot of "lesser" familiars.

All in all a very fine addition to the trove of witch related material available for Pathfinder. The focus on evil witchcraft is a great bonus here.

 

100 Days of Halloween: OSR Alternative Classes

Getting into some more OSR today with a book of classes, the witch is just one 13.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

OSR Alternative Classes

PDF. 48 pages. 1 table of contents page, 3 pages of OGL (which could have be brought down to 2 with better formatting), rest content.

Ok the PWYW suggestion is 50 cents. That puts this book at 1 cent per page practically. Easily the best page-to-cost ratio here.  

The layout is basic to point of non-existence really.  Not to be to judgemental but it looks like a PDF save of an MS Word document. There is very little art. 

The 13 classes are Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, Assassin, Scout, Dervish, Berserker, Cerves Brave, Witch, Ironskin (Siderenos), Sorcerer, and Bard.  All the classes are presented in B/X style; levels to 14th limited spells.  The classes have some connection to an existing campaign setting that is not explained well here. Moreover they are also compared to other people's IP/Copyrights that really you can't do with the OGL.   Each class also has a set of alternate rules that are interesting and would likely work well in Old-School Essentials or B/X game. The company behind this document has gone on to do other OSE-compatible products.

All of the new classes have quite a bit of detail which is good. A few notes. The Assassin and Scout get arcane dabbling which I like.  The Cerves are Deer-folk and has one of the few examples of art. Though I would not use the word "Brave" to describe a warrior type. The Ironskin is a neat idea.  The Sorcerer here follows the 3.x mold and that is a good thing in my mind. The Bard looks like it would play well, to be honest, but there are so many out now you can usually find one that does exactly what you want. 

The Witch

Let's get why I bought this. These witches are divine casters, so wisdom is a prime along with Charisma. XP values are similar to clerics as is spell progression, though they do get spells at 1st level.  This witch has various powers.  They can use animals to see at 2nd level, brew potions at 3rd, craft fetishes at 5th level, dominate animals at 7th, scribe scrolls at 9th level, and at 11th create magic items.  They form covens at 9th level and can curse or bless others. 

This witch has a spell list, drawn from Labyrinth Lord, but no new spells. There are also a fair number of optional powers.

Ok. So there are a lot of good ideas here that are almost lost due to the sub-par layout and formatting.  I am betting that newer books from the same publisher/author are much better.  This one could go for an upgrade to be honest.  There is a designation of Open Content, but it also seems to be from another book. So I am not sure whether or not it is for this book or not. 

For the price though it is good. Even if you only ever use one class here, or even just the additional ideas for the basic 4 classes it is totally worth it. 

I'll Take a Pumpkin Spice, A5 size

You have asked and I serve them up. It's September, it's almost the start of Autumn and that means Pumpkin Spice Season!

The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition

And I am so pleased with it!

Much like my Craft of the Wise book this one now comes in softcover and hardcover options. 

The Softcover version is Letter-sized, 8.5" x 11".  This works with your B/X, BECMI, or other OSR books.

The Hardcover is A5 sized, 148mm X 210mm, (8.3" x 5.8").  This is the same size as the OSE books and roughly the same size as my Warlock book (which is Digest size 6"x9").

The content and art are the same for each, so the layout is different. Despite the size, this is still designed largely for Labyrinth Lord; so 20 character levels, and 8 spell levels. Though obviously it can be used with any "Basic Era" sort of game.

With only 55 days left till Halloween order yours now and enjoy the magic of Fall!

100 Days of Halloween: Witches of Porphyra

I bought this one as soon as it came out. Purple Duck Games does a lot of great stuff so I had very high expectations for this one.  This is for Pathfinder, but likely it would work for any 3.x d20 OGL game.

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.   

Witches of Porphyra 

PDF. 52 pages. 1 cover, 1 title, 4 pages OGL. Rest content. All text open gaming content.  Color covers and interior art.

A bit about the art. We have seen a few of these pieces already. The cover by Gary Dupis, interior art from Brian Brinlee and Brett Neufeld.  I mention it because I really want to collect all the products that use the same art a build something, maybe an NPC witch using that Gary Dupuis art and all of these books.  So yeah, for me this is all a value add.

We start with an introduction to Witches and Witchcraft in Porphyra. A nice little extra that many books do not do. 

We get right into the archetypes next. The Blooded Hag, the Brewer, the Impetuous Dervish, the Insufflator (a "breath" hag), Legionmaster (lots of familiars), Mentor, Polytheistic Witch (many patrons, nice idea), Sanguisuge (feeds on their familiars), Sightless Seer, Warweaver, the Whitelighter (!), and the Wood Witch.  All are fantastic and I'd love to try them all to be honest.

We get some new familiar archetypes. As well as new familiars (4).  Our cover girl is set for example with the new Hoop Snake on pages 31-32. If you want something a bit more classic there are winged monkeys too.

Of course, with a new world, there should be opportunities for new types of Patrons.  This book delivers on that with 13 new* patron types.   I say new* because I have seen these Patron types in other books. That is not a slight against this book. It just means the authors all had similar ideas.

Hexes are one of the Pathfinder's witch's biggest features. So this book does have some new hexes as well. Nine hexes, six Major hexes, and three Grand hexes.  

There are also nine new feats.

There is a section on new materials and a sample witch.

The book is great and if I were to say it was missing anything it would be spells. But there is so much here that I didn't even think about it in my first read-through.

So for just under $4 you get a lot.

100 Days of Halloween: Heroes Weekly, Vol 5, Issue #3, Witchcraft

Some more Pathfinder tonight. This time for the Heroes Wear Masks RPG.

Heroes Weekly, Vol 5, Issue #3, Witchcraft

PDF. 13 pages. Color covers and interior art.

This one is a bit of a mixed bag really.

I love the idea of having an evil witch class. This one is also different enough from the base Pathfinder witch to make it worth a look.

I don't love that they chose to call their evil witch a "Wiccan."  After all no one would make an evil cleric class and call it a "Catholic" or anything like that.

These witches get powers but no spells to speak of; though the powers take place of the spells.

There are some print and fold minis near the end.  The art is mixed. I am not a fan of the cover. If this was for a modern sort of game it feels out of place.  The witch on page 2 would have been a better choice.

In the end, there is not enough here for me to recommend it. 

100 Days of Halloween: Bloodlines & Black Magic - The Witch

Back to a little bit of Pathfinder tonight, though with a modern twist. 

Bloodlines & Black Magic - The Witch

PDF. 21 pages. Black & White art.

This is a supplement for the Bloodlines & Black Magic RPG. A dark modern RPG based around Pathfinder. This one presents a witch class. 

It is largely the Pathfinder witch class with 5 levels. There are some new hexes presented here so that is nice. 

The art is really nice. Black & white, but fits the mood and tenor of the game, so it works here. Color would be a distraction. 

It could work with Pathfinder proper or even with D20 Modern 3rd edition as a Prestige or Advanced class.  Personally, that is what I would like to try with it.

I'll have to check out the full Bloodlines & Black Magic RPG.