Kickstart Your Weekend: Sexy Pirates and Custom Dice

 Yeah. Ok. I know last week I said I wasn't going to do these anymore. BUT both of these Kickstarters are prime examples of why I think Kickstarter is a good thing.

Let's get into them.

In Booty n' Lust

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/djinnintheshade/in-booty-n-lust?ref=theotherside

Djinn has long been a good friend and I love her art. Her newest art book features her central original witch character Solaine and her band of mischievous and amorous pirates. 

I featured her last book here and it was a huge success. 

This is the reason why Kickstarter works. It given smaller publishers and creatives the means to make their visions a reality. 

She is also doing a "crossover" with the comic Dawn of Time #1 - NSFW, Time Travel Adventure Series. So that is worth checking out as well.

Hero Forge: Custom Dice

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heroforge/custom-dice?ref=theotherside

HeroForge owes its very existence to Kickstarter. Once the idea of DIY custom minis that can be 3D printed was a dream. Then they added color. Well, while this is not the next step in their evolution, it is certainly a big, bold step.

Custom dice to match your minis.

It is a wonderful idea and adds even more value to an already valuable service.

--

There. Djinn and HeroForge made a liar out of me, but both are for great products. 

This Old Dragon: Issue #152

I pulled a Dragon for today, started in on it, and got about a quarter through it before I realized it was one I had done already. I had a duplicate in my stack. Ah well. So instead, we go back to December 1989, the Eve of the 1990s. On the radio "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel and "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins dominate. Gunge is still a little bit away for the mainstream. "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "Back to the Future II" dominate the box office. And on game tables and shelves everywhere is issue # 152 of This Old Dragon!

My copy lacks a cover, so I grabbed this image off of my Dragon Magazine CD-ROM. All these later and that purchase keeps paying off.

Our cover is by none other than the illustrious and late Jennell Jaquays. 

Letters discuss the issues of the day, namely more about the über-ridiculous character Waldorf and challenges to his title. Hopefully that is the last of that. Nitpicks on Hawks vs. Falcons and some bits on spells and dragon hunting. 

In his Editorial, Roger E. Moore discusses helping others in hard times, which was a novelty then and is talked about more and more now. In particular, he mentioned that gaming conventions rarely give to charity, whereas now that is much more commonplace. 

Forum has some discussions on using other game systems to aid D&D DMs (Marvel Super Heroes is given as the example), a thought that D&D in not really Medieval Europe, but 20th Century Earth where magic has prevented technology from advancing (neat idea really) and some ideas on various humanoids played intelligently. 

Sage Advice gives us some rule clarifications on the NEW AD&D 2nd Edition rules. 

Our Special Feature of this issue is all about the Underdark. Ok, this could be fun. Since I had to switch gears, I am discovering all of this issue as I write.

Up first, a nice surprise, Tony Jones (a name I don't recall) is up with The Ecology of the Umber Hulk. It's a rare (for the time) non-Ed Greenwood ecology article. Also I admit a certain fondness for the Umber Hulk. I think it was because when I first read about him in the Monster Manual, he was so different than other monsters I had seen before. Like all good Ecology of articles the details here can be used in any edition/version of the game. While the Umber Hulk growth table would need to be adjusted per game, the data is still good. There is even a good bibliography. 

Ads for Buck Rogers books and Activision video games. 

Thomas M. Kane is up with In a Cavern, In a Canyon. This covers metallurgy in fantasy games, though the emphasis is obviously AD&D here. It is still good and useful information and again, easily adaptable to new versions of the game. 

Another ad for the Science Fiction Book Club, which I am sad to report, has shut down after 70 years.

The Wanderers Below is a good set of random encounter tables from Buddy Pennington. The art is from module S4 by Jim Holloway and the list could be AD&D 2nd ed or 1st, I can't really tell to be honest. Likely works for both.

We break up our feature with Role-Playing Reviews from Jim Bambra. He covers Twilight: 2000, Top Secret S.I. and GURPS High Tech. 

Registration page for Gen Con 1990.

Eric Oppen is back with Servants of the Jeweled Dagger, a bit abotu the lives and habits of the duegar, the gray dwarves. It is a little like an Ecology of article, but less game stats. Not a bad piece at all. I read while thinking about the duegar you encounter in Baldur's Gate 3. It still works. 

None other than R.A. Salvatore is up for the fiction section The First Notch.

Greg Minter is next, is what is a loose interpretation on today's theme, In Quest of Adventure. It covers all sorts of quests, but for me the real treat is the Stephen Fabian art. 

My issue lacks the giant poster advertised. No idea what it was. 

The late Jim Ward waxes philosophical on "what do the simple folk do?" in The Game Wizards. He discusses well, I am not sure, it is a little rambling. 

The Lessers are all back with more video game reveiws in The Role of Computers. They loved DragonWars for the Apple II, and enjoyed The Kristal for the Amiga. They also got in a couple of MS-DOS games like Beyond the Black Hole and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. From what I can tell these are graphic (as in EGA) games and not text-based ones. An important distinction at this time that will soon no longer matter. 

TSR Previews gives us the new games and accessories for November and December 1989. A few novels to support the Top Secret, Dragonlance, and Buck Rogers lines.  Monstrous Compendium vol 3, the Bloodstone Lands, Pool of Radiance novel, and Kara-Tur trail maps leave no doubt that the Forgotten Realms is the darling of the time. 

Spider-Man to Wed Vanna White! from Fraser Sherman gives us the best article title of the issue. He discusses how to use real-world events in your Marvel Super Heroes games. I just watched the first two episodes of the Disney+ "Daredevil Born Again" and I can say Marvel does not have an issue using real world events in their tales.

Robert Bigelow has more new miniatures for us in Through the Looking Glass. I rather like the Joker and Batman minis from Grenadier Models. Very much in support of the Batman RPG. They have a real Neal Adams meet Jim Lee feel to them.

The Convention Calendar covers the last bit of 1989 and the winter of 1990. In general, I think there were more conventions back then. Am I wrong? I don't know. The Egyptian Campaign is listed. I can't recall if I went then or not. 

Not to be forgotten, we still have Make the Most of Your Missions from Merle and Jackie Rasmussen. This covers mission starters for the Top Secret SI game. 

Dragonmirth has our comics. Gamers Guide has our small ads. Among the ads is one to allow you edit your IBM versions of characters for Might and Magic and Pool of Radiance games. Just $15! Lots of ads produced on what look like AppleWriter printers.  Walter Moore will also draw your character, also just $15. Wonder if he is still in business?

Back page ads for the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendiums and Spelljamer. 

So not a bad issue really. The special feature had a lot of material and nearly all of it is still useful today. The tone has shifted completely to AD&D 2nd edition and away from 1st Edition or Basic/BECMI. This will continue until all other games except those from TSR are shut out. Dragon was not unique with this, all game magazines were doing this. 

The underdark features were good and ones I can see myself using. I still love looking at all the old ads too.

Witchcraft Wednesday: More Witches on TV

 This past week, I finished a couple of newer witch-related TV shows. One was because we watched it all, and the other was because I just couldn't finish it. Both were based on popular books.

A Discovery of Witches

This was the treatment of Deborah Harkness's books. I read book 1 and book 2 some time back and had issues with them, enough that I avoided the series until now. But my wife wanted to watch it, and who am I to say no? 

Well. I am happy to report that the series was much better than the books. A lot of what annoyed me about the books was lessened or done differently when it hit the small screen. Diana Bishop was much more assertive in this, and any issues she had with being uncertain about the world of "creatures" were just that: uncertainty about a world she had chosen not to participate in not because she deflected to Matthew all the time. She even showed off some power which was nice. 

The casting was good, really, with Alex Kingston as a constant favorite. Matthew Goode performed well as the vampire Matthew Clairmont, making him much more interesting than he was on the page. Teresa Palmer was good as the witch Diana, though often I felt the script worked against the part she was trying to play. There were moments when the Diana I wanted to see came out. But maybe my expectations were out of line. Swedish actress Malin Buska was Finnish witch Satu Järvinen, who got a much larger role in television. Honestly, I wanted a lot more of her. Even Emily gets better treatment here, even though she still dies in the end of Season 2/Book 2. But it was not an empty, off stage death like it was in the books.

They made a little more sense of the time travel aspects, which is good, cause the book made zero sense. Still the rules of Diana's Time-Walking are a bit fuzzy.

I can't judge how well the story in Season 3 stuck to the events in Book 3, but it was much better than expected series. It also was nice to watch a series with a proper beginning, middle, and end. 

It was produced by Doctor Who's Bad Wolf Studio, which also gave us the televised version of "His Dark Materials" (for more great witch moments). Netflix described it as "Outlander meets Twilight," and that is fair. 

All in all, it was enjoyable and redeemed the books in my mind. I mean, I am not going back to re-read them, but the bad after-taste is gone.

Mayfair Witches

I really, really, REALLY wanted to enjoy this one. The AMC version of "Interview with a Vampire" has been great even with, or maybe because of, the changes. And I loved Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches books. Well...the first two anyway. And I adore Alexandra Daddario, who I still hope will get to play Zatanna one day soon.

But this show is a train wreck. Ok, the casting is great really. Harry Hamlin is brilliant as Cortland Mayfair, Beth Grant gave us a Carlotta Mayfair you both want to hate and understand at the same time. 

But there are just so many places where this show doesn't fall short; it falls right on its face.

Lasher is just annoying. Not the evil pervasive influence in the lives of the Mayfairs, but more like a stalker boyfriend or that ghost Beverly Crusher was having sex with in Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

And where the hell is Michael Curry? Some other characters are missing or seem to be merged with others. For example, Ciprien Grieve seems to be a combination between Aaron Lightner and Michael Curry. 

There is also a fair share of "idiot plot" here, the characters, who should be smarter than this, doing stupid things. 

I am not sure how far I am in this one, but I am ready to bail. I mean it has been 25+ years since I read these books, maybe my opinion of them could be less favorable now, but the series is just not great. 

Netflix still has a few more witch series I can check out, maybe one of the European ones I should check out.

Honorable (??) mention, Tidelands

Ok. I am slightly embarrassed to admit this one. 

Described as "beautiful garbage" by IMDB it is really an excuse to watch attractive Australian people run around without any clothes on. It deals with a group of people known as "Tidelanders" who are the offspring of sirens. They have a drug smuggling operation to fund their Queen's (Elsa Pataky) search for an ancient Sumerian (sure why not) clay horn that summons sirens (their mothers) and maybe destroys all the men in world? or Humans? Not clear. There is a rogue Tidelander, Cal aka Caliope (Charlotte Best), who spent 10 years in jail for a murder her human mother set her up for. She is really a powerful Tidelander and her brother (full human) sells all the drugs. 

Cal takes a lot of showers, a lot of baths, has sex with a lot of people and learns that the Queen wants her dead. 

The series ends on a cliffhanger and that was from 2018. Though given the lifespan of Tidelanders Season 2 could take place 10 from now. 

Why mention it? Well, it came up on my suggested watching and I was done with Mayfair Witches. My wife and binged watched the whole thing just to see how bad it would be. Spoiler it was bad. But like I said beautiful garbage. 

Maybe I should go back to watching questionable and dubious documentaries on Tubi.

Use in NIGHT SHIFT

I think I have done witches in NIGHT SHIFT, but the idea of Tidelanders, or more specifically the offspring of sirens or mermaids, has not been done by me.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch

Daughters of Tiamat

I'll take the Sumerian horn seriously for a minute and say that these half-sirens are offspring of the ancient Goddess Tiamat. Back when she was spawning monsters to fight the new Gods, one of her creatures was the Siren. Their role was to seduce and kill Tiamat's enemies. They also worshipped Dagon, but their ancestry is from Tiamat.

Sirens (full or half) gain the following abilities.

Saving Throws: Sirens gain +3 to Toughness Saving throws. This increases by +1 per 3 levels (3, 6, 9, etc.)

Ability Bonus: Sirens gain +1 to Strength and +1 to Toughness. This may raise their abilities above 20.

Sea Adapted: Sirens can breathe air or water with equal ease. Full-blooded sirens adapt quickly, while half-sirens need one round to fully adapt to breathing the new element. Additionally, Sirens can see in darker depths and withstand the pressures of deep-sea life.

Charming Voice: Sirens can charm as per the spell. Once per day per the number of character levels the siren has.

Slow Aging: Sirens age slower than humans to age of about 300 years. Subject to their Feed (below).

The Feed: Sirens must return to the water, particularly the oceans or seas, or they will begin to lose their abilities and age like humans. Abilities are lost at random for each month, whether the half-siren is land-bound or each day, the full-blooded siren is.

Many sirens also believe that they must lure a human to the water to drown. In truth, they are compelled to do so, and they do derive pleasure from the act, but it is not required to keep their powers. 

Mail Call: Nightbound by Creative Jam Games

 Nice little weekend mail call this past weekend for today. A game I backed due to interactions with the creators.

Nightbound is a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game from Creative Jam Games of modern urban horror. It was originally named "Nightshift" but we (Elf Lair Games that is) had to let them know that name was being used for our modern urban horror RPG already. They were super cool about it and changed their game to Nightbound. Because of that we all (ELG) promised to back their Kickstarter.  Well, the books are now coming in.

The game is great looking as you an see. While I am not a huge fan of Powered by the Apocalypse games, this one has a lot of potential. Plus they have a lot more titles than I knew about. 

I have a "Plays Well With Others" for this coming up, but I am waiting on one other thing first. 

Also, and I said this before, there is room on my shelves and table for more than one modern horror game, and I am certain that whatever version of "Night Shift" people choose to play, there are plenty of ideas from the other game to use as well. 

Monstrous Mondays: Monstrous Maleficarum #3 - Nymphs, Daughters of the Gods

 Today I release the next Monstrous Maleficarum! For Volume #3 I present 13 nymphs for use in the 5th edition of the World's Greatest Fantasy RPG.

Volume #3 of Monstrous Maleficarum - Nymphs, Daughters of the Gods

Tales of the nymphs are as old as the Gods themselves. Semi-divine protectors of the natural world have also always been a part of the Fantasy RPGs since the beginning. 

With Monstrous Maleficarum #3 I return nymphs to the latest edition of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Nymphs, Daughters of the Gods for the new 5th Era.

Herein, you will find 13 types of nymphs to challenge and wonder your games. The sylph, whose feet hardly ever touch the ground. The melinoë who dance by the light of the moon. The mighty themeid, warriors among the nymphs. The underworld lampad, and the naiads, nereids, and oceanids, of their watery realms. 

Note: This product contains classical art that depicts some nudity.

One of the routes I came to Dungeons & Dragons was via Greek Mythology. I noticed a while back that the 5th edition of the game, both the 2014 and 2024 flavors, did not have nymphs as a creature type. I thought this was a serious oversight. So with Monstrous Maleficarum #3 I added them back.

I hope you enjoy!

Fantasy Fridays and Other Features

 I made a few new choices about some of the features here on Ye Ole' Other Side blog today. Well...I have been planning these for a bit, but this morning over what has appeared to be one too many cups of coffee the ideas finally jelled.

I have been calling 2025 The Year of Fantasy RPGs, and this is going to continue. One of the ideas I had for this year was to do the April A to Z of Fantasy RPGs. I have a bunch ready to go, but only three written. To provide a full and proper review for a post like what I want takes a lot of reading and about a week's worth of writing here and there. So, it's not really something I want to cram into a month for 26 different games.

My goal was also to find games people could play that could, in a sense, replace D&D on their tables for a bit. Like I have said, I love D&D, and I likely always will, but there are a lot of games out there that are equally deserving of our attention. I can't do that in the way I want by only focusing on a bunch of games for a month.

Also, I have, for a while now, been pretty sour on the idea of supporting others' Kickstarters with my "Kickstart Your Weekend" feature. I mean honestly to be rather blunt about it. I spent a lot of time letting people know about Kickstarters, only to watch the ones I was part of creating not hit the levels I wanted. Selfish? Maybe. Pissy? Certainly. But I have to support the home team more. Yeah, I am still reviewing other people's games, but that feels different to me. 

All these combined have led me to my new feature, Fantasy Fridays. Each Friday over the rest of this year I will try to cover a Fantasy RPG in detail. I love reading these and making new characters so this could be a lot of fun. I would allow myself a little more flexibility regarding "fantasy" too. In June, I like to talk about Sci-Fi games, so this would be perfect for a Sci-Fi Fantasy game. I have a few others that are not 100% pure fantasy, but still would work fine.

I am still trying to clean up and publish all these works in progress I have collected over the years, so that will also continue (new one on Monday!). 

Witchcraft Wednesday: Larina Nix and Skylla for Lands of Adventure

A while back I picked up the classic RPG, Lands of Adventure. While it is fair to say the game is not great, there is something about it I can't quite put my finger on that I love. Is it the  Bill Willingham art? Is it Lee Gold's attention to historical detail, even when the details are wrong? Ok, to be fair, some these details may not have been "wrong" when she was writing. But she is certainly good at building an interesting world.

No. I don't know what it is, but given this is my year to try out more (and different) fantasy RPGs, I owe it at least to myself to try this game out.  It will not replace *D&D on anyone's table today. But for a moment, let me pretend it is 1983. I'll put on K-Tel's CHART ACTION '83 and work on some characters!

Character Creation

This is the most tedious process of this game, really. The rules for playing are largely pretty simple. However, I do admit that I am really in the mood for a complicated character-creation process today. 

For this I'll start with the Lands of Adventure core rules and make adaptations based on the Culture Packs I have. I will do my two favorite witches, Larina and Skylla, for Medieval England and Ancient Greece, respectively. If I had had the other proposed Culture Packs I would have tried something for them as well. 

The game has 11 (yes, eleven) primary stats, but of those, only four are purely random. The others are often the averages of the others with some more randomness added in.  You can roll the d20 or d10 as needed, OR you can allocate 110 + 2d10 points among the 11 characteristics. 

The minimum score is 1, and the max is 20. 

Piety is also important and has it's own means of calculation, but to get that, I'll need some skills for the characters. Skills can also increase other stats.

This game also has three different "Hit Point" pools; Energy Points (EP), Body Points (BP), and Life Points (LP). Damage affects them differently, but none should be 0.

Skills are a roll-under mechanic of percentages, with 5% (96-00) always as a fumble. To roll 10% under your skill is a maximum or flawless success. There are 10 Skill categories and their base scores are based on a Major Characteristic and Minor Characteristics. So for example MAG (Magic) is TAL (Talent)/2 and then squared + INT (Intelligence).  Unlike some games, height and weight have mechanical effects on how fast you can move and how much you can carry respectively.

You have as many skills as you do PRU, the max you can have in any skill area at the start of the game is 10% of the skill area score. Given that this are also not starting characters I will use the options for Prior Experience Points to buff up some skills and spells.

Spells are an odd mix to be honest. I am not sure what would be right to choose since I am not 100% certain of all the game effects. But I can say that the magic section does feel like it is bolted onto this system and there are bits of game-design bondo and duct-tape holding it together. Not that this can't be fun, AD&D did it for decades. 

For Larina and Skylla here, I am certainly aiming to give them a witch-like background. Turns out that is pretty easy to do with this game. The Ancient Greece Culture Pack has the Pelasgians who are characterized as worshipping a Maiden-Mother-Crone Moon Goddess from the belief that older civilizations were more Matriarchal than Patriarchal. Following in the same logic, or even from the same logic, in the Medieval England Culture Pack, Gold lists Margaret Murray's now discredited "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe" as part of the suggested reading. I say "discredited," but I still use the central thesis in my own game writing for my books. Hey. I am writing about witches, not an academic anthropological treatise.  Though given Gold's inclusion of Murray, I would also have gone with Jane Harrison for Ancient Greece and Jessie Weston for Medieval England for a trifecta of Late Victorian/Early 20th Century independent women scholars.

Makes my choice of witches to stat up for this game even more appropriate. 

Larina Nix

Species: Human
Gender: Female
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 125 lbs (light frame)

Culture/Religion: Medieval England/The Old Faith
Piety: 6

CRF (Craft): 12            DEX (Dexterity): 12
TAL (Talent): 18          VCE (Voice): 19
INT (Intelligence): 16  PRU (Prudence): 14
APP (Appearance): 18 AGY (Agility): 12
STR (Strength): 10       CON (Constitution): 10
CHA (Charisma): 19   

COM (Communication): 52%
KNW (Knowledge): 44%
MAG (Magic): 97%
MAN (Manipulation): 32%
MIR (Miracle Working): 99%
MOV (Movement): 28%
OBS (Observation): 36%
PER (Persuasion): 55%
Melee: 16%
Missile 26%

Local KNW: 144%
General KNW: 84%

Non-Combat Specialized Skills
Reporting Accurately (Com), Legend Lore (Knw), Medical/Herb Lore (Knw), Astronomy/Astrology (Knw), Languages Speak (Knw) (English, French, Celtic)

Specialized Spell Skills
Stop Behaviors (Compulsion) PL 5, 10x10, 5 rounds, 1, 200 ft.
Energy Shield (Energy) PL 3, 10x10, 5 rounds, 1, 10 ft.
Energy Bolt (Energy) PL 4, 10x10, 1 round, 1, 200 ft.
Enchantment (Enchantment) PL 6, 10x10, 30 min, 1, 10 ft.
Darkness (Illusion) PL 5, 30x30, 5 rounds, 1, 10 ft.

EP: 36
BP: 12
LP: 10

Weapons: Dagger, Staff

Armor: None
Shield: None

Free Load: 60lbs

--

Skylla

Species: Human
Gender: Female
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 130 lbs (average frame)

Culture/Religion: Ancient Greece/Moon Mother
Piety: 4

CRF (Craft): 12            DEX (Dexterity): 11
TAL (Talent): 16          VCE (Voice): 14
INT (Intelligence): 14  PRU (Prudence): 10
APP (Appearance): 14 AGY (Agility): 12
STR (Strength): 9        CON (Constitution): 10
CHA (Charisma): 17   

COM (Communication): 37%
KNW (Knowledge): 34%
MAG (Magic): 78%
MAN (Manipulation): 29%
MIR (Miracle Working): 80%
MOV (Movement): 23%
OBS (Observation): 36%
PER (Persuasion): 42%
Melee: 22%
Missile 24%

Local KNW: 134%
General KNW: 74%

Non-Combat Specialized Skills
Lying (Com), Legend Lore (Knw), Medical/Herb Lore (Knw) x2, Astronomy/Astrology (Knw), Languages Speak (Knw) (Greek, Egyptian)

Specialized Spell Skills
Stop Behaviors (Compulsion) PL 5, 10x10, 5 rounds, 1, 200 ft.
Energy Bolt (Energy) PL 4, 10x10, 1 round, 1, 200 ft.
Enchantment (Enchantment) PL 6, 10x10, 30 min, 1, 10 ft.

EP: 31
BP: 13
LP: 10

Weapons: Dagger, Staff

Armor: None
Shield: None

Free Load: 65lbs

--

Ok. There is a lot here and even more that I didn't do. These are better than starting characters, certainly, but not 100% reflective of stats for them I have posted in the past. For the Point Allocation method, Larina has 160 points (30 above max) and Skylla has 137 points (7 above max). 

Magic is an odd affair, mostly using the "Spells on the fly" method. I could explore it more IF I ever choose to play this game. But I have enough here for now.

A few interesting quirks. The Culture Packs give a lot more detail to the characters, BUT you should have them next to you when you develop the characters. Skylla, for example, ended up having the Goddess Athena in her maternal line and thus added to some of her stats. Not sure how a virgin goddess was able to do that, but ok. Skylla gained an extra Herbalism skill as well. Larina had a mystical encounter. Since I was recently re-reading her 4th Edition D&D stats, I am going to say she saw a unicorn when she was a little girl. 

This game is rich in atmosphere, but the system itself leaves a little to be desired. Maybe I am just used to simpler systems now or unified mechanics. I do admit I am still very happy I have this game and I will likely come back to it.