Here some Zatanna art that has crossed my computer screen the last couple of weeks. Thought I would share.
Enjoy!
Making the rounds on Facebook
This one is by Oliver Nome
By Cedric Poulant
A couple of Anime Zatannas
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Zatannurday: Zatanna art
Here some Zatanna art that has crossed my computer screen the last couple of weeks. Thought I would share.
Enjoy!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Friday Links
It is the Friday before Gen Con. While I am gearing up for some serious vacation time coming to me. I figure I'll send you out some link today.
First off, David from There's Dungeons Down Under is back, at least for 1 post.
Kenzer & Co are giving away HackMaster Basic for free! Crazy I know.
The Kickstarter for Band of Zombies for All Flesh Must Be Eaten has 21 days left to go. Get in on the Zombie WWII goodness. This promises to be a great book.
My boys and I have decided to start our 1st Ed AD&D game at Gen Con. Seems fitting and I don't have to haul all my minis and maps with me.
But to do that I need character sheets. While I have one of each type of the original AD&D sheets left, I didn't want to use them. Good thing we have the Mad Irishman and his collection of RPG Sheets.
Happy Friday everyone!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
What Was Your Childhood Monster?
I write a lot of horror into my games. I love horror movies and books and pretty much have dedicated all this writing to horror and horror-themed RPGs. So you might be wondering what is it that scares, or rather scared, me.
Tree Monsters.
Well a specific one at least.
Back when I was young I remember watching this movie on KPLR-TV Channel 11 out of St. Louis. It was an old 50s horror film called "From Hell it Came". My gods it was terrible.
But the monster in it, a cursed tree that grew out of the grave of a wrongly condemned man, freaked me out to no end.
I am not sure why. Maybe it is because trees are alive and they are everywhere. I think too it was the noise it made. The monster was called a "Tobonga" but in my young mind it became "Taboo the Tree Monster" and I must have freaked out pretty hard cause to this day I still get grief for it from my family. I even get "gifts" of little tree monsters for Halloween from them.
I have never made a tree monster that I thought worked well enough to match the memory of fear (not the fear itself, that is long gone) I had then. I did create Druthers for various games and I think they have a link to this guy. Though I did buy this bit of art to come up with something. I still might.
Yeah. So I was never afraid of witches. I loved them back then too. Scarecrows freaked me out for a bit. But the real horror is in walking, back from the dead, killer trees.
I am posting this as part of Christine Rains: What Was Your Childhood Monster Blogfest.
And check out here new novella, Fearless.
You can sign up too!
Tree Monsters.
Well a specific one at least.
Back when I was young I remember watching this movie on KPLR-TV Channel 11 out of St. Louis. It was an old 50s horror film called "From Hell it Came". My gods it was terrible.
But the monster in it, a cursed tree that grew out of the grave of a wrongly condemned man, freaked me out to no end.
I am not sure why. Maybe it is because trees are alive and they are everywhere. I think too it was the noise it made. The monster was called a "Tobonga" but in my young mind it became "Taboo the Tree Monster" and I must have freaked out pretty hard cause to this day I still get grief for it from my family. I even get "gifts" of little tree monsters for Halloween from them.
I have never made a tree monster that I thought worked well enough to match the memory of fear (not the fear itself, that is long gone) I had then. I did create Druthers for various games and I think they have a link to this guy. Though I did buy this bit of art to come up with something. I still might.
Yeah. So I was never afraid of witches. I loved them back then too. Scarecrows freaked me out for a bit. But the real horror is in walking, back from the dead, killer trees.
I am posting this as part of Christine Rains: What Was Your Childhood Monster Blogfest.
And check out here new novella, Fearless.
You can sign up too!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Thinking about Halloween
Halloween is coming up really fast. Well. I start thinking about Halloween in August anyway.
Work is moving forward on both of my Witch books and I would love to have them out and to you by Halloween.
And to light a fire under my ass, I am committing to Give Away Blog Hop.
Here is the banner:
http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com/2012/07/wicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html
So I am joining a bunch of other Halloween themed giveaways (mostly paranormal erotica, but hey) and I am going to give away a PDF copy of "The Witch" to one lucky winner.
I have no idea how I will do it or how I will choose, but I have more pressing matters. Like layout.
But I am going to use this to promote the two books.
As a reminder (I know I am woefully late on these, but trust me they are better for it):
The Witch: A new class for Basic era games
And Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay.
The inLinkz link list is here: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=170526&r=http%3A%2F%2Fcloseencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F07%2Fwicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html
I could not find the embed codes like you have with Linky.
I think this will be great. It starts the week before Halloween. I am going to look for other means of promoting these books.
Work is moving forward on both of my Witch books and I would love to have them out and to you by Halloween.
And to light a fire under my ass, I am committing to Give Away Blog Hop.
Here is the banner:
http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com/2012/07/wicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html
So I am joining a bunch of other Halloween themed giveaways (mostly paranormal erotica, but hey) and I am going to give away a PDF copy of "The Witch" to one lucky winner.
I have no idea how I will do it or how I will choose, but I have more pressing matters. Like layout.
But I am going to use this to promote the two books.
As a reminder (I know I am woefully late on these, but trust me they are better for it):
The Witch: A new class for Basic era games
And Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay.
The inLinkz link list is here: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=170526&r=http%3A%2F%2Fcloseencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F07%2Fwicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html
I could not find the embed codes like you have with Linky.
I think this will be great. It starts the week before Halloween. I am going to look for other means of promoting these books.
White Dwarf Wednesday #27
White Dwarf #27 starts of with another great sci-fi cover. Or rather a pulp-age inspired one. The other thing that jumped out at me (other than the transparent space suit the woman has on) is that the month/year is missing from the front cover. But those keeping track this is October/November 1981.
Ian Livinstone lets us know why, White Dwarf is going Monthly in 1982. They also got some new, larger offices. WD is hitting it's next big phase of growth along with the rest of the hobby. Many would claim this period marks the end of the Golden Age, but I have a hard time with that because the popularity and growth never has been, and arguably never will be again, as high as this time.
Roger Musson is back with Part 3 of the Dungeon Architect. This time he talks about the Populated Dungeon. This delves into what some other Bloggers have referred to as Gygax Naturalism. Or how do these life forms get to where they are and survive there? Steady diet of 1st levels? If you are working out a dungeon crawl then these are good articles to find. I guess in a way this is also a sign of the "end of the golden age". The GA did care about dungeon ecology or why things were there, they just were. The later Silver Age (or even, the Dragonlance Age) dungeons had a reason for being and the monsters there did something other than wait around to be killed.
Robert McMahon takes us to a new career option in Traveller, the Imperial Secret Service.
Open Box has some reviews for us. Deluxe Edition Traveller is out, combining previous books plus Book 0, a map and 2d6s. I notice this is also one of the first uses of "role-playing game" used other than an academic or editorial context as opposed to SF/F game. I still have not seen RPG used yet. Back on track, Andy Slack gives it 10/10 for newcomers, but 4/10 for old hands since there is not much that is new.
Chaosium has a new Runequest supplement/adventure Griffin Mountain. Actually it is more of a campaign at 200+ pages. It gets a solid 9/10 from Murray White. Star Fleet battles from Task Force Games is up next. I always wanted to try this game out and I know it has it's legions of fans, but it never happened. The review is solid and John Lambshead gives it 8/10 citing it might be a bit complex for new players. A bunch of Traveller books are up next, IIS Ship files (10/10), Traders and Gunboats (9/10) and Asteroid (8/10). It was a great time to be a Traveller fan.
Lew Pulsipher is back with Part 5 of his An Introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. This time talking about characterisation and alignment. Ahh, more evidence the Golden Age is nearly over if we are talking about characters. I am joking. (well, only a little). The interesting idea here is that Alignment should have an effect on role-playing your character and thus you get experience rewards accordingly. So not an in-game mechanic, but a meta-gaming concept.
The Dungeon at the End of the Universe continues where Issue 26's The DM's Guide to the Galaxy left off. Marcus Rowland continues the D&D in space concept to combat, magic and equipment. Though I have my doubts that a quasi-Dark Ages metalsmith can make air-tight armor.
Letters are up next.
A mini adventure for AD&D is next, Hell's Portal, fir 7-9 characters of 4th level. Fairly straightforward adventure. I did notice that HP was constantly referred to as HTK which was common in many non-sanction D&D products.
Star Base has an article on putting Traveller weapon information on index cards for quick reference. Even then people were trying integrate cards and RPGs.
In what I believe is a White Dwarf first we have a female author of an article! Penelope Hill gives us the Summoner class in Character Conjuring. Summoners are a sub-class of Magic-User that summon monsters to do their bidding. It looks solid, but the proof is in the playing as it were.
Fiend Factory is back with the "near misses" of the Fiend Folio. These are the ones that didn't make it (and yet the Flumph did...) We have the Spikehead (an ape with a spike on it's head) and the Wirrn (large maggots) I suspect the Wirrn didn't make it due to a similar creature with a similar name in Doctor Who. The Greenman (a creature with green skin and four arms) and the White Ape (ape with four arms) both have their origin in the ERB's Mars books. The last one, the Cold Beast, is something like a Lamasu or Shedu without wings and lives in a cold area. Well that and it eats people.
Treasure chest has a bunch of new spells.
We end with a bunch of ads. The last page has the official AD&D miniatures page with the first time I recall seeing the new "man in the moon" TSR logo.
I see this issue as still a transition issue. Obviously White Dwarf is deeply in love with D&D still, but the Traveller content is now about equal to it. Runequest, which was always strong, gets mentioned still, but not as much.
Looking forward to 1982 and more changes!
Roger Musson is back with Part 3 of the Dungeon Architect. This time he talks about the Populated Dungeon. This delves into what some other Bloggers have referred to as Gygax Naturalism. Or how do these life forms get to where they are and survive there? Steady diet of 1st levels? If you are working out a dungeon crawl then these are good articles to find. I guess in a way this is also a sign of the "end of the golden age". The GA did care about dungeon ecology or why things were there, they just were. The later Silver Age (or even, the Dragonlance Age) dungeons had a reason for being and the monsters there did something other than wait around to be killed.
Robert McMahon takes us to a new career option in Traveller, the Imperial Secret Service.
Open Box has some reviews for us. Deluxe Edition Traveller is out, combining previous books plus Book 0, a map and 2d6s. I notice this is also one of the first uses of "role-playing game" used other than an academic or editorial context as opposed to SF/F game. I still have not seen RPG used yet. Back on track, Andy Slack gives it 10/10 for newcomers, but 4/10 for old hands since there is not much that is new.
Chaosium has a new Runequest supplement/adventure Griffin Mountain. Actually it is more of a campaign at 200+ pages. It gets a solid 9/10 from Murray White. Star Fleet battles from Task Force Games is up next. I always wanted to try this game out and I know it has it's legions of fans, but it never happened. The review is solid and John Lambshead gives it 8/10 citing it might be a bit complex for new players. A bunch of Traveller books are up next, IIS Ship files (10/10), Traders and Gunboats (9/10) and Asteroid (8/10). It was a great time to be a Traveller fan.
Lew Pulsipher is back with Part 5 of his An Introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. This time talking about characterisation and alignment. Ahh, more evidence the Golden Age is nearly over if we are talking about characters. I am joking. (well, only a little). The interesting idea here is that Alignment should have an effect on role-playing your character and thus you get experience rewards accordingly. So not an in-game mechanic, but a meta-gaming concept.
The Dungeon at the End of the Universe continues where Issue 26's The DM's Guide to the Galaxy left off. Marcus Rowland continues the D&D in space concept to combat, magic and equipment. Though I have my doubts that a quasi-Dark Ages metalsmith can make air-tight armor.
Letters are up next.
A mini adventure for AD&D is next, Hell's Portal, fir 7-9 characters of 4th level. Fairly straightforward adventure. I did notice that HP was constantly referred to as HTK which was common in many non-sanction D&D products.
Star Base has an article on putting Traveller weapon information on index cards for quick reference. Even then people were trying integrate cards and RPGs.
In what I believe is a White Dwarf first we have a female author of an article! Penelope Hill gives us the Summoner class in Character Conjuring. Summoners are a sub-class of Magic-User that summon monsters to do their bidding. It looks solid, but the proof is in the playing as it were.
Fiend Factory is back with the "near misses" of the Fiend Folio. These are the ones that didn't make it (and yet the Flumph did...) We have the Spikehead (an ape with a spike on it's head) and the Wirrn (large maggots) I suspect the Wirrn didn't make it due to a similar creature with a similar name in Doctor Who. The Greenman (a creature with green skin and four arms) and the White Ape (ape with four arms) both have their origin in the ERB's Mars books. The last one, the Cold Beast, is something like a Lamasu or Shedu without wings and lives in a cold area. Well that and it eats people.
Treasure chest has a bunch of new spells.
We end with a bunch of ads. The last page has the official AD&D miniatures page with the first time I recall seeing the new "man in the moon" TSR logo.
I see this issue as still a transition issue. Obviously White Dwarf is deeply in love with D&D still, but the Traveller content is now about equal to it. Runequest, which was always strong, gets mentioned still, but not as much.
Looking forward to 1982 and more changes!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul, Part 2 (sorta)
I wanted to have at least one write-up done for you today. But work has been really busy and I crashed last night while watching the Olympics.
So instead here are some links that be helpful till then.
Thread on RPG Net
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?639850-Capes-Cowls-and-Villains-Foul
The Author's Blog
http://capescowlsandvillainsfoul.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/spectrumgames
Website with some freebies
http://www.spectrum-games.com/
Enjoy! I hope to have something more useful soon.
So instead here are some links that be helpful till then.
Thread on RPG Net
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?639850-Capes-Cowls-and-Villains-Foul
The Author's Blog
http://capescowlsandvillainsfoul.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/spectrumgames
Website with some freebies
http://www.spectrum-games.com/
Enjoy! I hope to have something more useful soon.
Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul
Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul (CCaVF) is the eagerly anticipated supers/comic book emulation game from Spectrum Games. The same folks that gave Cartoon Action Hour.
I want to start off by saying that this is an attractive book. At 164 pages of full of color it feels like a comic. Since that is what the author aims to emulate I would say it so far is a success.
I think that is a good place to start. What is CCaVF? Well yes it is a supers game, but it is more a comic book emulation game. Meaning it tries to emulate the play-ability of reading a comic book. This sets it apart from the likes of other purely "Supers" games that might be trying to emulate how a super hero could exist in some sort of reality. Instead the assumption here is comic book reality. This would include things like editorial control or even breaking the 4th wall. Both of which are discussed later.
Chapter 0 is our Introduction which helps lay the ground work for what we will be reading. We are told that physics and logic often take a back seat to drama and excitement. So far I feeling that this will be closer to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying than say Villains and Vigilantes (both of which are great games for different styles of play). We are told that this game is about telling exciting stories with your friends. So far this sounds good. We are told next that this game uses the d12. I love that. The d12 is the oft forgotten die stuck between the mighty d20 and the diva that is the d10.
We also learn that CCaVF is a resource-based game. Now my experiences with resource based supers games has been mixed. So lets see what we have here.
Traits are match against other Traits with various Linked traits. Traits can be Primary or Secondary and after they are Used they become less effective. So someone like Superman would have a Primary Trait of Super-Strength with Secondary Traits of Flight and Heat Vision. Following the example in the book the Traits are bolded. Characters are likely to have 5 to 12 traits. Characters can also have Complications and Factoids. Sounds great! Let's get into the design!
Chapter 1 is Character Design. I like the term "Hero Design" myself, but that is cool. Your "Editor" (GM) will determine how many starting points your character will have. Much like the Power Points of M&M or other games. Except you are not buying the trait itself, you are buying what the trait represents. So a Signature Triat vs. a Secondary one or an Auto Defend. There is a handy chart with all the trait types and levels/ratings so you can add up your points quickly.
CCaVF encourages thinking about your character as a whole. So when making your Batman-clone you would not list all his martial arts but would just list Advanced Combat Training or something like that. Superman would have Super-Sonic Flight while the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel would have Hyper-Flight. So where are these traits listed? They are not. Yup. YOU define what the traits mean. So for example I define an Anamchara trait to go with my Willow & Tara characters. This is a Shared Trait, so the points are split up, but I define what it means and what it does. But don't worry the author gives you some ideas to work with.
The neatest thing though has to be the Editorial Control. These are like supercharged hero points or drama points. Editorial Control can be purchased with points, but is more expensive for more powerful characters. The Editor also gets a pool of EC points as well to use for the villains. There are also examples of various ways to regain EC points. Finally you fill out the character with factoids.
The chapter ends with an example of character creation. This is followed by a quick generation card to get you plying right away. Finally a listing of Heroes and Villains.
Chapter 2 is the Rules chapter.Typically rolls are a d12 + some trait. Other times you might need to roll 2 d12s and keep the highest or even 3. The basic idea here is that the action needs to be like that in a comic book. So a bit of time is spent on combat. Now heroes and villains in CCaVF don't have hit points, but they do have Setbacks. Most of the chapter is dedicated to this this idea and some example difficulties are explored. All and all pretty easy.
Chapter 3 is all about Villains. Villains get special treatment in CCaVF. They are created with the same rules that give us heroes, but there is more to them than that. Given the treatment given them here, I think this should be must reading for any superhero RPG player/GM. Heroes are often defined by their villains or rogues gallery. This game did not forget that.
Chapter 4 deals with Options. Things you can do to tweak characters or games. One really nice thing is about how deal with super hero team-ups and what to do when some characters are more powerful than others. There is even a bit on killing (and why it should be avoided) and live action (LARP) supers.
Chapter 5 is a fairly comprehensive example of play. If you normally ignore these please read this one. Many of my questions were answered here. It is a good walk through of how to play the game.
Chapter 6 talks about Issues, or adventures for your new set of heroes and villains. Again there is a lot of good information here for Editors/GMs of any sort of supers game. In particular there is the all important Introductory Issue which brings the team the together. I could not help but think of the team of misfits in the new Justice League Dark while reading this. Fantasy RPG fans should also take note of this chapter since it helps get past that old "you all met in an inn before an adventure".
We end with an Afterword where the author discusses why he made this game. The Appendix has a great glossary, index and cheat sheets for the game.
All in all I am quite pleased with this game. I agree with the author in that I love Supers games, but it is hard to find that perfect game for your group. There have been some great choices that have come out in the last few years, but none are 100% perfect. CCaVF may not 100% perfect either, but it is really damn nice and has a lot of great things going for it.
Up next I'll stat up some characters.
I think that is a good place to start. What is CCaVF? Well yes it is a supers game, but it is more a comic book emulation game. Meaning it tries to emulate the play-ability of reading a comic book. This sets it apart from the likes of other purely "Supers" games that might be trying to emulate how a super hero could exist in some sort of reality. Instead the assumption here is comic book reality. This would include things like editorial control or even breaking the 4th wall. Both of which are discussed later.
Chapter 0 is our Introduction which helps lay the ground work for what we will be reading. We are told that physics and logic often take a back seat to drama and excitement. So far I feeling that this will be closer to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying than say Villains and Vigilantes (both of which are great games for different styles of play). We are told that this game is about telling exciting stories with your friends. So far this sounds good. We are told next that this game uses the d12. I love that. The d12 is the oft forgotten die stuck between the mighty d20 and the diva that is the d10.
We also learn that CCaVF is a resource-based game. Now my experiences with resource based supers games has been mixed. So lets see what we have here.
Traits are match against other Traits with various Linked traits. Traits can be Primary or Secondary and after they are Used they become less effective. So someone like Superman would have a Primary Trait of Super-Strength with Secondary Traits of Flight and Heat Vision. Following the example in the book the Traits are bolded. Characters are likely to have 5 to 12 traits. Characters can also have Complications and Factoids. Sounds great! Let's get into the design!
Chapter 1 is Character Design. I like the term "Hero Design" myself, but that is cool. Your "Editor" (GM) will determine how many starting points your character will have. Much like the Power Points of M&M or other games. Except you are not buying the trait itself, you are buying what the trait represents. So a Signature Triat vs. a Secondary one or an Auto Defend. There is a handy chart with all the trait types and levels/ratings so you can add up your points quickly.
CCaVF encourages thinking about your character as a whole. So when making your Batman-clone you would not list all his martial arts but would just list Advanced Combat Training or something like that. Superman would have Super-Sonic Flight while the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel would have Hyper-Flight. So where are these traits listed? They are not. Yup. YOU define what the traits mean. So for example I define an Anamchara trait to go with my Willow & Tara characters. This is a Shared Trait, so the points are split up, but I define what it means and what it does. But don't worry the author gives you some ideas to work with.
The neatest thing though has to be the Editorial Control. These are like supercharged hero points or drama points. Editorial Control can be purchased with points, but is more expensive for more powerful characters. The Editor also gets a pool of EC points as well to use for the villains. There are also examples of various ways to regain EC points. Finally you fill out the character with factoids.
The chapter ends with an example of character creation. This is followed by a quick generation card to get you plying right away. Finally a listing of Heroes and Villains.
Chapter 2 is the Rules chapter.Typically rolls are a d12 + some trait. Other times you might need to roll 2 d12s and keep the highest or even 3. The basic idea here is that the action needs to be like that in a comic book. So a bit of time is spent on combat. Now heroes and villains in CCaVF don't have hit points, but they do have Setbacks. Most of the chapter is dedicated to this this idea and some example difficulties are explored. All and all pretty easy.
Chapter 3 is all about Villains. Villains get special treatment in CCaVF. They are created with the same rules that give us heroes, but there is more to them than that. Given the treatment given them here, I think this should be must reading for any superhero RPG player/GM. Heroes are often defined by their villains or rogues gallery. This game did not forget that.
Chapter 4 deals with Options. Things you can do to tweak characters or games. One really nice thing is about how deal with super hero team-ups and what to do when some characters are more powerful than others. There is even a bit on killing (and why it should be avoided) and live action (LARP) supers.
Chapter 5 is a fairly comprehensive example of play. If you normally ignore these please read this one. Many of my questions were answered here. It is a good walk through of how to play the game.
Chapter 6 talks about Issues, or adventures for your new set of heroes and villains. Again there is a lot of good information here for Editors/GMs of any sort of supers game. In particular there is the all important Introductory Issue which brings the team the together. I could not help but think of the team of misfits in the new Justice League Dark while reading this. Fantasy RPG fans should also take note of this chapter since it helps get past that old "you all met in an inn before an adventure".
We end with an Afterword where the author discusses why he made this game. The Appendix has a great glossary, index and cheat sheets for the game.
All in all I am quite pleased with this game. I agree with the author in that I love Supers games, but it is hard to find that perfect game for your group. There have been some great choices that have come out in the last few years, but none are 100% perfect. CCaVF may not 100% perfect either, but it is really damn nice and has a lot of great things going for it.
Up next I'll stat up some characters.
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