Sunday, October 1, 2023

ITS OCTOBER!! RPG Blog Carnival and Horror Movie Marathon

 It's October here at that Other Side, and you know what that means!

I have a TON going on, so let's get going.

Photo by Toni Cuenca: https://www.pexels.com/photo/lighted-jack-o-lantern-decors-619420/
Photo by Toni Cuenca: https://www.pexels.com/photo/lighted-jack-o-lantern-decors-619420/

RPG Blog Carnival

It has been my pleasure to host the RPG Blog Carnival in the past, and I am happy to do it again this October the spookiest of all months.

This month my topic is Horrors, Gods, and Monsters

I am going to spend some time talking about monsters, myths, gods, and all sorts of horrors. Additionally, I am going to present my take on the Deities & Demigods II concept I have been working on.

While I have been doing a bit of work on all of them, I think the one I am ready to share is my Roman-Norse Pantheon in Deities & Demigods format. While I have not settled on a name for the pantheon just yet I am leaning into something like "The Black Forest Mythos" or "Der/The Schwarzwald Mythos."  Not exactly original, but it does capture the right feel. 

I have gods, and, yes, monsters to share for this project, and hoping that October will be my month to bring it all to light.

If you want to participate in the RPG Blog Carnival on this topic, just post what you want (that concerns this topic) and share your link below. Or share it on social media with the #RPGBlogCarnival hashtag, and feel free to tag me.  I'll do a round-up of all the posts in November.

RPG Blog Carnival


Horror Movie Marathon

This year, I am pleased to join the 31 Days of Halloween Movie Challenge from Pun Issac over at Hall of the Nephilim

31 Days of Halloween Movie Challenge

Here is the text version:

Daily Prompt

  1. First Time Watch
  2. Reanimated
  3. Mother Nature Strikes Back
  4. Foreign Language
  5. What A Twist
  6. Anthology
  7. Teen Angst
  8. Horror Comedy
  9. Slow Burn
  10. Body Horror
  11. For The Kiddos
  12. Black and White
  13. Inspired By True Events
  14. We Are the Weirdos Mister
  15. Pretty Blood Suckers
  16. Something Fishy
  17. Underrated
  18. Clown(s)
  19. Folk Horror
  20. Monstrous Blood Suckers
  21. Summer Camp
  22. Howl at the Moon
  23. Best Soundtrack
  24. Slasher
  25. Found Footage
  26. New Movie
  27. Favorite Horror Director
  28. Sci-Fi Horror
  29. Man is the Real Monster
  30. Remake Is Better Than the Original
  31. All Hallows Eve

 Alternates

  • Torture Porn
  • Blaxploitation
  • Video Game Movie
  • Cults
  • Best Gratuitous Nudity 

A few of these might be re-watches.  I wanted to do all Spanish language horror this year, but I might still get some in. I am not as far along in my Spanish as I had hoped.

This year the rules will be a little different for me. Instead of watching 31+ movies with 20 new I'll be following Pun's list above. 

Want to join us? Just watch some movies!

#Dungeon23

Still doing this! Interesting note. Nearly every room in this is based on something I have encountered in my day, typically on my walks with my wife every night. October is going to my "Temple of Really Bad Dead Things" month. If you know the reference, then you are doing good! And likely need to schedule your colonoscopy. 


#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 10, Room 1

 Coming down from Level 9, Room 15, the party will still feel the pressure of the overwhelming necromantic presence that is common to this level.

They head down a worn set of stairs that descend into darkness. 

Room 1

For this entire level, healing magic does one less than typical, even to healing 0 hp (if a 1 is rolled).

Spells that cast light (light, continual light, daylight, faerie fire) are reduced in range by 5' or reduced in duration by 1 turn or otherwise reduced to 80% of duration or range.  

Saturday, September 30, 2023

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 30

 This is the last tomb of the minor dwarven lords.  Inside though is a completely unexpected sight.

Room 30

Inside a gnome necromancer is having a heated conversation with his zombie wife. The gnome, says he has been locked up in here since the Vampire Queen took over. He had been working on a formula to grant eternal life to undead for the Vampire Queen. He stated he was so confident in his work he would try it on anyone first. So the Vampire Queen killed and raised his wife. When it didn't work she entombed them here.

Since the the gnome, he has completely forgotten his own name, has perfected his formula. He tried it on himself and it worked. But he ran out of material to also use it on his wife.

The gnome is more than a little senile and crazy claims all he needs is about 50,000 GPs worth of gems from the party to make the cure work. He is not interested in fighting. His wife is a normal zombie.  He says once he is done, he will present the cure to her most bloody majesty, Queen Darless the First and Only.  He has no idea how much time has really passed.

If the party spares these gnomes have them pop up in the next three levels, each time asking for something stranger and more outlandish.

Their only treasure is his book of spells he calls "The NecroGnomecon." It is not a spell book but a bunch of chaotic scribblings.

It is likely that if he does get all the ingredients he needs he will only succeed in finally killing himself and wife in a glorious explosion.

The exit for this level was in Room 15.

--

I got my Halloween decorations out!

Friday, September 29, 2023

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 29

 This room is also the tomb of a minor lord.

Room 29

This room has been broken into and looted.

There is a hazard here (not a trap) but some of the mason-work is loose. There is 1 in 6 chance of it being spotted (2 in 6 for elves and dwarves). Anyone near the coffin has a chance of being hit. Roll randomly for all within 5' of the coffin area. Save vs. Petrification or be hit with falling stone for 4d6 hp of damage.

Dwarves will point out that had not the minions of the Vampire Queen not messed with the stone work it would have stayed in place until the end of time. 

Thursday, September 28, 2023

This Old Dragon: Issue #57

Dragon Magazine #57
 Time delve into the box under my desk and pull out an old, musty Dragon Magazine. Today we go all the way back to January 1982. Chevy Chase's "Modern Problems" is in the movie theatres, which is notable for the real acting debut of Broadway actor/singer Nell Carter. Olivia Newton-John is still dominating the airwaves with "Physical," and on the shelves in Waldenbooks and FLGS across the land is This Old Dragon #57.

Our cover comes from Dean Morrissey. I don't know much about it really. My copy doesn't even have it. 

Jake Jaquet's editorial mentions the first time he heard "Dungeons & Dragons" mentioned on TV; during an episode of "Simon & Simon," no less. 

Kim Mohan's Cover to Cover overview covers what we will see in this issue. 

Out on a Limb covers letters about previous issues' content. Typically, things the readers didn't like.

Classic Dragon MVP Ed Greenwood is up first with Modern Monsters. He gives us some AD&D (though I think it could all work for D&D too; this was the time when a distinction had to be made) stats for various modern objects like cars and modern weapons. Also, how *D&D characters can deal with with them with and without the magic they are used to.  This is a rather great article and one that should be referenced for "City Beyond the Gate" when it appears in Dragon #100. 

Nice ad for FGU's Space Opera. Well...the ad itself in nothing special, but the listing of game stores that carry it is. I find it interesting that my home state (Illinois) had more game stores than the others. This could have been because FGU was located in Chicago. Also, there was a game store in the town I now live in that is no longer there. It's now a Pizza place. 

Len Lakofka's Leomund's Tiny Hut is up with detailed information on shield and weapons skills in AD&D and what you can expect any particular group of humanoids to have. Very detailed, and while I appreciate this, I am (and was) of the mind to say "given them all swords and call it 1d6 of damage each."  Not as realistic I am sure, but certainly will get the job done. Len took this stuff a lot more seriously than I do. 

Not to be outshined, Gary is up with one his From the Sorcerer's Scroll with "Developments from Stonefist to South Province" for his World of Greyhawk setting. One day I need to do a retrospective all of his writings. I feel that something like this would have been done already.  In any case, it is a fun little look into the "current events" of Greyhawk. Something I think I appreciate more now than I did then. 

Moving from AD&D to Top Secret we have In Search of A James Bond by Mark Mulkins.  Or how the famous 007 would fit into the Top Secret game. Something I am sure EVERYONE playing Top Secret tried at one point or another.  A lot of this is particular to the game mechanics of Top Secret including how move Bond between agencies. 

Merle M. Rasmussen, as expected, follows up with his Spy's Advice column for Top Secret.  Top Secret always looked like a fun game but one I never got into. I am a little surprised we have not seen an OSR version of this game yet.

Pete Mohney has a quick on with Random Magic Items. A set of tables meant to aid the DM and supplement the DMG.

For DragonQuest fans, there is The Versatile Magician by Jon Mattson. This covers new skills for the Magician. It looks good and I'll add it to my big DragonQuest set of notes for if or when I ever get to play it again. 

Up next is one of my favorite series from the Classic Dragon days, Giants in the Earth. I know a lot of ink was spilled to tell us how D&D/AD&D was not a novel and visa-versa, but I did love seeing these literary characters get represented as D&D characters. In this issue we have C. J. Cherryh's Morgaine and Vanye from her "Morgaine Series" including the rather notorious (for its cover) "Fires of Azeroth." These books were a staple of the old Science Fiction and Fantasy book club. They were on my TBR pile forever. I really should give them a go. I have enjoyed C. J. Cherryh's other works. We also get Lynn Abbey’s Rifkin from "Daughter of the Bright Moon." This was also years before she would come to work at TSR.  And finally two from Robert E. Howard; Belit and Dark Agnes. 

Giants in the Earth, Dragon #57

Ok. The entire middle section of my Dragon is gone. Typical really, since it was an adventure, "The Wandering Trees."  I checked my Dragon CD-ROM and sure enough, that is what it is. BUT by the rules I have established for myself here I really can't go over it. I will say this though, it was the second-place winner, IDDC II (International Dungeon Design Contest II) the OSR Grimoire has more on that. It also looks like a fun adventure. I am kind of sad I don't have it.

Dragon #57 missing pages

Up on a Soapbox is next. We get a rare Brian Blume editorial about playing evil characters. He concludes that no serious gamer will ever want to. Meanwhile, a good amount of the 5.2 Million Baldur's Gate 3 players (according to Steam) are going to at least try the "Dark Urge" option at least once. BUT in principle, I do agree. All things being equal I would rather play a Good character than and Evil one.  Roger E. Moore is next with "Dungeons Aren't Supposed To Be 'For Men Only,'" an interesting bit of a slice in time. I am not 100% certain what the motive here is. Why? Well, it could be two equally valid things. Moore, or others, looked out at the vast demographic of D&D players and found the lack of women concerning. OR. They could have been responding to criticism. While I am NOT going to get into the personal views of the various creators of the game from nearly 40 to 50 years ago, I am going to take Moore at face value and say he is here (on his soapbox as it were) saying, yes women do, should, and can play D&D.  Thankfully, this is also not an issue these days and the years since this time have made great strides for more and more inclusion. 

You know the saying, "Getting off on the wrong foot?" I feel like that is where I am with the Minaria series. This month is The Chronology of Minaria by Glenn Rahman. I mean I know it is for Divine Right, but I never got into that game so I have no context for any of this. Here is what I get from it now. The 80s were a fun time. To think that TSR would spend valuable page resources (four full pages) on this is either amazing or amazingly short-sighted. I can't tell which, but I can say it was a very, very different time and a different mindset. If I posted my HUGE timeline of my Mystoerth world I would not expect anyone to be that interested. Maybe some, but enough?  This was the last of the Minaria articles too. Since it would be two more years before I would buy a copy of Dragon at this point I am not surprised this series never contacted with me. 

D&D's War Game roots are showing here in this next article from Michael Kluever on The History of the Shield. It's a neat article that goes into some historical detail about the focused development of the shield. It covers 9 pages (with some half-page ads here and there). It is interesting but more than I need for a typical D&D game. Granted, that is me. I would get excited about a 9-page on the history of scrolls or something magical. So every time I get a "Politics of Hell" there is one of these. It is a good article, but no where near my personal interests. 

Reviews are up next. Tony Watson covers Star Viking a game I only sort of remember.  It is a sci-fi mini-game for two players, a Viking and a Federate. Where the Viking player tries to raid bases and other ships and the Federate tries to stop them. Watson enjoyed the game and played around with variant ideas. I could see this game being reskinned as Star Trek, Orions vs the Federation style game easily. Might be fun.  In what could be called an understated review, the brand-new superhero RPG Champions gets less than a half page (compared to the two given to Star Viking).  Though Scott Bennie does say that the game does a very good job of emulating it's genre and he gives it a "hearty recommendation" despite it's flaws. Also the game was only 56 pages back then. 

Simulation Corner by John Prados covers The Art of Illustration in games. I am not sure if I am missing something here but his thesis is "good art sells games and makes games better." Yes. But I think back to some of the art that was common prior to 1982 and maybe this was something that needed to be said. 

The Electric Eye from Mark Herro goes over the recent survey about computer use among Dragon readers. Here are some interesting insights. 

Age
Under 19: 63%
19-22: 9%
22-44: 25%
45+: 0%

Education Level
Students: 71%
Professional: 29%

This tracks and was expected for the time. 

Access to Computers

None: 6%
Apple-l I: 17%
Apple-l I+: 29%
Apple-l I I: 0%
PET: 0%
CBM: 9%
VIC: 3%
TRS-80 (Mod. 1): 20%
TRS-80 (Mod. 2): 3%
TRS-80 (Mod. 3): 9%
TRS-80 (Color): 6%
TRS-80 (pocket): 0%
North Star: 3%
Atari (800): 11%
Atari (400): 9%
APF: 0%
OSI: 0%
ZX80: 0%
Exidy: 0%
Heath/Zenith: 0%
S-100: 6%
Other: 20%

Again, this feels right to me given the demographics above. Apple dominated the education market followed by TSR-80s.  Atari was a popular home model and was in competition with the Vic-20/CBM and the TRS-80 Color Computer. This also makes me wish I had tried out the Atari 800/400 line more.

Only one reader had access too more than two different kinds of computers.

Most readers want more programs in the pages of Dragon, and all want articles on gaming-related topics. Readers were more or less equally divided on whether they buy, copy, or write their own programs. 

The Convention Schedule tells what is hot in the Winter of 1982. February 5-7 were the dates for Gen Con South. Something I think Gen Con could do again. 

Dragon Mirth has our comics. And we end with Wormy and What's New with Phil and Dixie! 

So a very interesting snapshot in time of what was happening in the world of Dragon magazine. Not a lot of insight into the world of RPGs, unless you count the Electric Eye article.

I am curious to know what people's thoughts were on the included adventure.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 28

 Moving to the next room, the party finds the tomb of a dwarven duchess. 

Room 28

The name on the lid has been worn away with age. The dwarven runes, though, at least the occupant is a duchess in her final rest.

Underneath the sarcophagus, there is Treasure Type L.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 27

 The first of the smaller tombs appears to be for some sort of duke or lord (the lettering is wearing off) who was an uncle to one of the kings.

Room 27

This (and all the ones here) tomb is smaller than those on the main tomb entrances. It also appears to be less disturbed than the others.

It's occupant still rests, undisturbed. It's treasure is gone, but a close inspection (roll of 1 on a d6; 1-2 for elves and dwarves) will find a secret door under the sarcophagus.

Inside there is a an Axe +2. In the hands of a dwarf it is an Axe +3 and a Dwarven Throwing Axe. It can be thrown for ranges 20/40/80 and return to the dwarf that threw it.