Occult D&D Begins: Witchcraft, Folklore, and Forbidden Magic in Your Game

What if the real treasure at the heart of the dungeon wasn’t gold but knowledge no one was meant to possess?

Welcome to Occult D&D! This is a new series dedicated to the strange, the symbolic, and the spiritual side of Dungeons & Dragons. Over the coming weeks/months, we’re going to crack open the dusty grimoires, draw some chalk circles on the floor, and invite a little witchcraft, ritual, and folklore into our tabletop worlds. Well...more than I typically do every day, that is. 

Why? Because there’s a whole dimension of play that D&D brushes up against, but rarely fully explores. One that I also find rather fun.

The Occult Thread in D&D

The earliest versions of Dungeons & Dragons were steeped in fantasy literature, pulp horror, and old-school myth. You had demons and devils in the Monster Manual, magic-users who studied arcane formulae, and clerics calling down divine wrath, but precious little that felt like real occultism.

Not real as in "real-world belief," but real as in resonant; rooted in symbolism, ritual, superstition, and the tension between hidden knowledge and spiritual power. The stuff of witches’ charms, cursed bloodlines, forbidden books, and crossroads bargains.

That’s the sweet spot this series wants to hit.

What You Can Expect from This Series

Each Occult D&D post will focus on one of two things:

1. Bringing Occult Themes to the Table

We’ll explore ways to deepen your game’s tone with elements like:

• Symbolic magic and ritual casting
• Occult monster design
• Haunted locations, cursed items, and secret traditions
• Folkloric mechanics: second sight, lunar phases, witch trials

2. Spotlighting Witchcraft in Your Game

I’ve written a lot about witches over the years, how they work, how they cast, and how they’re more than just “distaff wizards.” I want to integrate them deeper into the game. Taking cues from my "Witches of Appendix N" series on how witches should have been a distinct part of the games we play.  I'll also likely pull in some of the Satanic Panic era notions where D&D was seen as a "gateway to the occult!"

If you've ever wanted your campaign to feel like a midnight séance instead of a tavern brawl, or your dungeon crawl to veer just a little closer to The Witch than The Hobbit, this series is for you.

I am also likely to review various occult-themed RPGs and related products. I'll talk about some of my own books too, but not as a review (that's tacky). 

Let’s Begin...

Next post, we’ll start with a foundational question: What does “occult” even mean in the context of D&D? Is it just another word for “magic,” or something more primal, more forbidden, and more personal?

Let’s peel back the veil and find out. 

Have you used occult themes in your own games? Run a séance in your campaign? Performed a tarot card reading? Designed a cursed grimoire? Used real folklore in your monster design? Tell me about it below, I’d love to hear how the occult has haunted your table.

Drop a comment below, I’d love to hear what haunted your players, and what kind of magic you’ve brought to the table.

Mail Call: WITCH Fated Souls

Mail call from yesterday.
I just got my copy of WITCH: Fated Souls by Elizabeth Chaipraditkul.

The book, screen and Tarot Cards look great and can't wait to try it out.

How I stat out characters

I post a lot of characters here.  Lots.

Usually I have something in mind or I want to try out a new system with something I already know or a combination of the two.  But how do I take a character like Zatanna, or Red Sonja, or Willow and Tara or anyone and figure out how they are supposed to "be" in a particular system.  I have a couple of things I like to do and it has usually worked pretty well for me.

I always start out with what the character can do and who is this character supposed to be in my mind.  If I am working on Dirty Nel then I have a good idea, "sassy street faerie prostitute. cute. smarter than anyone gives her credit for. Enjoys her creature comforts and knows how to get them."  Some of that doesn't translate into game stats. Well...most games anyway. But a lot of it does.  I know she has quite a bit of knowledge about the world, street life and the occult.  I know she has a bit of magic in her and I also have a good idea about what her fighting prowess is like.

Skills
In most systems there are skills.  I look for signature skills the character has, say being able to program computers or speaking 4 languages and figure out how these are represented in the system.   For someone like Willow I look for high numbers in computers, science but also occult knowledge.  I know this is going to suck up most of her points and want to get them figured out first.  Plus they are very iconic to the character.  If I am working on Batwoman then I want to be sure her acrobatics are good, if I have Robin Sena I know she is young and most of her skills are weak except for things like occult knowledge and maybe her languages.

I like to stay within the rules as much as I can.  This helps me define the character in terms of that world's reality. If a Unisystem character gets 25 points for skills then I need to have good reasons for going to 35.  If I am using PL 9 as a base for Tarot and PL 11 for Tara in Mutants and Masterminds then I want their skills to comparable to those realities.

Skills are good Rosetta Stone really.  Most systems have them and there are lot of good translations.  Knowledge (Supernatural) could be the same thing as Occultism or Occult Knowledge.

Magic
Since I tend to make a lot of magic using characters using magic as another yardstick is good.   For D&D and d20-like games I know they need a certain spell and they need to be a certain level to cast that.  That is how I came up with Willow and Tara's levels in d20 Mod, a combination of spells and skills.
In a game like Ghosts of Albion the same is true, but then I can decide on how many levels of magic they might need.
For something like d20, this is pretty easy to work backwards from.  Find the spells, find the levels that can cast those spells, fill in the details.
For a point buy system like Ghosts, it is only part of the equation.

Combat
A lot of games feature combat or fighting.  To ignore this does the character an injustice.  Even in Call of Cthulhu or Doctor Who the character might need to stop running or talking and fight it out.  Thinking about combat like a skill then is a good way to figure out a character.  In M&M I know Tarot for example is a better fighter than Willow or Zatanna, but she can't match either of them (or even come close) in magic.  That doesn't mean she can go toe to toe with the likes of Red Sonja either.  It means that there is a good balance to be had.  Where that balance is sometimes is up for debate.  My Red Sonja may be different that someone else's based on the same PL (to use an Mutants and Masterminds example).

Feel
This is less "quantitative" really.  I'll start with a premise, "Willow is the most powerful witch in my game" then I work down from her.  I think what would it take to get the character to this level, what would it take to get a different character to a similar level.
For characters like the Hex Girls I want to make them total novices at magic.  So in Unisystem they have Magic 1 or 2 tops.  But still give the points where they would be better than average, music and showmanship.   I usually feel pretty confident in my builds, but each one usually takes longer than say just stating up John or Jane Doe Character.

Sometimes I have such strong idea for a character concept, like Justice, that I also just like to see the character in different systems too.  In the case of Willow and Tara I am also seeing if I can stat them up in as many systems as I can.

The Enchanted World: Wizards and Witches

 Let's start this series with the book that has the most meaning to me and the first one in the series: Wizards and Witches. Fitting for Imbolc on Thursday really.

Overview of the Series

The Enchanted World books from Time-LIFE were a series of high-quality, hardcover books sent to you via mail from Time-LIFE subscription. The first one you got for free was Wizards and Witches. This also makes it the most common one and the one you can find in most secondary markets. Fortunately for me, it was also my favorite.  

Imagine, if you can, a time when one of the world's largest publishers decided to invest in a series of books (21 in total) filled with full-color art, cloth-bound covers, and access to some of the world's greatest libraries and scholars. Libraries like the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Cambridge Library, and the London Library. Scholars like Prof. Tristram Potter Coffin (Chief Series Consultant),  Ellen Phillips (Series Director and Editor), and Prog. Brendan Lehane (author of this volume).

Well, that time was 40 years ago, and the Enchanted World series sought to capitalize on the growing fascination with all things fantasy, not in a small part due to the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons.

Over the years, I have seen a lot of collections of other folks' RPG books. It is no surprise when you see one or more of these books stuck in their mix of FRPGs.

Many of the books follow a similar pattern. Usually, 3-4 chapters of the book detail different aspects of the myths and folklore being covered. These are usually interspersed with some of the stories themselves or excerpts, as well as art. The art is often from classical sources or paintings depicting the stories or characters involved. There are also new pieces of art throughout. There are margin notes or marginalia with some other related tidbit of information. Each chapter ends with a longer story.

There is a bibliography, art credits, and some publication notes in the back.

These books were published around the world. Some of the European publications also had dust covers.

Wizards and Witches

by Brendan Lehane, 1984 (144 pages)
ISBN 0809452049, 0809452057 (US Editions)

This book is divided into three sections covering ancient wizards, wizards of the Middle Ages, and witches. There is quite a lot of art from Arthur Rackham here. 

Chapter One: Singers at the World's Dawn

Here, we begin with a tale of the old Finish wizard Väinämöinen and the young upstart Joukahainen in what could be considered a magical sing-off. The line between Bard and Wizard was very thin in ancient Finland. Thus it was when the world was young and youth could aspire to wizardry. We learn of other powerful names like Volga Vseslavich, Cathbad, Manannan Mac Lir, Taliesin, and, most well-known of all, Merlin. Not all were old men. Ceridwen, Circe, and Louhi were there too.

The thesis here is that in those olden days magic was something people could aspire too, but few could truly master. We get snippets of stories of all these wizards and sorceresses, each playing into the next. It is somewhere between a bedtime story and an undergraduate survey of various wizards. In between we get longer stories, like the "Wizard of Kiev" and "The Welsh Enchanter's Fosterling."  All cover magic in a semi-forgotten age that seems to have one foot in history and another in mythology.

Chapter Two: Masters of Forbidden Arts

If the last chapter dealt with magical using men and women as heroes as often as villains, then this chapter leaves no ambiguity on where it sees (or rather history sees) the wizard of the Middle Ages. Here the singing battles of Bard-Wizards are given way to the academic study of magic in dusty tomes of forgotten lore and those who sell their very soul for power. We encounter the likes of Roger Bacon (1219-1292), Oxford Scholar, Empirical Philosopher, Franciscan friar, and dabbler in magic. There is even a bit on Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566) aka Nostradamus. But for the most part we see magic going from a force of nature in a world where the rules are not yet set in stone, to men (for the most part) partaking in deals with demonic or devilish figures for power. All it takes is their soul.

We spend quite a bit of time on the legend of Faust and his deal with Mephistopheles. In fact, this one is so set into our vernacular that a "Faustian Deal" hardly needs any explanations. 

Given the time period, there is also a wonderful overview of the Tarot and its origins with some rather fantastic art. 

But most of all I loved the "Legions of the Night" section with its coverage of Demons. The descriptions of just the few here and the art by Louis Le Breton from the Dictionnaire Infernal by Collin de Plancy were enough to make me want even more strange demons in my game. More so since it featured Astaroth. A demon that already fascinated me from when I first saw him in Best of Dragon II.

Harry Clarke's illustrations of Mephistopheles should be how the devil appears all the time. 

Along with the Tarot, there is some coverage on astrology. This predates the Middle Ages by, well, thousands of years really, but there was new keen importance on it at this time. 

Chapter Three: The Shadowy Sisterhood

Ah. Here are my witches. We get some cover on what could be called Folk Magic or Hedge Witchery, on how these natural healers were initially an important part of everyday life. The magic was simpler and more in tune with nature.

Throughout this chapter, the "helpers" of witches are mentioned. We call them Familiars. Up first is the hare, which they claim (and back up) was closer to the witch than the black cat we associate with today. This reminds me that rabbits and hares should really feature more in my games. The others include spiders, ravens and crows, cats, snakes, and toads, which they claim as one of the first animals to be associated with witches. I have read that before as well.

As the chapter professes the old Black Magic vs. White Magic trope appears. While less in favor today among Real Witches^TM (remember the ads with Litney Burns?) it is an important distinction of the time. It is almost the same divide as the "Natural" vs. "Academic" wizards of the first two chapters, really. 

There are various stories, mostly about how someone was suspected of witchcraft and what happened. But also the machinations of witches in general. 

There is a section flight and witches and how brooms were not used at first, but rather things like butter churns and distaffs. I even added distaffs to my games in part because of this connection. 

Our story at the end of this chapter is a classic tale of Baba Yaga and Vasilsa the Fair. Again featuring amazing artwork, this time right from Vasilisa the Beautiful by Ivan Bilibin.

Use in FRPGs

With so many books out there, there is no end to the ideas they can generate. Upfront, it should be noted there is nothing "new" here. The stories, the folklore, and even a lot of the art are things we have all seen before. The stories of wizards like Väinämöinen, Merlin, Faust, and Circe should all be known to anyone who has a passing interest in fantasy and, indeed, to anyone who has played FRPGs. But that is not where their value lies. These books do have tidbits that the causal pursuer of these tales would not know, and maybe even some for the more advanced students.

To be sure, while there is academic rigor here, these are not textbooks. But they are educational.

Reading these tales one could use them as the basis for other characters. There is more than just a little bit of Taliesin in my own Phygora, for example. These tales, often set right on top of each other, can give the reader and player plenty of means of comparison. 

This book also makes good arguments for the separation between, say, Wizards, Warlocks, and Witches (as represented by the three chapters) but less of an argument on where bards fit in. Are Taliesin and Väinämöinen wizards or bards, for example? It is not up to this book to decide but rather the reader.

If you are playing a game like D&D that lives in a different world, then ideas abound. I mean we know Gygax, Arneson and the early designers of the game were very much into folklore and mythology. Those elements are the hook for more of these, beyond the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths we were all raised on.  Like any good synthesis, it should make you want to check out the primary stories these are all from.  If you are playing a Medieval game, say Chivalry & Sorcery or Pendragon, then this is practically a sourcebook for you. I would even say it is a must-have for a Mage: Dark Ages or Mage: Sorcerers Crusade game.

Witches

I can't let it go unsaid, even if it is obvious, but this book profoundly affected me when it was out. While I did not own my own copy until much later on, I had friends that had it. Since this was the first of the series, many people had it. The art in this book set the feel for how I wanted my Witch class books to look. I have since included the art of Arthur Rackham and the Pre-Raphelites in many of my books. This was one of the books that made me want a witch book for D&D. When none showed in the stores I took it on myself to make it. I do know that my first encounter with the "Black School" of the Scholomance was from this book.

While I can't say with any certainty other than the timeline, this book was likely a contributing factor to one of my favorite themes in games; Pagans vs. Christians and how magic would later be demonized by the Church.

This series is lovely, and each book, while filled with things I already knew, also has many things I did not. 

My only real complaint? At 12.25" x 9", they just don't fit nicely into a standard bookcase.

Next Time: What is love?

2011: What's New Pussycat?

So here is the first blog post of 2011 for the Other Side.   I saw a lot of growth here over 2010 and hope to have more interesting things to show you and talk about throughout 2011.

On tap I have some Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition stats I want to post, some more about my upcoming 4th Edition D&D game with my kids, and certainly more OSR stuff.  I plan to post the next Season of my Willow and Tara game "Season of the Witch" and maybe even have some all new stuff.

I pulled out BASH, Icons and Villains and Vigilantes 2.1 again to do some write-ups of some other characters including Willow, Tara, Tarot and some new ones like Justice.  I want to give the Smallville RPG another go as well and pull out Doctor Who again.  Maybe I'll do that when the new Matt Smith branded box comes out.

If you are reading this on my blog or Google Reader (or some other RSS feed) then I am very happy to have you!  If you are reading this on Facebook, then that is great too, stop by the Blog proper sometime at http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/ to see the site as it is meant to be.

Of course if there is any topic, game or whatever you want me to cover I am always open to ideas.

So here is to a great 2011.

Review: Return to the World of Maximum Mayhem

 I have a slight sidestep today. I have been playing around with something for a bit. You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules.

The obvious solution to this was to run some sort of mutant B/X-Advanced hybrid. The ruleset that won out was Old School Essentials-Advanced Fantasy Edition. While there are some bumps, it is a surprisingly good fit. To be honest, I would love to test out OSE-Advanced vs. 1st Edition vs. OSRIC and see how they all fare with the same sort of character. I have not done this, nor do I think I will. I think that the differences would be so minor as to be unnoticeable in actual play. 

But I do have the characters. 

A while back, I introduced a lovely druid couple, Maryah and Asabalom. They were OSE characters from the very start. They have connections to previous characters of mine, but nothing major. I see Asabalom as the grandson (or maybe great-grandson) of my "Beastmaster" character, Absom Sark. Because of this, I am fudging things a little and giving him the ability to wild shape into a wolf at the 4th level. He just doesn't have the control a 7th-level druid does. Right now, he can only shift into a wolf. 

For a variety of reasons that are too minor on their own but added up, these two characters are my natives of Mark's Maximum Mayhem world. One that uses OSE-AE. They are the ones I am taking through these adventures, and their son, Áedán Aamadu, will go through the 5e versions. 

The biggest issue has been finding the time to do these. With his new Kickstarter now live, I figured I needed to get caught up. 

So. I will review these, knowing I really can't go through them anymore. Sorry, Mad Master! I am reviewing these in "campaign order" and not in release order.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0: Village on the Borderlands

by Mark Taormino, 64 pages. For levels 1-3. Art by Justin Davis, Jacob Blackmon, Carlos Castilho, Daniel Commerci, Jeff Dee, Felipe Faria, Mark Lyons, William McAusland, Brian McCranie, Matt Morrow and JE Shields. (How's that for a who's-who among OSR artists?)

First Edition PDF (DriveThruRPG). First Edition PDF and Print Dark Wizard Games Store.

Fifth Edition PDF (DriveThruRPG). Fifth Edition PDF and Print Dark Wizard Games Store. 

The first edition has "blue" maps, and the fifth edition has full-color maps.

A lot of us freely mixed Basic D&D and Advanced D&D back in the early 80s. It was not uncommon then to find groups that had gone through B2 Keep on the Borderlands and T1 The Village of Hommlet. Mark knows this, and this adventure is a nod and homage to that experience.  This is also Mark's biggest adventure to date.

While this could have come off as pastiche or, even worse, a bunch of hamfisted clichés, instead it is a nod and even an homage to not just how much fun those old adventures were, but also to the experiences we all had. Don't get me wrong, there is a great a adventure here; but if you were playing the Keep or the Village or Giants series back in the early 1980s then this will hit differently. 

The is best described as "what if the Village of Hommlet was set outside the Cave of Chaos and not the Keep?"  You have a local village in need of help. There are roving bands of ogres and weird fungi and skeletons. Whats a local farmer to do? Easy, call upon some brave, and expendable, adventurers for help. 

There are some hooks for the adventure but for me they are unneeded. THOUGH I will add that the whole Valley of the Moon was a great hook for me. Not just because the name is similar enough to where my characters Maryah and Asabalom were from, but it is nothing if not a nod to one of my earliest crushes, Moon Unit Zappa. 

We have all sorts of classic monsters, rumor tables, nods to (in)famous NPCs, tarot readings, standing stones, name puns, an inn to meet in, places to buy equipment and weapons. 

The Inn of the Whistling Pig is wonderfully detailed and loaded with all sorts of characters. In fact, while reading, I half expected to see stand-ins for Duchess and Candella. 

I said, "Caves of Chaos," but there are only a few caves where a lot of the "out of town" action takes place, and that is plenty. The Hill Giant cave is the first. There is also the Forest of Fallen Oaks, the Ruins of Sternholm Keep, and the Caverns of the Wicked Peaks.

A great non-linear adventure where the party can start at the Inn and head out in any direction to find adventure. They can come back, heal up, spend their loot and go back out, OR keep going. That last one is not advisable as everything here has a good reason to see the PCs dead. 

There are hooks here to other Maximum Mayhem adventures, too.

The plot and organization of the first and fifth editions are the same. The Fifth edition version features color maps.  

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons Mini Adventure #1: Shadow of the Necromancer

by Mark Taormino, 16 pages. For levels 1-3. Art by Phred Rawles, Chet Minton, Adam Black, Brian Brinlee, Carlos Castilho, Bradley McDevitt, and Phred Rawles.

First Edition PDF (DriveThruRPG). First Edition PDF and Print Dark Wizard Games Store.

Fifth Edition PDF (DriveThruRPG). Fifth Edition PDF and Print Dark Wizard Games Store. 

The first edition has "blue" maps, and the fifth edition has full-color maps.

This is a mini adventure, and the first one Mark has done. Much like his Vampire Queen adventure I have used a figure called "The Necromancer" in my own games. Get out of my head Mark!!

These are designed to be played in one or two sessions. We managed to get through it in three short sessions. It has a great "Hammer Horror" vibe to it, and honestly, I rather love it.

The adventure comes with a map, in beautiful old-school blue for the 1st ed version and full color for the 5th edition version. The module is 16 pages (one page for title and credits, one page for OGL , and one-page blank).  The adventure is a simple "strange things are going on! The PCs must investigate!" situation. It turns into "stop the minion of the Necromancer from finishing his evil plans." It's tried and true, and it works fine here.  As with many of the Darl Wizard/Maximum Mayhem Dungeons, the adventure is a deadly affair. Not as deadly as the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen, but it is not a walk in the graveyard either. It is a fun romp and really captures the feel of old-school playing. Both versions are great, and I can keep the 1st-ed version for myself and give the 5th-ed version to my kids to run.

Exactly what you want in an adventure. Despite the size and scope Mark gives this one the same love and attention he does to all his larger adventures.

The plot and organization of the first and fifth editions are the same. The Fifth edition version features color maps.  

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #7: Dread Swamp of the Banshee

by Mark Taormino and Alan Chamberlain, 48 pages. For levels 4-8. Art by Jacob Blackmon, Brian Brinlee, Ed Lacabanne, Mark Lyons, Brian McCranie, Matthew Ray, and Phil Stone.

First Edition PDF (DriveThruRPG). First Edition PDF and Print Dark Wizard Games Store.

A noblewoman has returned to her family estate and finds it has been taken over by a swamp. Worse, there is an evil banshee stalking the lands. But what is the noblewoman hiding?

This adventure is for characters of 4th to 8th level. But I will say this. 4th and 5th level characters are going to die. This is not a meat-grinder like Hanging Coffins, but it is deadly. There is a mystery here too so, so it is not all fireballs and swordplay. But there is a lot of that too.

Like the adventures of old, there are also new monsters here. Mark always adds a little something like that. I also get the vibe that Mark and Alan were reading a lot of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. Not for the plot but just the feeling. It works here to be honest. 

In the series, I would run this one after Vault of the Dwarven King and have the characters between the 5th and 8th levels. Not that Vault is easier, just not as deadly as this one. 

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #6: Moving Maze of the Mad Master

by Alan Chamberlain, 40 pages. For levels 6-10. Art by Jacob Blackmon, Alan Chamberlain, Ed Lacabanne, Mark Lyons, Brian McCranie, and Phil Stone.

First Edition PDF (DriveThruRPG). First Edition PDF and Print Dark Wizard Games Store.

This one is by Alan Chamberlain, who was also on The Dread Swamp of the Banshee and Vault of the Dwarven King. So the feel is right. In fact, until Mark kickstarted his Maximum Mayhem #8: Funhouse Dungeon of the Puppet Jester, THIS was the funhouse dungeon. 

The premise is simple but very effective. A bunch of metal monsters are attacking small towns and villages, and the PCs decide to help. What we get is an honest-to-Gary, Mad Scientist building all sorts of clockwork and autonomous horrors. To get to him, you need to get through his maze of deadly traps and clockwork terrors. 

If the other adventure is a meat grinder, then this one is a food processor. It's brutal, but of course, the fun is just as great.

You could get this one for the circular maze map and all the stats of the clockwork creatures alone (6) for a total of 11 new monsters. 

It's insane, really.

I am not sure any character can survive this campaign.

Don't forget Mark has two more of these adventures on Kickstarter now: Legend of Seven Golden Demons & Slime Pits of Sewer Witch both for 1st Edition and 5th Edition rules.

Review: Curse of Strahd (D&D 5e)

Quick question. Who played Dracula?

Your answer might depend on a lot of thing from when you first saw Dracula in a movie to your age to what your cultural background is.  I also bet that the choice of actor might also say something about your gaming choices, but I am not getting into that today.
Like Dracula, who keeps coming back from the grave to scare or charm a new generation, Strahd the Vampire and his home in Ravenloft keep coming back for each version of the D&D game.

You can easily buy a Ravenloft product to fit any version of D&D you like.  There have been subtle changes with each round of designers and editors.  To extend the Dracula movie metaphor more, I6 Ravenloft is "Hammer Horror" (Christopher Lee).  2e Ravenloft Domains of Dread (boxed sets and books) were "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (Gary Oldman).  3rd Edition was split between Wizards own Expedition to Castle Ravenloft ("Dracula 2000," Gerard Butler) and the Ravenloft setting from White Wolf/Arthaus (Lestat movies).  4e's board game, Undead books and Shadowfell books were different enough that these are more like the NBC TV series Dracula (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).
This new book is "Dracula Untold" (Luke Evans).

I have converted Strahd to a couple of different systems myself.  I have been playing in Ravenloft, the castle and the land, since the original module came out in 1983.  I played it when it first came out and it is one of maybe three adventures I have run under every version of D&D I have ever played.  Ravenloft has history both in game and in the real world.  It was my world of choice in the AD&D 2e years and the effect it has had on adventure design can't be overstated.   To call it a sea change is not hyperbole.

So the new 5e Ravenloft has a lot to live up too.

I mentioned here back in the Summer that I was going to run the original I6 Ravenloft adventure for my family at Gen Con 2015.  I spent most of July prepping for that, working out Strahd's 5e stats, converting the major magic items, filling in some details.  None of it was hard work really. Again I *know* this adventure like few others.  The hardest part was balancing out what has become the de rigueur method of handling a D&D 5 encounter with the more plot-driven nature of the Ravenloft adventure.   Having this new Curse of Strahd book then would have helped me out a lot.

The new book is a retelling of the same I6 Ravenloft adventure from 1983. On the down side there is not much about the "Demi-Plane of Dread" as we knew it back in 2e.  This is more 4e Shadowfell.  Including it as part of the Shadowfell actually gives the DM more flexibility to be honest.   So that is good.  I did not notice much from the disappointing 3e Expedition to Castle Ravenloft here. So that is also a plus.

The book itself is hardcover, full color, 256 pages. Suitable for levels 1 to 10 for D&D 5.  The "Castle Ravenloft" adventure itself has been upgraded to level 9.

The first 90 pages or so are some introductions, some background and the updates Castle Ravenloft adventure.   There is an introduction and forward here too. The subtle snark directed at the likes of Twilight in Tracy Hickman's forward can't be missed.  There is a page on how to run a horror-themed game. It's nice, but nothing new and by no means complete.   If you really want to run a horror game find a copy of +Kenneth Hite's "Nightmares of Mine" or Spooky: The Definitive Guide To Horror Gaming.

The book is basically a sandbox, with Castle Ravenloft (the place and the adventure) in the "middle".  It is designed for adventurers from 1st to 10th level.  There are a few really interesting "side treks" including the low level "Death House", the medium level "Argynostholt" and the high level "The Amber Temple".  Death House is available for free from WotC.  So I would grab that first if you are on the fence about this.

Souls vs. Shells
One of the new "features" of this book is the idea that not everyone in Barovia has a soul.  Now if you were playing this as a horror game then this would be a truly frightening concept. The scenarios that are implicit in this are numerous.  Hapless villagers moving through their lives in drudgery, unfeeling save for a pervasive dread.  Or worse yet the same said villagers coming to the PCs begging them to find their lost souls.  Or PCs born in Barovia discovering they are among the "Soulless Shells".   Sadly though as a D&D game I see this only working as an excuse for PCs to murder bystanders.

There are some interesting character options, like the new Haunted One character background.  The iconic magic items like the Sunsword and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind are here too.  As well as the Tome of Strahd.   The Gothic Trinkets are a really nice touch to be honest.
There are some new monsters too.  The is a fantastic full color tear out map of Castle Ravenloft (roughly 32" by 24") on one side and Barovia on the next.

I think in the end I was hoping for more.  Maybe not so much as a repeat of the 2e Ravenloft Domains of Dread campaign world, but something...more.

There will be a Tarokka deck you can buy later.
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/tarokka-deck
I think I still have my 2e one around somewhere, but I prefer to use Tarot cards myself.

You can read the table of contents here.
http://tribality.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/01_CoS_TableofContents_4s09.pdf
I got excited when I saw that "Barovian Witch" listed under NPCs and had hoped to see an update to the 2nd Ed "Witches of Hala" but sadly this was not the case.  But it has given me some ideas.

Ok bottom line time.  Who should buy this and who should avoid it?

Buy this if...
You are a fan of Ravenloft and want to have a complete collection.
You are a fan D&D 5e and want to have a complete collection.
A fan of adventure design and want to see how a 1st ed to 5th ed conversion can be done.
If you are planning to ever run Ravenloft under 5e.
Like the idea of playing in the Barovian sandbox.  This is actually a big one to be honest.

Avoid if...
You are not planning on running the classic Ravenloft adventure.
You are not playing D&D 5e.
Want to do your own conversion of one of the many options out there for taking on Strahd in his castle.

There are no new classes or races.  Not even rules for playing a Vistani.
There are no new spells or rituals either.  This seems like a bigger miss to me.

In the end you have to decide for yourself.  I am certainly not someone that needs tips on playing horror game, nor am I going to run Ravenloft (the adventure) under 5e (already did it) and don't need help converting.  There isn't anything here I could not have done on my or haven;t already done on my own.  But I got it anyway.  Hopefully there will be a sequel for levels 11-20.

Just like Dracula, Strahd can (and will) come back.  There are even details in the book about how it happens.  So maybe a sequel is already in the works?

Now that would be fun!

Interview with Emmapanada of "All The Witches"

Something special today.  I had the chance to talk to Emma, aka Emmapanada, the lead designer of the RPG "All the Witches" that is Kickstarting today.  What is "All the Witches?"  Well, let us find out!

All the Witches

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allthewitches/all-the-witches?ref=theotherside

Tim Brannan/The Other Side: It is my pleasure today to be interviewing the team that is currently Kickstaring a new Witch-based RPG, “All The Witches.” Which you can find here, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allthewitches/all-the-witches

Today I am talking with Lead Designer Emma for today’s launch. 

Before we get into all the questions, please introduce yourself and tell us all what your role is on this team.

Emma: My name is Emma, also known as Emmapanada! I use they/she pronouns and I’m the Creator, Lead Developer, Lead Game Designer for All the Witches. I’ve been playing TTRPGs for a little over 10 years now, and I started creating systems in September of 2020. I’ve been working on All the Witches since about December 2021, and I’m incredibly excited to have it finally come to Kickstarter!

TB/TOS: What are some of your favorite games? Why?

Emma: Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition has a special place in my heart, because it was the first TTRPG I played long term. My friends and I would play every Saturday in College for 12-14 hours, and it was an absolute blast. Dnd 5e was starting to get playtested when we were playing, so we were way behind the times, but it was a ton of fun. Once I started playing more systems, I really fell in love with Kids on Bikes because sneaking around town hunting for ghosts and cryptids is really fun and stressful, and World of Darkness holds a special place in my heart because it was the first game I played with my partner. 

TB/TOS: That is great, I also rather enjoyed the World of Darkness, as well, and Kids on Bikes is great fun. Tell us a bit about this game and what backers should look forward to when they get it.

Emma:  Absolutely! All the Witches is an original Tabletop Roleplaying Game with some deck-building mechanics utilizing the standard array of dice except for the D100. In the system, you have 5 attributes that any skill checks made during gameplay will fall under. Those attributes are Power, Agility, Soul, Mind, and Endurance. When you try to make a check, your GM will tell you what attribute they think that check relates to, and then they'll tell you to roll a certain die. In this system, the die you roll determines the difficulty of the check, and you succeed on the check if you roll at or below the corresponding attribute's rank. So if your GM tells you to make a D10 Agility check, and your Agility is rank 4, then you succeed on rolling a 4 or below. As you play the game, your Attributes will rank up, and over time you'll automatically pass certain levels of difficulties for checks because you Attribute rank is higher than the value of the die. 

The deck building comes into play during encounters. Your deck is made up of number cards from either the Minor Arcana of a Tarot Deck, or from a deck of playing cards. At the start of the game, you'll have 5 cards in your deck that numerically equate to each of your Attributes' ranks. When you enter an encounter, you'll draw three cards from your deck and when it's your turn, you'll play a card from your hand. The card you play determines the number of Actions you get in that turn. If you play a 4 of Swords, then you have 4 actions that turn. You can use actions to cast spells, move, interact with objects, attack, or use abilities. As you play the game you'll add more numbered cards to your deck, some special face cards that give you special abilities on your turn, and as you reach certain parts of the game the suits of the cards you play will come into effect. 

Our goal as a team is not to create an entire world in All the Witches. Instead, our plan is to feature 3 regions of the world and flesh them each out with rich detail. Groups that play All the Witches can start off in one of these regions and have entire adventures there, they can go and travel to the other regions to explore, or they can collectively imagine what the rest of this world might look like and build things together to make their stories truly theirs. 

The three regions that All the Witches will feature are:

-Tane: A dense forest region that once thrived with life and beauty. Long ago, some adventurers slew a great spirit that resided in Tane, and its death sent the entire region into a spiral of corruption and Discordance. Not many live there now because the region is extremely toxic and dangerous, but those that do rely heavily on Witches to keep their towns free of corruption, poison, and dangerous creatures. Groups that start here will often find themselves fighting against the very nature around them in order to survive. 

-The Golden Islands: A large chain of islands that house two civilizations that couldn't be more opposite to one another. The United Islands of Sunder are a free people that use magic to sail the seas, explore the unknown, and keep the treasures they find. Darkhammer on the other hand is a society with strict rules that uses magic to strengthen and protect their ships and trading routes. These two come into conflict often, and groups that start here will find themselves fighting people from either civilization in order to survive. 

-Cyllynys: A verdant gem in the northern seas, Cyllynys is a small nation with a big impact on the world at large. Settled long ago by a diverse array of peoples, its earliest history is shrouded in myth and legend; ancient monuments of mysterious origin dot the landscape. The people of Cyllynys have, since their earliest days, put a tremendous value upon knowledge and wisdom, and this led to their development of steam technology. Now, that same technology threatens to take over the traditions and ancient monuments that once meant so much. Groups that start here will face a changing nation, and the tensions that arise because of that change.

We're committed to being a digital-only product with our Kickstarter launch for a number of reasons:

1. We're a small TTRPG project and printing generally takes up about a third of a project's entire budget. In a COVID world where a lot of groups are currently playing digitally, we think that money can be better spent on accessibility resources to help people learn and play our game. We're hoping to build a website to help people with character creation and upkeep, to incorporate links into our PDF that lead to short, professionally produced videos explaining certain portions of the rules for people that struggle learning systems just from reading text, and more.

2. Due to the world wide paper shortage the past few years, a number of TTRPG projects have been delayed, and we think that as a small project we should do what we can to encourage others to seek a paperless route. We hope to show the TTRPG industry what all can be done with your project when you aren't focused on physical prints of your books.

3. Because we're focusing on a digital product, we'll be able to include a lot more to enhance the player experience. With each purchase of All the Witches, we'll be including various music files, portraits for NPCs and Characters, digital maps, and more. 

Since this is a digital product where everyone will get all the resources that are made, there will only be a few pledge levels on the Kickstarter itself. The main pledge level will be $30, and that will get you the PDF as well as all other digital resources such as musical tracks, character and NPC portraits, maps, stream overlays, stream assets, emotes, and more. There will be a $50 pledge level that's for those that want to support the book a little more, and for those that pledge at that level there will be thank you pages dedicated to them at the back of the book with fun art. Then there will be a $200 pledge level that will get a personalized thank you at the back of the book, and a Character/NPC portrait will be made based on them. 

TB/TOS: What do you all feel makes All The Witches different from games currently on the market? What do you say makes it special? Or, bottom line, why should people want to buy this game?

Emma: On top of having a unique rule system that I think will surprise a lot of people, our commitment to being a wholly digital game gives us the opportunity to do a lot that other games aren’t doing. With the release of our game, we’re also sending backers tools to help enhance their online roleplaying experience including original orchestrations that tables can use in their games, NPC and Character tokens, emotes, stream overlays and assets, and professionally produced videos to help people learn our system who have a hard time learning just by reading. Additionally, since we’re digital, after release we can continue making new content for All the Witches and releasing it for free in content patches to the PDF. I like to think of All the Witches as a living TTRPG, because I have plans to keep updating it after release at no additional cost to those who have already purchased the book. 

TB/TOS: Tell me a bit more about the deck-building mechanic. This is a feature of a few games, but not really a lot.

Emma:  I talked a bit about the deck-building mechanics above, but it’s a really hard system to incorporate into a TTRPG without those mechanics becoming the sole-identity of the rules. I wanted to find a way to have deck building, but also have it be balanced with the rest of the system without stealing the spotlight from the other mechanics. It took me a long time to figure out, but I think I found a really great way to do it, and I’m excited for everyone to see the ways deck building influences the entire system and what it brings to it as a whole. 

TB/TOS: What sorts of games do you see others playing with these rules? In other words, what can players do in this game?

Emma: There are so many different kinds of games that people can play with All the Witches. Groups can use All the Witches to have a magical school simulator where you live as students, recruit new professors to your schools, meet new students, establish new traditions, and more. They can use the system to play an entire campaign centered around the magical sport that we’ve created called Ryndarost. They can follow a traditional story of adventure and fighting monsters that have been brought about due to the corruption in the world. They can even become heroes that ease the corruption in the world through a special mechanic called a Harmonization Ceremony! The goal is to build a system full enough that a group can take it and use it for any kind of story that they’d like to explore about Witches, and I think we’ve got a really amazing team in order to bring that vision together. 

TB/TOS: The art so far in All the Witches looks amazing. What is the diving vision here on the art and how does that influence the game design and vice-versa?

Emma:  That’s incredibly kind of you to say! I think art is one of the most important things for an indie TTRPG, and it absolutely helps bring life to the world. I’m not an artist, but working with artists causes me to think about how things look visually, because they ask me a lot of questions, and that causes me to have to make a lot of stylistic decisions about the system that have an impact on everything. Do Witches use a staff or a wand? What do they look like and what are they made of? Do Witches have to have them in order to cast magic? What benefits does using a staff or wand give to a Witch that they wouldn’t have normally? One simple question often branches off into so much more, which helps our team develop a fuller and more cohesive game. 

Because I’m not an artist, I’ve been working alone for a lot of this pre-Kickstarter process to pull together cool images to help give life to All the Witches. But hiring Nala Wu has been incredibly helpful, and they’re expertise has already proven invaluable. They’re going to start working fully on all the art for All the Witches after the Kickstarter, but they helped me put the cover and the landscape pieces together, and those pieces bring so much life and character to our game that I’m excited to see what we’re able to make together next once we have our funding. 

TB/TOS: Who would you say All the Witches is for?

Emma:  All the Witches is a game made for those who grew up escaping into worlds of fantasy and magic that have felt abandoned by those world’s creators. We are here to give you the tools and resources to explore a world full of magic and adventure with stories built by you and those you love. Escape into a new world of fantasy and magic built by a team of Queer and BIPOC writers and designers.

TB/TOS: What are your future plans for this game?

Emma:  If all goes according to plan and we successfully fund and are able to fully create and release All the Witches, the plan is that I’ll periodically keep updating the game with new content that will be released for free to everyone who owns a copy of the PDF while I continue working on my next two unannounced TTRPG projects. 

TB/TOS: And, for the benefit of my audience, well, and me (!), who are all of your favorite witches or magic-using characters?

Emma:  I grew up on Final Fantasy games and RPGs, so Vivi from Final Fantasy IX will always have a special place in my heart on top of Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins! 

TB: And finally, where can we find you all on the internet?

Emma:  You can find us on Twitter @allthewitches_ to keep updated on everything going on, and you can find my personal account @emmapanada! 

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All the Witches is Kickstarting right now! Check it out.