Character Creation Challenge: Celene Werper for Wasted Lands

 You have followed the exploits of the Werper family, so you might be asking who this is. Celene Werper was/is a very interesting character for me. During play, Johan III got trapped in Ravenloft. Celene was his little sister. She was adopted by the group to come along in their search for Johann III (they did not know he was in Ravenloft). Celene was my first AD&D 2nd Edition character. She was also a test character for a number of things I was trying out.  She was one of my tests for a Healer Class, this time as a Priest of specific mythoi. She was also a pacifist, so I also tried to have her do non-lethal damage whenever I could. She was a healer, an exorcist of sorts later on, and to top everything off, I made her afraid of the dark. So she always had a light source on her, and yes, my DM rolled for extra wandering monsters.  But it was part of who she was.

From very, very humble beginnings game-wise, she would become a very important character. So important that the line of the Wepers now goes through her and not her brother. 

Celene Werper

Class: Necromancer (Light)
Level: 10
Species: Human
Alignment: Light
Background: Scholar

Abilities
Strength: 16 (+1)
Agility: 12 (0) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 14 (+2) N
Wits: 16 (+2) N
Persona: 18 (+3) A

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 76 
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2
Melee Bonus: +2 (base) +1
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Saves: +5 to Persona, +2 to Intelligence (Scholar background).

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from Dead x4, Summon the Dead, Vampiric Augmentation*, Suggestion x3, Command, Vampiric Touch*, Beguile Spirit, Call the Reaper.

Heroic Touchstones

1st Level: Cure Light Wounds
2nd Level: Light
3rd Level: Eternal Flame
4th Level: Conjure Flame 
5th Level: Cure Disease

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Occult Scholar, Hunter of the Undead

Gear
Full plate armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as AD&D 2nd Ed

AD&D Second Edition introduced some power creep in terms of some of the classes and kits. For that reason I am adding more DivineHeroic Touchstones. Also, I wanted to replicate her healer abilities a bit more. This also begs the question, Why isn't she a Theosophist?  In truth I wanted to try her out as a Light Necromancer. Some one who naturally sees dead people and spirits and wants to help move them on. Her "vampiric" powers work in reverse; she saps her own life strength to heal others. Much like the Star Trek Original Series episode, The Empath.

In AD&D, we did this with our Spell Points system. But in truth it was way overpowered. I would not come up with a good "spell point" system until Ghosts of Albion came along. Wasted Lands already does a much better job of this, but these powers give her a neat set of role-playing hooks as well. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Character Creation Challenge: Johan Werper IV for Wasted Lands

 When D&D 3.0 hit the game stores in 2000, I was ready for it. I had been away from D&D for a number of years and was really wanting to get back into it. So, D&D 3.0 was the right game for me at the right time. In truth, there is a lot I still love about D&D 3.x, and there were some significant advances made in terms of game design and lore. So, of course, I had to make a new Johan and try out the new Paladin class.

Johan IV is the son of Celene, not Johan III, for a lot of in-game reasons that don't really matter here now. At this point, Celene is much older and retired. Johan IV has begun a quest to recover the sword Demonbane. He didn't find it, but that is another tale for another character.

For this version of Johan, I am opting to try out the Divine Warrior from the Night Companion for NIGHT SHIFT.  Thematically the Divine Warrior doesn't work with the Wasted Lands, everyone has a bit of the divine in them. But mechanically, it works great. Plus this isn't a pure Wasted Lands game, this is "O.G.R.E.S. D&D using the Wasted Lands rules."  

This version of Johan works quite well and helps differentiate him from his forefathers. In my games at this point I was playing around with the ideas of characters marked by the gods. Forgotten Realms has their "Chosen" and I had been working a lot on the Buffy RPG at this point (more on that later) so I liked the idea. Johan IV is not the chosen one (and thus I did not use that class) but he is special. In my Game he was called "The Fist of Pelor" a title for various paladins. My son had a character in 5e who is the "Fist of Bahamut." In this case the Divine Warrior class fits well.

Johan Werper IV

Class: Divine Warrior
Level: 20
Species: Human
Alignment: Light 
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N
Agility: 12 (0) 
Toughness: 12 (0) 
Intelligence: 12 (0) 
Wits: 19 (+3) A
Persona: 18 (+3) N

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 110 
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +8/+6/+4
Melee Bonus: +7 (base), +3 (STR), +1 Divine Touchstones
Ranged Bonus: +7 (base)
Saves: +7 to all Wits and Persona Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Divine Warrior Abilities
Sixth Sense, Heal Injury and Illness (20d6), Supernatural Attacks, Protection from Evil, Turn Undead (level 15), Spot Hidden (1-3 on d4).

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks
2nd Level: Cure Light Wounds Spell
3rd Level: Zone of Protection vs Evil
4th Level: Favored Weapon, Sword
5th Level: 
6th Level: Zone of Protection vs. Undead
7th Level: 
8th Level: Paralyze Undead
9th Level: Restore Life
10th Level: Extra Attack
11th Level: Destroy Undead
12th Level:
13th Level: 
14th Level: Spell: Ball of Sunshine

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Protection

Gear
Longsword, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as D&D 3rd Ed

D&D 3.0 introduced a new skill system and the idea of feats to the game. Wasted Lands has skill, but takes an old-school approach to using them. Feats though have a good roleplaying (but not mechanical) analog in the Heroic Touchstones.  The Divine/Heroic Touchstones, though do tend to be more powerful than feats.

Speaking of which. The "Divine Touchstones" of Wasted Lands are being used in NIGHT SHIFT and the upcoming Thirteen Parsecs as "Heroic Touchstones." If I can, I might share some of those ideas here later on.

Unless crunching numbers for skills is your thing, I found that Wasted Lands/O.G.R.E.S. is a superior D&D feel than D&D 3.x. Character creation for a 20th-level paladin is also far simpler. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Character Creation Challenge: Johan Werper III for Wasted Lands

 Moving ahead to the magical year of 1986 a few things were going on in my games. For starters, I was fully converted over to AD&D 1st ed. I was playing rather regularly with my High School DM, Michael Grenda, and we were looking to merge our worlds to be something more cohesive. To this end we thought we needed a "New Generation" of characters. This was the generation into which Larina was born, but today is not her story. 

Today I am going to talk about Johan Werper III. This Johan was the son of Johan II and grandson of Johan I. But this Johan was not a Cleric or a Paladin. He was one of the new Cavaliers from the new Unearthed Arcana. 

I wanted this Johan to be a bit different, he was the son of a King, not something I had done before. Johan II was the son of a cleric, and Johan I was the son of a fisherman. So I wanted him to be a bit arrogant, and he didn't have the frame of mind to be a holy warrior. He eventually became something else, a key figure in my giant "War of the Dragons" to end my high school games, and start my college ones.

For this build I want to stick to a rather solid Warrior build. That was his thing. He was a "Knight in Shinning Armor" but not necessarily "nice." His alignment was Lawful Neutral as opposed to the more common (for me) Lawful Good.

Johan Werper III

Class: Warrior
Level: 9
Species: Human
Alignment: Light (fits here)
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

Abilities
Strength: 19 (+3) A
Agility: 16 (0) 
Toughness: 18 (+3) N
Intelligence: 17 (+2) 
Wits: 16 (+2) 
Persona: 17 (+2) N

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 87 (9d8+1d10)
Degeneracy: 1
Corruption: 1

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +7 (base) +1 Divine Touchstones
Ranged Bonus: +7 (base)
Saves: +3 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background), +1 Divine Touchstones

Warrior Abilities
Combat Expertise, Improved Defence, Melee Combat, Master of Battle, Ranged Combat, Supernatural Attacks, Spell Resistance, Tracking, Masters of Weapons, Extra Attacks (3), Extra Damage

Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks
3rd Level: +1 to saves 
5th Level: Smite
7th Level: Favored Enemy Undead
9th Level: Blind Fighting

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: War

Gear
Longsword, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as AD&D 1st Ed

Like previously, the conversion between AD&D and Wasted Lands is rather easy thanks to O.G.R.E.S. (and to a degree O.R.C.S.). While the Wasted Lands Warrior covers a lot of what would have been AD&D Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, Barbarians, and Cavaliers. To split them up there are skills, powers, multiclassing and divine touchstones. All to make for some very unique characters.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Class Struggles: The Cleric

Coming back to my Class Struggles series I wanted to look into the class that really got me thinking about this series to start with.  The Cleric.

There has been a lot of talk of clerics and their value in a D&D game.  This ranges from the old school of whether or not the Cleric is an appropriate trope for a fantasy game to the new school of whether a cleric is needed in a game that also has healing from long rests.

I am firmly in the camp of Clerics are as much a part of D&D as Fighters, Wizards and Thieves.

My first character ever was Father Johan Werper, Cleric of the God of the Sun, Hunter of the Undead. He was a bit of a generic cleric to be honest, and I choose the sun god because I thought that as a quasi-medieval priest  the sun would be a major feature of all the is holy, bright and good.  Plus I had been reading a bunch of Greek Myths and I thought Apollo would make for a good god.  But the real reason I choose the cleric; Turning Undead.  That was an AWESOME power in my pre-teen mind.   So that has colored my views of the cleric ever since.
(Father Werper, now St. Werper, lives on as an official Saint in COA04: Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall.)

In real life I am an atheist, but I like the play the religious character.  So clerics, witches, druids, all fascinate me.  But clerics are where it all started.

Clerics as Occult Researchers

In nearly every other game I have ever played there have been occult researchers.  There is usually someone that is the party's muscle, the magic-guy, the sneaky guy and the smart guy.  Sometime the magic guy and smart guy are the same, sometimes though they are not.  The Cleric takes on the roll of the Smart Guy or the Occult Researcher.  The books, the ill-fitting glasses, and the wisdom to know what to do is the role of the cleric.

It is fairly well known that the idea behind clerical undead turning  came from Peter Cushing's Van Helsing characters in the various Hammer Dracula films.  Why not extend the metaphor to include the rest of Van Helsing's portfolio.  As a class that puts a high value on Wisdom then the cleric should be a font of knowledge. Sure, this can also be done by the Magic-User / Wiazard,  but the cleric's input should not be understated.  Van Helsing is described as a meta-physian or what we might call a poly-math, or man of letters.  Wizards, even with schools, don't have the same "Academic" credibility as a cleric can have.  Sure the shaman could be considered a cleric in some games, and his schooling could entirely be natural or at least un-scholastic in nature.

In D&D 3, 4 and 5 knowledge of the undead fall within the Knowledge (Religion) or just Religion category.   These characters tend to have more training in this area than other characters.  While wizards are typically the font of magical knowledge, clerics should be the source of knowledge beyond the ken of mortal man and into the realm of the gods and other forms of the supernatural.

Clerics as the Party Leader
The cleric also can serve the role as the leader. While the cleric can run the gamut of influential high priest to crazy street prophet to diabolic cult leader, players typically take on the role of the cleric of the local church, usually good.  Certainly that is what D&D wants you to do and that is fine.  This type of cleric also works as the default leader, whether he/she is or not. So if this is the hand you are dealt, then play it because clerics make great leaders. Under most circumstances they access to power, money, a hierarchy and can expect a modicum of respect from the locals.  All this adds up to an instant authority figure.  Even if they are not.
While this role was stress fairly heavy in D&D4, all other versions of the game also give it tacit, implicit and even explicit lip service.  In D&D5 the divine domains of Knowledge and War make for pretty good leader types. Their better saves in Wisdom and Charisma make them less likely to charmed or otherwise controlled magically, so this can be role-played as a stronger than average mental fortitude.  Which fits the cleric well.

Cleric as the Party Medic

The obvious role.  Clerics have healing magic in earlier editions of the game, have spontaneous healing spells in the 3.x era and can activate healing surges in 4th. The clerics of 5th edition seem to take them back more to their roots in terms of healing.  The role of the cleric cannot be overstated.  Parties without a cleric die.
During my run between 1st and 2nd Ed I created a Healer class.  It shared a number of features that my Witch class did including the ability to heal by touch as she went up in level.  Completely unneeded in 3.x of course, but in 2nd Ed it was quite a game changer.  I also made an NPC healer a pacifist.  She would never raise a weapon to any creature unless of course it was undead and then she went all Peter Cushing on them.  But running that class and character (she was the only character I ever made for that class) showed me how important the healing aspect was.  There was not just the regaining hit points, there was the player morale.  Also, since the character was an NPC it was easy not to have her fight, but the Players really did everything they could to protect her.

BTW. Her name was Celene Weper and she was the grand-daughter of Father Werper above.  Yes clerics in my world get married and have kids, since it is a life-affirming thing.
Plus keep in mind that Clerics as Healers have a long tradition even in our own world.  If ever a character decided to become a pure healing cleric and take an oath of non-violence then I would give them XP for every hitpoint cured and a share of combat XP.  I would also give them 2x the starting funds (even though they would give what they don't spend back to the church) to represent the investment their churches/hospitals have made in them.  After all, can't send a healer out into the world with shoddy armor. Reflects bad on their organization.

Clerics as Combatants?
It almost seems counter to the above, but clerics are the second best major class when it comes to fighting.  Only fighters (and their related classes) are better.  The get good saves vs. magic due to their high wisdom, or Will saves for the same reason and their saves are pretty decent to start with.   Plus they have one thing fighters don't have, the  ability to use magic.  "So what" you say, "so can Wizards and even your favorite witch."  Yes, but can they do it in field plate armor?  Clerics can.  Sure they do not get the combat spells the wizard gets, but they have a few good ones too.  Creeping Doom is a nasty little spell for Druids.  Finger of Death and reversed Heal spells can also ruin someone's day.

In games without Paladins, Clerics are the "righteous fist of (their) god".  Wizards don't smite.
Clerics can also be one of the few character types that can actually kill monsters with-out the moral hangups.  Even fighters, who get paid, and thieves, that might be working as assassins, don't get the same kind of "get out of jail free card" as do clerics operating within the doctrines of their faith and church.  Think back to the Crusades and the Inquisition, the faithful got away with murder, torture and even more horrible crimes in the name of their God and the law had little to say about it or were in collusion with them.

Clerics might then be one of the more well rounded characters in the group.

Character Creation Challenge: Johan Werper II for Wasted Lands

 While I had other Basic (B/X) era D&D characters I could discuss (and still will), I want to skip ahead a bit and talk about another character in Johan's family tree, his son, Johan Weper II.

Johan II was the son of Johan and another character of mine Luna Mondgott, a cleric "of the old ways" who converted over to still rather unspecified faith of Johan I. She was a prototype witch for me.

Johan II differs from Johan I in that he was a Paladin and my very first Paladin to be truthful. I always imagined he had some clerical training first before moving on to Paladin, thus the dual-classed Cleric/Paladin.  I would revisit this later on in D&D 3.x.

While I have a LOT of options here, I am going for something fairly straightforward. Johan II is a warrior with some clerical, or in this case, Theosophist training. I'll use some divine touchstones to help smooth out his paladin powers.  Since this is the first "Advanced" conversion, I'll also make use of the optional backgrounds in the Wasted Lands.

Johan Werper II

Class: Warrior (from Wasted Lands) / Theosophist (from NIGHT SHIFT)
Level: 8/4
Species: Human
Alignment: Light
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

Abilities
Strength: 19 (+3) A
Agility: 11 (0) 
Toughness: 17 (+2) 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wits: 18 (+3) N
Persona: 18 (+3) N

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 66 (8d8, 4d6, +1d10)
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +6/+4/+2
Melee Bonus: +3 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +3 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background).

Theosophist Abilities
See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from Dead

Warrior Abilities
Combat Expertise, Improved Defence, Melee Combat, Master of Battle, Ranged Combat, Supernatural Attacks, Spell Resistance, Tracking, Masters of Weapons, Extra Attacks (3), Extra Damage

Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Bless, Cure Light Wounds
3rd Level: Cure Disease

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Occult Scholar, Hunter of the Undead

Gear
Longsword, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as AD&D 1st Ed

Like previously, the conversion between AD&D and Wasted Lands is rather easy thankks to O.G.R.E.S. (and to a degree O.R.C.S.). Play style is also quite similar. Given when I was playing Johan (High School) my Roman-Norse Pantheon would be a perfect choice with the Werpers all paying homage to Unser Vater and Luna Werper originally worshiping Ôstara. 

This Johan was the one who first fought Strahd von Zarovich back in 1986. So I would want to play up his general attitude vs. Undead over what is written for the Warrior class. The rest of playing a Paladin is largely going to be one of role-playing and me sticking to a prescribed set of ideals I think a Paladin, an AD&D Paladin, should follow. 

Looking at the Goldenrod character sheet, I see Johan will be 40 years old at the end of this month. He was, for the longest time, my central character. At the end of my high school games, he became a King and started a dynasty that I still use to this very day. I think I could be quite happy with this version.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Fantasy Fridays: Tales of the Valiant

 A newer entry today and a potential good replacement for D&D 5e on your table. But is it just a new coat of paint on a familiar rule-set?

Tales of the Valiant

Tales of the Valiant began as the Black Flag system/project from Kobold Press, already a big name in 5e-compatible products. The genesis was, of course, the massive OGL fallout from January 2023. Kobold, among so many of us, saw a threat to our product lines and opted to "pull a Pathfinder" and release their own rules only this time under their own license. They can sell core rule books (which is always a good source of money) and still create their own supporting products (their bread and butter as it were) and have them support both game lines.  It is a good idea.

They have published the "common core" of three books:

• Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide
• Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault
• Tales of the Valiant Game Master's Guide

The books are attractive and is well laid out. There is a lot great art. But the question is, do they provide me anything above and beyond D&D 5 (2014)? Well, all three books are 1,081 pages, so it is hard to dig through all of this to find specific differences. It looks like 5e and plays like 5e. I guess that is what is important, really. Now, the classes do have additions; each class features a subclass taken from the SRD and often an additional new one. There is the new Mechanist class, which is similar in concept to the Artificer class. So, for current 5e (again, 2014) players, there is something new. 

The truth is there are a lot of new things, but you need to dig for them. There is the "Beastkin" Lineage for example that looks like fun. As do the new "Sydereans" which combine Aasimar and Tieflings and "Small Folk" which combine halflings and gnomes. Ok, I am cool with that. Orcs and Kobolds (natch) are core lineages. I think every clone or RPG should have at least one unique core lineages. Yes, this book uses "lineage" and not race. I like this better. Heritages are how your character was raised. More or less. 

There does seem to be some more monsters, but the monster book is populated by "the Usual Suspects."

Again. It is hard to fault Kobold on this. These books have two purposes, and both require it to cleave close to 5e (2014). First it *is* a D&D 5e replacement. I have not tried, but you could in theory use this books with minor tweaks in a 5e game. I call this the Pathfinder solution. The other purpose is to provide Kobold (and third parties) a means to write "5e" compatible material but not require people use, or even buy, 5e core books from Wizards. I call this the OSRIC solution. 

I suspect the real value of these books and this game will come from future products. For example, the upcoming, just Kickstarted, Monster Vault 2, will be the true test of this system. Yes, they state outright this is for TotV and 5e, but I think this will be the case that makes or breaks this game. So far things are looking rather promising for Tales of the Valiant. 

Honestly, this book looks really good, and if I picked up the physical edition, I would be tempted to get the Core Three because of how good they all look together. But I don't play 5e all that much anymore.

Who Should Play This Game?

Honestly, this game will not replace 5e (2014) on anyone's table. It might supplement it, but it won't replace it. It could, however, replace 5.5e (2024).  My oldest and I have been talking about the various issues with 5.5, and he is sticking with 5.0 for now. But if you are one of those people who have felt especially burned by WotC's actions over the last 2.5 years, then maybe this is the game for you.

Johan Werper for Tales of the Valiant

I don't know. Something about this game makes me want to play a knight in shinning armor and perform actions of Epic Good. Not that I wouldn't play Larina in it, but the classes are not a perfect fit. The closest thing is not the Warlock, but rather the Leaf Druid. Now, the Chaos Sorcerer is interesting as well. Maybe I could try it for Sinéad.

I want to try out Johan, or at least some sort of version of him, because the Paladin in 5.5 seems so nerfed. I have been wanting to compare the various paladins just to see if this is true. 

This will be Johan VII, the son of Johan VI and Lana (my wife's character) for 5e. He has a twin sister, not uncommon for the Werpers. She will be a 5.5 character so I can compare properly. Their background is they were exposed to cosmic forces before birth, so they have something a little "extra."  In Johan VII this means his "Anointed" Heritage.

Johan Werper VII
Human (Anointed) Paladin (Devotion) 3rd level

Strength: +2
Dexterity: +1
Constitution: -1
Intelligence: +0
Wisdom: +2 (saves +4)
Charisma: +3 (saves +5)

Proficiency Bonus: +2
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30ft

AC: 17 (chain mail and shield)

Weapons
Longsword +4 1d8/1d10 (versatile)
Crossbow, Hand +2 1d6 30/120 

Passive Insight: 14
Passive Investigation: 12
Passive Perception: 12

Skills
History, Insight, Relgion

Proficiencies, Languages, & Talents
Advantage on Death Saves, Thaumaturgy Cantrip
Languages: Common, Elven, Draconic, Giant
Navigator's Tools
Talent: Combat Conditioning +2 to hp each level
All armor and shields, simple and martial weapons

Class Features & Traits
Divine Sense
Lay on Hands
Divine Smite
Martial Action - Guard
Spellcasting (Divine)
Sacred Weapon
Sanctifying Light

Spells
Cantrips: Thaumaturgy
First Level: Bless, Cure Wounds, Sanctuary

I like this version. 

Given his family history, his twin sister would be named Celeste or Celine. She will be stated up with D&D 5.5 as a Celestial Warlock, or whatever the warlock is called in that. 

The Player's Book includes Greek, Egyptian, and Norse gods as examples. I am half tempted to continue using my "Black Forest" mythos, maybe making them avatars of Jäger and Jägerin. They would not be real avatars, but that is how they would be perceived. 

I like this idea since my wife based her character Lana on Lagertha from Vikings. It also explains why Johan VII can also speak Giant. 

He compares well to his dad. So that is cool, with enough differences to feel like a new character.

I think I am going to need a bigger binder for Johan.

Fantasy Fridays: King Arthur Pendragon

When it comes to legendary role-playing games, few carry the mythic weight of King Arthur Pendragon. Originally created by Greg Stafford in 1985 and in 2016 published in its 5.2 edition. Chaosium owns it again and there is a new (2024) edition out.  I have not picked that one up, so I am sticking with 5.2 for now. Pendragon has always stood apart from its fantasy cousins. Where Dungeons & Dragons gave us dungeons, monsters, and treasure, Pendragon asks us to sit at the Round Table, wrestle with honor and passion, and live out the great romances and tragedies of Arthurian legend. Still, it is an epic RPG and one worth looking into.

King Arthur Pendragon (5.2)

2016. Greg Stafford.

Greg Stafford often called Pendragon his “masterpiece,” and for good reason. He poured decades of study into Arthurian myth, Malory, Chretien, the Welsh triads and built a system designed not just to simulate combat but to embody the ideals and contradictions of chivalry. Over the years, the rules have been polished but never really overhauled. The 5.2 edition (2016) is a refinement of the earlier 5th, cleaning up layout, clarifying rules, and giving new players the most accessible entry point into the game’s deep traditions. I picked up my old 2nd Edition version and it is remarkable how compatible they are with each other. 

The system is similar to Chaosium's Basic Role-playing system. So it has always been sorta-kinda compatible with Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, though the years and system assumptions have pushed them all away from the BRP standard. You won't be seeing Yog-Sothoth showing up in Wales anytime soon with this game. No Pendragon is for people who want to play an Arthurian game and respect the scholarship that went into this game. That is not to say there isn't magic in this game; Morgan le Fey is here after all as is Merlin, but it is not a central theme. 

The game itself is a fantasy realized epic Britain of the 5th and 6th centuries, with the style of the High Medieval Periods of the 10th to 15th centuries. You can play it as a strict Dark Ages game or a high-fantastical one, as seen in the popular King Arthur culture. You can do "Excalibur" or even the TV show "Merlin."

I am using the 5.2 version of the rules, which if you asked me, I could not tell you the difference between it and the 5.1 version save for new color art in 5.2, some reorganization, and different cover art. While I think the 5.1 art is more evocative of the game, I can't deny that the 5.2 version is extremely attractive. I have not updated to the full 2024 edition at all, but it looks attractive as well. I do have the Starter Set in PDF, though. Maybe I'll pick it up someday.

Character Creation

Instead of rolling up wandering adventurers, you take up the mantle of knights (and occasionally others) tied to lineage, land, and loyalty. The core stats are familiar, Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Size, but where Pendragon shines are the Traits and Passions. Traits are moral-ethical pairs (Chaste/Lustful, Merciful/Cruel, etc.) that don’t just describe your knight, they drive play. Roll Merciful in the wrong moment, and your knight may act against your intentions, because that’s what stories do. Passions, like Loyalty (Lord) or Love (Family), give bonuses when invoked, but can also shatter a knight’s will if betrayed.

Character creation is as much about heritage as numbers. You’re asked: Who was your father? What did he earn? What land do you hold? Your knight isn’t a blank slate, but part of a saga. And unlike most RPGs, Pendragon expects you to play not just one knight, but their descendants across generations, carrying your family name into the twilight of Camelot. Something that obviously appeals to me.

It is assumed that players will be creating characters together to form some sort of cohesive narrative. There is a lot of freedom here and role-playing is stressed over "roll-playing."

The chapter assumes you are going to be a starting Knight, well, Squire. I am taking a different approach for my characters. 

Chapter Three: Family and Fatherland is notable since it details the experiences of your father and grandfather. If you are so inclined, it can be adapted to any Feudal Fantasy RPG. Just change the years to whatever makes sense in your game. 

The Pendragon Campaign

No review of Pendragon is complete without mentioning The Pendragon Campaign. First published in 1985, and then later as The Great Pendragon Campaign in 2006, this massive tome lays out a year-by-year chronicle of Arthur’s Britain, from the final days of Uther through the rise, glory, and eventual fall of Camelot. That’s over 80 years of history, adventures, and story hooks, meticulously tied to the mechanics of the game.

The brilliance of the Pendragon Campaign isn’t just its scope, but its structure. Each year has events, rumors, and opportunities for your knights (or their descendants) to shape the story. Early sessions might be about Saxon raids and border skirmishes, while later ones touch on the Grail Quest, courtly romance, and the heartbreaking dissolution of the Round Table. Players get to live through the entire legend, sometimes gloriously, sometimes tragically, but always with a sense of being part of something larger than their character sheet.

For Pendragon, the Pendragon Campaign is more than a campaign guide or adventure path, it’s the framework that shows the system’s true purpose. This isn’t a game about “beating the dungeon” or “killing the dragon.” It’s about legacy, dynasties, and the arc of myth. And its influence has quietly rippled into other games. Long campaigns like The Enemy Within for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1986) or Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu (1984) were the rage at this time and the Pendragon Campaign shines even among these other memorable campaigns.  Even modern campaign design in games like Pathfinder’s Adventure Paths or D&D’s hardcover campaigns can be seen as walking in the shadow of what Pendragon pioneered.

For me, the Pendragon Campaign is a reminder of what tabletop RPGs can do at their very best: give us not just a night of fun, but a saga, a shared legend that lingers long after the dice are put away.

Johan Werper and Larina Nix for Pendragon

The best way to explore a game is through the characters. Thankfully, I have two that are ready to go! Typically, Johan and Larina were never in the same games. I'd play one or the other. I mixed this up a bit with Pathfinder and had them known to each other. I figured it was an alternate universe.  

I am going to do the same here, but with the intrigue of courtly politics I might consider them as clandestine lovers. Honestly I am basing it on Liam Neeson's and Helen Mirren's roles in Excalibur. 

How does a Roman Catholic Knight from the Continent meet up with a Pagan Welsh girl? Easy, I'll just adapt their meeting in Pathfinder where Larina found the wounded Johan and healed him. He feels indebted to her, he gives her access to a world she would not have normally been allowed in. Everyone thinks she has bewitched him. 

Johan Werper

I can't pick up a game like this and NOT wonder how my Knight-in-Shining-Armor Johan would work out. I had decided way back in High School that if Johan had a culture from Medieval Europe, it would be French, but living in England. Pendragon makes this easy for me since the language of the High Court would be French. I will say that he is from Brittany and traces his lineage back to Saxon invaders. 

Johan Werper II

Age: 22
Son Number: 1
Homeland: Brittany
Religion: Roman Catholic
Lord: Johan I

SIZ: 11
DEX: 14
STR: 16
CON: 11
APP: 12

Damage: 4d6
Healing Rate: 2.7
Movement: 3
Total Hit Points: 27
Unconscious: 7

Personality Traits
Chivalry Bonus: 0
Religious Bonus: 0

Chase/Lustful: 13/7
Energetic/Lazy: 12/8
Forgiving/Vengeful: 13/7
Generous/Selfish: 10/10
Honest/Deceitful: 12/8
Just/Arbitrary: 11/9
Merciful/Cruel: 13/7
Modest/Proud: 13/7
Prudent/Reckless: 10/10
Spiritual/Worldly: 10/10
Temperate/Indulgent: 13/7
Trusting/Suspicious: 10/10
Valorous/Cowardly: 15/5

Passions
Loyalty (Lord): 16
Love (Family): 17
Hospitality: 15
Honor: 15
Hate (Saxons): 10

Skills
Awareness: 5
Boating: 1
Compose: 1 
Courtesy: 4 
Dancing: 2
Faerie Lore: 1
Falconry: 3
First Aid: 10
Flirting: 3
Folklore: 3
Gaming: 3
Heraldry: 4
Hunting: 10
Intrigue: 3
Orate: 3
Play (Lute): 3
Read (Latin): 10
Recognize: 3
Religion (Roman Catholic): 10
Romance: 3
Singing: 2
Stewardship: 2
Swimming: 2
Tourney: 2

Combat Skills
Battle: 10
Horsemanship: 10

Sword: 17
Lance: 10
Spear: 6
Dagger: 5
Bow: 5

Distinctive Features
Long Blonde Hair

Glory: 1,500

Chainmail and shield
Silver arm band

Johan is a good fit for this game. I would do him as an alternate reality version and really dig deep into family events to help define who he is in this game. It would really be a lot of fun to be honest. I could even explore the family's past as part of Pagan Europe. That would have been 350+ years before this game though. Still something to think about.

Larina Nix

Of course, I had to try translating Larina into this framework. She doesn’t sit easily in Arthur’s world, but that’s half the fun. Larina as a mystical advisor? A Welsh witch standing at the edge of history? She’d never pass as a proper knight, but as an enchantress, wise woman, or secret Pagan counselor to Arthur’s court, she fits perfectly into the tension between the Christian and Pagan worlds that Pendragon thrives on. Plus, it is a theme I love to come back to time and time again: Pagans vs the rising tide of Christian conquest.

When working on Larina one of the first things I run into is how women characters are treated differently than men. Now is 100% it is emulating Arthurian legends and tales, so just like Call of Cthulhu has a Sanity system, this has different rules more men and women characters. Grated you can grab something like Pagan Shore for older versions to even things out, but I want to try this with the version in front of me. Now there is nothing in the rules saying I can't female knight, and there are examples given, but they are exceptional examples. Fine, Larina is a Pagan anyway and wouldn't be a knight. There is a "witch" detailed (such as it is) on page 179. "Witch" is only mentioned four times in the whole book. I mean I know I can grab something from say Basic Roleplaying or Advanced Sorcery, but that is not the point of Pendragon is it? Plus there is no POW score for these characters. 

Larina ferch Lars

Age: 19
Daughter Number: 1
Father: Lars Nicholson 
Homeland: Cymru
Religion: Pagan
Lord: Johan I

SIZ: 9
DEX: 10
STR: 10
CON: 16
APP: 18

Damage: 3d6
Healing Rate: 2.5
Movement: 2.5
Total Hit Points: 19
Unconscious: 4

Personality Traits
Chivalry Bonus: 0
Religious Bonus: 0

Chase/Lustful: 5/15
Energetic/Lazy: 13/7
Forgiving/Vengeful: 10/10
Generous/Selfish: 13/10
Honest/Deceitful: 13/7
Just/Arbitrary: 10/10
Merciful/Cruel: 10/10
Modest/Proud: 7/13
Prudent/Reckless: 10/10
Spiritual/Worldly: 12/8
Temperate/Indulgent: 10/10
Trusting/Suspicious: 10/10
Valorous/Cowardly: 10/10

Passions
Loyalty (Lord): 15
Love (Family): 16
Hospitality: 15
Honor: 15
Loyalty (Old Faith): 13

Skills
Awareness: 3
Chirurgery: 10
Compose: 1 
Courtesy: 5 
Dancing: 3
Faerie Lore: 10
Falconry: 2
Fashion: 2
First Aid: 15
Flirting: 11
Folklore: 4
Gaming: 3
Heraldry: 1
Industry: 5
Intrigue: 2
Orate: 3
Play (Flute): 3
Read (Ogham): 10
Recognize: 2
Religion (Pagan): 10
Romance: 2
Singing: 3
Stewardship: 5
Swimming: 1
Tourney: 1

Combat Skills
Battle: 1
Horsemanship: 3

Dagger: 5
Staff: 5

Woman's Gift
Natural Healer

Enchantments
Enchantment
Magical Healing
Glamour

Distinctive Features
Long red hair
Bright, piercing blue eyes
Larger than average nose

Glory: 1,140

There is no INT or POW stat in this flavor of BRP. So there are not really any rules to cover her proficiency with languages. Plus as Welsh pagan girl she would not really have much of chance to learn languages save via exposure. But I did roll Natural Healer for her gift, so that is her "in" to the courts, or at least how she gets noticed.

For magic, the rules are thin. I mean, with a game that has Merlin as a character an appendix on magic would be nice. I gave her "subtle" magic. So, an enchantment here, magical healing, and glamour. All things that can be explained away with deft skill. She has a knack for healing, so she augments it every now and then with some pagan magic, OR is it just her knowledge of herbs and plants? Hard to say. Likely to get her burned at the stake if it were about 1000 years later. 

I love the idea that these versions of Johan and Larina are clandestine lovers. It would add the proper tragedy to the narrative and game. Plus, it is that nice push and pull between the Pagans and Christians I love to explore.

Why Play This Instead of D&D 5e?

D&D 5e is about heroes exploring dungeons, defeating monsters, and gaining power. Pendragon is about knights struggling with ideals, navigating dynastic politics, and finding their place in the grand sweep of legend. It’s a game of story rather than loot.

• If you want to explore chivalry, honor, and tragedy rather than XP and levels, this is your game.
  
  
• If you’re drawn to the romantic, mythic sweep of Arthurian legend, no other RPG captures it as faithfully.
  
  
• If you want to play not just a character, but a family across generations, Pendragon offers something unique.

In short: D&D tells us what it’s like to be an adventurer. Pendragon tells us what it’s like to live and die as part of the great legend of Arthur. 

That is not to say one game doesn't have something to offer the other. As D&D has grown, it has left its feudal medieval roots behind, if it really had any to start with. Yeah, Greyhawk cosplays as feudal lands, but really the place where D&D was always the best is in its name: Dungeons. 

The game is great. It's attention to historical detail is its strongest feature, but also its weakest one for me since I do like to have a bit of magic in my fantasy. No worries, I have a LOT of FRPGs with magic. 

Year of Fantasy RPGS: Cd8 Fantasy

 I want to spend some time focusing on other fantasy table top RPGs this year. I still love my D&D and likely always will, but I also have a lot of other games I enjoy as well. Here is one I have been playing around with for a little bit now. It is the newest from Jason Vey at Elf Lair Games. Cd8 Fantasy Role Playing.

Cd8 Fantasy Role Playing is described as a "beer and pretzels" fantasy RPG. Everything you need to play (minus paper, pencils, some d8s and some friends) is included in 32 pages.

It is designed to be picked up in an afternoon and have you playing right away. It is based on his previous RPG, Chutzpah! A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi. While designed as a bit of a joke and a design challenge, it turned out to be a very solid game. Cd8 Fantasy takes that same game design and applies it to fantasy. You do not need either game to play the other. 

You have the same attribute stats as Chutzpah, "Gumption," "Moxy," "Chutzpah," "Cut of My Jib," "Childlike Wonder," and yes, a "Certain Je ne Sais Quoi," and build your character. It is a point spread, so you are given 10 points to fill in each attribute. Minimum 1, max 3 with 2 as the human average. Then can go all the way up to 10 with experience.

You have your skills, 13 of them, and another 10 points to spend. Obviously, some of these are going to be 0.  

Rolls are a number of d8s equal to Stat + Skill or sometimes Stat + Stat or Stat x2. So, it is a d8 dice pool mechanic. Rolls of "6," "7," and "8" are called "Fist Bumps" or successes in other games. An "8" counts as having rolled 3 "Fist Bumps," and a roll of 1 takes one away.  

Let's say that you want to cast a spell. That would be your Childlike Wonder stat (we will say that is a score of 3) and your Magicking skill (say a 2) for a total of 5. Roll 5d8. You get 1, 3, 5, 8, 8. That two "8s" counts as 3 fist bumps instead of 2. But the die roll of one takes one away, so you have a total of 2 fist bumps. The God of Me (GM) says you need 2 fist bumps (above average difficulty) to cast the spell, so you got it!

That's it. That is the entire system! Granted, the next couple of dozen pages have more details, but you can learn the game that fast.

There are options to change the die from a d8 to something else to adjust the difficulties. There are options for fantasy species ("Elves and Dwarves and other Crap?") and examples of various monsters. 

Given this is an Elf Lair Games product, there are also conversion notes for Wasted Lands. 

To give your characters more depth or variety, there is an appendix on Benefits and Bugs, an advantage/disadvantage system. 

Honestly, it is a really fun game and simple to pick up.

Characters

Characters are terribly easy to make in this game. Over the weekend my oldest and I decided to try out the new D&D 5.5 system and make some characters. I will come back to that in a bit, but on the average it took about 15-20 minutes to make a character.  

With Cd8, I can create a character in about 5 minutes. This year, I will spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting a few characters. So here are a couple of my iconic characters. 

Johan Werper VII

For these experiments, I am going to start a new Johan. This guy is the son of Johan VI and Lana, mine and my wife's D&D 5.0 (2014) characters, respectively.  I did do a version of him for D&D 5.5 that I will detail later on.

Name: Johan Werper VII
Species: Human
Attitude: Do good things

Gumption: 1
Moxy: 2
Chutzpah: 2
Childlike Wonder: 1
Cut of My Jib: 3
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 1

Life Points: 12
Armor: 3 (Heavy)
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Doctoring 2, Fighting 3, Magicking 1, Mythologizing 1, Running 1, Shooting 1, Sporting 1

Benefits/Bugs

Prodigy (Fighting): 1 (3pts)
Honorable: 1 (-3pts)

Weapons
Sword: 3 + FB

Not bad, really. I like it, a great starting character. 

How about a much more powerful one?

Larina Nix

Of course, I am going to try my witch in this. 

Name: Larina Nix
Species: Human
Attitude: Do witchy shit
Experience: 440

Gumption: 5
Moxy: 6
Chutzpah: 2
Childlike Wonder: 8
Cut of My Jib: 2
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 4

Life Points: 15
Armor: 1 (Light)
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Doctoring 4, Fighting 1, Herbalizing 5, Magicking 8, Mythologizing 6, Performing 2, Researching 6, Running 1, Shooting 1

Benefits/Bugs

Enhanced Senses (Magic): 1
Prodigy (Magicking): 1 (3pts)
Psychic
- ESP

- TK
Resist Magic
Everyone I Care About Dies: -1

Weapons
Staff: 1 + FB
Spells

Again, very quick, and I like the results. I gave her 440 experience to spend. No idea if that tracks well with a 20th-level Wasted Lands character, but it feels right. 

Character Creation Challenge: Johan Werper I for Wasted Lands

 Today I want to go back in time. All the way back to the dawn of Dungeons & Dragons...well at least my dawn. One of the first (if not the first) characters I ever made for D&D was a cleric named Johan. I wanted a sage, someone who knew a lot about things, I also wanted a Van Helsing-like character. A cleric dedicated to destroying undead, and vampires in particular. 

I have talked about Johan a lot in the past and his connection to Darlessa, the Vampire Queen. 

Johan the First was a quintessential Basic D&D character for me. He was a great character to be honest, exploring the Keep on the Borderlands, the Isle of Dread, and more. We walked the streets of Glantri together and fought horrible undead. 

In the Wasted Lands, he would be more of a Sage and Theosophist. These are, as it turns out, NIGHT SHIFT classes. But these are NIGHT SHIFT classes, not Wasted Lands ones. But one of the best features of the O.G.R.E.S. games is they are completely interchangeable. So swapping out the classes is easy.

Basic, B/X, D&D is an easier if even simpler game to play and run, so Wasted Lands can handle this well. The concepts central to D&D are at its core design. 

Johan Werper I

Class: Theosophist/Sage (from NIGHT SHIFT)
Level: 5/3
Species: Human
Alignment: Light
Background: Scholarly

Abilities
Strength: 16 (+2) 
Agility: 15 (+1) 
Toughness: 18 (+3) 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wits: 18 (+3) 
Persona: 15 (+1) 

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 66 (d6)
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +3 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +4 vs Wits 

Theosophist Abilities
See Dead people, Turn Undead x2, Summon Dead, Channel Dead, Death Knell, Suggestion

Sage Abilities
Languages (16), Lore, Mesmerize Others, Suggestion, Renegade Skills, Spells, Read Languages

Spells
1st Level: Bless, Cure Light Wounds

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Occult Scholar, Hunter of the Undead

Gear
Mace, Armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as D&D B/X

Thanks to O.G.R.E.S. (and to a degree O.R.C.S.) the conversion between D&D B/X and Wasted Lands is rather easy. Play style is also quite similar. For this "new" campaign I would drop a lot of the campaign setting from the Wasted Lands. The setting is great, but I need some gods for my games. I guess this would be a great place to bring in my Roman-Norse Pantheon.  

To emulate this sort of D&D experience, I would likely not use a lot of Divine Touchstones. Granted, stripped of the setting the divine touchstones are not as central either, but mechanically they still have their use. I might later use some to help work out the differences between the spells of a D&D Cleric and O.G.R.E.S. Theosophist. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Ghostbusters (2016)

This weekend we went and saw the new Ghostbusters movie.   Before I get into that I want to talk about the original Ghostbusters from 1984.
I love movies. I have seen thousands over the years, and Ghostbusters is one of my favorites. I love comedy and horror and grew up on a pretty steady diet of Saturday Night Live.  Because of Ghostbusters I picked up my first psychology book.  Ten years later I was getting a Ph.D. of my own in Psychology.  I spent hours going over the paranormal section in my town's small, but fairly decent library.  I was already a fan of horror and the occult by then, Ghostbusters made it all cool and new again.
For my games, I tried to make my cleric into the rough D&D equivalent of a Ghostbuster.  I created two new spells, the sixth level "Father Werper's Crystal of Containment" and the seventh level "Father Werper's Crystal of Disruption".  Both spells needed a pure quartz crystal, a round one for the containment spell and a prism-like one for the disruption.  Yeah not really all that original, I was 15.
I even tried adapt bits of Chill for my use.
For years Ghostbusters ruled as my favorite all-time movies.  I even recall sitting in my basement office about six or seven years ago wrapping Christmas presents while watching the Ghostbusters DVD commentary thrilled like it was brand new to me.

So it was with no small amount of trepidation and a lot of excitement when I heard about the new Ghostbusters.

I should not have worried.

The new Ghostbusters is every bit as good as the first and in some ways even better.

Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones are brilliant in their respective roles.  McCarthy and Wiig make a great team that paly well off of each other.  Plus I could totally buy into them being friends and rival scientists and then friends again.  Leslie Jones is fantastic and Patty is a great and logical addition to the team, she certainly (as a character) hold her own with the crazy mad-science antics of the other three.

But I have to say this.  Kate McKinnon steals every single scene she is in.  Dr. Jillian Holtzmann is now my new favorite Ghostbuster ever.  She is not just fantastic in her acting, but in everything, she is in and does.   I have been a fan of hers for a while and this movie is finally allowing others to see how great she is.

The movie, by the way, is fantastic. The trailers do not do it any justice at all.  There is a good story here, which the trailer never gives away, and a great villain.  The cameos are fantastic and a nod to the true fans of the 1984 movie.  Stay for all the credits for all the cameos. Unlike the first movie, this movie sets everything up for a sequel.  A sequel that is very likely to happen given this weekend's box-office.   Anything that gives us more McKinnon and more Holtzmann is fantastic in my mind.

If you are one of those complaining about an "all woman remake" because it is all women.  Get over it.
This movie is great on its own merits and one I want to see again.
If you don't like remakes on general principle, well I can't help you there save to say that you should see this anyway.

The prevailing wisdom in Hollywood has been that an all-female cast is box office poison.  I hope this starts to change things.

I grew up with Ghostbusters.  Now my kids have a Ghostbusters they can grew up with.  I think they have a pretty good deal.


---
I am up for an ENnie this year for Best Blog!
Please click on the link and vote "1" under "The Other Side".

Character Creation Challenge: Raven Ebonflame for Wasted Lands

While I am done with the various versions of Johan Werper, I am still working on his family. Today, the girl that Johan Werper III fell in love with and their adventures in "Ravenloft."

Bit of a background first. The period between 1986 and 1989 or so was a transition period for me and for my games. I was leaving High School and headed to University so I wanted to wrap up a lot of different loose ends in my game world. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to merge my world with my DM's world in what would become our Proto-Mystoerth. This was also a time I wanted to do a new world, one that was more horror-focused. Eventually, I would find this with the AD&D Ravenloft campaign setting, but for the time before that we were just calling it "ShadowEarth."  This is where Johan III would end up.

Part of the problem was the girl he was in love with. A girl known as Raven.

Now I will be truthful here, my Raven (full name Morgan "Raven" Ebonflame) began as little more than a copy of the infamous Richard Kirk's "Raven Swordmistress of Chaos," a book I had seen but had never read (yet). So my mind was already primed for this character idea.

Back in 1986, my DM Michael Grenda wrote up a new class he was calling "The Riddle Master," which was essentially a Psychic-powered class that looked like a combination of a fighter and wizard. They were more than that, but that is the overall gist. It was an experiment in class creation. This was the same time I was making my first witch class. While I had made one Riddlemaster already, I wanted another one. Someone that fought undead (sorta my thing then) and in particular, vampires (very much my thing then). Combine all of these together, and 1987 Raven Ebonflame was born.  She was the daughter of my assassin character and, what I said then, an angel. Though he did not know the woman he was with was an angel. Raven then was a supernaturally strong girl with blond hair, who's task was to destroy vampires.

Look. I am not going to sit here and tell you I invented the idea of the Vampire Slayer. 

I am going to sit here and tell you the idea was not as original as some Vampire Slayer creators might want you to believe. Hey, maybe if my father and grandfather had been big-name Hollywood writers, I could make this claim. Plus, I also know at least two other creatives who did similar things and, in one case, had published their work before the Buffy movie and series.

So Raven was a slayer hmm hunter of vampires. I used the Riddle Master class for her as a test bed for what would later become the Shadow Master class. NOTE: Don't expect to see the Riddle Master, Shadow Master, or Beast Master classes anytime soon. They were grossly overpowered even if the XP per Level were excessive. 

Fast forward to the early 2000s. I would revisit my Raven using the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. She would even be a part of my Buffy "Season" The Dragon and the Phoenix. 

I did a version of the Richard Kirk Raven (her "Godmother") for Wasted Lands last year, I figure I should do my Raven now.  There is no Riddle Master analog in the Wasted Lands, so what is she? I thought maybe I could build her out XP for abilities like I did her namesake. It would be fitting given how the Riddle Master class came to be. But the more I thought about it the more I kept coming back to the same conclusion.

Morgan "Raven" Ebonflame is a Chosen One from NIGHT SHIFT.

Morgan "Raven" Ebonflame

Class: Chosen One (NIGHT SHIFT)
Level: 8
Species: Human*
Alignment: Light 
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) A
Agility: 18 (+3) N
Toughness: 18 (+3) N
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wits: 16 (+2) 
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 87
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +5 (base), +2 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +5 (base), +3
Saves: +3 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Chosen One Abilities
Brutal Warrior, Melle Combat, Stunning Blow, Killing Blow, Supernatural Attack, Difficult to Surprise, Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Survivor Skills (Level 2), Mental Resistance, Regeneration

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Sense Evil
2nd Level: Favored Weapon: Sword
3rd Level: 
4th Level: Smite
5th Level: 
6th Level:  Great Smite
7th Level: 
8th Level: Destroy Undead
9th Level: 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Protection

Gear
Longsword, leather armor, vampire hunting kit

Wasted Lands as D&D and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Ok. THIS is Raven. At least this is the Raven I imagined she was when I made the character so long ago. Wasted Lands + NIGHT SHIFT gives my the perfect combination of Fantasy plus Horror that I really enjoy in my games.  Here stats are high because her mother was a freaking angel after all. 

Of course, now I am a little sad I don't get to share this one with Grenda. He would have loved it. In fact I can hear him now saying "Oh shit! That IS her!"

I am going to have to go through my various folders of characters and see who else I have in this Dark Fantasy Horror theme and see if they are as equally improved by this conversion. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Character Creation Challenge: Johan Werper VI for Wasted Lands

 Today I give you the last of the Johan Werpers and my "current" one. This is a D&D 5th Edition character and one I have been using as a DMPC for my Come Endless Darkness campaign with the Order of the Platinum Dragon.  This one also brings me full circle since last year at this time I was talking bout how to move away from D&D 5 and more into other RPGs.

Johan VI is the son of Johan V.  He is largely the same as his father since I abandoned my 4e plans and moved them all over to 5e (with a brief stop as a 1st Edition character the summer before 5e was out). He is also a Paladin/Cleric, though less of a cleric and again for the Cleric's abilities as an occult scholar.  Johan VI made a study of demons in his life, which is good since he is the Johan that I am now taking through the GDQ modules. 

The trouble with converting the Johans is that original system aside they are largely the same with minor tweaks here and there. I mean, that is what I want, much like how I use Larina in other games as well. The difference is one set is a line of father-son and the other is multiple universe "Variants," which is the current en vogue term, we used to use "Cats."

This Johan was able to recover the legendary sword, Demonbane.

Since I wanted to focus this character completely within the Wasted Lands rules, I am sticking with the Warrior and Sage character classes.

This is also the same Johan, more or less, I am playing in Baldur's Gate 3.

Johan Werper VI

Class: Warrior / Sage
Level: 12/4
Species: Human
Alignment: Light 
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

Abilities
Strength: 19 (+3) A
Agility: 12 (0) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 12 (0) 
Wits: 20 (+4) N
Persona: 20 (+4) N

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 114 
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +7/+5/+3
Melee Bonus: +6 (base), +3 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +6 (base)
Saves: +4 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Warrior Abilities
Combat Expertise, Improved Defence, Melee Combat, Master of Battle, Supernatural Attacks, Spell Resistance, Tracking, Masters of Weapons, Extra Attacks (x4), Extra Damage

Spells (Sage)
First: Bless, Restore Vitality
Second: Lesser Renewal

Renegade Skills: Level 2

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Sense Evil
2nd Level: Favored Weapon: Sword
3rd Level: Turn Undead
4th Level: Zone of Protection vs Evil
5th Level: 
6th Level:  Smite
7th Level: 
8th Level: 
9th Level: Great Smite
10th Level:  
11th Level: Destroy Undead
12th Level:
13th Level: Spell: Ball of Sunshine
14th Level: 
15th Level:
16th Level

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Protection

Gear
Longsword, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as D&D 5th Ed

Like new D&D since 3.0, 5e introduced a new skill system. Wasted Lands has skills, but takes an old-school approach to using them. Also like 3.x and 4e, the Heroic Touchstones are great ways to fill in some the powers characters have and feats.

This one feels right. I would use the this character. After doing all six I think my preferred mix is Wasted Lands Warrior with NIGHT SHIFT Theosophist.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

#RPGaDAY2022 Day 22 - Who is your current character?

One thing I never quite understood was the assumption that anyone has just one character at a given time. I have dozens!  I might be playing them all, but they are there.  Here are some of my favorites.

D&D 5e

This is my current 5e character, Johan Werper the VI. He is a cleric/paladin. He is the great-great-great-great-grandson of my first ever D&D character Johan Werper, the Cleric.  Johan the First was followed by Johan the II (Paladin), Johan III (Cavalier), Johan IV (Cleric, Prestige Paladin 3e), Johan V (Paladin, multiclassed feat Cleric, 4e) and to the new generation.

It has been a real joy to have a multi-generational arc for my characters and great to play with this concept of the Lawful Good paladin across all generations of the D&D game.  Each has given me something slightly different and all have been a blast to play.

Some of my other characters for 5e that jump between PCs and NPCs are Tayrn Nix,  Half-elf Warlock (Fey Pact), Celeste Holmes, Human Wizard (Sage), Cassandra Killian, Human Sorcerer (Divne Soul), Jassic Winterhaven, Gnome Bard (College of Lore), Sasha, Cleric (Knowledge Domain), and Áedán Aamadu, Human Druid (Circle of the Land).

Old School Essentials

Some of my OSE include the druid couple Asabalom and Maryah and my Pagans Lars and Siân.  

AD&D 2nd Edition

I have two I have been working with. I was just telling my oldest last night I need to pull them out again and do more with them.  Both are AD&D 2nd Ed interpretations of a Witch, Goodwife Sinéad (Witch Kit) and Nida (witch of Hala/Witch of Rashemen kit)

DragonQuest

My character for this game is still Phygor. 

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Of course, I do have to mention my iconic witch Larina, who gets stated up in every game I play.