I am HUGE advocate of supporting your FLGS and your local book store.
If you have the choice, please always support your local stores when you can.
That all being said there is a new online book store that I am calling "The Book Store of all of Tim's Favorite Things."
Wednesday Mourning from "Oddities: San Francisco" has started a new online book store Orphic Vellum Books.
You can read about it here: http://wednesdaymourning.com/blog/?p=18#comment-38
And see the store here: http://www.wednesdaymourning.com/zencart/
A lot of the books I would want here I already have, but I am hoping to see more soon!
The place looks great and getting these old books would really be nice.
If you buy something from her tell her I sent you!
Not that it would matter at all, but I have always wanted to say that about something...
Friday, March 22, 2013
Friday Updates
hmm this might a regular feature.
Ok so next is a busy, busy week for me.
I am going to post a bunch of "The Best Blogs You Are Not Reading" posts. I may not though be able to adequately respond to responses or even properly promote the posts.
I am also unsure whether I'll have a White Dwarf Wednesday ready to go at all either. Yeah, it's going to be that kind of week.
In other news the new D&D Next playtest packet is out. People seem to like it. I have not read it yet myself.
So let me get this all straight WotC is A.) distributing their playtest material for free for anyone to play with and they are updating based on the feedback they are getting. B.) selling PDFs again and C.) have the reprints in physical stores for people to buy. Oh and every so often Dragon features material for older editions. It sounds like they are listening to their customers.
Eldritch Witchery Update / Elf Lair Games Update
Ok so. Yeah. I am way late on Eldritch Witchery. It was due out at the same time as the Witch, but needed some additional editing. In talks with Jason Vey (head Elf at Elf Lair Games) we decided to merge in a couple of other products with EW that fit. My celtic themed Old School game based on Spellcraft & Swordplay is for the most part dead in the water. I know. I am saddened by it too, but Jason did not want to be in a position of competing with Troll Lords who publishes his Amazing Adventures game. I can't say that I blame him. Besides, the Codex Celtarum looks fantastic. Éire will see the light of day, someday, but not as a Spellcraft & Swordplay book. The materials though that went into it have been folded into EW rather nicely. The other book I was working on was a book on demons and devils for Old School games. But since that project started we have had a number of good monster books come out. So that is also being folded in and the Warlock class in EW is getting a nice boost because of it. I am editing down some things too to make sure this is not going to be a 300 page book. Some of that will appear here on the blog.
A to Z Blogfest
I am doing demons. Should be fun. I have 100s or so to talk about, so the trick narrowing it down to just 26.
What pushed Demons up over Vampires? Easy. I found a "Q" demon before a "Q" vampire.
Ok so next is a busy, busy week for me.
I am going to post a bunch of "The Best Blogs You Are Not Reading" posts. I may not though be able to adequately respond to responses or even properly promote the posts.
I am also unsure whether I'll have a White Dwarf Wednesday ready to go at all either. Yeah, it's going to be that kind of week.
In other news the new D&D Next playtest packet is out. People seem to like it. I have not read it yet myself.
So let me get this all straight WotC is A.) distributing their playtest material for free for anyone to play with and they are updating based on the feedback they are getting. B.) selling PDFs again and C.) have the reprints in physical stores for people to buy. Oh and every so often Dragon features material for older editions. It sounds like they are listening to their customers.
Eldritch Witchery Update / Elf Lair Games Update
Ok so. Yeah. I am way late on Eldritch Witchery. It was due out at the same time as the Witch, but needed some additional editing. In talks with Jason Vey (head Elf at Elf Lair Games) we decided to merge in a couple of other products with EW that fit. My celtic themed Old School game based on Spellcraft & Swordplay is for the most part dead in the water. I know. I am saddened by it too, but Jason did not want to be in a position of competing with Troll Lords who publishes his Amazing Adventures game. I can't say that I blame him. Besides, the Codex Celtarum looks fantastic. Éire will see the light of day, someday, but not as a Spellcraft & Swordplay book. The materials though that went into it have been folded into EW rather nicely. The other book I was working on was a book on demons and devils for Old School games. But since that project started we have had a number of good monster books come out. So that is also being folded in and the Warlock class in EW is getting a nice boost because of it. I am editing down some things too to make sure this is not going to be a 300 page book. Some of that will appear here on the blog.
A to Z Blogfest
I am doing demons. Should be fun. I have 100s or so to talk about, so the trick narrowing it down to just 26.
What pushed Demons up over Vampires? Easy. I found a "Q" demon before a "Q" vampire.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The Big Reveal Bloghop
Mina Lobo from Some Dark Romantic and David Macaulay from Brits in the USA are hosting the Big Reveal Bloghop.
Bloggers who have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge are letting us know about what their theme is going to be.
Well.
I have gone back and forth a number of times on this. Talked about it in a round about way here and I am finally ready to say I am doing....
Vampires.
No wait. Demons.
Vampires. Defiantly vampires.....maybe not.
Demons.
Yes Demons.
Yeah.
Ok so I am going to do Demons.
I am going to talk about all sorts of demons, but these will be firmly rooted in an RPG environment point of view. How to add them to games (all sorts) and things like that.
All leading up to their inclusion in my oft-delayed Eldritch Witchery.
I suppose some explanation is in order about EW. Yes. It's late. Part of the deal is that it needed more editing than The Witch did. Also I was talking with Jason at Elf Lair Games and we wanted to merge in the bits from my Celtic game that we are no longer doing and the delayed Demons & Devils book. The nice thing is you will get a much larger book in the process.
So join me as we go investigating the evilest creatures of myth and fairytale!
Next year I'll do vampires. ;)
Want to see what everyone else is doing? Check below:
Bloggers who have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge are letting us know about what their theme is going to be.
Well.
I have gone back and forth a number of times on this. Talked about it in a round about way here and I am finally ready to say I am doing....
Demons.
Yes Demons.
Yeah.
Ok so I am going to do Demons.
I am going to talk about all sorts of demons, but these will be firmly rooted in an RPG environment point of view. How to add them to games (all sorts) and things like that.
All leading up to their inclusion in my oft-delayed Eldritch Witchery.
I suppose some explanation is in order about EW. Yes. It's late. Part of the deal is that it needed more editing than The Witch did. Also I was talking with Jason at Elf Lair Games and we wanted to merge in the bits from my Celtic game that we are no longer doing and the delayed Demons & Devils book. The nice thing is you will get a much larger book in the process.
So join me as we go investigating the evilest creatures of myth and fairytale!
Next year I'll do vampires. ;)
Want to see what everyone else is doing? Check below:
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Second Chance: Swords & Wizardry (Frog God Games)
I picked up the Frog God "Complete Rulebook" and spent a lot of time with it. I think my biggest issue with S&W is that was sold to me as "0 Edition" or "OD&D" and it isn't. I played OD&D and S&W is nothing like it. Well, not "nothing" but it's made some serious changes. Those changes I think kept me from enjoying the game for what it is. So after staying away from the game for a number of months I came back and looked at in a different light. I dropped the idea that is an OD&D clone but instead a Retro Clone stripped down to it's most basic form. Now that is game I can get behind. If you ever played any version of D&D or any clone you can play this. S&W is really the basic essence of what D&D is. The most basic stuff you need to play. In this new light I saw the changes for what they were, really nice and intuitive changes.
The classics are really basic, but they work. In this Frog God edition you have a more classes, Assassins, Paladins, Rangers, Druids and Monks join Thieves, Clerics, Magic-Users and Fighters. Races are Human, Elves, Half-elves, Halflings and Dwarves. So again all easily recognizable.
There are a set of good multi-classing rules (which is always nice in an OSR game).
Spells go up to 9 for Magic-Users, 7 for most others.
There are plenty of monsters, tons really. The monster blocks are simple like everything else.
Really S&W does take a lot of what made OD&D/Dasic D&D so fun, the advances in AD&D and the features that made 3.x so popular. Yes. It has Ascending AC (which is still the best, sorry old school guys) and I like single saving throw bonus.
This Frog God version shares a lot of the art that appeared in The Tome of Horrors Complete and the layout. This is not a big deal as far as I am concerned.
At a 134 pages it is a complete game. You don't really need anything else here, though you can use it with nearly other OSR product or any of the scores of products created for S&W.
I am glad I gave this another chance.
If you have this then The Tome of Horrors Complete is a great supplement to have.
If you are new to S&W then there are some other supplements to help you out.
MCMLXXV (aka 1975) is a new introductory module and old-school primer.
At just under 24 pages (minus cover and ogl) this is designed to be something akin to Keep on the Borderlands for S&W, only not as big. The adventure is small, but in old school terms it is good sized really. There is less in terms of pages of descriptions than modern day modules. It leaves far more to the imagination of the players and GM. If there was a Frog God Games S&W box set then this would be included.
Great little adventure that really helps set the tone of the S&W game.
Swords and Wizardry Monstrosities is a new monster book. New in that is newly published, but some of the monsters we have before either in the SRD or other books. That though does not detract from it's value as this is a 560+ page book since in addition to that there are some new monsters. The cover is very evocative of the old-school (pre 1980) covers.
There is much in common between this book and The Tome of Horrors. Each monster is given a page of stats, description and a plot hook. While ToH used some recycled art, this all seems to be new art. Even Orcus (which we now have 3 listings for) is new. Actually the art is pretty darn good and I don't mind the occasional repeat of a monster to see some new art.
Honestly there is so much great stuff in this book that even with the occasional repeat monster this is still a top notch collection. If you play S&W then this is a great monster book to have. I am even going as far as to say it is a must have for any serious S&W GM.
OD&D
If you really want a game that is close to what OD&D really was like you do have some choices.
First up there is the OD&D set from WotC coming out this fall.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/02/original-d-premium-edition.html
There is also Spellcraft & Swordplay, a personal favorite of mine.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/04/s-is-for-spellcraft-swordplay.html
While S&W has some neat ideas, S&S comes closer to OD&D for me.
In any case you can use all of these game to party like it's 1975!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
White Dwarf Wednesday #57
Ok so last week I tried something new and focused on the articles that I remembered the best and talked about what I was doing at the time. I am not sure that entirely worked out they way I wanted. I felt like I had left large portions of the magazine unmentioned. This is going to become a bigger issue as I get into the 60s and 70s since I only recall a couple from that time and almost nothing from 80-100.
Still though. There is a lot I can say. So I think in the interests of trying to find a happy medium I am going to ignore the comics for the most part (unless they figure into what I am talking about) and I might ignore the book reviews. My tastes in books was going more to horror and dark fantasy at this point anyway so I less likely to see books I was reading at the time. Course I could be wrong.
On to the issue!
The cover is pretty cool. Barbarian on a zebra fighting a guy on a giant bird.
We get a nice big full page, full color ad for the new FASA Star Trek Game. I loved that game, but never got a chance to play it.
Ian Livingstone asks the perennial questions about licenced games.Do gamers prefer them? That's not an easy one to answer. While D&D was and still is to a degree king I would argue that it is it's own brand. The games I have worked on that have gotten the most attention Buffy and Ghosts of Albion did great and were based on a license. Another game I dearly love, WitchCraft uses almost the exact same system and Eden has a hard time giving that game away. So yeah. My experience is that yes, gamers like licenses.
First article is one on Psionics in AD&D and other FRPGs. I agree that psionics in most fantasy games are treated like another form of magic. I have a real Love/Hate relationship with psionics in D&D. We used it in our AD&D games and it was fun. I even was part of an OD&D game one summer that all the characters were psionic and that was a blast too. But generally speaking I don't like to mix my magic and psionics. Eventually my distaste for Psionics in D&D manifested as psionic characters were hunted like witches in my magic-centric world. Played out rather nice really. The article by Todd E. Sundsted does a good job of giving you tips on how to use psionics in a game and even gives them a more modern point of view.
Conversely I also don't like Magic in my Sci-Fi settings, but I do like to have Psionics in them.
Open Box is back to it's regular format. Up first we have the first four Role-Aids books from Mayfair Games. I have had a long relationship with Mayfair and I have enjoyed the Role-Aids books quite a bit. Robert Dale here doesn't agree. He gives Dwarves, Elves and Dark Folk all 3/10. Wizards fares better with 6/10. Andy Slack gives 9/10 to the Traveller Adventures book. Powers and Perils was always one of those games I was curious about but never bought back then. I have a copy a copy now and it is cool. Adrian Knowles gives it 8/10, I'd do 7/10 myself. Continuing with a licensed game we have the new James Bond 007 game which comes in two versions a single book or a box set. You can see the shift here in that the reviewer, Bob Neville, far prefers the single book option. He faults it on several points, one of which I thought was amusing that it was written by Americans. In the end he enjoyed it enough to overcome it and gave it a 6/10.
Sky Rig is a Traveller Scenario for 3-6 characters. We are now at a point where the books needed to play must be indicated. An issue D&D has had for a bit now, but new here. The scenario is 5 pages long and looks good, but I am not a good judge of these things. WD does use one of their color pages for an illustration though. Most likely it for the Dragonlance ad that appears next and this was the same page in layout/printing.
Yes. Big Dragonlance ad is next. Often seen as the herald of the Silver Age or at least the herald of the end of the Golden Age. The end actually happened much longer than this I would say. To paraphrase Star Trek III the Search for Spock it was "the bold Experiment". Now lets be honest. Those ads sucked you in just as much as me. The bold adventurers the dragons. That evil looking Darth Vader looking dude. I never played the Dragonlance adventures, though I read the novels. I hated the Kinder, I thought "Steel Pieces" and no gold was stupid. But I still was caught up in it enough to buy the books again as an adult and the 3rd edition campaign guide.
We get more Living Dead in RuneQuest. Again, cool and certainly something I want to come back too now I have finally picked up some RuneQuest books.
More on Ninjas in AD&D, RuneQuest and Bushido. I loved these cross system articles. The Ninja has gotten more treatments in AD&D than Witches I think (but still less than Necromancers). I liked reading the Ninja stuff other people did cause I saw the same single mindedness I had with the witch. Again if you remember last week I have played only one ninja my entire gaming life.
Lew Pulsipher is back with Lew's Views. He covers the life of a retired wizard. One issue it covers is the idea of "Magic Shops". I like magic shops, but they are rare in my world as to be unique.
Part II of the AD&D of the Island of Rammas, The Sunfire's Heart, is next. The adventure is quite in-depth as well. It got me thinking that the quality of adventures from White Dwarf always seemed a bit better than that of Dragon and the later Dungeon. At least at this point in time. Later I would give teh nod to Dungeon and Dragon, but today it is White Dwarf. This adventure has some neat idea like the Frost Vampire.
Andy Slack has a new race for Traveller, the Staurni. It's a snake with arms and wings. Neat, but not something I would use myself.
Fiend Factory is back with monsters from the Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg. Quite a collection too. I have no experience with the books, but the monsters looks interesting enough.
Tabletop Heroes has a how-to-do guide on how to set up bases for your minis, including some nice full color photos.
Letters has praise for the last few issues, including the comics.
Another Reader Survey is next. I'll discuss this when the results are published.
Treasure Chest has some tips for spell usage and a crossword puzzle. I stared at the crossword and wondered if it could double up as a dungeon.
News items deals with the rumors of of games called "Toon" and "Paranoia". NOW the Golden Age is dead! ;)
Despite the fact there is not much more here than the last issues, I felt this was a better issue. Maybe due to the good adventures and monsters.
Still though. There is a lot I can say. So I think in the interests of trying to find a happy medium I am going to ignore the comics for the most part (unless they figure into what I am talking about) and I might ignore the book reviews. My tastes in books was going more to horror and dark fantasy at this point anyway so I less likely to see books I was reading at the time. Course I could be wrong.
On to the issue!
The cover is pretty cool. Barbarian on a zebra fighting a guy on a giant bird.
We get a nice big full page, full color ad for the new FASA Star Trek Game. I loved that game, but never got a chance to play it.
Ian Livingstone asks the perennial questions about licenced games.Do gamers prefer them? That's not an easy one to answer. While D&D was and still is to a degree king I would argue that it is it's own brand. The games I have worked on that have gotten the most attention Buffy and Ghosts of Albion did great and were based on a license. Another game I dearly love, WitchCraft uses almost the exact same system and Eden has a hard time giving that game away. So yeah. My experience is that yes, gamers like licenses.
First article is one on Psionics in AD&D and other FRPGs. I agree that psionics in most fantasy games are treated like another form of magic. I have a real Love/Hate relationship with psionics in D&D. We used it in our AD&D games and it was fun. I even was part of an OD&D game one summer that all the characters were psionic and that was a blast too. But generally speaking I don't like to mix my magic and psionics. Eventually my distaste for Psionics in D&D manifested as psionic characters were hunted like witches in my magic-centric world. Played out rather nice really. The article by Todd E. Sundsted does a good job of giving you tips on how to use psionics in a game and even gives them a more modern point of view.
Conversely I also don't like Magic in my Sci-Fi settings, but I do like to have Psionics in them.
Open Box is back to it's regular format. Up first we have the first four Role-Aids books from Mayfair Games. I have had a long relationship with Mayfair and I have enjoyed the Role-Aids books quite a bit. Robert Dale here doesn't agree. He gives Dwarves, Elves and Dark Folk all 3/10. Wizards fares better with 6/10. Andy Slack gives 9/10 to the Traveller Adventures book. Powers and Perils was always one of those games I was curious about but never bought back then. I have a copy a copy now and it is cool. Adrian Knowles gives it 8/10, I'd do 7/10 myself. Continuing with a licensed game we have the new James Bond 007 game which comes in two versions a single book or a box set. You can see the shift here in that the reviewer, Bob Neville, far prefers the single book option. He faults it on several points, one of which I thought was amusing that it was written by Americans. In the end he enjoyed it enough to overcome it and gave it a 6/10.
Sky Rig is a Traveller Scenario for 3-6 characters. We are now at a point where the books needed to play must be indicated. An issue D&D has had for a bit now, but new here. The scenario is 5 pages long and looks good, but I am not a good judge of these things. WD does use one of their color pages for an illustration though. Most likely it for the Dragonlance ad that appears next and this was the same page in layout/printing.
Yes. Big Dragonlance ad is next. Often seen as the herald of the Silver Age or at least the herald of the end of the Golden Age. The end actually happened much longer than this I would say. To paraphrase Star Trek III the Search for Spock it was "the bold Experiment". Now lets be honest. Those ads sucked you in just as much as me. The bold adventurers the dragons. That evil looking Darth Vader looking dude. I never played the Dragonlance adventures, though I read the novels. I hated the Kinder, I thought "Steel Pieces" and no gold was stupid. But I still was caught up in it enough to buy the books again as an adult and the 3rd edition campaign guide.
We get more Living Dead in RuneQuest. Again, cool and certainly something I want to come back too now I have finally picked up some RuneQuest books.
More on Ninjas in AD&D, RuneQuest and Bushido. I loved these cross system articles. The Ninja has gotten more treatments in AD&D than Witches I think (but still less than Necromancers). I liked reading the Ninja stuff other people did cause I saw the same single mindedness I had with the witch. Again if you remember last week I have played only one ninja my entire gaming life.
Lew Pulsipher is back with Lew's Views. He covers the life of a retired wizard. One issue it covers is the idea of "Magic Shops". I like magic shops, but they are rare in my world as to be unique.
Part II of the AD&D of the Island of Rammas, The Sunfire's Heart, is next. The adventure is quite in-depth as well. It got me thinking that the quality of adventures from White Dwarf always seemed a bit better than that of Dragon and the later Dungeon. At least at this point in time. Later I would give teh nod to Dungeon and Dragon, but today it is White Dwarf. This adventure has some neat idea like the Frost Vampire.
Andy Slack has a new race for Traveller, the Staurni. It's a snake with arms and wings. Neat, but not something I would use myself.
Fiend Factory is back with monsters from the Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg. Quite a collection too. I have no experience with the books, but the monsters looks interesting enough.
Tabletop Heroes has a how-to-do guide on how to set up bases for your minis, including some nice full color photos.
Letters has praise for the last few issues, including the comics.
Another Reader Survey is next. I'll discuss this when the results are published.
Treasure Chest has some tips for spell usage and a crossword puzzle. I stared at the crossword and wondered if it could double up as a dungeon.
News items deals with the rumors of of games called "Toon" and "Paranoia". NOW the Golden Age is dead! ;)
Despite the fact there is not much more here than the last issues, I felt this was a better issue. Maybe due to the good adventures and monsters.
Book Whore: Cover Wars
One of my finds made Book Whore: Cover Wars!
http://www.bookwhoreblog.com/2013/03/cover-wars-rhiannon-frater-vs-kt-grant.html
Yes.
I have read both books.
http://www.bookwhoreblog.com/2013/03/cover-wars-rhiannon-frater-vs-kt-grant.html
Yes.
I have read both books.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Gothridge Manor Giveaway
One of my favortie blogs, Gothridge Manor, just hit 1,000 posts!
To mark the occasion they are giving away an OSR bundle to one lucky commentor on today's 1,000 post.
http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2013/03/1000-posts-osr-mega-bundle-giveaway.html
Included in the bundle is my own OSR book "The Witch".
Go on over, comment and maybe you will win this mega prize bundle!
To mark the occasion they are giving away an OSR bundle to one lucky commentor on today's 1,000 post.
http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2013/03/1000-posts-osr-mega-bundle-giveaway.html
Included in the bundle is my own OSR book "The Witch".
Go on over, comment and maybe you will win this mega prize bundle!
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