Blogfest: Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/03/hop-against-homophobia-and-transphobia_15.html

I have never been shy about the fact that I support equal rights for everyone. In particular I have been a strong supporter of gay rights and freedom to marry rights.  So I am very pleased to be part of this one.  Since this hop is focused on authors I am going to talk about some characters.

But this is not just a regular blog hop.  This one is about making a difference.

So. For the time period between May 17 to May 27 I will donate all the money I make from The Witch and from my DriveThruRPG Affiliate money to The Trevor Project.

This is a charity I have given money to in the past and they are a worthy cause.
In the unfortunate event I make no money then I will make it a function of the number of visitors I get. I get something like a 1,000 hits a day.  So that over ten days, maybe a penny a visitor would be like $100.  A drop in the bucket for their operating costs to be sure, but every little bit helps.  No idea yet. Gotta see how much I can budget for this.

So help me out and help out a group kids that really need some understanding.
We can certainly do more than debate the merits of ascending vs. descending AC right?

Review: Mazes & Perils (2012), Part 2

A while back I wrote a review for Mazes & Perils, a 2012 Holmes-Basic Retro-clone from Vincent Florio.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/09/review-mazes-perils-2012.html

The 3rd printing/edition is now out (or rather it has been out for a bit) and I promised then I would re-review it.

This new version is cleaned up considerably and it does look like it has been rewritten.  It is still free and the idea here (I think) is to provide a means to play "D&D Basic" or provide a common ruleset to allow people to create Basic compatible works.  As a goal, that is a pretty solid one really.  At 61 pages it is also really tight.  It is also free.

I do want to address some of the issues that plagued the previous editions, but only as a means to talk about the improvements on this edition.
Like I said, the text has largely been rewritten.  It now reads less like someone with a copy of Holmes Basic on their lap, but instead someone that played Holmes Basic for years and scribbled what they could from memory.    The game now goes to 12th level, which is a good place to go to be honest.  Yes, it is only 3 more levels than the previous version, but those are three levels that really make a difference in terms of end game play.  Have a look of Adventurer Conquer King to see the same logic at work.

There are only the four basic classes (Cleric, Fighting Man, Magic-User, Thief) and the four basic races (Human, Elf, Dwarf Halfling).

I want to restate the things I did like about the previous versions.  Obviously the name of the game is a nod to John Eric Holmes' book "The Maze of Peril" and I can respect that. If you are going to do a Holmes' homage or pastiche then that is a perfect name really.  Clearly the author has done his research.

Others have complained about the art.  I rather like it to be honest.  The cover is very cool and the interior is no worse than what you would have seen in Holmes.  In fact I was under the impression that the art was exactly what the author wanted.  "Good" or "Bad" is subjective. To me it is perfect for this book.

What does this book do? OR What is it good for?
Well if you do want a simple game to give you the feel of D&D Basic, then it works well.
If you want an EASY book to create your own "Basic Era" products then it is also a good choice.
If you want a game with lots of options, then maybe Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, ACKS or even D&D Basic/Expert will work better.

This newer version is cleaned up and certainly an improvement over the previous versions.

Blogfest: May Monster Madness

May Monster REVIEW Madness

Continuing May Monster Madness here are some reveiws for some Monster books I have been enjoying of late.

The Teratic Tome

The Teratic Tome is an "old school" monster book for OSRIC or any old School "Advanced" version of the game.
What do you get? Well a lot. Let's start with some of the things that others have not all mentioned first. This book is 100% OGC. So if you want to use one of these horrors in one of your products go right ahead. Just abide by the OGL. There are a lot of reasons why you might want to use these monsters too. They are some of the most original horrors I have seen outside of indie horror games.
The layout and feel is evocative of those "monster manuals" of old. It does quite a nice job of it too. The art though is much better than what you would have seen circa 1980. The art varies in style, but all of it is quite good. Now is a good time to point out that the art and the monsters they depict are not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of "body horror" here. The grotesque mixed with the commonplace or even the erotic. The feeling is more Clive Barker than H.P. Lovecraft and I think that was a great direction to go.
Truthfully I would have picked this up for the demons and dragons alone, but there are 120 pages worth monsters here. Even the halflings are evil little buggers in this tome.
If you like horror and new creatures, and your players can handle it, then this is a great monster book.
If you like horror and monster books in general, then this is great to have as well.
Plus who can argue with a $6.66 price tag?
Who should not get this? I don't know really. I mean I am not going to use any of these creatures in my games with my kids. So that does lessen the utility for me, but I can still use some ideas. And that is just as good.

The Nemesis Bestiary Volume One

An interesting concept. 20 monsters complete with stat-blocks, art and description of their special abilities. There is almost no "fluff", just "crunch" to this book. The idea is you create the background yourself.
A lot of the monsters have origins that can be explained (undead, abberation) others just beg for their story to be told (whore eater and God Sperm for example).
Each monster was created in response to a piece of art. So somethings form can flow from function (Arm Stealer) or something else entirely.
If you want a book of ready use monsters, sans backgrounds, then this is a good choice.

Monster Focus: Skeletons

Six pages with cover and OGL.  Presents some material for customizing skeletons and those that deal with these low level monsters.  New uses for Knowledge (Religion), new feats, alchemical items and spells.  New magical items, new monsters and some adventure ideas.  Crammed into just half-a-dozen pages, pretty good really.

Monster Focus: Ghouls

Six pages with cover and OGL.  Presents some material for customizing ghouls and ghasts. New uses for Knowledge (Religion), new feats, alchemical items and spells.  New magical items, new monsters and some adventure ideas.


Swords and Wizardry Monstrosities

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. I love this cover.
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.

Rappan Athuk Bestiary Swords and Wizardry Edition
Rappan Athuk Bestiary Pathfinder Edition

For under the price of a large latte you can get the S&W or Pathfinder versions of the monsters from Rappan Athuk.  There are some overlap here with other Fog God Games books, but this is still a solid collection of monsters.  26 monsters ready to use in any S&W or Pathfinder game.

101 Variant Monsters (PFRPG)

Like is says on the tin. 101 Variant monsters (44 pages), ordered by CR for Pathfinder.
Takes the normal monster from the Pathfinder Bestiary and provides an alternate or variant version.  Perfect to spring a little new life into that standard monster (some of which have their roots in the game going back 30+ years).
Sure you can come up with all of this on your own, but there are lot of clever ideas here and for $6 you get 101 "new" monsters.  Not a bad deal at all really.


Enjoy? Please check out the other monster posts today!

Monsters: Demon vs. Dæmon and Daimôn

In many RPGs the words "demon" and "dæmon" often lumped together into the same group or groups of creatures.  This reflects a Judeo-Christian bias in popular thought that a "demon" has to be an evil, malign creature.  This was not always the case with dæmon.  in the ancient Greek tradition these creatures were something more along the lines of creative, benevolent spirits.

The dæmon is most famous to AD&D players as being the Neutral Evil race found between the Abyss, home of the Demons and Hell, home of the devils from Monster Manual II.  I liked the idea of more variety to the fiends but thought about these guys in terms of what a normal human would think of them.  That is how does one say "demon" vs. "dæmon"?  That was the start of my disappointment in them as a D&D monster type.  They would later change the name Yugoloth, the only time I felt the 2nd ed name changes were an improvement.

Other games have taken the concept the other direction and made the "demon" more like the classical "dæmon" and had the name mean anything that came from somewhere else.  Also not preferable really.

I had forgotten about all of this until recently when I started working on demons for Eldritch Witchery.

Dæmons seem to be much creative, if chaotic types.  Somewhat like what Deborah Harkness has in her books, A Discovery of Witches.  But in truth her Dæmons feel more like Fae or Changelings to me.  Moving mine more to the "outsider" type I get a race that is very chaotic, but not really evil.  In a sense what Jim Butcher has done with the Fae  in the Dresden Files and maybe a little of what Kim Harrison has done (or is doing) with Demons (the ancient enemy of the fae) in her Rachel Morgan books.
More to the point I have a race I can swap with Slaadi.

Slaad began their life in the pages of the Fiend Folio as inhabitants of the Chaotic Limbo.  Trouble with the Slaad were that know one played them Chaotic Neutral. They always ended up as Chaotic Evil.  Plus Slaad are not open and are not found in the SRD.  Dæmon's though are chaotic, can be good or evil and somehow in my mind fit the idea of a creature living between the Chaotic Good fae (and planes of Olympus in the old D&D cosmology) and the chaotic evil demons living in the Abyss.

I have not detailed many dæmons yet except for a Personal Dæmon, which is a bit like a familiar dialed up to 11.  Given that they need more conceptual work I am not expecting dæmons to appear in Eldritch Witchery.  But do expect the monsters-formerly-known-as-daemons-or-yugoloths to appear as a demon type.  Too bad I can't use Slaad, but hey.

And just to make matters more confusing I think the ruling class of dæmons are known as daimôns.

Enjoy? Please check out the other monster posts today!

Old School Week at DriveThruRPG

DriveThruRPG is celebrating the best of the OSR this week.

For a limited time you can grab their selected 10 best OSR products for a special price.
You can use promotional code OSRF711F2 to get 15% off on these select titles till Sunday, May 19.

Personally I can't recommend these titles enough.  We have the immortal D&D Basic Book in new, clean PDF format, the awesome Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and two of my favorite "what if" games, Spellcraft & Swordplay and Adventures Dark & Deep.  Plus three very different kinds of games with a great old-school feel, HackMaster, Dungeon Crawl Classics and one of my personal favorites Castles & Crusades.

Lots of great stuff here.

Monster Post later today.

Second Edition Reprints

Wizards of the Coast has released the Limited Editions of the 2nd Edition of AD&D in some markets. I picked my copies on Friday.

These are the reprints of the second printing of the Second Edition rules.  Not the ones with the blue borders, but the ones with the red borders. So consequently the books these are the reprints of I don't actually own.  I do have the Monstrous Manual, my Monstrous Compendium long since gone.

Monstrous Manual
Dungeon Master Guide
Player's Handbook

AD&D 2nd Ed feels like the forgotten edition of D&D.  Sure there might be others, but between OSRIC and Pathfinder 2nd ed usually gets ignored, especially by me.  2nd ed was the game I ran in college but it is also the game that almost put me off of D&D for a while.

These books are not cheap, $50 each, but they are nice and like I said, they are still somewhat new to me.
I am going to enjoy going through these to be honest, the books look really nice and frankly I like sending the message to Wizards that these types of product are welcome.   I also like supporting my Favorite Local Game Store.

Plus they look nice with my special edition 3.5 and the 1st ed AD

Though unlike the above editions, the 2nd eds do not have a ribbon.  A little disappointing, but I didn't want to pay $75 each for them.  Might have to play some 2nd ed some time.

Moms are Gamers too!

Bunch of sales coming up at DriveThru RPG.

Here is one of the first.


Tabletop Adventures, LLC is running their "Moms are Gamers too" sale for Mother's Day.
Get 20% off selected products between now and Wednesday.