May Monster Maddness: Monster Books

Monster Books

I can't beleive I almost forgot this today.  It is still Thursday where I am sitting.

So I am presently working three books with monsters.

Eldritch Witchery, which you all know about which includes all the demons and devils I have been talking about since February for the Spellcraft & Swordplay game.

Here There Be Dragons, is the book I am working on with my son.  It has all sorts of dragons, dragon like creatures and some new classes for Advanced Era Old School Games or OSRIC.

Lastly, and the one that I have been working on the most, is Darwin's Guide to Creatures.  It is for the Gaslight game, so both d20 (3.x era) and Savage Worlds.

Each one has a different focus, different feel and almost no overlap between the books.  I think there is one creature in both the Darwin's Guide and EW, but they are presented very differently.

So all in all I figure over the last 3 months I have written the stats and or backgrounds for some 400+ monsters.  I am getting a touch burned out by them to be honest!  But hey, you do what you can and I hope that all those years of reading monster books and my public library as a kid will now pay off.



Enjoy this? Please check out the other monster posts today!

Campaigns I'd Like to Run: RPG Blog Carnival for May

I am participating in my very first RPG Blog Carnival.  The topic this month is Campaigns I'd Like to Run, and is being hosted by Lowell Francis over at Age of Ravens.

In truth there is a lot I'd love to run.  But there are some that stick out.

Black Rose
Black Rose is my Ravenloft/Blue Rose mash-up.  I detailed it in a series of posts back in the early days of this blog.  Black Rose takes place in the same world as Blue Rose, but only after it had been pulled into Ravenloft.  I am using more of the 2nd Ed and 3.x versions of Ravenloft, not the 4e revisions. I played the hell out of Ravenloft during the 2nd Ed era.  I loved it, but there were things about it that I wanted to do that didn't quite mesh with the "kill things and take their stuff" mentality of AD&D.  The True20 system, while it still has the same roots, can go a little bit beyond that.  True20 is also quite good for doing horror as I discovered.

Generation HEX/Ordinary World
Both of these campaigns would be in the same world and preferably use the same system(s).  Both come out of my enjoyment of modern supernatural books and TV shows.
GenerationHEX is a game focused on kids in a magical school.  Somewhat like Smallville meets Harry Potter.
Ordinary World is a game about supernatural types trying to live in a world full of humans.  sort like Being Human, but also a bit like Charmed.
Unisystem seems like the logical choice here, but I also considered using a different system each time to get a real feel for the characters.  This would be character focused, not plot focus.
Given the character focus of these games I also wanted to try something different.  I wanted to use a different system for the different eras in the character's life.  So Little Fears for when they are all children, Witch Girls Adventures or Monsterhearts for high school, and then Unisystem or World of Darkness for adulthood.  I would sprinkle in other systems for one shots as needed, like Chill, Call of Cthulhu or Mutants and Masterminds.
This is something I tried with Season of the Witch and I liked it.

Greyhawk 3000
This one is D&D in SPAAAAAACE!  I'd mix up D&D 3.x and Star Wars with ideas from Gamma world, Star Frontiers, Planescape and Spelljamer.  Have all the D&D worlds as planets and the planes as something like solar systems.  I'd also use some ideas from Starships & Spacemen and some other games.  A bit of Traveler too cause I like that.
I do want to use the D&D mythology, just advance it to something like Star Trek Next Gen level tech.  I think it would be a blast to be honest.

Those are the ones I'd love to do that I don't see me doing anytime soon.  Have too many games going now.

One though I am very likely to run is my Celtic-theme Fantasy Game.

Éire
This game has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Unisystem, True20, Spellcraft & Swordplay.  I think with the release of the Codex Celtarum I might start adapting it to Castles & Crusades.  This is one I would really like to play and am working on getting it done sometime soon.  While I'd love to play this one with my kids, I would also enjoy a more mature approach.  Not "Adult" per se, but a group that appreciates Irish myth and willing to play in a world like that.

These are the campaigns I'd like to run.

White Dwarf Wednesday #64

White Dwarf Issue 64 comes to us from April 1985.  I have fonder memories of this issue than some of the others.  I think it was the Mirkwood adventure.  I was huge into Lord of the Rings at this time and MERP to me was my idea of a perfect game.  Idea that is, not execution.  This was also one of the issues I had had in my collection before finding all the others. Anyway on to the issue.
Up first of course is the cover.   A barbarian looking dude with a bard watch a spaceship.  So very 80s to me.  The artist is Peter Andrew Jones, who is unknown to me.

The editorial covers what could be be the first time I have seen LARPs covered. Ian Livingstone discusses "Planet Photon" a Laser Tag like place.

Jon Smithers has an article on Government, Law and Conflict for any FRPG. I remember finding it neat and great material for the project I was working on then, The Urban Survival Guide.

Open Box reviews the new RuneQuest from Avon Hill.  It's a pricey one too for 1985.  The "DeLuxe" ed was £39.95, the Gamemaster's Box was £26.95 and the Player's Box was £20.95. There are minor tweaks from the 1st Ed/Chaosium rules.  Oliver Dickinson gives it a solid 9/10.  The only other product reviewed is one from Marcus Rowland, Traveller Adventure 12. It gets 7/10.

Next up is a Star Trek adventure using a Constitution-class starship's senior officers.   Starfall is a great idea I think. The adventure reads like so much of the FASA material of this time in the Movie era before TNG.  While there are some Trek specific plot points it could be adapted to any sort of SciFi game.

Heroes & Villains is a new feature catering to Super Hero RPGs.  The first article is about Megavillains and it uses the Golden Heroes system.   Let's be honest, without the Joker, Batman is just a psychopath in a bat costume. Megavillians make the game.  I have to admit when I went back to read this article this week I kept thinking about this scene.

The Dawn of Unlight is an AD&D/MERP adventure from Graham Staplehurst. I always loved the idea of playing in Middle Earth, but never found the right group to do it with.   The adventure is simple enough and there is not much here to mark it as "Tolkien" save the location, but it was still great fun for me when I first saw it.

Phil Masters has Modern day Ninjas for basically all other games except FRPGS.

Fiend Factory has some desert monsters including some Desert Orcs that are nothing at all like mine. Other monsters include Sand Golems, Cactus Cats and Sand Snipers which is like a sand dwelling squid.

More from Crawling Chaos. A new cult.
Treasure Chest has some cool AD&D spells that I remember using back in the day.

A full color ad for the first Dragonlance novel dominates the last part of the issue.

We end with ads, small ads and letters.

Ok. So this issue is a step up from the last few.  The FF monsters are not inspiring  but the spells and adventure is great for AD&D fans.  I liked seeing the Trek adventure and the addition of more games (Golden Heroes and MERP) was nice.

May Monster Maddness: Dracula

Dracula is an old favorite here at The Other Side.
I have seen just about every movie featuring the Count, read scores of books about him and I was even in the play back in High School.

So it is with some excitement and trepidation that I report on the new series coming to NBC.

The trailer looks interesting and I am glad it is set in the Victorian Era rather than modern times.



The trailer looks good, and it seems to be a retelling of the Dracula novel and/or play.  There is a character named "Browning" in the cast that I am sure is a nod to Todd Browning.

It stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers from The Tudors as Dracula, so that is a good start.
Sure he is a bit young looking, but that is not a big deal.
I see they are going with the "immortal love" angle from recent movies though.  Not fond of that idea BUT it does give Drac a reason not to kill Mina right away and prolong a series.

I would have preferred to see to see this on Showtime or HBO, but hey at least we are getting something right?

I am looking forward to this.  Should be on the air about the same time True Blood takes their season finale.

Enjoy this? Please check out the other monster posts today!

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!