Kickstart Your Weekend: Barrel Rider Games

James Spahn over at Barrel Rider Games has been quietly releasing a steady stream of work for Labyrinth Lord and Old-School Games for a couple of years now.

I have posted a number of times about BRG over the years and reviewed a lot of his work.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/search?q=barrel+rider+games

Where BRG really shines is getting out PDFs of a single class for a buck.   You don't have to buy everything they make, but there is certainly something for everyone.

So it is my pleasure to let you all know about BRG's fund-raising drive to get some new equipment to put out the Class Compendium.  Promising to over 200 pages (and I expect it will be more than that even) the BRG Class Compendium will feature some of class from his catalog with plenty of updates to some of the earlier ones.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/class-compendium-for-labyrinth-lord

He is asking for a modest $550 via Indiegogo.  Which honestly I feel is reasonable.  You are making an investment in his company and getting nice book of classes in return.  Also this means the BRG can keep doing what they have been doing the best; short sweet pdfs for a buck.

I think this is a good cause.  You spend some money, you get a book.

You can also find him on the web at:
https://www.facebook.com/BarrelRiderGames

Owl & Weasel Wednesday #16 May 1976

It's Spring of 1976.  I remember my parents putting up this red, white and blue wallpaper in my room around this time.  It had all sorts of colonial pictures with it including one of the declaration of Independence.  Why is this important? It isn't!  But it was what I remember from the time.
The time is May 1976 and the magazine is Owl & Weasel #16.

Well the BIG news of this issue is of course the overview/review of Supplement III Eldritch Wizardry.  EW is, without a doubt one of the most influential books introduced to me back in the days of my early game playing.   Depsite the fact that all this material later became part of AD&D, the fact that at one time additional material was a revelation to me.  Druids, Demons, Psionics, Artifacts.  Really. It was everything I loved about AD&D in a "Basic" D&D package.  It is no wonder then that I own 4 copies today.   My favorite part of this?  The last paragraph where Ian Livingstone mentions that there is so much in this book that Gygax and Blume can't possibly dream up more material for the game!

The Page 2 Editorial talks about how Ian and Steve will be going to America the first week of July till September. They plan to visit the TSR headquarters.  There is also talk of the UK's first D&D Con when they get back.  I find this interesting because I wrote a Chill adventure that begins on a TransAtlantic Flight from London to New York in July 1976.   I think for my own amusement I might place Steve and Ian on that same flight and they can interact briefly with the characters!

Page 3 has more on EW and the D&D Society news.

Page 4 to 5 has some book reviews on game books.   They are written though as if all the readers are already familiar with the books.   Was this an artifact of the time, the place or the hobby?  Not sure.

Letters.  Hmmm.  One looks sincere and legit, the others all look like fakes/bad attempts at humor.  We occasionally saw these in White Dwarf as well.

Pages 6 and 7 have a true oddity for me.  "Friday in Dundee" is a basic sort of RPG where players can take on the persona of nearly any sort of character; though only a couple of characters are provided.  You are given some basic information and you are supposed to collect Benefit Points.  I failed to mention that this game was made in Japan by a company that usually makes surgery equipment.  I did some looking and I can't find anything on it.   Anyone know anything more?

Moving on there are articles of "Competitive" D&D, which has some interesting ideas, but I see why it never caught on.

In other news, Avon Hill buys the American game company 3M gaining the rights to Speed Circuit, Feudal, Stocks & Bonds among others.

So this issue goes to show that once again the past is not really as far back as I sometimes thought it was.  A lot of what passes for RPG history or lore is often shrouded in some mysterious "bygone age".  It wasn't, not really.  Once D&D was brand new and people felt three supplements were enough.   Actually, I have run into people like that this week.

Link roundup

I have had a few links from the last week of Halloween and wanted to do something with each one, but instead here they are en masse.

10 Sites to Make Your Halloween Games Better
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2017-10-Sites-to-Make-Your-Halloween-Games-Better#.VFROvPnF_ZS#ixzz3I6qzMfGQ
Over at EN World Charles Akins of Dyvers Campaign has written another guest post of 10 RPG sites you can use to make your Halloween/Horror gaming better.  Yours truly gets picked at #5.

Witches on TV and in Books
Of course this time of years gives us a lot of witch related posts.

Television, Toil and Trouble: The Witches Of TV
http://www.themarysue.com/television-toil-and-trouble/
A pretty cool article on all the witches on TV now and some notable ones from the past.  I appreciate that the leading photo is of Willow and Tara.

Why Witches on TV Spell Trouble in Real Life
http://time.com/3532279/witches-halloween-salem/
A silly article (not silly funny, but silly not very intelligent) about witches and wish fulfillment. It is like the editors of Time said "we need an article on witches, it's Halloween.  Make it snappy, with references to TV shows but make it topical with references to terrorism."

11 Witches From Fiction Who Embody What Feminism Really Means
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/31/witches-literature_n_6057684.html
An interesting look into witches from literature.

While Children Sleep, Their Stuffed Teddy Bears Fight Away Horrors Under Their Beds [Short Film]
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2014/11/02/while-children-sleep-their-stuffed-teddy-bears-fight-away-horrors-under-their-beds-short-film/#pcvE1KzFcveleZhk.99
A cool little short film that is a good representation of what I was trying to do with "Kids Stuff: Bogeys, Imaginary Friends and Childhood Terrors".

Plus I updated my own Witch Links page with several witch related blog posts.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/p/witches.html

What Am I Working On and Why You Won't See Me Much

There might be a dramatic drop in my postings here for November.

I have two projects I need to finish up.  Strange Brew and Darwin's Guide.
I have two projects I am starting that I can't talk about yet that I need to get started on.

I have already decided I am going to take a long break from Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, all of them) and focus on hard core writing, editing and developing.

So if you need me, email is the best. If it is an emergency then my phone.  If you don't have my phone number then it really can't be that big of an emergency!

I still have some reviews I want to get out, so it is not going to silent running all month.

Halloween Head Count

Checking on my numbers for my October Movie Challenges.

2014
39 Total Watched,  26 New

2013
35 Total Watched, 30 New

2012
33 Total Watched, 24 New

2011
31 Total Watched, 24 New.

Not too bad really.
Got in some horror-related gaming in too.  No new releases; Eldritch Witchery came out in 2013 and The Witch in 2012.  But still a fun month.

October Movie Challenge: Mad Scientist Marathon

I have a mini marathon of movies I have watched in the last few hours.  All dealing with Vampires and Mad Scientists (give or take)

The Vampire Bat (1933)
This one turns some of the vampire tropes into plot fodder and features a mad scientist that needs human blood to keep his new creation alive.  An older flick but fun.  It features the ever impressive Faye Wray and Dwight Frye.  Frye of course played one of the first ever Renfields in 1931's Dracula.  I am struck by how good his range was and his performances reminds me of Andy Serkis.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
This of course features a song about Faye Wray and a mad scientist.  No real vampire, but they do come from Transylvania. I have seen this one hundreds of times of course, but I still enjoy it.  It is though no where near as fun on TV as it is in the theaters.
I have to admit I have always wanted to write a Buffy RPG adventure based on this.  Have players play the original cast.  Great for an adult themed Con game I am sure.  Gotta get worked down to 4 hours.

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009)
Man. I have no idea where to start with this one.  Dracula and Frankenstein's monster battle it out.  IF they were both super cute Japanese school girls.  There is so much blood and gore in this movie. but it is comical and beyond over the top. Plus stereotypes of all sorts of Japanese cultural fads.  It's insane.  The big battle on top of Tokyo Tower is the climax of the movie.
The interesting bit is the mad scientist (who is related to Frankenstein) uses vampire blood to animate the corpses.

Might get to more tonight.
--

Tally so far:  39 Total Watched / 26 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

Skylla: The Complete B/X Adventurer

Been a while since my last Skylla post.  Longer than I care to admit really.
But something popped up in my feed in my feed today to make me want to get this particular post done.  Plus it is great for a Halloween post.

+Jonathan Becker over at B/X Blackrazor has been talking about witches, and his The Complete B/X Adventurer witch in particular.  What I like about his witch class is that while it is compatible with Basic Era D&D, it is also very different than my own witch from The Witch.  I have always wondered how well they interacted with each other and how his played.

If you like you can compare this version with my Eldritch Witchery version and +Joseph Bloch's Adventures Dark & Deep version.

Skylla, 7th Level Witch, "Initiate"

Strength: 9
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 14*
Wisdom: 13*
Charisma: 12

Hit Points:  20 (d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
AC: 4 (Ring of Protection +1)

Special Abilities
1st: Book of Shadows, bind wounds (heal 1d4)
6th: Brew Potions

Spells
Maximum Spell Level: 3rd
Number of Spells know: 14
1st Level (4): Charm Person, Detect Magic, Hex, Ugliness,
2nd Level (6): Cause Fear, Disguise, Eldritch Flame, Familiar Spirit, Hold Person, Levitate
3rd Level (4):  Bestow Curse, Hoodoo, Object Read, Wizard Lock

Additional Scribed
4th Level (2): Dispel Magic, Scrying

This witch has a lot of interesting features and a lot of spell potential.  Not only will she end up with a lot of spells, her spells go up to 10th level!

I think I would have liked to see some more special abilities/powers to seperate her more from the Wizard, but this is a really cool class.

Playing with this Witch and my Witch
There is no reason why both witches can't exist in the same game.  After all Jonathan and I both used B/X-style D&D as our starting points.  So these two witches have a lot in common from the word go. While their styles of magic differ I think their overall power remains the same over the 36 levels.
I think a good test will be to take my current iconic Queen of Witches (level 36) and see how she looks under both classes.

I say take both classes, pick one you like the best. Call that one "witch" and the other one "warlock" and you are good to go.