Tuesday, October 13, 2015

October Movie Challenge: Horns (2013)

Ig Parish is having a terrible day.  His girlfriend was raped and murdered and now he has these two horns growing from his head.  Now everyone wants to tell him their deepest, darkest secrets.

Horns (2013) marks the return of both Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple to my horror reviews.  I have made a couple of decisions here.  First, Daniel Radcliffe is a phenomenal actor.  Second, Juno Temple is not.  Sorry. I really wanted to like her but she just was not that good in this.

The story here is interesting and Daniel Radcliffe makes Ig as about as distant from Harry Potter as you can make it.  No reason is given as to why he grows these horns and gains his powers, but none it really needed.

Game wise I think I want to redouble my reclassification of fiends and only have devils as fallen angels.  Everything else is a demon or something like that.

Stats
9 Watched / 7 New




Monday, October 12, 2015

A Week with Venger Satanis: Liberation of the Demon Slayer

It's the month of Halloween!  Though I understand many people still call it "October".  Fine. Whatever.

I thought this month I would spend some quality time with products that fit the theme of Halloween.  While putting together my list I realized I had a bunch of products from Kortthalis Publishing and +Venger Satanis.  I thought, what the hell, lets make a week of it.

Venger has had an interesting time in the RPG biz.  I remember talking to him shortly after he was banned from RPG.net and we discussed our respective horror games.  He has had a nice rise recently as an OSR publisher and has a few nice titles under his belt.

Lately he has been promoting something he calls O5R, which I have to admit it very clever, or products that can be played with either old-school games and their clones or with the newest 5th edition game.  It is a solid strategy really.  I have demonstrated time and again to myself at least that you can freely mix the two in terms of adventures.  I would imagine that goes even further.

Today though I want to start with one of his first OSR books.

Liberation of the Demon Slayer
I first picked this up near when it was released.  Since then I have considered it a potential entry in my War of the Witch Queens adventure path.

The adventure is six levels and 70 pages.  VS suggests using 3 0-level characters per player and let everything work out, or a large party of 1st level characters.   Nothing is mentioned on how many players, but I am guessing 6 to 8.

There is some background given about the world this adventure lives in.  They are all optional, but it does set the mood for the rest of the book.   I found the bits about Snake-men and elves to be interesting.  The adventure is steeped in a lot of Lovecraftian tropes and we are introduced to some of the "Old Ones" here, albeit with different names.

If you, like me, love eldritch abominations and dark magic then this the adventure for you. The adventure itself "sounds" simple enough. Retrieve a demon killing sword from the caves to stop the demons attack your village. Easy peasy. Trouble is that the author grew up when dungeons-as-meat-grinders were a thing and everyone was afraid the big bad devil was going to get you. This adventure though is closer in tone and danger to the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen than it is to most Lamentations of the Flame Princess products. With the right DM this could be a great and dangerous adventure where the party could live. Sure they could all easily die too. One can read this and imagine that all of the author's games are a bit like it.

Actually I have known the author for a number of years and yeah this is exactly the kind of things I expect in his games. I think the difference here with this adventure and some of his earlier material is there is a maturity here to accept the absurd. This adventure can be played straight or with a dash of dark humor. Think of it as a horror movie, even the scariest have a touch of humor to them; it sets you up for the bigger punch later down the road.

The adventure proper gets going about page 17.  We are treated to rumors, some background, wandering monsters and some maps of the first level.  The maps have been drawn by +Dyson Logos , so you know that these will be interesting.  The feel of the first 4-5 pages of the adventure is really one of pure old-school nostalgia.   The first level is a bit of meat grinder, by design, and there are a lot things going on here that would make the hard-core Gygazian adventure fan happy.  Going back a bit it becomes obvious that the "optional" information above is still rather important since it colors the actions of many of the inhabitants in this dungeon.

As you descend into the dungeon things get weirder and more deadly.  I mean really, really deadly.  Devil lords, liches, vampires, freaking lasers and a nuclear warhead.  Yeah, VS really cut his teeth on the 70s and 80s era gaming.

I want to take a moment to talk about the art. Yes there is a lot gore, nudity and phantasmagorical horror here.   It comes off though more as "Heavy Metal" than say "Hustler".  All I can really say is that it fits the aesthetic of the book.   In truth I had more of an issue with the sci-fi elements (even though there were very good reasons for them to be there) than I had with the nudity.

The demon-slaying sword Kalthalax is an interesting weapon. One that would have a good home in my regular games to be honest and one that is enough of a hook to make me want to find a way to work this adventure in.   Maybe I can make Clavenus a witch instead of a wizard.

In any case there is a lot of fun to be had with this adventure; if you don't mind the occasional casualty.  I think what helps here is while the adventure is a meat grinder, it is done just to rid the party of the weak.  They are expected to survive and tell people the tales of their great adventure.

While VS takes the care to make sure this works with nearly any old-school game (and in the future he fits 5e into that as well), I can't help but think how well this would work with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.  The background is similar and the elves in Demon Slayer would be a nice addition to AS&SH, which does not have any elves.  Indeed, elves would seem like souless, demon-like monsters compared to humans. At least to humans that have never seen an elf before.   There is a mix of demons, devils and Lovecraftian beasts/gods that somehow feels right for that world. Mixing in AS&SH to this would give you something very, very close to playing akin to Michael Moorcock's world.

Curiously enough in my own games I do have an epic weapon for killing demons. In my current world state this sword is lost and a quest is needed to recover it. Maybe this is what I need. If so then the value of this adventure just increased ten-fold for me. I am going to have to spend some quality time with it and a pencil to see if it can be recrafted into something that fits my world a little better.

However YOU decided to use this adventure I am sure it will be fun.  Maybe deadly fun, but certainly fun.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Zatannurday: Spider-Gwen Movie Trailer

I make no excuses for my love of Spider-Gwen.  In fact she really is one of the very few Marvel characters I like these days enough to talk about here.  Yeah, I like the movies and REALLY looking forward to Doctor Strange, but I would really love an Emma Stone starring Spider-Gwen movie.

Apparently I am not alone.



No chance in hell we will ever see this. But fans can always hope right?

Friday, October 9, 2015

Friday Night Videos: The Pale Emperor

ITS OCTOBER! THE MONTH OF HALLOWEEN IS HERE!!!

Can you tell I am excited?  Something about a crisp chill in the air makes me want to pull out the World of Darkness books and play Vampire or Mage.
(BTW have you seen the Mage 20th Anniversary edition? I looks insane!)

Fall make me think of World of Darkness and WoD makes me think of Marilyn Manson!

There is just something about Manson singing "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It seems so perfect.



From Smells Like Children.  I always loved this cover.


The World of Darkness is all about drugs. Blood. Magic or what have you these are the drugs of the game and that is what the games are all about.



Another great cover, but also a pretty cool video.   Reminds me a bit of Cult of Personality. Well if "Living Colour" was a heavy goth band.  Course the original by Depeche Mode works just as well.


I have featured this one before.   Likely will again.



There are more. But this is good for now.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Spellbook Gaming Boxes

I love seeing things on Kickstarter that I have never seen before.   Today's feature certainly qualifies.

Spellbook Gaming Boxes


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1584169644/spellbook-gaming-boxes/

I mean seriously.  These look so cool.
I particularly love the one that can hold the four minis and the dice.  My first though went right to my iconic witch character Larina.  I have four different minis to represent her at different power levels, and I always have some nice dice.



Now if they only had a pentagram for the cover!

Thursday, October 8, 2015

October Movie Challenge: Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979)

I do feel the need to point out that just because a movie is from the 70s that's doesn't mean I am going to like it.   Case in point this cinematic turd known as Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula.

On paper it has a lot going for it.
John Carradine turning in his last role as Dracula.
Yvonne De Carlo, though given the really unfortunate name of Jugulia Vein.  What is this a Scooby-Doo movie?
Brother Theodore in a Reinfield like role.  Brother Theodore was just an odd dude.  He has never really ceased to entertain me. ....Till now.
Even Nai Bonet, whom I was sure couldn't act, at least would look good in the part.

It has some things that gave me pause,  Like renaming Dracula's Castle as Hotel Transylvania 33+ years before Adam Sandler did.

But when I realized this was going to be a disco-dance movie I should have ran.  But dear readers I am committed.

Lets be honest. This is a terrible movie. I wasn't expecting much, but I was hoping for more than this.  Carradine's talents are wasted on this, even more so that "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula".  Nai Bonet is just bad. She is a great dancer to be sure, but her acting is so bad.
It also strikes me that there are a lot of similarities between this movie and "Love At First Bite".

In the end nothing really can save this movie.  I can't even find something small in it for a game.


Stats
8 Watched / 6 New




October Movie Challenge: Simon King of Witches (1971)

There is something about the 70s Occult Revival that keeps me coming back for more.  This movie has been in my queue since the summer so I was really looking forward to it.
It starts kind of slow and you are never really sure at the start if "Simon Sinestrari" is a real witch or just a con man.  But as the movie goes on the magic is played as being very, very real.
I have to admit I was surprised by the performance of Andrew Prine.  Not that I didn't think he was a good actor, but because he played the role of Simon with such earnestness.

The horror elements are few, but many of the occult trappings are good. There is a camp to it that doesn't quite allow the movie to be fully comedy, satire or even supernatural horror.  Though there are some good scenes.  I liked his whole astral-projection bit, more late 60s than 70s. I also liked the part when he is about to make a sacrifice for his big spell and he ponders how he must not be done with violence yet in this life.  A wholly cheesy line but Prine pulls it off with earnestness and even conviction.
Brenda Scott on the other hand was sleep-walking through her role as Linda, the love interest. I found her neither convincing nor interesting.  Heck, Simon had better on screen chemistry with Turk the young male prostitute he befriends.  In fact there was more emotion in the scene where Simon removes Turk's memory of him so he would not get caught up in his magical doings than any scene with Linda.
I ended up liking it more than I anticipated, but not as much as I wanted to like it.

It was a good one to watch along with The Devil Rides Out.  Two differing views of occult ceremonial magic.

Simon of course would make for a great NPC in a modern horror game.  Something about the setting and how he was portrayed makes me think Chill more than say Buffy or World of Darkness.
He is not entirely evil, but he is also not entirely good either.  He would play like a bargain basement Aleister Crowley; a human with some magical power that now thinks he is akin to the gods. This can be threatening or comical depending on how you want to play it.


Stats
7 Watched / 5 New