Horror

The 90s Syndicate

/ jstater / 4 Comments

It was 1987, and I was super excited in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. This was not uncommon in childhood, of course – it just took an awesome prize in a box of sugar goodness – but I was a teenager in ’87 and the excitement was due to an ad for something called Star Trek: The Next Generation on the back of a cereal box. This was my introduction to the show, and I remember telling my dad – the source of my Star Trek love – about how cool it looked, with a new ship, new crew … and that there was going to be a klingon on the Enterprise!

Back in the 80’s, syndicated TV was mostly the domain of game shows like Wheel of Fortune until Star Trek: The Next Generation showed up. I remember that it was a big story when The Next Generation managed to beat Wheel of Fortune’s ratings. Fast forward 30+ years, and though I’m sorry to say the show doesn’t do much for me these days, I am thankful for the syndicated TV goodness it helped spawn.

The syndicated shows of the 90’s almost never had as much budget as they needed, but they were all cool and creative. Because of the time in which they were made, they have a distinct look that I suspect really triggers good vibes for many Gen-X’ers.

Here are a few of my favorites – check them out if they’re new to you, or renew an old friendship if you remember them from way back when:

The Flash (1990-1991)

Not syndicated, but I sorta wish it had been after it was cancelled. We’ve been watching these lately, having scored a super cheap DVD set of the complete series at Zia Records, and I must say I’m enjoying them. The show was far from perfect, but it had some great moments and I genuinely like the people in it. The sad thing about Flash is that it only made it to TV because of the success of 1989’s Batman, and as a result ended up with a Danny Elfwood score and an awkward aesthetic borrowed from Batman and Dick Tracy. The style just seems out of place to me, and though it doesn’t ruin the shows, it doesn’t help them either. On the other hand, it’s full of absolutely beautiful mid-century cars, so that’s pretty cool. The Flash costume was a little jarring as well, but c’est la vie.

We were watching some of the new Flash episodes, but gradually got out of them when they did the stupid time travel bit for the umpteenth time. I really loved see Shipp reprise his role in the series, though.

Oh – and who doesn’t love Amanda Pays? So smart and cool – on Flash as well as Max Headroom. She did a fun guest appearance on Psych as a date for Corbin Bernsen’s character on the series, which is another family favorite.

I think my favorite Flash episode is “Beat the Clock”, which has a pre-What’s Love Got to Do With It Angela Bassett, and good performances by Ken Foree and Thomas Mikal Ford.

Highlander: The Series (1992-1997)

In my normal backwards way, I discovered this show way before I saw the movie … and if I’m honest, when I finally saw the movie I preferred Adrian Paul to Christopher Lambert as the immortal. I think it was that darn overcoat they had him wearing in the movie – looked like it belonged on Harpo Marx. I did enjoy introducing my daughter to the Kurgan, though, and then revealing he was the voice of Mr. Krabs.

Being a history-buff, I loved all the past lives of Duncan McLeod. I think I enjoyed the stuff set in the past more than that set in the modern day. I remember being super-jazzed to see Roland Gift from Fine Young Cannibals and Roger Daltry in some episodes. Highlander really had some legs, but I didn’t stick with it all the way to the end … by 1997 I was married and about a year away from having a kid, so life sort of got in the way. Still, the awesome opening will always stick with me. God bless Freddie Mercury!

Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-1990)

Okay – this series sort of screws up my premise that Next Generation led the way with cool syndicated shows, since it was also first-run syndication and showed up at about the same time. Oh well – it’s my story and I’m sticking to it, facts or no facts!

I don’t have a long-term relationship with the horror genre. I was never into the Friday the 13th movies, or really any contemporary horror movies in my youth. I didn’t grow up with that stuff, so all the blood and guts and shock horror really freaked me out. Classic Universal horror movies I could do … but Leatherface, Jason, Freddie, Michael Myers, flesh-eating zombies, etc. – no sir. Not my cup of tea.

That’s why I don’t know how I ended up watching Friday the 13th: The Series. It has almost nothing to do with the movies – I might remember there being some tiny thread connecting them, but I’m not sure. The premise – which would work beautifully for a horror RPG campaign, is as follows:

Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. Now, his niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan have inherited the store… and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back, and the real terror begins.

It now occurs to me why I started watching it – Louise Robey as Micki. She was pretty darn cute. Still, it was the show’s concept that got me to stick with the show. Each week, a new evil artifact was introduced and off the two leads went, trying to bring it back to the shop to end the curse. It was much more in the vein of Outer Limits than gory 80’s horror movies. I remember it fondly, and should really check back into it.

She-Wolf of London / Love & Curses (1990-1991)

Originally titled She Wolf of London, I caught one or two of the later episodes when it was renamed Love & Curses , and always wanted to see more. A bunch of them are posted on YouTube (how do they not get fined a billion bucks a year for aiding and abetting copyright violations?), but I’m happy to say I picked up the entire series on DVD last week for $12 – sweet price, even I end up not liking them much.

In this series, a woman named Randi Wallace (played by Kate Hodge) who travels to England to study the occult is attacked by a werewolf on the moors and becomes a lycanthrope. Her companion, Professor Ian Matheson (played by Neil Dickson), helps her deal with her curse while they run around encountering all sorts of supernatural evils and stuff. I love good, old fashioned episodic TV with fun characters.

Love & Curses could be a good set-up for a campaign as well, with one PC having a werewolf curse (or something similar) and the others having to survive dangerous adventures AND their dangerous friend.

And yeah, I had a thing for Kate Hodge as well …

So what 80’s/90’s syndicated stuff do you remember loving? Let me know in the comments – remember, sharing is caring!

An English Vampire in Africa

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Hey folks – it’s a three day weekend in these parts, so I’m still on schedule with a post every weekend.

I was going to do a Dragon-by-Dragon today, but instead decided to write about a little B-movie I finished watching last night, the 1945 “classic” The Vampire’s Ghost. While the movie does not involve a vampire’s ghost, it is a better movie than it has a right to be, possibly because it was written by Leigh Brackett. If you don’t know who Leigh Brackett is, well go find out. She was a classic sci-fi author, and did some fine screenwriting on The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo and The Long Goodbye. The film we’re talking about today was her first such effort, and in it she brings more talent to the picture than one would expect of a low-budget Republic film.

She’s joined in this by the the villain in the piece, John Abbott. Just to maintain the Star Trek theme I’ve been on for a while, he played the lead Organian in the episode “Errand of Mercy”. In this picture, he plays the vampire, and I think he’s one of my favorites. In classic Hollywood, the Vampire didn’t usually have much depth, and was often played for shock value. Bela Lugosi’s turn as Dracula is an exception, of course.

It also helps that the movie is based loosely on “The Vampyre” written by John William Polidori in 1816. Between Polidori, Brackett and Abbott, you get a hidden nugget from the studio days of Hollywood.

In The Vampire’s Ghost, Abbott plays Webb Fallon, an English vampire who has “lived” at least since the days of the Spanish Armada. He brings a really rate matter-of-factness to his vampire portrayal – he’s not happy about his condition, but he shows no remorse for his victims, and he mostly uses his ability to hypnotize and control people to get away with it. In the film, he is now running a drinking establishment in the African town of Bakunda. As in Dracula, the movie wastes little time in revealing that the mysterious killer around Bakunda is a vampire, and that Fallon is that vampire. The natives discover it first, and the “hero” of the picture, Roy Hendrick (Charles Gordon) is soon clued in, but is hypnotized by Fallon before he can do anything about it. Strange for many such movies, the supposed hero spends most of the movie unable to do anything against the villain. The vampire really is the protagonist in the film, making all the moves and committing his villainy unrestrained until … well, I won’t give everything away.

The main point here is that, in this largely forgotten B-movie, there’s a really cool vampire depiction thanks largely to two talented people, Leigh Brackett and John Abbott, and despite the low budget and relative apathy of Republic Pictures. To tie this in to roleplaying games, the Webb Fallon vampire should give a good game master some ideas about playing a vampire in a game in a way that might surprise the players.

Check it out, if you have a mind to …

A Few Thoughts on Horror

/ jstater / 2 Comments
Virgil Finlay, folks

I’m not an expert on horror. I like some old flicks, but I’ve never been into the buckets-of-blood stuff and human fear and misery aren’t high on my list of things I find entertaining. Nevertheless, I was pondering a few ideas this Halloween about making horror work in games, and thought they might be of use, especially to folks who haven’t run too many games. None of these items are mechanics-based, just things to use while narrating/refereeing a game.

1. Be Descriptive

Game mechanics are usually pretty cut-and-dry. Roll d20, if it’s above X you hit for damage. If not, you miss. For most games, and most combats, it works well enough to leave it at that. For a horror game, you probably want to embellish. For a game to be scary, you have to make it visceral and to some extent personal for the players, and you don’t have the same tricks that are available to authors (i.e. complete control of the action and tempo) and filmmakers (i.e. mood lighting, quick cuts, etc.). Language is one way to do this.

Here’s an example, in this case from a non-horror game I’m running on G+. Just some adventurers, plodding across the desert, who run into some weird spires sticking up from the sand. They decide to camp, and find themselves nearly surrounded by weird columns of moving sand – sand things as I called them (I never use actual monster names unless it’s pretty obvious or just doesn’t matter). The group decides to make a run for it, and I roll some dice and determine that they escape successfully. I could have just written:

“You escape them. What do you want to do now?”

Instead, I wrote:

“You take off across the sands, between the advancing sand things, and feel them crash behind you, as they attempt to close the gaps. They fail, though you can feel the sand on your necks.

As you run, you can feel the sand shifting beneath your feet, as though somebody was trying to pull a carpet from under them, and you can almost sense the swell of golden sands behind you, like a wave preparing to crest and then bash you into the dust.

Luckily, you are swift enough, and after ten solid minutes of adrenaline-fueled running you finally collapse on the sand. All is quite, and you believe that, whatever they were, they are no longer behind you. You no longer see the spires behind you.”

Hopefully, that made the game more fun for the players, and leaves them wondering if the encounter is really over (and if you’re one of those players … it might not be).

You can do something similar with horror games – narrate things, especially minor things that aren’t really important, for frightening effect. Describe the way things feel, sound and smell, especially if they are robbed of their sight. Linger on the faces of the people with whom they deal – provide clues to what is happening in their minds that can be read in multiple ways.

2. Make It Count

Most role playing games are about conflict, fighting monsters (of some sort) and exploring the unknown. The good news – these are all elements of horror. The bad news – you use these elements every dang time you play. If you walked into a dark alley and run into a beholder, you would be traumatized. For your players, it just means it’s game night. Big deal.

So – you need to find a way to make it count. The loss for the characters has to be more than a loss of gold or experience points. All those undead monsters that do level drain are one way to scare players, but you can also put other things in the pot that mean something to the characters, and I mean you need to put them in the pot, not the players themselves. Threaten something that is important to the character because it is important to the player playing the character. A player who gets off on combat but doesn’t give a rip about his character’s fictional family is not going to react to his fictional parents being threatened by something horrible. Losing a hand, however, might really bug him.

Know your players, figure out what will bother them, what will cause their stomachs to knot, and then use it against them. At least one player and character, maybe more but possibly not all, must be threatened with a loss that will drive them through the game.

3. Hold Things Back

I just told you a minute ago to be descriptive. Not I’m going to tell you to keep silent. Silence in a pen & paper game is the equivalence of darkness in a movie. The players should be groping about, certain that something terrible is happening, but uncertain as to exactly why or how or when. I use the word “or” advisedly. Don’t keep them in the dark about everything. Keep one thing – why, how, or when – completely secret. They’ll never know until it’s too late. Have one of those things obscured but discover-able. The third thing should be evident early in the game.

For example – at midnight, the village of Vark will cease to be. How? It will be swallowed into Hell due to the actions of one person, the local butcher. Why? They’ll never know … but you know it is because of an otherwise innocent act he will perform for an aggrieved widow. All the players will know is that he is the key, and they’ll have to keep on guard to stop terrible things from happening.

4. Tension vs. Surprise

This is a tip from Alfred Hitchcock, as regards to making thrillers. I think it is applicable to games, and it requires you to do something you normally do not do.

In his interviews with Truffaut, Hitchcock describes the difference between building tension and using surprise. He uses the example of two people sitting at a table talking. A time bomb is beneath the table.

If you want surprise and shock, you don’t let the audience know about the bomb. All of a sudden, there is an explosion. The audience is surprised for a moment, and that is all.

If you want tension, you must let them know the bomb is under the table, and is about the go off. They’re now sweating it out, waiting to discover if the characters will find the bomb, or otherwise escape the danger. With this technique, you can keep the audience tensed up for a few minutes rather than for just a split second.

You can find a good example of this in his film Rope, as well as in a sequence in the movie Sabotage.

In a game, you might pull this off by allowing the players, through their characters, witness a dangerous scene without being able to do anything about it. This can get old, though, and takes way a crucial element of the fun of these games, which is that players have a hand in the action.

Another way is to let the players peek into the mechanics of the game. Let them know how much time they have to stop something, and then take them through the process of stopping it. For example – to defuse the bomb that’s about to go off requires three rolls of the dice. With each roll, the players get closer to success or death.

To make it even more tense, let them know that they dice they must roll are hidden around the room. They have one minute to find them and roll them. Or present them with three dice of different colors. One grants a +5 bonus to the roll, one a -5 penalty and one no bonus or penalty. Give them a minute in which to decide and roll a dice.

5. The Joys of Paranoia

Here’s something I’ve used in my games. It helps if you have a group of friends playing who want the game to be fun and successful, but with strangers you might be able to bribe them to make it work.

I’ll pass a note to a player. It says something like, “Look worried and then make eye contact with me and nod in agreement.” If a bribe was necessary, I might add: “You get 500 XP for doing this.”

The others now suspect their pal knows something they don’t, and they suspect that something is happening beneath their very noses that is dangerous and THEY CANNOT SEE IT! Even worse, their so-called buddy knows and isn’t saying anything. Isn’t doing anything. WHY ISN’T HE DOING SOMETHING TO WARN US?!

You get the idea. It’s a cheap trick and only effective when used sparingly. It helps with creating that “darkness” I mentioned earlier.

6. Provide Enough Rope

Not the “50 feet of” variety, but allow the players to make choices that get them deeper into the horror. With each choice, they are presented with new choices, but those new choices need to get incrementally worse. Since this is a horror game, there doesn’t ever need to be a perfectly pure, good choice to make.

These choices, by the way, also help bring about the recriminations among the characters/players that fuel many horror movies. The team has to stick together to survive, but it gets harder and harder to do when those other idiots keep making you do things you didn’t want to do and which keep making things worse. You don’t want to end friendships, of course, but a little intra-party tension can help make the game work.

7. Oversell It

Here’s something I learned from the good old days of comic book covers. I’m talking about the pre-pinup covers – things like this:

Found at Diversions of the Groovy Kind, natch!

You know Ka-Zar is not actually going to die, of course (though Doom might get punched in the face by a mummy) … but you don’t know how things will actually play out in the comic book. I still dig those covers, and they still make me want to read the book to see how the cover is lying to me.

In our case, you start the game by casually mentioning that one of the characters is going to die in this session, you’re sure of it. This puts everyone on edge. It might also be a complete lie, but the point is to get them worried.

Of course, sometimes those cover blurbs actually come true …

… until she returns  as a clone, Spider-Gwen and whatever else Marvel comes up with in the next few years …

8. The Old Switcheroo

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again. If you want to run a Lovecraftian horror game, your worst move is probably pulling Call of Cthulhu out and openly running a session of it for the players. This isn’t a dig against the game, but rather a commentary on how Lovecraft (and Poe, and many other horror writers) wrote their books. Those authors wrote stories about how unsuspecting, normal people suddenly found their way into supernatural situations they could not escape without giving something up (sanity, parts of their body, a loved one, etc.).

If you’re playing CoC, the one thing the players know (or think they know) is that they’re going to run into a Lovecraftian monstrosity. Thus, the game defeats the genre. I’ve suggested that pulling out the old James Bond RPG would be a great way to run a Lovecraft scenario. Everyone is primed for espionage, and then something odd happens and before they know, it’s all spiraling out of control.

Let’s use another example from Hitchcock on how to sucker people in. When people went to see Psycho for the first time (and my daughter and her friend recently did this, with no foreknowledge of the movie, so it still works), they saw a movie about a woman stealing money and driving to a hotel to allude the authorities. The woman was the main character. She’s on the posters. The movie, obviously, is about what happens to this woman.

And then, a few minutes in, she’s brutally murdered and never heard from again.

The old switcheroo. Now the audience doesn’t know what the hell is happening, which is exactly the frame of mind Hitchcock wanted them in to sit through the rest of the movie. Take away that which is normal and safe and expected … and in the case of fantasy games, the routine of the dungeon crawl, as weird and abnormal as it would be in real life, is normal and safe and expected.

The best way to inflict horror upon the players is to make sure they don’t know what they’re in for. Give them what appears to be a normal dungeon crawl, and let it morph, slowly at first, and then more rapidly, into a horror film. Or, how about capping off a dungeon crawl with a visit to town to buy supplies which turns into something horrible. The game seems to be bog standard. The players are expecting that the real game is the dungeon they’re going to delve back into after a quick jaunt to boring old town … and then everything goes horribly wrong.

If you have some ideas yourself about pulling off a good horror game – especially you referees who have experience with Chill and CoC and other such games – please let me know in the comments, and …

Dragon by Dragon – October 1979 (30)

/ jstater / 5 Comments

We’re baking here in Vegas , so perhaps a nice magazine from the fall of 1979 will put me into a cooler mindset.

I know – The Dragon #30! That’s the ticket!

But, of course, October isn’t about being cool. It’s about being horrified. ’79 was a good time for that, and not just because of the Carter administration. ’79 was The Amityville Horror, Alien, Phantasm, The Brood, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Dracula … and I never saw any of them. Frankly, not a horror movie fan. Let’s get to the magazine.

First – the cover. What a great cover. I love covers with lots of little details, lots of things to get the brain ticking.

Dig this from the opening of Kask’s editorial:

“As I am writing this (11 Sep), DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is getting the publicity that we used to just dream about, back when we were freezing in Gary’s basement in the beginning. If we had our ‘druthers’, it would not have happened in such a fashion. By now, as you read this, I hope the mystery surrounding the disappearance of James Egbert has been happily resolved. Whatever the circumstances of the incident, it has been a nightmare for his parents and family, as well as for TSR Hobbies, Inc. It has been speculated that James was involved in some sort of D&D game that went beyond the realm of pencil and paper roleplaying, and may have mutated into something tragic. D&D was seized upon as a possible connection to the disappearance, for a variety of reasons. First, James was an avid player. Indeed, I have met him at past conventions,
and he used to subscribe to TD.”

And so it begins. In case you don’t know, James Dallas Egbert III was a student at … well, you can read about it at Wikipedia. This may have made D&D more famous, but it also started the backlash against it by morons everywhere dedicated to ruining innocent fun. Worst of all, it led to the TV movie Mazes & Monsters, starring a young Tom Hanks. Not all the Money Pit in the world can make up for that.

The Game’s the Thing … and I Used to Think GenCon Stood for General Confusion
by Kim Mohan

You might recognize Mohan’s name. He was a the new kid at TSR when he wrote this review of GenCon XII. In short – he liked it.

Where the Orcs Are
by Steve Brown

This article features a bitchin’ miniature diorama by Steve Brown. He wanted to enter it into the miniatures contest at GenCon XII, but it didn’t fit into any categories. Nevertheless, it was awesome, and had to get some love, so …

I’m going to assume the picture in the article doesn’t do it justice. Actually, there are a dozen photos, and the underground orc castle looks incredible. Brown says it took him a year to do the thing, and it carried a price tag of $4000 at the con (which would be about $13,000 in todays dollars, proving that the geek community has never been all that swift with their time and money … thank God).

Leomund’s Tiny Hut: Good Evening
by Lenard Lakofka

This was the first of the Leomund’s Tiny Hut’s, which were usually interesting articles that covered all sorts of gaming topics. This one, appropriately enough, is about vampires. It digs into the AD&D vampire, going in depth on its abilities and answering questions gamers might have had about the monster. For example:

1) Once the vampire’s hit points are calculated (it has 8+3 HD), they do not vary – i.e. you do not re-roll hit points when it regenerates in its coffin. Back in the day, there was an idea that adventurer’s re-rolled their hit points for each adventure (an idea I actually kind of like – to represent when people are super on their game, and when they aren’t).

2) Vampires don’t want too many lesser vampires under their control – really no more than 4. It sounds like the vampire wants to make sure there are plenty of living people to feed on, so he has to take care. Like a shepherd and his flock. And lesser vampires don’t create more lesser vampires.

3) Here’s one that got me: “The Vampire’s existence on the Negative Material Plane …” Wow – dig the idea. Maybe it was widespread. A negative material plane, duplicate of our own in some ways – but probably a nightmarish version – inhabited by the undead who also have an existence in the positive material plane. Neat. And what a great place to set an epic adventure!

4) It takes 1-4 segments for a vampire to transform (a segment is a second, for those not steeped in the timekeeping of AD&D), but only 4 if the vampire is surprised. After one segment to adjust, it can be mobile. When a combat round was predicated on segment-by-segment actions, this would be valuable information.

5) It still takes a magic weapon to damage a vampire in bat form.

6) A vampire in gaseous form “scattered to the four winds” can reform in 1-100 segments (i.e. less than 2 minutes). Also – DM’s should pre-set a hit point total at which a vampire will go gaseous.

He also gives some ideas about how to properly dispose of vampires, the spells they are immune to, details on regeneration, “lesser” vampires, summoning and charming, etc. It reminds me of the “Ecology of …” articles they used to do.

Observer’s Report: ORIGINS: Chaos With a Happy Ending
by Fantasysmith

To begin with, a note:

“This OBSERVER’S REPORT is written by the same person that does FANTASYSMITH’S NOTEBOOK. He prefers to do both under the pseudonym FANTASYSMITH, for reasons that he has made clear to us, and which we will honor.”

I think I just realized that Fantasysmith was, in actuality, Richard Nixon! I have no proof yet, but I’m launching a new Kickstarter to raise $1 million to help me get to the truth.

And now, I have to quote the first line of the article:

“Fluid sugar draws bees, fluid filth draws flies, and fluid situations attract the chaotic. This last was the case at ORIGINS ’79.”

Sheer poetry.

And now, an advert …

Cool module. Cool art. And remember, “tell them you saw it in The Dragon”.

From the Sorcerer’s Scroll: New Setting for the Adventure
by Gary Gygax

Here, Gygax talks about the relationship between TSR and TSR Periodicals, and his relationship as publisher vs. Tim Kask as editor and … yeah, I know. Who cares?

He then talks about the “Mugger” article from a couple issues back, and how it is both funny and great inspiration to look at different settings for games, in this case, the mean urban streets. Gary also gives us the lowdown on an adventure he’s working on in which adventurers in a city in the World of Greyhawk delve under that city and somehow end up in a subway tunnel in the modern world. He gives these guides for the particulars:

– In the city setting, magic will work, although cleric spells above third level will not. Of course, firearms also work.

– The perils of the place — police, street gangs, muggers, criminals of other sorts, citizens with
karate training or able to box, those with guard dogs, etc. — will be numerous and different.

– Weapons aren’t difficult to rate according to damage. Electricity will be interesting — low-tension AC giving but 1d6 damage (4d6 if the party is well grounded), low-tension DC doing 1d6 each segment until the victim is freed, and high-tension DC doing 1d20 in the same manner.

– Cars will inflict 1d4 damage for each 10 mph of speed. Small trucks will get a d6, large ones a d8, and trains a d10 for each 10 mph.

– Each special character (guard, policeman, street tough, mugger, etc.) will be given a level roughly corresponding to those of AD& characters, although the type of dice used will be non-standard.

– If the adventurers survive and manage to return to their own place in the multiverse, they will have little in the way of treasure — at least in all probability. Firearms will not work in the World of Greyhawk, of course.

He ends by pointing out that Schick and Moldvay make some of the heroes in their Giants in the Earth series too powerful. Now’s a good time for me to preview the way I’m rating fictional and real NPC’s in GRIT & VIGOR – by the number of years they’ve been active:

The New, Improved Ninja
by Sheldon Price

This is a set of rules extensions for the ninja class, which was published at some point in the past – I don’t remember the issue, and they don’t mention it here.

This version of the ninja is based on the book NINJA: The Invisible Assassins by Andrew Adams, published in 1970 by O’Hara Publications, Inc. of Los Angeles, California. Yeah – you can get it at Amazon.com.

The article starts out with weaponry. Here are some highlights:

In the hands of a ninja, the hankyu (short bow) fires at twice the normal rate.

There is a 5% chance per day of searching that a ninja can find 1d6 plants that work as caltrops.

It takes one week, and costs 2 sp, to make metal claws for the hands and feet.

Staves had small missiles attached to one end that could be thrown by flicking the staff.

Poison water guns have a range of 60′, and produce a cone of water 10′ wide at the base and 60′ high. The main use is to blind eyes – it takes 1d12 rounds to clear the eyes.

The weird signs the ninja makes (called kuji-kiri) are not magical, but they restore his morale and entrance non-ninjas (saving throw allowed).

Ninjas have two kinds of sandals – essentially they can replace the soles. One gave better traction, the other a more silent step.

Ninja can wear up to chainmail, and they can pad it so it remains silent without adding encumbrance.

Ninja can foretell the weather in the short term. Which is nice, because when assassination just ain’t paying, they can becomes TV weathermen.

They are also “earth aware” – can find good places for ambushes – and “man aware” – can manipulate people.

There is a huge list of special ninja equipment, from special torches to swimming flippers and rocket arrows.

There is a section on poison (the substance, not the metal band). Gyokuro is a poison that causes slow death – it kills the ill in a few days, and the healthy in 70. Wouldn’t that be a fun way to end a PC’s life. “Sorry Bill, you suddenly collapse dead in the street while haggling over that beaver tail soup. Turns out a ninja poisoned you a couple adventures back.”

Ninjas can make laugh-inducing poisons at level 4, sleep-inducing poisons at level 6, and insanity-inducing poisons at level 8.

Ninjas also have healing abilities, mostly on themselves, but I would think they would work on others.

Basically, ninjas are awesome.

Lankhmar: The Formative Years of “Fafhrd” and “The Mouser”
by Dr. Franklin C. MacKnight

For those not in the know, Lankhmar is not only the setting of Fritz Leiber’s stories of Fafhrd and the Mouser, but also a game. This article is written by a friend of his, and thus witnessed the birth of the Nehwon stories and the game. From the author:

“Lankhmar wasn’t just a game, it was an adventure. The pieces were not mere abstractions, but heroes with personalities with which one identified. It provided an esthetic thrill unequaled in my experience in any other game anywhere.”

Starring Barry Gibb as Fafhrd

Add Lankhmar to the list of games I want to play. The article goes on to explain how the game was originally played (before it was turned into something more commercially viable in 1976 – see HERE).

We also get this tidbit about Harry Otto Fischer:

“Harry not only looked like Edgar Bergen’s Charlie McCarthy but had a similarly extroverted temperament and wit. The famous puppet could have been copied from him!”

The article is a must read for folks who love the stories. Great background stuff.

Design Forum: Boot Hill? Sure! But What Scale?
by Ralph Wagner

That title is such an artifact of its time. We don’t live in a magazine world anymore, and whenever something passes from now to then to what, so many little things pass with it. I’m only 43 years old, but the then I was born into is rapidly becoming a what. I think my childhood and the childhood of people born in 1900 have more in common than my childhood and people born just 20 years later.

Oh – the article. It’s about what scale miniatures to use with Boot Hill. Personally, I would have gone with these bad boys:

Found at Etsy … already sold. Damn.

Designer’s Notes: Flattop: A Long Game but a Strong Game
by S. Craig Taylor, Jr.

This is a discussion of Flattop, a game that covers the Coral Sea-Solomon Islands geography during 1942, specifically the three carrier-to-carrier battles of that year, Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz. Mr. Taylor was the game’s designer and developer, and he has a few insights about it, in particular about victory points and the difficulty in writing a truly original game. Sounds like a pip. And a great cover, by the way.

Up on a Soap Box: Standardization vs. Playability
by Bob Bledsaw

He discusses the value of standardization in a game, but also its limitations. Wow – I’m sure you didn’t see that coming. Mostly, he describes how he does his own campaigns – how he handles the races and technology and religion. Could be some useful stuff to the newbies – after all, at this point almost everyone playing the game was a newbie. By being a basic framework, D&D opened the doors to a whole new world, and everyone was feeling out what they could and couldn’t do in that world.  What a great time.

And look at this little ad that popped up on page 21:

Things are about to get weird. If you are reading this and haven’t heard of Arduin, look it up.

Armies of the Renaissance
by Nick Nascati

This is Part V, and covers the armies of Eastern Europe – Poland, Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. It’s a good article – one page, two column, and covers the basic very nicely. What if we came up with a big d% table with 100 entries that determined a first level fighter’s starting equipment, based on various historical warriors (and maybe Buck Rogers thrown in just for fun). Might have to do that for the blog.

Tournament Success in Six Steps
by Jon Pickens

Tournaments were such a big deal in the old days. I wasn’t a con-goer then (or now, to be honest), so my only exposure to them at all was in some of the old AD&D modules I owned, which had a section on using the module in a tournament, with the points scores, etc.

Here a quick version of Jon’s rules for success:

1) Get in – i.e. sign up for a game. If you don’t get in the first round, sign up for the second.

2) Use magic to get rid of obstacles that would take too long to overcome the old fashioned way.

3) Have a plan (always a good idea).

4) Pay attention to the DM, and if something seems amiss, question him. He might only give out certain bits of information if the right questions are asked.

5) Don’t waste time.

6) Never quit – avoid combat as much as possible, but if you have to do it, do it with extreme prejudice.

Finally, never argue with the DM. If you think he or she screwed up, bring it up politely.

Out on a Limb

Ah – letters to the editor time. Here’s a dandy:

Q: “Something has been bothering me about the Druid class in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. That is, I know of a couple of people in Chapel Hill who don’t know each other, but they are both the ‘Great Druid’.

A: “The stricture regarding the number of high level Druids is on a per world basis.”

He kindly didn’t add, “dumbass”.

Geek Rage of the Week:

“En garde, Master Rahman and those of you who defend such shoddy pieces of work such as Bakshi’s. (I’ll refrain from referring to it as the ‘Lord of the Rings’).”

Good Advice of the Week:

“It is my contention that all “good” referees should make it their duty to change large portions of the concepts presented in any given role-playing game.”

Terrible Augury of the Future:

“As you may have noticed last month, Wormy has returned. Wormy’s creator got married and moved to California, but he promises that Wormy is back to stay. As to more of Dave’s art, that is up to him and his job in CA. One can always hope . . .”

Cool ad for Dragon Tooth Fantasy Figures:

I haven’t done a random encounter table based on a mini’s ad in a while, so here goes:

d10

1. Rogue or thief (roll 1d4 for level) in leather doublet with short sword, mounted on light warhorse. Wears cloak and floppy hat. Will do anything to steal your purse.

2. Sorcerer (roll 1d5 for level) in the middle of casting one of his highest level spells. Will be extremely cross if you mess it up.

3. Swordsman (roll 1d6 for level) armed with sword and spear.

4. Rictus, the Zombie King; zombie with 12 HD and the strength of a hill giant (+4 damage).

5. Swordsman Kane, a neutral evil 8th level fighter from the terrible north, escaping his love of a good woman who threatened to turn his heart to good. Has +1 scale mail and greatsword.

6. Sorceress (roll 1d8 for level); she holds the mystic Moon Staff of Myrmidor, which can cast all sorts of cool light spells, and confusion and which can cast hold monster, at will, against lycanthropes. She rides a light warhorse.

7. Cleric in mitre with mace. Roll 1d10 for level. He is suffering a crisis of conscience, as he caught mother superior stealing milk and didn’t damn her.

8. Fool or jester, recently released from his master’s service and very hungry. He is a 1st level assassin.

9. Bard or harpist (roll 1d12 for level) in puffy velvet clothes and a great hat. He carries a silver longsword and a golden lyre that charms fey, 4/day. He rides a dapple grey light warhorse. He is arrogant and good-natured.

10. Swordsman Roland (level 9 fighter), with scale mail, +2 shield (axes stick to it on a roll of 1-2 on 1d6) and a major chip on his shoulder towards paladins and rangers (they think they’re so awesome).

Also, found this old issue of Popular Mechanics about painting Dragon Tooth miniatures.

Also, dig this 1978 catalog (which I’ve probably already posted at some point).

Giants in the Earth
by Lawrence Schick and Tom Moldvay

This edition of G in the E features Piers Anthony’s Sol of All Weapons (LN 20th level fighter, 14th level monk), Tanith Lee’s Zorayas (LE 23rd level magic-user) and Clark Ashton Smith’s Maal Dweb (LE 20th level magic-user).

I dug the little advert for Cities, by Stephen Abrams. I did a search and found that he did a few versions of this book, including one for Runequest. I think I’m going to by myself one. I’m intrigued. If I do, I’ll post a review.

The Dragon’s Augury

The games reviewed in this issue are Spellmaker reviewed by Bruce Boegman, Black Hole reviewed by David Cook and Down Styphon reviewed by Kenneth Hulme.

Spellmaker (1978, by Eric Solomon) pits powerful wizards against one another, trying to transport a princess to their castle to win the game. The reviewer calls it a “rare gem”, and I must admit, it sounds pretty cool. The spells are card-based, and I’d love to see a deck of them.

Black Hole (1978, by Robert A Taylor) pits two mining cartels against one another to capture a donut-shaped asteroid with a black hole tethered in the middle. The review is positive, so it might be a good con game for two.

Down Styphon! (1977, by Mike Gilbert) sounds pretty interesting. It is based on the book Lord Kalven of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper, in which a Penn. State trooper is transported to a parallel earth where the secret of gunpowder is controlled by a bunch of priests. The trooper knows how to make gunpowder, better weapons and he knows something about the “future” of warfare. The game is a miniatures wargame in the musket and pike era. It is apparently a very playable game with only OK layout and some missing stats for artillery (which are provided in the review).

Bazaar of the Bizarre: Orlow’s Inventions Can Liven Up Your Life
by William Fawcett

This article could be a great blog post – a random list of minor magic items that include spoons of stirring, brooms of sweeping, needles of sewing, amulets of caterpillar control, socks of dryness and matches of many lights. This stuff would be so great for putting in a wizard’s tower. Just awesome – if you can find a copy of this issue, find it for this. I’d post the random table, but it’s a little more than I’d be comfortable sharing considering the mag is copyrighted.

So, Different Worlds gaming mag. Never heard of this. I hunted down some descriptions, and apparently some issues you can still buy. I love the art in the ad, and would love to see a sample issue in PDF. There is so much buried treasure out there for gaming!

I also have to share this ad, for on heck of an artist for hire …

… who is still out there working, thankfully.

Dig Tramp’s minotaur in Wormy. So cool.

Dragon’s Bestiary: The Curst
by Ed Greenwood

I’m not sure if this is the first thing in the magazine by Ed Greenwood or not. The curst are still roaming about in the Forgotten Realms setting. Humanoids (98% are human stock) that have been cursed and cannot die, they are chaotic neutral, retain their class abilities except psychic powers and magic, gain infravision 90′ and apparently have no sense of smell. In modern parlance, they would be a “template”.

Finieous Fingers shows us what failing a surprise roll looks like.

And that does it for The Dragon #30. A pretty good issue, overall, with lots of interesting artifacts of the old days of gaming that I love. Seriously – find a copy and check out the minor magic items article – well worth it.

Haunted Armor

/ jstater / 2 Comments

I don’t think it’s possible to be a member of my generation without having seen a haunted suit of plate armor at some point in a movie or television show. Even if it was just a cunning ruse by a Scooby Doo villain (who knew so many people tried to use the supernatural to cover up their crimes?), the haunted armor was a well worn trope in my day. These days, it shows up as nothing more than lazy comedy … or, in today’s post, as a way to kill those precious little snowflakes better known as Player Characters.

—

When a warrior dies with his armor, fighting to the end, his spirit often hesitates to leave its last post. When this happened, the spirit animates the armor and continues doing what it did in life. Haunted armor is a close kin to poltergeists – undead spirits that have opted out of the afterlife for a career in deviltry.

HAUNTED JAZZERAINT
Medium Undead, Chaotic (CE), Average Intelligence; Troop (1d6)

HD: 4
AC: 14
ATK: Strike (1d6) or scales (30’/1d4)
MV: Float 30
SV: F14 R14 W11
XP: 400 (CL 5)

A haunted jazzeraint appears as an empty suit of scale mail, floating about 3 feet above the ground, with a helmet and two burning yellow eyes floating above it. Creatures with one or fewer levels of hit dice and warriors of any level that see a haunted jazzeraint are struck by the plight of the spirit within it, and must pass a Will saving throw or be frightened.

A haunted jazzeraint has no hands, and thus cannot wield weapons. Instead, it attacks by either flailing its arms, or slamming with its helmet (per strike above) or by launching a fusillade of razor-sharp scales from its body. These scales seem to regenerate after being thrown, so the haunted armor has no end of them. Just the same, it can only launch a volley once every 1d4 rounds. When a volley of scales is thrown, the jazzeraint makes a separate ranged attack against all creatures within 30 feet and within a 90-degree arc.

Special Qualities: Weapon resistance (silver or magic), immune to cold, electricity and fire

HAUNTED MAIL
Medium Undead, Chaotic (CE), Average Intelligence; Solitary

HD: 5
AC: 15
ATK: 4 chains (1d6 + constrict + energy damage )
MV: 30
SV: F13 R13 W11
XP: 1250 (CL 7)

Haunted mail appears as a suit of chainmail. Creatures with one or fewer levels of hit dice and warriors of any level that see a haunted jazzeraint are struck by the plight of the spirit within it, and must pass a Will saving throw or be frightened.

Suits of chainmail attack with 20-ft. long chains that hang from the monster’s arms. Creatures struck by these chains may be constricted; if they are, they suffer one level of energy damage each round they are held. A creature that is completely drained becomes a zombie; the chain remains around its neck and the zombie is under the control of the haunted mail.

Special Qualities: Weapon resistance (silver or magic), immune to cold, electricity and fire

HAUNTED O-YOROI
Medium Undead, Chaotic (CE), Average Intelligence; Solitary

HD: 6
AC: 16
ATK: 2 strikes (1d6) or whirlwind (see below)
MV: Float 30
SV: F12 R12 W10
XP: 1500 (CL 8)

A haunted o-yoroi looks like a suit of Japanese samurai armor with a grimacing demon mask. Creatures with one or fewer levels of hit dice and warriors of any level that see a haunted jazzeraint are struck by the plight of the spirit within it, and must pass a Will saving throw or be frightened.

Haunted o-yoroi enter combat with a blood-curdling scream. All in earshot must pass a Will saving throw or be stunned for one round. In combat, they can strike with their arms, and specialize at sundering items (items suffer a -2 penalty to item saving throws to avoid being broken).

Once per combat, a haunted o-yoroi can turn into a veritable whirlwind, striking all foes within 5 feet of it. A separate attack roll must be rolled against each opponent, and each hit suffers normal damage plus one level of energy damage. Any creature reduced to 0 level or hit dice from this attack rise as zombies under the control of the haunted o-yoroi. These zombies have the two attacks of a berserker.

Special Qualities: Weapon resistance (silver or magic), immune to cold, electricity and fire

HAUNTED GOTHIC PLATE
Medium Undead, Chaotic (CE), Average Intelligence; Solitary

HD: 8
AC: 18
ATK: 2 strikes (1d6 + 1d6 fire or cold + energy damage) or by weapon (+ 1d6 fire or cold)
MV: 30
SV: F11 R11 W9
XP: 2000 (CL 10)

Haunted Gothic plate armor looks like the moving armor often seen in movies. It is fully articulated and usually armed with a greatsword, halberd or shield and longsword. If armed with a shield, the haunted armor improves it AC by 2. Creatures with one or fewer levels of hit dice and warriors of any level that see a haunted jazzeraint are struck by the plight of the spirit within it, and must pass a Will saving throw or be frightened.

Haunted gothic plate is either freezing cold or burning hot. All creatures within 10 feet of a chilly suit of armor suffer 1 point of cold damage each round, and must pass a Fortitude saving throw or be slowed, per the slow spell. Creatures within 10 feet of a burning suit of armor suffer 1 point of fire damage each round and must pass a Fortitude saving throw or swoon from the hear (i.e. fatigued).

Foes hit by the armor’s strikes, but not its weapons, suffer one level of energy damage. Creatures brought down to 0 hit dice or levels by the haunted armor rise as zombies with iron-hard hides, and thus an Armor Class of 18.

Special Qualities: Weapon resistance (silver or magic), immune to cold, electricity and fire

Seasonal Beasties: The Forlorn Grey

/ jstater / 3 Comments

Forgot to mention that my last post was number 1000. If that means anything to anyone.

Now then …

FORLORN GREY

Image from 7art

Sometimes that grey mist in the corridor or tunnel is just a bit of water vapor. Sometimes, though, it’s a monster that has been nicknamed “the forlorn grey”.

The forlorn grey appears as a grey fog, usually about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. To the touch, it is clammy and chilly, and an astute observer might notice that it does not leave a damp residue on people who walk through it.

A forlorn grey usually allows a group to get within it, and then moves along with them. It obscures vision, so most folks think that they are just moving through a very long patch of fog. Each round a person spends in the fog, their minds are attacked by the strange monster.  The adventurer must pass a Will save, or lose a bit of their zest for living, not to mention suffer 1 level of energy damage. The TK should prepare several strips of paper outlining the apathy that has befallen a character who fails a saving throw. Some examples might be:

“You realize you don’t really want to be in this stupid dungeon.”

“Treasure isn’t everything.”

“That serving wench really wasn’t all that attractive.”

“It occurs to you that you don’t really have any friends.”

Once a creature within the forlorn grey reaches effectively 0-level, they take on a dull appearance, their eyes turning grey and losing their spark of life. They remain 0-level monsters at this point, normal humanoids of their type who are apt to wander aimlessly for the rest of their lives, begging for scraps and generally avoiding the company of others. They can again be restored to vigor through the use of a wish or restoration spell, and can otherwise be used as torchbearers by their former friends – they don’t care one way or the other about it.

Fighting the mist is difficult. It can only be struck for full damage by magical edged weapons, and silver edged weapons deal half damage to the creature. Bludgeoning and piercing weapons deal no damage to a forlorn grey, magical or otherwise. If actively fought, the forlorn grey can manifest tendrils of super-chilled mist, with which it can make feeble physical attacks that, on a natural attack roll of ’20’, snake down people’s throats (or through their noses), dealing double damage and forcing the victim to pass a Fortitude save or be stunned for 1d3 rounds. The creature can manifest three such tendrils.

Forlorn Grey, Large Elemental (Air), Average Intelligence: HD 7; AC 16 [+1]; Atk 3 tendrils (1d3 + see above); Move Fly 30; F11 R10 W12; AL Chaotic (NE); XP 1750; Special – Only damaged by edged weapons, silver weapons deal half damage, energy damage, stunning attack, immune to cold and acid.

One Last Trick

/ jstater

Here’s a monster that popped into my mind yesterday …

REAPER

Reapers look like long-armed goblins with glossy black skin and magnesium green eyes that have a slight phosphorescence. Some wear carved pumpkins over the heads, like masks. They travel in small packs and are armed with very sharp cutting blades, each one carrying a mild enchantment that makes it especially dangerous.

A creature hit by a reaper’s blade and suffering 5 or more points of damage must pass a Fortitude saving throw (or save vs. petrification) or have one of their arms lopped off. The severed arm instantly comes to life and begins grabbing at its former owner or performing any other task the reaper sets it to. Arms have the same armor class as their former owner, and 1d4 hit points. If an arm is “killed” it is destroyed. Otherwise, the arm can be reattached (remember, there’s magic involved) to its original owner once the reaper has been killed.

Some especially lucky (or talented) reapers ride strange mounts composed of severed arms. These mounts look something like centipedes.

Reaper, Small Humanoid, Average Intelligence: HD 3; AC 16; ATK 2 blades (1d6 + sever limb); Move 30; F13 R14 W14; AL Chaotic (CE); XP 300; Special – Sever and control limbs.

Manopede, Large Aberration, Non-Intelligent: HD 4; AC 14; ATK 2 slams (1d4+1 + grapple); Move 50; F13 R13 W11; AL Neutral (N); XP 400; Special – Grapple.

Severed Arm, Tiny or Small Aberration, Non-Intelligent: HD 1; AC varies; ATK 1 slam (1d3 + grapple); Move 10; F16 R16 W13; Special – Grapple.

Six Spooky Spectres

/ jstater / 3 Comments

Although spectres traditionally seem to be played as actively hostile entities (chaotic, and all), they don’t have to be, and in fact can make for pretty excellent ghost encounters. Level drain does a great job of recreating, for the players and thus their characters, of the sheer fright and revulsion of being touched by “that which should not be!”. 

FORLOTH & BRENA

Forloth was a great man in life – great in deed in his youth, and great in girth in his dotage. Always a man of monumental hunger and thirst, he spent his later years in his favorite tavern at his favorite table, regaling the customers with stories of great deeds in far away lands, his wine goblet and lap rarely empty and his coin flowing freely. And so it was when he died – a small belch, a rolling of the eyes, and gone. It took four strong men to remove the body, and the whole town attended the funeral – even the Lord Mayor. A couple weeks later, the first dead body was found in the cellar – a serving wench – long in the tooth but no less beautiful for her years of service and always the favorite of Forloth – keeled over on a barrel of wine, her hair turned stark white. When Brena’s laughter began being heard echoing in the rafters and the wine began turning sour, the townsfolk soon quit the tavern and the landlord was forced to move his establishment. The tavern still stands empty, but a few brave souls have claimed to peek in the thick windows at midnight and see Forloth at his table, Brena in his lap, a ghostly goblet of spirits in his hands.

Forloth: HD 7; HP 22; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F12 R12 W9; AL C (NE); XP 1750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight.

Brena: HD 5; HP 14; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F13 R12 W10; AL C (CE); XP 1250; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight.

COBHAR THE BEGGAR KING

Cobhar was born a beggar and thief, and spent his childhood learning how to steal and get away with it. Always an angry man, he hid it well and made a reputation for himself of a leader among the beggars and outlaws of the city – an unofficial ambassador of the underclass whose company was enjoyed by commoners, aristocrats and adventurers alike. Alas, he was a man of ambition, and one of those ambitions was to forge his beggars into a corps equal to the guild of thieves. The master of thieves, Lord Nock, couldn’t allow that, and so one night Cobhar took his last drink of rum and had his body unceremoniously dumped in the harbor, wrapped in heavy chains. The very next night, the thieves were surprised in their shadowy citadel by the appearance of a waterlogged man in chains. Few escaped that hideout, Lord Nock among them, and the reign of the thieves was over. Their hideout remains empty, the lair of Cobhar’s spectre and, stories say, still flush with the plunder of the guild. What nobody knows, though, are how many of the old thieves now haunt the halls of the guildhouse …

Cobhar: HD 7; HP 27; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F12 R12 W9; AL C (CE); XP 1750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight.

MAELA THE MOURNFUL

Maela was a simple woman who lived in a small village by a river. Married to the miller, she was a respected member of her community who wanted, more than anything, to give birth to a child. After many years, she and the miller were blessed with a child, bright of eye and blithe of spirit. All was well for many years, until the coming of the orcs. In a flash, the village was razed, the mill set alight with Maela’s husband and child sealed within. The woman rushed into the blaze, but was unable to save them, and in her trauma rose a month later as a spectre. The charred remains of the mill still stand by the river, and the village is still abandoned. Maela has a powerful compulsion to care for people in distress, and a keen desire to embrace children and other small humanoids (gnomes, halflings). She is not hostile unless rebuffed.

Maela: HD 7; HP 20; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F12 R12 W9; AL N; XP 1750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight.

GUILLA OF THE AUBURN LOCKS

Guilla was the prettiest girl in town – rosy cheeks, auburn curls, brilliant green eyes, etc. – and always popular with the men of the town (young and old). There were stories, of course, that she was perhaps to desirous of their caresses, but she denied everything and her father and mother would not hear of her indiscretions. It was when an adventuring bard entered the picture that things went awry. Handsome and dashing, for the first time in her life, Guilla herself fell in love. In the past, she had always had the upper hand, but now things were different. The bard stayed in town for a couple weeks, and spent nearly every waking moment of that time in her company, until the jealous men of the town had had enough and vowed to end his tenure as Guilla’s lover. It so happened that the bard finally acquiesced to Guilla’s pleading and vowed he would steal away with her on Midsummer’s night. The couple would make their way to the great city over the mountains and there live happily ever after. On his way to window, though, the bard was waylaid by the townsmen and, beaten and bloody, sent down river tied to a raft, never to be heard from again. Guilla waited the night through, and when the next day she heard that the bard had crept away in the night, her heart broke. Two days later, in a daze, she drank from a vial of poison and ended her life. At the next Midsummer night, during the revels of the young, a beautiful woman was seen gliding through the streets. One reveler was surprised by her, especially when he recognized her as Guilla, and when she embraced him, he died. Now, every Midsummer night, the ghost of Guilla glides through the streets of the town, seeking the love and adoration she once had in life, accompanied by the spectres of those she has embraced. There are three such spectres – fawning young men with eyes for none but Guilla. They will defend her to the “death”.

Guilla: HD 7; HP 32; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F12 R12 W9; AL C (CE); XP 1750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight, men must pass a Will save upon seeing her face or be stunned for 1 round.

Spectral Lover: HD 3; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F14 R13 W11; AL C (LE); XP 750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight, energy drain steals only one level.

SCENTH, THE SENTINEL OF BAGWELL HALL

Scenth was a man-at-arms in the employ of Baron Pirpasko, a man with many enemies who was ever fearful of the assassin’s blade. It so happened one night that Scenth was stationed outside the baron’s room as sentinel. While the baron was fast asleep, the baroness, a raven-haired beauty of questionable morals, crept out of bed and stole away with the sentinel for a midnight dalliance. The couple finished their lovemaking and she returned to her lord’s chamber while Scenth returned to his post. The young warrior had barely got to his post, though, when a scream broke the nocturnal silence. Opening the door, he saw the baroness clutching the bloody baron to her chest, a cruel smile on her lips.

“The baron has been murdered,” she screamed, her smile turning into a look of horror as other warriors reached the room.”An assassin got past that foolish boy and killed his master!”

Despite his protestations and accusations, the lad was found guilty of shirking his duty and was summarily hanged. The next night, though, as the household prepared to retire, they discovered the young man back at his post, his head still crooked and scarred by the noose. The baron’s squire challenged the ghostly lad and was nearly killed when his body was run through by Scenth’s ghostly sword. The man was left a shaken wreck, and the rest of the guard soon quit the manse, along with the duplicitous baroness, the baron’s chest of treasure locked away in the chamber beyond her reach.

Scenth: HD 7; HP 31; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F12 R12 W9; AL C (LE); XP 1750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight.

PARIL

Paril was a thief, and one of the best in the world in his day. No vault had ever foiled him, and no ancient temple or forbidden boudoir had proved proof against his cunning. So it was that he delved deep beneath the earth in search of a sceptre of wondrous powers – one more challenge to be overcome. He stole past dozens of guards and wards, tricked a cyclops, walked a wire of spider silk and plucked the sceptre from under the nose of the demon Tessasses. Sceptre in hand, challenge overcome, he made his way out of the dungeon and was, quite suddenly, crushed by a bit of ancient masonry. His back broken, he fell prey to giant rats. An ignoble end to a master thief. Now, his spirit haunts the corridor, the sceptre still in his mortal form’s skeletal hand, beneath the tumbled masonry.

[The idea here is a spectre appearing on the 1st level of a dungeon in a corridor that leads to deeper levels]

Paril: HD 7; HP 22; AC 15 [silver]; Atk 1 strike (1d8 + energy drain); Move 40 (Fly 80); F12 R12 W9; AL C (NE); XP 1750; Special – Incorporeal, powerless in sunlight, surprise on roll of 1-3 on 1d6.

Six Wicked Witches!

/ jstater / 2 Comments

Starting a new series today for the Spooky Season. Below you will find six wicked witches (no, I’m not saying all practitioners of witchcraft are wicked … just that these particular ladies are) you might use in your game. Stats for Blood & Treasure are included.

Enjoy!

Beleve

Beleve is a homey little midwife who operates in a burgeoning village. Short and plump, with curly auburn hair and twinkling green eyes, she is a flurry of activity – everywhere doing everything for everyone is Beleve.

Unfortunately, Beleve is also deeply wicked. She harbors a terrible and irrational hatred of men and the women who attract them. Several of the children she has delivered have been replaced with changelings (demons, doppelgangers, whatever is appropriate for your campaign), and her wholesome stews often contain cunning poisons when they are delivered to villagers who she feels have crossed her (they are often unaware of the cross) or in some way hurt her feelings.

 Beleve: Human Magic-User: LVL 1 (Adept); HP 3; AC 10; ATK by weapon -1 (1d4-1); MV 30; F14 R15 W12; XP 100; AL Chaotic (CE); Special – Spells (3/2); Str 7 Int 16 Wis 14 Dex 9 Con 8 Cha 12.

Mabel

Mabel is a morose woman of dark demeanor – she dresses in black, as though in constant mourning, her eyes are downcast, her face slack. She dwells in a small town, where she works with the local thieves’ guild, providing what magical assistance she can in exchange for protection and a small piece of the action. She does more than this, though. Mabel is in mourning – for the loss of her fiance many years ago at the hands of the local constabulary. The death came after he got into yet another of his drunken brawls and took a cudgel to the skull. A small guilt offering was made to the grieving bride-to-be, but it only stoked the flame of revenge in her heart. She will have the baron’s heart in payment for her beloved’s demise, and she is slowly worming her way into the luminaries of the guild as a way of getting it. Despite her grieving face, Mabel remains a beautiful woman, and her tale of woe pulls on the heartstrings. Two thieves have already fallen for her dolorous charms and have sacrificed themselves on foolish forays into the baron’s keep. How many more will follow?

Mabel: Human Magic-User: LVL 3 (Invoker); HP 7; AC 11; ATK by weapon +0 (1d4); MV 30; F14 R13 W12; XP 300; AL Chaotic (NE); Special – Spells (4/3/2); Str 8 Int 17 Wis 11 Dex 13 Con 11 Cha 16.

Gwynever

Gwynever is a bubbly woman with cascades of red, curly hair framing her pretty face and ample bosom and blue eyes so deep they almost count as a gaze attack. Most people thought her a pretty little scatterbrain – warm and wonderful and destined to make some lucky man a very expensive wife – and most folk believe that is precisely what happened. At the ripe old age of 16 she did marry, to a timber merchant in a large town. Ten years later, the blush of her youth still radiates from her rosy cheeks and her husband is now a silk and spice merchant, owner of two merchant cogs and proprietor of the estate vacated by old Lord Pasmere (who took ill and died so suddenly, and sadly after his three heirs died in a freak barn fire). Now, Squire Benthick looks forward to the lord mayorship and maybe an elevation into the peerage – no thanks to his silly, expensive, oh so lovely wife.

Gwynever: Human Sorcerer: LVL 5 (Whiz); HP 7; AC 10; ATK by weapon -2 (1d4-2); MV 30; F14 R14 W10; XP 500; AL Chaotic (NE); Special – Spells per day (6/7/5), spells known (6/4/2); Str 5 Int 9 Wis 14 Dex 8 Con 7 Cha 17.

Cadmina

Cadmina is a woman with a severely beautiful face and calm, almost passive demeanor that, when presented with wickedness and vice falls like a stone to reveal a frightening passion for denouncement and finger pointing. Well known in her town for her simple and goodly ways, she dresses simply despite being the wife of a wealthy man, and speaks simply despite coming from a family once known for its stagecraft and rhetoric. Most people know she possesses a talent for magic, and they know too that she has become a veritable bulwark against evil, her denouncements of people powerful and powerless whipping the population of the city-state into a frenzy of witch burning, despite the admonitions of the Lawful church. What people do not know is that Cadmina is the spawn of a succubus, who seduced her father and brought ruin on her family – a ruin that struck behind the scenes and is generally unknown by people at large. She delights in sewing the seeds of suspicion in her city-state, and has no greater aim than the spread of hatred between neighbors.

Cadmina: Fiendish Human Magic-User: LVL 7 (Marvel); HP 20; AC 10; ATK by weapon +0 (1d4-2); MV 30; F13 R13 W10; XP 1,750; AL Chaotic (LE); Special – Spells (4/5/3/2/1), +1 or better weapon to hit, resistance to fire, magic resistance 10%, +2 to hit and damage vs. Lawful (Good) creatures; Str 5 Int 13 Wis 10 Dex 10 Con 9 Cha 12.

Avira

Avira is a strange woman who dwells in the rugged hills around Kalok’s Bowl – a wooded valley watered by natural springs that is surrounded by granite hills. The hills are haunted by trolls, who avoid their “sister” Avira, the daughter of a green hag by a trader from the valley who disappeared 20 years ago. The people of the valley are farmers who do their best to avoid the notice of neighboring kingdoms. When they’ve no other choice, they send delegations into the hills with gifts for Avira and any troll they might run into. Avira looks like a gaunt, but attractive woman. She brews potions for sale and looks forward to adding to the collection of maidens she keeps chained in her gloomy cellar.

Avira: Fiendish* Human Magic-User: LVL 9 (Wizard); HP 17; AC 10; ATK by weapon +3 (1d4); MV 30; F12 R12 W9; XP 2,250; AL Chaotic (CE); Special – Spells (4/5/4/3/2/1), +1 or better weapon to hit, resistance to fire, magic resistance 10%, +2 to hit and damage vs. Lawful (Good) creatures; Str 12 Int 13 Wis 10 Dex 11 Con 12 Cha 8.

Saphon

Saphon is a glorious, radiant queen who took the throne of a small mountain kingdom after her husband, the lake Duke Elleran, was slain by rebellious hill people while on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Walwick. The Duchess quickly took control of the situation and rallied Elleran’s knights to her cause, though the beloved court magician Aswill was sadly slain in the peasant uprising that followed the duke’s death (an uprising few peasant remember having happened). Since then, many of the duke’s heirs have died in the campaign by malefactors that the duchess’ constable has been trying to stamp out. One now remains, the duke’s daughter Alwisse, from his first marriage. A small body of knights worries over her safety, and might look to foreign adventurers to steal her away from Saphon’s reach.

 Saphon: Human Magic-User: LVL 11 (Wizard); HP 21; AC 10; ATK by weapon +3 (1d4-1); MV 30; F11 R11 W7; XP 1,100; AL Chaotic (LE); Special – Spells (4/5/4/4/3/2/1); Str 8 Int 14 Wis 13 Dex 9 Con 10 Cha 13.

Next up … Six Groovy Ghouls

Here Comes the Bogeyman – Part 4 – Killing Rituals

/ jstater / 2 Comments

The point of a bogeyman is to create a campaign (or mini campaign or side trek) around figuring out how to kill the damned thing. That means researching the killing ritual. Here, horror movies aren’t quite as helpful as they’ve been before, because most horror movies that involve a bogeyman become series that NEVER FREAKING END. The only killing ritual that can put Jason, Michael Myers or Freddie down permanently is low ticket sales … and even then only until Hollywood thinks it can pull off a “re-boot”. For our purposes, though, we need to have an end to these campaigns of terror.

The how of killing might have something to do with the bogeyman’s origin, and then again, it might not. It could also just be some weird ritual that must be taught by the reclusive monks in those far-away mountains you’d like to introduce to your players.

The killing ritual should involve one or more element or step. The more experienced the players (not the characters), the more elements you can get away with, but more than three is probably going to get tedious. There might be a teacher or dusty old tome that can reveal the entire killing ritual, or perhaps the adventurers must track down each element separately. In such a case, it might be a good idea to weave the killing ritual in with the monster’s history (an example to follow), so that as players learn about the bogeyman’s history, they gain clues on how to destroy him.

Some elements you might consider for your killing ritual:

Hit Location – much like a vampire needing a stake to the heart to keep it down, Achilles’ infamous heel or Smaug’s missing scale, the monster can only be killed if struck at a certain point on its body. Unless the monster is stunned/paralyzed/subdued/etc., this brings a combat element into the game and might please the more combat-oriented players who otherwise couldn’t give a copper for solving the monster’s riddle.

Substance – the idea of needing special substances to kill monsters is not new to D&D – silver for lycanthropes, cold iron for some fey, wooden stakes for vampires, magic weapons to harm demons, etc. For a bogeyman, think outside these narrow bounds – Loki using mistletoe to kill Baldr comes to mind, or how about a silver spearhead anointed with a virgin’s tears? It might also be a particular weapon – the sword of Sir Magnus the Moldy, for example – that necessitates a brief quest to find the weapon (a quest which, incidentally, might help to keep the dungeon crawlers in the party happy).

Actor – the monster might require a specific kind of actor to kill it. This can get a bit dicey, as it might take the adventurers of the game just a little bit. Sure, they have to work hard to find the seventh son of a seventh son and convince him to accompany them to kill some monster he’s never heard of, but then the final stroke of the campaign comes from an NPC and that might lessen the satisfaction of the victory for the players. An “actor” requirement could also be something like, “a person who has kissed the Blarney Stone” or “a person who has lost a loved one to the monster” – something that can qualify one or more characters. Even using a PC as the final actor can create trouble – what if the killing blow falls on the shoulders of the halfling thief and two or three other PC’s buy the farm while that player suffers through some lousy hit rolls? An actor is definitely an appropriate element to the killing ritual, but just use it with your eyes wide open to the potential problems it can create.

Time – The time element involves something like: Can only be killed under a new/full/crescent moon; can only be killed at sunrise; can only be killed on a holy day; etc.. The value of a time element is to create a sense of urgency. Whatever the time element, it should be soon, so the adventurers must race to meet the deadline or suffer through another day or week of attacks that might claim new victims. You probably want to keep the interval between potential killings short, else the bogeyman side trek might outstay its welcome at the game table.

Place – A special place to kill a bogeyman might be fun as well, as it means the players have to figure out a way to lure the bogeyman to its undoing. Now, obviously, an intelligent bogeyman should not willingly let itself be lured to the one place it can be destroyed, so try to remember you’re working with an archetypal story here – just roll with it. It doesn’t have to be easy to lure the monster, but don’t make it ridiculously difficult. Good places might be the site of the bogeyman’s creation, an abandoned temple in a lonely wilderness, a holy site, the crater left over from a meteor impact, an active (or soon to be active) volcano, etc.

Here’s an example of a killing ritual tied to a particular bogeyman …

A maiden desperately in love with a wicked man was lured by promises of marriage into a lonely wood, where she was murdered. Now, on nights when the moon is new, a bogeyman composed of the psychic residue of the unfortunate woman (i.e. she isn’t undead) might appear to travelers (the locals know better than to travel during a new moon, but they don’t know why – just an old superstition) as a beautiful maiden with red-rimmed eyes who is accompanied by an audible heart beat – it throbs in people’s ears and causes fear (especially in henchmen and animals).

The murdered maiden will be drawn to killing any men in the party, and will also begin attacking descendants of her murderer, who still live in the nearby village. Assume the murder happened 50 years ago, so there probably are a few elders who remember what happened and can clue people in to the event. The murderer was probably a high placed person in the village, or perhaps was a cat’s paw for somebody else. Maybe the maiden’s stepmother wanted her out of the way?

In this case, the killing ritual involves plunging a gold ring (it was promised to her, and she might howl about it while attacking) into the bogeyman’s (bogeywoman’s?) heart. The most likely way is to slip the ring onto a blade or arrow. This must be done during the night of a full moon. Her destroyer must also deliver a heartfelt apology or must shed a tear while delivering the killing blow or the bogeyman will only disappear for a year and then will return to plague the adventurers.