Mutants & Masterminds from Green Ronin might feel like a stretch from all the other systems I have done, but really it is quite appropriate given the playstyle I like.  And if I am doing a multi-verse of witches here, then it behooves me to throw some supers into the mix. 

The Game: Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition

M&M 2nd Ed was one of my favorite superhero RPGs, so it made sense for me to upgrade to the 3rd Edition when it came out.  Also given that the same system was being used in the DC Adventures RPG, I just really could not say no.

I have talked a lot about M&M 3 and DC Adventures here. And it is no surprise with my Zatanna postings that I am more of DC fan than a Marvel fan. 

I am happy to see the M&M is still going strong.  One of the true success stories of the OGL experiment. 
Green Ronin even has a Pateron for Mutants and Masterminds at https://www.patreon.com/MutantsAndMasterminds

From the very start of War of the Witch Queens, I knew there was going to be some influences from other games and other universes.  Mutants & Masterminds, which already embraces the Multiverse, was an early obvious choice for me.   But something that no one knows is that my Come Endless Darkness also had an origin point in M&M.  Back then it was going to be Dracula trying to take over the world.  I really could not pass up the chance of Dracula fighting someone named Summers.  While I moved the whole thing over to D&D (and Dracula to Strahd) I can still see some of the old DNA of M&M in it.  Some of the rest moved on to WotWQ.  One idea, in particular, was an anti-hero Scáthach.

Now before I get into the character of Scáthach, I do want to address that this is neither the Ulster cycle character Scáthach, nor is the Red Sonja character of Scáthach, The Red Goddess, though in true comic book fashion, both are inspirations.  Since she is supposed to be a witch of sorts I am going all the way back to one of my first WitchCraft RPG games that took place at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Plus I wanted a character I could port back over to D&D if I wanted.

The Character: Scáthach the Shadow Witch

Professor Moria Stewart, Ph.D. was a lecturer on classic Irish and Scot Mythology at the University of St. Andrews.  She was busy sketching pictures of Dunscaith Castle in Scotland while working on a new paper about Cú Chulainn when she noticed that all her sketches featured the same shadowy figure.  She did not remember drawing it, nor even seeing it.  She compared it photos she took but nothing was uncovered.  She returned to the castle site and was confronted by a Shadow.  She fell and hit her head on some rocks below the castle. She was certain to die but the figure came to her saying it would give her power if it could bond to her.  Not wanting to die Dr. Stewart agreed and became a creature of shadow herself.

While during the day she goes about her life and teaches her classes to bored undergrads by night (or when she needs too) she can veil herself in shadows and she becomes Scáthach the Shadow Witch!

Neve McIntosh as ScáthachScáthach, The Shadow Witch - PL 10
Realm Name: Moria Stewart

Strength 1, Stamina 1, Agility 1, Dexterity 1, Fighting 7, Intellect 3, Awareness 2, Presence 1

Advantages
Contacts, Languages 3, Well-informed

Skills
Athletics 2 (+3), Deception 2 (+3), Expertise: History 8 (+11), Insight 2 (+4), Intimidation 2 (+3), Perception 4 (+6), Ranged Combat: Shadow Blast: Cone Area Damage 10 8 (+9), Stealth 8 (+9), Technology 4 (+7)

Powers
Blend in Shadows: Concealment 2 (Sense - Sight; Blending)
Faerie Fire: Cumulative Affliction 5 (1st degree: Impaired, 2nd degree: Disabled, 3rd degree: Unaware, Resisted by: Will, DC 15; Cumulative, Increased Range 2: perception; Limited: One sense (Sight))
Shadow Blast: Cone Area Damage 10 (shadow, DC 25; Cone Area: 60 feet cone, DC 20, Increased Range: ranged)
Shadow Form (Activation: Standard Action)
   Alternate Form (Shadow) (Activation: Standard Action)
      Concealment: Concealment 5 (All Visual Senses, Sense - Hearing; Limited 2: Darkness and Shadow)
      Insubstantial: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal)
      Movement: Movement 3 (Safe Fall, Trackless: Choose Sense 1, Water Walking 1: you sink if you are prone)
   Flight: Flight 6 (Speed: 120 miles/hour, 1800 feet/round)
   Ríastrad: Enhanced Fighting 6 (+6 FGT)
      Strength Effect
   Shadow Aura: Protection 6 (+6 Toughness; Sustained; Noticeable: Visible effects)
Shadow Magic: Illusion 5 (Affects: Two Sense Types - Sight, Hearling, Area: 30 cft., DC 15)
Shadow Sense: Remote Sensing 5 (Affects: Visual Senses, Range: 900 feet)
Shadow Sight: Senses 3 (shadow, Darkvision, Low-light Vision)

Offense
Initiative +1
Faerie Fire: Cumulative Affliction 5 (DC Will 15)
Grab, +7 (DC Spec 11)
Shadow Blast: Cone Area Damage 10 (DC 25)
Throw, +1 (DC 16)
Unarmed, +7 (DC 16)

Complications
Identity: Shadow Witch is different than Moria
Mythic Weakness: Can't touch any metal while in Shadow form

Languages
English, French, Greek, Latin, Scots Gaelic

Defense
Dodge 3, Parry 7, Fortitude 2, Toughness 7, Will 4

Gender: Female
Age: 35
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 145#
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue

Power Points
Abilities 22 + Powers 98 + Advantages 5 + Skills 20 (40 ranks) + Defenses 5 = 150

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at https://www.wolflair.comMutants & Masterminds, Third Edition is ©2010-2017 Green Ronin Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

This character could be a lot of fun!  I can see her working in either the DC Universe or the M&M Universe.

The year is 2086. In 2012, The Terminal War, a last-chance attempt by Western governments to take control of dwindling petroleum resources, triggered the use of biological and chemical weapons, as well as a limited nuclear exchange, accelerated rapid Climate Change and forced mass migration of refugees. As governments—national and local—reeled from the fallout of the war, corporations stepped in to first to aid, and then buy them out. Walls were erected around towns and cities to protect citizens from the roiling toxic fogs which cover the countryside, the mutated creatures which lurk out in the fogs, and to prevent further refugees from flooding the limited space behind the walls. Many would also combine to form larger complexes or plexes. Within the walls, these plexes were divided into security zones, from the demilitarised No-Go zone kept an eye on by police and sentry monitor guns to the wealth and protected privilege of HiSec. In between though, are LowSec and MidSec, where the police do not operate and gangs and crimes are rife. Here law enforcement has been privatised. Which is where the SANCTIONS come in.

As crime and death increase, staffing agencies are given legal powers and ‘Sanctioned’ to hire armed Temporary Employees and assign them tasks ranging from policing and search and rescue to espionage and investigation. Such employees are known as SANCTIONS and out of the money they are paid for fulfilling their assignments and bonuses for capturing or executing Officially Sanctioned targets such as ghouls or mutants, skags or gang members, biters or CHUDs (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers), they are expected to maintain their arms and equipment. This includes guns, armour, and bioware, or Amps, such as Coagulon Skin Coating, Porcupine Spine Ejection System, and Smog Plug nasal filters. For this is a future where bioware is used to augment men and women, cybernetics and A.I. having been outlawed following the ‘Berlin Massacre’ of 2025 when A.I. Cybertroopers ran amok due to a rogue computer virus. Bio Technology Drones are common and via biotech computer flesh pods plugged directly into the user’s nervous system grant access to the GNW or ‘Global Neuro Web’, where they can explore virtual environments, often to play, but in the case of SANCTIONS and criminals, to ferret out secrets and steal data data.

This is the set up for ++SANCTIONS++ Body Horror Sci-Fi RPG, a roleplaying game which is part Judge Dredd meets Existenz meets Bladerunner meets S.L.A. Industries meets Split Second meets Strontium Dog. Published by Purple Crayon Games Studio, it employs the publisher’s own Core-6 rules. It casts the Player Characters as these law enforcement temps, or SANCTIONS, each either a Shok agent—standard operatives skilled in combat, but who can specialise as scouts, investigators, hostage negotiators, and so on; Med Teks, typically medics and forensics specialists; and Tekks, who can be security specialists, hackers, mechanics, and the like. A SANCTION has five statistics—Fight, Ability (agility and dexterity), Mind, Social, and Physical, each of which ranges between one and four. A SANCTION also has Life Points or Hit Points, based on Physical and modified by Amps; Humanity, equal to 100%, but depleted by each Amp installed until there is a chance that a SANCTION might suffer BioPsychosis and go feral; and Luck, used to purchase extra success for any action or skill attempt.

To create a SANCTION, a player assigns eight points to his character’s Abilities, again ranging between one and four. Dice are rolled for Life Points, the player selects one positive and one negative trait for his SANCTION’S psyche profile, for example, Rich Kid Adventurer and Addict, and then has ten points with which to purchase skills and Talents. Each positive and negative trait grants an advantage or disadvantage. For example, Rich Kid Adventurer gives a SANCTION more starting funds, whilst Wanted means that the SANCTION has a bounty on his head. However, it is not clear what is necessarily a skill and what is a talent in ++SANCTIONS++, plus there are a lot of them. In fact, there are ninety-five skills and talents listed. Skills and talents are either rated at Skilled or Expert, though that is not quite clear what it means. It possibly means that a SANCTION has either one die if Skilled or two dice if Expert in a skill or talent. Since a Skilled rating costs two skill points and an Expert skill three points, a SANCTION will typically start play with just five skills, all of them probably related to one of the standard three roles as a SANCTION—Shok, Med Tek, or Tekk—because obviously a Player Character has to qualify at least in some of those skills to beSANCTION. Consequently, a Sanction does feel underskilled and the ninety-five skills in ++SANCTIONS++ just a bit much… Lastly, a player has some money with which to purchase guns and gear for his SANCTION, including bioware and amps. For the most part, this will be relatively basic equipment and amps, the really interesting ones, including fusion-powered bio armour suits being expensive.

Our sample character is Bev-MED, ex-skag, who saw one too many fellow gang members die in the south BirmChester Plex, and decided she had had enough. She stole some creds, got cleaned up and trained as a medic. She works as SANCTION to help people if she can.

Bev-MED
Fight 2—Handgun X
Ability 2—First Aid X, Trauma Surgery X
Mind 2—Bio Ware X, Pathology/Forensics X
Social 1
Physical 1
Life Points 14
Humanity 95
Luck 3

Psyche Profile
Positive: Hardened (+1 to Fear Tests)
Negative: Wanted (owes $C1500)

Funds: $C608
Amps: Smog Plug
Equipment: Jaeger Arms Light Auto Combat Pistol, Flak Vest, First Aid Kit, Spray Skin, Hypo-Jet, Las Fuser, Wound Foam, FukTape, cable ties, cell phone, green boy laser

Mechanically, ++SANCTIONS++ uses the publisher’s ‘Core-6’ system. This is a dice pool system using six-sided dice. Typically, for a SANCTION to succeed at a task, his player rolls a number of dice equal to a statistic plus skill. Each five or six rolled, counts as a success. One success is needed to succeed at an Easy Task, two at a Moderate Task, three for a Tricky Test, and so on. Rolls of two or more ones count as an Epic fail, whilst rolls of two or more sixes count as a Heroic success. This applies whether the Task is a Fear Task in a scary situation, overcoming stress due to the loss of Humanity, or driving a vehicle in a fast chase. Should a SANCTION fail, then a player can spend a point of Luck to turn one die result into a success.

Combat uses the same mechanics, but primarily consists of opposed dice rolls. Thus, Fight plus an appropriate skill, the highest roll determining the winner. Both damage and any armour are rolled for, the latter reducing the amount of damage the target suffers and the amount that the armour protects by one. For the most part, damage is rolled on either one or two six-sided dice, plus modifiers, whether from weapons or C.H.U.D.s, so combat is moderately deadly. Mechanically, hacking and running the Global Neuro Web in ++SANCTIONS++ essentially employs the same rules as for combat, whilst narratively they are run as virtual reality encounters, essentially enabling Control to run as encounters in alternative genres.

For the most part, ++SANCTIONS++ includes a lot of lists. Lists of guns, amps, bioware, bio computers and custom rigs, agencies and corporations, pills and drugs, phobias, and more. In terms of background, it sketches out the future in broad strokes, never getting down to specifics more than naming the town of Northampton in the colour fiction. This is intentional since the roleplaying game is designed to be flexible in that it can be set anywhere of the Control’s choosing. It does however, provide various ‘Officially Sanctioned Targets’, from A.I.s and Bions or artificially intelligent drones to gatas (sewer alligators) and muties. It also includes several hooks for Gigs—or short assignments, an actual playable Gig, and a much longer assignment also playable. Both are enough to run and play and for a group to get a feel for how ++SANCTIONS++ runs and plays.

Lastly, there is some advice for Control. Mostly, this explores the role of body horror in the ++SANCTIONS++. It is present in the setting, certainly in the case of the monsters and the ‘Officially Sanctioned Targets’ that the SANCTIONS are tasked with dealing with. However, it is not quite as present within the Player Characters, mainly because the primary vector for body horror is amps and other bioware, and to really reduce a SANCTION’S Humanity, it requires quite a fair number of pieces of bioware—and that is expensive. Further, it is slightly offset by the other side of the Humanity mechanics which restores a SANCTION’S Humanity by a few percentage points for doing good deeds.

Physically, ++SANCTIONS++ Body Horror Sci-Fi RPG needs both an editor and a developer. Although the black and white digest-size book is liberally illustrated with a range of photographs, line art, and cartoons, the layout is scrappy, even disjointed, and it has no index.
There is no denying that ++SANCTIONS++ is rough around the edges, and in need of further development, but the combination of simple mechanics and the fact that it displays its influences like a retina overlay across your sight, makes it more accessible than it might otherwise have been. The broad strokes in which its post-Terminal War future is painted also gives it a flexibility in terms of where and when Control sets her game, whether that is in her local plex or a big city familiar to us all. Feeling more like an ashcan than necessarily the finished artefact, ++SANCTIONS++ Body Horror Sci-Fi RPG offers a biopunk body-horror future that the Control can tinker with and turn into something of her own.

I want to end this week the same way I started it; with Mage.  Only this time I am focusing on the massive tome that is the Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition.

The Game: Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition

I remember picking up a copy of Vampire the Masquerade back in the early 90s and thinking it looked interesting, but nothing I was going to play really.  Though my thought did go to moving the whole thing over to Ravenloft.  It wasn't later until I had moved to Chicago to work on my Ph.D. that I found Mage.  

The ground floor of the commuter train station had a bookstore in it.  One of the pure joys of my daily commute. I picked up a copy of Mage: The Ascension (Revised) and thought that it was fantastic.  While I would ultimately stick with WitchCraft, Mage continued to have a fascination for me. Moving back and forth between the systems I ultimately landed on the idea that a "Mage" was an evolved form of a "Witch."  I did some refinements, mostly after Mage the Awakening was released, so eventually came to the idea of an "Imbolc Mage" the term borrowed from a friend that wrote about "Ascended witches."  IT worked for me.  Even in my D&D 3.0 days, an Imbolc Mage was a witch prestige class.  My Imbolc Mage is even tied back to Amy and Megan.  In one universe Amy is a good friend, in another Megan is her grandmother. In Scáthach/Moria Stewart's universe, she is the superhero Witchfire (but more on that tomorrow).

While Mage the Ascension grabbed my attention, it was Mage the Awakening that I created the more material for.  I soon figured out why, it was that it was very close in feel to WitchCraft.  I wanted to do something that took the best aspects, or more to the point my favorite aspects, of both games and use them together.  I grabbed the Mage Translation Guide with great glee, but I never really did anything with it.  With the release of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition (and its nearly 700 pages) I just dropped all the work I was doing with Mage the Awakening. 

This brings me to Bri.

Brianna was really my first character specifically for Mage the Awakening.  I knew she was going to me an Imbolc Mage according to the myths of my game worlds so stating her up in Mage first made the most amount of sense.  Given that her character birthday is coming up (February 1) I think she needs to be stated up for Mage: The Ascension.  

The Character: Brianna

Of the members of this week's coven, Bri is the youngest and the most powerful.  She is also one of the oldest characters I have made and have detailed this month.  In my first Generation HEX game she was born February 1st, 2005, since that game was set in 2022 she would have been 17.  Well, she will be 16 in a couple of days, so let's see how she looks for Mage.  

One of the big changes right away is shifting her from a Verbena to a Sister of Hippolyta.  While the game even mentions that these two should have merged a long time ago they are separate still.  Given that Brianna is part of the Daughters of the Flame, the sisters feel like a much better fit really.  This is also apparent in her Avatar and Destiny Backgrounds.  She is going to do Big Things someday. But right now she is just a kid.

Abigail Cowen. She has played a witch and a fire faerie.
She is perfect as Bri.

Brianna

Nature: Activist
Demeanor: Idealist
Essence: Primordial

Affiliation: Sisters of Hippolyta
Sect: Daughters of the Flame
Concept: Guardian

Attributes
Physical
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 3

Social
Charisma 2
Manipulation 1
Appearance 3

Mental
Perception 4
Intelligence 3
Wits 3

Abilities
Talents
Alertness 2, Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Empathy 1, Intimidation 2, Leadership 1

Skills
Martial Arts 1, Melee 1, Research 1, Survival 1, Technology 1

Knowledge
Academics 2, Computers 1, Enigmas 2, Esoterica 2, Investigation 1, Occult 3, Science 2

Spheres

Life (Affinity) 2, Mind 2, Forces 1, Prime 1, Spirit 1

Backgrounds
Avatar 3, Destiny 3, Mentor 1

Arete 3
Willpower 5
Quintessence 5

Gender: Female (she/her)
Age: 16 (DOB Feb 1, 2005)
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 120 lbs.

Yeah. This makes me want to play Mage again!

Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is a scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. However, as its title suggests it is not the typical fantasy scenario for the roleplaying game. Published by Goodman Games, it presents a combination of fantasy and horror, in particular gothic horror—and it does so in one of the signature features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, and that is, the ‘Character Funnel’. In this, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. However, in order to get the Player Characters to First Level, Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red, pours out a glass or two of extremely full-bodied, bloody, gothic encounters!

Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is also different in that it has a story-based set-up rather than the Player Characters, despite being Zero Level, being nothing more than simple villagers. It is also different because it has handouts and for those Player Characters who survive the ordeal, it is different because there is a sequel! The set-up requires that two of the Player Characters be Elves, but all come from the same village, from one of four families—the Dragontear, Leddy, Vintner, and Whitegrass families, and the handouts include family rumours and legends, complete with family crests, a family tree, and an illustration to show the players at the appropriate time. The sequel is Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built.

The setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is the village of Portnelle. As the scenario opens, everything is bright and festive, and almost everyone is happy. Today there is going to be a wedding. After years of feuding, the town’s most prominent and influential families, the human Leddy family and the elven Whitegrass family, will come together and end the acrimony between them when the Elven maid, Nala Whitegrass, marries her husband to be, the Human, Hort Leddy. Unfortunately, the wedding turns rancorous when ant-men burrow up from beneath the church and begin taking the heads of the guests, and the old inter-family feud resurfaces all too quickly! After an ant-men-wedding guest brawl, it will be up to the Player Characters, some of them related to the bride or groom, others not, to race off after the ant-men, if not to rescue those already grabbed, then at least to put a stop to it happening again and bringing back the body parts for proper burial.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red consists of two mini-sandboxes. The first will see the Player Characters chase the ant-men onto the Longbow Vineyard, once the property of the Vintner family—of which some of the Player Characters are members, but which long since been abandoned. The second leads through some tunnels under the vineyard to the final denouement with the semi-sentient subterranean parasite who serves as the scenario’s primary antagonist. After the somewhat absurdist nature of the wedding, the scenario gets into its full gothic swing with encounters in the abandoned vineyard, including the former home of the Vintner family, the winery, and the family mausoleum. These are quite creepy encounters, each hinting at the secret that befell the Vintner family and ultimately led to the abandonment of the vineyard. This comes to a head in the winery with an absolutely fantastic staged encounter escalates from a haunting into something worthy of a Hammer Horror film. Of course, this being an adventure for Dungeon Crawl Classics and the Player Characters all being Zero Level, this is a thoroughly nasty encounter, but it is huge fun and the Judge should ham it up for she is worth.

By comparison, the delve into the tunnels below the vineyard are not as interesting as the encounters above ground in the vineyard. Taking place in the ant-men nest, they are in turns creepy and gooey and smelly, and they do resolve the scenario in terms of what it is going on in the present, whereas the exploration of the vineyard will reveal hidden family secrets and what happened in the past. Yet, they are not as much fun as the encounters above ground. 

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is nicely presented. It is well written, the map is good, and the illustrations are all excellent. The handouts are also good. The scenario should take a session or two to complete, but no more. The length of the scenario also means that it is easy to prepare.

There are plenty of Character Funnel scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, after all, they are a signature feature of the roleplaying game. Yet, Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is no mere fantasy set-up and adventure. It is a tough adventure, with some nasty encounters, but from the start it involves story and it involves the Player Characters in that story, and it presents not one, but two mysteries. The first, taking place above ground in the vineyard, involves the four families and all but forgotten secrets of the past between them, the second below ground concerns the present and why the wedding was attacked, and has more of the feel of a fantasy story. The story is suitably gothic and is carried through into the vineyard’s best wine, Brandolyn Red, which will have a suitably gothic effect upon anyone who drinks it and also forms the adventure’s most notable treasure! Overall, Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is an enjoyably entertaining scenario, one which the Judge will have as much fun running as her players do roleplaying.

Last year I supported the Kickstarter for Christopher Grey's The Great American Witch. It is based on a variant of the Apocalypse World Engine but has a lot of neat features of its own. I thought it might be fun to try a character for this game now.

The Game: The Great American Witch

The Great American Witch (GAW) was released last year to much excitement (well on my part certainly).  The game is quite a lot of fun, though I have not had the chance to play it as much as I would like, it has become a great resource for some of my other games.

I reviewed the game here, and interviewed the designer Christopher Grey here. 

While I continue to be mostly unimpressed by Powered by the Apocalypse games, this one deviates enough from that standard to make it more interesting to me. Plus I do like the character, craft, and coven building material within the book.  The coven building, in particular, has been very helpful for my Basic-era War of the Witch Queens game. I can also see it working great for WitchCraft and maybe even WITCH: Fated Souls.  The Crafts of GAW could also work out well enough, narratively, as different "Crafts" of the Wicce in WitchCraft. 

Still, I see a lot of potential for this game and I am happy I picked it for today's challenge.

The Character: Amy Nakamura

Amy is a character I have used as an NPC in my WitchCraft/Buffy games before but never stated her out.  I thought it might be fun to detail her a little more here.  Though in previous versions she was a follower of Brigit.   This Amy did not become "Brigh daughter of Brigit" instead she became something of a solitary witch looking to protect others on her own.  Since my War of the Witch Queens spans the multiverse I am going to say that "Amy" was needed, but instead of Brigh they got this Amy.  Or maybe in this world, she is the one that has that needed multiversal connection. 

For a lot of reasons that make sense mostly to me, she is a "Craft of Tara" witch, "Coven of the Storm".

Character creation in GAW actually begins with Coven Creation.  For this coven I am going to choose the witches I have been featuring this week, Megan, Fiona, Alexandria, and Amy, each pulled from their timelines. 

Coven of the Storm

Oath: Use force to enact change
Holy Day: Samhain
Hearth: A hidden building
Connections & Resources: A hideout that cannot be located by natural or supernatural means.

Coven Resources: Few. Witches operate in the mundane world
Staus: Well thought of by those that know.
Mainstream? Witches need to come together.
Mundane? Has value, but not important
Influence: Not well known
Members: Only these characters

Photo by Joy Marino from PexelsAmy Nakamura
Craft of Tara

Mercy -1
Wisdom -1
Severity +2

Maiden: Tara Swift and Heroic
Mother: Blue Tara
Crone: Black Tara

Refuge: Personal Shrine
Background: Family has always practiced the craft
Lifestyle: Spritual activist
Personality: Optimistic and supportive

Relationships
Who helps you keep peace in the coven? Megan
Who is the most volatile and needs the most management? Fiona
Who gives you the strength to confront challenges? Megan and Alexandria
Who confronts challenges for you? Alexandria
Who brings balance to the coven? Megan and Amy
Who brings the coven out of balance: Fiona

Ok! So I have a character here that works great for this game.  

We are getting near the end of this challenge and I find I am sad to see it go.  I am going to revisit these characters all at a later date I am sure.  Maybe reunite them under one system.  Today though I want to go back to a system I really like but rarely get to do anything with.  Elizabeth Chaipraditkul's WITCH: Fated Souls.

The Game: WITCH: Fated Souls

WITCH: Fated Souls was part of a very successful Kickstarter and later sales on DriveThruRPG. It shares many of the background features of WitchCraft but in a different way.  That will be a theme all this week. WITCH:FS also has "witches" and how they use magic to affect the worlds around them. It is a different take on some of the same ideas and I always find it a joy to read.

I did a lengthy review of the game a while back, and it was part of another Character Challenge where I stated up Thomasin from "The VVitch" in different systems.  

The system is pretty easy to learn and is flexible.  I prefer WitchCraft in many ways, but that is hardly a fair comparison.  There is a lot that WITCH:FS does very well and I do wish I spent more time with it. It is a game that rewards your investment of time to it with the characters becoming more and more interesting as they progress.  There is every bit of the same sort of world-building here that happens in WitchCraft or The World of Darkness games.  It just needs a GM that will give it the time that it deserves.

The Character: Alexandria

Alexandria has been with me in idea form for a little while.  Her concept writ large is a "Tireless Social Justice Witch."  She is not afraid to fight for what she believes is right and she doesn't back down.  

Also, I always imagined her as looking like Cuban singer Camila Cabello. Why? Because I adore her and I listened to a lot of her music to get the right vibe for this character.

Alexandria is portrayed by Camila CabelloAlexandria
Fate: Djinn
Familiar: Appears as a small bluebird

Attributes
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 2
Perception: 3
Charisma: 3
Manipulation: 3
Dexterity: 3
Strength: 3
Stamina: 3

Skills
Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Craft 2, Deception 2, Dodge 2, Empathy 1, Expression 1, Intimidation 1, Perform 2, Spot 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2, Thievery 1, Wits 1

Hit Points
Hurt: 12, Injured 12, Mauled 7, Unconcious 3
Soak: 0
Initiative Mod: 3

CD to Hit: 12

Pursuits: Property 3, Contacts 1, Funds 1

Spell Level: 1

Talents: Casting 2, Potions 1, Occult 1

Spells: Emneya
Cantrips (Tether), Canto I, II

This is a fun character. I can't wait to see what she has in store. 

We are in the last week of this Character Creation Challenge.  I wanted to spend this last week on modern games. That is games that take place in modern times. Yesterday was Chill, today I am going to go with what might the game I love more than D&D. C. J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG.

The Game: C. J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG

Mere words can't express my love for this game. Though I have tried many, many times. This is the game I come back to. This is the game that hold up as my Gold Standard of Games.  Not that it isn't without it's own issues of course, but nothing I can't work around or even with.  I have often said I wrote Ghosts of Albion as nothing but a giant love letter to the WitchCraft RPG.

WitchCraft was the game that pulled me back into RPGs. I was ready to give up until I found this game. I have never looked back. 

Not only is it a great game with some great supplements, but it is also supremely flexible. There is really nothing I can't do with this game.  Add on some of the other "Classic" Unisystem games like All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Zombie survival horror), Armageddon the End Times (Post-apocalypse reckoning), and Conspiracy X 2.0 (Aliens and Government conspiracies) you have an entire world of options.  But honestly, the game is perfect as it is.

If you don't believe me, grab the PDF for free from Eden Studios on DriveThruRPG. 

The Character: Fiona

Fiona is, or is based on, the character from the opening fiction and she is the "Cover girl" of core rule book.  "Head Zombie" George Vasilakos, the CEO of Eden painted that. It is seriously one of the best pieces of art for any gamebook ever.  

Fiona is a young witch and maybe, just maybe she is a bit of a stereotype, and she maybe is based a little on Fiona Apple circa 1999. 

Fiona
Gifted Wicce Wierd One

Attributes
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 3
Intelligence 3
Willpower 3
Perception 2

Life Points 36
Endurance Points 29
Speed 10
Essence Pool 20

Channeling Level 1

Qualities / Drawbacks
Gifted (5)
Attractive 2
Hard to Kill 2
Humorless -1
Obsession -2
Photographic Memory 2
Recurring Nightmares -1

Essence Channeling 1 (2)
Increased Essence Pool 1

Skills
Computer 2, Craft (Herbal) 3, Dodge 3, Fine Arts (Painting) 2, Humanities (History) 2, Language (French 2), Magic Theory 3, Occult Knowledge 3, Research 2, Rituals (Wicce) 2, Streetwise 1 

Metaphysics
Farsight 2, Insight 2, Lesser Healing 2, Soulfire 2, Shielding 2

I have likely seen hundreds of Unisystem characters over the years. Fiona here is pretty much everyone's starting character.  Gifted, Wicce. Weird One is a fun concept and one most gamers can relate to. Marginally better mental stats than physical.  Hard to Kill is most often taken.  So is Situational Awareness, but I ran out of points in favor of Photographic Memory.  Skills are predictable with some point variances here and there.  Metaphysics include a couple of utilities, healing, an attack, and a defense. She has French as a language instead of the more "Occulty" Latin, Hebrew or Greek because she is a Wicce, not a Rosicrucian.  She seems more like the "spooky goth" witch and not the "crunchy earth child" witch.

Still, she would be fun to play.  Let the Chronicler play on those Nightmares. Maybe it is her Farsight while she is sleeping. 

Jumping WAY ahead to the future today; at least in terms of the Dark Ages, to the magic time of the 1970s!  All my campaigns share a link in one way or another.  Adventures like "All Souls Night" may start with D&D or other FRPG, they eventually make their way to "Blight" (Ghosts of Albion) and "The Dark Druid" (Buffy).  Spirit of '76 is another good example.  It begins, oddly enough, in 1976 and with Chill.

The Game: Chill 3rd Edition

Spend any time here and you know I am very fond of Chill.  The first edition from Pacesetter came out of Minnesota. Second Edition from Mayfair was right here in the Chicago burbs.  Chill is Midwestern horror.  Not East Coast horror with it's ancient houses and older bloodlines. Not West Coast horror with new-wave vampires. Nor is it Southern Gothic, while very enjoyable, is not the same. 

No Chill is backwoods horror. Old decrepit house horror. Horror found on darkened roads between small towns. The horror I grew up with.  

My campaign for Chill was/is my Spirit of '76 game.  It was designed as a Chill mini-campaign over 4 days.  It was built up while I was playing a lot of WitchCraft and Buffy.  The idea was that supernatural occurrences, once rare, were picking up in intensity and frequency the closer we got to the new Millennium. This would later change to 2012 and then 2018 as real-time overtook these "future" events.  You can see some of that in my "Generation HEX" Nightworld in NIGHT SHIFT.   Originally this was going to be for Chill 2nd Edition, but even that time got away from me so now it is for 3rd Edition.  Thankfully the narrative in the new game follows the one I was creating.

The Character: Megan O'Kelly

"Megan" began as "Stephanie" in an older game back when "Spirit of '76" was "Summer of Love" and taking place in 1968.  I wanted to keep Stephanie where she was but I wanted to do the Summer of 1976 instead, so Megan was "born."   She is a young grad student at UC-Berkeley. I imagined her with long straight hair and wearing bell-bottoms.  Something of a post-hippie 70s girl.  She called herself a "Craft worker" or a "cleanser" but never a "witch."  Her inspirations come from the Eric Clapton song "Bellbottom Blues" and Eliza Roberts from Animal House.  I changed the character because I wanted to bring in an older Stephanie at some point but I never did.

Megan is assigned to SAVE in 1976 to help a small band of operatives investigating the rise of supernatural occurrences in the South West to the Deep South.

Megan O'Kelly 
SAVE Operative

Attributes (80 pt build)
Agility AGL 50
Strength STR 40
Stamina STA 45

Focus FOC 60
Personality PSY 50
Willpower WRP 55

Dexterity DEX 40
Perception PCN 70
Reflexes REF 55

Sensing the Unknown STU 14

Skills (Specializations)
Movement (T) 50, Long Distance (E)
Prowess (T) 40
Close Quarters Combat 23

Research (T) 60, Academic (E), Occult (B)
Communication (T) 50
Interview 28

Fieldcraft 20
Investigation 35
Ranged Weapons 28

Edges and Drawbacks
Attractive (2), Highly Attuned (1), Naïve (-2)

The Art
Protective School
Disrupt
Sphere of Protection (E), Mental Shield (B)

Sensing School
Clairvoyant (E)

Drive
To Know the Truth

So Megan is a recent UC Berkeley grad.  She is a clairvoyant and specializes in seeing ghosts and putting spirits to rest.  Her background is psych grad student so her academics are already at Expert (but not yet Master) and she ran track in High School, so she has some athletics, but not a lot. She is still a bit naïve about the world around her but she is not stupid. 

Third Edition Chill is really better at PCs learning "The Art" (magic) than previous editions, so I think this version really works out much better than previous incarnations of Megan/Stephanie.

 Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was a Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: The Posse

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Down Darker TrailsProduct: Scenario
What You Get: thirty-four page, 29.29 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Cowboys and dinosaurs, oh my! (Again)
Plot Hook: The Boyd Gang has robbed the 11:10 to Santaquin! Let’s ride out and round ‘em up.Plot Support: Introduction to train robberies, five NPCs, six detailed pregenerated Investigators, NPC and Investigator portraits.Production Values: Decent.
Pros
# Cowboys and dinosaurs, oh my!# Sequel to The Last Valley
# Potential convention scenario
# Potential one-shot# Well done pregenerated Investigators
# Enjoyable introduction to the Lost Worlds genre# Straightforward plot
# Multiple set-ups# Classic Wild West set-up# Action driven scenario
Cons
# Linear plot
# Utah background underused# Requires The Last Valley# No Sanity losses for failure?
Conclusion
# Cowboys and dinosaurs, oh my!
# Classic Wild West set-up# Linear plot

Ah! World of Darkness. 

We have had some great times together. And some not so great.  But I never grow tired of picking up a WoD book (new, old, Chronicle, whatever) and seeing what is going on.  As you can imagine Mage was a particular favorite of mine. I loved all the lines but Mage: Sorcerer's Crusade was my favorite.  Dark Ages: Mage though has a lot going for it though too.

The Game: Dark Ages Mage

As it turns out, Dark Ages: Mage requires you to have Dark Ages: Vampire as opposed to Mage: The Ascension or Mage The Sorcerer's Crusade.  That is of course fine, but not what I was expecting for character creation.

Still. This gives the Dark Ages line a sort of continuity that would be both a blessing and curse that the "modern" line did not have and would not have until we get the "New Wolrd of Darkness" in the start of this century.   The year is 1230 AD and stuff is bad all over.  Dark Ages of the World of Darkness. That's like double dark.   

If you have played any of the World of Darkness games then you know what to expect. There are not as many "Traditions" as we will see in Mage, but it does give us a good idea of how they all got here. 

Since we are still in the Dark Ages let's do one of the descendants of Lars and Siân.

The Character: Lowis Larsdottir

Lowis is a reincarnation, future incarnation, past-life or something weird and magical in relation to my Larina. I was playing in a WitchCraft game with her and then I also started a Mage: The Ascension game and wanted to play the same character.  I decided they were the same, but parallel worlds.  This got me on a path where there are many versions of my witch out there and all are more or less aware of the others. 

Lowis here has a Welsh first name and a Nordic last name and I suspect she lives on the continent somewhere.  Maybe Italy or Austria. 

Photo by JJ Jordan from PexelsLowis Larsdottir
Initiate

Nature: Pedagogue
Demeanor: Fanatic
Fellowship: The Old Faith

Cabal: Followers of Aradia
Mentor: Gezzie

Physical
Strength 1
Dexterity 2
Stamina 3

Social
Charisma 3
Manipulation 2
Appearance 3

Mental
Perception 3
Intelligence 3
Wits 4

Talents
Alertness 1, Awareness 2, Empathy 2

Skills
Animal Ken 2, Crafts 3, Herbalism 3, Survival 1

Knowledges
Academics 2, Cosmology 1, Enigmas 2, Hearth Wisdom 3, Linguistics 2, Medicine 1, Occult 3, Theology 1

Backgrounds
Mentor 1, Chantry 2, Familiar 2, Library 3

Foundation (Spontaneity) 2

Pillars
Autumn 3, Spring 1, Summer 2

Lowis is new to the Old Faith.  She knows the faith has been handed down over the generations and now she has been awaked to it. As a merchant's daughter, she is afforded some luxuries and can read. She is also a steadfast member of her faith and wants to see it spread.  She is not quite "run naked through the woods" but she is getting there. 

Out of Time is the first campaign for Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the ’80s That Never Was –and quite possibly the last. With Out of Time, Free League Publishing brings the award-winning roleplaying game based on the paintings of Simon Stålenhag to a close. Throughout this alternate childhood of the 1980s, young teenagers have explored rural small-town Sweden, but a rural small-town Sweden in which its streets, woods and fields, and skies and seas are populated by robots, gravitic tractors and freighters, strange sensor devices, and even creatures from the long past. To the inhabitants of this landscape, this is all perfectly normal—at least to the adults. To the children of this landscape, this technology is a thing of fascination, of wonderment, and of the strangeness that often only they can see. In Tales from the Loop, it is often this technology that is the cause of the adventures that the children—the Player Characters—will have away from their mundane, often difficult lives at home and at school. Taking place at the end of the decade, Out of Time takes place over the course of year, but has potential to be something more—and all because the campaign involves time travel…

Out of Time begins with a rash of pets and farm animals going missing, followed by flyers asking for information about lost pets going up across the neighbourhood, then rumours of a mechanical contraption seen roaming the fields outside the small communities of the Mälaren Islands. When the Player Characters investigate, they discover the first of many strange experiments taking place, experiments which get stranger and stranger as the campaign progresses. Later, their summer takes a decidedly strange, literally ‘Out of the Body’ turn, which reveals more of the Mystery, before the weather gets randomly worse and storms threaten to shut the region down. Ultimately, to solve the Mystery and even save the world, the Player Characters must sneak out during a lockdown and break into the Facility for Research in High Energy Physics—or ‘The Loop’—the world’s largest particle accelerator, constructed and run by the government agency, Riksenergi. There at last they can discover what links the storms out of nowhere which bring strange mud and sand, the repeated crashes of the magnetrine ship Susi Talvi, the weird flashbacks at their summer camp, and the 1969 moon landing.

The campaigns consists of a trilogy of scenarios—‘The Animal Ark’, ‘Summer Camp’, and ‘The Storm in the Hourglass’. The first takes place just before Christmas, 1988, which only serves to heighten the fractious state of their home lives, but at the same time, there are reports of missing animals, strange devices can be found scattered throughout the area, and a magnetrine ship appears out of a rip in the sky to crash again and again. ‘The Animal Ark’ is quite a short scenario, but does a good job of setting up the campaign, whilst giving the players scope to develop their characters’ home lives. There is advice for the Game Master and suggestions as to what can be added to reflect the heightened anxiety and emotions which seem to occur at Christmas, but many players will have had experiences of their own and can make suggestions of their own too. Essentially setting the scenario at Christmas serves to strengthen the two contrasting strands of a Tales from the Loop game, one being the Game Master presenting the weirdness of its alternative setting and the Mysteries of The Loop, the other being the players exploring the emotional, but mundane complexities of their characters’ home lives.

‘Summer Camp’ moves the time on to the summer of 1989 and the tradition of children being sent to summer camp. Here the Player Characters and other local children are kept busy with a range of outdoor activities, from hut building and gymnastics to orienteering and telling ghost stories round the fire. Things get strange though, when each of the Player Characters wakes up to find that not only is he not in his own body, but he is not in his own time—it is 1969! This presents a challenge for both character and player, as he must negotiate life in an unfamiliar period and negotiate unfamiliar relationships. This is in addition to the ups and downs of life at the summer camp, a strange old man in the woods, and weird dreams… Although replacement characters are provided for the players to roleplay in 1969, one of the options is for the Game Master to create the parents of the Player Characters from back in 1989. Here is a fantastic opportunity for the players to roleplay their characters’ parents and what they were like as children. However, this will take some extra effort upon the part of the Game Master to set up and develop, but the emotional payoff, as the Player Characters realise that their parents had Mysteries of their own to solve and weirdness going on around them just as their children do in 1989, is a great piece of storytelling…

‘The Storm in the Hourglass’ brings the campaign and the 1980s to a close. Set in the autumn of 1989, the storms back in ‘The Animal Ark’ appear again and begin to escalate, forcing the authorities to declare an emergency as the weather worsens. ‘Men in Black’ are seen around the Mälaren Islands as ‘time bubbles’, which when the Player Characters investigate, turn out to be unstable, appear across the region. There are indications too that the technology which has been a fixture of the Player Characters’ childhood is malfunctioning, including the Loop itself. The climax of the campaign will see the Player Characters hopping from time bubble to time bubble and breaking into the Graviton at the heart of the Loop, there to confront their antagonist and the threat she has created.

Of the three scenarios in Out of Time, ‘Summer Camp’ is the longest, mainly because there is a large number of camp activities and events to involve the Player Characters in before anything strange happens. Potentially, this may unbalance the tension between the ordinary and outré strands of a typical Tales from the Loop scenario. Probably the best solution would be for the Game Master to tailor the camp activities and events to the Player Characters to avoid this. As the campaign progresses though, it does grow in complexity, especially in the finale with all of the hopping from time bubble to time bubble.

As a campaign, Out of Time introduces an aspect intrinsically excluded from TTales from the Loop, and that is the potential death of a Player Character. In 1969, the Player Characters are threatened by the campaign’s antagonist with a gun—and she is not afraid to use it. Now in this sequence, it is not as much of an issue, since the Player Characters are not in their bodies, but it highlights the greater peril they face in the campaign. Of course, if the Game Master has decided to port the Player Characters back into their parents, it amplifies the peril, even threatening a Grandfather Paradox should one of the parents be shot and die… Back in 1989, there is the possibility that the Player Characters will fail and unlike in previous scenarios for Tales from the Loop, that has world-ending consequences…

The possibility of the Player Characters facing their death in Out of Time foreshadows another possible option for the campaign, which is to run it as a link between Tales from the Loop and its nineties sequel, Things from the Flood, where death for the Player Characters is a possibility. The authors suggest that the final part, ‘The Storm in the Hourglass’ be shifted forward to 1994 when the ‘Mälarö Leak’ occurred, hot, brown liquid bubbling up out of the ground, forcing an evacuation that would last for years, flooding the Loop, and precipitating to a scandal that would force the Swedish government to shut down Riksenergi and sell the Loop. The advice on this is perhaps somewhat underwritten and it does mean that there is a much longer gap between the events of ‘Summer School’ and ‘The Storm in the Hourglass’, during which time events will have moved out of the framework for Tales from the Loop. However, Out of Time does provide options which would bridge this gap.

The first option is a nonet of ‘Secret Places’, a Mystery Landscape which fits both the 1980s of Tales from the Loop and the 1990s of Things from the Flood. These range from the strange platforms, mechanical marvels, and scrap ships being seen throughout the area of ‘Castle in the Sky’ to the lone concrete foundation with a single hatch which appears having thrust up from the ground in ‘Extra Life’. All of the Mysteries come with an explanation as to the Truth, Hooks, Countdown, and the Antagonist, and can be easily slotted into a Game Master’s campaign or expanded as necessary. The second option is ‘The Mystery Machine’, a set of tables for inspiring and generating Mysteries of the Game Master’s own design, whilst the third, ‘The Mix-CD of Mysteries’ presents an octuple of Mysteries based on eight classic CD tracks from the nineties, such as Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Pulp’s Common People. Again, these come with an explanation as to the Truth, Hooks, Countdown, and the Antagonist, and can be easily slotted into a Game Master’s campaign or expanded as necessary. Again, just like the Mystery Landscape of ‘Secret Places’, they will need some development upon the part of the Game Master. However, most of the tracks listed come from the mid to late nineties and so thematically, do not quite bridge the gap between Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood as well as a wider selection might do. In many cases, the mature nature of the lyrics and the Mysteries they inspire better suit the nineties and thus Things from the Flood than they do Tales from the Loop. Nevertheless, thematically they can be used to foreshadow the nineties and events of Things from the Flood and of course, inspire the Game Master to write her own using other lyrics.

Physically, Out of Time is as well presented as you would expect for a Tales from the Loop title. Of course, it highlights Simon Stålenhag’s fantastic artwork, but the writing is also good and the layout is clean, tidy, and accessible. All three scenarios follow the same format, making them easy to access and relatively easy to run.

It is great to finally have a campaign for Tales from the Loop, even if it is bringing the decade and the roleplaying game to a close. It should be no surprise that the campaign is challenging given it involves time travel, and although the plot is given a clear diagram for the Game Master to follow, it is complex and will require her to read through the plot with some care. With that preparation, Out of Time is a fantastic campaign, presenting the Player Characters with a challenging and enjoyably complex mystery, a mystery which brings Tales from the Loop to the conclusion it deserves.

We have all had this one on our shelves at one point or saw it in the book stores and thought to ourselves, "wow I should REALLY do something with that one day."

Today is that day.  I am going to make a character for Bruce Galloway's Fantasy Wargaming. 

The Game: Fantasy Wargaming

There is a lot to unpack here. Not just in terms of the game itself, but the history of the game.  There is no way I could provide a good review of it for this particular post.  I am not even sure I want to try.  For starters, there is such a disdain for RPGs in this book and for D&D in particular.  I would call it a Fantasy Heartbreaker, but it never lets you get close enough to it to break your heart.  

So instead I am going to defer to the experts here.  They have spent more time on this that I will or ever will.  Plus my copy is so musty it is giving me a headache and it is still four feet away from me as I type this.

• Grognardia Retrospective: Fantasy Wargaming
• Swords & Dorkery: Bruce Galloway’s Fantasy Wargaming (the best overview)
• David Trimboli's Character creation guidelines
• G.L. Dearman’s RPG Site, Fantasy Wargaming

Again, given the musty state of my book, I am going to refer to these sites often in my character creation. G.L. Dearman's site in particular has some good character sheets.

The game does cover witches and witchcraft, all be it in a roundabout manner.

Few questions in anthropology have raised as much controversy as the nature of witchcraft. There are three quite separate views of the witch-the peasant magician, the pagan, and the devil worshipper. Fantasy Wargaming accepts all three as valid. Witches clearly exercised magic. and not just Supernatural powers by appeal Equally, the theory of a surviving pre-Christian Celtic fertility cult bas some force. Some ritual elements, notably the sacred dance and orgy, appear at the very beginning of the period, before diabolism bad really taken root. There are echoes of Bacchic revels, and of Diana's Wild Hunt.
Some medieval witches strenuously asserted their worship of a "different" god. Yet equally, the evidence for devil worship among medieval covens is overwhelming. (FW p. 24)

Well, that works for me. I can use this. 

For the character, I was hoping to make a Satanic witch.  Would have been great for the Satanic Panic call-back to when was made.  But I opted for today's date as her birthday and that made her Aquarius.  And I have a perfect Aquarian Witch. 

The Character: Marie Capet

Marie is another quasi-mythical character from my games.  I know that she was most active in the year 1012 AD.  Marie is also an Aquarian Tradition witch from my first Basic-era book of witches which, in a few thousand years, will become the Sisterhood of the Aquarian Order.   In later years she would have been called a neo-pagan. Margaret Murry would have embraced her.  As my prototype Aquarian, Marie sees no problem with grabbing what ever bits of esoteric knowledge comes her way.   To the Church, this makes her little better than a heretic and at worst, a follower of Lucifer.  She actually feels that Lucifer has been mischaracterized by the Church and that as "The Light Bringer" he is more of a Promethean-like figure.  She is doing what she can to bring on the next Age of Mankind.  This would not be known as the Aquarian Age, or the New Age, until much later on.

Given the rolls, I figure she was the 2nd daughter of a poor noble. She was going to go into the nunery but instead ended up marrying the Baron that her sister was supposed to marry.  She was married at age 14, so she has a couple of children (that survived) now by age 21. She has a level in Religious and a level in Magic as a Witch.  I assume she is discovering witchcraft from an Italian ladies' maid who knows of the "old ways."

Marie Capet
Female Frankish Witch

Star Sign: Aquarius

Ability Scores (adjusted for Star Sign)
Physique: 1110
Agility: 12
Endurance: 10

Intelligence: 18
Faith: 1416

Charisma: 1213
Greed: 89
Selfishness: 13
Lust: 12
Bravery: 12

Social Class: 17

Height: 5'3"  Weight: 110lbs
Current Agility: 12

Literate: Yes
Speaks: Frankish, Latin, German
Chance to Speak Language: 60%

Leadership: 15

Birthrank: Second Daughter
Father's Social Position: Poor Baron (16)
Husband's Social Position: Rich Baron (17)

Misc. Traits: Paranoia

It is the Paranoia that helped me figure out she was learning her witchcraft on the sly.  Given the time and the culture, I thought an Italian Strega might be the best bet.  Maybe someone with a direct connection to Aradia. 

I did not pick and spells or rituals.  This game is crazy.  But there are a few ideas I want to use from it. 

The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day is a scenario for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Published by Stygian Fox Publishing, it is the second release from the publisher as part of its Patreon programme. The scenario is a missing persons case—that of a child at a detention and rehabilitation centre for youth offenders—which takes the Investigators to Michigan state’s Upper Peninsula and deep into the Hiawatha National Forest where they will confront ancient gods and the pernicious influence of the Mythos, all hiding behind a façade of corporate greed and child rehabilitation. The set-up of the scenario means that The Dark Forest could easily be run using Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game as it can Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, although it introduces an agency of its own, The Advocacy, an independent consultancy which takes U.S. government contracts and investigates unusual events. However, the scenario does carry a ‘Contains Explicit Content’ warning and the advice that some players might find its mature themes disturbing, dealing as it does rape, molestation, and institutional violence against defenceless teenagers. 

The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day begins with the Investigators being contacted by Martina Love. Her son, Donte, is nearing the end of his sentence at the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys in Michigan state’s Upper Peninsula, but she has not heard anything from him, the staff say that he is at an external facility, and she is becoming increasingly worried. She asks the Investigators to find her son for her, but when the Investigators begin to make enquiries, they quickly learn that the youth correctional facility is currently in lockdown because several of the boys have absconded. All this and more will need to be determined before the Investigators arrive in northern Michigan, where the mobile phone network is unpredictable and connection to the Internet even worse. Beyond this however, there is relatively little to be learned through the research methods traditional to Lovecraftian investigative roleplay and consequently, the scenario has just the single handout. An alternative set-up for The Dark Forest is to have the Investigators be teachers at the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys. This is a stronger set-up if the Keeper wants to run the scenario as a one-shot, but does require the Keeper to prepare and present a lot of information that the teachers would know upfront because they work at the facility, rather than delivering them piece by piece as Investigators coming from the outside conduct their enquiries. 

Once the Investigators get to Hiawatha Township and the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys, the investigation takes place in three stages—interviews at the prison, at the prison’s work camps where the boys undergo vocational training for life beyond their sentence, and with the prison’s de facto warden, Bill Nelson. The Investigators are likely discover that the staff and inmates have grown used to the oddities of life in and around the Hiawatha National Forest, and are not necessarily hiding anything sinister, but simply corrupt. (Well, the scenario is set in a privatised prison system after all.) A radically transformative and horrid encounter with one of the missing boys definitely points to the former though, that is, if the Investigators survive the encounter, as it comes at a moment when they are unaware of what is to come and thus unprepared. The scenario does not deal with the fallout from this, but it will point towards something going on deep in the forest. 

Initially, there is an ethereal feel to the Investigators’ incursions into the forest, but as their search for answers continues and takes them it deeper and deeper, the feel becomes darker and darker, as well as literally as the foliage and canopy thickens, and the light fades… Ultimately, the Investigators will confront the evil at the heart of the scenario, a confrontation which will take them into the Finnish equivalent of the ‘Upside Down’. The change from the here to the ‘Upside Down’ is nicely handled, but the confrontation itself, although climatic, is one note—a fight. No other means of defeating the threat are suggested and the likelihood is that the antagonist will defeat the Investigators unless they are forewarned and thus well-armed. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily likely since Investigators do not have the opportunity to learn very much about what it is that they are facing, and less so if the Investigators are teachers at the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys. The advice is that the Keeper should allow the Investigators to retreat and make a plan, before coming back to face the threat. Notably, at the end of the scenario, there is a Sanity reward for retreating from the threat, which is only slightly less than for defeating it. 

Physically, The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day needs an editor. 

Yet in other ways, The Dark Forest is a superbly presented book. It is done in quite a rich palette of earthy colours and the artwork is, for the most part, excellent. Besides the absence of editing, the book could have been better organised in places, but that is something that the Keeper can easily adjust to. 

As interesting as The Dark Forest is in reinterpreting the forces and influence of the Mythos through another mythology and pantheon, that of Finnish myths of the Kalevala, the execution is ultimately underwhelming. The Investigators are never quite able to prepare for, or understand, what they will face in the Finnish equivalent of the ‘Upside Down’, and the singular solution of violence is disappointing. The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day starts strong with an intriguing mystery and its presentation of mature themes is well-handled and there are some creepy scenes, but its dénouement leaves much to be desired.

Today is part 2 of my two-part character creation.  Yesterday I re-introduced you all to Siân ferch Modron and the game Keltia.  Today is her soon-to-be husband, if they don't kill each other first, Lars son of Nicholas from the RPG Yggdrasill.

The Game: Yggdrasill

Like Keltia, Yggdrasill is from the French publisher Le 7ème Cercle (The 7th Circle) and was published in English first by Cubicle 7.  Now it is published in English exclusively by Le 7ème Cercle.  The games have a lot of similarities in rules and in tone, so using them together is expected really. The production values for Yggdrasill are higher, with full-color pages and a stylized character sheet, and it leads me to believe it was the newer game. However, the publication date of it is 2009 and Keltia is 2012.

Yggdrasill is, as you might imagine, a game of the Epic Sagas of the Vikings and Norsemen.  I do have to point out that "Viking" is not a group of people but rather describes what they do.  It is handy for describing the era though, 800 AD to 1100AD or so.  Already we are talking about a time period later than what we see in Keltia which is usually depicted in the 100AD to 500AD era.  This works out well for me since I would want to play in a time that is an overlap of the eras; the end of the Druids and the rise of the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and, well yes, the Vikings. Maybe there was a time when Northmen raiders came ashore to Ireland or Wales and encountered Druids. Maybe not.  That is why we have games.  

Also like Keltia, there is a TON here that I could use with Troll Lords' Codex Nordica and visa versa. All four books combined? Now there is a campaign worth playing! 

I have to admit one of the reasons I was drawn to both of these games was that the art for the Volva (witch) archetype, reminded me so much of Larina.

The Character: Lars son of Nicholas

Lars got his start a little bit before Siân did.  Lars' name of course was easy, I knew my witch Larina was named after her father because of the red hair they both share. Nicholas, or sometimes Nichols, was named for a professor I had at the beginning of my Ph.D. studies.  I imagined him as a traveling scholar, from somewhere far away, maybe in the North.  His travels brought him to a new land where everything was the most verdant green as far as the eyes could see. He was born a Northman, but he was an Irishman in his heart.  The rest came easy.

In this version, Lars came to Cymru (Wales) while traveling on a ship. He was to sole survivor of a shipwreck.  He was to be sacrificed but his ability to play the harp showing he was a Bard (Skald in his world) saved him.

Lars son of NicholsLars Nicholason
Archetype: Sage
Profession: Skald
Kingdom: Denmark

Runes: Ansuz+, Perth+, Mathr-
Gifts: Initiate (Galdr), Scholar
Weakness: Curious

BODY
Strength: 2
Vigor: 2
Agility: 2

MIND
Intellect: 2
Perception: 2
Tenacity: 2

SOUL
Charisma: 2 
Instinct: 3
Communication: 2

Reaction: 6
Physical Defense: 6
Mental Defense: 7
Move: 4
Enc: 4

HP: 37

Furor Pool: 6

Skills
Art (Skaldic) 7, Eloquence 7, Languages (Norse, Brythonic) 2, Sagas 7
Galdr 7
Long Weapons 3

Incantations
Illusion: Hearing (3), Sight (6)
Charms: Sleep (3)

Like Keltia there is a LOT to go with here.

While reading over this I just HAVE to make a Finnish Volva/Witch of Tasha/Iggwilv. That would be a lot of fun.

It has been almost thirty-five years since the publisher of Britain’s longest running Science Fiction comic, 2000 AD, dabbled in the field of roleplaying. Both times, it was with solo adventure books, first with the Diceman comic, and then with You are Maggie Thatcher: a dole-playing game, but that changes with the initial release of a new publication from Rebellion. This is Adventure Presents, essentially a complete roleplaying game and scenario in a magazine format. The first issue is Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror, from the designers of Spire: The City Must Fall. This consists of a simple roleplaying game and a full, three-session scenario designed for up to six players and the Game Master for which everyone will need three six-sided dice and some pencils. The Game Master will need to do some careful preparation, but Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror comes with everything necessary to play—six ready-to-play pregenerated Player Characters, a handful of NPCs, and some absolutely gorgeous cartography and art.

The setting for Tartarus Gate is the year 2130. For years, Earth has been dominated by the OBOL Corporation and in search of a better future—or at least proper employment, the Player Characters have taken positions as unpaid interns aboard the transport ship Charon, entrusted with shepherding cargo from Earth to the Tartarus Gate Waystation. Six months into the journey, they are awoken from their Deep Sleep Pods and after recovering from the process, they are given their first task. Visual feeds from the lower decks have gone down, but before they did, the computers registered that something was moving. All the interns have to do is descend to the lower decks, restore the visual feeds, and ensure that there is nothing moving down there that there should not be… The Charon is six months’ travel from the nearest help, so it is down to the interns. With luck, they can impress their employer and make their temporary employment permanent.

The format of Tartarus Gate is important. The centre twenty-two pages are intended to be pulled out. They start with the six four-page character sheets, each of which includes a briefing, the character description, equipment list, and deck plans of the Charon. Then they followed by the various map handouts, all done in three dimensions and full colour, the four-page explanation of the rules for Tartarus Gate, and the eight-page GM Reference Book. This leaves the other twenty-two pages of Tartarus Gate devoted to the actual scenario.

A character or intern in Tartarus Gate is simply defined. He has four Abilities—Toughness, Agility, Smarts, and Wits—each ranging in value between one and four. He has a value for his Health and his Resolve—his willpower, the former as high as twenty, the latter as high as twelve. He also has three Drives, for example, Hasty, Selfless, and Haunted. Each character has a background and a given role, such as Veteran or True Believer, and an excellent illustration. It is left up to the player to name the character.

Mechanically, Tartarus Gate is simple and straightforward, its key mechanic, known as the ‘Adventure system’, best described as ‘roll three and keep two’—mostly. For his character to undertake an action, a player rolls three six-sided dice and removes one die. Which die depends upon the rating of the Ability being tested. If the Ability has a value of one, the highest die value is removed; if two, the die with the middle value is removed; if three, the lowest die value is removed; and if four, no die is removed, and all are counted. Either way, the total value of the remaining dice needs to equal or exceed the value of a Target Number to succeed, the Target Numbers ranging from six or doable to twelve or extremely difficult. The Game Master can adjust the difficulty of a task by temporarily increasing or lowering the Player Character’s Ability value. A supporting Player Character can help another and so temporarily increase the supported Player Character’s Ability, whilst the acting Player Character can spend Resolve to also increase his Ability value. Resolve can be regained by a Player Character pursuing one or more of his Drives and in Tartarus Gate, and may be reset at the beginning of some chapters, as can Health.

Combat in Tartarus Gate consists of opposed rolls. The lower roll is subtracted from the higher roll and the remaining value deducted from the losing combatant’s Toughness. Combat is designed—much like the rules in general—to be fast and in the case of combat, potentially deadly.

Tarsus Gate as a scenario is broken down into three chapters. In the first chapter, the Player Characters will waken from their Deep Sleep Pods and put through their paces as a ‘recovery process’, much like the first though steps of a video game as a player is taught the controls and what each button does. Given their assignment by Assisti, the ship’s AI, they make their way to the engine room and there they have their first and then second strange encounter—the former with a bloodless, mangled corpse, the latter with a figure from Earth’s recent and wrought past… This figure will come to dominate the mystery which lies in the bowels of the Charon and will be revealed as the Player Characters moves from one chapter to the next.

It should be no surprise that the plot and structure to Tartarus Gate is linear. After all, the Player Characters have been tasked with going from one end of a spaceship to another and the scenario is quite short. However, there is still plenty for them to do and explore, and interact with the handful of NPCs the Game Master has to portray. As well as the detailed NPCs to run, the Game Master also has events to throw at the Player Characters in every location.

The chapter breaks are also used as moments of reflection, for the players to check how the game is going and perhaps a chance for them to change their characters’ Drives if necessary. Tartarus Gate also makes clear that its play is meant to be fun—for everyone, and that if anyone is made uncomfortable, then he should raise his hand and say so. 

Physically, Tartarus Gate is very nicely presented. It is well written, but what really stands out is the artwork—which is as good as you would expect from a publisher which puts out 2000 AD each week. If the illustrations are good, then the maps are even better. Overall, the production values, for what is just a ‘magazine roleplaying game’ are stunning.

Adventure Presents Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror is intended as a first roleplaying game and for the most part succeeds. Its combination of a simple, straightforward plot, set-up, and quick mechanics certainly supports that, as does the vibrantly exciting presentation. However, whilst it works as a first roleplaying game for those new to roleplaying, it is a slightly different matter for the prospective Game Master. If the Game Master has played a roleplaying game or two before, then not as much of an issue, but if the Game Master is coming to this totally anew, it will be more difficult for her. For the experienced Game Master, readying and running Tartarus Gate is relatively easy.

Adventure Presents Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror is an impressive first issue, an attractive package that is easy to pick up, prepare, and run—it could be done in thirty minutes!

You can read about the challenge here: http://tardiscaptain.com/gaming/character-creation-challenge/

I don’t have an interesting backstory for this character. Probably because I didn’t randomly roll them up. When I create a character randomly I’m usually get inspiration during the process. This character is simply an exercise to see how far I can push various abilities within the V&V system. For this character I chose Shaping. Shaping allows a character to create and/or shape and manipulate a form of matter–in this case, steel. The interesting part to me is that these ‘Shapes’ can be given their own Abilities and can receive Actions during combat. There were a few hurdles to overcome to make this interesting and effective. Firstly, to give an Action to a Shape you have to have one. I want Fabri-Kate to be able to manipulate multiple shapes, so I gave her Super Speed which grants extra Actions each Turn. Shaping also requires Line of Sight to your Shapes or they dissipate. To counter this handicap I chose Heightened Senses: ‘Global Vision’ so that Kate can see 360 degrees around themself. Lastly, Shaping is extremely Power hungry, so I chose Energy which grants increased Power which is the resource characters use to fuel their Abilities. The rest of the Abilities are chosen for protection. Meet ‘Fabri-Kate’.

Fabri-Kate, mistress of fabrication–naturally.

So how does Fabri-Kate fight? They animate their steel spheres granting them the Flight, Laser, and Flash Abilities. They can move about, shoot, and emit blinding flashes of light to temporarily blind foes. Kate can also use Shaping on her suit of armor to use these Abilities., but prefers to let the little spheres of death do it. I keep thinking this character would be a lot of fun to draw, but never seem to get around to it.

First of a two-parter today!  I delve into a game I REALLY wanted to play more of, but is now out of print from it's English publisher.  The games are Keltia and Yggdrasill, two games that really capture the feel of the Post-Roman Celtic and Norse worlds.  Both use the same base system and both really grab my attention. Today for part one I will focus on Keltia.

The Game: Keltia

Keltia, or Keltia, the Chronicles of Arthur Pendraeg, is from the French publisher Le 7ème Cercle (The 7th Circle) and was published in English first by my good friends at Cubicle 7.  The game is set roughly in the years following the exit of the Romans from Britain.  There are mentions of Roman civilization and Christianity, but this is a purely Celtic world.  Or rather, it is a world of the Celts of Myth, Legend, and Folklore.

It is the Dark Ages, but this isn't the one you read about in history books. This is a game-world; so not Britain exactly, but Ynys Prydein.  It uses a lot of Welsh so already it has my undivided attention.

This game is quite good and character creation was pretty fast.  Again, there are a lot of options and I really must come back to this one in the future.  I can see using this in conjunction with Troll Lord's Codex Celtarum for Castles & Crusades.  Both cover similar ground and one would easily work as a background and as a supplement for the other.

I am rather fond of the Mind/Body/Soul stat groups.  I was working on something similar a long time ago, but that work eventually became NIGHT SHIFT.

The Character: Siân ferch Modron

In a lot of ways Siân is not just the main reason I wanted to try out Keltia, she is also the reason I wanted to do this challenge.   Siân ferch Modron is the mother of my iconic witch Larina.  Tomorrow I will feature her father Lars. If you have been a long time reader here you will recognize her as also being one of my playtest characters for The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch Tradition for Old-School Essentials.

Siân (along with Lars) was featured with her "Irish" name, Siân nic Stefon.  She is the daughter of Stefon and Modron; nic and ferch being the Irish and Welsh (respectively) way of meaning "daughter."

These though are Siân's and Lars earliest days.

Siân is the daughter of a Druid and High Priestess, so she follows in her mother's footsteps and will become a high priestess as well. She is a bit haughty and this comes out in her Arrogance weakness.  She certainly feels her culture is superior to all others.  It is not until she meets Lars, a "Gogleddwr" (Northman), that her ideas begin to change.

Siân
Siân ferch Modron
Archetype: Wise One
Profession: Priestess of Avalon
Kingdom: Cymru

Gifts: Blood of the Ancients, Scholar
Weakness: Arrogant

BODY
Strength: 1
Vigor: 2
Agility: 2

MIND
Intellect: 2
Perception: 3
Tenacity: 2

SOUL
Charisma: 3
Instinct: 2
Communication: 2

Reaction: 7
Physical Defense: 6
Mental Defense: 6

HP: 26

Furor Pool: 6

Skills
Art (song) 3, Knowledge (Ritual) 7, Languages (Brythonic), Ogham 7, Traditions 6
Awen 7
Short Weapons 3

Spells (Priestess of Avalon)
Sense Awen 1, Blessing of the Gods 1, Read Omens 1, In the Arms of Dôn 1

I like how this character is shaping up.  I would use Keltia and the Codex Celtarum to inform how she would be played in Old-School Essentials.

Looking forward to seeing how her future husband turns out tomorrow!

You can read about the challenge here: http://tardiscaptain.com/gaming/character-creation-challenge/

Meet the Pistol Shrimp:

The Pistol Shrimp, protector of the vulnerable.

Paul was a humble social worker and teacher at an alternative school for disadvantaged youth. One day Paul tackled a shooter that had attacked the school, saving the lives of his students and the other faculty. Suddenly he was getting his 15 minutes of fame. There was an award ceremony with the mayor of L.A. and he did some interviews and TV apprearances. A few weeks after the fervor died down he was approached by eccentric millionaire Frank Shim. Shim said he had been looking for someone like Paul for years. Someone to wear his armor and take up the mantle of his superhero persona–the Pistol Shrimp. Shim had made his millions with his miniaturization technology, and some questionable weapons contracts with the U.S. Government. Paul was reluctant but eventually gave in an accepted the hi-tech suit of armor. He’s been fighting crime in and around LA for some time now. Ever the progressive, his favorite thing to do is show up to protests to ensure that no violence breaks out, on either side of the thin blue line.

This is my week to tackle games I have always wanted to play, or play more of.  Today is the day I take on one I have had sitting on my shelf since 2017 or so, The Dark Eye.  

The Game: The Dark Eye

I have known about this game for a while, both The Dark Eye and the original German Das Schwarze Auge. I always wanted to own the original German, having taken German in both high school and college, but not using a language for, well longer than I care to admit, you lose it. Das tut mir leid.

The Dark Eye always attracted me as a sort of a darker fantasy RPG.  A game where Mirkwood is replaced by the Black Forest.  

I picked the 2nd Printing of the English edition at my local game auction.  I grabbed the core rules and a bunch of add ons that I suspect came from the Kickstarter. There is a lot and it all looks so good. There is even a basic QuickStart.

The game is very moody, but also surprisingly, well, bright.  The art is fantastic and the design and layout are great. A really gorgeous game.  Can't wait to do something more with it.  And there is just so much material to be had, both to buy and for free. 

I went through the character creation and poured over the book.  I am overjoyed AND overwhelmed with all the options.  I can easily see why this game is so popular here and in Germany.  It is a game I would love to do more with and there is even a Community Content section for fan-produced works.

This could become a new obsession if I allowed it.

The Character: Katherina

Katherina is a character I would have likely created in German class.  I will say this, the Dark Eye character sheets are among the nicest I have ever used.  Though now I also want to make a Dwarven Witch and maybe a version of my Larina.  I might do them as part of a larger review.

I might be missing some of the details here, but I think I have her set. 

Character art by Ramona von BraschKatherina
Female Human Middenrealmer Raven Witch

COU 12
SGC 13
INT 14
CHA 15
DEX 12
AGI 12
CON 13
STR 9

Life Points 32
Arcane Energy 40
Spirit 2
Toughness 1
Dodge 6

Experience Level: Experienced (1,100 AP)

Advantages
Spellcaster, Hidden Aura, Increased Arcane Energy (V), Increased Life Points (I), Difficult to Enchant

Disadvantages
Negative Trait (Obessesed with Magic)

Special Abilities
Tradition (Witch), Languages (4 when I know more of the languages), Curses (4), Flying Balm, Connection to Familiar, Mimicry

Skills
Physical: Flying 6, Gaukelei 4, Stealth 2
Social: Empathy 6, Fast-Talk 4, Persuasion 4
Nature: Animal Lore 4, Plant Lore 4, Survival 3
Knowledge: Astronomy 4, Geography 4, Magical Lore 3, Myths & Legends 5, Religions 4
Craft: Alchemy 4, Treat Disease 2, Treat Soul 4

Combat Techniques
Brawling 8, Pole Weapons 8

Familiar
Krähe (Raven)
SA: First Among Equals

Spells
Fighting Stick 5
Witch's Bile 4

Age: 18
Birthday: Nameless 5
Social Status: Free
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'5"

I am sure I need to pick out more spells and more rituals. Again, there is just SO MUCH here.

I am actually quite thankful for this challenge right now.  I feel my creative batteries are in need of a recharge and this has been a help.  

The Game: Dragonquest

Everyone has that "one game" the game they admire from afar, want to learn it or more about it, and maybe, just maybe get to play it one day.  For the early 1980s that game for me was DragonQuest.  I can recall looking over the 2nd Edition book sitting prominently out front of Belobrajdic's Bookstore in my hometown.  I'd flip through it and marvel how "Not D&D" it was.  I always wanted to buy it but since my gaming budget was limited to what I could make on my paper route it was a fascinating game that no one I knew played OR the next AD&D hardcover.  Not a question of who was going to win really. 

Thankfully I am at a point in my life now where my RPG budget is several orders of magnitude greater and even expensive aftermarket books are within my grasp.  So I was quite pleased to have picked up DragonQuest 1st Edition boxed set a while back.  It confirmed everything I had thought at the time.
The game is wonderful in it's "Not D&D"-ness, it is wonderful to read and a joyful look back into the past of our hobby.  And I also know that no one I gamed with at the time would have played beyond one session.  Ah well.  I have today.

I do recall reading more about DragonQuest in the page of Dragon Magazine and I remember when TSR bought SPI (DragonQuest's publisher) that a new 3rd Edition was going to come out. I even held out hopes that the dual systemed D&D/DragonQuest adventures would lead to more crossovers.  But sadly that never occurred.   

At some point, I will need to do a deep dive into this game. But for now, let's make a character.

The Character: Phygor

In my games Phygor was one of the greatest wizards to have ever lived.  He was a well to do student in Glantri's Magic School. He was smart, well-liked, and had a very rich family. He was sitting in the courtyard of the school one day when just decided that he could not learn anything else here. So he got up left his books, belonging, and half-eaten lunch and he walked.  He kept walking until he had gone all over the world learning esoteric magics from hundreds of different spell casters.  He was something of a magic "Batman" in my games, only with no tragic backstory.  When he returned to Glantri he was able to quickly and decisively put down a rebellion of other wizards; having no defense against his new and strange magics.  While he was in the D&D sense a Lawful Good Wizard, he has the respect of almost all the magic-users, wizards, witches, and warlocks of my world. Even the evil ones since Phygor believed in the crazy notion that magic should be for all so he made all of his discoveries public.   

He was never really a character.  Just a name and a myth. I would then claim that my wizard character Phygora was named for him and of course he would also go on to learn a lot of strange magics.  Sort of like how Harry Houdini named himself after his idol Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin. 

So let's go back in time. To a point before Phygor at age 25 got up and left his life to learn different magics.  This is 18-year-old Phygor just getting started at his school. Not discontent, but bright-eyed and eager to learn.

Phygor
Human Male, 18 years

Primary Characteristics
Physical Strength 12
Agility 10
Magical Aptitude 21
Manual Dexterity 16
Endurance 16
Willpower 18
Appearance 13

Secondary Characteristics
Fatigue 20
Perception 5
Action Points 9

Starting XP 140

Adept, College of Ensorcerlments and Enchantments
Talents: Witchsight
Spells: Spell of Telekinesis
Rituals: Ritual of Enchantment

Skills
None yet

He looks like a likable chap. He would have to be, he is going to travel the world and seek out all the masters of esoteric and occult knowledge.  

There is an absolute ton to like about this game.  Frankly, I'd love to get some more XP and see what skills I could start with this guy.  Maybe even advance him far enough to even start his big world-spanning journey.

I could even see a future feature here where I try to stat him up in other FRPGs but each time have him a little more advanced.  Maybe even ending with his BECMI stats at 36th level.

What are your memories of DragonQuest?  I'd love to hear them.