I wasn't going to promote any Kickstarters for a bit after a month of doing nothing but Wasted Lands, but this one came up and I couldn't say no.

The Beast & Snow #1 - NSFW Queer Fairytale Romance

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicuno/beastsnow1?ref=theotherside

Revision fairy tales? Vampires? Strong female leads? Kat Calamia and Phil Falco? Dorilys Giacchetto cover? Liana Kangas cover? Stjepan Sejic cover?!

Sign me up! No need, I did that myself.

Ok so this looks like a lot of fun and I am getting a strong "Carmilla" and "Vampyres" vibe from this. 

The art looks great and the story should be great from what little bit I can gather here.  They are just missing a witch from being perfect! (I am nothing if not consistent.)

And if you think I am NOT doing versions of these characters for my home game using my Monster Mash rules then you don't know me or this blog very well. 

They have met their funding and unlocked their first stretch goal. Looks like they might need more stretch goals at this rate!

But seriously, this looks like a lot of fun and I hope there are a lot of issues in this series. 

 Not counting collections (I'll detail that later) the most recent game I have bought was bought FOR me and not BY me.  That would be my Spanish Language D&D 5e books.

I got these as Birthday presents back in June because I am learning Spanish now. They are actually a lot of fun and have been a great challenge.  I am looking for other RPGs in Spanish too.

 Continuing on in this passageway the party encounters a long corridor. 

This corridor is lit with an eerie eldritch light. The floor is made up of tiles.

The corridor is 50ft long, and every five feet there is a pressure plate on the floor that fires a magic missile at the party. 1d6 hp of damage, it will always hit one character at random.

A thief can find the traps (the pressure plate), but the trap itself is magical and needs a dispel magic to stop. The dispel magic only works for 1 of the 10 traps in this area.

Doing so will result in 50 xp.

 I had to think about this one, but my first RPG purchase of 2023 had to be my Deluxe Edition of The Dark Eye.

There is a lot about this game I really love and want to do more with. I still might get around to doing some more too.

• Review: The Dark Eye
• Review: The Dark Eye - Witch's Dance
• Character Creation Challenge: The Dark Eye

The first four tunnels are on the left, and they are all lined up next to each other.  The fifth tunnel is on the right and at an angle away from the others.

The farthest tunnel opening on the left leads to a short but wide tunnel. The walls are smooth, as is the floor, but it is obviously carved out of the rock.  Within this tunnel, the party encounters a group of four small demons.

DRETCH

These creatures are fat, with long, spindly arms and legs.  They have rudimentary human heads, with slobbering jaws and folds of fat.  Dretch demons have some weak demonic powers.  

Armor Class: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 4 (18 hp)
Attacks:  2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d6)
THAC0: 16 [+3]
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Saving Throws: D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (4)
Morale: 6
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 225
Number Appearing: 1d4+1 
Treasure Type: J, K, L, M

• Low intelligence: Dretch demons are not intelligent and act accordingly.
• Demonic Powers: Dretch demons have some minor demonic powers. Each usable once per day.

• stinking cloud once per day
• teleport
• cause darkness (10ft diameter)
• summon 1d4 giant rats

 Yeah...I am obsessed. Mail call today, and it was full of some great witch books.

Up first, another witch-centric RPG I backed on Kickstarter, Last Sabbath.

Last Sabbath RPG Art, bookmark and pin

The game looks phenomenal, and I want to try it out really soon.

And one I have been waiting 20+ years for.

Ashley Poston has a novel out about 17-year-old Tara, one of my all-time favorite witches. 

This is her pre-Sunnydale days, and I can't wait to jump into this.  And because I had a credit lying around, I picked it up on Audible as well.

While I am sure the narrator will be great, it would have been nice to get Amber Benson to do it.

--

So yeah I *know* I am obsessed, and I know I catch some grief for it online, but you know what? 

I don't actually care.

This is my little corner of the Internet, and I get to do what I love here. And if that gets me 10 fans or 10,000*, then fantastic! Plenty of other sites out there that leave me scratching my head asking "who would even find that fun??" but hey, their sites, their rules. 

To quote Steve Martin, "The most amazing thing to me is, I get paid for doing this!"

(*It is less than 10,000, but a lot more than 10!)

 Another one that has been on my mine a bit lately.

My first Gamemaster was myself really. We all kind of taught ourselves how to play back then and I didn't have older brothers or friends that played.  But that changed when I got to Jr. High.

My first real DM was Jon Cook and we played this hybrid version of Basic (B/X) D&D and 1st Edition Advanced D&D. 

In a lot of ways I guess I am still chasing that high.

 Beyond the doors is a large cave system. The cave is huge and while fires can be seen down many of the tunnels (larger tunnels than the ones on the level above), this level is cooler.

There are five tunnels leading out of this chamber. 

 This one is easy because we played it New Year's Eve and Year's Day. My first game for 2023 was D&D 5e Dragonlance: Shadows of the Dragon Queen.

I was a player in it, not the DM, which was a nice change of pace.

My oldest was running it, and he combined it with bits and pieces of Rise of Tiamat and Horde of the Dragon Queen from the start of D&D 5.

Honestly, he did not care for the adventure as it was written and wanted to tweak it a bit for us.  We did not play many more sessions of this. My "falling out" with D&D 5 had a lot to do with that and his promotion as a pastry chef meant he had less time.  But we did have a great time. I was cleaning up our game room the other day and all of our minis are still in the "current campaign" box.

 These stairs go down into this tomb for quite a long way. Also, any dwarves (or other similar characters) will also note the stairs are moving towards the north.  

The stairs end in a large and somewhat cooler chamber.  There is a set of large iron doors.

These doors are large and heavy.  To open these doors requires a combined strength of 40 points or magic. Unless staked open they will slam shut.

--

This level has been largely protected from the volcanic activity of the level above.  

Wandering monsters are found here using the table for 8th level (and sometimes 7th level).  Again, magic sensitive characters can detect low levels of necromantic magic here.

 What is Monster Mash II: A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Much like my first Monster Mash, this one has classes that people typically think of as "monsters" for the D&D game, but uses the special "race-as-class" feature of older, Basic-era, versions of D&D like Moldvay Basic/Cook & Marsh Expert and BECMI.

This book features 12 faerie and sylvan-based classes. Bugbears, Centaurs, Hamadryads, Leprechauns, Nymphs, Pixies, Púcas, Satyrs, Werebears, Werefoxes, and Woodwoses.

Each can be played as a Basic-era "Race-as-Class," with each gaining special abilities as they level up, or as an Advanced "Race" with recommendations for classes. 

Also included is the Faerie Witch, because, well, it is one of my books. 

There are also new spells for Clerics, Druids, Illusionists, Magic-users, and Witches. 

And new occult powers and ritual spells for Faerie Witches. 

This book can be combined with my first Monster Mash for even more combinations.

Grab yours now!

Monster Mash

Monster Mash II: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Okay, let us scale things down a bit and see what we can do with some mystical characters and some that are not super-powerful. At least not yet.

Another concept that comes up is the Demon Spawn that tries to do good. These characters often appear in comics with magic as a theme and they are a great choice for a Wasted Lands game since there is likely to be a lot more interaction with demons. 

This character could be a lot of different things, and "demon" might even be an alien, say in the case of Karolina Dean from Marvel's Runaways. But my example here will be borrowing heavily from DC's Teen Titan, Raven.

Now there are a lot of ways to do Raven. We have Psychics, Sorcerers, and even Necromancers. But Raven's primary powers come from her empathic abilities and astral projection with some spells. So I am going with Psychic for her here.

The Demon's Daughter

Class: Psychic (Persona Aspect)
Level: 6
Species: Human-Demon
Alignment: Twilight Good
Background: Student

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) N
Wits: 15 (+1) N
Persona: 17 (+2) A

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: None 10
Vitality: 30 (d6)
Degeneracy: 
Corruption: Unnatural Parlor

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +/+/+
Melee Bonus: +2 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Saves: +3 to Persona based saves

Psychic Powers

Supernatural Attacks, Sixth Sense, Empathy, Psychokinesis (Telekinesis, 2d6+1), Temporal Sense, Shadow Walking, Astral Projection

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Rebilous Child of older God/Demon

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: Mystical Senses (as Sorcerer spell)
Level 2:  
Level 3: Additional Movement: Fly
Level 4: 
Level 5: First-level Sorcerer
Level 6: 

Spells
1st Level: Protection from Evil

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends. You likely will not use all of these on one character. I'll have some less-super examples coming up.

She has fewer to reflect that she is still just a teen or young adult. This also more likely the speed in which people will want to hand out the Divine Touchstones. 

Please check out and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter.

 Moving on from room #12 the party enters a large spherical room 50' in diameter.  The walls of the room are polished obsidian.  The center of the room features a large monolith of the same material. Stalactites and stalagmites break up the otherwise uniform blackness of this room.

Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover

This monolith radiates evil and necromantic energies. It doesn't take a magic-user to figure this out, all the characters can feel it.

Touching the monolith a character hears a voice. The monolith is known as the Monolith of Evil. It brags that it is 1000s of years old and was worshipped by 1000s of acolytes. Offerings of blood and lives kept it powerful. But now it is drained of all power, the Vampire Queen drained came and took all of its power.

It lets the characters know that if they could just kill their fellows it will be able to grant them the power to kill the Vampire Queen.  

The monolith has no idea is the Vampire Queen is still active or not. 

There is no magical compulsion here, save for being creepy it has no real power left. 

 We are working our way up the power scale to tackle the Paragon. Now this guy (or gal) has Power, with a capital P. They are also a favorite of late for deconstruction or alternate attempts (The Boys, Brightburn) but I am not interested in that right now. I am interested in the one that has power, great power even, and wants to use it for the right things. But this is also the Dreaming Age, and life is pretty rough and dangerous. The Paragon of this world and time will also need to be a little rougher around the edges.

In D&D, they would be a paladin or some other knight in shining armor. They are the bright reflection of the Dark Avenger. Thankfully they both have the Amazon Warrior Princess to help balance them out.  One of many reasons why this unlikely trio works so well together.

The Paragon

Class: Warrior
Level: 14
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Good
Background: 

Abilities
Strength: 22 (+5) A
Agility: 17 (+3) 
Toughness: 17 (+2) N
Intelligence: 15 (+1) 
Wits: 15 (+1)
Persona: 16 (+2) N

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: Plate (7)
Vitality: 75 (d8)
Degeneracy: None
Corruption: None

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +6/+4/+2
Melee Bonus: +5 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +5 to all saves

Warrior Skills

Combat Expertise, Improved Defense, Increased Damage, Melee Combat, Master of Battle (90%), Ranged Combat, Spell Resistance (36%), Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Tracking, Extra Attack (x4)

Improve Defense: -4

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Justice, Hope

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: Mystical Senses (as Sorcerer spell)
Level 2: +1 to combat rolls
Level 3: Additional Movement: Fly
Level 4: Increased Ability Score (Strength +2)
Level 5: Divine Smite 
Level 6: Gout of Flame (as Sorcerer spell), as Heat Vision (unique mode of attack)
Level 7: Divine Aura
Level 8: Damage Immunity from missile fire
Level 9:  Increased Ability Score (Strength +2)
Level 10: Half Damage from Mundane slashing
Level 11: Chill Breath (as Ray of Frost Sorcerer spell)
Level 12: Unique Attack, Heat Vision 60' line
Level 13: Down But Not Out
Level 14: Divine Recovery

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends. You likely will not use all of these on one character. I'll have some less-super examples coming up.

This one looks great. And don't tug on his cape.

Please check out and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter.

 Heading back to Room #2 and taking the next tunnel on the right. The party does not get very fare into the next chamber when they encounter a group (five) of large and piggish-looking orcs.

These orcs are infected with the Wearboar Lycanthropy and are known as War Pigs. They stay in hybrid form but once wounded they can go into their berserk rage.

They have food and water for five for a week, but it is generally unpalatable and smells terrible. It is however completely edible. 

They also have Treasure type C x5.

I am continuing my exploration of various superhero archetypes in the Wasted Lands.  Today's topic is the Amazon Princess. While this could be Wonder Woman or someone like Starfire, it can also be a character like Xena Warrior Princess. In truth, Xena would fit in quite well in the Dreaming Age.

This character's drive is not Vengeance (like the Dark Avenger) or even Justice (like the upcoming Paragon) but rather the most good possible.  In a lot of ways she is also an emissary of a more enlightened, but still warrior, culture.

In both the cases of Wonder Woman and Xena they have a relationship to the Gods, the Greek Gods in particular. In the Wasted Lands then she would come the same culture that the warriors Zeus and Ares come from. But godhood is not her goal.

The Amazon Princess

Class: Warrior
Level: 12
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Good
Background: Nobility

Abilities
Strength: 20 (+4) A
Agility: 18 (+3) N
Toughness: 17 (+2) N
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wits: 16 (+2)
Persona: 16 (+2)

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: Studded Leather (7)
Vitality: 60 (d8)
Degeneracy: None
Corruption: None

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2
Melee Bonus: +4 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +4 to all saves

Warrior Skills

Combat Expertise, Improved Defense, Increased Damage, Melee Combat, Master of Battle (90%), Ranged Combat, Spell Resistance (36%), Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Tracking, Extra Attack (x4)

Improve Defense: -4

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 15%
• Bypass Traps: 10%
• Sleight of Hand: 20%
• Sneak: 20%
• Climbing: 70%

Danger Sense 1-3 (d6)
Perception: 40%
Vital Stike: x2 damage +4 to attack

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Justice, Truth

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: Unique mode of Defence, -1 vs. Missile attacks
Level 2: +1 to combat rolls
Level 3: Charm humans
Level 4: Increased Ability Score (agility +2)
Level 5: Level 1 of Renegade
Level 6: Unique mode of Attack (lasso) +1 and Detect Lie
Level 7: Ceases to Age (Natural)
Level 8: Divine Aura
Level 9: Signature Item, Lasso.
Level 10: Half Damage from Mundane slashing
Level 11: Transporation mode: Fly
Level 12: Restore Corruption

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends.

This one works out quite nicely, I think!

Please check out and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter.

 A secret door behind the statue leads to a small room.  The room is filled with steam.

Inside there are four small demons, Steam Mephits. 

Steam Mephit: HD 3; AC 5 [14]; THAC0 16 [+3]; Atk 2 claws (1d3); Move 120' (40') [Fly 240' (80')]; Save D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (2); Morale 10; AL C;  Special: Breathe steam cloud (2d6, save for half), gaseous form.

The mephits are playing in the steam.  They attack the party.

Their morale is 10, but they are at 8 for this encounter. They were attracted by the energies from here to the elemental plane of fire.  

The Dreaming Age is both very dark and very hopeful. 

Humanity (well...proto-Humanity) has cast off the yoke of the Old Ones and now lives in a time of unimaginable horrors. There are monsters, there are forces of evil, and their are even evil humans that are all too willing to take over where the Old Ones left off. It is post-apocalyptic in a very real sense. But also, humanity has the chance in the form of our (your) heroes to make a better world.

The characters will one day be remembered as the Gods and Heroes of yore. 

But not all of them are bright, happy people.

Making "superhero" characters for the Wasted Lands RPG really only takes a change of reference or point of view. If Superheroes are modern myths, then the Wasted Lands RPG can also make those. Though your character's origin story is not going to be one of being a young adult, and then BAM, your character is powerful. Legends are built over time, and legendary characters even more so.

The Archetype of the Dark Avenger is a great example. This character had a really bad day once and now spends a lifetime fighting against the forces of Darkness and Evil (yes capitalized) by donning the guise of evil.  In comics, these characters are usually just normal humans but have something special about them. They are unnaturally dedicated to their cause for example, or maybe even they have a bit of an edge. It should also be noted that many take on the guise of an animal or creature that strikes fear into others; the bat, the wolverine, and even devils.

For these Superhero Archetypes, I will present them at higher levels to get a feel for what their legends will be like. I will also add the various Divine Touchstones to make the character a bit more "super."

The Dark Avenger

Class: Renegade
Level: 10
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Good
Background: Nobility

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N
Agility: 20 (+4) A
Toughness: 17 (+2)
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 16 (+2)
Persona: 16 (+2)

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: Studded Leather (7) (See below for mods)
Vitality: 36 (d4)
Degeneracy:
Corruption:

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2
Melee Bonus: +3 (see below)
Ranged Bonus: +9 (+4, +5)
Saves: +5 to Death attacks and area effects

Improved Defense: -6 to attackers

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 110%
• Bypass Traps: 115%
• Sleight of Hand: 125%
• Sneak: 125%
• Climbing: 100%

Danger Sense 1-5 (d6)
Perception: 95%
Vital Stike: x4 damage
Read Languages: 85%

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Vengeance, Justice

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: +1 to Melee Combat
Level 2: Additional Vitality Points
Level 3: Level 1 of Warrior
Level 4: Level Two Spell: Invoke Fear
Level 5: Auto Success (once per session)
Level 6: Gains +1 to all attacks and +5% to all skills
Level 7: Servant: Ward of Vengeance
Level 8: Signature Item: Batarang (+5 to hit, +5 to damage, -3 DV, 1 fate point)
Level 9: Down but Not Out
Level 10: Hop and Skip

This is not a guy you want to meet in a dark alleyway.

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends.

Please check out and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter.

 I have been thinking a lot about gods, monsters, humans, and demons in these pages lately. Between my One Man's God, my ideas for Deities & Demigods II, and playtesting The Wasted Lands gods and their relationship to humankind have been on my mind a lot.

This has also got me thinking about how in today's society, the role of the hero of myth is now played out by comic book superheroes and maybe even more so by their movie counterparts. 

And there are more.  So this week I am going to make some modern "gods" and recraft them as Wasted Lands heroes. 

As is my nature, I am going to lean in on DC Characters, or at least their archetypes.

So come back later today and all this week for some humans as superheroes as gods in the time of the Dreaming Age for Wasted Lands.

And don't forget to checkout and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter too!

 The large alcove at the end of Room 9 opens to what appears to be a large worshipping area.  There is a large bronze statue of some sort of demonic lord.

The statue is a Bronze Golem, but it is somewhat immobile now as its bottom half has melted to its dias. It can, however, still attack anyone that gets within 15 feet of it. 

It is difficult to determine if this "melting" was something that happened later or was part of its original design. 

There is a treasure hoard behind the golem. It is largely made up of gems, in particular rubies. There are 10d20+10 gems here each worth 10d20x5 GP each. (or 120 gems worth 500 gp each on average).