Blogwatch: Psychosexual Ravenloft

Back in the 2nd Ed days my game world of choice was Ravenloft.

I loved all the gothic trappings mixed with heroic horror.  So even though I was a poor college student most of the time, I tried to get everything I could for this game.

Including all the novels.

Jack over at Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque is doing a series of reviews on the Ravenloft novels.  So I have been reading them.  The reviews that is.

I can remember reading Ravenloft novels while in my apartment I shared with three other guys, I remember reading them while giving exams when I was a TA, I remember reading them and feeling guilty about it when I wasn't working on my dissertation.

I don't remember them being quite this bad though.

Oh, I remember that many were not very good.  I remember that in the cases of authors that would later go on to do bigger things (like Laurel K. Hamilton, P. N. Elrod and Christie Golden among others) that they read like, well, young but inexperienced authors.

TotGaD though is not doing your typical review, he is looking at the psychosexual mess that underlies each book.

http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/psycho-sexual%20ravenloft

If you have read these books then you owe it to yourself to read these reviews.
I am enjoying every entry so far and many times I have wished I still had those books laying around.

For myself, I always felt that the Ravenloft books were more akin to a Hammer film; scholcky, over the top, with an abundance of flesh and blood but not a lot of plot.  So I am inclined to see these books more favorably than others might.  That all being said a lot of good points are raised in these reviews that I must have just glossed over.

Honestly though I am waiting for him to get around to Tapestry of Dark Souls.  That thing is train wreck.

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Faith: The Last Witch

Faith Scott, the Last Witch

Faith is the “Last Witch” of the newest book from Elizabeth Kolodziej’s “The Last Witch” Series.  The most recent book Witch Devotions (the 3rd) is out now.

I have read the first book and I enjoyed it. I also have the second, but have not read it all yet, the third one is just now out.

Faith is an interesting character and I enjoyed watching her growth throughout the first book and the bits I have picked up in the next two.  She is still young and kind of naïve, but learning more.

So what do we know about Faith?  Well she is new to her magic, but comes from a long line of powerful witches, so her power has the potential to be quite powerful.  She does have a family spell book, a Book of Shadows in one of my games. But while most of the witches in Faith’s line learned while they are growing up, Faith didn’t have that advantage.  She did learn later on from an instructor.

According to the author, Faith resembles an Earth Witch. So she is quite adept at making potions, charms, herb use and healing.  She also has a number of elemental based powers; power that help her innate abilities.  It was this description of her that got me thinking that Faith would work great as a witch in one of my games (though my games have plenty of witches in them; no ‘last witch’ in sight!) She can use her magic to increase her speed or strength.  Not quite at the level of a vampire, but more than a mundane human.

We know Faith can manipulate energies, but I saw that more of an ability rather than a spell.  Since she also has other innate powers I was thinking she might be a good fit for “WitchCraft” or even the “Buffy” RPGs.

Faith, like a lot of other types of witches, can live a very long time, maybe even hundreds of years.  This is also in line with most of my games.

So here is Faith, The Last Witch in Ghosts of Albion/WitchCraft RPG stats.

Faith Scott (played by Isla Fisher in the game)
Motivation: To learn as much about her power/herself as she can

Attributes: Strength 2 (7 with magic), Dexterity 3 (8 with magic), Constitution 2 (7 with magic), Intelligence 5, Perception 6, Willpower 5

Life Points: 35 (75 with magic)
Drama Points: 15

Qualities & Drawbacks: Adversaries (various) 2, Attractiveness +2, Contacts (Supernatural) 1, Hard to Kill 3, Honorable, Love (Trent), Magic 5, Magic Family, Magical Philosophy Earth/Elementalism (closest game wise), Nerves of Steel, Obligation, Occult Library (Fine), Secret (She's a witch who belongs to a powerful magical family), Supernatural Senses (Basic and the Sight), Telekinesis,

Useful Information
Actions: 1/2 or 2/2
Perception: 1d10 + 11
Lesser Sensing: +16
Endurance Points: 32 (62 with magic)
Essence Points: 25 (using Magic squared)
Speed: 10 (30 with magic)

Skills 
Acrobatics 2
Art 1
Computers 1
Crime 1
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 2
Gun Fu 0
Influence 3
Knowledge 5
Kung Fu/Fisticuffs 2
Languages 1 (English)
Notice 5
Occultism 5 (still learning, but has picked up a lot in the first two books)
Science 1
Sports 1

Maneuvers

Name	Score	Damage	Notes
Punch	+5 or +10	4 or 14	Bash
Kick	+3 or +13	8 or 18	Bash
Dodge	+2 or +7	-	Block
Grapple	+4 or +9	-	Blocked by Dodge
Magic	+15	Special	Varies by Spell
- Deflect	+15	-	Deflects magic

The extra pluses are from her Magic boost.

Given her role in the books I debate on whether or not to give her “Chosen One” from Army of Darkness.  In the end, I figured that she wasn’t quite up to that level just yet; maybe in the new book.

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The Witch: Art and Layout

Art and layout is nearly done and I can't wait to show you all this book.
So here is a sneak peak at my latest version of Page 1.

Once I have all the pieces in that page will be updated with the artists' names.

I am going to use some Public Domain art from the witch trails too.  I just love the way it looks and it takes me back to the imagery of reading books about witches at the Jacksonville Public Library.   I hope you all enjoy it as much as I am.

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Something Wicked...

Eldritch Witchery is now down with finals edits and sent back to the publisher.

The Witch needs one last look and then finish up layout.

Things are shaping up for a very good time here at the Other Side.

You might notice a new poll in my blog sidebar.

The Witch is done, but I would love to cut down the page size a bit.   So, I am thinking of taking out the monsters.  You can still get the monsters in EW and some will be posted here.  Ultimately it depends on the layout, but I wanted to hear what you all think.

So vote and let your voice be heard.

Have a great weekend everyone.

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I am not afraid to admit this,

But I am in constant awe over the level and depths of research J. K. Rowling did for the Harry Potter series.

Just even the care and attention that went into the names of, well, everyone.

Doing some research on some other topics and it keeps coming back to something I read in Harry Potter.  That then leads me somewhere else.

I think what I need to do know is re-read all the books and I will also admit that I am looking forward to her new book, The Casual Vacancy.  It sounds, as my friend Andrew puts it, Fab".  It sounds like a good British black comedy.

I also think it is a crime there is no official Harry Potter RPG.

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Thinking about Halloween

Halloween is coming up really fast.  Well. I start thinking about Halloween in August anyway.

Work is moving forward on both of my Witch books and I would love to have them out and to you by Halloween.

And to light a fire under my ass, I am committing to Give Away Blog Hop.

Here is the banner:

http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com/2012/07/wicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html

So I am joining a bunch of other Halloween themed giveaways (mostly paranormal erotica, but hey) and I am going to give away a PDF copy of "The Witch"  to one lucky winner.

I have no idea how I will do it or how I will choose, but I have more pressing matters.  Like layout.
But I am going to use this to promote the two books.

As a reminder (I know I am woefully late on these, but trust me they are better for it):

The Witch: A new class for Basic era games

And Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay.

The inLinkz link list is here: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=170526&r=http%3A%2F%2Fcloseencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F07%2Fwicked-after-dark-halloween-giveaway.html

I could not find the embed codes like you have with Linky.

I think this will be great.  It starts the week before Halloween.  I am going to look for other means of promoting these books.

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Sherlock Holmes

Been on a huge Sherlock Holmes bender now for a while.  I listened to all the Sir John Gielgud radio plays, have read all of stories in the Holmes cannon, watched all the episodes of Peter Cushing Holmes I can find.  Next up is the Jeremy Brett  Granada TV series, which I have on DVD now.

Should be good!

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First Loves Blogfest

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2012/04/friendly-to-z-challenge-and-next.html

Here are my first loves

First Album I loved: Thomas Dolby "The Golden Age of Wireless"

First Movie: Star Wars (I have no idea what "A New Hope" is...;) )

First Book: The Hobbit

First Person: Harder, I mean after all the first people you love are your family. So let's go with first person outside of your family. And that can only be...

BATGIRL!

Specifically, Yvonne Craig's Batgirl from the Adam West Batman TV series.
What's not to love?  She is smart and kicks ass.  Plus she rode a purple motor cycle before Prince was even born (ok, I might need to re-check that date but you get what I am trying to say  ETA: ok, Prince was only about 8-9 at the time.)

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One Solstice Night

So I enjoy reading lots of different types of books and the one thing the advent of the eBook has given me is access to authors I might not other know about and access to their books.  So I stepped outside my normal range of books and found this new-to-me author Elroa Bishop.


One Solstice Night

Take equal parts of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and give them a solid twist and make it a love story then you might have something close to One Solstice Night.  But you should read the book anyway just to be sure.

OSN is a new novella by Elora Bishop, http://elorabishop.wordpress.com.

A self described “Author of magical lesbian love stories” I had read her previous work, “The Witch Sea” and enjoyed it.  I got a copy of OSN and instead of completing my curriculum redesign I read it.  I am glad I did.

The book is rather short (one of the downsides) but very entertaining.  The book focuses on Isabella Fox (a very mediocre witch) and her talking familiar Alice.  Isabella has just been run out of her last town and she needs a new job.  As a witch for hire, especially one that is only so-so, she doesn’t have a lot of options.   So she ends up with the town of Benevolence (which is part of a series I guess).  Benevolence is quiet to be boring and she only has one spell to cast every year (and she is not even convinced it’s needed) and it would be the perfect gig.  Except for the Outcast.

There are a lot of cool locales that I hope we get to see in other books.  The Hag Bar in the World’s Largest Swamp was a really cool idea. It was very easy to see all these witches, holding brooms and their drinks walking around, drinking, chatting.  I wish I had thought of it.     Benevolence is an interesting town.  I enjoyed the causal magic people were using and Bishop did a great job of detailing the inhabitants.

What I liked about this tale is there is a certain timelessness about it.  No indication is given on when it takes place or even where, leaving it all up to your imagination.  I think this is a good thing to be honest.

We get witches as a given but we also get “Changers” which are people that can change into animals.  Not like werewolves, one minute they an animal the next they are human.  I liked it to be honest.

The love story part of this is between Isabella and another woman (natch) and it is very well handled.  There is nothing here that would be above a PG-13 level really.  The relationship builds over the course of the book and when it happens you believe it.

The climax of the book is something Isabella didn’t expect (nor did I) and frankly the action parts really pushed this book in my opinion.   I will not spoil the end, but I will say I can’t wait to read more about Isabella.

My only issue with the book.  It was not very long.  It is described as a novella, but it is on the short side of that I think.  I like short stories and this is closer in size to that (maybe longer) though the plotting is more novel like.  In truth though to make this story longer would have been unnatural.  There is a well defined begging, middle and end here and to make longer would have seemed odd.

In the end, girl finds girl and they live happily ever after.  At least till next year when she has to do the spell again. ;)
I would love to read more about Isabella’s future adventures.

What strikes me the most about this book is how much it would work as a Witch Girls Adventures setting.  http://channelmlive.com/witchgirls/wgahome.html and http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/channelm/witch-girls-book-of-shadows-witch-girls-second-edi

The Hag Bar would be right at home with everything else in Witch Girls.  I can also practically stat up Isabella Fox, Emily Deer, Mrs. Cat, Mrs. Goose and Alice in my head now.

It does make me want to read some of Bishop’s work.

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New Releases Thursday

So each year I let everyone know about the new releases of some of my favorite women in Urban Horror from two of my favorite authors.
Here are the previous posts, 2010 and 2011.  Here I am only a couple days late.

First up is the new Calliope Reaper-Jones book from Amber Benson, How to Be Death.

When we last left CRJ she was assuming the role as the new Death.  Don't pretend that just because she has the power and station means she has anything figured out yet.  I think this is my favorite cover of all the books so far.  Out on Feb 28.

Also new is Rachel Morgan's latest adventure from author Kim Harrison, A Perfect Blood.

If Calliope is Death, then Rachel is Dead.  Or at least that is what they keep telling her.  She was declared dead at the end of the last book and now no one from the FIB, to her Demon teacher Al or even the DMV can do anything about it.  Maybe Callie could help her...

I like this cover too.  We get to see more of Rachel.  This one is out now.

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Zombies vs. Robots

IDW has a new series of short stories up called "Zombies vs. Robots".
I'll admit I knew nothing about it but today my friend (and Ghosts of Albion RPG co-writer) Amber Benson has a new book out in the series.

Zombies vs. Robots: Mademoiselle Consuela and Her Army of One

She is also running a contest around the book and you could win a lunch with her over Skype.
So go. Download.  99 cents won't buy you much, but it will get you Amber's newest book.  And would make her happy.  Unless of course you have something against happy.

In other Amber/Tara news, Zap2It is running a poll on the most "crush worthy" dearly departed TV character.  If you enjoy my blog, pop over and give "Tara Maclay" a vote.
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/02/tvs-most-crushworthy-dearly-departed-mischa-barton-ian-somerhalder-amber-benson-vote-now.html

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Looking Forward to 2012: Other Features

I'd love to get some more games and useful crunch out to you all.

Books I am working still are "Here There Be Dragons..." and a couple of books for Elf Lair Games.
I might have more material coming out from Eden, too soon to tell right now.

I am also working on a first for me, a Sci-Fi game that I hope is a twist on many sci-fi games.

Here's hoping I get some good writing in.

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Let the Adventure Begin

If you are like me then it all started here, with an Unexpected Party.




December 2012 feels like a long way away.

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Ghosts of Albion - In my Hands!

Got back home today from visiting family and found a nice big box waiting for me.
Inside...

A box of Ghosts of Albion books!

Coming soon to a Game Store near you!

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