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Witchblood
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/23/2022 14:56:52

Originally Posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/10/100-days-of-halloween-witchblood.html

Witchblood

PDF. 237 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art.

There is a hardcover option for this book, but I do not have it. Yet.

I knew this game was going to be good when I started reading it. First off the authors list Howard's Conan and Tanith Lee's "Kill the Dead." Seriously. I LOVE Kill the Dead. I love Tanith Lee. We are off to a great start. Also listed are Russian Folk Tales and Gimm's Fairy Tales. Also mentioned is Ron Edward's Sorcerer, a game I do rather enjoy.

Rules Basics

Ok we learn that this game is based on One Roll Engine. Knowledge of that game is not needed here, which is good because while I know it I have never played it.

This is a character focused game so we are going to focus on that. All characters (called Wanderers here, more on that) have Identities and Qualities. Identies come in pairs and characters have three of them. They are numbered from 0 to 5. This is a dice pool game where you will roll a number of d10 based on the Identities and one of the Qualities. So anywhere between 3 and 10 dice. Successes, Critical successes and failures are also detailed.

The Fiction

The world of Witchblood is the Forrest. A giant forest that covers an area about the size of Europe, which tech levels about late 18th early 19th century. Ok another plus for me. The game discusses how to being to create the world.the

The game is divided into this Basic Introduction, the Player's Guide, and Storyteller's Guide.

Player's Section

Chapter 1: We start here with some background setting fiction to get a feel for this world. It sets the mood and stage well. For me it already feels familiar. I have seen this world before. No. Not in print, but it is the world you see in fairy tales.

Chapter 2: Character creation follows. The characters are known as Wanderers, people who wander the world to learn more about their world and themselves. You build a character in 6 steps. 1. Name and Concept, 2. Birthright. 3. Calling. 4. Profile. 5. Bonuses. 6. Finishing touches.

Each Birthright is like your species or race. We have Changeling, Commoner, Ghostborn, Noble, Troll, Witchblood (thus the name), and Zver. Each gets two pages and helps decide your Indenties and advancement paths.

Callings are like classes or professions though they go deeper than that. They are the Balladeer, Devoted, Fortune Teller, Robber, Sellsword, Trader, and Wise One. Birthright is balanced against Calling.

Chapter 3: We get the section on Identies and Qualities. Identities as mentioned before are in pairs, Patience and Cunning, Vigor and Grace, Understanding and Persuasion. These are subdivided into two more pairs. For example Patience and Cunning also has aspects Generosity and Selfishness and Demonstration and Observation.

Points in these allow the characters to perform actions.

Chapter 4 covers these actions. The identies and qualities give you points that you then roll d10s. Roll these and look for matches or sets. So things like riding a horse in a dangerous situation would be Graceful Endurance. Just riding a horse would need no to roll. Various sorts of rule situations are covered.

Chapter 5 is the chapter on Magic. Magic here is not the organized magic of D&D. Its not even the emotional but structured magic of say Mage. Magic is, in the words of this book, bloody, blunt, and feral. There are many ways magic can manifest. There is "Petty Magic" or minor magics and anyone with a supernatural birthright can have Petty Magics. Charms are things you can pick up along the way and allow characters to do things others can't. Hunches are ways the characters can manipulate magic around them into effects. They are not something the character "does" but rather "discovers." Divination, Pacts, Lineage and Deeds, Sorcerery, Spoiling, Gifts and Shapeshifting are all magical talents that have their own means of working. The variety here is amazing and paints a picture of a world steeped in magic.

Storytelling Section

Chapter 6: This starts our Storytelling section or GMs section. It explains again that this world is largely a combination of two genres; pulp fantasy and fairy tales. This first chapter goes over the elements of these two genres and how the designers break the down the themes and rebuild them in the world of Witchblood. It is an interesting breakdown of both genres and what makes them work.

We also get some Storytelling tips. There is section on NPCs like Companions, or characters essential to the Wanderers and how they fit into the story, and Locals, or the NPCs that don't interact all the time with the Wanderers. Antagonists are those NPCs that work against the Wanderers. So exactly what they sound like. Each of these types get their motivations defined. A good guide for any game really.

Given the nature of magic in this world/game, Enchantments are the NPCs of magic. They are continuing or permanent magics. So Sleeping Beauty's sleeping curse is a good example of what this sort of thing is. They are defined more or less like other NPCs. Now this is a FANTASTIC idea.

Chapter 7: Covers "The Village" or "Where the Mild Thing Are." Ok that is a bit glib on my part. It is about where the humans live. This covers the various people living in the "Village." There are various roles like Butcher, Miller, Fisher and so on. There are also people outside the Village, like Bandits, Creeping Trees (LOVE THIS), Predators and so on.

We get themes going on in the Village, like Abuse of Authority, Domestic Violence, Human Sacfrice and more. This can be a dark game if you choose.

Chapter 8: Encounters. This covers what is in the Woods outside Village. What I love about this is everything I wanted to be here, is here; So Spirits, Ghosts, and Witches. And things I didn't like The Aunts, the Burned Man, the Dead Robbers, the Hearteater, the Mancutter and more.

This chapter is great. These encounters are so well detailed and thought out that I would love to add them to other games. Just so much flavor here.

--

This game is so rich in flavor and depth. I once said that even in D&D I don't explore dungeons, I explore characters. This is one of the better character exploration games. The Villiage, the Forest, even the Burned Man and the Mayor. They are all there for the sole purpose of exploring your character. Think about the fairy tales you know, most are named for the lead character. This is what we have here.

This game lets you do that. And to do that there is plenty of adversity here. Not just in terms of the features in the Woods but in the themes you are expected to explore. Not all of them will be comfortable or nice. It is Grimdark, but not always nihilistic. Characters work towards making things better OR at least that is their expectation. In many ways this makes things much darker than say Dungeon Crawl Classics (no slight on DCC).

This would be a great game for a group of good friends to explore. I also think it is a good game for people to use to explore different aspects of themselves. I talked about notions where the characters we make are different extensions of our own psyche. For example my Paladin character Johan is a manifestation of a Freudian Super-Ego and my Witch character Larina is a manifestation of my Jungian Anima. Just to add some armchair psychology to it. This game would do the same.

The game is fantastic and I am going to have to come back to it later this week. Maybe create a character.

There is not a ton of art (though the cover is fantastic), but I don't see this as a negative thing. Reading this reminded me of a book of fairy tales and legends I had as a kid where the only art was on the chapter pages. It invoked that same feeling in me and that is likely exactly what the designers wanted.

This not a game to do in an afternoon and be done. This one should be played a few times. I would even suggest on a regular interval; much like you read to your children before bedtime every night, this should be done at the same time in the same place. Really get that feeling you are leaving this world and move into one that sits in that liminal place between dreams and nightmares and being awake.

Can't wait to explore it more.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Witchblood
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Miserable Secrets
by Steffie d. V. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/08/2019 04:50:49

This remains one of my favorite games by Fantasy Heartbreaker. It's evocative, mysterious, and like most Fantasy Heartbreaker games it makes relationships between characters (and the secrets they keep) count. The card suit system & town generator also alleviate the GM's work, which is always nice. Definitely recommend this one.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Miserable Secrets
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The Sugar House: The Adventures of Sasha Witchblood
by Steffie d. V. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/06/2019 08:00:59

The Sugar House builds a compelling and unique world, which operates on a principle of 'everything comes at a cost'. Magic? Pay for it. Refuse your strange grandmother with too many eyes? Pay for it. The titular Sasha Witchblood navigates this world masterfully, knowingly paying what she needs to get what she wants. She's strong, self-reliant and sympathetic, and I frequently found myself rooting for her or just wishing we could grab a drink together.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Sugar House: The Adventures of Sasha Witchblood
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The Shadow of Golgotha (B/X) (First Edition)
by Marco R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/29/2019 07:02:12

Just some quick words...there are few, if any, rules per se in the book, most of it is setting and a couple of monsters. HOWEVER, the setting itself is super-evocative even though it does not overflow with details. To any experienced GM, those setting infos which are given should be more than enough to spark your imagination. If you're in any way a fan of The Witcher, Castlevania, Vampire Hunter D or even the metal band Powerwolf (The setting has vampiric paladins and (Were)Wolves of God, for Christ's Sake! What's not to love?! Sorry, I am gushing) then this is a setting for you. Also, it has futuretech, dieselpunk, clockworks and magitech. I am not that fond of the OSR but bought this mostly because of the setting and I was not disappointed. I am definitely going to rob this setting blind for my next D&D 5e campaign. My favoure purchase this month.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Shadow of Golgotha (B/X) (First Edition)
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Miserable Secrets
by Jye N. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/12/2018 18:56:21

The investigation mechanics are fantastic; the pacing, the thematic linking of secrets to card suits and the town generation system were a huge help to me as a GM. It's not the sort of thing I've had a lot of success running in the past but Miserable Secrets turned that right around.

Combat is very cool and has synergy with investigation play (there are resource interactions via the cards that represent secrets, and both PCs and NPCs' powers always have explicit in and out of combat applications). It's a little different to most tactical games in having a very mobile, hit-and-run style (inspired by Castlevania, if you didn't get the reference in the title), but the thorough examples should set you straight.

Also you can play an alchemist who makes golden whips from her blood, or a Wolf of God, so that's pretty cool :)

Rose's Patreon backers have had a month to enjoy this game already; the version you're buying here is fleshed out from our feedback. Having run the Patreon version I am super keen to get this expanded version into play, and I've bought copies for all my players so that we're good to go for next week!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Miserable Secrets
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Die For You
by Goran E. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/11/2018 15:27:06

This is not a review, just a short opinion.

There something eminently poetic in this game, a real atmosphere of mystery and magic, a little like Buffy's complicated love affairs meet a dark anime. It is not a big game by its number of pages but it truly gives you everything you need. Maybe a few pics or rather simple drawings or a stylish character sheet could have been nice.

The system is simple with 3 stats: weird; real life & feelings. You roll one die, two if you are really prepared. You can roll one more if one person you trust is involved, if you sacrifice something or if your character goal is involved. . Note that you can force a character to help you if this characters trusts you or you can receive an appluse die if what you try to do pleases the other players. The number of successes gives quality rating

If there is something to change I think it would be to not give an auto value to Real Life but rather gives points to drop on all each 3 stats, maybe 10 or 7 with 4 being the maximum, just to make sure that all characters do not end up with a 3 in all.

Frankly speaking, this game is a little gem. I love it.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Die For You
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Die For You
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/23/2017 15:50:18

Originally posted here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2017/10/love-will-be-cruel-carmilla-for-die-for.html

All week I am doing RPG conversions of the Web series Carmila. Today I am going to shift my focus slightly and look at a Role-Playing Game that was directly inspired by Carmilla.

Growing Up is Weird Die For You by Rose Bailey lists Carmilla as it's primary inspiration. Though given the name I can't imagine that HEX was also not an inspiration. Die For You is a slim book, only 13 pages. Character creation and rules are all, understandably really simple. Designed for 2 to 5 people, one game master and four players, I think it could be expanded. It also has that feel of a game that could also work with rotating GMs.

This game would classify as a "Story Game" I believe, it has that feel, but I really don't know much about its genesis.

To play you start by Picking a Setting. Since I am going to go with Carmilla as my example (and I think it sells the game best) I'll give examples from the start of Season 1. The setting can be random (roll a 1d6) or the group's choice. We are going for "College" here.

Next comes Creating a Character. Again this is an easier process than most games, but one that should involve everyone playing. First thing you need to come up with is your Concept. The examples given are good for us, with some tweaks; “Nosey Journalism Major” or “Disaffected Vampire.” You can decide if you are some sort of monster or a normal human. Now define your Want. This is something your characters wants. Let's go with "Find the Missing Girls from Silas University" as an example. When pursuing your wants you have a better chance of succeeding, but also you open yourself up more to creating complications. Looking for the missing girls gets the attention of the Evil Dean that wants to sacrifice them to an ancient demon. Having conflicting Wants in the group is also a good thing. Now determine your Traits. You have three: Feels, Weird and Real Life. Feels and Weird are ranked 2 to 4 and combined they must equal 6. Real Life is the same as your lowest score. Finally, you have Trust. Trust is another character you trust and this can change from scene to scene if needed.

While this is going on the GM comes up with the Big Bad. This is who they need to defeat to move the story to its end. Simpler is better. "Vampire", "Nephilim" or "Evil Dean". Then figure where the game begins and what happens. "At the big party, a girl disappears". "In the middle of class, you set fire to all the paper with your mind". And so on.

Roll the Bones Rolls come in two types, Challenges (your character is trying to do something or opposed by an NPC) and Conflicts (opposed by another PC). In Challenges, you roll against the Trait that the GM is most affected. Each die that is one lower than your trait is a Success. There are ways to get more dice. You can get help from another character, pursuing your Wants, making a sacrifice, or using your Trust.

A few minutes of set up, getting characters made and you are set to go!

Playing Carmilla The Setting: Silas University, Freshman dorms. Laura Hollis' room. Big Bad: The Dean (revealed later)

The Cast

Carmilla Concept: Disaffected Vampire Want: To not do the horrible things her mother makes her do anymore. (Later) I want Laura to be safe. Traits Feels: 2 Weird: 4 Real Life: 2 Trust: No one, Laura

Laura Hollis Concept: Nosey Journalism Student Want: To find the missing girls. (Later) I want Carmilla to be safe. Traits Feels: 4 Weird: 2 Real Life: 2 Trust: Dany, Carmilla

Danny Concept: Really tall English Lit TA Want: I want to go out with Laura. (Later) I want Laura to be safe. Traits Feels: 4 Weird: 2 Real Life: 2 Trust: Laura

LaFontaine Concept: Would-be mad scientist; brainy Want: To get into med school and figure out all the weirdness on campus. (Later) I want to party with the Demon of Light. Traits Feels: 2 Weird: 4 Real Life: 2 Trust: Perry

Perry Concept: Dorm mom, German major and neat freak. Want: I want everyone to be normal! Just be normal! Traits Feels: 4 Weird: 2 Real Life: 2 Trust: LaFontaine

There. Five characters as quickly as I could write them down. Take them and throw them into the weirdness. The game is a lot of fun and could be a really fun experiment to try with some exsisting characters.

The game is Pay What You Want, so if you want to try it, throw the author a buck or two and if you like then toss in a couple more.
You can see more about this game at http://www.fantasyheartbreaker.com.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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