#Other magic

[vintagerpg]

Other Magic (2020) is so good! The concept is straight forward: What if traditional folk magic, but translated into vaguely D&D terms for use in RPGs? Jesse Ephraim focuses primarily on American systems — pow-wows, rootwork, brujeria and Ozark magic — but also includes the very intense Russian tradition of Zagovory as a sort of contrast. This might seem odd, especially since all of these speak to a more recent historical era than most fantasy games. Early on, though, Ephraim points out that Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John is a good example of a folk magician, and the Silver John stories are clear inspirations for D&D, despite being set in America in the 1960s, so this sort of thing can definitely work (see also Lowcountry Crawl).

Ephraim details charms, hexes, enchantments and all sorts of interesting details. At a glance, it might seem like folk magic is vastly underpowered in comparison to pulpy magic like the spells of D&D, but in reading through the zine you can see how naturally fantasy magic, particularly its defensive branches (detection, protection, etc), is rooted in folk traditions. Those aspects that lack a direct connection are clearly complimentary. They offer a kind of magical methodology that could be applied to RPGs for interesting effect — the idea of magic being a back and forth, or magic as the application of secret knowledge. The traditions here are lower key and less flashy than fireballs and lightning bolts, but they also imply new systems of play. One example: there’s a charm that can be used to force a shapeshifter into its natural form — there is no corollary for that in the standard suite of D&D spells, but you can easily image it in the game, and see how it might change a lycanthrope-centric scenario, for instance.

All the illustrations are fantastic woodcuts (I believe by Ephraim) that illustrated effects of spells and strange creatures they can summon, which leads us to tomorrow’s post…

[pocketss]

mmm soob

[absolutechaosss]

Favorite bit of adventurers bible lore is that Marcille was a researcher developing new healing magic before she joined the party but then learned all the offensive spells we see her use in a single day. Insane behavior. Imagine knowing the top med student in the country and one day she drops out of her cancer research program and perfects the art of making pipe bombs in 24 hours.

[cracklewink]

My Mane 6 Redesigns all together! I was going to post them separately but ended up finishing them all before I got around to it lol

[ruporas]

dragon meat, you, and me

[albaharu]

did you know if you support merrill in her act 2 mission you get rivalry points with everyone except isabela and varric. anyway merrill support team no one is gonna be mean to her on my watch

extra:

[bet-on-me-13]

The weirdly competent Doctor

So! The Watchtower's Medical Bay is a hub of constant Activity. With the number of Heroes who work under the Justice League, there are always injuries, health check-Ups, and illnesses that need healing.

But with the amount of Variant Biologies that those Heroes have, it's always a guessing game as to how to help them best. Some Metahumans react positively to penicillin, but others react like it's their Kryptonite. Some Aliens have anatomy similar to Humans, others are so different you can't tell the Stomach from the Bladder.

So when they hired a New Doctor for the Medical Bay, they had to run him through an entire Course on Variant Biologies and how best to treat specific Heroes. It was long and difficult to remember fully, but it was necessary for him to know.

But then the new Doctor started correcting Them.

"Actually, Martian's react better to the Syrup of Eucalyptus Plants better than Penicillin, since Eucalyptus is very similar to a medicinal plant from Mars which they used in many of their antibiotics."

"I don't think just pumping double doses of sedative is the best way to calm down a Speedster, that could have adverse effects on their body. Perhaps try Psychic Intervention? Their minds move a Mile a Second, but if you can calm them down their bodies will follow suit."

"Of course you use Micro-Doses of Kryptonite to operate on Superman! What else would you do?! I don't know, maybe ask JLD to enchant your Equipment to make use of Kryptonian suseptiblity to Magic? The Kryptonite is just gonna give him Cancer!"

Of course the Doctors didn't take kindly to being rudely corrected by a newbie, and Fired him on his first day.

Then a few days later their usual Treatments don't work, and they decide to give those strategies the Quack Doctor gave them out of desperation.

And Lo and Behold, they work! Martian Manhunter is fully healed and feels much better than the previous times he has needed surgery. Apparently they used a different Antibiotic that worked better with his Biology. Which was incredible, how had they figured it out?

Another Doctor you say? One who was experienced on Martian Biology and Medicinal History? He would very much like to meet with the man!

...

What do you mean you fired him for talking back?!

[vintagerpg]

Other Magic II (2020) goes where all great RPG lines wind up eventually: a monster book. Subtitled Monsters of the Americas, it is a collection of unusual creatures from a variety of American folk traditions, all accompanied by Jesse Ephraim’s minimal yet evocative woodcut art.

Some might be familiar to well-read aficionados of monsters from oral traditions. The Raven Mockers, for instance, which I know from their appearance in Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John novel The Old Gods Waken. Over all though, I suspect Other Magic II will be the first time readers encounter most of these creatures, like the headless mule (gouts of fire shoot from the neck of this monster, which is actually a woman cursed to take the form) or the Lagahoo (a man whose head is a coffin topped with three burning candles, who rather reminds me of Pyramid Head, actually).

Most of these monsters are interesting for a couple of mechanical reasons. For starters, they aren’t really good for D&D style combat encounters. Rather, their reasons for being almost all beg for whole, dedicated scenarios (I can easily see these used in spooky games like Vaesen or Call of Cthulhu). This is partly because of another interesting feature: most of the monsters can’t be killed in conventional ways, if at all. The majority of them can only be driven away temporarily. For some, the only strategy is avoidance. Like the magic of the first volume, this implies different modes of play for readers to investigate on their own, which I am more than happy to oblige!

[thatonedudeinthecorner]

Happy pride month to these two specifically I can’t believe that Merthur is real

[rowanisawriter]

you know. when i first picked up ace attorney i thought perhaps the thing between edgeworth and phoenix was being exaggerated but there is no subtext in this game. they really are like this. there’s no reading into anything they literally are just like this

[dapper-lil-arts]

funniest love triangle in existence

[polyquestria]

Happy Pride Y'all!

[starrysharks]

friendship is magic

closeups:

[peofun1]

playing MTG with people who have been in the game for like 20 years is so insufferable sometimes

every turn they're like "I play Cock Goblin of Guzzleberg" and everyone else at the table nods and goes "ah yes of course, the Cock Goblin, classic" and doesn't explain.

so I'm like okay. what does that do. and they go "well it has a Guzzler effect" and I'm like okay great what the FUCK is a Guzzler Effect™

and then after like 10 minutes of trying to get them to explain, eventually I figure out that there was a card called Guzzler Greebling that was only printed ONCE in 1998, and its text was "when this creature ETBs, everyone at the table has to suck your dick" and this card got so popular in Standard at the time that now all effects that involve dick-sucking are called "Guzzlers" by the players

[magicomens]

Strap in folks, we're gonna have a minisode!!!

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[czl]

dungeon ponies