#sourcebook

[relleytrots]

Gehenna War

It's pretty neat, yo.

Like Blood-Stained Love, it transforms the core "personal and political" horror of Vampire into another subgenre. Unlike Blood-Stained Love, it has a lot of concrete advice for Storytellers on structuring scenes, assembling pools, building characters to interact with, and making that subgenre work at the table.

An effort has been made, here. There's a little chart in the introduction claiming that Chapters 2 and 3, and the Appendices, will be of use to any action chronicle, be it more high concept or street level, and having read the durn things I think that claim's borne out. I'm gonna talk about those sections first, and later loop back around to the specifically Gehenna War stuff.

Chapter 2 has neat archetypes for characters in various armed conflict roles - generals, spies, intelligencers, recruits, veterans - with recommendations for priority stats rather than statblocks, so these can be flipped for player or Storyteller use. Suggestions for bonus XP amounts if you want more powerful starting characters, and focused specialisations that advise you to focus particular areas of your character sheet - almost like soft classes, or playbooks. A handful of new Merits and Flaws (one of which is getting slammed onto Penny), and a mixed bag of Discipline powers. Bloodform is back? Woo! There are "reroll Rouse checks for raising this one Attribute or using this one Discipline" openers for the Physical Disciplines? Swing and a miss, more filler. There's two incredible new high-end Blood Sorcery rituals (I shall be using both of them very soon), and some funky Thin-Blood Alchemy if you want your Duskborn to join a Methuselah cult.

Then: advice on running Basic Combat, and explicit guidance on the modularity of the Advanced Combat rules, and a few new ones. This is brilliant stuff for new Storytellers, reflective of the demand for the Combat Primer, and it's given me some ideas I didn't have before, and ALSO. VINDICATION. OBSERVE.

One of the things that waters down play over time is if the characters need to build the same dice pool every time for the same task. To avoid this, Storytellers should vary the traits involved according to the situation, to keep things interesting and to curb players trying to optimize their pools.

Leaving aside that awful syntax at the start - "Play becomes predictable if the characters need to build the same dice pool every time they attempt a task" - activate your voice, and dismiss "is" clauses, you cowards! - anyway, leaving that aside, this is how I've been doing things all along and I love that a book explicitly says "do it and don't get hung up on the exact RAW every time."

Car chase mechanics, cute new gear (I like the Scourge Blades, nasty-ass duelling swords that delay vampiric healing). Then it's on to story advice!

Chapter Three does something I wish Blood-Stained Love had done for romance: getting into the structure of action stories, how action interacts with other genre qualifiers (crime, horror, survival, thriller etc.), the escalating role of villains - like, actual formalist thinking about how stories work. We then get some mechanical advice on how to shift the mode of play, how to approach things like Hunger and Frenzy to make them more or less of a factor. It's short, but it's fuckin' GOOD.

Appendix I is all about dice. When you should and shouldn't roll, as opposed to taking half. Grouping those moments into broad types by what they do to the emergent story. How to add variation with tracker rolls or unusual dice pools. How to manage failures on tests and what to offer players to keep the story moving. And, most important of all, how to deal with the Beast, going through each Skill and showing how the Beast impacts a Messy Critical (still a success, remember!) or a Bestial Failure.

You need this Appendix. The corebook needed this appendix. Maybe it took six years of best practice and sharing ideas to get these ideas fully understood. Maybe if there'd been one dev team since the start we might have had this sooner. At least we have it now.

I'll talk about the Gehenna War itself in a follow-up post. That's Chapters One, Four, Five and Six, and Appendix II.

[maverick-werewolf]

NONFICTION BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT - The Werewolf: Past and Future now available in HARDBACK!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT - my popular nonfiction werewolf book (on folklore and many things besides), The Werewolf: Past and Future - Lycanthropy's Lost History and Modern Devolution, is now available in hardback, in addition to paperback and ebook/digital!

Click here to purchase on Amazon.com!

Also check out the many pics of it in this post (plus the book received cat approval; pics included)! Note that pictures are, obviously, of a proof copy.

The book is very good quality! I'm impressed! You won't be disappointed. The hardcover is nice and hefty without being bulky, and the spine is sturdy and lovely.

And best of all, the book comes kitty certified, inspected by Ty Beanie Baby (yes, that is his name) himself.

He gave it a sniff.

And even honored it with a rub. Clearly it's a good book. And it didn't fall over! It's very sturdy.

(Disclaimer: He did just want treats afterward, as he cannot read. Treats and pettings were of course given.)

Synopsis:

Since before recorded history, werewolves have captivated human imagination. Simultaneously, they represent our deepest fears as well as our desire to connect with our primal ancestry. Today, werewolves are portrayed negatively, associated with violence, cruelty, cannibalism, and general malevolence. However, in ages past, legends depicted them not as monsters, but as a range of neutral to benevolent individuals, such as traveling companions, guardians, and knights. The robust legacy of the werewolf spans from prehistory, through ancient Greece and Rome, to the Middle Ages, into the Early Modern period, and finally into present-day popular culture. Over the ages, the view of the werewolf has become distorted. Media treatment of werewolves is associated with inferior writing, lacking in thought, depth, and meaning. Werewolves as characters or creatures are now generally seen as single-minded and one-dimensional, and they want nothing more than to kill, devour, and possibly violate humans. Hollywood depictions have resulted in the destruction of the true meanings behind werewolf legends that fascinated and terrified humans for so many ages. If these negative trends were reversed, perhaps entertainment might not only discover again some of the true meanings behind the werewolf myth, but also take the first steps toward reversing negative portrayals of wolves themselves, which humans have, for eons, wrongfully stigmatized and portrayed as evil, resulting in wolves receiving crueler treatment than virtually any other animal. To revive the many questions posed by lycanthropy, entertainment must show respect to the rich history of so many cultures all around the world – and rediscover the legend of the werewolf.

Again, be sure to check out the book on Amazon.com!

If you would prefer to buy a signed copy directly from me, I'll have something very fun in store for you in October... along with another surprise: a brand new book! And it's more werewolf nonfiction. My big fiction publication is coming next year, and it's also werewolf-related. It's a great time to love werewolves.

Expect another big announcement soon about a brand new nonfiction werewolf folklore book!

So stay tuned for a whole lot more on the way! Be sure to give me a follow here and elsewhere on social media. I'll also have a newsletter coming very soon that'll help you keep up with my work, and it'll come with free reading!

Until next time, and happy fall!

Patreon --- Wulfgard --- Werewolf Fact Masterlist --- Twitter

[machetelanding]

Raiders of the Lost Ark sourcebook by West End Games (1994)

[cryptocollectibles]

Cyberforce Universe Sourcebook #1 (August 1994) by Image Comics

Written by David Wohl, Eric Silvestri, Eliot R Brown, drawn by various, cover by Marc Silvestri and Billy Tan.

[thecomicsnexus]

TMNT: SOURCEBOOK #1-4

Feb - Sep 2024

By Patrick Ehlers, Shawn Lee, and Alonzo Simon

I was kind of excited that they were doing a sourcebook about this universe, but I wasn't expecting this.

SCORE: 6

To me, a good sourcebook is the one Archie made. Or even the old Who's Who published by DC.

This sourcebook is different. Now, I see the value in this format, but it kind of forces you to read it from beginning to end. Going directly to what may think is the definitive profile of a character, will only give you a moment in that character's life. Throughout the four issues, you get a prose retelling of Volume 5 (and extras). So if you are kind of new to the series, I guess you could read this and jump to volume 6, but I wouldn't recommend it. The book is pretty good most of the time, and very bingeable, so replacing it with text, doesn't do the whole thing justice.

I think that the issue the most value is the last one. It covers the many new characters from the Mutant Town saga. Since many of them were used a couple of times and then disappeared, it is good to have them all in one place.

Another thing I feel is missing, compared to those references I mentioned, is that the book is focused on telling just the story, but gives no mentions on first appearances, and who created them. Sure, I could go to Turtlepedia for this data (which could be wrong), but then what is the point of this book?

For a collected edition, they should add an alphabetical index, with all the pages required for each character and/or event.

Only time will tell how effective this format was. It has some interesting information at times that you wouldn't get from reading the book, but overall, I cannot imagine myself going to the sourcebook before going to Turtlepedia. Then again, I guess not everyone is constantly researching these characters :p

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

GI Joe - Cobra Codex Sourcebook - Chapter 3 Lead-In Art by Peejay Catacutan

[suicidalgamergirl]

Strahd and The Vampire Mythos of Tragic Romances

My Batstarion fanfic started small. The idea of some random person to encounter a bat that needs healing. It started out cute and now I’m stuck in the crossroads of dealing with an actual vampire that won’t die easily.

I don’t hate Tav. But after reading the first three pages of Curse of Strahd book, I did not mean to rip off the idea that Strahd/Ascendant Astarion’s love interest kills themselves rather than spend eternity with them.

Eh, Twilight played with the role/concept that vampires are this tragic creature that are so misunderstood as romantic interests. The only reason they will find romance is when their prey’s scarlet blood gets them intoxicated. They try to find the perfect naive human, someone who seems pure and kind towards them. Someone so foolishly fall into their claws/fangs.

Despite being immortal beings, they have a stubborn way to find themselves to actually want to love again. They do not want to face tragedy once more because a beautiful person stands in their gaze.

Ness is damaged goods. Being used all her life, from loveless relationships and broken promises, perhaps taking the vampire’s offer is much better choice rather than living a life that everyone you know shames you.

Consorts or Spawn are in the future of their love interests.

Vampire Lords need obedient relationships. I guess this is why some people compare Ascendant Astarion to Cazador in videos. They entice of being “mine forever” quite literally to their pawns.

But what if they encounter someone who never experience love? They need to be tutors and slowly heal up the pent up damages they had throughout their lives. They are well written in romances because they literally can do whatever they want to woo the reader to jump onto them.

Doesn’t help that their bites make their victims highly aroused by them. We write vampires as sex symbols and their stories lead up to fantasies in our head.

That’s all I got for now. Peace.

-V

[notetakers-blog-of-holding]

OUTCLASSED: The NPC Stat block Compendium 178 non-player characters based on DnD classes that you can adapt for your game!

It's Pay What You Want!

This 200+ page book was written to alleviate the agony of creating a completely new character for enemies with class levels simply because there aren't many NPC stat blocks available in the officially published books.

Included in this book:

178 NPC statblocks

12 flavorful write-ups on how to incorporate the DnD classes as factions into your game

A guide for quickly applying a race to a stat block

Several indexes sorted by class, CR, thematic similarity, and sourcebook

Clarifications and examples of the thought process behind building NPCs

Bonus material and variant rules as easter eggs peppered throughout

Flavorful blurbs of action for each stat block

Pure white and black aesthetic. No distracting images or fancy effects. Just what you need, where you need it.

[violent138]

I think the Batfamily can be organized by levels of germaphobia:

Least concerned/worst offenders:

Bruce - established grand tradition of running around in sewers 

Dick - licks evidence off the ground. Will wear the same domino mask for multiple days. 

Tim- enjoys being stabbed in the chest by blades that may or may not be clean. Long career as a skateboarder means his board has been tossed (to the horror of others) onto his bed/their car seats.

Jason - Expiry dates are a myth. Also see penchant for severing heads and then using the same gloves to answer his phone 

Mid-Level Offenders

Stephanie- likes swimming. In Gotham. Also a sewer acolyte.

Babs - Has made out with Canary in the most dubious of make out spots. Will also drink coffee that has been there for an indeterminate amount of time.  

They're Doing Their Best

Damian - Adopter of random animals, however he was raised extremely well and performs wazu five times a day 

Cass- Will eat from dubious food carts, however she does take ridiculously long showers 

Duke- (Has microscopic vision and will get grossed out pretty quick), everything he's done in sewers has been against his will, raised by a mom who was a neat freak.

[70sscifiart]

The cover art for the 1992 techno EP "Machine Language" by Dynamix II. Shamlessly ripped from the cover to 1991 RPG title "RIFTS Sourcebook" by Kevin Siembieda. Which honestly was the only reason I bought the EP.

Wow, even swiped the background robots, impressive!

[oldschoolfrp]

Hey, weirdos, thanks for buying our game. (Probably a Tom Baxa illustration, from the AD&D 2e Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide, TSR, 1990) From Ch 4 "Uses of Judgement" which also includes sections on "Off Nights," "Player Feuds," "Pettiness," "Know-it-alls," and various forms of cheating.

[maverick-werewolf]

My eBooks under $2 + 1 ebook FREE!

Hey all, I’m participating in the end of year Smashwords sale from now to January 1!

You can get my books as ebooks for very low prices, including Wulfgard: Tomb of Ankhu for FREE! And my other books for under $2!

Check it out!

Please be sure to share and help spread the word! I have some very big releases coming next year...

Merry Christmas!

[jastervhett]

STAR WARS (1977): The ONE…that started it ALL….

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

The classic film Star Wars was released in theaters, 48 years ago….

[cryptocollectibles]

WildCats Adventures #1 & 2 and Sourcebook (1994-1995) by Image Comics

1 (September 1994) Written by David Wise and Jeff Mariotte, drawn by Ty Templeton and Art Nichols.

2 (November 1994) Written by David Wise and Jeff Mariotte, drawn by Ty Templeton and Art Nichols.

Sourcebook #1 (January 1995) Written by Jeff Mariotte, drawn by various, cover by Jeff Smith.

[bubblyernie]

Me rolling for constitution IRL as I shovel dice in my mouth

Happy to share this drawing I've been working on for a few weeks/months :3 NOT OFFICIAL, just wanted to do a mockup of a sourcebook with a Dungeon Meshi sorta theme! I also tried to draw them how I figured the sourcebook artists would interpret the characters!!

If anyone does homebrew for DunMeshi, feel free to reblog with a link to it, we can make a cookbook of sorts, like an open collab!

art tag // commission info

[netwatchsucks]

Johnny Silverhand born 1988, Second Central American Conflict (where he lost his arm etc) 2003-2010, Samurai founded 2003... you're telling me that man

Enlisted in the (i'm assuming) military for the independent republic of texas (born College Station, Texas - Texas goes independent in 1999 and is recognised as such in 2000) at 15 years old (possibly lying about his age)

Lost his arm and a good friend and deserted the army, running away towards Night City at... still 15 years old?

Said fuck it and with absolutely nothing to his name formed a band with (i'm assuming) a handful of other TEENAGERS

Disbanded Samurai in 2008 at the ripe age of 20 years old

Yeah no wonder he Acts Like That