Byron Alexander

Rumours of my reanimation have been greatly exaggerated.

It is going to be awesome.

I hate to self-promote but Witchcraft has everything you want. Seriously.

Ideas for BRP : Necromancy:

Three sections; real world, gothic and fantasy.

Real world will be based heavily on genuine traditions, going through history and highlighting mystical dealings with the dead. Most new system stuff will be skills not spells making it very, very 'low magic'.

Gothic will highlight the gothic undead : Vampires, ghosts and the animated. How to use them as a Keeper, options that differ from the core rules (dhampirs will feature here, obviously).

Fantasy will be where the magic's at (as well as some new monsters) and, hopefully, will be compatible with BRP : Classic Fantasy.

Opinions?

I was very nervous to see this book come out

Dare I ask why?

Thanks for the kind words, rpgstarwizard and Chaot - I really do appreciate them. Now to get on with that book on necromancy I've been promising for about 1000 years... (All writers are flakes, please forgive me.)

I'm hoping a year from now:) I'd honestly like them to put this one on hold and retool the book combining Grimoire, Witchcraft and the old Bronze Grimoire into one big tome of magical mayhem. Probably won't happen, but a guy can wish...

Ah ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaa! I love you, you crazy cat, but I think I've been in outer space so long that Chaosium have forgotten who I am.

You're very kind, especially since I've been in outer space for months... I'm glad you like the flexibility - I wanted it to be a flexible sourcebook.

EDIT : I've faffed about long enough - NECROMANCY IS COMING!

I use Witchcraft as written for both my modern horror games and my fantasy games

Well I'm glad to hear that, I was hoping it would be seen as pretty flexible in that regard.

I'm not sure anyone knows much about 19th century witchcraft. I just ignored the Wicca stuff (and the Satanists)...

Well, Gardner claimed when he revealed Wicca to the world that he was doing precisely that - revealing something that had an unbroken line to the middle ages and beyond, passed down from teacher to pupil for millenia. This is highly unlikely to be true, it is more likely that he developed Wicca from the work of Crowley, the theories of Margaret Murray and J.G. Frazer and possibly other, less complete sources. However, I wouldn't see a problem in a work of fiction assuming that Gardner was 100% truthful and that there are Wiccan groups dotted about in the 19th century.

Undoubtedly there were things going on in the 19th century one might consider witchcraft. The nascent field of anthropology led to people going to distant tribes and studying their witchdoctors and shamans, groups of occultists were meeting (particularly in the latter half of the century) to try and revive old magical traditions. Folklorists were enjoying a renaissance and were capturing dying folk traditions some of which we might very well consider witchcraft.

Obviously, I'll third the Classic Fantasy recommendation, it does exactly what you're thinking of doing and all of these dilemmas are solved for you.

That said, if you are determined not to buy a monograph I'd probably flange it - just say that in your world too much metal near the body interferes with magical power. That'll make your wizard the guy in robes with a wooden staff easy enough.

So far you're all in my good books. Despite Camazotz's harsh words about my formatting! (Alright, I'll admit my formatting is kind of lame...)

All I can say is... thanks!

Also, I apologise to my few fans for not doing the necromancy supplement... I am still determined that it will happen.

Do you want negative fame (infamy) as well? If so I think the allegiance rules modified idea works best (instead of good/evil you have fame/infamy).

If you just want fame in a positive or neutral light I think splitting status either into Status (Wealth) and Status (Fame) or into Credit Rating and Reputation (as suggested above) is probably best as it isn't adding an extra optional rule.

So I'd say it depends on what you're after but I don't have a better suggestion than those already given.

Not at all, not at all. As I say, though, if using it without BRP Witchcraft you might want to replace out Craft (Potion) and Craft (Talisman). I would suggest Knowledge : Occult (though as they already have Knowledge : Folklore there will be some overlap, still allowing it would represent the more intellectual than visceral witch), Disguise (There are many tales of witches that disguise themselves, by ordinary or magical means) and Literacy (if not automatic in your setting) as being three of the most useful. Alternatively, you could just say the players are free to choose any two suitable Crafts or Knowledges.

I don't know which one Rust has sent you but I'm happy for you to use the one from Witchcraft. It'd need a little adjustment, since it includes Taslismans and Potions as skills and they're specific to Witchcraft but I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the kind words Rust and JarrethSynn.

Funnily enough I wasn't originally planning to do much setting stuff (as it's a generic book) but people here asked for it and it seems quite popular.

I'm also really happy that people like the potion creation system! I should point out that Rodney not only borrowed the rules but also made little improvements to them that made their way into Witchcraft. I need to get my backside in gear and write Necromancy so that we can share some ideas on that as well... been out of action for a while working two jobs but that situation's improved and I should be back writing regularly soon.

That would attract only players aged 40+, and we already have them.

Are you suggesting a High School Musical supplement or is my heat-addled brain imagining implications that aren't there again?

Besides, I am under 30, I'll have you know!

Gypsy vampire hunters with superhuman powers as the result of being the children of vampires ? of course we want rules for them. I'm amazed you needed to ask

I assumed that would be the case.

Do people want rules for playing Dhamphirs?

Nope, no contradictions there. Except for what you say about POW being impossible to increase beyond 21 - but I'd be surprised if that's correct.

I think it is, but there are ways to increase your POW beyond 21 for practical purposes in games which use powers which rely on it - they just won't change the POW on your character sheet.

I vote for inclusion of Hopping Vampires (jiāngshī)!

Those things are hilarious. Though not quite as hilarious as vampire pumpkins.

That is is not very good news. The Witchcraft PDF came out only a couple of days before the Green. It seems that they should have gone to the printer at about the same time. The Green has not sold as well as Witchcraft though and it is bigger so it may have been more expensive to print. I can only hope they still intend to make a print version. Chaosium is mysterious though. The PDF came out way sooner than I anticipated.

On the bright side I have not heard that they were not going to print it either.

A recent tweet from Dustin:

Random Info: Chaosium monographs are *always* made available as both printed books and PDF files...Eventually that is.

Thought that might set your mind at rest... The Green WILL be available as a printed book.

It'd be a bit of a departure from magic for me. I know a bit about it but someone with more of a background in medieval history and literature would be a better bet, tbh.

The issue that bugs me with non-adventuring herbalists is that local variety is nice, but is unlikely to have the ALL of the extremely powerful herbs. Adventuring (or hired adventurers) is required to get the full variety of herbs/plants/roots for life-saving/giving. Sure, there may be a nice local plant or two, but no area will have EVERYTHING.

Therefore, and unfortunately, I feel the herbalists should be relegated to NPC status and tied to a local area in general...and the storage/care/processing issues make being a super-level herbalist is (virtually) impossible for PCs.

It's much easier to just shrug as the GM and implement a bit of 'deus machina' and just decide what is possible/available.

My best,

It does depend on the kind of game you're running. If you're running a game which has the premise 'You are all adventurers. That is your job description.' then what you've said is probably right. However, if you're running a game with the premise 'You are all relatively ordinary village elders/professionals. Something is going to happen to you at the start of the game to make your life an adventure.' then playing the village herbalist is a really nice idea.

It would also mean that I'd joined the distinguished ranks of people who had written a book on magic bound in human skin. That's an exclusive club, they let you into Warlocks Unanimous at half price and everything...