The countdown to Halloween has begun, and so I'm going to be kicking out some juicy Witch Hunter related material this week.  And since there is far too little discussion of this gem of an rpg in these corners, I'm dragging you guys along with me!  No, this has nothing to do with the Vin Diesel movie.  Just good old fashioned Solomon Kane inspired pulp horror.  

Don't play Witch Hunter?  Don't let that stop you.  Post your cool, creepy Halloween-inspired ideas here!  Anything goes!

From the journals of the Grey Pilgrim:
A strain of boogeymen, the böögg haunts the desolate climes and isolated mountain villages of the Alpine mountains.  These fiends have been encountered as far east as the Carpathians.  They are dormant most of the year, only creeping from its hidden lair after the first winter snowfalls.  Indeed, the böögg itself may well me a monstrous manifestation of winter itself, a horrid Jack Frost.  The böögg haunts the wintery mountains by night, preying on those who cross its path.  They are ambush hunters, always striking by surprise.  They are capable of burrowing through the heavy snows and dragging unsuspecting victims to a frozen death.  Many of their victims are not seen again until the spring thaw.  All the victims share a common trait: a grimace of abject terror, punctuated by death.

Accurate descriptions of the böögg are hard to come by, for the fear they exude makes rational thought in their presence impossible for most victims. All böögg wear a wooden mask, the likeness of which is different for each creature.  I have been told the revelation of a böögg's face is enough to strike men dead with terror.  I am suspicious of these claims myself.

The rest is here.

More soon!
Tom

All Hallow's Eve Fest continues, this time with a look at the Ghoul.

Details for both Witch Hunter and Savage Worlds are included.

From the Journals of the Grey Pilgrim:

Many hardened Witch Hunters of the old world associate ghouls with the living dead.  The Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt, who among the Orders of Solomon range farthest across the world, know better.  While it is a name that has become associated with the ravenous walking dead, the word "ghoul" has ancient origins in the Holy Lands and the deserts of Arabia.

Enjoy!
Tom

My Honor+Intrigue game has not include much in the way of witchy, spooky, and creepy stuff. The PCs have had a few werewolf hunts for loup garou - rumored and real. The first encounter they had was with a fake werewolf. Perrin Tournay is a normal, though crazy, man who went mad with loss and grief and turned feral in his madness.



You can find the stats and background for the Wild Man / Werewolf on my blog.

I'll post an real loup garou tomorrow.

Quote from: Bren;862202The PCs have had a few werewolf hunts for loup garou - rumored and real. The first encounter they had was with a fake werewolf.

Sounds like a good spin on it. Werewolf adventures are TOUGH. Mostly because the best ones are dependent the identity of the werewolf being a secret. You can only take that to the well once or twice in a campaign. Which stinks because I love a good werewolf story.

Looking forward to seeing your loup garou.

Tom

This post has my GM notes for the adventure where I used the wild man.

It should be pretty easy to adapt this to any location with forests and isolated hamlets and villages.

What a great post!

Just in time for Halloween, we released the Necromancer, an Elite Profession for ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG today. We've included their Petty, Lesser and Greater Magicks in their Arcana of Necromancy as well. This makes the Profession completely playable in the GRIMDARK Edition beta.

Take a look at our home website for more info: http://grimandperilous.com/?p=746

Installment 3 is up!  When I started this whole thing, I promised something Egyptian.  Here is the mummy, a new strain of revenant.

From the Journals of the Grey Pilgrim:
A Mummy might lie at rest within its tomb for centuries until disturbed, either by tomb robbers or curious explorers.  Awakened from its rest, the mummy spares no effort to seek out and destroy those who have intruded upon it.

I have encountered two types of mummies in my travels across the deserts of Egypt.  There are no doubt more throughout the East and perhaps even in the New World.

No Savage Worlds stats this time.  There are already several variations of mummy for that game system.  I don't see a need to add to it.

Stay tuned!  I have a big finish planned for Halloween morning.

Tom

Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;862276Just in time for Halloween, we released the Necromancer, an Elite Profession for ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG today. We've included their Petty, Lesser and Greater Magicks in their Arcana of Necromancy as well. This makes the Profession completely playable in the GRIMDARK Edition beta.

Cool!  I'll have to check it out.  Especially before tomorrow.

Tom

Quote from: Bren;862267This post has my GM notes for the adventure where I used the wild man.

Three adventure seeds thus far!  Very nice, Bren!  I may have to throw one of these into the mix for my group.  They already have a great catalyst.

Tom

Quote from: Blusponge;862411Three adventure seeds thus far!  Very nice, Bren!  I may have to throw one of these into the mix for my group.  They already have a great catalyst.

Tom

Just because it is the season, I've included two more posts, with one more to follow on Halloween.

One with stats for a real loup garou along with an adventure seed that includes how he came to be cursed, though damned might be a better description. And a second post with a bunch of legends and information on werewolves that I gave the players. Much of the information  is based on actual wolf attacks and legends from the period.

Enjoy

P.S. I liked the Mummy write up. Including the Servitor and the Noble is useful as a way to flesh out the opposition.

Question on Witchhunter, what does Hell's Favor signify? How is it used in the game?

Quote from: Bren;862414Question on Witchhunter, what does Hell's Favor signify? How is it used in the game?

Hell's Favor is kinda like Hit Dice in O/AD&D. It's a rough approximation of a threat's undefined power and ability as well as a gauge if how tough it is. Hell's Favor is used in a variety of ways:
Default ability scores of a creature (strength, agility, will, reason, etc.)
The base damage pool for certain powers.
The base difficulty for resisting certain powers and effects.

Note: Abilities range from 1-5 and are matched to Skills ranked 1-5 to form a dice pool; so would be right to assume that for an undefined skill, the threat would have double its Hell's Favor (ie. 2=4).  If a skill and dice # are specified, use that dice pool instead.

Minions usually have a hell's favor between 0 and 2. Lieutenants and villains go up to 5. Masterminds are the same, but are generally statted up like characters, so lean more on it as a gauge for their powers.

Make sense?  It's pretty loosey-goosey as a tool for whatever the GM needs without having to stat a threat down the last detail.

Tom

Thanks Tom. That will be helpful for converting to H+I.

Happy Halloween everybody!

The fifth post is up. This one has house rules I created for infection with and prevention of lycanthropy.

QuoteOdds of Infection
The bite of a werewolf (French: loup garou) can turn someone into a werewolf. And if so desired, that can be automatic, but I prefer to allow a chance for a mighty hero to resist the effects. To avoid contagion the victim must make a Might roll. There is a penalty to the roll based on the severity of the bite. The penalty is one half the bite damage (round down). Treat multiple bites as separate events and rolls.

Bren, your player handout  on 'legends and information on werewolves' is great.

I'm currently running a Heroes of Hellas  game (BoL variant for Hollywood Ancient Greece) and the Roman tale about the tribe of werewolves in your handout will be just the thing for me to spice up the primitive men of the Macedonian Wilds, in the HoH setting.

Also the early modern period is a favourite of mine, and your blog is a mine of inspiration  for anyone planning a game set then - keep up the excellent work!

And I conclude my contributions to All Hallow's Eve Fest this morning with gruesome new Profane Rites of Necromancy for the Witch Hunter game.  A slew of new rites to bedevil even the most seasoned witch hunter.  Several of them we adapted from old (or not so old) RPGs, so I see no reason they couldn't likewise be adapted to LL, S&W, you name your OSR poison.  

It was fun guys n gals!  Let's do it again next year!

Tom