Missing Joyce Scholar, New Black Gothic, Serial Killer Glasses

The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar (Jack Hitt, The New York Times)

New Black Gothic (Sheri-Marie Harrison, LA Times Review of Books)

Why Do We Think Serial Killers All Wear the Same Glasses? (Tori Telfer, Racked)

Hell House

Bad Books for Bad People episode 24: Hell House

In Richard Matheson's Hell House, the ultra-haunted Belasco House is described as "the Mount Everest of Haunted Houses" and boy howdy, does it ever live up to that moniker. Matheson's horrifying shock-fest throws four unwitting paranormal investigators into the veritable mouth of Hell, subjecting them to all manner of psychological and physical torment in this most steroidal of ghost stories. Consult your spirit guide and join Jack and Kate on the astral plane for an in-depth discussion of the novel and its place within the supernatural horror canon.

Is it a good idea to bring a cat into a haunted house? How can you, too, become one of history's greatest monsters? What on earth does the Christmas season have to do with what's going on? All this and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

BBfBP theme song by True Creature 

Find us at BadBooksBadPeople.com, on Twitter @badbooksbadppl, Instagram @badbooksbadpeople and on Facebook. You can discover where to get all the books featured on Bad Books for Bad People on our About Page.

Listen here

The Art of Virginia Frances Sterrett

From a book of French fairy tales.

Krevborna Fashion Show

Does your Gothic Fantasy D&D setting have it own fashionable haute couture look? Well, mine does. The image to the left is by Mlle Ghoul, created on the now defunct site Polyvore, inspired by Krevborna. 

And now it is preserved here for posterity, or at least until blogger goes the way of Polyvore.

RIP Jill Janus

Jill Janus, frontwoman for the band Huntress, passed away recently. Best to remember her through the scorching records she made.

Sorrow

Eight of Swords

Spell Eater

Zenith

Maximum Dragon 345: Excursions, Sea Serpents, Underdark Animals

I get the best gaming value-for-the-money out of old issues of Dragon magazine. No matter what edition the magazine was currently supporting, there's always at least three ideas worth the price of admission--and in almost every issue the density of ideas-to-dross skews in the right direction. In this series of posts I'm going to pick back issues at random, give them a read-through, and point out the things that (hopefully) illustrate why I think picking up old issues of Dragon for a couple bucks when you see them in the wilds is damned worthwhile.

This issue begins with a somewhat ominous editorial by Erik Mona about Dragon's difficulties in navigating the contemporary marketplace and the toll that has taken on the magazine's visual presentation. The covers of modern Dragon issues are crowed with tabloid-style cover lines and buzzwords because they magazine has to work harder to sell itself in the era of third-party d20 glut, free content available on the internet, and WotC's overly aggressive publishing schedule. The editorial ends with an almost-admonition to ask your local retailer to carry Dragon; the magazine would cease print publication the following year.

But on to the content.

"Excursion: Four Ways to Travel the World," written by Martin Ralya and illustrated by Jeff Carlisle, is one of those articles that gives you a full package of things you can use in your home games. (Wait a minute, Martin Ralya? I know that guy from online! Excellent.) The article details four conveyances, their crews, and their captains: a three-masted sloop, a submersible, a caravan, and an airship. The included schematics for the conveyances are super helpful (and easily re-purposed), and the included adventure seeds could be used as handily for a random encounter while en route or a full session of play.

It wouldn't feel like an issue of Dragon without a few new monsters being added to the mix. It's always seemed strange to me that D&D has a million kinds of dragons, but has traditionally done very little with sea serpents. "Sea Serpents: Dragons of the Briny Depths," written by Morgan and Tracey Peer and illustrated by Atilla Adorjany, aims to cross the streams by offering four draconic beasts of the deep sea. "Underdark Animals," written by Ryan Nock and illustrated by Tom Fowler, offers four mounts and beasts of burden that might be used by the drow of the Underdark. I dig the wild "hollow earth" vibe of these creatures; we've got a giant snake, an eight-foot tall velociraptor, an ebony lizard, and massive albino apes.

Although not particularly useful for any edition of D&D, it is interested that the "Equipment Array" article by Christopher Wissel, illustrated again by Tom Fowler, offers pre-priced packs of adventuring gear--a concept that would become heavily emphasized in 5e's core character creation rules.

Let's Read Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron: Dragonmarks and Magic Items

Dragonmarks
Dragonmarks are a unique facet of the Eberron campaign setting; they are essentially tattoo-like markings that appear on people related to specific bloodlines that manifest magical powers. To bear a dragonmark means that you belong to a familial dragonmarked house. The dragonmarked houses function much like megacorps in cyberpunk games: they represent powerful dynasties whose powers have enabled them to form monopolies over their areas of expertise. Not everyone born to a dragonmarked house has a dragonmark, but those who do gain powers related to the house's economic and political purposes. 

The dragonmarked houses of Eberron include:

• House Medani, the Mark of Detection, detectives and bodyguards, half-elves.
• House Tharashk, Mark of Finding, detectives and bounty hunters, humans and half-orcs.
• House Vadalis, Mark of Handling, animal breeders and trainers, humans.
• House Jorasco, Mark of Healing, healers and hospitals, halflings.
• House Ghallanda, Mark of Hospitality, inns, taverns, restaurants, halflings.
• House Cannith, Mark of Making, manufacturing, humans.
• House Orien, Mark of Passage, land transportation and the lightning rail, humans.
• House Sivis, Mark of Scribing, communications, gnomes.
• House Deneith, Mark of Sentinel, mercenaries, humans.
• House Phiarlan, Mark of Shadow, entertainment and spying, elves.
• House Thuranni, Mark of Shadow, assassins, elves.
• House Lyrandar, Mark of Storm, sea transportation and weather control, half-elves.
• House Kundarak, Mark of Warding, prisons and security, dwarves.

As you can see from the list of dragonmarked houses above, each house is linked to a D&D race from the 3.5 Player's Handbook. The integration of dragonmarks into character creation is actually quite slick. In a previous Eberron Unearthed Arcana, dragonmarks were feats, which didn't serve the setting very well. Since only the variant human race begins play with a feat at first level, this restricted dragonmarks to fourth level characters, which didn't fit the setting's lore. Wayfinder's Guide presents each dragonmark as either a mechanical replacement for a character's race or subrace, which opens up the possibility of starting a game as a member of a dragonmarked house.

The powers granted by a dragonmark include a mix of ability score increases, special powers, spells, and intuition dice. Intuition dice begin as d4s that get added to ability checks with skills and tools that are pertinent to a dragonmarked house's specialties. For example, halflings with the Mark of Hospitality get a bonus to Charisma, the friends and prestidigitation cantrips, and intuition dice on persuasion checks and checks that involve brewer's tools and cook's utensils. Each entry on a dragonmark is about a page long and gives a good overview of the house connected to it, a few ideas for characters who might possess that mark, and the abilities associated with it.

At eight level a dragonmarked character can forgo their ability score increase to take a feat called Greater Dragonmark that increases the power of their mark. Their intuition dice increase from d4 to d6, and they gain the ability to cast a few higher level spells through their dragonmark. Some of these spells are quite high in level, but since they aren't combat-centric spells they don't seem likely to create balance problems.

Another feat, Aberrant Dragonmark, is offered for characters who wish to obtain a dragonmark that is unconnected to any of the dragonmarked houses. This feat grants a cantrip and a first-level spell from the sorcerer's spell list, and the ability to spend hit dice to increase the level you cast your spell at--at the cost of taking damage equal to a roll of however many hit dice you spent on it.

Magic Items
Most settings with "magical technology" also feature magical fuel; Deadlands has ghost rock, Malifaux has Soulstones, and Eberron has dragonshards. Dragonshards come in three types. Eberron dragonshards can used in place of material components in spells, to create magic items, and to fuel lightning rail trains and elemental airships. Khyber dragonshards are used for binding planar entities, phylacteries, and necromantic rituals. Siberys dragonshards are used for dragonmark focus items, eldritch machines, and for the creation of legendary magic items and artifacts.

Dragonmark focus items are usable only by people with the relevant dragonmark; they are either standard magic items that are cheaper to produce because they are attuned to a specific mark or they amplify the power of a mark for a related purpose. Eldritch machines are plot-point devices, such as magical seals keeping cosmic evils at bay. This chapter also includes some magic items that are common conveniences in the setting (such as stones that clean your body and clothes when you touch them), arcane foci (and rules for wielding them two-handed to get some rifle vs. pistol differentiation), and warforged components (arms blades! wand sheaths!).

Ghosts on the Shore, Reading Horror to Arm Us, Writing a Haunted Book

Ghosts on the shore, Christopher Harding for Aeon

Reading Horror Can Arm Us Against a Horrifying World, Ruthanna Emrys for NPR

How to Write a Haunted Book, Jeff VanderMeer for Electric Lit

Let's Read Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron: Races of Eberron

The section on the races of Eberron is probably the most hefty of the new mechanical additions to 5e that Wayfinder's Guide has to offer. The first bit of the chapter gives Player's Handbook-style write-up for Eberron's unique races--changelings, kalashtar, shifters, and warforged. The second section describes how the cultural assumptions attached to the usual D&D races are altered in Eberron.

Changelings are essentially Doppelganger Juniors--they can change their appearance at will, making them the ultimate spies. Interestingly, they also take on psychological personas to match their multiple physical identities; some of these personas are passed down family lines or shared communally, so it's possible that the elf merchant you have been dealing with for a decade is actually fifty changelings playing the role.

Kalashtar...are weird. They are a compound race of humans who are bound to spirit-refugees from the plane of dreams. The relationship is more symbiosis than parasitical, but it does make the kalashtar seem alien and otherworldly--the human gets some psionic powers out of the deal.

Shifters are Lycanthrope Lite; they're (probably) the descendants of humans and were-creatures who are animalistic in appearance and can "shift" into a more bestial state to get extra hit points and some other bonus abilities. 

The warforged are Magic Robots of metal and wood that were created as soldiers in the Last War. An unexpected breakthrough led to them being fully conscious and sentient. Rules-wise, eyebrows have already been raised about the armor classes they can get due to their natural protection; a 1st level warforged fighter, for example, can have an AC of 20 if they have a shield--and their AC will increase as they gain levels.

If you just want the rules for the new races, you don't need to buy Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron. They're available in this Unearthed Arcana article.

How do the "normal" races fair in Eberron? Well dwarves...seem like the dwarves in most settings. NEXT! 

Elves, as always, come in a Baskin Robins array of flavors. The Aerenal elves worship their undead ancestors, so they are uncharacteristically okay with magic that is usually considered dark. The Valenar elves are warlike and seek to emulate the deeds of their illustrious ancestors. They also get access to a feat for use with a double-ended sword that seems to make two-weapon fighting obsolete, so that probably needs another look. Elves in Khorvaire are immigrants. Drow were made when giants used magic to bind shadows to elves and used to assassinate other elves.

Gnomes have a lust for knowledge, hate physical violence, and are inveterate schemers. They idea of gnomes as "smiling schemers" does the work of differentiating them from halflings and dwarves. Half-elves have their own communities because when a half-elf loves another half-elf very much they make another half-elf. Half-orcs are more likely to be seen as the offspring of backwoods types or primitives rather than the spawn of a naturally evil race, so you might need to re-think your baby orc strategy in Eberron. Halflings live in nomadic tribes and ride dinosaurs; that one kind of sells itself. Guess what? Humans are adaptable! Moving on. The chapter rounds out with brief notes on including other races that have not traditionally had a role as player characters in Eberron.

Next time: The Dragonmarked houses are the fantasy equivalent of cyberpunk megacorps.