Which Witch Is ... Nevermind

I finally cracked open my pdf copy of CJ Carella's Witchcraft, which I obtained free courtesy of DriveThruRGP, and while the prose doesn't sparkle as in the Buffy RPG books, it's flows well enough, and the overall tone doesn't suck. The introductory short introduces two principals, a biker musician drifting from a failed relationship and his responsibilities as one of the “Gifted” and his former lover who's still bitter over the breakup (She's allowed considering he dropped the hint by cheating on her). The summoning of a Big Bad requires they work together, they try to stop it by an invocation that consists of people holding hands and chanting, and that's it. In other words, nicely understated; no melodrama, no flashy arcane artillery, no syrupy reconciliation.

Now contrast that with say, White Wolf's books. As I was discussing with John a couple of days ago, White Wolf's “World of Darkness” setting attempts to shove cool up your ass, and just like that kid in High School who just bought his first pack of Marlboros and hasn't learned how not to cough it up, it's overdone. Most pages, and almost every piece of artwork in Vampire: The Masquerade shrieks “Look at me! I'm a sooo sexy blood-sucking fiend!” Yeah, sure Diego, or was your name Chanterelle? Oh, and nice porcelain fans you've got there. I'm sure those will help in future job interviews.

In other witchy entertainments, BBC America is running HEX, a series featuring the more fortunate youth of Britain at perhaps the most posh boarding school, mixed with a heap of Buffy and a little Carrie, but the result is fresh and it works, largely thanks to Julian Jones' well crafted dialog and the strength of the two female leads. Christina Cole is endearing as the shy Cassie, and Jemina Rooper steals scenes as her lesbian roommate, Thelma. If you liked Buffy, you should have a go at HEX.