RPGs

Witchcraft Wednesday: The "Return" of Rhiannon and Briana Highstar

The Other Side -

 A special Witchcraft Wednesday today. But really, aren't they all special in their own way?

Working on the final layout of my Left Hand Path book AND prepping my Weekly Forgotten Realms games with my oldest; I figure I'd do them both in one posting today.

Briana and Rhiannon character sheets

All my Basic-era witch books have similar features. The Witch and/or Warlock classes, new Traditions, new spells, new monsters, new magic items, and new NPCs to drop into your games. I was thinking about the NPCs I have now ready to go; Babylon, Debbie "Elf Star", and her coven leader, Ms. Frost. 

But I needed one or two more. While playing last week, I figured I would start to introduce some of Grenda's NPCs to my Forgotten Realms game. That thought led right to Briana, and then that lead right to including her in the Left Hand Path book since she was already a witch of Mephistopheles. She just didn't fit, she belongs in this book. If I am going to include Briana, I might as well include Rhiannon as well.

I am using AD&D 1st Ed stats for them in my games, but will include their Diabolic Witch Basic-era Stats in my book.

So, here they are. Briana Highstar and Rhiannon. I am not sure how they interact with each other (even if they will) but I am going to have a good time finding out. 

Briana HighstarBriana Highstar
Human Female

Witch Level 4
Diabolic Tradition
Patron: Mephistopheles
Alignment: Chaos (Lawful Evil)

STR: 12 +0
INT: 15 +1
WIS: 17 +2
DEX: 16 +2
CON: 13 +1
CHA: 17 +2 (+10% XP)

Death/Poison: 13
Petrification/Polymorph: 13
Rod, Staff, Wands, or Device: 14
Breath Weapon: 16
Spells: 15
Single Save: 15

AC: 7
HP: 19
To Hit AC 0: 20 (Descending AC)
To Hit Bonus: +0 (Ascending AC)

Weapon: Dagger
Armor: None

Occult Powers
Familiar: Cat 

Spells
First Level: Charm Person, Spirit Dart
Second Level: Burning Gaze, Grasp of the Endless War

Hair: Black
Eyes: Grey
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 136 lbs



RhiannonRhiannon
Human Female

Witch Level 8
Malefic Tradition
Patron: Ereshkigal
Alignment: Chaos (Neutral Evil)

STR: 11 +0
INT: 17 +2
WIS: 17 +2
DEX: 16 +2
CON: 15 +2
CHA: 16 +2 (+10% XP)

Death/Poison: 11
Petrification/Polymorph: 11
Rod, Staff, Wands, or Device: 12
Breath Weapon: 14
Spells: 13
Single Save: 13

AC: 5
HP: 36
To Hit AC 0: 18 (Descending AC)
To Hit Bonus: +2 (Ascending AC)

Weapon: Dagger of Venom
Armor: Leather

Occult Powers
Familiar: Mourning Dove
Minor: Impure Touch

Spells
First Level: Charm Person, Chill of Death, Touch of Suggestion
Second Level: Beastform, Disfiguring Touch, Protective Penumbra
Third Level: Bestow Curse, Bleed for Your Master
Fourth Level: Fangs of the Strix

Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 114 lbs

--

I am happy with these two. I am looking forward to seeing how they progress in the adventures and their life in my Left Hand Path Book.

I don't know yet if these two know each other. But I do know that Rhiannon knows Larina. They began in the same coven, but they went their separate ways. Rhiannon will be my excuse to do an "evil Larina" which will be kinda fun, really.


OGL Section 15: COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio Copyright 2002, Elmore Productions, Inc.; Authors Larry Elmore and Ken Whitman, Art and illustrations by Larry Elmore.

Monstrous Mondays: Monsters of the Left Hand Path

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Monsters of the Left Hand Path"It is an oft spoken truth that were you find witches you will also find demons."
 Late post today. Doing taxes. Yeah last minute, the Government will get my money when I am ready, not before.

Still doing the layout for The Left Hand Path Witch. I love how it is all coming together. I thought I would share the list of all the demons, devils, and other creatures you will find in this book. My goal here was to have the demons and other creatures I enjoyed from my Advanced books, but play them in Basic games.

While I want to cleave close to the classic roots of the game, I also want to make my own changes. These are changes based on the readings I have done and the way my own games have evolved over the years.

I have used OGC creatures to smooth out the translations, even if the execution ends up a little different (look at you, one-headed Demogorgon).

So here are the creatures to look forward to.

"The Usual Suspects" Demon Line-up JE Shields art"The Usual Suspects" Demon Line-up JE Shields art

Dæmon

Apollyon, the Oinodæmon
Cacodæmon
Derghodæmon
Guardian Dæmon
Hydrodæmon
Messodæmon
Nyctodæmon
Piscodæmon
Tarwani (Malzeth, etc.)

Demon

Abraxas
Achaierai
Akelarre

Babau
Balor
Baphomet
Camazotz
Cambion
Demogorgon
Dretch
Fly Demon
Fraz-Urb'luu
Gargantua
Glabrezu
Gog and Magog
Hellephant
Herzrou
Incubus
Juiblex
Kostchtchie
Manes
Marilith
Mezzalorn (Wasp Demon)
Nabassu
Nabassu, Mature
Nalfeshnee
Orcus
Ördög
Quasit
Rekhet A'at Khetepu
Reshkanu
Shadow Demon
Shaniezak
Spider, Demonic
Trickster (Imposter Demon)
Vanth
Vrock
Zsusr

Devil

Aamon
Aeshma (Pit Fiend)
Asmodeus
Astaroth
Baalzebul
Barbed
Bartzabel
Belial
Bone
Buer
Cimeris
Dīs Pater
Erinyes
Geryon
Hellcat
Hellhound
Horned
Ice Devil
Imp
Kôkabîêl
Lemure
Malarea
Mammpn
Mephistopheles
Nupperibo
Paimon
Titivilus

Eodemon

Ammit
Apep
Dagon
Drauga
Gallû
Girtablullû
Leviathan
Pazuzu
Tiâmat
Tsathogga
Umu
Utukku

Independent Fiends

Ahriman (Angra Mainyu)
Sons of Ahriman
Iblīs
Nightmare
Rakshasa

Lilim

Batibat
Empusa
Lamashtu
Lamiae (Lamia)
Lilith
Lilitu
Mara (Night Hag)
Mazziqin
Mormo
Succubus

Mephit

Brimstone
Fire
Lava
Smoke
Steam
Water

Tarterian (Demodand)

Shaggy
Slime
Tarry

Yaoguai

Hóu Yaoguai (Monkey)
Hǔ Yaoguai (Tiger)
Niú Yaoguai (Ox)
Shé Yaoguai (Serpent)
Shǔ Yaoguai (Rat)



The Left Hand Path Witch



Fantasy Fridays: Tales of the Valiant

The Other Side -

Tales of the Valiant A newer entry today and a potential good replacement for D&D 5e on your table. But is it just a new coat of paint on a familiar rule-set?

Tales of the Valiant

Tales of the Valiant began as the Black Flag system/project from Kobold Press, already a big name in 5e-compatible products. The genesis was, of course, the massive OGL fallout from January 2023. Kobold, among so many of us, saw a threat to our product lines and opted to "pull a Pathfinder" and release their own rules only this time under their own license. They can sell core rule books (which is always a good source of money) and still create their own supporting products (their bread and butter as it were) and have them support both game lines.  It is a good idea.

They have published the "common core" of three books:

The books are attractive and is well laid out. There is a lot great art. But the question is, do they provide me anything above and beyond D&D 5 (2014)? Well, all three books are 1,081 pages, so it is hard to dig through all of this to find specific differences. It looks like 5e and plays like 5e. I guess that is what is important, really. Now, the classes do have additions; each class features a subclass taken from the SRD and often an additional new one. There is the new Mechanist class, which is similar in concept to the Artificer class. So, for current 5e (again, 2014) players, there is something new. 

The truth is there are a lot of new things, but you need to dig for them. There is the "Beastkin" Lineage for example that looks like fun. As do the new "Sydereans" which combine Aasimar and Tieflings and "Small Folk" which combine halflings and gnomes. Ok, I am cool with that. Orcs and Kobolds (natch) are core lineages. I think every clone or RPG should have at least one unique core lineages. Yes, this book uses "lineage" and not race. I like this better. Heritages are how your character was raised. More or less. 

There does seem to be some more monsters, but the monster book is populated by "the Usual Suspects."

Again. It is hard to fault Kobold on this. These books have two purposes, and both require it to cleave close to 5e (2014). First it *is* a D&D 5e replacement. I have not tried, but you could in theory use this books with minor tweaks in a 5e game. I call this the Pathfinder solution. The other purpose is to provide Kobold (and third parties) a means to write "5e" compatible material but not require people use, or even buy, 5e core books from Wizards. I call this the OSRIC solution. 

I suspect the real value of these books and this game will come from future products. For example, the upcoming, just Kickstarted, Monster Vault 2, will be the true test of this system. Yes, they state outright this is for TotV and 5e, but I think this will be the case that makes or breaks this game. So far things are looking rather promising for Tales of the Valiant. 

Honestly, this book looks really good, and if I picked up the physical edition, I would be tempted to get the Core Three because of how good they all look together. But I don't play 5e all that much anymore.

Who Should Play This Game?

Honestly, this game will not replace 5e (2014) on anyone's table. It might supplement it, but it won't replace it. It could, however, replace 5.5e (2024).  My oldest and I have been talking about the various issues with 5.5, and he is sticking with 5.0 for now. But if you are one of those people who have felt especially burned by WotC's actions over the last 2.5 years, then maybe this is the game for you.

Johan Werper for Tales of the Valiant

I don't know. Something about this game makes me want to play a knight in shinning armor and perform actions of Epic Good. Not that I wouldn't play Larina in it, but the classes are not a perfect fit. The closest thing is not the Warlock, but rather the Leaf Druid. Now, the Chaos Sorcerer is interesting as well. Maybe I could try it for Sinéad.

I want to try out Johan, or at least some sort of version of him, because the Paladin in 5.5 seems so nerfed. I have been wanting to compare the various paladins just to see if this is true. 

This will be Johan VII, the son of Johan VI and Lana (my wife's character) for 5e. He has a twin sister, not uncommon for the Werpers. She will be a 5.5 character so I can compare properly. Their background is they were exposed to cosmic forces before birth, so they have something a little "extra."  In Johan VII this means his "Anointed" Heritage.

Johan WerperJohan Werper VII
Human (Anointed) Paladin (Devotion) 3rd level

Strength: +2
Dexterity: +1
Constitution: -1
Intelligence: +0
Wisdom: +2 (saves +4)
Charisma: +3 (saves +5)

Proficiency Bonus: +2
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30ft

AC: 17 (chain mail and shield)

Weapons
Longsword +4 1d8/1d10 (versatile)
Crossbow, Hand +2 1d6 30/120 

Passive Insight: 14
Passive Investigation: 12
Passive Perception: 12

Skills
History, Insight, Relgion

Proficiencies, Languages, & Talents
Advantage on Death Saves, Thaumaturgy Cantrip
Languages: Common, Elven, Draconic, Giant
Navigator's Tools
Talent: Combat Conditioning +2 to hp each level
All armor and shields, simple and martial weapons

Class Features & Traits
Divine Sense
Lay on Hands
Divine Smite
Martial Action - Guard
Spellcasting (Divine)
Sacred Weapon
Sanctifying Light

Spells
Cantrips: Thaumaturgy
First Level: Bless, Cure Wounds, Sanctuary

I like this version. 

Given his family history, his twin sister would be named Celeste or Celine. She will be stated up with D&D 5.5 as a Celestial Warlock, or whatever the warlock is called in that. 

The Player's Book includes Greek, Egyptian, and Norse gods as examples. I am half tempted to continue using my "Black Forest" mythos, maybe making them avatars of Jäger and Jägerin. They would not be real avatars, but that is how they would be perceived. 

I like this idea since my wife based her character Lana on Lagertha from Vikings. It also explains why Johan VII can also speak Giant. 

Johan VII and Johan VI character sheets
Johan VII character sheet

He compares well to his dad. So that is cool, with enough differences to feel like a new character.

I think I am going to need a bigger binder for Johan.

Witchcraft Wednesday: Left Hand Path work and more Moria

The Other Side -

 The Left Hand Path is moving on a good pace, not as far as I wanted to be right now, but I can live with that. I did want to show off another bit of new art for the book.

Billy Blue Art

That's how it appears in the book. I'll add the artists names when I am doing laying out. I might tweak the page a bit, but you get the right idea. 

Here is a closeup.

Billy Blue Art

The artist is Bill Blue, and you can see more of his art on his site.

Last night I wrapped up the first adventure for my 1357 DR Forgotten Realms campaign. As a GMPC, Moria only gets a fraction of the XP earned, so she has not leveled up yet. My oldest bought some HeroForge minis for some of his characters. I joked with him about it asking are you sure you want to spend money on minis, the characters could be dead before they get here! He said it was fine since a couple of characters in the group are based on characters he has going in other games, so they will get use. Wonder where he got that from?

Of course, I had to make a mini of Moria and Mesphito Fleas. Shout out to Pun Isaac for sending me suggestions for her mini!

Moria and Mesphito Fleas
 I am not going to buy a mini of her for the same reasons I told my son not buy his minis, she might be dead before they come in the mail! Maybe I'll just buy the STL and print here at home.

Yeah, she still only had 4hp and three spells (using my Advanced rules), but Fleas did kill a goblin last night by biting it. So maybe her chances are not so bad after all. 

We started adventure C3 The Lost Islands of Castanamir last night. I decided that Castanamir was a Red Wizard of Thay, but broke away from them to continue his own esoteric research.  This is one of the adventures I got from the Grenda Collection, so it is fun to use. 

There is a room with two thieves, Doblin and Joblo (really??). Well, I misread the entry and thought those were the names of the Leprechauns. When Liam got to the room where the thieves were, I didn't have names for them. That's OK, it was Duchess & Candella to the rescue! They were looting investigating a wizard's tower in Glantri when they got pulled in here. Obviously Castanmir was seeking advice from the wizards in Glantri with help for his tower. 

I am going to certainly be bringing them back as comic relief. I said they don't really fit in the Realms, but who am I kidding? They fit everywhere!

Speaking of reoccurring characters. I am certainly going to be using Grenda's Briana Highstar as an antagonist. They are not ready to meet her yet. I know she is an enemy to "balance," but she also serves Mephistopheles. She could even start out as ally. I don't know yet. I will see how it plays out.

I already have a mini for her!

Briana Highstar

This one is labeled as "Black Robed Mage of High Sorcery" so that works great for me. She also looks she is wearing a feathered cloak of some sort. 

This will be fun!

Tuesday Mail Call: Baldur's Gate 3 Origin Characters

The Other Side -

 I have been on the record both for my love of Baldur's Gate 3 and for my disappointment in how Wizards has mishandled the property. In a case of almost too little and almost too late comes the Baldur's Gate 3 Icons of the Realms Origin characters pack.

Baldur's Gate 3 Icons of the Realms Origin characters pack
Baldur's Gate 3 Icons of the Realms Origin characters pack

The minis are from WizKids, so you know what to expect here. They are not bad.

Baldur's Gate 3 Icons of the Realms Origin characters pack

Comparing them to my Hero Forge versions, each has pros and cons.

Karlach and Shadowheart
Karlach and Shadowheart

No mini yet, that I know of, for my current obsession Mizora, but I also have not really been paying much attention.

I have to admit I really do not see me buying much of the new D&D 5.5 material. 


Monstrous Mondays: Duke Bartzabel

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Photo by Alessio Zaccaria on UnsplashPhoto by Alessio Zaccaria on Unsplash Progress continues on the Left Hand Path witch book. This is going to be my biggest one yet.

While conducting further research over the weekend, I couldn't help but notice that almost every occult road leads to or from Aleister Crowley. Either he was involved, or he adopted (aka stole) elements for his own use. One such element was the demon Bartzabel.

My oldest and were talking about D&D's Bel and Zariel and how they are fun and all, but they don't really fit with the cosmos we have going in our games. So, Bartzabel came to me at exactly the right time. 

Here he is, as he will appear in the monster section of The Left Hand Path.

Bartzabel

Warlord of Hell, Duke of the Battle Planes

Armor Class: –3 [22]
Hit Dice: 20+80 (170 hp) ******
Move: 120' (40'), fly: 180' (60')
To Hit AC 0: 6 [+13]
Attacks: Flaming greatsword (2d8+8 + 1d8 x2), tail lash (2d4), command (see below)
Special: See below
No. Appearing: 1 (unique)
Saving Throws: Monster 20
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: V, Z (plus magical war trophies)
Alignment: Chaotic (Lawful Evil)
XP: 13,300

Intelligence: Exceptional

The ruler of the battle planes of Hell and the Emissary of War is the great Duke Bartzabel, also known as Barzabel and Bartyabel. He commands Hell’s armies and lays claims to Hell’s Battle Plane. This puts him in direct conflict with Archduke Astaroth, who makes a similar claim. Bartzabel has little time to pursue his vendetta against Astaroth due to his constantly fighting in Hells wars.

Bartzabel appears as a large goat-headed Aeshma, his large horns coming out of the top of his skull. His features are bestial, and he is constantly in a rage. His skin is blood red, and there is an aura of fire and fear about him at all times. On his forehead is a pentagram that burns with a bright internal fire. His lower half is like that of a goat. He appears as a massive red-skinned satyr. 

This devil can attack with his great flaming sword +3 (+8 due to his strength) twice per round, lash with his tail, or take command of any devil lesser than 18 HD. He also has the following powers:

Astral Legion (1/day): Summons 2d6 Spectral Legionnaires (HD 6, AC 2, wielding force glaives). They last for 6 rounds, are immune to non-magical weapons, and follow his commands flawlessly.

Infernal Conscription: Once per round for 3 rounds, Bartzabel may inscribe a glowing war sigil in the air. All creatures of 5 HD or fewer in a 30' radius must save vs. Spells or act under suggestion-like orders (typically: "kneel," "drop weapons," "march into the fire").

Rally: All allied troops within 90' gain +1 to hit, +1 to saves, and are immune to fear. Enemies within the same radius must save vs. Spells or suffer –1 to hit and damage due to strategic intimidation and tactical pressure.

Additionally, once per day, Bartzabel may reroll any failed save, attack, or damage roll—his mind bends fate toward efficiency. This is in addition to the powers all devils have.

When not at war, which is rarely, he can be found in The Fortress of Endless Iron, on the blasted war plains of Hell’s first level. In addition to the legions of lesser devils he commands, he commands the Legion Occultum, a host of infernal soldiers who wield both weapons and spell-etched armor, bound by unholy contracts of obedience. They cast spells and have the powers of Warlocks of level 15 or higher.  He knows all the secrets of war and will impart them to those who can summon him. This includes the knowledge of wars to come.

Bartzabel as a Patron: Bartzabel is very open to warlocks, teaching the arts of war, much like the Grigori did in aeons past. This has led some scholars to believe that he, too, is a member of the fallen, not one of the lower orders of devildom. Scholars point to the Angel Graphiel and how he has not been seen since Bartzabel ascendance. Instead of a normal familiar, the warlock summons a Red Hellfire Imp, a tiny horned figure with parchment wings bearing Bartzabel’s sigil. It grants a +2 bonus to the warlock’s initiative and to hit rolls. Damage-causing spells always inflict an extra +1 point of damage.

--Find Duke Bartzabel along with 125+ other demons, devils, and more in The Left Hand Path, the Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft Traditions.
The Left Hand Path Witch



The Shadow of Scandal

Reviews from R'lyeh -

The London Spiritualist Society is threatened with scandal! Just three weeks ago, one of the society’s junior members died in the library under strange circumstances and if word got out, its austere and respected reputation as an upright and proper dedication with an interest in the occult and the burgeoning spiritualist movement would suffer greatly. Such is the worry that this will come to pass, that the board of the society has decided that the incident should be investigated properly and fully with the aim of confirming that the society itself was not to blame and that no suspicion of impropriety can be attached to the society. The investigators are of course to be discreet themselves, whilst also bring to bear their experiences in dealing with the occult and the outré. So begins The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller, a short two-act scenario for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. It is published by Stygian Fox Publishing, best known for the anthologies Things We leave Behind and Fear’s Sharp Little Needles: Twenty-Six Hunting Forays into Horror, as well as New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition, the return of a classic. As written, it is intended to be compatible with the publisher’s Hudson & Brand, Inquiry Agents of the Obscure, a Victorian Era setting supplement, published in 2017 when there no Cthulhu by Gaslight in print. However, in 2025, there is, and The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller can be run with just Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and then with the fourth edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight, and perhaps a little easier now than it can with Hudson & Brand, Inquiry Agents of the Obscure.

The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller begins with the Investigators at the headquarters of the London Spiritualist Society. They can already be members or even associates, but they should all have some experience with spiritualism and the occult and certainly acquired a reputation for discretion. They are informed that three weeks before, a trio of younger members broke in the society’s library and attempted a ceremony, one in which the board member believes they attempted to summon some malevolent spirit. At the end of the ceremony, one of the three was dead, a second was so traumatised he had to be hospitalised in an asylum, and the third resigned from the society. Each of the three represents the Investigators’ opening lines of inquiry. Of course, one of them is dead, although the Investigators will be told where his grave is, but the other two, Sir Peter Wahlmesey and Miss Sarah Mulberry can be visited and both will recant what happened during the ceremony, though with varying degrees of reluctance. Miss Mulberry can be interviewed at her flat, whilst Sir Peter has been institutionalised for his own good. Pleasingly, the scenario actually points out that he is receiving—by standards of the day—very good care at the asylum, and further, the scenario nicely emphasises the fragility of his current state rather than it actually being horrified.

Although the Investigators can learn a certain amount from both participants in the ceremony, very little of pertains to subsequent events and what pushes the Investigators to investigate further in the second act does feel like a deus ex machina, an intervention signposting where they should go. This comes after a very violent encounter with a horse and carriage which points to the Investigators to the home of the man killed during the ceremony, Richard Keye. This is a small mansion, but one which has been turned into half a slaughterhouse, half haunted house, one marked with some classic horror house motifs, such as something lurking in the bathtub or body parts strangely protruding from the walls. Again, much like the encounter in the asylum, these are nicely underplayed and in some cases, benign in nature and intent, if not outcome. There are some nicely creepy scenes and encounters throughout the house, but ultimately, the scenario funnels the Investigators into a final confrontation with the threat at the heart of the scenario.

Physically, The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller is short and tidy, neat little hardback like the publisher’s earlier Nightmare on the Necropolis Express. It is done in the style of a penny dreadful, though with some colour artwork, some of which is quite decent. The map is clear and easy to use, whilst the book does need an edit in places.

If The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller presents its horror stoutly enough, it wavers when it comes to other them, that of impropriety and scandal. With the society of the Victorian Era, there is plenty of scope for it within the scenario, not just due to the death in the library of the London Spiritualist Society, but also because one of the NPCs is transgender. That the latter is included is not a criticism or issue in terms of the story, but The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller does not explore or really what happens if information about becomes more widely known. Of course, the scenario was written before the publication of the new edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight, but the Cthulhu by Gaslight: Investigators’ Guide – Mysteries & Frights in the Victorian Age does include rules for reputation and suffering damage to it. Obviously, this is less of an issue if the scenario is run as a one-shot rather than being used in a campaign.

Although set in the Victorian era of Cthulhu by Gaslight, there is very little to stop the Keeper adapting The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller to other time periods, and whatever the time period, its brevity means that it is easy to slot into an ongoing campaign. Whilst it does not concern the traditional Cthulhu Mythos in any way, its themes of spiritualism and propriety are appropriate to the period, though it does not go as far it could have done in examining the consequences of impropriety. Nevertheless, and although quite light on investigation, The Strange Case of the Shadow Traveller is an engaging one-session of body horror and possession.

Quick-Start Saturday: Sisterhood

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide is the quick-start for Sisterhood, a roleplaying game of ‘nuns with guns’ who fight demonic possession, cults, and other occult activities that threaten the world. It is published by Parable Games, best known for the horror roleplaying game, Shiver – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown.

It is a twenty-nine page, 2.88 MB full colour PDF.

How long will it take to play?
Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide is designed to be played through in a single session. Any longer than that and you are not punching the demons hard enough.
What else do you need to play?
The Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide needs a full set of standard polyhedral dice per player. Tokens (or possibly miniatures) are required to represent the Sisters and the cultists and demons they will face. In addition to the character sheets for the Sisters, the Mother Superior—as the Game Master in Sisterhood is known—will need to print out ‘The Way of the Cross’ battlemap.
Who do you play?
The four Player Characters—or kickarse Nuns—in the Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide consist of an ex-criminal, a seer, a brawler, and an ex-resistance fighter.
How is a Player Character defined?A Sister in Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide has four stats—Faith, Cunning, Empathy, and Fortitude. These represent a Sister’s spiritual power, logical thinking, emotional capability, and strength and resilience, and are measured by die size, from a six-sided to a ten-sided die. Body and Spirit represent her physical fortitude and the fortitude of her Soul respectively. Her ability to call upon divine intervention is measured in points of Divinity, which has a variety of uses. She also has several skills. One of these is her ‘Past Skill’, picked up during her life before she became a Nun and one is her ‘Divinity Recharge’ by which she can recharge her Divinity Points after having used them. For example, in her Past, Sister Agatha was a Criminal. Her ‘Past Skill’ is ‘Illicit Activity’, which grants a bonus to Empathy challenges when dealing with crooks and her ‘Divinity Recharge’ is triggered when she skills an enemy from Ambush or Vantage. Each Sister has two further skills in addition to these.
How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide uses a Dice Challenge system. When a player wants his Nun to undertake an action, he rolls one his stat dice, whilst the Mother Superior rolls a Challenge die, which varies in size according to the difficulty of the task. A four-sided die is ‘Trivial’, a six-sided die is normal, an eight-sided die is ‘Difficult’, and so on, all the way up to a twenty-sided die or ‘Apocalyptic’! Whomever rolls the highest succeeds. A Sister can gain more dice to roll if another Sister helps her, as well as from Skills, Relics, and Blessings. In general, if a Sister is ‘Blessed’, her player rolls the next highest size die, but the next lowest die size if she is ‘Cursed’. Alternatively, the Sister Superior could simply set a target or Difficulty Class that the player and his Sister has to beat.
Combat in Sisterhood works slightly differently to that found in other roleplaying games. It employs ‘The Way of the Cross’ and is played out on a battlemap made up of the ‘Cross’ and the ‘Pentagram’. Different areas within the ‘Cross’ and the ‘Pentagram’ are marked with terms such as ‘Hidden’, ‘Flank’, ‘Brawl’, and more, which represent manoeuvres and tactics that both sides can move into and make use of, as well as range. A Sister can undertake three actions per turn, such as ‘Reposition’, ‘Attack’, ‘Assist’, ‘Use’, and so on. The Nuns will start a fight from the ‘Cross’, whilst the demons and their servants start in the ‘Pentagram’. In general, combat in Sisterhood has a tactical, if slightly abstract feel.
How does combat work?
Combat in Sisterhood works slightly differently to that found in other roleplaying games. It employs ‘The Way of the Cross’ and is played out on a battlemap made up of the ‘Cross’ and the ‘Pentagram’. Different areas within the ‘Cross’ and the ‘Pentagram’ are marked with terms such as ‘Hidden’, ‘Flank’, ‘Brawl’, and more, which represent manoeuvres and tactics that both sides can move into and make use of, as well as range. A Sister can undertake three actions per turn, such as ‘Reposition’, ‘Attack’, ‘Assist’, ‘Use’, and so on. The Nuns will start a fight from the ‘Cross’, whilst the demons and their servants start in the ‘Pentagram’. In general, combat in Sisterhood has a tactical, if slightly abstract feel.
How Divine are the Sisters?
A Sister in Sisterhood has access to the Divine in the form of points of Divinity. She has three of these at First Level and will gain more when she acquires another Level. Divinity can be spent to gain ‘Divine Intervention’ and an extra six-sided die to a result in a challenge; to trigger certain skills; to gain a ‘Dice of Divinity’ or twenty-sided that replaces a Sister’s main die, which requires every Sister to expend a point of Divinity; and to power certain relics and holy weapons. Spent Divinity can be regained by resting, through prayer, and a Sister using her ‘Recharge Skill’.
What do you play?
The scenario in Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide is ‘The Lost Covent’. The Sisters are tasked with investigating a former, but isolated convent to determine if it is being used for cult activities, recover a relic left, and then cleanse the chapel. It is a quick affair, beginning with an investigation of the former convent before a confrontation with the cultists in the chapel. The Sisters will barely have a chance to recover before the chapel is assaulted by even more heavily armed cultists—including Cultist Rangers(!) and a Machine Gun Team(!)—attempting to stop them from consecrating the chapel once more. It is very combat focused and probably needed a bit more investigation and a bit more room for interaction and roleplaying.
Is there anything missing?
No. The Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide has everything the the Mother Superior and her Sisters will need to play.
Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide are very easy to prepare. They are light and easy to use as much as they are to teach, although the players will need to to get used to ‘The Way of the Cross’ upon which combat is handled.
Is it worth it?
Yes—for the most part. The Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide presents everything you you need to play a brutal game of Nun-on-Demon action, with an emphasis on the action and combat and the tactics played out on the ‘The Way of the Cross’. However, this emphasis on action and combat means that there is more ‘nuns with guns’ than ‘nuns with anything else’ action in the scenario. More of the latter would have allowed the Sisters to shine out of combat and given scope for all of their past lives to be brought into play. The Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide is a fast and fun, but not quite all it could have been.
The Sisterhood – Quickstart Guide is published by Parable Games and is available to download here.

Fantasy Fridays: Fantasy Wargaming

The Other Side -

Fantasy Wargaming Returning to this series, I aimed to explore games that would provide insight into how Satan, demons, and the devil were perceived in the Middle Ages. Here is the first of those. 

Fantasy Wargaming

Edited by Bruce Galloway (1981, 1982). 220 pages.

Every gamer of a certain age has owned this game at least once, and some of us have owned it multiple times. It claims to be "The Highest Level of All." I am surprised that the cover, with the summoned devil about ready to grab that old wizard, didn't hamper sales. 

I have seen a few different versions of this book. A letter-sized hardcover, a digest-sized book, and I swear a softcover version. It was a regular feature of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club, and I suspect that is how it got into so many hands. 

The book is quite lengthy and contains numerous historical details. No shock. It was written by a bunch of gamers from Cambridge University and edited into a (allegedly) comprehensive whole. I would describe the book as having more than one voice to be honest. There are parts that want to be an RPG or at least a coverage of RPGs (Wargames in the parlance of the book) and another voice that seems to disdain them. More on that. 

The book is certainly more of an artifact of the 1970s rather than the 1980s. And 1970s College Elite at that. It is a book and style I typically subscribe to the "Second Generation" of gamers. These are the guys, typically college age, who picked up RPGs while on college campuses. They were not the First Generation (Gary and the folks around him), but they had similar backgrounds. For the record, I see myself more of the Third Generation, or Gen 2.5. I was in middle school and learned from people who had learned from the Second Generation. 

There is a lot to unpack here. Not just in terms of the game itself but the history of the game.  I would not be able to provide a thorough review of it for this particular post.  I am not even sure I want to try.  For starters, there is a notable disdain for RPGs in this book, particularly for D&D.  I would call it a Fantasy Heartbreaker, but it never lets you get close enough to it to break your heart.  Don't get me wrong; there is a lot here. Some of it is even good. I normally (or plan to, anyway) conclude these posts in this series with a recommendation on whether the game is a good fantasy game and whether it would be a suitable substitute for D&D at your table. The answer to both is very much a no. 

So why go through the exercise of it?

There are some tidbits here that I like.  While most modern players would balk at some of the ideas here- hell, some of it raised an eyebrow or two in the 1980s- there is a certain in situ charm about it. As described Fantasy Wargaming is 11th Century role-playing as viewed through the eyes of people in the 11th Century (and filtered through Cambridge students of the 20th Century). 

In particular, there are comprehensive lists of fantasy arms and armor, often surpassing what you find in most games. The glossary on arms and armor (starting on p. 54) is rather great. 

Weapons of War

But for me, the best parts come from the sections on star/birth sign, social class, magic and monsters. 

Star/Birth Sign

I am NOT a proponent of Astrology. But, I do see how/why it is important to Medieval characters and to witches in particular. This game provides some background and makes mechanical changes to the characters.

Social Class

Scattered throughout the book, it also informs and affects everything.

Magic

Likewise, scattered everywhere, there is some really great stuff here that I could mine for ideas. How much of it is practical at the game table? That I don't know. But it is fun to read. It has a mana system, which is always attractive but also always cumbersome. 

Here is what the book says on the subject of Wise Women (p. 28):

Cunning Man/ Wise Woman. By far the most common user of magic in either the Dark or Middle Ages. The Cunning Man or Wise Woman is a solitary, rural magician, usually situated permanently in a single village or area. He/ she is part of the community, and usually accepted until something unfortunate and inexplicable happens which can be fastened upon him/ her. The Mage specializes in appropriate kinds of spell: the curing of people and domestic animals, the bringing of disease and death as retribution, and certain kinds of detection (especially thief, lost things, etc.). He/she uses immediately available materials for enchantment, and the basic incantatory preparations for spells. Mainly "White" magic.

And Witches (p 28):

Witch. Member of a Devil-worshipping coven, in which magical skills are taught both by other members and by demons themselves. Witchcraft is an eclectic, powerful type of magic, drawing on as many traditions as the varied membership of the covens allows. The Witch is most effective in magic involving people, and compulsion-Curing, Disease and Death, and Absolute Command being the greatest specialities. Witches may be found in the highest and lowest walks of society, in court, city and countryside alike. Other Mages may join covens and become Witches., without losing their own spell specializations. The Witch is almost always a secretive figure. his/ her magical skills either being hidden or practiced in solitude. The Witch is automatically damned, and all his/her magic Black.

I'll have to see where my Larina falls.

Monsters

There are many great ones here, mostly from Medieval Bestiaries. Some who have never made it to the pages of a Monster Manual. This includes the names of some demons and angels. 

I think one of the reasons I keep coming back to this book is not the game value or even the editorial comments but rather for the depth of some of the information. 

The reviews for Fantasy Wargaming were never great, some even going as far as calling it "the worst RPG ever made" which is a little harsh in my mind. It is not good, but it is not the worst. A proposed sequel to cover the classic and ancient world never happened and Bruce Galloway himself passed in 1984. In fact of the five main authors, only one is still with us. 

Larina Nichols for Fantasy Wargaming

I can't not do a witch for this. That's crazy talk.

The game does cover witches and witchcraft:

Few questions in anthropology have raised as much controversy as the nature of witchcraft. There are three quite separate views of the witch-the peasant magician, the pagan, and the devil worshipper. Fantasy Wargaming accepts all three as valid. Witches clearly exercised magic. and not just Supernatural powers by appeal Equally, the theory of a surviving pre-Christian Celtic fertility cult bas some force. Some ritual elements, notably the sacred dance and orgy, appear at the very beginning of the period, before diabolism bad really taken root. There are echoes of Bacchic revels, and of Diana's Wild Hunt.
Some medieval witches strenuously asserted their worship of a "different" god. Yet equally, the evidence for devil worship among medieval covens is overwhelming. (FW p. 24)

Yeah, I can work with that. The game is set roughly in the 1000s AD. Yeah, I can do that as well. I would lean in on the Larina living in Wales concept I have. Her mother is Welsh, her father a minor Saxon nobleman.

Witches, or Wise Women, in this game, get special treatment. In general, women characters have it rough in Fantasy Wargaming to reflect the 11th Century times the game is set. Wise Women and Witches though can break out of this bleakness just a little. 

Larina might appear to be a Wise Woman, but she is a Witch. Of course, this means a pact with the Devil. I'll have to see how character creation works out. Though the section on religion mentions that there are some still holdover of Anglo-Saxons that follow the old Norse Gods. Could Larina be worshipping a version of Freya? I can make that work. MAYBE she worships some version of Helga or Mutter Natur from my Black Forest Mythos. Likely some Faery (p. 36) magic mixed in. Larina is very much a witch from the Margaret Murray mold. She likely pulls in a lot of different ideas. Of course to the authorities she is nothing more than a debased Satanist.

For this, I will refer to David Trimboli's breakdown of character creation. 

Larina as a teenLarina, Daughter of Lars
Female Welsh Witch

Star Sign: Scorpio ♏︎

Ability Scores (adjusted for Star Sign)
Physique: 9
Agility: 12
Endurance: 10

Intelligence: 18
Faith: 15

Charisma: 16 14 (Scorpio)
Greed: 12 10 (Female -2)
Selfishness: 13 11 (Female -3, Scorpio +1)
Lust: 15 12 (Female -3)
Bravery: 12 10 (Female)

Social Class: 10 7 (Female -3)

Height: 5'3"  Weight: 110lbs
Current Agility: 12

Literate: Yes
Speaks: Welsh, Anglo-English, German (Low)
Chance to Speak Language: 60%

Leadership: 9

Mana: 5

Birthrank: Firstborn Daughter
Father's Social Position: Land Reeve (13)

Misc. Traits/Bogeys: 3 Heretic, Bisexual, Gift of Tongues. 

Spells

Flight: Mana 3 (Controlling: ♓︎/♐︎ Diminishing: ♍︎/♑︎)
Night Vision: Mana 2 (Controlling: ♋︎/♌︎ Diminishing: ♓︎/♒︎ )
Evil Eye: Mana 2 (Controlling: ♏︎/♋︎ Diminishing: ♐︎/♌︎)

Yeah it sucks to be a woman in the 11th Century in this game. No wonder she looks to witchcraft. But that is the type of character I would play. Load up the disadvantages! I'll still prevail. I am not going to get all bent out of shape about this. Those are the rules in the game, and since I am exploring the game, so be it. Plus, the raison d'être of this character will be to fight against the power of the Church, the Patriarchy, and well... I guess most of Europe at this point. 

I also rolled for traits/bogeys for her. She is a heretic, bisexual, and has the gift of tongues. I think that means she must be some sort of Satanic witch for sure. Also, given that she is very intelligent, has the gift of languages, and is bi, I am going to avoid calling her a Cunning Linguist. Damn. I did it anyway.

Characters start out at 16 here. Damn, I half tempted to lift this whole character and make her part of Moria's background instead! Personally, I'd rather start her at 19, have her living on her own and do that whole "mysterious witch of the woods" concept. 

Maybe in my "grand cosmology" this represents Larina as a Satanic witch. Sounds like something an edgy 16-year-old would do. "Mom! It's not a phase! I am dedicated to my Dark Lord Lucifer!" "That's nice, sweetie. Make sure you clean your room and finish your homework." "Ugh. Mom, you don't understand!"

She is a Scorpio. I wanted to keep that. But Scorpio, according to the rules, is the worst for a magic-using class. Well. I never bought into astrology anyway, so that is fine with me.

I like this character, but to be honest, there isn't a lot I can, or will, do with her. Nor can I recommend the game save as an interesting curiosity. Though I DO highly recommend Mike Monaco's "The Highest Level of All." It is a book dedicated to Fantasy Wargaming and does a better job than I ever will. 

So she has had a ton of disadvantages thrown at her from the word go. She is super bright, can read, knows languages, and is a bit lusty. No wonder she is going to rebel. I love her already.

Links


Fantasy Wargaming


The Other OSR: Kavlov’s Sanctuary

Reviews from R'lyeh -

It is over a thousand years since the great wizard, Kavlov, drew upon his magics to bind and imprison Balthazar, a three-eyed demon of Uzran, in the Halls of Dread below the Dreaded Hills. It is said that he sacrificed himself to ensure that the demon would never again walk the mortal realm and spread his influence, for he was not seen again. This is not the case, for Kavlov not only drew upon his mighty magics to bind the demon in place, but he also bound himself to ensure that they did not fail. Yet failing they are and as the wizard’s power fades, so do the bindings that hold the demon in place. As they weaken, so the influence of Balthazar has spread once again, and many and diverse a group of men and monsters have found their way to the Dreaded Hills and there settle within the network of caves that thread out down the hill under which the demon’s bindings lie. Dread creatures and monstrous men are abroad in the forests and hills nearby, threatening those unwise to be travelling through the region and the nearby village of Sanctuary, noted as haven for the bereaved, its guilds and temples dedicated to ensuring that the deceased are accorded a proper burial. As darkness begins to spread and seep into the hearts of men, what will the Player Characters do? Strike a blow for the safety of all concerned and prevent those that still worship the demon from freeing him of his shackles or do they side with the demon and work to free him and so unleash his dark desires upon the world once again?

This is the set-up for K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary, a scenario and sandcrawl for use with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. Published by The Dungeon’s Key following successful Kickstarter campaign, K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary may well be written for use with Mörk Borg (there is also a version written for use with Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials, the retroclone based on the 1980-81 version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons), but what it is inspired by, is a classic module for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. This is B2, Keep on the Borderlands, which presented a frontier base of operations—the keep of the title—from which the Player Characters could operate and the Caves of Chaos, the series of caves and caverns in which all manner of humanoid tribes could be found in service to the forces of evil. The inspiration then, provides for a base of operations, in this case, the settlement of Sanctuary, a wilderness area packed with danger, and a big threat, in this case, the caves under the Dreaded Hills, a set of thirteen mini-dungeons. K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary, though, manages to provide not just more than this, but ultimately and effectively less than this.

The book begins with seven Classes for Mörk Borg. These are the Flesh Weaver, which uses a bone needle and bloody sinew to alter the flesh of himself and others; the Blood Baron, who must drink the blood of others to retain his virility; the Degenerate Cannibal, whose own body is nutritious and restores Hit Points, but must eat the raw meat of other humanoids; the Mycotic Fiend, which grows on the body of its host and never needs to eat or drink; the Skinned Bastard, a former child abductee who can invade the dreams of others and whose toughened scar-tissue skin is resilient to damage from magical and physical resources; the Disgraced Court Alchemist, whose surprisingly continued royal patronage gives him advantage in gaining reagents and who is accompanied by a foul smelling, but loyal aide; and a Roach God Emissary, an undying servant to the deity who is sent spells each day by his god, each one scrawled on the wings of its cockroach servants. Bar the Disgraced Court Alchemist, there is a grotesque, even gruesome, quality to all of these Classes, all befitting Mörk Borg. Further, they lend themselves to a play style in which the Player Characters are freaks and monsters and do want Balthazar to be freed.

The given base of operations for the Player Characters is the village of Sanctuary, dominated by its guilds dedicated to mortuary services. They include the Grave Diggers’ Guild, Coffin Makers’ Guild, Embalmers’ Guild, and the Undertakers’ Guild. There is also the chapel, under which the devil (?) Balthazar is bound. The stones of the chapel weep the blood of the demon/devil, which is collected in a cistern underneath the chapel's basement and used in rituals or added to meals for the dying. The head of the chapel, the Master of Rituals leads the town, whilst his deputy, the Deacon, has been corrupted by Balthazar and is leading his acolytes in freeing the demon. The village also has tenement blocks, a general store, a traders, a bake shop, textiles shop, and a merchant bank, and almost none of it is presented in a way that makes it come to life or engage the interest. What is potentially of interest is one NPC is a werewolf, one heads the chapel and the village, and one is his deputy who is working against him. None of them are named and none of them are given suggestions as to what they might do over the course of the scenario or in response to the Player Characters’ actions. Further and putting aside the fact that the facilities feel more suited to an urban area than a rustic one, all of these facilities in the village are only protected by guards at a watchtower. There are no walls around the village so it feels as if Sanctuary could be overrun and raised to the ground at any minute, but the real problem is simply that the village does not feel lived in and none of its inhabitants feel like real people.

There are more interesting elements in the wilderness, like the Fey who lurk in the Deadwoods and instead of killing their victims, flay them and wear their skins. This is the source of Skinned Bastards Class earlier in the book, potentially setting up an interesting plot hook for a Skinned Bastard Player Character. Yet nothing is developed from this and there is no explanation of why the Fey do this. In comparison, the Bog Witch is more developed and thus more interesting, a crone who lives deep in a swamp and will sell interesting wares, such as a Wand of Health that costs one hundred dirty fingernails or a Potion of Verities which forces the imbiber to answer all questions truthfully for ten minutes and costs four flagons of wine and a bunch of spices. These wares are engagingly inventive and the Bog Witch will also ask potential purchasers for help in searching for her missing albino children. Yet again, the author fails to follow through in setting something interesting up as the entry for the Bog Witch does not tell the Game Master where those children might be found.

The thirteen dungeons range from a ‘Dwarfling Cave’ and the ‘Cannibals’ Den’ to the ‘Wight’s Crypt’ and the ‘Halls of the Dead’. Most are just four pages long and all have their maps repeated on each two-page spread for ease of reference. There are some entertaining dungeons amongst this devil’s dozen. For example, the ‘Gorgon Temple’ has an Egyptian-themed, sepulchral feel, whilst the ‘Hobgoblin Arena’ adds a little excitement in the form of gladiatorial games. Yet all of the dungeons appear to exist in a vacuum. There are connections between some of them, but they are very few and far between, and none of the occupants ever appear to interact with the occupants of another dungeon, and certainly never go outside since none of the occupants appear on any of the encounter tables. Further, none of the dungeons have explanations as to what they are, what their occupants are, and what those occupants do before the actual descriptions begin. Instead, K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary commits the cardinal sin of ‘Read to find out’ rather than telling the Game Master what she actually needs to know upfront. Even then, when she does find out, it is unlikely to make sense. For example, the ‘Wight’s Crypt’ has no Wights, but is instead full of Vampires and the ‘Cyclops’ lair’ is not just home to a Cyclops, but a gang of feral children who serve him. Why are they there and why do they not just run away? The Dreaded Hills even have ‘Leper Colony’ and a ‘Laboratory’, both places of butchery and torture rather of healing or study, recurring themes which run throughout many of the dungeons.

Physically, everything in K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary designed to help the Game Master just gets in the way. Both of the area maps in the scenario are designed to, and do, look like those of B2, Keep on the Borderlands. This is not a problem with the ‘Wilderness Map’, given a two-page spread, but the map of the Dreaded Hills, designed to look like the map of the Caves of Chaos from B2, Keep on the Borderlands, is laughably too small. It represents an area approximately 570 by 460 feet, is marked with entrances and caves of thirteen such cave complexes in that area, and is then fitted onto a single digest size page. It looks vaguely pretty, but is unreadable. What should they do to counteract that? Perhaps include excerpts of this map to use with each dungeon? Well, no, that would have been too obvious. Instead, each mini-dungeon has its own map, redrawn and done in white on muted colours to the blandest effect possible. The maps of each dungeon are functional and utterly lacking in terms of inspiration or style. Then there is the writing. It aims to be concise and to the point, but all too often it leaves the Game Master without any real idea as to what is going on. Over and over, thr Game Master to ‘Read to find out’.

K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary is overambitious, but underdeveloped and underwhelming. It attempts to bring the sensibilities of Mörk Borg to classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style play and classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style play to Mörk Borg. Although it succeeds tonally in bringing the sensibilities of Mörk Borg to classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style play, often overly so with its scenes of torture and other gruesomeness, it fails in too many other ways. It simply does not provide enough context and set things up sufficiently to enable the Game Master to run it effectively and engage her players and their characters with any ease, too many things are left unexplained, and tonally, it really only works if the Player Characters are working to release the demon rather than keep him bound under the earth—especially if the players decide to roleplay the new Classes included at the front of the book. Ultimately, K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary promises much, but fails to deliver fully and effectively on that promise.

Inside the Thunder Dome

Reviews from R'lyeh -

In the not-too-distant future, 2020, civilisation is no more. It was wiped away by the falling of bombs, by the plagues that ran rampant, by rampant starvation, and the desperate, resulting scramble to survive. This was the Boom. It took place years, probably decades ago. What remains is the Waste, where communities cling together for support and protection, as well as access to supplies of clean food and water, hoping with withstand the predations of marauders, cannibals, and worse. One such community is Paradise City and in recent months, its inhabitants have suffered an outbreak of the plague known as Bleeding Fever. Fortunately, Paradise City’s leaders managed to obtain a cure from the Science Council of Heartbeat City. Unfortunately, the truck carrying the antidote was captured by the Saint, a local warlord who notoriously runs fights in her ‘domes of thunder’, or rather in electrified cages. Many communities send fighters to participate in these fights, but not Paradise City. Until now, that is… In order to get the antidote its citizens need, Paradise City is sending fighter for the first time, backed up with a team, the Saint’s next tournament, called ‘Lectric Buggalu’. However, the team is not there just to support the fighter, because if he does not win and cannot get the antidote back, the team is going to have to steal it and drive it all the way back to Paradise City.

The is the set-up for Domes of Thunder, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Some of the entries in the series have been expansive, such as Orcs & Oubliettes and Strange Science, providing a detailed setting and an scenario, whilst others in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials. As with other supplements for ACE!, both the genre and inspiration for Domes of Thunder are obvious. The genre is Post Apocalyptic and the inspiration is the Mad Max series of films, specifically, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. This is a setting where guns and bullets are scare, petrol (or gasoline) is precious, and leather and scrap armour along with a pink mohawk are the only thing seen as fashionable since before the boom. The book provides some basic background and some rules additions before leaping into the scenario itself, which makes up two thirds of the supplement.

Domes of Thunder starts by suggesting some old Roles suitable for setting, as well as giving some new ones. The old include the Barbarian, Bounty Hunter, Cowboy, Outlaw, and more, and these are joined by the Cyborg, Driver, Gladiator, Mechanic, Mutant, and Survivalist. Each has a simple benefit, such as the Cyborg being able to a Brawling attack and inflict double damage by spending a point of Karma, the Driver gains the Driving Focus for free in addition to his other Focus, and the Mechanic can spend Karma to scrounge enough metal and plastics and parts to restore the Health of any vehicle. Since this is a cinematic setting, it adheres to the ‘Rule of Cool’ when it comes to personal armour. If it looks cool, it provides personal protection. Vehicles in Domes of Thunder—automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and armoured RVs—have all been scavenged, patched, and repaired again and again, and players need to roll at the beginning of every Act to see if their characters’ vehicles have enough fuel. A vehicle is defined by four stats—Health, Bash, Steering, and Plating. Health is the amount of damage a vehicle it can take, Bash how much it can deal out when ramming or sideswiping another vehicle, Steering is its manoeuvrability, and Plating how much damage it stops. A handful of vehicles are given stats, but the game does not really need any more than that.

One of the things that Domes of Thunder makes clear is that it is not a setting in which speed matters. In fact, none of the vehicle have a speed rating. There are two reasons for this. One narrative, one physical. The physical is that the roads are strangely still maintained, but being marked by cracks and potholes, it is impossible to go too fact. The narrative is that all the interesting things happen when vehicles get close to each other, rather than one racing away simply because it is faster. It is possible to get away from another vehicle in a chase and catch up with another vehicle in a chase, but in Domes of Thunder, what determines this is the narrative and manoeuvring rolls. This is about as far as the driving rules and driving duel rules go in Domes of Thunder, essentially keeping them simple and fast.

The ‘Domes of Thunder’ adventure begins in the post-apocalyptic equivalent of the tavern in fantasy roleplaying—an old rest stop, now barricaded and fortified. The Player Characters are hired by the fighter from Paradise City and his manager to provide support and back-up on their journey to Saint’s Compound and help in getting the antidote out if things go wrong. And since, Domes of Thunder is effectively a one-shot, film night special, things are definitely going to go wrong. This starts with the Paradise City fighter being challenged by a rival fighter and ultimately ending up dead the next morning. Which also makes things more complex as one of the Player Characters will have to enter the ‘dome of thunder’ as the fighter representing Paradise City. There are other complications, but they are just bumps in the road. The main action takes place at Saint’s Compound, which turns out to be more like ‘Santa’s Compound’ if it was protected by armed ORCs and Elves. This is because it used to be a shopping mall and it was the mall’s Christmas Santa who fortified the mall not long after the Boom.

Apart from the Player Character who is going to fight in the dome, the other Player Characters are going to have to sneak around and investigate Saint’s Compound in search of the truck with the antidote for Bleeding Fever, try not to get caught—but hey, it is definitely more dramatic if they do as they have to escape the Saint’s (prison) workshop and then have to escape her compound too, and eventually race out of there in the truck with the antidote. It is fairly freeform in its structure and there is scope for the Game Master to add her own encounters and situations or simply play out the story to see where it goes. Ultimately, the scenario will end with the Player Characters with the truck containing the antidote driving hell for leather to Paradise City. There is good reason for this—the Saint is very annoyed with the Player Characters and she unleashes her dragon on them! This is not a dragon, but a helicopter, but it is so unfamiliar to the Player Characters that it might as well be. Finish the ‘dragon’ off, and the Player Characters can ride off into the sunset…

The ‘Domes of Thunder’ adventure is straightforward and should take a session or two to complete. If there are issues, it is that it introduces an NPC under one name and them changes it and that it skirts around what the nature of the apocalypse is. There are mutants and there is prejudice against them. For example, only pure strain humans with neither mutation or nor mechanical modification can participate in the games. Further, the scenario does play around with the fantasy genre a little so it may not be clear to players in particular, if the setting embraces elements of fantasy as well, and if so, quite how far. This is because the security for the Saint’s Compound are called ORCs and Saint’s infiltrators are called Elves. The ORCs are derived from the name of the shopping mall, which was the Odessa Retail Centre, whilst the Elves are essentially Santa’s ‘little helpers’. Nominally, the scenario actually be taking place at Christmas, but that is not entirely clear. So, tonally, Domes of Thunder feels slightly odd in places, but not enough to disrupt the scenario.

Physically, Domes of Thunder is well presented with reasonable artwork. It needs a slight edit in places.
Domes of Thunder is as straightforward an adventure as you want it to be. The plot is none too complex and what the Player Characters have to do is easy to grasp. Where the the complication comes in is whatever mess the Player Characters get themselves into. There is plenty of room for Game Master to add her own content, but as is, Domes of Thunder is easy to prepare and bring to the table for a session or two’s worth of uncomplicated post-apocalyptic, cinematic action.

Witchcraft Wednesday: Introducing Moria Zami, Part 2

The Other Side -

Moria Zami Late post? Yeah, I was playing AD&D with my son until the wee hours of the morning! I have not done that in a bit. We are playing again tonight (this morning) when he gets home from work. We are going to finish up his first (playing) Forgotten Realms adventure.

Moria went over GREAT! I already love this character and I am playing her like Sabrina Morningstar (not Spellman, yes there is a difference) from the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.  Her mother is a witch, that I know, her father is a devil and a pretty powerful one, but I don't know who he is yet.

I am looking forward to finding out.

The Sabrina Spellman/Morningstar analogy is good here. Little Moria here will turn quite evil, maybe even the "Big Bad" of the series. Given who I thought the Big Bad was (Orcus), I have some ideas on who her father might be. But...I am going to hold this a little closer to my chest while I figure out how that might work out. I will say this, he is a Duke if not an Archduke. But Moria doesn't know this yet either. 

I have put a mark on certain spells on her sheet that cause her to dip a little closer to evil. She speaks infernal, and her eyes go all black. The characters know something is up with her, but the paladin of the group says she is not evil.  Liam told me I should build her in BG3, not knowing yet who she is. I told him "yeah, I oughta do that."

Since this is a one-on-one game, he is playing a lot of characters, and it is very likely that they won't all make it. I am looking forward to that as well. 

She has a familiar, a hellhound disguised as a Pug/Chihuahua mix (a "Chug?" a "Pihuahua?"). It is a lame excuse for me to finally use "Mephisto Fleas" for a familiar name.  And he is an odd looking mutt.

 

Mephisto Fleas, the Hellpuppy

No idea if he will go full Hellhound yet. But I am sure he has it in him. In the meantime, he is just a rat-mutt. 

More Forgotten Realms: Introducing Moria Zami

The Other Side -

Mizora, human form I have been out of town for a few days; it was my Father-in-law's 90th birthday. But right before we left, my oldest son and I were talking about our AD&D 2nd Ed Forgotten Realms game that he is running for me. He is having fun, but what he REALLY wants is to play. And AD&D 1st Ed at that. Yeah, he got a taste at Gary Con, and now he really wants to play AD&D more. Plus, we are both a little fed up with Wizards of the Coast, especially with their recent antics

Since we are both huge fans of Baldur's Gate 3, we wanted to add in some things from the video game. We have more connection to that than, say, Drizzt or Elminster. Trouble is, BG3 takes place in DR 1492, and we want our 1st ed game to take place in DR 1357, a year before the Time of Troubles. While in my 2nd ed game, I have a minor connection with Arnell Hallowleaf, but I also wanted something for this game. We are assuming that while my characters are exploring the Sword Coast, his characters will be exploring the Sea of Fallen Stars. This opens up a lot to us. But there are more than 130 years between our games and the events in BG3. So, there are not a lot of characters that are around for both times. Even Jaheira would only be about 10 years old at this point. Maybe they can rescue her and her family at some point. Set her on her path to become a Harper.

As it turns out, I have wanted to explore some of the past of the Cambion, Mizora. She is a rather entertaining character in her own right and deserves some further development. She is the servant of Zariel, but the trouble is there was no Zariel in AD&D 1st ed. Well, we are already ret-conning some details, and truthfully, I was never a fan of Tiamat as the ruler of Avernus. I might use Bel, the former ruler. I'll check Descent into Avernus for ideas later on.  But for now, I need to figure out who Mizora is, and more to the point, who is she in AD&D 1st Ed.

In BG3/5e she is a sorcerer, but this is AD&D, so I am going to make her a magic-user. I am also going to say she spent a lot of time in Avernus prior to BG3, so this is the time before that. 

I am not sure how long cambions live. I do think her mother was human, maybe even a witch. Now that would be fun.

---

A few hours later...

Ok, change of plans, sort of.

I AM sticking with Mizora, but not the Mizora he (and everyone) else knows. I am going with Mizora as a teenager. She knows there is something different about her, but she doesn't yet know what.

Moria Zami ("I am Mizora") is just a 16-year-old witch caught in the same pirate raid on the Sea of Fallen Stars that grabbed the characters. She is going to stay with them for a while. Until something bad happens. This also gives me the chance to try out some new things for my Left Hand Path book and something new I am starting later this summer.

Moria ZamiMoria Zami
Witch 1st Level (Diabolic Tradition)
Lawful Neutral

S: 14            
I: 14             
W: 12           
D: 15           
C: 16           
Ch: 20

Paralyzation/Poison: 13
Petrification/Polymorph: 13
Rod, Staff, Wand: 14
Breath Weapon: 16
Spells: 15

HP: 5 (d4)
AC: 10
Weapon: Dagger

Occult Powers
Familiar: Dog "Mephisto Fleas"

Spells
First Level: Back Fire, Fey Sight, Sleep

So far, she is a good girl, but that is going to change.

Jonstown Jottings #96: Rings of Glorantha

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford's mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is a short supplement for for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is by the same author of GLORANTHA: Trinkets from Dragon Pass.

It is a four page, full colour, 893.15 KB PDF.

Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is decently presented, but it could have been better organised. It needs a slight edit.

Where is it set?
Dragon Pass.

Who do you play?
Adventurers of all types who could come across these rare items.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It can also be run using the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – QuickStart Rules and Adventure.

What do you get?
Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is a description of seven rings which might be found in the world of Glorantha. However, it begins by noting that finger rings are rare in Glorantha, where rings are worn through the nose or around the arm. Thus magical rings are even rarer and more so in a world and setting in which magic is common, but magical items to be note rather than just functional.

The seven rings in this supplement each come with publicly sourced image and two short paragraphs, one giving its description and the other its effects when worn. The rings are divided between two types. The first suggests that many copies of it have been produced. For example, the Ring of Green Power is one of the Earth Goddesses’ implements of war and is made of tiny, solidified leaves with an emerald stone. Found very occasionally on former battle fields where the Goddesses’ worshipers fought Chaos, it must be worn on the thumb of the right hand and an axe wielded in the same hand for its power to work. This consists of a magical bonus to damage inflicted on creatures with a high affinity for the Chaos Rune or have one or more Chaotic Features.

The second type is unique, there being only one of its type in existence. For example, Charred Hope is ancient Elvish treasure that survived the Moonburn. It is found in Rist by those opposing the Lunar Empire. When worn, the wearer suffers less damage from spells that inflict damage and are connected to the Moon Rune.

The rings detailed in Runequest: Rings of Glorantha do feel as if their powers fit their descriptions and none of the powers they grant are overly powerful, often working only under certain conditions. However, more description of their histories and their legends would have been welcome as that would potentially make each ring more interesting and more special beyond simply its rarity.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is an inexpensive way of adding more magic to give Player Characters or NPCs minor powers that will enhance their legends.
No. Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is simply too expensive for what you get and the Game Master could create her own with a little bit of research which are just as good.
Maybe. Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is expensive for what you get, but the Game Master might want to add a little variety to the treasure found or perhaps take inspiration from the rings presented here and either develop more of their legend or create new ones of her own.

Jonstown Jottings #95: Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—
What is it?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is anthology of scenarios and the beginnings of a campaign for use with Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1, both written for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a one-hundred-and-twenty-nine page, full colour, 50.60 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, but the text feels disorganised in places and requires an edit. The artwork varies in quality, but some of it is decent.

Where is it set?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is set on Mingai and Sitoro, two of the five Korolan Islands that make up the Korolan Isles which lie in the Jeweled Islands, the Islands of Wonder that lie to the east.

Who do you play?Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is designed to be used with Player Characters who are native to the Korolan Islands. (The possibility of outsiders playing the scenarios is acknowledged, but not developed to any great depth.)
What do you need?Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 requires Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Red Book of Magic. In addition, the Guide to Glorantha and The Stafford Library – Vol VI Revealed Mythologies may be useful.
What do you get?Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is anthology of scenarios set on two islands previously detailed in Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1. More specific setting information is provided for both islands, including settlements, major landmarks, and NPCs minor and major. Thus, for Mingai, this is the village of Verena; the Crack of Fire, sacred place to the women of Mingemelor cult; and Red Top Hill, renowned for its red rocks and the former occupant, a wizard called Red Top. Particular attention is paid to the village of Serena, since Mingai is the setting for three of the scenarios in the anthology. Whilst, for Sitoro Island, this the Senate House of Sitoro, seat of the Korolan senate, and the Dream Canal, which flows down from Laughing Plateau, and if paddled up to the waterfall at its far reaches, a gateway to the Dreamworld may be found and entered. Only the one scenario, the third, is set on Sitoro Island.
The adventures themselves involve a good mix of physical action, interaction, and spiritual confrontation. The latter in particular, figures prominently in the confrontations in two of the four scenarios and the Player Characters do need to be prepared to face such threats. ‘The Nest’ is the first scenario of the quartet and quickly involves the Player Characters in the politics of the Almainas, the women who led the island. The Player Characters are engaged to investigate and deal with the presence of a Roc, recently arrived on the island and having built a nest, causing consternation and havoc by eating too many goats. However, none of the Almainas can quite decide what is the best course of action—kill the gigantic bird, charm it, drive it off, and so on. Ultimately, it will be up to the players and their characters to decide, but the Almainas do provide the characters with means to communicate with the creature. Climbing to the nest is a challenge in itself and the Player Characters are not the only ones interested in the contents of the nest. All possibilities are explored and there are some decent rewards for the Player Characters whatever action they decide to do. Overall, this is a fun scenario with a good mix of action and combat.
‘The Nest’ is followed by ‘The Hill of Red Top’. Here, the Player Characters are employed to climb up to the Hill of Red Top and there investigate Red Top Tower, abandoned years ago by a wizard and then his servants, and said to be cursed. It is damaged, but occupied still, by a very strange creature. This is a Keet, one of the avian species similar to the Ducks, but who can be found in separate albatross, cormorant, gull, mallard, pelican, puffin, seagull, tern, and other tribes throughout the East Isles, who has been maddened by spirits and who may hinder or help the Player Characters—and who in the long term may actually join them as a companion. ‘The Hill of Red Top’ has the feel of a classic wizard’s tower of fantasy roleplaying, full of secrets and some nasty encounters with spirits. The secrets hint at the island’s dark past, both relatively recent and in the long past. Uncovering these secrets will put the Player Characters in deadly danger and some of those secrets have ramifications that will not come into play until the fourth scenario in the anthology. There is a certain grubbiness to the scenario and it may end not only with the Player Characters not only being joined by an odd companion, but by their cementing a place in the community of the village of Verena.
Taking place on the island of Sitoro, ‘The Korolan Games’ involves another classic gaming situation—a competition. An annual event which takes place between all of the Korolan Islands and serves two purposes. One is to funnel the energy of the islands’ youth into peaceful activities rather than raiding and the other is to determine who will be the king or queen of the islands for a year with the winning island also exempt from paying tax for a year. So, it is not just a matter of winning individual competitions, but winning as many as possible. The Player Characters get to both attend and participate in the individual events, each played on a single day. There are generous rewards for the winners as well as reputation gains aplenty. However, because the competition has political ramifications, the event is far from clean and fair. There are many willing to cheat and resort to other acts of skullduggery to win. Thus, the Player Characters will kept involved investigating the various machinations going on behind the scenes as much as they are participating in the athletics competitions. ‘The Korolan Games’ is a busy affair with a lot to keep track of and the Game Master will need to prepare the scenario with care.
The last scenario in the anthology is ‘Fires of Mingai’. The Player Characters are asked to investigate after a fiery ghost has arisen from the ashes and lava of the Crack of Fire and fires are spreading across the island, destroying farms and endangering life. Stranger still, the Mingemelor’s cult spirits seem to have done nothing about this interloper. The scenario has an epic feel as the Player Characters go in search of more information, including consulting an ancient and dipsomaniac Gibbon shaman, and potentially help, before a confrontation with powerful fire spirits which will reveal some dark truths—hinted at in the second scenario, ‘The Hill of Red Top’—brings the anthology to a close.
One fundamental issue with Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is the lack of pre-generated Player Characters. The authors instead suggesting that NPCs could be used from amongst the competitors for the Korolan Games in the second scenario, ‘The Korolan Games’. Many of these are also NPCs tied to the four scenarios in the anthology, so not necessarily suitable. Further, given the differences between the setting of Dragon Pass and the Korolan Islands, pre-generated Player Characters would serve as a way to ease the players into and past those differences, showcasing the different Occupations and Cults. It would also make the four scenarios in the anthology easier to run.
Is it worth your time?YesFires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2, with its four engaging scenarios, puts the setting detailed in Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1 into action and enables the players to explore RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha from a different cultural perspective in a dispersed island setting.NoFires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is too location specific and too radical a change in cultural outlook to be of use in a general RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign.MaybeFires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is too location specific and too radical a change in cultural outlook to be of use in a general RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign, but its scenarios could be used to explore a clash of cultures.

Darkness & Danger

Reviews from R'lyeh -

When it comes to the Old School Renaissance, there are plenty of retroclones and microclones and other roleplaying games designed to emulate the play and feel of retroclones, but without being directly derived from Dungeons & Dragons. Further, in the two decades of the Old School Renaissance, there have been plenty of gaming darlings, designs that have garnered praise, play, and support from both within and without the Old School Renaissance. 2010’s Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, was one of the first, bringing an adult sensibility to the hobby in terms of content, tone, and horror, whilst in 2019, Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials presented a very clean and elegantly accessible version of the Moldvay/Cook 1980/81 version of Dungeons & Dragons. More recently, Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing made a splash with its doom punk attitude combined with its artpunk style. In each case, these offered a combination of the familiar play of Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games with their own unique selling point. So, if Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying offered adult horror and Dungeons & Dragons, and Old School Essentials offered accessibility and elegance in a new version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, and Mörk Borg offered doom metal sensibility alongside a splash of chromium yellow and neon pink, what does the latest darling of the Old School Renaissance, Shadowdark, have to offer in terms of its unique selling point?

Shadowdark is published by The Arcane Library following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Its claim was that it would be ‘Old School Gaming’, but modernised, and presented in a way that devotees of the Old School Renaissance and players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. And in the case of the latter, a means of entering the Old School Renaissance sector of the hobby. So, what is Shadowdark? The publisher describes Shadowdark as, “…[W]hat an old-school fantasy adventure game would look like after being redesigned with 50 years of innovation.” And certainly, there is some truth in that, since what Shadowdark offers is Dungeons & Dragons-style play, but with many rules and mechanics that are modern, having been derived from the more recent iterations of Dungeons & Dragons rules. So, what it uses is the key d20 System mechanic of rolling a twenty-sided die and aiming to roll high to beat a difficulty class and ascending Armour Class, both drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition; the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition; and the slot-based inventory system of microclones such as Knave. Thus, there is a lot here that a player of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition will recognise.

What the player of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition will not recognise is the replacement in Shadowdark of the Vancian ‘cast & forget’ style of spellcasting by having players of Wizards and Priests roll to cast magic. Then again, neither will the devotee of the Old School Renaissance. However, said devotee will recognise the standard attributes—rolled for in order, the relatively low Hit Points, standard Alignments of Law, Chaos, and Neutrality, Experience Points being awarded for treasure found, and certainly, a lot of content and tables designed to be used at the table and support developing play.

Shadowdark is a Class and Level roleplaying a la Dungeons & Dragons. In the game, players take on the roles of Crawlers, who will use their magic, iron, and cleverness to delve into and explore mysterious ruins, lost cities, and monster-infested depths. They will overcome traps, face monsters, and the constant threat of danger and calamity, but they will find gold and gems, amazing magic, and ancient, forgotten secrets, and with luck, survive to return to civilisation. As well as luck, they need light, and if ever it goes out, they are in danger of being attacked by those creatures and monsters who can see in the dark, of wandering into traps and chasms unseen, and getting lost in the depths of the Shadowdark!

A Crawler is defined by his stats, Class and Ancestry, Background and Talents, Armour Class, Hit Points, what he can carry, and more. The stats are the six standards—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. There are four Classes—Fighter, Priest, Thief, and Wizard, and six Ancestries—Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Half-Orc, Halfling, and Human. Each Ancestry provides a single benefit. The Dwarf gains more Hit Points and rolls with Advantage at each Level to increase them; the Elf has a bonus to either ranged weapon attacks or his spellcasting checks; the Goblin cannot be surprised; the Half-Orc is better at fighting with melee weapons; the Halfling can turn invisible once per day; and the Human gains an extra Talent from his Class at First Level. What none of the non-Human Ancestries have is anything akin to Infravision or Darkvision. Thus, no Player Character can naturally see in the dark. This is by intent and it has major ramifications in play.

Each Class determines the arms and armour a Player Character can wield and wear, several Class abilities, and access to Class Talents. Each Class has a table of these, rolled for randomly at First Level and then every other Level. So, the Fighter can use all arms and armour, can carry more if his Constitution is higher, can master a weapon, and gains Advantage on either Strength or Dexterity checks to overcome an opposing force. The Talents include mastering another weapon, gaining a bonus to hit on all weapons, increasing a stat, improving Armour Class for one type of armour, and so on. These Talents can be rolled again and again as the Player Character acquires Levels.

Of the three other Classes, the Priest can Turn Undead and cast Priest spells, and generally gets better at spellcasting through his Talents. The Thief can Backstab and has Advantage on Climbing, Sneaking and Hiding, Disguises, Finding and Disabling Traps, and Picking Pockets and Locks. The use of the latter does not get batter through Talents, the Thief improving his Backstab Ability and combat prowess. The Wizard can learn spells from a scroll and cast spells, whilst his Talents include being able to make a random magic item get better at casting magic. Backgrounds range from Urchin, Wanted, and Cult Initiate to Scholar, Noble, and Chirurgeon. These provide no mechanical benefit; the player and Game Master being expected to work out when they provide a benefit or a penalty during play. Essentially, roleplay their use and provide an on-the-spot bonus or penalty, the most obvious being Advantage or Disadvantage.

Player Character creation is simple. Stats are rolled for in order—a complete new set can be rolled for if no stat is fourteen or higher—and the player then selects an Ancestry and Class, rolling for a Talent for the latter. He also chooses Alignment and purchases equipment.

Name: Brak
Class: Thief (Robber)
Ancestry: Goblin
Level: First
Alignment: Neutral

Strength 13 (+1) Dexterity 17 (+3) Constitution 14 (+2)
Intelligence 13 (+1) Wisdom 12 (+0) Charisma 05 (-3)

Armour Class: 14
Hit Points: 6

Abilities: Backstab, Thievery, Cannot Be Surprised
Talents: +2 Dexterity
Background: Sailor

Equipment: Crawling Kit, Leather Armour, Daggers, Lantern, Flint & Steel, Oil Flasks, Crowbar

Mechanically, to have his character perform a task, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds any Stat modifier and bonus from a Talent to the result. The Difficulty Classes are standardised to nine for Easy, twelve for Normal, fifteen for hard, and eighteen for extreme. It is possible to roll a critical hit or fumble, which will require interpretation in play. In combat, a critical hit will typically double damage, but if spellcasting, it will double one aspect of the spell. Combat plays out as you would expect for a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game.

Magic works the same way for Priests and Wizards. To have his spellcaster cast a spell, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds a Stat bonus to the result. This is either from Intelligence for Wizards or Wisdom for Priests. The Difficulty Class for spells is ten plus the tier of the spell. So, to cast a First-Tier spell, a player must roll against a Difficulty Class of eleven, then twelve for Second Tier spells, and so on. A spellcaster will know a number of spells and during an adventure can cast as many and as often as he likes. Once cast, he does not forget them. However, if the spellcasting roll is a failure, the spell cannot be cast again until the spellcaster has had a rest. If the roll is a one, or critical failure, then the spellcaster will not only forget the spell until he has had a rest, but also roll on the Wizard Mishap table if the spellcaster is a Wizard or complete a ritualistic penance if a Priest.

The players and their character also have access to Luck Tokens. These are awarded by the Game Master for good roleplaying, character heroism, and so on. Effectively, they are reroll tokens, which allow a player to reroll his dice. A player may only hold one Luck Token at any one time.

So far, so good. Shadowdark reads and sounds like a standard Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game, but done in a very accessible style and with some tweaks. However, the play of it is radically different to most retroclones in two major ways. The first is Initiative. In almost every other roleplaying game, Initiative is determined at the start of a fight or the action. In Shadowdark, it is determined at the start of play and play progresses in turn order for the rest of the session like that, though it may be rerolled for combat and a Game Master can decide not to adhere to it all the time, allowing for more freeform play. When it is in effect, what it means is that the players and their characters are always on. There is no let up to the tension. They are Crawling through the dungeon or the temple or the caves and so they are in a dangerous place and anything can go wrong or happen at any moment.

The way is light. No Player Character has Infravision and can see in the dark, no matter what their Ancestry. Therefore, a party must keep a torch lit at all times. A torch or a lantern, only lasts for a single hour—and that is an hour of real time, not game time. At the end of the hour, the torch (or lantern) goes out and the Player Characters are in the dark. Now they can move and act in the dark, but it is difficult and dangerous. All actions are at a Disadvantage—including lighting a new torch—and the Danger Level of the location where the Player Characters are, rises to ‘Deadly’. The higher the Danger Level, the more chance of a random encounter. Plus, if there is a random encounter, the monsters are going to be able to see in the dark. Now simply changing one torch for another is not going to matter in most cases, but there will be moments when a light source being extinguished turns the situation into one of dread and fear. Imagine being in a fight and the light source goes out or fleeing from a cave-in and the light goes out…

For the Game Master there is excellent advice on running the game, always direct and the point. Providing information to the players so that they can make informed choices, telegraphing danger, dropping tells for traps, being the neutral arbiter, letting the players learn as their characters do through play, and so on. There is a brevity to all of the advice given, that makes it easy to grasp. Advice particular to Shadowdark suggests ways in which the Player Character’s light source can be ‘attacked’, whether by monsters or the environment, so that as well as the Player Characters needing to watch the clock for when the light goes out, they have to protect it too. There are suggestions for different modes of play, such as halving the time for which a torch remains alight for ‘Blitz Mode’ or ‘Momentum Mode’ that gives Advantage on repeated tasks and makes damage dice explode. There notes too, on running Shadowdark in ‘The Gauntlet’, a starting type of adventure for Zero Level Player Characters in which the survivors will rise to First Level much like the Character Funnel of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. To support this, there are tables upon tables, covering everything. A random ‘Something Happens!’ table, ‘NPCs’ and ‘Rival Crawler’ tables, tables for creating maps of the Shadowdark below and for Overland travel, ‘Settlement’ tables accompanied with ‘Taverns’ and ‘Shops’ tables, plus encounter tables for a variety of environments. One of the fun activities that the Player Characters can do during their Downtime is carouse and there is a fun table of outcomes which will often reward them with bonuses and Experiences. Plus, they might engage in a game of Wizards & Thieves, a gambling game whose rules are included overleaf!

There is not just a set of tables for generating monsters, but a good bestiary of monsters. From Aboleth, Acolyte, and Angels to Wraith, Wyvern, and Zombie, there will be a great that is familiar here from any Dungeons & Dragons-style game. Alongside the more well-known entries are more individual threats. These are given full page write-up as opposed to the thumbnail descriptions accorded most creatures, such as ‘Mordanticus the Flayed’, a skinless mummy-lich who lives in secret in the sanctum of Gehemna’s archmage and ‘The Ten-Eyed Oracle’, a barnacle-encrusted mass with ten writhing eyestalks that shoot out random damaging rays and which stalks the Shadowdark…

Rounding out Shadowdark is a further section of tables for generating treasure, which supports the ‘treasure as Experience Point award’ aspect of the roleplaying game. Included here are boons such as oaths, secrets, and blessings, for non-tangible treasures, plus all manner of tables for creating simple, but interesting magical items. For example, a shield with blurry indistinct edges that once per day deflects a ranged attack against the wielder or a dagger that trails sparkles and when it hits a target enables the wielder to learn the target’s true name. The notes on creating magical items are short, but do advise against creating items that grant Darkvision or light or increase the number of Inventory slots a Player Character has. Both of these adversely affect the core features of Shadowdark’s game play. The section is followed by a selection of ready-made magical items.

There are a lot of things that the Player Characters do in roleplaying and Dungeon & Dragons in particular with its procedural play that are conveniently glossed over and forgotten, it being assumed that the Player Characters automatically do it. This includes the lighting of torches and the maintenance of their upkeep or replacement. Shadowdark does away with that for a profound effect on game play and constantly highlighting the danger that the Player Characters are in. How much that game play of constantly being alert and of constantly watching the torches is going to last in the long term is another matter. At what Level does it become a tedious part of play? This is not something that is addressed in Shadowdark, but it may well be something that the Game Master wants to bear in mind as her campaign progresses.

Physically, Shadowdark is very well presented. The artwork is excellent and notably, the book is written in a short, punchy and concise style. Rarely is a paragraph more than a couple of sentences long. It is a thick, little hardback, but the formatting makes the content easy to read and quick to grasp and there are fewer rules in its pages than might be first imagined. Anyone coming to Shadowdark from a longer, more verbose roleplaying game will be very surprised by its brevity. However, some of the phrasing could have been clearer in places and marking of text in bold for some terms does not always work. Lastly, the roleplaying game is missing an index and a glossary might have helped.

If anything, Shadowdark has the feel of a Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style game at its core, but with modern additions that do not impede that feel or its play. What impedes its play—or rather what the players have to get used to—in comparison to other Dungeons & Dragons-style games are the rules for light and time. They need to adjust to never forgetting that their torch might go out at any time and that they are always on the clock and always in danger when Crawling. This is what Shadowdark has to offer the Old School Renaissance and players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, its unique selling point—time and tension.

Your Second Star Trek Starter

Reviews from R'lyeh -

With the publication of Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment in 2017, there have been a total of ten roleplaying games based on the Science Fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. In the past eight years, the publisher has provided solid support for the franchise across three different series of Star Trek. In turn, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Generation and by extension, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as Star Trek: Enterprise. In addition, the publisher has expanded setting with details of the Shackleton Expanse, whilst also encompassing the expanding settings for Star Trek with the StarTrek Adventures Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide for Star Trek: Lower Decks and the Star Trek Adventures Star Trek: Discovery(2256-2258) Campaign Guide and Star Trek Adventures The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign for Star Trek: Discovery. With the further expansion of Star Trek with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Picard, so too does Star Trek Adventures change, with a second edition.

The Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set provides an introduction to Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition. It comes as a handsome boxed set containing two booklets—the forty-eight page ‘Rules Booklet’ and the sixty-page ‘Campaign Booklet’, four Reference Sheets, a Ship Sheet, seven pre-generated Player Character Sheets, a sheet of forty-four tokens, and a set of five twenty-sided dice. The Ship Sheet is for the U.S.S. Challenger, a Constitution Class multirole explorer. The seven pre-generated Player Character Sheets are for the ship’s captain, a Joined Trill; an Andorian security officer; a Vulcan physician; a Tellarite engineer; a Human Scientist; a Human Helmsman; and a Betazoid Engineer. These are all done on stiff cardboard and on the back of the character sheets there is a list of tasks and targets particular to their roles.

What is noticeable about this, is that the books and the reference and characters sheets are all done on a white background rather than the LCARS black background of the first edition of Star Trek Adventures. This makes everything very easy to ready and gives the whole Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set a very shiny, clean look and feel. The adventure for Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is set in 2259, the era of Star Trek: The Original Series, but the changes necessary to run its mini-campaign, whether to Star Trek: The Generation or Enterprise, are merely cosmetic.

A Player Character in Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is defined by Attributes, Disciplines, Focuses, Traits, Talents, and Values and Dictates. The six Attributes—Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason—represent ways of or approaches to doing things as well as intrinsic capabilities. They are rated between seven and twelve. The six Disciplines—Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science, and Medicine—are skills, knowledges, and areas of training representing the wide roles aboard a starship. They are rated between one and five. Focuses represent narrow areas of study or skill specialities, for example, Astrophysics, Xenobiology, or Warp Field Dynamics. Traits and Talents represent anything from what a character believes, is motivated by, intrinsic abilities, ways of doing things, and so on. They come from a character’s species, upbringing, training, and life experience.

Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition employs the 2d20 System previously used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, as well, of course, as the first edition of Star Trek Adventures. To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Discipline. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Discipline also count as two successes. Target difficulties range from one to five, and if a player rolls more successes than is necessary to beat the difficulty, they are converted to Momentum.

Momentum can be spent for various effects. These consist of ‘Create Opportunity’ to purchase more twenty-sided dice to roll, up to a total of five; to ‘Create a Trait’ in a scene; to ‘Keep the Initiative’ in an action scene; to ‘Obtain Information’ by asking the Game Master questions; ‘Reduce Time’ to achieve objectives faster; and to have an ‘Extra Major Action’ or ‘Extra Minor Action’. There is a maximum amount of Momentum that the Player Characters can have and any excess is lost. So, the players are encouraged to spend Momentum rather than save it.

Main characters like the Player Characters possess Determination, which works with their Values or with the Values of the mission. A Value can either be challenged once per session in a negative or difficult situation to gain Determination or invoked once per session to spend Determination to gain an extra die for a check (a ‘Perfect Opportunity’) or to get a reroll of the dice in a check (‘Moment of Inspiration’). They also have Talents and Traits which will grant a character an advantage in certain situations. So Bold (Engineering) enables a player to reroll a single twenty-sided die for his character if he has purchased extra dice by adding to the Game Master’s Threat pool.

Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Gamemaster can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

What the Momentum and Threat mechanics do is set up a pair of parallel economies with Threat being fed in part by Momentum, but Momentum in the main being used to overcome the complications and circumstances which the expenditure of Threat can bring into play. The primary use of Threat though, is to ratchet up the tension and the challenge, whereas the primary use of Momentum is to enable the player characters to overcome this challenge and in action, be larger than life.

Conflict uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on, which includes both social and combat. Obviously for combat, includes doing extra damage, disarming an opponent, keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does, avoid an injury, and so on. Now, in the first edition of Star Trek Adventures this damage would have been rolled for using Challenge Dice, but these are not used in the second edition. Instead, the attacker determines the base amount of damage inflicted and can increase its Severity by spending Momentum, whilst the defender decides to either accept the damage and suffer an Injury, which would take him out of the action or combat, attempt to avoid the injury and suffer Stress. This combination of a lack of dice rolled for effect and increased player choice streamlines the combat process.

Starships are treated in a similar fashion to Player Characters, but have Communications, Computers, Engines, Sensors, Structure, and Weapons rather than Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason. There is advice on how to use each of them and each of them actually serves as a Focus when used by a Player Character. The various aspects of a ship, such as resistance, shields, crew support, and more are described before starship combat is explained. Typically, a Player Character can only conduct a single major action during each turn of a starship combat and each Player Character will have a role during this according to his position aboard ship and the appropriate Discipline—Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science, or Medicine. Starship combat is kept relatively brief, but the rules suggest the same degree of streamlining as in personal combat. However, personal combat is the easier of the two to grasp, though the inclusion of a dedicated example of starship does help the Game Master understand how it works.

The ’Campaign Book’ provides a big three-part mini-campaign called ‘INFINITE Combinations’. It begins with the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger answering a distress call from a mining city floating in the atmosphere of Kizomic VI. The city is under attack by a bizarre, tentacled alien lifeform and its inhabitants are calling for evacuation. There is lots of physical action in this first part as rescues are performed, alien attacks are held off, and desperate shuttlecraft missions are flown through a flurry of attacks and flying debris. There is some planning too, as to how to conduct the evacuation safely, involved, and a minor dilemma over the Prime Directive. The second scenario is shipbound, but again drives to an excitingly different climax after U.S.S. Challenger is stranded in the asteroid field it was meant be surveying and an extra-dimensional invader threatens the safety of the ship and the Player Characters have to race to make the repairs necessary to get away. Armed with some information as who might be responsible for the alien invasions, the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger track his movements to Starbase 23 and from there into an area of space disputed by Nausicaans, Klingons, and Gorn! The Away Team will make some amazing discoveries, but there is still the alien invasion from another dimension to contend with as well as the arrival of a small Nausicaan warship wanting to take control of the discoveries. The climax to the campaign is thus twofold, ideally with the action switching back and forth between the Away Team on planet and their starship above.

Overall ‘INFINITE Combinations’ is a decent mini-campaign, each scenario taking two or three sessions to complete and providing a good mix of action and combat with investigation and interaction thrown in. Plus, the ’Campaign Book’ adds three ‘Mission Briefs’ tied into the events and background to the campaign, so that the Game Master can develop them and add them to her campaign.

Physically, the Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is very nicely presented. The books are clear and easy to read, with plenty of illustrations inspired by classic moments from Star Trek, though there is a scene from Lower Decks as well. The dice are decent and there are plenty of reference sheets for the players’ use.

The Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is easy to pick up and then run and play if the Game Master has run Star Trek Adventures before, the rules changes consisting primarily of streamlining rather than a heavy rework. It will be harder for the Game Master new to the role, but the Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set does a good job of explaining things and providing tips and advice throughout, and then providing a good, solid Star Trek style adventure with lots of action and excitement and a moral dilemma or two thrown in along the way.

Immediate Idiosyncrasy

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera does something interesting and it does it very quickly. In fact, it has been designed to do it quickly. It is a supplement for Numenera, the Origins Award-winning Science Fantasy roleplaying game of exploration and adventure in the very far future, originally published in 2013 by Monte Cook Games. What it does is set out to solve the problem of wanting to roleplay and not having time to prepare to roleplay. It wants to do what board games allow, which is easy set up and readiness to play straight out of the box—or in the case of Weird Discoveries, off the page. To do this, it presents scenarios that can be read through and set up in the same time as it takes to grab a board game off the shelf, open the box, and set everything up. Once done, each scenario will provide a single evening or session’s worth of gaming as a board game would. Or in this case, roleplaying. Now it should be noted that Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is published for use with the first edition of Numenera, but the simplicity of the Cypher System, means that adapting or adjusting the supplement’s ten scenarios to Numenera Discovery.

All ten scenarios in Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera follow the same format. Each opens with a brief summary followed by the details and the scenario’s salient points, before describing the scenario’s starting point for the Player Characters and the wrap-up, how it can be ended. Also detailed are the scenario keys, the clues and the MacGuffins or objects, that the Player Characters need to find to push the scenario’s plot onwards. This is followed by the scenario itself. Each scenario is constructed around a map or a plot, which always has links to further details, such as location and NPC descriptions, as well as stats. They include descriptions of the possible GM Intrusions, the means by the Game Master challenges, imperils, and rewards the Player Characters.

Some of the locations or plot points are marked with symbols for the scenario’s keys. Depending on the scenario, these can be a set place or the Game Master is given the option to place them a choice of different locations. The layout is always simple, clear, and easy to use straight from the page. The scenario proper is followed by ‘More Details’. These are not necessary to actually run the scenario, but if the Game Master has time to read through them, provide her with extra information which enables her to expand the scenario. This is not just with details that will enliven her portrayal of the scenario, but advice on how to insert the scenario into an ongoing campaign, including a map of where it might be located in the Ninth World, and lastly, the Experience Awards for completing the adventure as well as possible further ramifications. The Experience Awards are the only thing that the Game Master needs for this section if she does not have time to read through this third section.

Further support for all ten scenarios comes in the form of ‘Show ’Ems’, twenty full colour illustrations designed to be shown to the players as they roleplay through each scenario. There is also a ‘Numenera Cheat Sheet’ for ready rules reference and a set of six ready-to-play Player Characters. The handouts help bring the scenarios to life, whilst the pre-generated Player Characters enhance the ready-to-play nature of the anthology. There is also a list of possible Cyphers—the devices and unguents and gases and concoctions—that the Player Characters can find to enhance themselves temporarily during a scenario. Further support comes in the form of an excellent introductory guide to improvised Game Mastering. Overall, the combination of format and support makes the scenarios in the anthology both easier to prepare and develop beyond the single session game play they are designed for.

The decade opens with ‘Beneath The Pyramid’ in which the Player Characters track down missing beasts to gigantic black pyramid floating over a ruined city and try find their way in from below. Simple enough, it is followed by the more complex, ‘Inside the Horror Pyramid’. These are the only two directly connected scenarios in the anthology, but the second is a much nastier affair, the Player Characters finding themselves trapped within the pyramid and stalked by dangerous energy creature with a penchant for eyes! The Player Characters need to find the means to get through a sealed door and then out of the Pyramid, hopefully eyes intact. ‘Natural And Unnatural’ places a village in peril when the device it relies upon for clean water disappears and the Player Characters have to find out where it has gone. Should the Game Master want to, the scenario has ways to expand by adding links to other entries in the supplement. Divine right versus divine reputation clash in ‘The Spider Knight’ when the Player Characters give aid to a young women who claims her throne has been usurped and potentially discover how far she will go to reclaim her family seat. ‘Please Help Us’ opens with the Player Characters being asked to help free a group of explorers trapped in a Cypher device, but doing so means angering a nearby group of religious Inhumans.

The sixth adventure, ‘Guilty!’ does something usefully far more complex, but in the two-page spread format of Weird Discoveries. It is a murder mystery set in a town divided by a river in which members of the Varjellen community from one side of the river are being murdered by humans from on the other side. Of course, there is more to it than simply that, but it is neatly presented as an elegant little plot flowchart with all of the various details in just the place both narratively and geographically. It is the most pleasing of all the entries in Weird Discoveries. A daughter has gone missing in ‘Lost in the Swamp’, but what if she does not want to come back? Whilst in ‘Mother Machine’, the inhabitants of another village are under attack, but nobody knows why. There is a surprisingly good reason though… ‘From Here To Sanguinity’ reveals the perils of worship in the Ninth Age, whilst in the last entry, ‘Escape from the Obelisk’, the Player Characters find themselves trapped in another floating object and have to find a way out. This time though, they are up against a deadline as they have been infected by a scientist to see how they react and need to find a cure before they can escape. It still feels a little like the second scenario, and perhaps actually setting in the Black Pyramid of ‘Beneath The Pyramid’ and ‘Inside the Horror Pyramid’ would have been a nice call back.

Overall, the scenarios in Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera are short and solid, rather than amazing or epic. That is not the aim of the anthology after all, which is to provide easy-to-prepare scenarios that showcase the weirdness of the Ninth Age in short sharp packages. Of the ten, ‘Guilty!’ stands out as the most interesting.

Physically, Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is very well presented. The maps are clear and the artwork is excellent, whilst sidebars give links and notes for the Game Master to add further to the scenarios. Notably, the two-page spread for the scenarios—one two-page spread for the introduction and background, one for the scenario itself, and one for the extra content, keep everything handily organised and accessible.

Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is exactly as advertised. A very serviceable, very useful, and superbly supported anthology that provides the means for the Game Master to bring a scenario to the table in mere minutes, but if he has the time, also the scope to expand each scenario and set it up in previous sessions. Overall, Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is such a good idea that you wish more roleplaying game settings had a supplement like this.

Pocket Sized Perils #5

Reviews from R'lyeh -

For every Ptolus: City by the Spire or Zweihander: Grim & Perilous Roleplaying or World’s Largest Dungeon or Invisible Sun—the desire to make the biggest or most compressive roleplaying game, campaign, or adventure, there is the opposite desire—to make the smallest roleplaying game or adventure. Reindeer Games’ TWERPS (The World's Easiest Role-Playing System) is perhaps one of the earliest examples of this, but more recent examples might include the Micro Chapbook series or the Tiny D6 series. Yet even these are not small enough and there is the drive to make roleplaying games smaller, often in order to answer the question, “Can I fit a roleplaying game on a postcard?” or “Can I fit a roleplaying game on a business card?” And just as with roleplaying games, this ever-shrinking format has been used for scenarios as well, to see just how much adventure can be packed into as little space as possible. Recent examples of these include The Isle of Glaslyn, The God With No Name, and Bastard King of Thraxford Castle, all published by Leyline Press.

The Pocket Sized Perils series uses the same A4 sheet folded down to A6 as the titles from Leyline Press, or rather the titles from Leyline Press use the same A4 sheet folded down to A6 sheet as Pocket Sized Perils series. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign as part of the inaugural ZineQuest—although it debatable whether the one sheet of paper folded down counts as an actual fanzine—this is a series of six mini-scenarios designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but actually rules light enough to be used with any retroclone, whether that is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Old School Essentials. Just because it says ‘5e’ on the cover, do not let that dissuade you from taking a look at this series and see whether individual entries can be added to your game. The mechanics are kept to a minimum, the emphasis is on the Player Characters and their decisions, and the actual adventures are fully drawn and sketched out rather than being all text and maps.

Echoes of Ebonthul is the fifth entry in the Pocket Sized Perils series following on from An Ambush in Avenwood, The Beast of Bleakmarsh, Call of the Catacombs, and Death in Dinglebrook. Designed for Fifth Level Player Characters, the scenario embraces the Science Fantasy and horror elements of the Swords & Sorcery genre combining a lost city with advanced technology and cosmic horror. In its scant few pages, it has the feel of I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, but of course, without the expansiveness of that classic module for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition.
The scenario begins en media res. The Player Characters are aboard a sea vessel approaching the alien and foreboding ruins of the city of Ebonthul, long abandoned and left to ruin. They have come to the ruined city in search of companions and fellow adventurers, of whom nothing has been heard since they departed for the city. This is only the broadest of reasons, the Dungeon Master expected to prompt her players each to who they have specifically come to Ebonthul to search and why. This provides a little more personal motivation before the action begins. A gargantuan being with a single, gem-like eye rises from the sea and lashes out with a beam of fiery energy from its eye. Suddenly, the ship is on fire and leaking! Can the Player Characters extinguish the flames and patch the hole before the ship sinks and actually puts the flames out?
Fortunately, the gargantuan being sinks beneath the waves, enabling the Player Characters to come ashore—either by weighing anchor if the ship is still afloat or swimming or in boats if not. The city skyline is dominated by a great statue reaching to the sky and a ziggurat with a locked metal door marked with a strange constellation missing a single gem. Investigating the island will eventually reveal the means to access the ziggurat and likely the bodies of one or more of the adventurers that the Player Characters have come to find.
The grand finale of the adventure takes place in the ziggurat, depicted on the inside of the folded-out sheet. Here, the Player Characters will encounter the gargantuan being that fired upon their ship for a second time, but this time, thankfully inert. Here it is revealed to be no monster, but a construct, one that appears to have docked inside the ziggurat and which the Player Characters can then enter. Inside the gargantuan being, they will find the last of the adventurers and treasure, as well as ‘things’ from another dimension, amorphous, slithering, and definitely wanting to replace the Player Characters. There are overtones of cosmic horror here, but not much in the way of explanation.
It is this lack of explanation which leaves the reader with an underwhelming sense of threat and any real story. With just three locations detailed, the gargantuan construct feels small and the threat inconsequential. The last surviving adventurer is terrified, believing the Player Characters to have been driven mad by the Voice emanating from a Stone that the ‘things’ have moved and are conducting a ritual on. Their motives are never clearly explained and nor is what would happen if the stone was restored to its rightful mounting.
If what is presented in Echoes of Ebonthul is underwhelming as written, it at least leaves plenty of scope for the Dungeon Master to develop and add to it as is her wont. One possibility is to develop the terror of the surviving adventurer and one of the ‘things’ already impersonating one of his companions, ready to instill a little paranoia into the adventure. For further ideas, the authors has some development notes here.

Physically, Echoes of Ebonthul is very nicely presented, being more drawn than actually written. It has a nice sense of scale, but lacks the humour of the previous releases in the Pocket Perils series. The combination of having been drawn and the cartoonish artwork with the high quality of the paper stock also gives Echoes of Ebonthul a physical feel which feels genuinely good in the hand. Its small size means that it is very easy to transport.

Ultimately, the plot of Echoes of Ebonthul is short, simple, and disappointing, though the whole thing can be run and played in a single session. It is not as sophisticated or as engaging as previous entries in the Pocket Perils series, and whilst it is very easy to set up and run, it needs more development upon the part of the Dungeon Master to make it memorable. Unfortunately, in scaling up the scenario, Echoes of Ebonthul scales down the story.

Kickstart Your Weekend: More Witches! More Adventures!

The Other Side -

 These people want to keep making a liar out of me.

Both of these have already funded and blown past their funding goals. 

Sickest Witch RPG - Core Rulebook

Sickest Witch RPG - Core Rulebook

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/justinsirois/sickest-witch-core-rulebook-rpg?ref=theotherside

Ok this one looks like a lot of fun really. Love the concept, love the art. I am going to have to grab this one.

Sword of the Wyrm’s Bane & Vigilante Subway + 32 FREE PDFS

Sword of the Wyrm’s Bane & Vigilante Subway + 32 FREE PDFS

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marktaormino/sword-of-the-wyrms-bane-and-vigilante-subway-32-free-pdfs?ref=theotherside

Mad genius Mark Taormino is back with more Maximum Mayhem! This one looks like fun and it comes with 32 free PDFs. That's a crazy deal.

Yeah...take my money.

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