As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2022’, which took place on Saturday, July 16th, 2022, the publisher released not one, not two, but three items for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. These included Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods , a book of Patron ‘Un-gods’, gods who were, and whose worship has drastically dwindled, but were the Player Character Wizards and Clerics to find them, would accept worship once again; the DCC Day 2022 Adventure Pack, which contained two scenarios, one for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and one for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic; and DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark, a separate scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. With ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2023’ taking place tomorrow on Saturday, July 22nd and with a preview of the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game scenario for the event, having already been published, it is DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark which is being reviewed today.

DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark is bit special. Designed for a party of between four and eight Player Characters of First Level, it begins en media res, with their being aboard a boat that hurtling along an underground river before plunging deeper into the earth. This is exactly how Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea, the classic Character Funnel ended and although it can be run as a standalone adventure, DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark is actually designed as a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea. To that end, it even includes advice on how the Player Characters can level up, from Zero Level to First Level within the confines of the scenario given that they are far away the surface and home. The most amusing of this advice is what to do with the animals that Zero Level Player Characters sometimes begin play with at the start of Character Funnels. Essentially, chickens and ducks will not be a problem per se, but if a Player Character former farmer and would be adventurer really wants to bring his pig or his cow along, there might be more of an issue. Otherwise, the leveling up advice covers the acquisition of spells for Clerics, Elves, and Wizards, as well both tools and skills for thieves.

The river dumps the Player Characters in the cave entrance to the Lost City of Quetat, an underground, alien city much in the mold of I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City. The city is small, dominated by an arena and an entrance to a temple. It is primarily inhabited by beastmen of various types, many of which seem to be suffering from Anophthalmia. However, this does not seem to bother the transient beastmen who regularly move from one of the city’s simple, but ancient dwellings to another. Their lives are dominated by the worship of Yuzz and part of this involves the sacrifice of their eyes. This does not disturb them unduly and they see it as part of both worship and normal life. Plus, the eyes do grow back. However, the continued worship of Yuzz and the dominance of its priesthood has divided the Beastmen. Reformers seek change and want to overthrow the priests of the Temple of Yuzz and the beastmen’s dependence on the Great Fungal Mound which lies at the heart of their faith and their subsistence. Rebuilders want the Player Characters to stay and become part of the community, providing the Beastmen with new blood and possibly, new leadership. The Religious want continued worship of Yuzz and consumption of the Great Fungal Mound and acceptance of the sacrifice of their eyes and the narcotic effect of the Great Fungal Mound. The Religious will regard the Player Characters as interlopers and an evil threat to the city if they do not leave or conform.

The progress of the Player Characters will driven by three factors. One is the need to find a way out and a means to return to the surface world. The other is the three factions and interacting with one, two, or all three of them, even allying with one of them, which is likely to be the Reformers. Combining these is a series of events which will very likely influence the reactions and opinions of the Player Characters as they go about the city in pursuit of the other factors. There are some genuinely creepy moments in the scenario, such as stumbling upon one of the blind Beastmen for the first time, encountering the elephantine Caretaker with its proboscis that it uses to literally suck the eyeballs out of its victims—willing or unwilling, the weirdness of the temple and the priesthood, and the moment that that one of the Player Characters has the eyeballs sucked out of his head! There are rules included for this and the effects of being both partially and totally blind included, but rest assured that this is horribly disturbing and means that is DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark best suited for a mature audience and its genre is as much horror as it is fantasy. At best, most players are going find this aspect of the scenario ‘icky’, at best, at worst, ommetaphobia-inducing.
The emphasis in DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark veers towards exploration and interaction, but there is plenty of combat in the scenario as well, so that overall mix is fairly balanced. Although the actions of the Player Characters can alter the balance of power in the Quetat, they cannot solve the problem at the core of the situation as they are far too low Level. Ultimately, they will turn to attempting to escape that that presents a very physical challenge, which can end with the Player Characters successfully escaping to surface or being trapped in Lost City of Quetat...
Physically, DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark is decently done. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is okay. It it is a pity that the eye-sucking monster was not illustrated. The maps are clear and easy to read, although there is a disconnect between the main map and the internal map of a building in that the number for the main building is not in keeping with the numbering of its internal locations so that there is no location number ‘2’ on the main map, but its internal locations all start with ‘2’.
DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark details a low level, unworldly lost city in the tradition of classic scenarios of the past and classic pulp stories, but makes it creepier and weirder and even more claustrophobic. This is great little scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game for First Level Player Characters which will challenge them to survive right to the very end.

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Cobra/Con Fusion is a scenario not just for one roleplaying game, but two! It is published by Renegade Game Studios for use with its G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game and its Transformers Roleplaying Game. In bringing the two together, the theme of the adventure is team-ups. For when Cobra and the Decepticons begin working together, the operatives of G.I. Joe and the Autobots are forced to co-operate in order to thwart their iniquitous intrigues… This means that the players will take the roles of characters working for both—three from G.I. Joe and three of the Autobots. What this means is that Cobra/Con Fusion actually differs from other adventures for Essence20—the system that the G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game, the Transformers Roleplaying Game, and the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game use—in which the players use characters created of their own or pre-generated characters. Instead, Cobra/Con Fusion uses specific pre-generated Player Characters, which consist of A.W.E. Striker Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Minerva of the Autobots and Cover Girl, Doc, and Mainframe from G.I. Joe. They are all of Tenth Level as required by the scenario and are available to download. The other notable aspect of Cobra/Con Fusion is that it is independent of the timeline for the comics for both G.I. Joe and The Transformers, so fans of either can expect some differences.

Cobra/Con Fusion opens with Part One, ‘Awestruck’, with the three G.I. Joe operatives arriving on La Grande Dune du Pilat on the south-west coast of France in the Bordeaux area for a briefing. Stalker, the G.I. Joe leader giving the briefing, reveals four things. The first is that The Baroness, the Cobra mastermind has been seen in the area. The second is the existence of the Autobots, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Minerva. Three, that the G.I. Joe operatives will be working with the Autobots. Four, one of the Autobots, Bumblebee, is badly damaged and needs to be repaired. This sets up the first challenge for the scenario, as members of the two diverse factions—G.I. Joe and the Autobots—are directed to co-operate in repairing Bumblebee. This scene is essentially an emergency room scene played out against a time limit, with each of the Player Characters being given tasks that they can perform to complete and speed the process. In actuality, there is no time limit, but rather that the quicker the Player Characters perform the repairs, the greater the benefits they can gain when facing the forces of Cobra and the Decepticons. At the end, Bumblebee is restored to full operating health, though with G.I. Joe technology rather than Autobot technology.

The action-proper begins in Part Two and ‘Street Hustle’, when the story moves south-east to the village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, close to the Pyrenees, where G.I. Joe has tracked the Decepticon and Combaticon Swindle. Oddly, the whole village has been bought out from underneath the residents by none other than The Baroness. The G.I. Joe operatives and the Autobots are sent to capture and interrogate Swindle in the hopes of discovering the location of The Baroness. This sets up a desperate car chase around the village which is hampered by the fact that the village is one of the most beautiful in France and has a heritage which dates back to before Christ! Which means that parts of it are very old and cannot be damaged by collateral damage. Full rules are provided for vehicle chases in The Field Guide to Action & Adventure Crossover Sourcebook, but sufficient details are provided here for the Game Master to run the scene. However, there is scope here for some expansion too, since like the earlier La Grande Dune du Pilat, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges is a real place, so the play through of the chase around the village could be enhanced with maps and photographs—none are given in the scenario—to give a greater sense of verisimilitude.

Part Two will climax with a battle between Swindle and the Player Characters, but they will be able to learn what Cobra and the Decepticons are planning together. This includes where the plans are being carried out, a secret base in the Pyrenees. In Part Three, ‘Break the Joint’, the Player Characters must break into the facility and destroy the fruition of Cobra-Decepticon co-operation—a prototype H.I.S.S. drone based on the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, known as Fusion. Defeating both Fusion and the forces at the Cobra base brings the scenario to a successful end.

A full appendix gives the stats for all of the adversaries in Cobra/Con Fusion, including Fusion. In addition, there are notes for the Game Master throughout the scenario, giving advice on using other Player Character options, modifying the adventure up to Twentieth Level, and staging the adventure.

Physically, Cobra/Con Fusion is well presented. The artwork is good and the map of the Cobra facility is clear. The text in Cobra/Con Fusion is tight in places and a little busy, so the Game Master will need to pay careful attention to the checks and stats needed for each scene.

Cobra/Con Fusion is designed to highlight the supplement, The Field Guide to Action & Adventure Crossover Sourcebook. Not just mechanically with the chase rules, but also thematically, as Cobra/Con Fusion is a ‘layered crossover’, in which both settings of G.I. Joe and The Transformers exist in the same world, but rarely interact. Of course, in Cobra/Con Fusion, they do. The nature of scenario with three Player Characters from G.I. Joe and three Autobots does limit choice, as does the fact that the G.I. Joe operatives tend to be technical versus the Autobots who are more competitive in nature. But that is in the nature of scenarios with pre-generative Player Characters and Cobra/Con Fusion is a one-shot after all. Plus, it would be more difficult to run it as part of a campaign or with other Player Characters.

Cobra/Con Fusion is a fun, one-shot scenario, just about the right length to be run in a single session or at a convention. This makes it the best offering from Renegade Game Studios for Free RPG Day for both the G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game and the Transformers Roleplaying Game to date.

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: A Place Just For UsPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Charles Huysman

Setting: Modern day Product: One-shot
What You Get: Eighteen page, 2.89 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” – C.S. Lewis.Plot Hook: Going home means coming home to play...
Plot Support: Staging advice, two NPCs, and one map.Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# Bucolic horror# Non-Mythos horror scenario# Flexible storytelling elements# Suitable for small groups# Easy to adjust to other time periods# Fennecaphobia# Xylophobia# Ludophobia

Cons# No clear explanation of the plot# Underwritten set-up and town description# Non-Mythos horror scenario
Conclusion# Bucolic hometown horror which takes the Investigators back to their childhoods# Underwritten set-up leaves Keeper with development to make play easier

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: As the Stars FallPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jamie Burke

Setting: Modern day North American gaming conventionProduct: One-shot
What You Get: Thirty-three page, 18.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Your mother warned you about the dangers of your hobby. She was right.Plot Hook: Some people think gaming conventions are odd. The attendees, even odder. This time, they’re right.
Plot Support: Staging advice, four/Five pre-generated Investigators, three NPCs, five handouts, and some monsters.Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# Familiar setting for many gamers# Creepy tale of blood and possession# Scope to create the convention# Easy to adjust to the nineties, eighties, seventies, or sixties# Hemophobia# Demonophobia# Chapodiphobia

Cons# Could end in a bloodbath and possession
Conclusion# Unsettling tale of blood and possession which ends under the stars.# Short one-shot in a familiar setting

Godforsaken is one of several genre sourcebooks for the Cypher System published by Monte Cook Games. The others, such as The Stars Are Fire covers Science Fiction, Stay Alive! covers horror, and We Are All Mad Here covers fairy tales, but Godforsaken tackles that most ubiquitous of genres—at least when it comes to roleplaying—fantasy. In each case, these four genre supplements build on specific chapters in the Cypher System Rulebook providing a range of rules and rules tweaks, character ideas, options and modules, monsters and more, including settings and scenarios, that together help the Game Master and her players explore the genre and its many facets and aspects, create characters, and adventure in worlds inspired by a wide range of sources, including books, films, and even other roleplaying games. As a supplement, Godforsaken has to cover a wide array of subgenres, from high and low fantasy to dark fantasy and fairy tales, from the future of a dying Earth and historical fantasy to contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance, from whimsical fantasy and wuxia to Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy.
Godforsaken is really a collection of questions and answers. Asking how one aspect or another of the genre can be done and then explaining or showing how. This is not just for the Cypher System, although that of course, is its focus, but with the genre in general. It starts with two options. The first is inspirations, touching upon classics such as Arthurian legend or the tales of Sinbad, but surprisingly suggesting a range of fantasy roleplaying games which could also serve as the basis for a Cypher System fantasy game. This complemented later in the book with more specific discussions and lists of possible inspirational works, covering fiction, film, and television, even fantasy artists, essentially a bibliography with suggestions. It feels odd having it placed further into the book when it could easily have followed the opening chapters. The other is creating a new setting and is more expansive, looking initially at the role of magic—knowledge, power levels, availability, history, and its interplay with technology and actual history—in broad strokes. It is a subject that the supplement will return to for obvious reasons. It also asks whether death will be permanent in the Game Master’s setting (similarly, this is expanded upon later in the book) and suggests ways to create maps and advise the players about the nature of the world that the Game Master has created. It is all fairly broad, as is the discussion and samples of fantasy.

The specifics really begin with character options which suggest ways in which various character types can be done using the Cypher System “I am an adjective noun who verbs.” format. For example, a Druidic character could be created in numerous ways depending upon what he does. For a druid with an animal companion, the Focus might be ‘Controls Beasts’ or ‘Masters the Swarm’ or who transforms, it might be ‘Takes Animal Shape’ or ‘Walks the Wild Woods’. Numerous options are suggested for the traditional fantasy roles like barbarian, the bard, priest, fighter, holy knight, warlock, and wizard, as well as for less traditional ones such as gunslinger and inquisitor. Several of the Foci are new, including ‘Takes Animal Shape’ and ‘Wields an Enchanted Weapon’, but in the main draws from the hundred or so given in the Cypher System Rulebook. However, not all of those are suitable for the fantasy genre and there is advice too on adjusting them to fit. For example, ‘Grows to Towering height’ could mean the character has giantish blood or be descended from a titan, ‘Licensed to Carry’ gives the character an unusual or magical weapon and applies the Focus’ bonuses to it, and ‘Talks to Machines’ could mean that the character instead communicates with golems or even the undead.

Equipment is handled in two ways in Godforsaken. First it gives descriptions and prices of a wide range of weapons, armour, tools, and adventuring gear. It will look familiar to anyone who has played a fantasy roleplaying game, but unlike in the Cypher System Rulebook, it gives prices in gold pieces rather than broad price categories. Second, it suggests ways in which Cyphers—the means by which the Cypher System awards Player Character one-time bonuses, whether potions or scrolls, software, luck, divine favour, or influence—can be brought into the fantasy genre. In the fantasy genre, these can obviously be potions, scrolls, talismans, and the like, which are relatively easy to make. Godforsaken gives complete rules for their creation as a series of step-by-step challenges, with higher level Cyphers requiring more time and more expensive ingredients. These are easy to use and nicely complement the main rules for crafting to be found in the Cypher System Rulebook. Crafting artefacts is also covered. Also discussed is why the Player Characters might craft Cyphers rather than expect to have them rewarded through play as is the norm, which might be preparation to overcome a foe or challenge, because the Player Character is a crafter, or it is thematically appropriate.

The rules for crafting Cyphers are one of several modules, divided between magical and fantasy rules, which Godforsaken provides and discusses that the Game Master can plug into her setting. The other modules for magical rules include antimagic, death and resurrection, ritual magic, magical technology, mind control, mystical martial arts, the power of names, and secrets. The modules for ritual magic and magic and technology include numerous examples too. There is specific advice about how to handle mind control in play, since not every player likes his character to be taken out of his control necessarily, suggesting that its parameters be set prior to play and reward a Player Character extra Experience Points when it does come into play, perhaps as a ‘GM Intrusion’. The module about using antimagic is more advice than mechanics, since the Cypher System does not actually define whether a Player Character’s abilities, Cyphers, and artefacts are magical or non-magical. If the former, antimagic effects remove them from play and that can be a problem from situation to situation, because they are integral to the Player Character. Ultimately the advice is to use antimagic in play sparingly. The fantasy rules modules cover the rewarding of treasure, including Cyphers and artefacts, and then the exploration of the dungeon environment. Walls, doors, traps—both as challenges and ‘GM Intrusions’, with numerous examples, are described here.

For running the Cypher System in a manner similar to Dungeons & Dragons, the chapter on fantasy species details several classic examples—Catfolk, Dragonfolk, Gnomes, Halflings, and Lizardfolk—in addition to those found in the Cypher System Rulebook. There is the suggestion too that they can be used as a Descriptor during Player Character creation, not once, but twice, so that Player Character could be an Inquisitive Halfling Explorer who Works the Back Alleys. Similarly, there are also suggestions on how to get near the Vancian style—that is, memorise, cast, and forget—which is challenging given that the Cypher System defaults a spontaneous style of casting. Godforsaken includes a trio of Cypher Shorts that can be used as single encounters or short scenarios, all of them classic fantasy situations. This is followed by a bestiary of forty or so monsters and NPCs to complement those in the Cypher System Rulebook and a selection of Cyphers and artefacts to add to a campaign.
Godforsaken is also the eponymous name of the setting described in the book. Comprising the second part of the supplement, it describes the ‘Godforsaken Setting’ and supports it with a pair of adventures. The ‘Godforsaken Setting’ is split into two realms. ‘Bontherre: The Blessed Lands’ are a green and pleasant land where nobody goes for want of anything, a pantheon of five revered gods known as the ‘Sacrante’, walk the lands and are worshipped by all, and for some, is a dull place to life. Beyond these lands of milk and honey lie the ‘Godforsaken Lands’ where the influence and power of the ‘Sacrante’ cannot reach and the sun and sky are different. As brave explorers, the Player Characters step through from ‘Bontherre: The Blessed Lands’ into the ‘Godforsaken Lands’ where they must survive radically dangerous environments, such as viciously biting weapons and acid rain, in search of resources valued by crafters. For example, Flevame, lies across the River of Souls and is easily accessible, and has a smaller sun and no moon, is colder, visitors from Bontherre suffer from a ‘weakening’, and visiting adventurers are often hunted by the forces of a necromancer called Crumellia Encomium. As well as being able to explore a new world, adventurers search for spirit threads which can be used to enhance artefacts. The other two lands detailed in the ‘Godforsaken Lands’ are different and there is scope too for the Game Master to add more. The setting is supported by two scenarios which introduce the ‘Godforsaken Setting’ and notes for the types of characters that the players can create and roleplay.

Physically, Godforsaken is very well presented, but that is what you would expect for a book from Monte Cook Games. It is well written, and both the artwork and the cartography are also good. Sidebars are used extensively throughout the book, adding detail, advice, stats, and references to the Cypher System Rulebook, and in the process, being very handy.

Godforsaken has two big hurdles that it has to overcome. One is that it has to encompass a wide swathe of subgenres and the second is Dungeons & Dragons. Although Godforsaken discusses numerous subgenres, it does not actually explore them in any great depth, its focus being broader and more generic. Further, it does not so much attempt to escape the influence of Dungeons & Dragons as in parts embrace it and show how a fantasy game in its style can be run using the Cypher System. By no means is this a bad thing, but rather it does leave less room for more detailed treatments of the other subgenres, which perhaps a supplement of their own.
Godforsaken presents a solid set of tools and advice for running the fantasy genre under the Cypher System, which altogether ask the Game Master numerous questions which will help her create and run her own fantasy setting. Ultimately though, Godforsaken cannot encompass everything in the fantasy genre and leaves a lot of subgenres waiting to be explored in greater depth for the Cypher System.

First published in 2006, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game reaches its fourth edition in 2023. The good news is that the latest edition of the Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game is not guilty of a strange swerve into MMORPG-style play as was the case when the most famous of roleplaying games reached its fourth edition. Instead, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is compatible with each of the previous three editions of the roleplaying game and it is compatible with the rest of Old School Renaissance too. Which means that the Game Master can still use all of the content and supplements previously published for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game for her game as well as supplements and content released by too many other publishers to mention. What the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition offers is Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying, dungeon-delving adventures, epic magic, and big battles against two hundred and more different monsters, the discovery and wielding of magical items—minor and major, and more. All supported with advice for the Game Master and packaged in a simple, even basic, volume that combines the equivalent of the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, all without the need for the Open Game Licence.

The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is published by The Basic Fantasy Project. It takes its cue from the Dungeons & Dragons of the early nineteen eighties, so is more akin to Basic Dungeons & Dragons than Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. There are differences though, but there is a great deal more that will be very familiar. It is a Class and Level roleplaying game, up to Twentieth Level, rather than a Class and Level and Class as Race and Level roleplaying game. It offers four Races—Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, and Human, and four Classes—Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, and Thief. Only Elves and Humans can be Magic-Users. Other than that, there are no limits on the choice of Class and Race. The familiarity mean that Dwarves have a minimum Constitution, Darkvision, and know their way around worked stone; Elves have a minimum Intelligence, Darkvision, are immune to the paralyzing attack of ghouls, are less likely to be surprised, and are better at finding secret doors; Halflings have a bonus to ranged attacks and initiative as well as Armour Class when facing large creatures, and are naturally stealthy; and Humans gain a bonus to Experience Points earned. Clerics can wear any armour, must wield blunt weapons, can turn undead, and gain their first spell at Second Level. Fighters can wield any weapon, wear any armour, and are simply better in a fight. Magic-Users begin play knowing the spell Read Magic and another spell of the Game Master’s choice! Thieves cannot wear metal armour, can perform a sneak attack with a melee weapon, and have a range of Thief Abilities such as Open Locks, Remove Traps, Pick Pockets, and more, all rolled on percentile dice.

Mechanically, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is mish-mash of different mechanics. Attack rolls and Saving Throws are rolled with a twenty-sided die, the aim being to roll high. Thus, Armour Class is ascending, with just three types of armour in the roleplaying game—leather, chain, and plate, plus shield—and beyond bonuses from either a high Strength or Dexterity, a Player Character’s attack bonus being determined by his Class and Level. A roll of one is always a miss, whereas a roll of twenty is always a success, but there are no rules for critical successes or fumbles. However, Hit Points reduced to zero for both Player Characters and monsters means they are dead. Other tasks are rolled on different dice. Thus, an attempt to open a stuck door is rolled on a six-sided die, but a locked door on a ten-sided die, the aim being to roll low, modified by the Strength bonus. Similarly, all Player Characters have a very low—one-in-six—chance of detecting traps, though the Thief’s Ability supersedes this. Both Surprise and Initiative are rolled on a six-sided die, but low for determining the former and high for the latter. The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is therefore highly idiosyncratic in its rules and their application, but no more so than many other Dungeons & Dragons-style retroclone and certainly no reason to be surprised given its origins and inspiration. However, this mechanical motley does have repercussions. Fundamentally, it makes the roleplaying game less easy to learn, even arcane by modern standards, because almost every rule is mechanically situational. This is not to say that the roleplaying game is impossible to learn, but it contributes towards the hurdle of doing so.

Conversely, any experience with a retroclone or Dungeons & Dragons, and the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is easy to pick up and begin playing. The differences between the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition and any other retroclone dot the rules. Most notably, they include the use of ascending Armour Class, but other rules provide clear and easy rules for unarmed combat and brawling and subdual damage. Spellcasting is Vancian for Magic-Users and all spellcasters require a hand free to successfully cast a spell. Clerics pray for their spells, whilst Magic-Users prepare and memorise them from a spellbook, except for Read Magic, which is so ingrained, it does not require the spellbook. Dig into the spells, and there are small differences here and there. For example, Mind Reading replaces ESP, Magic Missile inflicts a six-sided die’s worth of damage rather than a four-sided die’s worth, and so on. Some of the spells are highly detailed, such as Teleport, which is given a description almost a page in length whereas Read Magic runs to just three sentences in length. There are some forty-eight spells for Clerics and some sixty-two spells for Magic-User, from First Level to Sixth Level.

Similarly, the chapter on monsters—which runs to some one hundred pages—contains a mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar. Instead of the Displacer Beast, there is the Deceiver (or Panther-Hydra); the Gelatinous Cube is classified as a Glass Jelly, the Black Pudding as the Black Jelly, and Gray Ooze as the Gray Jelly, and so on; and the Golem entry includes Amber, Bone, and Wood Golem as well as Clay, Flesh, and Iron Golem. New additions include the Ironbane, an armadillo-like creature with hare’s legs and anteater-like snout with a long flicking tongue which transforms iron into rust (this does not replace Rust Monster), the Trollwife is included alongside the Troll as well as the Trollkin, the latter a young Troll, and the Urgoblin is a mutant Hobgoblin capable of regenerating Hit Points!

As you would expect, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition covers most situations and elements that could come up in a Dungeons & Dragons. Equipment includes everything from arms and armour to land and water transportation and siege engines, traps and secret doors, wilderness travel, retainers and specialists to hire, handling encounters—including combat, and treasure. There is a complete set of tables for generating treasure types and hoards, the best feature of which are the list of effects, such as Courage, Invisibility, Protection, Flames on Command, Locate Objects, and Obsession, which can be applied to any weapons—not necessarily swords, and miscellaneous items. This is alongside the usual range of magic items and even rare items like the Bag of Holding, Boots of Travelling and Leaping, Girdle of Giant Strength, and Rope of Climbing.

For the Game Master, there is advice on various Player Character options in terms of the creation process, learning spells, weapon and armour restrictions, and so on. Added here is guidance on handling one of the most difficult issues in Dungeons & Dragons—wishes. The aim here is game balance versus literal accuracy. A similarly difficult issue, that of Energy Drain, is handled in more mechanical fashion. This is handled as negative levels which inflict a semi-permanent loss of one Hit Die’s worth of Hit Points and a -1 penalty on all rolls, plus spellcasters lose a spell slot. The effect is more granular, though still potentially deadly. Optional rules cover raising the dead, saving throws versus death and poison, ability rolls, awarding Experience Points for treasure, and more. There are rules here too for magical research for the Magic-User Player Character or NPC, and of course, for the Game Master to create both dungeon and wilderness adventures. There is no adventure included in the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition, but the advice is a decent introduction to creating both.

Physically, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is cleanly presented. The book is well written and fairly liberally illustrated, much of which appears in the monster chapter. The quality of the artwork varies, some of it is quite scrappy, but some of it is decent.

There are no real issues with the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition, but one potential issue is that the roleplaying game does not work as an introductory roleplaying game as written. The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is intended to be simple enough for the younger player to play, and that is true, although with the supervision of older or adult players. The roleplaying game is written for the latter rather than the former, for example, there being no example of play, though there is fiction at the start and a decent explanation of what a roleplaying game is, plus there is an example of character generation. However, the meat of the rules and their mishmash nature are not easy to grasp, but again, to be fair, this applies to numerous other retroclones as well. For the experienced player, this would not be an issue.

There are plenty of Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games available to choose from. The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition offers a comprehensive set of rules in a cleanly presented rule book, covering just about any situation that might come up in play. There are also two major advantages to the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition. One, it is slightly cheaper—even free as a download—than most other Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games available. Two, it gives access to a range of scenarios and mini-campaigns, such as JN1 The Chaotic Caves: A Basic Fantasy RPG Adventure Series For Characters of Levels 1-3. Overall, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Fourth Edition is a serviceable fantasy roleplaying game.

Roleplaying games can have you portraying some strange characters. Not just elves or aliens inhibited by their emotions, but really strange characters. For example, in Marquee Press’ Khaotic, the characters’ minds are projected into the bodies of aliens on another world to fight a would-be invader, but end up all controlling the same alien body. In both Asmodee’s Bloodlust and John Wick’s WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha, the players portray the magical items and weapons being wielded, not the wielder. In the transhuman roleplaying game Eclipse Phase, the character is split between Ego and form, able to resleeve the Ego into a myriad of different body types, from cheap labour morphs and Olympian biomorphs to Uplifted species such as Chimpanzees and Octopuses and robotic flexbots and swarmoids. In the eponymously named A Set of Scrubs, you get to roleplay something that is perhaps the strangest, yet most ordinary item of all.
A Set of Scrubs is a journaling game which tells the story of a single set of scrubs at a hospital. Due to budget cuts, scrubs need to be worn multiple times, being deep cleaned between use, and handed back out as necessary. From the moment the scrubs are handed out for the first time, fresh and with a newness you just wish would never fade, to the time they have worn through and been stained with marks—both emotional and physical—that never truly shift, via being worn into something unremarkable, then perhaps a little scratchy, the scrubs will have been multiple times by numerous different people. Doctors, nurses, patients, porters, never management, visitors (yes, even them), security guards. Told over the course of three acts, A Set of Scrubs uses the Lost & Found system which is designed to produce solo games telling the story of an Object over a long stretch of time, typically from its creation to destruction. So it is with A Set of Scrubs.
A Set of Scrubs is published by Beyond Cataclysm Books and written by a medical doctor. To play—or rather to tell the story—of the single set of scrubs takes about an hour and requires pens, paper, a clock (or other means of tracking time), and a candle. The use of the latter and the subject matter of A Set of Scrubs, with dark and difficult themes since hospitals are places where life and death are decided, means that it is for mature audiences only.

A Set of Scrubs begins with the player establishing and describing the hospital, its age, management, and progress. Then it does the same for its staff and its patients. Is the hospital old or new, underfinanced or getting by, dirty or clean, the management honest or dishonest, and does the hospital have a motto? Do the staff want to do a good job or are they overworked and undermanned, professional or not, what are their opinions of the motto? Are the patients wealthy or poor, from all corners of society or one, what do they think of the hospital and does it have a good reputation, and how do they treat the staff? Is there a change in patient numbers, and if so, why? Penultimately, what does the set of scrubs look like? Cheap or well made, colourful or one tone, comfortable or uncomfortable, and so on? Lastly, the player draws the set of scrubs. There is even space in the book for this.

A Set of Scrubs is played in three acts. In each act, the scrubs will be worn by two or three Wearers. These change from act to act, each accompanied by a set of prompts which the player uses to tell the story going on around the scrubs. The prompts may also ask the player to roll on or choose from the ‘Illness’ Table or the ‘Clinical Procedure’ as appropriate. Doctor, Nurse, and Patient are consistent across all three acts, but the Porter appears in Act One, the Visitor in Act Two, and the Security Guard in Act Three.

The prompts for the Doctor, the Nurse, and the Patient vary slightly from act to act. For example, the prompts for the Patient in Act One ask the player to explain why the patient is in hospital, to choose and answer a question from the ‘Illness’ table, give an event that happens on the day which sticks with them for a long time, and lastly, how the patient Marks the scrubs. For a Patient in Act Two, the player must explain how the patient got to the hospital, choose and answer a question from the ‘Illness’ table, and both how the patient Marks the scrubs and whether or not the patient is marked in a similar way. A Mark is the effect that the encounter had on the scrubs. It can be as simple as a pulled thread or a spilled cup of coffee, as visceral as a string of bullet holes, swathes of blood and gore—or worse, or even a sleeve torn lose in an encounter with frightened Patient, or as ephemeral as an odour or a sound, a lingering presence, and so on. These are literally made on the scrubs, the player drawing them on the picture he drew of the set at the start of play.
In between wearers, the player rests, from a few seconds to a few minutes, before the scrubs are pulled on by the next wearer and both player and scrubs thrown back into the action—physical, emotional, or both—of hospital life. Longer rests means that when the scrubs return to duty, the hospital will also have changed somehow and that will have an effect on the wearer and the scrubs. For the player, the moments of rest take place with his eyes closed (or in the dark). The shorter the period, the less time the player has to contemplate what happened in that day’s encounter, to wonder how the scrubs were affected and the nature of the Mark. The ultimate period of reflection comes at the end after Act Three, when the scrubs have worn out and been incinerated. This is when the candle is lit and the player takes one last moment to consider the events and encounters that the scrubs have been witness to.

Physically, A Set of Scrubs is very well produced, a sturdy digest-size booklet with intentionally rough illustrations.

A Set of Scrubs is very much a contemplative writing experience rather than a roleplaying game. It prompts the player to consider events and encounters in a place dedicated to life and healing, but where death and even danger are a constant presence. The stories that result are peripatetic, flitting from wearer to wearer like a shared world, mostly ordinary, but influenced by the building around them and the care that the staff provide. Doubtlessly influenced by the numerous medical dramas we have seen, A Set of Scrubs nevertheless pushes us to explore something we know is there and something that we know at some point we will encounter, but from an unexpected emotional quarter.

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2023’, which takes place on Saturday, July 22nd, 2023, the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’ and ‘Grave of the Gearwright’, are written for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack. The third, Crash of the Titans, is a scenario for Mutant Crawl Classics notable for sharing the same cover as that for the limited edition printing of the rulebook. It is the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack which is being reviewed here as a preview of ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2023’.

The first adventure in the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack is ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’. Designed for a party of between five and seven First Level Player Characters, it is notable for being the winner of the of the ‘2022 Mystery Map Contest. The scenario begins with the Player Characters summoned to the normally sunlit city of Sphyre high in the Torrith Mountains. Here the people have worshipped the sun for centuries, but now the pattern of day and night has changed, the latter longer, the former shorter. Normally, the city is protected by the immortal wizard, Baltothume, but something must have happened to him for the light of the sun to have begun failing, so the Player Characters are expected to enter the and explore the outpost when he has lived for thousands of years. The outpost is quite small, consisting of just nineteen locations divided between two halves. The first half is where Baltothume lived and worked and feels quite tight and worked to be liveable, whereas the second half is darker and has rougher-hewn, natural feel to it, of a far wider space than the Player Characters can see.

To progress beyond the first half, the Player Characters will need to explore the facility and solve several puzzles, all possessing a solar nature, requiring either light or shadow. There are a few encounters here, but in the main they are just about enough of a threat to First Level Player Characters. The scenario is puzzle-orientated—so much so that they require their own notes—their being solved opens the way into the dungeon’s second half and then back again for its dénouement after that. Surprisingly, for a scenario of this size, it does includes more than the route between the two, preventing the scenario from stalling when the Player Characters cannot make any further progress. That said, the players and their characters may find themselves stalling when attempting to solve the scenario’s puzzles. Careful attention to detail is required and the Judge should definitely make notes as part of her preparation to run ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’, both to help her understanding and to help her players and their characters come to understand how it works.

‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’ is a neat, nicely self-contained—of course, decently detailed, dungeon which can played through in a session or two. The detail extends to a pair of entertainingly memorable magical items that will help the Player Characters in the exploration of the dungeon. The combination of its puzzles and theme of night and day that split the dungeon should engage players who like to think their way through a situation and the Judge should definitely prepare for that.

The second adventure in the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack is ‘Grave of the Gearwright’. Designed for a party of between four and six Second Level Player Characters, it is actually inspired by DragonMech, the fantasy-steampunk-mecha setting published by Goodman Games in 2004. (Perhaps the scenario is a precursor to it being re-released, this time for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game? Who knows? Watch this space in 2024 on the roleplaying game’s twentieth anniversary.) That said, the scenario is not specifically designed to be run using that setting, but rather as an adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game which combines magic and machinery. The scenario definitely requires a Thief, whilst Player Characters with a mechanical or engineering inclination will also be useful. Clerics or Wizards with mind or nature-affecting spells will find their spells to be less effective in the scenario given the nature of the dangers that the Player Characters will face.

Master Gearwright Alia Coppermantle has not been from in weeks. Perhaps they are tasked with checking on her well-being by a friend or stealing some of her secrets by a rival, but in whatever way they get involved, the Player Characters begin the scenario outside her tower, about to break in. That is quickly achieved and once inside, they will find the tower and its workshops below to be occupied by creatures that resemble weird balls of spiked tentacles and Dwarves very mechanically going about their work. If the Player Characters can defeat one of the constantly working Dwarves, they should learn some of what has been going on at the workshop (the Judge will need to prepare exactly what each Dwarf can remember as it will be different for each one), but not quite the true nature of the threat. That is invasion! From the Moon, no less! Ultimately, whether they sneak their way through the complex via its ventilation shafts—because ‘Grave of the Gearwright’ is as much Science Fiction as it is Fantasy and technological as much as it is magical, and therefore really, really needs ventilation shafts—the Player Characters can locate the missing Gearwright and learn what has happened in the workshop. Here the Judge will need to be a little inventive as Master Gearwright Alia Coppermantle has lost her voice. Nevertheless, that is not going to stop her and the scenario will climax with a battle for possession of the mecha that she was constructing.

‘Grave of the Gearwright’ is definitely more Science Fiction than fantasy in its feel and trappings. It does offer the opportunity for a Player Character to begin to learn engineering as a skill and even take the Great Machine as a Patron. What it does not do is let the Player Characters take control of the mecha, which would have been fun for the final scenes in the scenario. The fight up and down the giant robot, as well as atop it, is a great stage upon which to have a battle though. Otherwise, ‘Grave of the Gearwright’ is the more straightforward of the two scenarios in DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack with an emphasis on combat and stealth. It also pushes the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game slightly in a direction that the roleplaying game as a whole is not quite compatible with as written, but this will vary from one Judge to the next. Physically, the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack is decently done. The artwork is fun and the maps clear, and both scenarios are well written and easy to read.

Of the two scenarios in the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack, ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’ is both more interesting and more challenging, as well as easier to add to campaign. Otherwise, with two different scenarios in terms of tone and mystery for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack contains two entertaining scenarios as you would expect from Goodman Games.

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—
It is surprising to realise that Cranium is twenty-five years old. Originally published by Cranium, Inc. via Amazon and Starbucks—of all places!—‘The Game for Your Whole Brain’ was subsequently published by Hasbro, Inc. and sold everywhere. To celebrate its silver anniversary, its current publisher, Funko Games has released the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition, which combines its sketching, acting, humming, sculpting, picture-puzzling, and word unscrambling game into a very attractive and sturdy package. Designed for four players aged twelve and up, it still is what it always was—a party package of games, which asks the players to guess answers based on an image drawn on a card, or from a sound or a song, answer trivia questions, solve word or picture puzzles, and infamously, sculpt an object which hopefully will be the clue to what is on the card. So, one part Pictionary, one-part Trivial Pursuit, one-part Scrabble, one-part Charades. The challenges in Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition can be divided into four categories—red Fact & Picture Challenges, yellow Word & Letter Puzzles, red Drawing & Sculpting, and green Acting & Sound Effects—and with a grand total of eighteen specific challenges divided between the four, there is always something new and interesting for the players to do. And given the silliness of some of the tasks, laugh at them as well.

What strikes you first about the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is how it is packaged. It comes as a fat disc or case. The top half is purple, the lower half white, and with an undulating edge to the top and bottom of the case, what the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition actually looks like is a cake. In fact, a celebratory cake with purple icing on the top! What strikes you second about the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is the fact that everything is contained within the case. This includes challenge cards, the mini-white boards and their dry-erase pens, the timer, the team pawns, the counters, the movement die, and of course, the pot of ‘Cranium Clay’ used for the sculpture challenge. What strikes you third about the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is the movement die. It is a ten-sided die, but marked with five colours—twice. If you are an experienced gamer, then you will have seen this in the last twenty-five years, but for the casual gamer, it could be a first.
At the start of the game, the players divide into two teams. The blue team and the orange team. Each team has a mover in a corresponding colour. Everything is removed from the case in readiness for play and one of the game’s two decks is shuffled and placed in the slot in the middle of the case. This is where the cards are drawn from, turn to turn. Each team receives a reference sheet, which explains all eighteen categories, and a set of four Bonus Coins. There are two ‘Reroll’ coins, a ‘Move +1’ coin, and a ‘Move +2’ coin. The first two allow the die to be rerolled, whereas the other two grant a bonus to movement if a challenge is successful. All four can only be used once per game and are dropped into the slot atop the case when used. On a turn, each team will roll the die. This determines the category or colour of challenge they will perform. The opposing team will draw a card and set the challenge for the team based on the colour on the die. If the current team rolled purple, it can choose any colour. The team can also choose whether or not to use a ‘Bonus Coin’. Once the challenge is set and the timer readied, the player doing the challenge has two minutes to complete it and for the rest of the team to get it right from the clues provided by the player. Some challenges given are marked as ‘ALL PLAY’ in which case a player on both teams attempts it and the first team to get it right wins. When a team gets a challenge right, its Mover is moved round the track on the case to the next space matching the colour of the challenge it just completed. The game is won by the team which gets its Lover back round the track to the starting space.
In terms of game play then, the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is all about the challenges. Each card has one challenge from each category—Fact & Picture Challenges, Word & Letter Puzzles, Drawing & Sculpting, and Acting & Sound Effects—with corresponding answers on the back. For example, a card could have the ‘Soundstage’ challenge of the player having to perform ‘Glassblowing’ using sounds and gestures the rest of the team identify it correctly; identity the ‘Odd Couple’ or two items which do not belong on a list from ‘Chupacabra/Seattle Kraken/Jersey Devil/Beast of Exmoor/Cleveland Monsters’; ‘Jargonaut’ or choose the word which matches the definition for ‘The vapour line behind a high-flying plane’ from ‘Contrail, Delta wave, Phytoplasma, or Gasconade’; and in ‘Sensosketch’, the player must draw a ‘Katana’ with his eyes closed and the rest of the team identify it correctly from the drawing.
The fun of the game is in these challenges. And the fun in the challenges is in getting them wrong as much as you do right. Especially the more physical challenges, whether that is drawing or sculpting or performing. This is what will make everyone laugh as much as groan with frustration. The range of challenges provides lots of variety and that variety will appeal to a wider age group, young and old. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the Fact & Picture Challenges category in that the trivia questions are based on American knowledge rather than general knowledge. So, anyone outside of the USA is going to have a harder time with the category.
Physically, the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is very sturdily and attractively presented. Everything packs into the solid, very cake-like case, which looks good on the table. The cards are on thick stock, the Cranium Clay is malleable, and both the case and the Mover pieces are solid plastic.
All right, so the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is not a gamer’s game. It is too random, too simple, no real game play, no real rules or tactics or strategy. Which is true. In fact, the only tactic might be to use the purple result on the die to choose a colour and thus a category of challenge the team thinks it has a chance of succeeding at and move further than a random roll might have allowed. Yet despite these issues, every gamer needs a party game, a game that he can bring out and play with friends or family who do not ordinarily play games, especially at certain times of the year. Cranium is challenging in ways that friends and family will understand and silly and fun that they can enjoy playing it. Even a gamer can enjoy it for those reasons. Think of it as a palette cleanser, played very, very occasionally between more complex and demanding games.
The Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is a great version of the classic party game. It looks good on the table, its team play encourages co-operation, and it plays well with family and friends, offering them a wide variety of tasks and challenges that are often fun and silly. Every gaming collection needs a party game and if that party game is Cranium, then the Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition is the version to have.

Okay, let us scale things down a bit and see what we can do with some mystical characters and some that are not super-powerful. At least not yet.

Another concept that comes up is the Demon Spawn that tries to do good. These characters often appear in comics with magic as a theme and they are a great choice for a Wasted Lands game since there is likely to be a lot more interaction with demons. 

This character could be a lot of different things, and "demon" might even be an alien, say in the case of Karolina Dean from Marvel's Runaways. But my example here will be borrowing heavily from DC's Teen Titan, Raven.

Now there are a lot of ways to do Raven. We have Psychics, Sorcerers, and even Necromancers. But Raven's primary powers come from her empathic abilities and astral projection with some spells. So I am going with Psychic for her here.

The Demon's Daughter

Class: Psychic (Persona Aspect)
Level: 6
Species: Human-Demon
Alignment: Twilight Good
Background: Student

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) N
Wits: 15 (+1) N
Persona: 17 (+2) A

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: None 10
Vitality: 30 (d6)
Degeneracy: 
Corruption: Unnatural Parlor

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +/+/+
Melee Bonus: +2 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Saves: +3 to Persona based saves

Psychic Powers

Supernatural Attacks, Sixth Sense, Empathy, Psychokinesis (Telekinesis, 2d6+1), Temporal Sense, Shadow Walking, Astral Projection

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Rebilous Child of older God/Demon

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: Mystical Senses (as Sorcerer spell)
Level 2:  
Level 3: Additional Movement: Fly
Level 4: 
Level 5: First-level Sorcerer
Level 6: 

Spells
1st Level: Protection from Evil

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends. You likely will not use all of these on one character. I'll have some less-super examples coming up.

She has fewer to reflect that she is still just a teen or young adult. This also more likely the speed in which people will want to hand out the Divine Touchstones. 

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 Moving on from room #12 the party enters a large spherical room 50' in diameter.  The walls of the room are polished obsidian.  The center of the room features a large monolith of the same material. Stalactites and stalagmites break up the otherwise uniform blackness of this room.

Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover

This monolith radiates evil and necromantic energies. It doesn't take a magic-user to figure this out, all the characters can feel it.

Touching the monolith a character hears a voice. The monolith is known as the Monolith of Evil. It brags that it is 1000s of years old and was worshipped by 1000s of acolytes. Offerings of blood and lives kept it powerful. But now it is drained of all power, the Vampire Queen drained came and took all of its power.

It lets the characters know that if they could just kill their fellows it will be able to grant them the power to kill the Vampire Queen.  

The monolith has no idea is the Vampire Queen is still active or not. 

There is no magical compulsion here, save for being creepy it has no real power left. 

 We are working our way up the power scale to tackle the Paragon. Now this guy (or gal) has Power, with a capital P. They are also a favorite of late for deconstruction or alternate attempts (The Boys, Brightburn) but I am not interested in that right now. I am interested in the one that has power, great power even, and wants to use it for the right things. But this is also the Dreaming Age, and life is pretty rough and dangerous. The Paragon of this world and time will also need to be a little rougher around the edges.

In D&D, they would be a paladin or some other knight in shining armor. They are the bright reflection of the Dark Avenger. Thankfully they both have the Amazon Warrior Princess to help balance them out.  One of many reasons why this unlikely trio works so well together.

The Paragon

Class: Warrior
Level: 14
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Good
Background: 

Abilities
Strength: 22 (+5) A
Agility: 17 (+3) 
Toughness: 17 (+2) N
Intelligence: 15 (+1) 
Wits: 15 (+1)
Persona: 16 (+2) N

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: Plate (7)
Vitality: 75 (d8)
Degeneracy: None
Corruption: None

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +6/+4/+2
Melee Bonus: +5 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +5 to all saves

Warrior Skills

Combat Expertise, Improved Defense, Increased Damage, Melee Combat, Master of Battle (90%), Ranged Combat, Spell Resistance (36%), Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Tracking, Extra Attack (x4)

Improve Defense: -4

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Justice, Hope

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: Mystical Senses (as Sorcerer spell)
Level 2: +1 to combat rolls
Level 3: Additional Movement: Fly
Level 4: Increased Ability Score (Strength +2)
Level 5: Divine Smite 
Level 6: Gout of Flame (as Sorcerer spell), as Heat Vision (unique mode of attack)
Level 7: Divine Aura
Level 8: Damage Immunity from missile fire
Level 9:  Increased Ability Score (Strength +2)
Level 10: Half Damage from Mundane slashing
Level 11: Chill Breath (as Ray of Frost Sorcerer spell)
Level 12: Unique Attack, Heat Vision 60' line
Level 13: Down But Not Out
Level 14: Divine Recovery

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends. You likely will not use all of these on one character. I'll have some less-super examples coming up.

This one looks great. And don't tug on his cape.

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 Heading back to Room #2 and taking the next tunnel on the right. The party does not get very fare into the next chamber when they encounter a group (five) of large and piggish-looking orcs.

These orcs are infected with the Wearboar Lycanthropy and are known as War Pigs. They stay in hybrid form but once wounded they can go into their berserk rage.

They have food and water for five for a week, but it is generally unpalatable and smells terrible. It is however completely edible. 

They also have Treasure type C x5.

I am continuing my exploration of various superhero archetypes in the Wasted Lands.  Today's topic is the Amazon Princess. While this could be Wonder Woman or someone like Starfire, it can also be a character like Xena Warrior Princess. In truth, Xena would fit in quite well in the Dreaming Age.

This character's drive is not Vengeance (like the Dark Avenger) or even Justice (like the upcoming Paragon) but rather the most good possible.  In a lot of ways she is also an emissary of a more enlightened, but still warrior, culture.

In both the cases of Wonder Woman and Xena they have a relationship to the Gods, the Greek Gods in particular. In the Wasted Lands then she would come the same culture that the warriors Zeus and Ares come from. But godhood is not her goal.

The Amazon Princess

Class: Warrior
Level: 12
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Good
Background: Nobility

Abilities
Strength: 20 (+4) A
Agility: 18 (+3) N
Toughness: 17 (+2) N
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wits: 16 (+2)
Persona: 16 (+2)

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: Studded Leather (7)
Vitality: 60 (d8)
Degeneracy: None
Corruption: None

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2
Melee Bonus: +4 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +4 to all saves

Warrior Skills

Combat Expertise, Improved Defense, Increased Damage, Melee Combat, Master of Battle (90%), Ranged Combat, Spell Resistance (36%), Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Tracking, Extra Attack (x4)

Improve Defense: -4

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 15%
• Bypass Traps: 10%
• Sleight of Hand: 20%
• Sneak: 20%
• Climbing: 70%

Danger Sense 1-3 (d6)
Perception: 40%
Vital Stike: x2 damage +4 to attack

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Justice, Truth

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: Unique mode of Defence, -1 vs. Missile attacks
Level 2: +1 to combat rolls
Level 3: Charm humans
Level 4: Increased Ability Score (agility +2)
Level 5: Level 1 of Renegade
Level 6: Unique mode of Attack (lasso) +1 and Detect Lie
Level 7: Ceases to Age (Natural)
Level 8: Divine Aura
Level 9: Signature Item, Lasso.
Level 10: Half Damage from Mundane slashing
Level 11: Transporation mode: Fly
Level 12: Restore Corruption

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends.

This one works out quite nicely, I think!

Please check out and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter.

 A secret door behind the statue leads to a small room.  The room is filled with steam.

Inside there are four small demons, Steam Mephits. 

Steam Mephit: HD 3; AC 5 [14]; THAC0 16 [+3]; Atk 2 claws (1d3); Move 120' (40') [Fly 240' (80')]; Save D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (2); Morale 10; AL C;  Special: Breathe steam cloud (2d6, save for half), gaseous form.

The mephits are playing in the steam.  They attack the party.

Their morale is 10, but they are at 8 for this encounter. They were attracted by the energies from here to the elemental plane of fire.  

The Dreaming Age is both very dark and very hopeful. 

Humanity (well...proto-Humanity) has cast off the yoke of the Old Ones and now lives in a time of unimaginable horrors. There are monsters, there are forces of evil, and their are even evil humans that are all too willing to take over where the Old Ones left off. It is post-apocalyptic in a very real sense. But also, humanity has the chance in the form of our (your) heroes to make a better world.

The characters will one day be remembered as the Gods and Heroes of yore. 

But not all of them are bright, happy people.

Making "superhero" characters for the Wasted Lands RPG really only takes a change of reference or point of view. If Superheroes are modern myths, then the Wasted Lands RPG can also make those. Though your character's origin story is not going to be one of being a young adult, and then BAM, your character is powerful. Legends are built over time, and legendary characters even more so.

The Archetype of the Dark Avenger is a great example. This character had a really bad day once and now spends a lifetime fighting against the forces of Darkness and Evil (yes capitalized) by donning the guise of evil.  In comics, these characters are usually just normal humans but have something special about them. They are unnaturally dedicated to their cause for example, or maybe even they have a bit of an edge. It should also be noted that many take on the guise of an animal or creature that strikes fear into others; the bat, the wolverine, and even devils.

For these Superhero Archetypes, I will present them at higher levels to get a feel for what their legends will be like. I will also add the various Divine Touchstones to make the character a bit more "super."

The Dark Avenger

Class: Renegade
Level: 10
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Good
Background: Nobility

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N
Agility: 20 (+4) A
Toughness: 17 (+2)
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 16 (+2)
Persona: 16 (+2)

Fate Points: 10
Defense Value: Studded Leather (7) (See below for mods)
Vitality: 36 (d4)
Degeneracy:
Corruption:

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2
Melee Bonus: +3 (see below)
Ranged Bonus: +9 (+4, +5)
Saves: +5 to Death attacks and area effects

Improved Defense: -6 to attackers

Stealth Skills

• Open Locks: 110%
• Bypass Traps: 115%
• Sleight of Hand: 125%
• Sneak: 125%
• Climbing: 100%

Danger Sense 1-5 (d6)
Perception: 95%
Vital Stike: x4 damage
Read Languages: 85%

Superhero (Divine) Archetype: Vengeance, Justice

Divine Touchstones
Level 1: +1 to Melee Combat
Level 2: Additional Vitality Points
Level 3: Level 1 of Warrior
Level 4: Level Two Spell: Invoke Fear
Level 5: Auto Success (once per session)
Level 6: Gains +1 to all attacks and +5% to all skills
Level 7: Servant: Ward of Vengeance
Level 8: Signature Item: Batarang (+5 to hit, +5 to damage, -3 DV, 1 fate point)
Level 9: Down but Not Out
Level 10: Hop and Skip

This is not a guy you want to meet in a dark alleyway.

The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends.

Please check out and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter.

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: The Colour of CattlePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: John LeMaire

Setting: Illinois, 1885
Product: Scenario for Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos
What You Get: Sixty-three page, 142.09 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Colour Out of Space drains the colour out of cattle!Plot Hook: A cattle drive takes a short cut to death
Plot Support: Staging advice, three handouts, six pre-generated Cowpokes, four maps, twelve NPCs, one creature, one bad bear, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Unworldly.
Pros# Scenario for Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos
# Can make use of Get Along, Little Dogies
# The snake oil turns out to be the balm needed# Mostly a physical and combative investigation# Plenty of extra background material provided# Includes bonus encounter# Chromophobia# Arkoudaphobia# Bovinophobia
Cons# Needs a slight edit# More a change of genre than a change of story# Can make use of Get Along, Little Dogies
Conclusion# Solid, slowpoke of a scenario as the cowpokes try to drive the Colour from the region in order to drive their cattle through # Brings a fresh approach to dealing with a Mythos threat which really cannot be dealt with and offers limited story use.

 I have been thinking a lot about gods, monsters, humans, and demons in these pages lately. Between my One Man's God, my ideas for Deities & Demigods II, and playtesting The Wasted Lands gods and their relationship to humankind have been on my mind a lot.

This has also got me thinking about how in today's society, the role of the hero of myth is now played out by comic book superheroes and maybe even more so by their movie counterparts. 

And there are more.  So this week I am going to make some modern "gods" and recraft them as Wasted Lands heroes. 

As is my nature, I am going to lean in on DC Characters, or at least their archetypes.

So come back later today and all this week for some humans as superheroes as gods in the time of the Dreaming Age for Wasted Lands.

And don't forget to checkout and back the Wasted Lands Kickstarter too!

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: To The Tolling of The BellPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: J. Michael Arons

Setting: United KingdomProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Nine page, 3.13 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: For Whom the Grounded Bell TollsPlot Hook: When an unmounted bell rings, ghosts walk the streets
Plot Support: Staging advice, one handout, two NPCs, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain.
Pros# Underplayed, but decent small village mystery# Potential priests in peril# One-session investigation# Leans towards Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos# Needs development, but can be slotted into an ongoing campaign# Could work with one or two Investigators# More Hammer Horror than Cosmic Horror# Easy to adjust to Cthulhu by Gaslight or the modern day# Kampanaphobia# Ecclesiophobia# Religiophobia

Cons# Needs a slight edit# Undeveloped set-up for the Investigators# The NPC has his own Investigator sheet?# Unclear if the NPC is an NPC or an Investigator# No pre-generated Investigators# No maps# More Hammer Horror than Cosmic Horror# Leans towards Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos
Conclusion# Underdeveloped, but promising ecumenical horror, which with work, would slot easily into a campaign# More Hammer Horror than Cosmic Horror

 The large alcove at the end of Room 9 opens to what appears to be a large worshipping area.  There is a large bronze statue of some sort of demonic lord.

The statue is a Bronze Golem, but it is somewhat immobile now as its bottom half has melted to its dias. It can, however, still attack anyone that gets within 15 feet of it. 

It is difficult to determine if this "melting" was something that happened later or was part of its original design. 

There is a treasure hoard behind the golem. It is largely made up of gems, in particular rubies. There are 10d20+10 gems here each worth 10d20x5 GP each. (or 120 gems worth 500 gp each on average).