There are many, many empty buildings here. Most are empty and look like they have not been occupied in centuries or more. There are no monsters or traps, and only small lizards and rodents.

Empty homes (marked as "11") do have the following:

Roll 2d6

2: Small pouch, 2d6 x10 GP
3-4: Small pouch, 1d4 x6 SP
5-6: Small pouch, 1d4 x2 CP
7: Nothing
8-9: 1 Gem, 1d6 x4 GP
10-11: 1d4 Gems 1d4 x5 SP
12: 1 Gem 50 GP

--

There are at least 20-40 dwellings that are empty like this. 

Further Beyond Core Rules Preview is the introduction to Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure. Published by Blue Donut Games, it takes its inspiration from the artwork of Peter Elson, whose work graced the covers of numerous fantasy and Science Fiction novels during the seventies, eighties, and nineties. It has a distinctly seventies feel to its look and its style, depicting a future of strange worlds, aliens, rocketships and other giant spaceships, and of heroic men and women. Its nearest antecedent is Traveller, one which the authors admit to having had run in the past. The Further Beyond Core Rules Preview provides an introduction to the core ideas behind Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure, its key rules, combat rules, how to run the game, and a short bestiary. However, what the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview lacks are details of what a Player Character or NPC looks like or anything specific that they could play. This limits the scope of the preview, unfortunately.
In Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure, the players make all of the rolls. Thus, it is a player-facing roleplaying game. It uses a twenty-sided die for its core mechanic. A Player Character has four stats—Physique, Dexterity, Intellect, and Affinity—and these serve as bonuses to Saves, or saving throws. The core mechanic consists of rolling the die and attempting to equal or exceed a Difficulty Target Number, which ranges from four for Routine and eight for Basic to thirty-six for Legendary and forty for Impossible. It is possible to roll a partial success as well as success. A success is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Target Number, whereas a partial success is a roll between the Difficulty Target Number and four lower than the Difficulty Target Number. It indicates a successful action, but carried out with some consequence. A failure is thus a roll between five less than the Difficulty Target Number and a result of two. A roll of one is a critical failure, whilst a roll of twenty is a critical success. There are consequences to rolling a failure, which will be worse if a critical failure or not so bad if a partial success. The Custodian—the term for the Game Master in Further Beyond—suggests what these consequences might be. The system uses the standard rules for advantage and disadvantage, but a player never rolls more than two twenty-sided dice, whether he has advantage or disadvantage.

Combat in Further Beyond uses the same mechanics bar a tweak or two. Of course, a player will be rolling for his character to make an attack, but also rolling to avoid an attack against his character, since the mechanics to Further Beyond are player-facing. The first tweak is that there are not necessarily any consequences to failing an attack roll, which a critical success will typically inflict double damage. Damage reduces a Player Character’s Hit Points and when they are reduced to zero, they are reset to their maximum minus any excess damage which carried over the zero, and the Player Character suffers a wound. A Player Character who three or more wounds left suffers no ill effects, but saving throws against his stats are required if the number of wounds is lower, and at zero wounds, the Player Character is dying. The guide to combat covers the typical range of actions a Player Character can do, including reactions such as Opportunity Attack or Brace.

Further Beyond Core Rules Preview also covers vehicles, but not spaceships, and then only briefly. Advanced vehicles are semi-autonomous, so in combat, a vehicle can follow instructions given to its by its pilot, who can also act as well. There is also some discussion of the types of environments that the Player Characters might face before a discussion of the structure of play in Further Beyond. This divides play into missions and downtime, with options for the latter including studying a specific skill, gathering information, or making or using a contact. This is followed by advice for the Custodian, first on running the game and then on combat. Rounding out the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview is a selection of ‘Creatures of the Vast’, such as the Chameleon Broodmother which hunts in caves and is intelligent enough to cultivate environments for the herbivores it feeds on or the ‘Night Eagle’, a predator which shocks its prey with its fire breath before swopping down and grabbing them. Over the course of the next ten pages, some sixteen or so ‘Creatures of the Vast’, including mundane Earth creatures such as the wolf and the elephant. Lastly, there is a player character sheet for Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure.

The Further Beyond Core Rules Preview is the first part of Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure, which is designed to do two things. One is to serve as the first part of an ongoing subscription for Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure, and the other is provide a test bed for the rules in the lead up to a full version of the roleplaying game. Unfortunately, the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview does not succeed at either. Although the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview provides a decent preview of the rules and combat, how the game is intended to be played, and the types of ‘Creatures of the Vast’ that the Player Characters might encounter, it completely lacks any kind of preview of what a Player Character looks like, what the Vast is like as a setting, and what sort of spaceships might be found in the Vast and how they work. Then as a potential test bed for the rules, the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview does not give for the Custodian or her players anything to do. There is no mission or encounter to play out and thus no scope for feedback to the designers.

Instead of all that, there are sixteen ‘Creatures of the Vast’ over ten pages—one fifth of the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview. It is simply too many and they do not provide the reader, let alone the potential Custodian, with any useful information. In their place, there should have been four pre-generated Player Characters, ready to play, a simple scenario, such as investigating the caves on Aventis II which are home to the Chameleon Broodmother, perhaps where a previous exploration team has been reported on a previous mission. This would have at least left room for descriptions of the Vast and possibly spaceships, but above all, provided something that the Custodian and her players could have done with the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview and potentially enjoyed, and thus given constructive feedback to the designers. Of course, this would have pushed the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview towards being a quick-start, but a quick-start that would have done everything that the designers wanted for the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview.

Physically, the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview is a lovely looking magazine-style booklet. It is well written and of course, Peter Elson’s artwork is excellent.

The Further Beyond Core Rules Preview simply does not preview enough, or at least the key points, of Further Beyond: The Roleplaying Game of Galactic Exploration & Adventure. There are snapshots of a sold Science Fiction roleplaying game in its pages, but its focus on the ‘Creatures of the Vast’ to the detriment of any sense of setting or anything playable or useable makes the Further Beyond Core Rules Preview of little use to either the publisher or the purchaser.

You are a brave adventurer, a Swordsman. After a long apprenticeship with Swordmaster Krago and now armed with your magical sword Rilgist and a shield, you travel the land, righting wrongs, and making the occasional bag of coin for your services. Such is the stuff of legend and such is the stuff of solo adventure books of which there have been many over the past four decades. However, this is the set-up for The Gloom Dragon, which although being a solo fantasy adventure, is somewhat different to others of its type. Published by Peasoup ApS—a Danish publisher—The Gloom Dragon is what is known as a ‘Smart Book’. In a traditional solo adventure book, the reader and player will create a character and explore the world detailed in the pages and random paragraphs of the adventure book, rolling dice to see whether his character avoids traps or successfully attacks a goblin, for example. The Gloom Dragon does not do this. Instead, encounters and combats and other situations are handled via an app specific to the book. What the player does is read through the book, skipping from paragraph to paragraph and from page to page as determined by the story and the choices he makes in play. Then, when prompted, typically indicated by a ‘TASK’ instruction, he uses the camera on his mobile phone or tablet to scan the image alongside the page in the app. This will typically initiate combat with a foe.

Combat in The Gloom Dragon is simple and completely handled by the app. The player rolls three six-sided dice. These will either display a sword or shield symbol, or be blank. A sword symbol will inflict one point of damage, whereas a shield will protect the wielder from one point of damage. A blank symbol does nothing and a player can lock the symbols he wants to use as he roll rolls them in the app. A player can choose to roll or keep as many of these as he likes. The fight continues until either the player or the enemy is defeated. At which point, the player will often receive a reward, but will definitely be directed to another entry or chapter in the book. Not all of the challenges involve combat. Others include finding the right bottle, which might contain a useful potion, from amongst a pile of bottles of beet juice; picking some coins up, or interacting with a combination lock.

The setting for The Gloom Dragon is in and near the village of Randomia in the Pea Soup universe. The village is being regularly visited by Worm Deathtail, the Gloom Dragon, each time threatening to eat the villagers unless they give him all of his gold. Of course, our steps up to the task, and promises to stop the Gloom Dragon, and very early in the adventure, on its next visit to the village, confronts the great beast. However, this proves too much of a challenge for the hero, who is quickly swatted away with a swing of the Gloom Dragon’s great tail. So forewarned of the strength and capabilities of the great beast, much of the adventure concerns itself with finding the means to defeat and making the hero more powerful. This includes finding more gold to spend and finding magical items that enhance the hero’s health and increases the number of dice he rolls in combat.
The interaction between the app and the book is fairly smooth, and combat is quick and easy. In general, the puzzles are easy to operate, although moving the mobile phone around to view particular rooms for clues felt somewhat clumsy. Nevertheless, the package as a whole is easy to navigate and the player will find himself switching back and forth between book and app with relative ease.

The Gloom Dragon is not designed for the veteran player of solo adventure games who started out forty years ago with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain or Buffalo Castle for Tunnels & Trolls. This is not to say that they will not enjoy playing through The Gloom Dragon, though the entries in the book are relatively limited at just one-hundred-and-forty-seven and the sense of peril is fairly low. Instead, the target audience for The Gloom Dragon is the young reader, aged nine and up, who to date has been challenged by reading. The aim of the series—and The Gloom Dragon is the third to be released—is to encourage such readers to have a greater desire to read. To that end, both the series and The Gloom Dragon encourages this through its big, bold cartoon style artwork, clear instructions, and more immediate degree of interaction in the story via the app.

Physically, The Gloom Dragon is well presented. The book is clear and simple to read, the artwork is big and bold, and crucially, the format of the book is designed to facilitate the use of the app. To that end, it has a Euro binding which means that the inside of the cover is not glued to the spine. This means that it looks like the spine is broken, but it is by design and clearly says so inside the front cover.

The Gloom Dragon is a likeable and engaging affair, a classic fantasy tale of a lone hero facing a dragon. Veteran players of solo adventure books will be doubtless be intrigued by the combination of format, but for the intended audience, The Gloom Dragon will keep the player involved through both the text and the app from start to finish, and thus both reading and playing.

 The passageway opens into a huge open cavern extending for thousands of feet.

There are plenty of what appear to be empty dwellings.  There is a globe floating near top of this cavern that glows with an eerie, eldritch light. It appears to be a large moon. 

Small animals and large insects run here and there, but they avoid the party.

--

This is the former city of the Shadow Elves.

There are plenty of books of tables containing random content for the roleplaying genre of your choice. Peruse the pages of DriveThruRPG or the Dungeon Masters Guild and the Game Master will find no end of books of tables of random content. Encounters down a dungeon or in any terrain the Game Master cares to name. Treasures big and small to be found in dungeons or the possession of various monsters. Treasure magical and non-magical. Potions. Jewellery. More encounters. Swords. NPCs. Other weapons. Critical hits and fumbles. Plot hooks. Encounters again. You name it and there is probably a table for it. In most cases, the entries on all of these tables provide the barest of details. Some entries can be quite detailed, but in the main, two or three lines at the very most. This is because those entries are setting out to do two things. These are to provide the maximum amount of information possible in the quickest amount of time possible and to provide the amount of inspiration possible in the quickest amount of time possible. For example, a description of a magical sword would describe its magical effects and bonuses and might describe a little of its background or previous owners or even what the sword wants. Whereas the inspiration might be as simple as a name and occupation and appearance plus a quirk and more. Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit does a bit of both.

The Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit won the Silver Ennie for Best Aid/Accessory – Non – Digital for 2021. Published by Roll & Play Press following a successful Kickstarter campaign is designed to be used with any fantasy roleplaying game, but especially those inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. So obviously Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and then Pathfinder, but also any fantasy retroclone of the Game Master’s choice. No matter what the choice of fantasy roleplaying game, the Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit is completely systemless and contains not a single stat. All the Game Master will need is a standard set of polyhedral dice and a notebook to record any details as necessary.

Notably, the is designed to be used at the table and probably behind a Game Master’s shield. To do this, it is digest sized, the layout is clean and tidy, it colourful—but not too colourful, and overall, is easy to read. In addition, it is also spiral bound. Consequently, it sit open and flat on the table or be folded over so that one page is visible and the book still lie flat. In the case of the latter, it means that the book does not take up a lot of space behind the screen. The Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit is also produced on a glossy paper stock, which together with its relatively small size means that the book is readily portable and will withstand the travails of being carried from one gaming session to the next.

So, what of the content? The Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit is divided into five chapters—‘People and Quests’, ‘World Building’, ‘Journeys and Events’, ‘Combat and Injuries’, and ‘Items and Rewards’. All of the tables are easy to use. Turn to the right chapter, select the right table, and starting rolling. It is as simple as that and very quickly, the Game Master can adding details to and building the world around her Player Characters. So, if they enter a town and approach a random NPC, the Game Master rolls on the ‘Common Names’ table in the ‘People and Quests’ chapter. His name is Boris. A roll on the ‘Behaviour and Traits’ table indicates Boris ‘Barks orders at people they see as less import than themselves’ and ‘Their nose has clearly been broken multiple times’ from the ‘Appearance Features’ table. Already we are getting a picture of the man. Boris is a common villager and a roll on the ‘Common Villager Work’ table indicates that he ‘Washes carts and caravans’. So, in addition to Boris not being the most pleasant of characters, the Game Master knows that he lives in a town where there are lots of carts and caravans moving through, and that since they need cleaning, the region is prone to either dust or mud or even that there is a local ordinance about keeping such vehicles clean! Having established this, the Game Master could then switch to ‘World Building’ and begin rolling for details about the town and its economy, government, local attractions or features, rumours and gossip, and so on. Now of course, this can be done at the table during play with a quick roll of the dice or the rolls could be made beforehand should the Game Master want to have some elements either prepared or simply want to peruse the various tables for inspiration.

Of course, the Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit also contains tables that are specific to particular points during play. Mostly obviously, the ‘Combat and Injuries’ chapter. There are ‘Critical hit, with overwhelming force!’ and ‘Critical miss, with overwhelming stupidity!’ tables, and then similar tables for both ranged combat and magic, plus tables of lasting injuries, side effects upon revival (if reduced to zero Hit Points or even rendered dead), and much more. Following that in ‘Items & Rewards’ chapter there are ideas for various items both magical and mundane, including ‘Moderately magical things’ like a ‘Small wooden sphere that tastes like delicious caramel ice cream’* or a Notebook with an unlimited number of pages, but always turns to the page the writer wants to see’. There are tables for magical flaws and a wide range of alchemical components, but alongside these is table of ‘Bargain Spell Scrolls’ which should inspire the Game Master to create more, plus table for books and novels, loot of all kinds—including the mandatory, ‘I loot the body, what do I find?’ table, and other items and objects that an adventuring party might find in a dungeon or lair.

* No, I am not thinking about who has been sucking it previously.

The Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit contains just a little more than the tables. There are notes on how to use the tables and their content. For example, combining the ‘Bounty Posters’ table with the various name tables earlier in the book. There are notes too on the various environments that the Player Characters might explore, such as the heat and cold of the desert day and night under the ‘Desert encounters’ table. These though are very light and kept to a minimum.

Of course, not every entry in the multiple tables found throughout the pages of the Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit is going to be wholly original, especially if the Game Master has been playing for a while. After all, creating hundreds of entries for all of the tables in the book took a lot of effort and even if an interesting is familiar, what the Game Master does with it and how her Player Characters interact with it, is what will make it interesting. Plus, there is plenty that is interesting and thus plenty that is going to inspire the Game Master with a dice roll or two. Overall, the Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit is a very handy book of inspiration and ideas, whether before a game or during, whose format makes it unobtrusive and easy to use.

This one has not launched yet, but the sign-up page is ready. 

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Role Playing Game

A tabletop RPG of cosmic horror, swords, and sorcery in a savage lost epoch, 1000 years after the Old Ones fell to their eternal sleep.

I am very, very excited about this one. Although I am not really part of the development, I get the joy of seeing it in development and enjoy it as a fan. Plus this has been Jason's baby for years, my typical nonsense can be added at my table. 

From the Kickstarter:

The Old Ones are gone...

Stories tell of the day when the skies fell in showers of fiery rock, when the world groaned and shifted, the great beasts of the Old Ones died in an instant, and the stars themselves changed, sending the Old Ones into a deep, eternal slumber. Humankind, now free from the cruel grasp of our former masters, now rules the world from the shining kingdoms the Other Gods left behind.

We now strive against the remaining minions of the Other Gods, their remaining cults, and a world ravaged by the energies of the Deeper Dark. Some with names like Isis, Odin, Quetzalcouatl, Bel, Hecate, Minerva, Marduk, and others will forge legends that remain through the ages.

This is the birth of gods.

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age is a game of swords and sorcery in a savage lost epoch, set millions of years ago. You play the all-too-human origins of the gods of classic mythology, whose stories will form our own ancestral memories and civilizations. As you engage with mythology, you gain special powers that will lead you on the path of apotheosis. 

The game is offered as a two-volume set: the Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Role Playing Game, which contains all the rules of play, and The Gazetteer of the Dreaming Age and Campaign Guide, which contains the setting, bestiary, and game master information. Grab one or both!

How can you not be excited about this? 

I hope to post more about this game all month long. I still have some characters I want to make and some adventures to talk about.

This game uses the same RPG system as does NIGHT SHIFT (The O.G.R.E.S.) but it will include conversion guides for Spellcraft & Swordplay (O.R.C.S.) AND Castles & Crusades (SIEGE Engine).

This could also be the non-OGL D&D replacement you have been looking for. 

More to come!

Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! is actually a whole family of card games published by Funko Games, all of which share the same simple mechanics, but each of which involves a different Intellect property. So, there are versions of Something Wild! devoted to Disney’s Aladdin, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas, Dr. Seuss, Marvel Spiderman, Star Wars’ Boba Fett, Disney’s Steamboat Willy. Thus there is a version of Something Wild! for just about everyone and in each case, the version of the game, it includes a miniature Funko Pop figure. So, for example, in the Indiana Jones version—a new addition in 2023—the game includes a figure of that character. The fun thing is, that the various versions of Something Wild! are compatible with each other, and two or more sets can be combined for both more players and variation in theme. Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! is designed for two to four players, aged six and above, and can be played in fifteen minutes or so.

Something Wild! consists of forty-five Character Cards, ten Power Cards, a Funko Pop! mini-figure, and the rules sheet. For the Indiana Jones version of Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! the mini-Funko Pop figure is of Indiana Jones and all of the characters on the Character Cards come from the Indiana Jones franchise—in particular from Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade, but not from Crystal Skull. The characters on the numbered cards include Marcus Brody, Marion Ravenwood, Indiana Jones, Short Round, Major Toht, Sallah El-Kahir, Captain Katanga, Elsa Schneider, and Henry Jones, Sr. The Character Cards are divided into five colour suits, numbered between one and nine, and the characters are the same on each number across the five suits. The ten Power Cards are also divided into five colours. Power Cards give a player an advantage or ability in play. For example, a Power Card might allow six cards to be played as any colour or swap a card a player in play with a card in play belonging to another player.

The aim in Something Wild! is to score or win three Power Cards. The first player to do wins the game. To win a Power Card, a player must create a set or run of cards. A set is three cards of any colour with the same number. A run is three cards of the same colour with numbers in order. This is done one card at a time and when a set or run is formed, the player takes the Power Card and discards the cards played.

Play of Something Wild! is simple. At the start of the game, each player receives a hand of three Character Cards and a single Power Card is played face up in the centre of the table. On his turn, a player draws a Character Card and adds it to his hand, then places a Character Card down in front of him on the table. If the colour of the Character Card played matches the colour of the Power Card currently, the player gets to take the Funko Pop! mini-figure. When a player has the Funko Pop! mini-figure in front of him, he can use the ability of a Power Card he has already in front of him or the ability of the Power Card face up on the table in the centre of the table. If a player has either a set or run of cards in front of him, then he can take the Power Card on the table.

Physically, Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! is a solidly presented card game. Both the Character Cards and Power Cards are done in bright, solid colours and the rules sheet is easy to read. The Character Cards and Power Cards are language independent, whereas the rules are not. The rules are easy to read and understand, but younger players will need a hand. Of course, the Funko Pop! mini-figure is cute.

Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! is not a difficult game to play and being aimed at players aged six and up, it is not a difficult game to teach. The latter is likely necessary because the rules are likely to be too difficult to read and understand for the six-year-old player. Another issue is that the game’s cards are language independent and so reference needs to be made to the rules to understand how each Power Card works. That is, until either the players have remembered or been successfully taught what each does. With younger players then, Something Wild! will require some supervision by older or adult players—at least initially.

In addition, whilst Something Wild! is a decent family game—especially if the edition they are playing has a Funko Pop! mini-figure that everyone likes—it actually gets better with the addition of a second set. This gives the players the chance to take control of two—or more—Funko Pop! mini-figures, as well as giving them a wider range of Power Cards, though this of course, means learning what the extra Power Cards do.

Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! is simple, clean, and fast-playing. There is a little bit of ‘take that’ as players vie to take or keep control of the Funko Pop! mini-figure, but it is by no means a vicious game and with a fifteen-minute playing time, it never outstays its welcome. Overall, Something Wild! The Card Game of Character Combos! is a solid family card, easy to teach and easy to play, with some nice variations in its Power Cards to keep it interesting, but still light.

 Continuing down the passageway down from Rooms 3 and 8, there is a turn to the right.

This room has water pooling in the center. Stopping on it will trigger a sinkhole causing the entire floor to collapse.

Everyone standing 15 ft from the center will fall 10ft and take 1d6+2 hp of damage. Climbing out is not difficult due to the uneven nature of the hole. 

This is not a trap, just a natural sinkhole.

I have spent much time with the classic AD&D Deities and Demigods. And a fair amount of time with it's prequel, Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes, its AD&D 2nd Ed counterpart Legends & Lore, the 3rd Edition D&D version, Deities & Demigods.  I thought I was running out of things to say about this, with maybe one or two more posts.

Doing the playtesting for WASTED LANDS has made me think a lot about gods again and how many there are out there.

To recap here are mythos covered in the AD&D 1st Edition Deities and Demigod/Legends and Lore. 

• Babylonian, Sumerian, and Akkadian Mythos
• Celtic Mythos
• Central American Mythos
• Chinese Mythos
• Egyptian Mythos
• Greek Mythos
• Indian Mythos
• Japanese Mythos
• Norse Mythos

There are also other categories of myths and legends.

• Cthulhu
• Melnibonéan
• Nehwon
• Non-Human / Demi-human

Good coverage, but not everything, to be sure. More Norse gods are listed in the GD&H book and later get a huge feature in Dragon magazine.  There are more Finnish Gods too. The Howard/Hyborea gods of Conan also get a listing in GD&H. Though if you grab the PDF or POD versions of GD&H now there are no Melniboné or Hybora sections.

But what is missing?

Despite their coverage in Dragon, we don't get any of the gods of the World of Greyhawk. Same with the WoG Suel Gods. The Roman gods are not covered really. There are all the demi-human gods in the Unearthed Arcana. Then we have more in Dragon and that is not counting what we can get from Castles & Crusades.

We have enough for another volume really. A Deities & Demigods II.

Deities & Demigods II

Collecting all the above material and trying not to do too much duplication here is a proposed Deities & Demigods II for AD&D 1st Ed.

• Demihuman Deities (from Unearthed Arcana)
• Germanic (from C&C)
• Roman
• Slavic (from C&C)
• Suel (from Dragon)

Then going deeper into the Dragon Magazines (and combining my "This Old Dragon" features) we have:

• African
• Australian
• More Aztec
• More Babylonian
• Canaanite
• More Celtic
• Dragons
• Eastern European
• More Japanese
• Mesopotamian
• Persian
• Polynesian
• More Sumerian
• More Greyhawk gods than I know what to do with

That is a lot. 

And that is not counting the ones I also made myself, my Greco-Egyptian Gods, and my Roman-Norse ones.

This could get quickly out of hand.

I have been looking for something to replace my "One Man's God" Feature. Maybe this is it. 

I'll need to think this one over. 

What would you like to see? D&DG format? Later formats? Gods as monsters with HP or Gods as...well Gods?  I think Gods as Monsters really runs counter to the idea the original designers wanted but despite that they gave us stat blocks for them and that is what people know. 

Lots of different ways to depict the gods. I suppose I'll just have to figure out what works.

Though I suppose most readers here would want something akin to the AD&D 1st Ed presentation.

 Have to mull this one over.

I suppose I could just play-test these gods in WASTED LANDS and see how they all come out.

 Returning to Room 3 and taking the left-hand path leads to another long tunnel. 

On their way through the passageway, the party encounters 2 large cave bears.

They are a mated pair returning from an unsuccessful hunt. They are agitated and hungry.

There is a nearby cave on the left with its stash of treasure (Vx2).

Growing up the shows I really loved (in addition to Doctor Who and Star Trek) were the various horror anthologies that came and went during the 80s, 90s, and before. "The Twilight Zone (all versions)" was chief among these, but so were shows like "Night Gallery," "Monsters," "The Outer Limits (both versions)," "Amazing Stories," and two of my favorites, "Tales from the Crypt" and "Tales from the Darkside."  It was "Tales from the Darkside" that influenced me the most. I wanted my games (at the time largely AD&D) to be more horror-like.  Even in sci-fi, I could not help but notice how many of the elements in The Outer Limits would also appear in Star Trek, or more to the point the other way around since I watched Star Trek first.

In the end, I got my wish. NIGHT SHIFT is the perfect distillation of both Horror and old-school adventure rules. A rule system I have been doing in one form or another along with a horror-filled background that is perfect to model the horror and dark sci-fi I grew up loving.

The only thing missing is the anthologies. 

I spent my weekend (like every weekend in late spring early summer) out in the garden helping my wife. I was doing some weeding and thought I needed to do a set of themed adventures I could publish. They are unrelated to each other, but all have a common thread of horror.

Then I realized something. I had already started this.

I have written a lot of adventures for many different games. All of them (for the most part) have a horror feel to them.

So to get the ideas rolling for Tales from the Other Side, I figure I will talk about the adventures I have already done and how they can be used with NIGHT SHIFT. I am just going to focus on ones that are readily available. I am looking back at some of my old docs and seeing which ones I own outright and can re-do and which ones never saw the light of day.

The Dark Druid
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG
Published in Games Unplugged, July 2002

This adventure was a prequel adventure to what was called "The Djinn Arc" that never got going. It's purpose was to introduce new players to the game, and it featured the original cast of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It focused on Willow and Tara as the reincarnations of Bohdmal and Liath (respectively) as the foster mothers of the great Irish hero Fionn MacCumhail (Finn McCool). It features the return of an ancient evil and two new kinds of vampires. The biggest issue with it is that it is an introductory adventure for what should be a "season" of related adventures, not an anthology.

So much of my writing from that time is baked into the DNA of NIGHT SHIFT that converting the game's tone is minimal at worst.

Mechanics changes:

• Use the vampire and vampire spawn from the NIGHT SHIFT core. Give them the unique kill listed in the Dark Druid adventure.  
• The Dark Druid himself is a weak (CON = 6) warlock of only 3 or 4 levels. 

This adventure gives some argument of while the stories are anthologies, the characters remain the same throughout.

The Haunting of Oakcrest Manor
Labyrinth Lord
Published in Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall Special Edition, 2017

This adventure has been successfully converted to NIGHT SHIFT many times. Since it uses Labyrinth Lord rules, conversion is trivial. I ran this both at Gary Con 2021 and Gen Con 2021 as a NIGHT SHIFT adventure where I changed the name to Willow Crest Manor. Both manors are based on a real-life place from my old hometown known as Maplecrest.

The biggest change here is to update when and where you put it. Personally, any small town will do. It just needs to have about 100 years worth of history. Dark woods are good too, so somewhere above the 40º North Latitude line is good in my mind. When I did it for Gary Con I set it near Rockford, IL. 

Witching Weather
Blue Rose AGE Edition
Published in the Six of Cups, July 2022

I do adore Blue Rose, I love the optimism and the feel of the game. So of course I bring horror to it. I must be damaged. This adventure requires that you find and rescue five psychic children. Trouble is there is a monster that wants to eat them (thinking they will make it more powerful) and a demon lord of storms that thinks they are his children. In Blue Rose this is all set in the town of Garnet, but in my running of this using NIGHT SHIFT, I set it in Alton, IL. It features another member of the unpleasant Meacham family and my homage to the Piasa Bird.

For changes, there is the tone and location.  Use the demon stats from NIGHT SHIFT and one of the many versions of the Piasa Bird I have posted here. 

The Nightmare
Chill 1st Edition
Published by Yeti Spaghetti and Friends, April 2023

My most recent adventure is horror through and through. A night hag, or in this case a dab tsog, has been attacking members of the local Hmong community. There is also a Will-o-the-Wisp feeding off of the dying energies. Tone wise this is perfect for NIGHT SHIFT.

Chill's skill checks are little different than that of NIGHT SHIFT, but as a rule of thumb, and roll pf +1 above what a character makes in NIGHT SHIFT is 5%.  The Nightmare, in addition to being written for Chill, is fairly self-explanatory and can be used as is with a variety of systems.

For the Will-o-the-Wisp you can use my stats for them here. For the Night Hag you can use the hags in the core rules of NIGHT SHIFT.

The next two are total cheats since I did not write them but I did do the D&D 5e conversions for them.

The Shrine of St. Aleena
Labyrinth Lord and D&D 5e
Published by Peter C. Spahn on DMsGuild

This adventure is a conversion of the Labyrinth Lord adventure created by Peter C. Spahn. The horror elements here are light, but as St. Aleena is the patron Saint of adventurers she is still a good choice. The characters come here and then the horror ensues. There is still an evil cult and still unnamable evil spawn here. 

The Shrine of St. Aleena has thematic connections with my own Dark Druid, or at least, it did when I ran it for my group here. 

To update this adventure change it over to some modern location, I would say on the outskirts of some town, but it has to be old. So East of the Mississippi River.  Otherwise you are good to go.

Classic Modules Today: CM2 Death's Ride
Basic D&D and D&D 5e
Published by TSR and Classic Modules Today

This is even a bigger cheat than the Shrine of St. Aleena above. But it is solid horror. Death's Ride is an old-school TSR adventure for Basic (Companion) D&D for characters 15th level and above. It has all sort of nasty things going on and really tough monsters.

My D&D 5e conversion scales them down a bit (but not much). It fits with the whole "weird shit going on in far off places" horror. I mean in this respect it is not much different than "The Children of the Corn."

--

Almost enough for a mini-campaign.

I'll have to work on some more and see what I have that I can resurrect. 

Hopefully there will be more Tales from the Other Side.

 A hidden alcove on the far right of this room has another visitor looking for food, though the food only just walked in.

A large Ochre Jelly moves towards the party.  This one has been feeding a lot lately and has 7 HD.

The jelly has no treasure.

 

Nice new mail call. Especially when it is a book I worked on. I have to admit this never, ever gets old to me.

My "The Nightmare" and a great one, "Medieval Mysteries" from Scott George set in a medieval monastery. 

Yeah, I am pretty happy with this, to be honest.

You can get all the Fright Night Classics Adventures on DriveThruRPG.

A secret room in the back of the Thoul hole leads to a larder, but this is no Troll or Thoul hole.

This is no larder of a troll or thoul. This is the storeroom of the Shadow Elves.  There is food and water enough for five for a week here. 

There is no treasure or weapons, but the characters gain 100 xp for finding this room. 

 No new monster today because I am working on the final bits of my new Monster Mash II: A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Monster Mash II: A Midsummer Night's Dream

More Monster Classes for Basic-era Games

For years brave adventures have been going into the dangerous wilderness and fighting monsters.  

Now the monsters are fighting back.

Monster Mash II is an Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy compatible game that allows you to take on the role, not of a stalwart hero, but as one of the monsters.

This book features 12 faerie and sylvan-based classes.

Bugbears, Centaurs, Hamadryads, Leprechauns, Nymphs, Pixies, Púcas, Satyrs, Werebears, Werefoxes, Woodwoses, and the Faerie Witch.

New spells for Clerics, Druids, Illusionists, and Magic-users. 

New spells, occult powers, and ritual spells for Faerie Witches. 

All are completely compatible with Basic-era OSR games and my previous witch books.

Coming this Midsummer!

 Going back and taking the central tunnel goes on for a long time (100') it leads to another room that appears to be another troll hole. Though in this room are not trolls, but Thouls.  

These thouls (4 in total) are distantly related to the trolls in Room 5. They are not sure how, but they know there is a kinship there, so they do not attack each other.

They can cause paralysis (like ghouls) and regenerate like trolls. 

There is Treasure Type C x5 here. The thouls have been very successful here.

Note: The shadow elves are immune to the thoul paralysis.

It seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. The chance to attend the annual summer camp of Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory, a prestigious performing arts institute located on an island just off Providence, Rhode Island. Graduates of the summer camp are guaranteed admittance to Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory and graduates of the institute are all but guaranteed of a glittering career including recognition and status. You are gifted. A dancer. A saxophonist. A painter. A singer. A violinist. Yet something is not quite right—about you. About the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory. You hide a secret. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory has its secrets. This is the set-up for a mini-campaign published by Symphony Entertainment using Cthulhu Dark, the minimalist roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror in which the horror is so bleak that the Investigators can at best hope to survive rather than overcome. Thus, attendees of the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory summer camp do not so much need to overcome their experiences at the institute, as rather find a way to survive, and perhaps even a way to abide…
Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is a one-shot scenario in which the players take the roles of teenagers, musical prodigies attending the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory for the first time at its annual summer camp. It is designed for five players. It can be played with fewer players, but works best with five. As the inspired Investigators enter the various arts programmes at the conservatory, they will quickly come to notice that not all is what it seems on the island. It is clear that the institute and its backers are wealthy, the conservatory being almost a luxurious retreat as much as it is a school. Yet there is a strangeness to it, as if it is not quite of this world, the other students in attendance are often unsettled, or driven to act in desperately weird ways, such as attempting sculpt a statue on the campus to get it right, but do so hands on with hot food on the plate like modelling clay or such as slamming themselves from wall to wall at their inability to perform to the level of skill they want. There is also the feeling that the Investigators are being groomed for something, tested not just on their musical ability, but on their past experiences and how they affect their musical ability. Ultimately, whatever it is, they will be given a choice…

Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is supported with detailed descriptions of the five Investigators, as well as the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory, its facilities and staff, and then a broad timeline of the thirty days that the Investigators will spend on the island. There is only the one map, and no floorplans, but most of the NPCs have photographs, and the handouts are decent. (In fact, the handouts would actually work if they were physically made as props.)
The scenario is also supported throughout with ‘Director Insight’, which includes advice for the Director—as the Keeper is known in Cthulhu Dark—and playtest and staging notes. It also makes use of Cthulhu Dark’s ‘Dark Symbols’, which indicates if a scene involves a clue, something harmful, dialogue, something to sport, or a combination of two or more of them. They are useful as they highlight the key points of any one scene and they can also be used to suggest to the Keeper that certain skills need to be rolled in those scenes if she is running the scenario under another rules system. However, they are not always best placed to be spotted with any ease.

The scenario does ‘suffer’ from a certain disconnect. More so than any other scenario of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Players of the genre quickly learn to recognise the elements of the genre in play and have to pull back from that knowledge lest it informs their roleplaying and their Investigators. In the case of Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory, this is challenging because the scenario resonates with the Mythos. It is everywhere and unavoidable, despite the Investigators knowing nothing, so roleplaying across that disconnect is all more challenging and all the more demanding for the players. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory does play around a little with that divide, but not too much, and certainly not enough to alleviate the degree of challenge that the scenario demands.
Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is potentially a very difficult scenario because it does call upon the players to confront their Investigators committing dark acts and committing themselves to dark, antithetically inhuman forces. There is an interesting way of alleviating this within the scenario, at least initially, almost like a comfort blanket—although this one goes ‘woof!’ and wags his tail—but ultimately, the players and their Investigators will be called upon to make a choice. One minor irritant that breaks the atmosphere of the piece is naming an NPC, if only a minor one, ‘Vincent Price’.
It is possible with Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory to draw parallels with two other roleplaying campaigns connected to Chaoisum, Inc., one Call of Cthulhu related, the other not. These are The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection from Golden Goblin Press, which is, of course, Call of Cthulhu related, and Six Seasons in Sartar, which is not. All three are about initiation and heritage, all are about playing children, teenagers. The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection, not into the Mythos, but about the Mythos. Six Seasons in Sartar is an initiation into both the core cults of Glorantha and Glorantha as a setting—both in as characters and as players. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is also about initiation and the Mythos, but both into and about the Mythos, but unlike the other two where the players and characters accept their situation and their heritage, Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is whether not they accept their initiation and heritage. All of which plays out on an island retreat which is one part music school, one part The Village from The Prisoner, as if viewed through the fisheye lens of the Mythos.

Scenarios for Lovecraftian investigative horror which call for the players to take the roles of cultists are far and few between. This is primarily because such roleplaying games are about investigating and stopping the consequences of the cultists’ actions, preventing the end of the world, and saving humanity. They are about humanity, not inhumanity. This is not to say that such scenarios are not interesting to roleplay, and where they do occur, it is always as fully fledged cultists, having committed to the cause. Not so, here. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory offers something genuinely unique in offering the player the opportunity to become a cultist and everything their Investigator wants, but never once lets up on the horror and weirdness of that choice and so commit to becoming beyond human, whilst ultimately making the moral option the most painful one. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is an unnervingly, relentlessly horrifying scenario which deserves to reach a wider audience and be the single answer to the question, “Are there any scenarios in which you play cultists?”

 The tunnel continues on and splits into three other tunnels. The first one on the right leads to a dark hole-like room that smells terrible.  The room is very dark and it is nearly impossible to see unless the characters have infravision.

Inside this room are two very large Trolls.

These trolls have maximum hp and are hungry. They have been eating shadow elves and are hungry for something with a bit more meat on them.  They attack right away.

Quick-starts are 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 too. 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 for 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?
The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start is the quick-start for Corporation 2nd Edition, the Science Fiction, Cyberpunk roleplaying game first published in 2008 by Brutal Games, but now published by Nightfall Games.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, rules for actions and combat, details of the arms, armour, and equipment fielded by the Player Characters, the mission, ‘Riot in Commissary B’, and four ready-to-play, Player Characters, or Agents.

It is a forty-two page, full colour book.

The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent. The rules are a slightly stripped down version from the core rulebook, but do include examples of the rules which speed the learning of the game

It requires an edit in places.

The themes and nature of the Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start and thus the Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start means that it is best suited to a mature audience.

How long will it take to play?
The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start and its adventure, ‘Riot in Commissary B’, is designed to be played through in one or two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start requires six ten-sided dice per player. One of these dice should be a different colour to the rest.

Who do you play?
The four Player Characters are all licensed Agents who have been biomechanically enhanced and employed by one of the setting’s five Corporations. they include a Tactical Ops specialist, a Telepath, an Infiltration Tech, and a Facilitator.

How is a Player Character defined?
An Agent has six stats—Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Charisma, Concentration, and Cool. Stats are rated between zero and six, whilst the skills are rated between one and four. He also has a seventh stat, PSI, which represents an Agent’s instincts or intuition. It is a pool of points who use is twofold. First, points can be temporarily expended to reroll dice in a Skill Test or add a bonus to a Dice Roll. Second, it can power a Telepath’s psionic abilities. An Agent also has Traits such as Cybernetic HUD & comms, Datanetica Neural Jack, Internal Computer, Pain mitigation, and Process socket.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start uses the ‘S5S’ System previously seen in SLA Industries, 2nd Edition and The Terminator RPG. This is a dice pool system which uses ten-sided dice. The dice pool consists of one ten-sided die, called the Success Die, and Skill Dice equal to the Skill rank of the skill being used. The Success Die should be of a different colour from the Skill Dice. The results of the dice roll are not added, but counted separately. The aim is to roll equal to or higher than a Target Number, ranging from eight and Challenging to sixteen and Insane, on each of the dice. The Skill Rank of the skill being used lowers the Target Number. Preparation and advanced technology, including toolkits can modify the Skill Rank for the Skill Test. If the result on the Success Die is equal to or greater than the Target Number, then the Agent has succeeded. If the results of the Skill Dice also equal or exceed the Target Number, this improves the quality of the successful skill attempt. However, if the roll on the Success Die does not equal or exceed the Target Number, the attempt fails, even if multiple rolls on the Success Dice do.

Each Agent has a point of Conviction. Conviction can be spent to perform cinematic feats such as ‘Come and Get It!’, ‘Done!’, ‘Proper Planning and Preparation...’, and ‘It’s Only a Flesh Wound!’.

How does combat work?
Combat in Corporation 2nd Edition, as with other ‘S5S’ System roleplaying games is designed to be desperate and dangerous. It is detailed and tactical. It takes into account offensive and defensive manoeuvres, rate of fire, recoil, damage inflicted on armour, cover, aiming, and so on. The scenario features a lot of combat and the Game Master should pay particular attention to those rules in the quick-start. The mechanics take into account various weapon types, including beam weapons, incendiary weapons, laser weapons, plasma weapons, and more.

How do PSI Powers work?
One of the pre-generated Agents is a Telepath. Common Psi Powers in Corporation 2nd Edition include Biokinesis and Telekinesis, whilst true Telepathy and Empathy are rare. Use of a Psi Power requires a Manifestation Test, a Skill Test where Successes can recover the points of PSI expended on the Manifestation Test or increase the duration of the manifestation beyond a single round. The

What do you play?
The setting for Corporation 2nd Edition is the year 2500. The United International Government has ensured two centuries peace, hand-in-hand with the Big 5 corporations. The fortunate reside in the soaring spires where they live in monitored, crime-free comfort. The unfortunate live in the Underswells, where there is warmth and comfort, but the gangs rule. The worse off reside in the old crumbling cities of the twentieth century—and earlier—and take their chances with the best policing they can get in the face of widespread banditry.

The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start includes the adventure, ‘Riot in Commissary B’. Initially, this is a highly tactical affair as the Agents deal with several Wretches from the Underswell who have broken into the commissary and potentially, the rest of the Spire, instigating a riot. After stopping the riot, the Agents are tasked with investigating how the break in occurred since the only point of access is kept locked and requires a high Ranked individual to open it. The resulting investigation is not easy—probably slightly too difficult to run as a convention scenario—and quickly leads to powerful corporate interests who would prefer the Agents not to be investigating despite them being under orders to do so. The scenario has a bureaucratic feel to it as well as a sense of irony.

Is there anything missing?
The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start is complete. Portraits for the pre-generated Agents would have been useful, as well as for the NPCs. The pre-generated Agents do not have any backgrounds, but these are available online.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start are relatively easy to prepare. The Game Master will need to pay closer attention to how both combat and PSI Powers work in the roleplaying game, as both figure, and combat is designed to be highly tactical in play. The scenario, ‘Riot in Commissary B’, is also fairly complex, and will require a high degree of preparation.
Is it worth it?
Yes. The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start introduces a Cyberpunk setting where the Player Characters are agents of the authority and have the licence to act on their employer’s behalf, but balanced against that is the bureaucracy and power of the corporation they work for. Essentially, their agency grant by their employer against the agency above them.
Where can you get it?
The Corporation 2nd Edition: Quick Start is available to download here.

As the title suggests, Bumbling – a solo RPG is about bees. Or rather about being a bee, a worker bee, to be precise. Published by Button Kin Games, also responsible for the fun Caltrop Kaiju: A Monstrously fun and fast-paced TTRPG, and part of the team responsible for the superlative Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I, , this is a solo roleplaying game in which you control the fate of a worker bee as it goes about its bee business—learning dances, dancing, leaving the hive and questing, and so forth. On the quest, the worker bee will encounter other creatures, some friendly, some not, who perhaps will point the bee in the direction of flowers, discover landmarks, and when flowers have been found, complete the quest by returning with pollen to fill the hive. The further away from the hive the flowers are, the fewer fellow bees will have visited them, and so they will contain more pollen. Once the worker bee returns, it can not only learn more dances and go out questing again, but it can also dance too, and so teach other worker bees about the flower locations it found on its quest.

Bumbling – a solo RPG is played out on—what else?—a hex map. At the centre is the hive and surrounding will be a patchwork of landmarks, including buildings, natural features, and so on, as well as the much-desired flower beds. Initially, just three, but as the worker bee travels further and explores new hexes, it will discover new landmarks, encounter new friends and enemies, and hopefully escape the creatures that want to eat it, and return with ever increasing amounts of honey. To play, the player will need a six-sided die, a sheet of hex paper, a journal to keep notes in and record his worker bee’s quests. Dance moves are optional for the player, if not the worker bee.

Bumbling – a solo RPG is about exploration, learning, and making friends. The play is derived from randomly generated elements—the dances that the worker bee knows, the dances associated with particular hexes on the maps, the landmarks and flowers on each map, and the creatures and their reactions. What is not random is how the worker bee reacts to these core elements and thus what the player records in his journal. In play, the limitations upon the worker bee’s travel are twofold. First, on the dances that it knows and the dances associated with particular landmarks. Second, on the creatures it knows and interacts with. Both will serve as navigation points. So, the worker bee will initially fly in the direction of hex with a dance it already knows. If this leads to flowers, fine. It can return with the much-needed pollen. If not, the worker can begin to explore, building a map of new locations and landmarks and creatures and hopefully, flowers full of pollen. These become way points that the worker bee can return to again and again as maps dances and locations. In returning to the hive, the worker bee can do three things after depositing the pollen. Learn a new dance, tell the other worker bees about the flowers it has found, and best of all, develop new dance moves and teach these.

Play ends with the worker bee having filled up all one-hundred-and-eighty cells of the pollen score sheet. It might also end early if a creature attempts to eat the worker bee, but the game does suggest the worker bee is nimble enough to get out of the way. At which point, the player has a map to consider and a story to read.

Bumbling – a solo RPG is slightly underwritten in terms of explaining the initial exploration and tying a dance to a hex. Perhaps an example of that would have helped. Otherwise, physically, Bumbling – a solo RPG is bright and pink and simple and quick and easy to pick up and begin play. It even comes with blank hex maps and scoring sheets for the player to copy.

Bumbling – a solo RPG is exceptionally light as a solo, journalling game. In comparison to Caltrop Kaiju, it is contemplative in nature, without the sense of peril. That lack of peril means that its sense of achievement comes from the exploration and the interaction with friendly creatures, and telling the story of this rather than defeating or overcoming an obstacle. However, without that, it does mean that there is not the inherent need to return to Bumbling – a solo RPG to play again and to see how well you did. Nevertheless, Bumbling – a solo RPG is a bee-calming little game, providing the means to explore and learn about world from a worker bee’s eyes point of view and tell its story.