The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is an anthology of four locations and scenarios, of which one is the eponymous ‘Haunted Hamlet’. Each location combines a fantastic mixture of whimsy and weirdness, menace and mystery, and distinct usefulness. The latter because each of the four locations is not just a single location, but also a single hex, complete and separate from the other three. The Game Master can take any one of the four hexes and not so much drop it into her campaign, but neatly and tidily pull out a hex from her own hexcrawl and slot one of the four back in its place. After that, all the Game Master has to do, is add a few rumours to arouse the interest of her players and their characters to get them to visit and investigate. For example, the hexes can be used in conjunction with other books by the publisher such as Woodfall, Willow, and The Toxic Wood, or any one of the four hexes or adventure locations in The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes would make for easy additions to Populated Hexes Monthly Year One or the Dolmenwood setting from Necrotic Gnome. Then again, any one of the four could be run on their as a separate scenario, each one offering sufficient play for two or three sessions or so. All are written for use with Old School Essentials, Necrotic Gnome’s very accessible update of the Moldvey/Cook and Marsh version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, which means that not only is The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes equally as mechanically accessible, it is also easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.
The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is written by the Lazy Litch and was published following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #3. It begins in a slightly odd fashion with several sets of tables, one for ‘Random Treasure’—Basic, Advanced, and Rare—which can be rolled on as the Player Characters discover treasures during play; another for ‘Random Weather Conditions’—Basic Weather, Extreme Weather, and Natural Disasters; and then encounter seeds for both day and night, before the introduction. This sets the play style for all four hexes, that ideally play should be Player Character led according to their goals, that Player Characters gain Experience Points from finding treasures and making discoveries rather than simply killing monsters, that monsters are not balanced according to Player Character Level, and that in encouraging players to be clever and creative, that both roleplaying and meta-gaming is also encouraged. The latter is something of an oddity, a type of behaviour rarely encouraged in roleplaying in general since it can lead to players taking advantage of the situation. However, judicious application can lead to clever and interesting play. Then, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes into its first hex, but it is not that of ‘The Haunted Hamlet’ of the title, adding to the oddness of the fanzine’s beginning. In addition, there is no table of contents which would tell the reader where it is, so it is disconcerting, at least initially.

‘The Gold Mine’ is the first hex in The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes. This details a great crack in the earth which has recently opened. It has been occupied by the forces of Lord Bleak of the Black Mountain, who are guarding it and forcing miners to extract the gold discovered below. The militia occupy a fort above where the ore is processed by alchemists, descending only to collect the ore and punish any delays in output. Below the fortress lies four quite different mining levels, each occupied by a different species. The upper mines by Mole people, the lower mines by subterranean Gnomes, the Antkin mines by the Antkin—the original dwellers of the mines and caves, and below that, the Overdark lies unoccupied except for strange pillars and fungal trees. The maps are presented in isometric fashion, the individual level descriptions coded in increasing darker shades of grey. At the end is a short timeline of events and a handful of hooks to get the Player Characters involved. These include them being incarcerated in the mine, being hired to break a criminal out or sabotage the mine, and so on. Even if the Player Characters do nothing, events will play out and the situation at the mine will be entirely different. There is a sense of oppression and things waiting to happen here.

Darker still though, is the second hex, ‘The Ladder Inn’. It describes a lakeside inn noted for the ladder descending into the waters of the lake. Treasure is rumoured to be found at the bottom of the ladder and the lake, and many an adventurer has passed through, expressing an interest in the mystery of lake and ladder, perhaps taking up the offer of potions of water breathing being sold by a stranger. Some pass on the offer, but others are never seen again. The inn, its owner and the stranger are all nicely detailed and there is lots going on at the inn over the course of the few days that the Player Characters stay there. The situation at the inn has a fairy tale-like quality to it, being a story of greed and oppression wrapped up in a mystery. A nice touch is that again, the areas underground—in this case, under the lake—on presented on a black background so that the Game Master is accorded the oppressive nature of the lake’s black waters… ‘The Ladder Inn’ is an enjoyably busy little location that intrigues with its odd situation—that of a ladder leading down into a lake—and then builds on that intrigue to deliver a dark little mystery with just a tinge of sadness.

Combine an overly ambitious wizard’s apprentice gone rogue, a strange fusion device, and a bale of hats, and what you have is ‘The Hat Cult’s Hideout’. The fusion device is used to combine one animal with another or a being with an animal, and all of the hats are magical. The wizard’s apprentice has formed a cult around him and its members not each get a magical hat, but have been gleefully experimenting with the fusion device, resulting in a rash of missing villagers and animals and then strange creatures lurking in the woods around the cave where the cult has its base. The cult itself is not evil, necessarily, just proud, misguided, and unaware of the dangers its research and its experiments might—and actually will—unleash on the surrounding area if left unchecked. It needs a few magical hats and the Game Master will need generate some magical creatures from the table given, such as an unstable giant snail with the head of a horse and 50% chance of exploding. As with the other hexes, there is a table of rumours, a list of reactions to the actions of the Player Characters, and timeline of events, which will drive the encounter. ‘The Hat Cult’s Hideout’ is also quite a tough little encounter, but this is not an encounter that need be solved with violence much in keeping with the introduction to The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes.

The last of the four entries in The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is the eponymous ‘The Haunted Hamlet’. Where the motivations have been greed, loneliness, and pride for the situations in the other three hexes, here it is a combination of fear and evil. If the Player Characters descend into the valley of Wolvendale and its lonely town, they find themselves trapped and assailed by angry ghosts. The former leaders of the town committed a heinous act which condemned their lives and those of the villagers and the latter want their revenge. In order to escape the situation, the Player Characters must explore each of the few remaining buildings in the town, each one occupied by the ghosts of its former leaders and attempt to solve a puzzle that will force those ghosts to confront their action and its consequences. The problem is that the Player Characters are not necessarily going to know that they need to solve a problem. It is weird and creepy and there is an impending sense of doom and urgency as ghosts lurk and wounds fester, but lacks the hook to put the Player Characters onto the first step of the mystery. With an adjustment and perhaps a clue or two and the ‘The Haunted Hamlet’ will be a decent encounter.

Finally, the back cover of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes details another location, the village of ‘Orgul’. This inverts the roles that evil monsters typically play in Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game with the village being a refuge for reformed monsters who have pacifists after being forced to serve a dark lord. There is a table of random events to beset the village, but otherwise, this is hex ready to play with the players’ expectations and add characterisation to what are normally regarded as monsters to kill.

Between all of this, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes includes a set of digest-sized cards. In turn, they depict and detail a band of adventurers in the service of the Spore Lord, stealing the treasures of other adventurers and attempting to raid dungeons before other adventurers get there; Heart String Knights are undead knights who died on their given quests, but are duty bound to complete before they can move and take great affront when others complete their quests; table of random NPCs and potions; a pair of hirelings; and the Sky Merchant, a floating vendor and emporium which can descend from the sky to sell goods and items at almost any time in the wilderness or on the road. There is a good mix of the whimsy and the usefulness to all of this, though it is actually independent of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes just as the hexes in the fanzine are independent of each other and any particular setting.

Physically, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is mostly done in black and white, but there are touches of grey here and there, judiciously used to highlight certain sections. It is well written and organised, and the maps and artwork are all excellent. There are a couple of layout issues which have caused crashes with the text, so the PDF version may need to be referred to.

As in Woodfall, the author of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes has already proven himself capable of combining the whimsical and the weird to great storytelling effect. With The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes, the author succeeds with the majority of the fanzine’s content. The first three of its hexes are easy to use and can just be slotted into the Game Master’s campaign with only minor adjustment. The fourth hex, though, requires development to work effectively. The three other hexes are excellent adventure locations, ‘The Ladder Inn’ and ‘The Hat Cult’s Hideout’ in particular. Overall, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is a good, but not quite great resource of ready-to-play content for any Game Master.

 Mad genius Mark Taormino is back with another Maximum Mayhem Dungeon!

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marktaormino/maximum-mayhem-dungeons-8-funhouse-of-the-puppet-jester?ref=theotherside

What can I say here? Mark does great work, and these adventures are always fun.

Click, check it out and pledge!

Mark: I am going to need a bigger box for the adventures now!

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—
Senet—named for the Ancient Egyptian board game, Senet—is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases.

Senet Issue 8 was published in the summer of 2022. If the editorial in the previous issue talked about the reach of boardgames, the editorial in this issue looks at how they can be more welcoming and how we can all be more accepting of newcomers to the hobby. This is a theme that will be later explored in the issue in ‘The Storyteller’, an interview with designer Nikki Valens which includes a discussion of reflecting and accepting wider cultural diversity in board games in both terms of design and play, whilst in the regular column, ‘How to Play’, the Meeple Lady gives some direct advice on being more welcoming to newcomers. The latter is the more useful and immediate of the two articles, but both are good pieces and together with the editorial show where we can be better.

‘Behold’ is the regular preview of some of the then-forthcoming board game titles. As expected, ‘Behold’ showcases its previewed titles to intriguing effect, a combination of simple write-ups with artwork and depictions of the board games. There are some interesting titles here, such as Autobahn, a game about building the German motorway network both collectively and competitively, but as public servants rather than entrepreneurs and London Necropolis Railway, which explores the city of London’s funeral railway service to Brookwood Cemetery. This is a fascinating aspect of Victorian history and culture and its attitude to death which is here presented as something that can be explored in play.

‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, covers a number of different topics, but in the main, they continue the issue’s inclusivity theme, highlighting the lack of diversity in terms of boardgame designers and the difference in focus given to major designers versus minor designers. There is scope here for future issues to cover more of the latter, so we shall see whether that idea is followed up on. In ‘For Love of the Game’, Tristian Hall continues his designer’s journey towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth. In previous issues he explored how the game became a vehicle for roleplaying and storytelling, used the mechanics to bring the game and its background to life, marketing options, and dealing with feedback and criticism about a game’s design, world-building and immersion through text and art, and the benefits of historical research, but this time, he examines the use of music in boardgames. In the main, he discusses how music can be used to enhance a game through its thematic and immersive effects. In roleplaying, this is both well known and fairly well explored, but less so when it comes to playing boardgames. Certainly, it works for roleplaying games, which are by design intended to be immersive, whereas for boardgames the degree of immersion is arguably not as deep, primarily because of the immediacy of the rules and mechanics, but also perhaps because there is a greater need to be concentrating on the rules? Of course, he ties this into the fact that there is a soundtrack for Gloom of Kilforth, and this is only a light discussion, so the subject might well benefit from a more detailed article.

Senet follows a standard format of articles and article types and Senet Issue 8 is no exception. One explores a theme found in board games, its history, and the games that showcase it to best effect, whilst another looks at a particular mechanic. In addition there are two interviews, one with a designer, the other with an artist. The theme article in the issue is science and board games. In ‘The Appliance of Science’, Matt Thrower explores the difficulties and perils of designing a science-themed boardgame. The primary peril is that of being overly or obviously educational, which can be seen in the Victorian game designs which offer a lot of scientific trivia without much in the way of game play. Fortunately, as game play has improved hand-in-hand with game design, so that modern designs such as Wingspan and Terraforming Mars can include a high degree of scientific content alongside their engaging game play. The article draws some interesting parallels between the wargame and the science-themed boardgame, especially when it comes to designs based on biology and dealing with aspects such as biodiversity and evolution, with different species competing for space. The article does not solely focus on biologically-themed board games, but it would have been useful if it had showcased more boardgames.

The mechanic discussed in the issue is that of social deduction. ‘Trust No One Suspect Everyone’ by Alexandra Sonechkina explores the relatively short history of the social deduction game, beginning with its interesting origins in the Soviet Union, at the Moscow State University, as the game, Mafia. Of course, the idea has its own origins in the children’s game, ‘Murder in the Dark’, but in boardgames, they really became popular with The Resistance, but in coming more up to date, hits some classics such as BattleStar Galactica and Ultimate One Night Werewolf. It highlights the emotional involvement of the format since it sets up players to feel at first a sense of paranoia and suspicion, and then the even stronger feelings of vindication if the mole or spy or Cylon (in the case BattleStar Galactica) is uncovered or of betrayal if we have failed to unmask him and he has been successful in undermining our efforts. The most recent iteration of the format discussed is Psychobabble, a Lovecraft-inspired game of dream deduction that does not rely upon betrayal or lies, one of the criticisms of the genre. This perhaps points to the potential in the format, which often feels achingly familiar from one design to the next.

The artist interviewed in ‘The Sky is the Limit’ is Andrew Bosley. Illustrator on designs such as Everdell, Tapestry, and Vivid Memories, there is an otherworldliness, even a sense of whimsy, to his artwork, that pulls the viewer into vistas he depicts. Unlike previous interviews with artists, ‘The Sky is the Limit’ does not delve too deeply into Bosley’s background, instead concentrating more on the various projects he has worked on and how they developed. Nevertheless, this feels a much briefer interview than in previous issues, and there is no pullout of his artwork as in previous issues. Bosley’s artwork is beguiling and makes you want to look at the games where each appears and see the world they show in play. The designer interviewed in the issue is Nikki Valens in ‘The Storyteller’. The interview discusses the designer’s shift from creating expansions for Fantasy Flight Games’ H.P. Lovecraft-themed games to creating—in line with the theme of the issueIt has almost become a cliché to

something more welcoming of a diverse audience. So there is a distinct cultural difference to what they were doing before and what they are doing now, with designs like Artisans of Splendent Vales, the contrast being a fascinating read.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews includes a review of Origins: First Builders, a dice placement game, the engagingly thematic Caper: Europe, and the thoroughly strange Eyelet, which involves threading coloured shoelaces through holes in a double-sided board. Given the anticipation it was treated with in Senet Issue 7, it is no surprise that Crescent Moon is this issue’s top choice. It is an asymmetrical area-control game whose theme is the five factions and their differences of the Abbasid Caliphate. It is also a big game in that it needs four or five players and over two hours playing time. As in previous issues, the reviews section here is a good mix and the reviews are all useful and informative.

Rounding out Senet Issue 8 are the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, Meeple Lady being the inclusive theme of the issue to a close with extremely good advice on how to ease and welcome new players into the hobby. Throughout, she makes good points and the advice is excellent. This includes actually saying hello, avoid using boardgame jargon, treating everyone the same as you would expect to be treated, and of course, being kind. This is article that really everyone should read and the roleplaying hobby certainly deserves its own version. In ‘Shelf of Shame’, Stella Jahja and Tarrant Falcke of Meeple University pull a game of their shelf that they own, but never played. Their choice is Cuba, a design from 2007, which they find surprisingly playable, simple, but brutal. The upshot is that the team plans to explore forgotten designs from the noughties. There is an enjoyable sense of a story being told here and is one of the most interesting ‘Shelf of Shame’ entries to date.

Physically, Senet Issue 8 is very professionally presented. It looks and feels as good as previous issues of the magazine.

It has almost become a cliché to state that as with previous issues, Senet Issue 8 offers a good mix of articles, interviews, and reviews, but it does. Its articles feel more expansive than in previous issues, with ‘Trust No One Suspect Everyone’ on social deduction games and ‘The Appliance of Science’ on science-themed boardgames, in particular, standing out. With Senet Issue 8, the boardgame magazine maintains its high standard of informative and interesting articles.

 I got to thinking about these experiments, and I realized that I had yet to try converting a druid. I am a huge fan of druids, both as a concept and as a character class, with the 1st Ed AD&D one near the top of my list. I have done more than a few Bards, but no druid yet.

This also got me thinking about which Druid to use. I have plenty, including a few that have never seen "print" on these pages. But in the end, I am opting for an atypical druid. I am going to build Fear Dorich, the Dark Druid. 

Fear Dorich has a history in my games. I stated him up once for Castles & Crusades for a previous Character Creation Challenge, and he was the main antagonist of the Buffy adventure The Dark Druid. He is a great character with quite a lot of history with me. 

Fear Dorich, and that is not his name, It means "Dark Man," is or was a normal Druid. But in my games he is fighting the rising tide of Christianity. So he has taken it upon himself to keep the worship of the new God to a minimum by killing all the new worshipers. It is a losing battle, we all know, but that is the character I am playing here.  So he is not about grabbing what power he can to achieve those ends.

Fear Dorich, the Dark Druid

Class: Sorcerer
Level: 5
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark
Background: Animistic

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 16 (+2) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) N
Intelligence: 18 (+3) N
Wits: 17 (+2) A
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 8
Vitality: 25
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 1

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Spell Attack: +3
Saves: +4 (+2) to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer), +2 to Persona saves, -2 to magic saves if far from a source of Radiance

Sorcerer Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (2): Wild Form, Shadow Walk

Sorcerer Spells
First Level: Armor of Earth, Bless, Restore Food and Water
Second Level: Beguile Person, Invoke Fear
Third Level: Dark Lightning

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: +1 to combat, Scimitar
2nd Level: Precognition Power

Animistic Background
Animal Summoning 1
Speak with Plants and Animals

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Death

Gear
Scimitar

Wasted Lands Druids

This is Fear Dorich early into his career of killing members of the new faith. He already has a 1 point of corruption, and I am expecting a lot more.

Wasted Lands does an excellent job with druids; to be honest, you just have to choose your arcane powers and divine touchstones well.

He also fits in well to something else I am working on, but maybe more on that next week or even later down the line.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 I want to get some more Forgotten Realms this month, and this has me thinking about my *other* native Forgotten Realms character, Lady Nida. But maybe before she was a "Lady."

When I did stats for Nida a while back for AD&D 2nd Ed, I wanted her to be a combination of the witches that I didn't play back then: a Witch of Hala and a Witch of Rashemen. To be a witch of Hala, though, you have to start out in a non-spell-casting class. Fine! I wanted her to start out as a rogue/thief beforehand anyway, so that works. I also knew that Nida, along with Sinéad, were going to be part of a party of characters.  Playing Sinéad, though, in Baldur's Gate 3 changed some of my ideas about her.  So now some of these ideas that don't work as well for Sinéad are going over to Nida. 

I want to focus on her Rogue/Thief/Renegade side for this build in Wasted Lands. She has some magic already, which might be the reason Sinéad joins up with her band of adventurers, and also why Sinéad has part of her hair shaved off and wears a lot of black leather; she is emulating the friend she met when she first left home.  Maybe I'll even use a "Quantum Cat" version of Johan as the party's cleric. It would be a different version of course, but maybe the same as my Baldur's Gate 3 run.  Note: I DO have a Baldur's Gate 3 version of Nida as well, but I want to try out something different for her in another run, maybe.

But for now, her job is to be a bad influence on Sinéad. 

Nida

Class: Renegade
Level: 4
Species: Human
Alignment: Twilight
Background: Sorcerous (Grew up in Rashemen)

Abilities
Strength: 11 (+0) 
Agility: 16 (+2) A
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) N
Wits: 13 (+1) 
Persona: 18 (+3) N

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 23
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Melee Bonus: +2 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base) +2
Spell Attack: +0
Saves: +3 vs Death effects (Renegade), +2 to Persona saves (Sorcerous background)

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3), Perception, Vital Strike x3, Read Languages, Stealth Skills

Stealth Skills
Open Locks: 30%
Bypass Traps: 25%
Sleight of Hand: 35%
Sneak: 30%

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: Arcane Power: Detect Thoughts
2nd Level: Luck Benefit 1d6

Sorcerous Background
Bonus Arcane Power: Precognition

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Gear
Dagger, Leather Armor, thieves tools

Wasted Lands Renegades as AD&D Thieves

Nida here is not "Lady Nida" yet, but she is a good thief. In fact, the Wasted Lands Renegade stacks up well to the AD&D thief. Now, if I were in a min/maxing mood, I could have given her Sage and used the divine touchstones to improve her thief's skills. But that didn't ring true to who I think this character is. While she grew up in Rashemen, she is not a sage. She doesn't have spells just yet, but she will stop being a thief soon and switch over to being a Sorceress or Witch.

I'll come back to both Nida and Sinéad and whatever other characters I come up with for my Forgotten Realms exploration.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 Both the Wasted Lands and the "I" of D&D BECMI offer paths to godhood and/or immortality.  While the Immortal rules have some, well, issues they are still a fascinating glimpse into one possible end game for D&D characters.

The path to immortality is better defined in the pages of the Wasted Lands, but no less complicated for the character (the player has an easier time understanding). Indeed, there are very, very few characters that can make it to immortality. One of my own immortal characters, Johan I, got his forever-ever-after as a Saint. 

But I do have another immortal character, one that "went through the hoops" in BECMI to get there. Granted, not a Player Character but rather an NPC.  The Witch Kersy.

When my characters meet Kersy for the first (and likely last) time she is already an Immortal. She is from the adventure, M1 Into the Maelstrom, so I guess that makes her Bruce Heard's character, but even he admits she is just a thinly veiled version of Circe. That's where I come in. 

Kersy's Background

In the module, we are introduced to a nascent Immortal, Kersy.  She is using her human guise as a 30th-level magic User, and she is the ruler of the Island of Turkeys.  If you think she sounds a lot like Circe and her Island of Pigs, then you are correct.  But.  Doing some deeper research into Kersy gives me a stranger tale.   Over at the Vaults of Pandius, they have expanded on her background a bit more. 

She is described as the distillation of the would-be immortal Koryis's own unwanted thoughts, urges, and feelings.  

Koryis is the Immortal Patron of Peace.  While on his epic quest, he sought to purge himself of evil in impure thoughts. He was successful, and that "impurity" manifested itself as Kersy.

At least, that is what his mythology says. 

We learn from M1 that she is a "beautiful maiden" and a "30th level magic-user." But other details are scant. From the Vaults of Pandius, we learn that she is beautiful with long raven-black hair and amber-colored eyes.  She is the Patroness of Witchcraft and Charms.  Certainly, she is more than just some cast of skin of evil.

She is also described as having "milky-white skin" (boring!), but I have been looking for an excuse to use Vanessa Williams as a witch since 1997. 

Back in 2020 I got her stated up as a 31st level Witch, just on the cusp of her own immortality.

Today I am going to try her out as a starting witch with Immortality very, very far away. Now, in canon Kersy likely started out "life" as a 31st level witch or whatever it was that Koryis was. But here I recast her as a lower level witch and working her way back up to power. She has no idea who or what she is save she is drawn to the sea and to Koryis, whom she both hates and loves. 

Once again, I can only see a young Vanessa Williams as Kersy. Halle Bailey (from the live-action Little Mermaid) would also be great.

Kersy, the Sea Witch

Class: Sorceress (Witch)
Level: 14
Species: Human
Alignment: Twilight
Background: Sorcerous

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 16 (+2) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 18 (+3) A

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 60
Degeneracy: 1
Corruption: 1

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +6/+4/+2
Melee Bonus: +2 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Spell Attack: +7
Saves: +7 (+8) to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer), +1 to all saves

Sorcerers Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (5): Beguile, Detect Thoughts, Enhanced Senses, Pre-Cognition, Subtle Influence

Sorceress Spells
First Level: Arcane Darts, Beast Speech, Command, Predict Weather, Sleep
Second Level: Beguile Person, ESP, Invoke Fear, Paralyze Person
Third Level: Breathe Water, Cure Disease, Curse, Dispel Magic
Fourth Level: Befuddlement, Control Temperature, Illusory Landscape, Metamorphose Other
Fifth Level: Comand Winds, Dominate Other, Summon Elemental
Sixth Level: Evoke Weather, Invisible Servant, Part the Seas
Seventh Level: Mass Metamorphosis, Widdershins Dance

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: 1st Level Spell: Glamour
2nd Level: Control Water, Minor
3rd Level: Mode of Movement: Water Walk
4th Level: Magical Recovery
5th Level: +1 to all checks, attacks, and saves
6th Level: Immunity to Spell damage
7th Level: Increased Glamour

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic, Witchcraft

Gear
Wand, Bracers of Defence

Wasted Lands as D&D BECMI

If I were to ever run a pure BECMI game again, I would use Wasted Lands as part of it. Much like Hyperborea yesterday, BECMI and Wasted Lands feel right together.

Kersy, here in this version, makes for a great Sea Witch and growing in her power on her track to immortality. For these reasons I gave her a Heroic/Divine touchstone every other level. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 It's still cold outside. So another winter-themed character is needed, and nothing is more winter than the Winters family of witches and my current character, Tanith Winters.

Tanith is a great character to test for Wasted Lands. For starters, I have been playing her in both D&D/OSR clones and for three editions of Hyperborea. I also have used her in NIGHT SHIFT as part of the modern versions of the Winters family.

Wasted Lands and Hyperborea have similar DNA and can be used to play very similar sorts of games. The biggest difference between them setting-wise is that the Wasted Lands takes place in the distant past, and Hyperborea is in the far future.

Both games are solid in their Old-School sensibilities and feel. Both games are a lot of fun for that Dark Fantasy mixed with horror overtones with more than a little influences of Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith. 

Tanith Winters

Class: Witch (Sorcerer) 
Level: 12
Species: Human (Hyperborean)
Alignment: Neutral
Background: Barbarian

Abilities
Strength: 10 (+0) 
Agility: 12 (+0) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) N 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 12 (+0) 
Persona: 16 (+2) A

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 53
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Spell Attack: +6
Saves: +5 to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer), +2 to Toughness saves (Barbarian), +1 to Cold (Touchstone)

Sorceress Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (4): Familiar: Owl Psychic Power: Cryokinesis, Enhanced Senses, Supernatural Senses

Sorceress Spells
First Level: Arcane Darts, Chill, Protection from Good/Evil, Armor of Ice
Second Level: Create Wated, Cool Metal, Lock, Unlock
Third Level: Slow, Dark Lightning, Dispel Magic, Curse 
Fourth Level: Control Tempature, Life Drain, Control Ice
Fifth Level: Blight, Elemental Wall
Sixth Level: Invoke Weather, Disentergrate

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 Saves vs. Cold
2nd Level: +1 attacks w/ Cold
3rd Level: Magical Recovery
4th Level: Defense Cold
5th Level Ray: Ray of Cold
6th Level: Cold Immunity

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Winter

Familiar: Snowy Owl, "Beira."

Gear
Cloak of Winter

Wasted Lands & Hyperborea

Both the Wasted Lands and Hyperborea scratch a similar itch for me. I would have to say that I can play many similar games with both games. The tenor is different enough that playing the same sorts of adventures do feel different.

I'd love to try out a set of adventures, maybe even featuring the Winters family, in both Wasted Lands and then millions of years later in Hyperborea. 

Character wise, this version of Tanith is great. Hyperborea has a few more choices in spells than Wasted Lands, but there is also a big difference in size of the rule books. Granted, the spells are also largely interchangeable.  

Links

• Tanith,  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd Ed stats
• Tanith, Hyperborea 3rd Ed stats
• Tanith, NIGHT SHIFT stats

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 It is frigid outside. But we are in the middle of winter, so I guess that is expected. It did get me thinking about a few of my winter-themed characters. So let's start this one off with one of my favorites, Jassic Winterhaven, the gnome bard/warlock.

Wasted Lands has rules for using characters other than the proto-humans of the Dreaming Age. I have done some elves and half-elves, but let see what we can do with a gnome.

Jassic here is a bit of fun character. In D&D 4e he was a test run of the hybrid class rules of a Bard and a Warlock.  Later on he became a more traditional Bard/Warlock multiclass in D&D 5e. Both worked remarkably well and loved how well Bard and Warlock work with each other.  I did do this in Baldur's Gate 3, but not as Jassic.

Wasted Lands does not have a proper Warlock class. Night Shift does. Also, neither game has a true bard. But there is the Sage, which so far has played very Bard-like.

So, who is Jassic, and how should I re-build him in Wasted Lands? Taking the Sorcerer and saying he has magic but needs to play an instrument to use it is easily done. No extra rules are needed. Sage would cover his languages and his lore and even grant his some extra spells as well as some Renegade/Rogue abilities. So that is all great. Perform? Well, that is a sort of Persona check. Bardic inspiration? Ah, that one is trickier. But let's see what I can do with some Heroic Touchstones.

Jassic Winterhaven

Class: Sorcerer / Sage
Level: 4/2
Species: Gnome
Alignment: Light 
Background: Gnome

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 12 (+0) 
Toughness: 12 (+0) 
Intelligence: 14 (+1) N
Wits: 16 (+2) N
Persona: 18 (+3) A

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 6
Vitality: 23
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +2
Saves: +3 to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer), +1 to Wits and Persona saves (Gnome)

Sorcerer Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (2): Beguile, Precognition

Sorceress Spells
First Level: Arcane Darts, Beast Speech, Prestidigitation
Second Level: See Invisible, Unlock

Gnome Abilities
Night Sighted

Sage Abilities
Languages (14), Lore, Suggestion, Mesmerize Others, Renegade skills at level 1

Sage Spells
First Level: Chill Ray

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Bonus Skill: Performance
2nd Level: Luck benefit
3rd Level: Additional Luck
4th Level: Magical recovery

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Wanderer

Gear
Shortbow, shortsword, leather armor, 

Wasted Lands Bards

For starters, suggestion helps with some Bardic abilities. The Luck Benefit from the Heroic touchstones also gives a good replacement for Bardic Inspiration. I can have him take it again at higher levels for more use in the day.

I'd have to play this character some more to see how he works out. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 It Sunday night. I have tomorrow off which is good because it is like -9° F with a  wind chill of -31° outside right now. I said I was not going to complain about the cold this year, but this is testing my resolve.

Instead of freezing my ass off, I am poking at my Deities & Demigods II.  I have all the text in the layout, but I am in a quandary.  I love the work I have done on it, but I can't in good conscience sell it anymore or even give it away for free using AI-generated art. 

I am going still play around AI art for personal fun, but not for publishing this particular project. 

This is an issue since the Black Forest Mythos has two dozen gods and a dozen or so monsters. I need to find some art.  I really don't want to spend a ton on art and not see a return on it. I am fine not making a profit for this sine I was doing it for fun (and potentially for free) but I would like to recoup any money spent on art now.

So. Trying to figure out my next steps.

 One more magical character. This time, I want to do Skylla's partner in crime, Kelek the Cruel.

Kelek is a fun character. He was the only Dungeons & Dragons action figure I ever purchased when they were new, except for special edition ones that came out later/recently. And I have used him in a few games. In particular, he is the main bad guy in my War of the Witch Queens. 

Now Kelek, in my games, has a bit of orc somewhere in his bloodline. So he gets better than expected Constitution/Toughness scores and has slightly pointed ears.  In Baldur's Gate 3 I managed this with carefully editing the half-orc facial features. 

In BG3 and D&D 5 he is a Sorcerer. So he gets magic on the fly. I am able to do this in Wasted Lands by having him take the Street Mage or Hedge Mage arcane power. Like Skylla he is a Persona (Charisma) based caster but his sorcery is different than her witchcraft. He is also one level higher at 7.  

Old hands at D&D B/X or BECMI will note that a 6th-level Magic user has the level title of "Warlock," and a 7th-level Magic user has the title of Sorcerer. Works out here as well. 

Kelek

Class: Sorcerer
Level: 7
Species: Human* (Orc-men)
Alignment: Dark
Background: Sorcerous

Abilities
Strength: 15 (+1) 
Agility: 10 (0) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) N
Wits: 13 (+1) N
Persona: 17 (+2) A

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 32
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Spell Attack: +4
Saves: +3 to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer) +1 to Toughness saves (Orc-men).

Sorcerer Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (3): Street Mage, Enhanced Senses (magic), Detect Thoughts

Sorceress Spells
First Level: Arcane Dart, Command, Read Languages, Sleep
Second Level: Beguile Person, ESP, Unlock
Third Level: Concussive Blast, Fly

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: First Level Spell: Chill Ray
2nd Level: 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Gear
Robe of Protection, Staff of Sorceries

Wasted Lands Magic-users

Class-wise, Skylla and Kelek are the same class. At least that is how they are in the Wasted Lands. Consequently, this is also how they were in D&D Basic. Both were Magic-users. It has just been the last few years where they have been different things, warlock and sorcerer respectively.

Just like Basic (and OD&D and AD&D) you make them feel different by how you play them.

Wasted Lands adds an additional level of arcane powers; this is the first split. By given Kelek Streer or Hedge Mage we free him from the need of spell books. Though it also means that his big desire of stealing Ringlerun's spell book is sort of lost. For Skylla I give her the arcane power of innate magic to allow her to use Arcane Darts more, a she would an Eldritch Blast. 

I can further separate them with a few choice Divine Touchstones.  Simplicity is the key to flexibility here. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 Continuing some magic characters, I also want to do one that I have meant to do since Wasted Lands came out. 

Skylla is a character I have talked about a lot here. She is one of the old LJN Dungeons & Dragons figures (who never got a proper figure), was an NPC in the Shady Dragon Inn, and was to appear in the D&D Cartoon. I was talking about her for years before she came back into popularity. Not only have stated her up for various D&D-like/OSR RPGs, I also have her in an "evil run" in Baldur's Gate 3.

While she is a D&D-owned character, I have done quite a lot with her here, and a comparison should be made.

Since I am using Skylla and Kelek together in both Baldur's Gate 3 and my War of the Witch Queens (and Witchlight), I am going to do them both here. Both are magic user, but I also want to highlight their differences.

First up. Skylla.

Skylla is often depicted as a 6th-level Magic-user; this makes her level title "Warlock," which is often how she is described. I my posts on her I have used a variety of classes, but most often a witch. For the purposes of this post I am going to keep her at 6th level.  In the D&D 5e version of her she has Warlock as her class and this is what I went with in Baldur's Gate 3.

Wasted Lands only has a Sorcerer class. So I'll need to make some tweaks to her and Kelek (who will also be a Sorcerer) to make them feel different. 

Skylla

Class: Sorceress
Level: 6
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark
Background: Sorcerous

Abilities
Strength: 9 (0) 
Agility: 11 (0) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 12 (0) N
Wits: 15 (+1) N
Persona: 17 (+2) A

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 28
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Spell Attack: +3
Saves: +2 to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer) +2 to Intelligence saves (Sorcerous background).

Sorcerer Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (2): Innate Magic: Arcane Dart, Begulie Person

Sorceress Spells
First Level: Arcane Dart, Glamour, Gout of Flame
Second Level: Beguile Person, Magic Lock, Paralyze Person
Third Level: Dark Lightning, Dispel Magic

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: First Level Spell: Mystic Senses
2nd Level: 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Gear
Robe of Protection, Staff of the Demon, Necromancies of Thay tome. 

Wasted Lands as D&D 

Early on in the Framingham, MA test trials of the anti-Breast cancer drug Tamoxifen it became so obvious that the drug was effective given the obvious differences in the two sets of participants (experimental vs. control) that even though it was a double blind study everyone knew the the drug was working, and working well. They stopped the study and put all the participants on Tamoxifen. 

That is where I am at now in this experiment. 

I am going to say I can emulate any sort of D&D-like experience with Wasted Lands.

Tomorrow, with Kelek, I'll focus less on this obvious point and more on how to emulate different sorts of spellcasters.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Manticore is a scenario for Traveller. It takes place on the world of Pysadi in the Aramis Subsector of the Spinward Marches Sector and involves an investigation into a runaway girl and her connection to a zealous religious cult on a nearby world. It ideally requires the Player Characters to have basic training in both weapons and vacc suit, and if they do possess a starship, that it should be capable of Jump-2. The scenario includes a set of eight pre-generated Player Characters, four of which between them have the skills necessary to operate a starship as well as one of them owning an S-Type Scout. However, one of the problems with this is that the Player Characters are expected to to own a merchant ship of some kind and certainly a vessel capable of carrying cargo. Both the mechanics and the plot of Manticore are straightforward enough that running it using Traveller, Classic Traveller, or Cepheus Deluxe Enhanced Edition are all easy enough to do.

Manticore is written by Carl Terence Vandal and is a sequel of sorts to The Phoenix Initiative, which ended with the Player Characters being recruited as agents in the service of Duke Norris and his family. It is not though, a direct sequel, but rather a thematic one as it deals with the misuse of advanced science. Alternatively, it can also be run as a standalone affair. It begins with the Player Characters on Aramis in the Spinward Marches Sector, spending a little of their recent profits on a night out when they approached by a girl asking for money. Soon after this, she is approached by two men who attempt to abduct her, but she seems able to deal with them in a smart fashion. Their encounter is timely, if not for the Player Characters, then for a local Imperial agent who recruits them with gentle threats of menace. The Imperial Agent informs the Player Characters that the girl, Maxine, has recently fled from the nearby world of Pysadi, an an agricultural world governed by the strict ‘Mother Church’. The two men who attempted to abduct her were zealots of the Mother Church. The Imperial Agent will also tell the Player Characters that the Mother Church has entered into an agreement with an independent military organisation called ‘Manticore’, to launch an invasion of Zila, a neighbouring world on religious grounds and so bring it into the fold of Mother Church. Maxine and her family was being held by Manticore. The Imperial Agent wants the Player Characters to confirm the existence of the invasion plan, the links between Mother Church and the military organisation, and whether or not the Imperial representative on Pysadi, Baron Sir Mikhail Lentreth, is supporting the plan or being held hostage by Mother Church.

Getting to Pysadi will prove easy and the Imperial Agent will even provide goods that merchants on the planet will want to buy. Pysadi is a TAS Amber Zone due to its theocratic government and high law levels, which bans firearms and blades—and worse, alcohol. (In fact, the given reason for the invasion of Zila is that some of the agricultural exports from Pysadi are being fermented into alcohol!). Other than that, the Player Characters have relatively easy freedom of movement on the planet and what they will quickly discover is that everyone on the world is aware of the invasion plan and fully supportive of it. They do not know the exact details, of course, but can point to the rocket being prepared on its launchpad at the starport with no little pride and expectation. In technological terms, the rocket is confirmation that Mother Church has outside help as it is incapable of constructing it using the means available on Pysadi.

The Player Characters have several avenues of investigation. These include locating the Manticore compound, getting a closer look at the rocket, discovering the plans for the invasion of Zila, and determining the degree to which Baron Sir Mikhail Lentreth is involved in the plan. Some information is relatively easy to find, especially given the openness of the members of the Mother Church about the forthcoming invasion, but the Player Character will still need to conform this. Much of this involves stealth and breaking into various buildings, although some paperwork can be obtained to gain access to certain areas. Ultimately, the Player Characters will want to stop the invasion. Which means stopping the rocket. This can be done from the ground, but the security around the rocket is very tight, or it can be done after the rocket has launched. This sets up an exciting chase from Pysadi to the Jump Point as the Player Characters attempt to rendezvous with the invasion rocket, which it turns out, is actually a Jump Rocket and is fitted with a Jump Drive. Once in close proximity, they are to board and capture the vessel and its crew, which leads to showdown with the villain of the piece and a firefight or brawl in the cramped quarters of the rocket.
There are a number of situations which the scenario does not address. What happens if the Player Characters simply decide to launch their starship and use its weapons to destroy or damage the rocket on its launchpad? What if they fire at the unarmed rocket during the chase? Can they sabotage it that way? What happens if the rocket makes it to the jump point and gets away? In the first case, this would also mean firing on the starport, which is Imperial territory—and this is before the number of possible casualties is considered, and in the second, firing on an unarmed vessel would be seen as an act of aggression. If the rocket gets away, the Game Master will have to develop this possibility herself.

The Game Master is given a decent amount of support to help her run the scenario. This includes details and map of the world, Pysadi, the Mother Church and its headquarters, the Manticore compound, and details and deckplans of the invasion rocket. There are a couple of items of new equipment, the Concealed Power Holster and the Hand Needler, which will enable the Player Characters to circumvent the high law level on Pysadi. The last part of the scenario includes a section of Library Data, which is decent enough, but not all of the information is useful and there is some information missing, such as that on Manticore.
The scenario is not without its issues. One is with the NPC, Maxine. She is underwritten, the Game Master needing a little more detail than is given about since her involvement underlies the whole scenario. What becomes clear over the course of the scenario is that she has been genetically enhanced and if the Player Characters do confront the Manticore contingent aboard the rocket ship as the scenario lays out, they will discover that its commander is too. He is a tough opponent and it is suggested that if the Player Characters cannot deal with him, then Maxine can. Which undermines the Player Characters’ agency in what is a climatic encounter. Another issue is that Manticore is underwritten as a presence in the scenario. It lurks in the background and the Player Characters never really have a chance to encounter it and its operatives until very late in the scenario. It does not help that the motivations and background to Manticore are left unexplained. Lastly, the connection between Manticore and The Phoenix Initiative is underplayed, both terms of the background to the scenario and the fact that the Player Characters may have Imperial connections already as a result of playing through the latter scenario.
Physically, Manticore is an improvement on the earlier, The Phoenix Initiative. It is tidier and the world map is better, but it does need another proofing pass. The artwork is decent though.
Manticore is a much better and more interesting scenario than the previous The Phoenix Initiative. It is also better written and organised and so easier to run, but it does leave the Game master with a number of unanswered questions which she will probably have to answer herself. Otherwise, Manticore is a decent scenario which explores what happens when pride goes too far and someone takes advantage of it.

 Spend any time here, and you know I am a HUGE fan of the DC Comics event "Crisis on Infinite Earths."  I loved the comic, the DC YV Universe version, and more.

We are finally getting a DC Animated version.

It looks great, and telling it from Flash's point of view makes a lot of sense.  It's on Amazone Prime right now. I might check it out this weekend.

It features Supernatural's Jensen Ackles as Batman and Alexandra Daddario as Lois Lane (sadly not as Zatanna)

I can't wait for the whole trilogy to be released.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the sixth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild! However, it is not the city constabulary the Thieves’ Guild whose attention they attract in this scenario, but Death itself!
Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6; Cheating Death is designed for two to three Player Characters of First Level, but can be expanded to between four and six Player Characters and there is advice for increasing the difficulty of the adventure should the Judge want to run it for a group of higher Level Player Characters. It could be played through in a single session, but will probably take two. The set-up has the Player Characters either entering Lankhmar for the first time, or returning to the city, after a failed expedition out in the marshes beyond its walls. With some rooms sorted, at least temporarily, they retire to a tavern, where they can drink, carouse, and in the smoky din, pick up a rumour or two that perhaps will lead to a job or two and the chance to put some rilks in their pockets. Unfortunately, as they are looking for work, something—or someone—is looking for them. Somehow, they have attracted the attention of Death, the servant of the Lords of Necessity and unless they die, their names will unbalance his ledger. He stalks them, looking for moments when he can take their lives with a succession of accidents—trips on loose cobblestones, stairs collapse on them, gargoyles topping from roofs, crowds jostling them causing them, and more. First on the ordinary passersby around them, then on the Player Characters. They, however, will be initially unware of this, and his attention shifts from early warnings to deadly catastrophes and fatal attention, the Player Characters will need to follow up on some of the rumours they gathered earlier.
Following up on the rumours will lead the Player Characters to several locations and encounters, those around them suffering mishaps at first, and then they themselves, suffering increasingly deadly mishaps. These mishaps and catastrophes are tailored, at least in terms of damage to the three Classes in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, but they are not designed to necessarily kill the Player Characters. Although deadly, the Player Characters have the advantage of Luck to keep them alive even as Death’s influence kills those around them. Not all of the encounters give much, or indeed any, information as to what is going on. Really, only one does, so it is entirely possible that the Player Characters could go straight to the last encounter, find out what is actually happening, and cut out the other scenes. What they will learn at this location, ‘The Leather Library’, from a sage is that Death is stalking them and that if they want to avoid Death, the best they can do is hunt down a local legend, the ‘Burned Man’, said to have escaped Death’s touch for years. If he can be found, then perhaps that would settle their account with Death?
The second part of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death details ‘The Temple of the Burned Man’, which happens to be nearby and where the Burned Man has been lurking for decades—at the very least. His decrepit manse is laced with various traps and dangers, making getting to him difficult. The various locations around the manse are quite detailed and the Judge will need to pay close attention to how they work.
There is no denying that the premise of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death, that of the Player Characters being stalked by Death, feels appropriate to the city of Lankhmar. Yet as executed, the scenario does not work as well as it could. To begin with, the scenario is too short and it feels just too random that the Player Characters could be targeted by Death. Further, the scenario can be even shorter than it is as written. If they go straight to the one location where they are can actually learn what is happening to them, they miss out on the other, admittedly small handful, of locations and encounters in which they have the opportunity to feel the effect of Death’s influence. This potential short-circuiting highlights the fact that scenario feels as if it should not be played out in one go, but its events eked out and inserted into other ongoing scenarios. This would enable the Player Characters to feel the effects of Death’s influence more readily as part of the story and have it upset their plans, to have it loom over them, and push them to investigate the cause. It would also enable the Judge to explore more fully a possibility suggested in the scenario, but left undeveloped, which is that the Player Characters might suspect something else to be the cause of their misfortune. The suggested cause—as came up in a playtest—was witchcraft, but others could also be added to enhance the paranoia of the players and their characters.
The other problem with Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is the Level of the Player Characters it is designed for. As the sixth scenario released for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, it feels like a return to the beginning of the campaign set in Lankhmar. Now there is advice on increasing the difficulty of the scenario, but as a scenario for First Level Player Characters, it feels as it should be run between ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #0: No Small Crimes in Lankhmar’ from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set and the excellent Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar rather than later in a campaign. After all, which gang leader would not want to recruit a bunch of criminals who have cheated Death once into his gang? Also, this allow the legend of the Burned Man to be added earlier in the campaign and thus foreshadowed in time for when the Judge runs this scenario.
Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is as decently presented as you would expect from Goodman Games. It is well written and the cartography is  decent.

Ultimately, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is too short to be a good scenario. It is not unplayable as written, but it wants to be pulled apart, developed that much bit further, and eased into an ongoing campaign rather than played all in one go, making its climax and potential reward just that bit more satisfying.

 I participated in the Kickstarter for Coven & Crucible, and the core book is still on my desk, begging me to review it. Well, in the meantime, here is the first expansion!

Coven & Crucible: Unbound

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13thmoongames/coven-and-crucible-unbound?ref=theotherside

From the campaign page:

Coven & Crucible is a game set in a world where magic, witches, supernatural creatures, magical animals and more exist. Magic is cast by witches: people who have studied and learned how to work it. Anyone can be a witch, but it takes knowledge and discipline, akin to martial arts or cooking or programming or any other skill.

About Unbound

• 13 New Houses + Expanded Lore on the original 9 houses from the corebook.
• 100+ new NPCs, magical creatures and supernatural beings.
• 50+ of brand new magical traits.
• Expanded information on the various planes of existence (mundane, astral, infernal, internet, etc.).
• 6 high level scenarios to run, as well as dozens of plot hooks and encounters.

And much, much more!   

It looks great and the Core rules are fun. I just need to do more with them.

 Doing another magical character today. This one was featured in an early Character Creation challenge and then again for my discussion on moving away from D&D 5e and going to Pathfinder 2e.

Rowan McGowan is what I often refer to as a Witch Knight. She is a witch, but she is also a knight in the service of the "the Old Ways."  In D&D 5e this concept was a fun one to try with her taking levels in Warlock (Hexblade) and Paladin (Oath of the Ancients). It works surprisingly well. In Pathfinder 2e I made her into a witch and opted to later on add more martial training (Champion Dedication).  Both write-ups had their distinct advantages.

For Wasted Lands I am opting to use the Divine Warrior from NIGHT SHIFT and use the Heroic Touchstone to help fill in the gaps. 

Rowan McGown

Class: Divine Warrior
Level: 4
Species: Human
Alignment: Light 
Background: Scholar

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) A
Agility: 12 (0) 
Toughness: 10 (0) 
Intelligence: 13 (+1) 
Wits: 13 (+1) A N
Persona: 18 (+3) N

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 20
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +2 (base), +3 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Saves: +2 to all Wits and Persona Saves, +1 to Magic and Spells (Schloar background)

Divine Warrior Abilities
Sixth Sense, Heal Injury and Illness (4d6), Supernatural Attacks, Protection from Evil

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Spell Arcane Dart
2nd Level: Enhanced Senses
3rd Level: 
4th Level: Favored Weapon, Sword

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Protection

Gear
Longsword, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

Wasted Lands as a D&D/Pathfinder replacement

Again The Wasted Lands, with the additions of other O.G.R.E.S. material works as a very nice replacement for any sort of D&D like game. While all three versions of this Witch Knight character does something really great, I can get the most bang for my buck using Wasted Lands.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

As the ideal suitor, if male, you should cut your hair in the chic bowl—or pudding bowl—style, and ideally have golden hair, and wear a houppelande, a long loose gown with flowing selves. Red is a good colour for men, indicating vitality, kingliness, and power. Blue is good for the ladies as it indicates expense. Should you ever suffer from cancer of the mouth, then you may be fortunate to receive a visit from the Virgin Mary, who will bestow upon you a kiss that will you heal of it. And should you want to press your ardour—perhaps as a show of thanks for her beneficence—there will be an angel on hand to prevent you from doing so. In order to launch a crusade, there are certain requirements which need to be fulfilled first, including equal measures of hardship and oppression, a pinch of famine, all of Europe’s collective sin and religious guilt, a helpless labouring class, a new and bordering anti-Christian empire, one Pope (never two), and an impending apocalypse. Preparation time is a single decade. Cooking time is three years. Serve with the death of thousands, including kings and princes, garnish with plunder, and four Crusader kingdoms with uncertain futures. In the event of an encounter with wolves—such as when the River Seine froze over in 1338, allowing them to race across the river and attack the citizens of Paris and dig up the city’s corpses—always remember to see the wolf before it sees you because it will lose its courage if it sees you first, plus if it sees you first, you will struck dumb, be unable to cry for help and the wolf will bite you. However, all is not lost, because if you strip down to your underwear, grab a pair of rocks and bang them together, the wolf will turn tail and run away. Lastly, if you happen to have a weapon to hand, at least a dagger, do take the time to kill the wolf. The wolf will not be happy about this and will not want you to feel happy about it either. This is a trick. Do not fall for it. Fortunately, wolves have no legal protection and you can definitely kill a wolf with that handy dagger. Which is all the sort of thing you will know because you are a weird medieval guy. Or rather, none of this is weird whatsoever, because you are a medieval guy, and all of this—and more—is the subject of Weird Medieval Guys.

Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is a guide to life and living in the Medieval era by Olivia W. Swarthout. Drawn from a swathe of period manuscripts on numerous visits to the British Library, and originally posted on the Weird Medieval Guys Twitter account, combines images from the manuscripts and facts from the history to present a punchy, easy to read book that takes the reader from the moment of creation itself to the end of the world with the coming of the Four Horsemen and the apocalypse, and in between, the reader from his birth to his death—and in between that there is a lot that can happen. The book is profusely illustrated, so no aspect of Medieval life goes undepicted in the rich colours of the manuscripts. Having begun with the creation of everything, Weird Medieval Guys gives you life and so lets you pick a name, learn some useful slang—such as ‘Merobia’ for a woman who likes strong wine or ‘Sterilis Amator’ for that lover who has no money, choose your astrological sign and patron saint, determine where you live in the first of the book’s several short quizzes—the options being Constantinople, London, Paris, and Venice, suggests several jobs you like, and more. It is not all hard work, as there are examinations too of play and romance, but the latter all too soon feels like hard work, what with the need to make a love potion, which whilst a lot quicker than mounting a crusade, involves a dog, some rope, a hunting horn, an ivory stake, and a mandrake, does not take into account the fact that dogs—as noted in the section on play—do not like the horn being played. Then there are possible causes of marital difficulties and if it really does not work out, the possibility of a divorce, which comes with a handy flow chart to determine if you can get a divorce, the answer of course, being mostly no, that is also the counterpart to the handy flow chart to determine if you can court the lady of your affections… Of course, it all has to come to an end and the question of your death is raised before Judgement Day is raised. Hopefully with dignity before you get caught up in a civil dispute. Perhaps here the weirdest means of settling such a dispute, in combat, between a man and a woman, is for the man to be placed in a pit up to his waist where he must fight from there with a club, whilst the woman is armed with a big rock in a clock bag and allowed to roam the ground around the man. The illustrations would not look out of place in a wrestling match.

A good half of Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is devoted to a bestiary. Divided into several subsections—‘Beasts’, ‘Birds’, ‘Fish’, and ‘Serpents’. Each entry is catalogued and categorised, with strengths and weaknesses, and even some Medieval stats in the form of ‘Virtue’, ‘Beauty’, and ‘Danger’. The creatures range from the ordinary, such as the lion, the wolf, and the hedgehog to the fantastic, like the manticore, the mermaid, and the amphisbaena, the latter a snake with two heads. These are all presented from the Medieval point of view, of course, such as the bat being classified as a bird and cats as being extremely dangerous. There is, of course, a section devoted to the snail and plenty of images of knights versus snails. Sadly, there is no similar section on rabbits, and that perhaps is really the only omission from Weird Medieval Guys.

What really stands out in Weird Medieval Guys is the artwork, which is of course, drawn from the source material, the manuscripts. It is fantastically colourful, profusely illustrated and all annotated in a wry tone.

Weird Medieval Guys joins a growing list of works interested in the minutiae of Medieval life and the Medieval outlook and the colourful marginalia of period manuscripts. For example, How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages by Cait Stevenson, any number of enamel pins, and the more recent The Medieval Margin-agerie – Volume 1 from Just Crunch Games, which turns those marginalia into gameable content. Of course, Weird Medieval Guys does not do that, but what it can do is influence the portrayal of the Medieval world by the Game Master, perhaps even inspire an encounter or scenario or two. Weird Medieval Guys is a wry look at the fantastically strange world of the Medieval man and woman, what they knew and what they thought, how they lived, brought to life in the artwork of the period. For anyone with a casual interest in the Medieval period, Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is a perfect, vividly visual introduction to its oddness and oddities.

I thought I should be getting back to these "This Old Dragons" to celebrate 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons. Since this year is all about D&D and various themes, I am pulling out my Dragons to review, but when I post them will be timed to coincide with other events. I am saving my various Sci-fi issues for May and so on. This month though is pure randomness.  Reaching into the box under my desk I pull out a particularly musty smelling artifact from the summer of 1989. AD&D 2nd Edition is on the market. I am working two jobs (Pizza Hut during the day and QMHP at a Mental Health facility at night) to pay for school. "Satisfied" by Richard Marx is the Number #1 song. Tim Burton's Batman still dominates our screens. And on the shelves for July, 1989 is issue #147 of This Old Dragon.

Our cover is from none other than Clyde Caldwell, wanting to do a good sorceress for a change. I really liked this cover. I wish the copy ow reviewing still had it.

Inside we are treated to an ad for "The New" Dungeon game. Looks like the old one with newer art. I have this one (I have all of them) and it is a nice big board and one of the larger boxes for Dungeon.  This one advertises the new classes of Dwarf and Cleric. 

A couple of ads for the WEG Star Wars game. 

This issue's theme is magic, so that will be fun. 

Letters cover the issues of the day including details on the revised Druid from a couple of issues back. Nice, but all moot now that AD&D 2nd Ed is out. 

In a similar vein Forum covers some rulings on Clerics. Things are actually made clearer in 2nd Ed.

Skip Williams is up in Sage Advice with advice on various magic items like rings, potions, rods, staves and wands.

Sorcerous Secrets is our theme this month. 

Patricia Nead Elrod is first with Getting Familiar, a guide on familiars.  It is a 2nd Ed focused article (good) and covers what has long been a very neglected part of any wizard's (or witch's) life; their familiar. While the focus is AD&D 2nd ed the material on the types of familiars (Cats, Crows, Hawks, Owls, Weasels, Ferrets, and Toads) can be, and should be, used in any edition. Very solid article and a good kick-off.

An old friend of the Other Side, Vince Garcia, is up next with Variety, the Spice of Magic. Ok Vince knows his magic lore, so lets see what he has for us. This one is a 1st Ed article, not surprising given the time period. This covers substituting spell components for wizards casting spells. A great article if you are like me and track spell components. Lots of alternates are given with various chances of spell change or failure. Worth reading for ideas alone on spell components. 

Gaze Into my Crystal Ball... covers, obviously enough, crystal balls from Krys Stromsted. Again this is an AD&D 1st ed article. I'll point these out as needed for this time of the Summer of 1989. A cleaner break was made between 2nd ed and 3rd ed ten years later.  This one covers durations, distances, and how spells work through a crystal ball. 

Spelling is Out by Douglas J. Behringer details writing out spells. Again AD&D 1st Ed focused. This includes the type of paper used to how the character writes the spell. 

Richard Hunt gives us not just one, but four different Wands of Wonder in WOW Your Players. Four different wands with random tables of effects. Likely could be used with any edition with some tweaking. 

And that is it for the special feature. Hmm. Kinda expected more. 

Miniatures are featured in the Through the Looking Glass regular feature from Robert Bigalow.  Some chariots pulled by lions, some V&V heroes and some impressive dragons.

Nice ad for AD&D 2nd Edition. Still the mock-up of the Monstrous Compendium, though it should be out in stores at the same time as this issue. 

Our "centerfold" is the Magus game by Robert J. Kuntz. The rules are here but the game board and pieces are missing. Too bad, it might have been fun to try.

The Gamers Guide of small ads is after that and not in the end. Ads for dice, computerized FRPG maps, and a couple of ads for getting your character drawn.

TSR Previews reads like a collector's wish list.  AD&D 2nd Ed books, the new Dungeon, the 1990 Forgotten Realms calendar. The Shadowdale novel. Dragonlance modules. Really fun stuff.

Ken Rolston reviews a bunch of magic-themed games in Role-Playing Reviews. This includes GURPS Magic, Ars Magica (the first one!), Talislanta, and magical offerings from the Forgotten Realms and Fantasy Hero.  This long review goes into each book into detail. Generally speaking Rolston likes each of these books and what they offer.

Brenda K. Ward gives us Lord of the Keep our short story for this issue. 

The Leser clan of Hartley, Patricia and Kirk offer up this month's The Role of Computers. They cover a lot of games for various computer systems. Commodores get the most of them with Amigas, and Commodore 64k and 128k machines. I always liked the Commodore 128k, I had a girlfriend at the time who had one and it was a fun little computer. These reviews are paired up with the Clue Corner feature to give out hints on various games. 

Nice ad for the SSI AD&D PC games. 

John C. Bunnell is up with the book reviews in The Role of Books. None titles jump out at me, but most of the authors do. There is a Vonda N. McIntyre one, Starfarers, that looks interesting.  A Mercedes Lackey horror novel, Burning Water that looks like a lot of fun, and one from an author I don't know, Tom Holt, called Who's Afraid of Beowulf? that also might a fun read. 

Convention Calendar gives us some of the cons that are happening the Summer of 1989. Surprising not listed is Gen Con.

Dragonmirth wraps up our issue. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, the ones from the early 80s seemed funnier. 

So an interesting issue with a lot of great material if you are into magic and wizard types. 

Moving out of my continuity to do something newer, but related today.  Sinéad Moonshadow is a D&D character. She began life as an AD&D 2nd Ed character from a previous Character Creation Challenge. I thought she might be some sort of witch/bard or wizard/bard mix from The Complete Wizard's Handbook.  In fact, I imagined situations where she might later run into such characters as Celene, Heather, or Raven. As the last couple of years moved on, I changed my mind about what I would do with her. Now, she is very much my eyes and voice to visit the Forgotten Realms, which I will do more of later this year. 

And then Baldur's Gate 3 happened. Sinéad was my second full run-through (my fourth starting character or something). I really wanted to see how the Wild Magic Sorcerer worked in the game, and since I was using Sinéad, I also gave her levels of Bard. Honestly it was so great I have dropped the idea of her being a witch at all and instead going full wild Magic Sorcerer and Bard.  

Honestly, the distinction between a "wild magic Sorcerer" and "Natural witch" is largely an academic one. But I am the academic that gets to make those distinctions, and I am cool with it.

So, in my updated backstory, she is a half-elf girl growing up in the Moonshae Isles. She has bursts of magic that she can't control. Even in the magic-rich Realms, this is an oddity. When she accidentally burns down a barn during a bit of uncontrolled magic, she leaves her home.  That much I always had, but where did she go? Well, now I know. Baldur's Gate on the Sword Coast. I only know a little more than that because my Realms lore could be better. 

In many ways, Sinéad is the spiritual god-daughter to Heather, both half-elves, both bards. I might need to try out a Ranger/Bard under 5e or Baldur's Gate sometime in the future.

Sinéad Moonshadow

Class: Sorceress / Sage
Level: 12/8
Species: Half-elf
Alignment: Light 
Background: Sorcerous

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 15 (+1) 
Persona: 17 (+2) N

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 87
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +8/+6/+4
Melee Bonus: +2 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Spell Attack: +6
Saves: +6 to Spells and Magical effects (Sorcerer & Elf)

Sorcerers Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (4): Beguile, Detect Thoughts, Enhanced Senses, Shadow Walk

Sorceress Spells
First Level: Arcane Darts, Beast Speech, Prestidigitation, Sleep
Second Level: Eternal Flame, Invisibility, See Invisible, Unlock
Third Level: Concussive Blast, Dark Lightning, Dispel Magic, Remove Curse
Fourth Level: Control Temperature, Dimensional Travel, Renewal
Fifth Level: Passageway, Restore Life, Telekinesis
Sixth Level: Dispel Evil, Instant Death

Elf Abilities
Night Shifted

Sage Abilities
Languages (18), Lore, Suggestion, Mesmerize Others, Read Languages, Renegade skills at level 4

Sage Spells
First Level: Arcane Darts (yes, twice), Chill Ray, Gout of Flame
Second Level: Conjure Flame, Invoke Fear, Magic Locks
Third: Fly

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: 
2nd Level: 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Gear
Longbow, shortsword, leather armor, Dog ("Scratch")

Wasted Lands as D&D 5th Ed / Baldur's Gate 3

Again I am impressed with the levels of customization here. I think this Sinéad fares well against her 5e and BG3 counterparts. I did not pick out any Heroic Touchstones for her, but I would do this to cover any Sorceress or Bard powers she is missing like her meta-magic and Bardic inspiration, though I might be able to get this with Beguile.

This is a really good version of her and really one I could see playing. I am going to obviously spend a lot more time with this character and even try her out in various other versions of D&D. But this one right now is my favorite.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 I was saddened to hear of the passing of RPG industry titan Jennell Jaquays this morning. I had never met with her face to face, though we had spoken together many times online. She was a compassionate, understanding, and wonderfully funny soul.

You can't go through the early days of our hobby and not see her name on something. Whether it was early Judges Guild material, articles in Dragon magazine, or her works, both as a writer and artist, for Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller, The Fantasy Trip, and Runequest.  Her work in the pages of the Judges Guild Journal and the Dungeoneer are still some of my favorites from the dawn age of RPGs.

Her continued work in video games, like Quake, kept her close to RPGs. 

I knew she had been sick since October, and I knew it was not a minor thing, but today we got word from her wife that she had passed.

While her work on Central Casting is justifiably lauded, it was her Dark Tower adventure in which she gained her highest accolades. Though I admit, I am also rather partial to her adventure "Talons of Night."

Her wife, Rebecca "Burger Becky" Heineman, has a GoFundMe started. Initially, it was to cover medical expenses, which sadly she still has.

I know we are getting to a point where the pioneers of our hobby are getting older. I have even lost close friends in the last year. But that does not make it any easier.  Sad thing is I had an idea from earlier in the Fall I wanted to talk to her about. She was the sort to always give very helpful and honest advice. But I saw she was ill, so I figured I would wait. 

Well. I guess I can't now. 

My thoughts are with her family.