Osprey Games is primarily known for its wargames rules, such as Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, but it also publishes board and card games and roleplaying games too. The latter includes Gran Meccanismo: Clockpunk Roleplaying in da Vinci’s Florence, Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, and Heirs to Heresy: The fall of the Knights Templar, whilst the former includes titles such as Undaunted Normandy, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Village Rails: A Game of Locomotives and Local Motives. The latter is rail-themed board game designed for two to four players aged up fourteen and over, and designed to be played in less than an hour. It has a delightfully cosy feel to it, being set in the English countryside during the Age of Steam during the thirties, forties, and fifties. Play is simple with each player only having to make a few choices and the game ends once everyone has taken twelve turns after which each player’s tableau or rail network is scored and the player with the highest score wins.
Village Rails: A Game of Locomotives and Local Motives consists of eighty Railway Cards, thirty-eight Terminus Cards, four Reference Cards and four Scoring Dials, Border Pieces, and almost fifty coins. The Border Pieces and coins are done in thick cardboard, as are the Scoring Dials, which do require some assembly. The Border Pieces are marked with the start of seven railway lines and are used to create an ‘L-shape’ into which the Railway Cards are placed as a three-by-five twelve-card grid. The Railway Cards are double-sided. On one side is Track, which depicts two single tracks running across terrain such as fields, pasture, forest, lakes, and villages. The Track side are also marked various symbols, including Barns, Farms, Halts, and Sidings. When they appear on a completed line, these will all score a player points, except for Sidings which are scored at the end of the game. On the other side of the Railway Cards are Trips, which score a player if their conditions are met. For example, ‘2 per type of feature on the line.’, ‘No Bulls on the line: 4 points’, and ‘Only straight tracks on the line: 6 points’. Terminus Cards earn a player money when played, the amount depending on the indicated features on the cards, for example, the number of tractors on the line, number of different terrain features on the line, and so on. The greater the number of features on the line, the more money a Terminus Card will earn.
At the start of the game, each player receives an ‘L-shape’ border and £5 in coins. Once the Railway Cards are shuffled, cards are drawn to form two markets—the Track Market and the Trip Market. These are two lines of cards from which a player can select a single Track card and a single Trip card respectively on his turn. The first card in each market is always free to take, but the cards further along the line and closer to the deck must be purchased, with cards closer to the deck being more expensive. This money is placed on the cards further away from the deck and if a player subsequently selects one of the cards with money on it, he receives both card and money. Each player receives three Terminus Cards which he keeps secret until played. On a turn, a player can conduct two actions. The first is to build tracks, which the player must do, the second is to plan a trip, which is optional, but can be done before or after building tracks. Planning a trip always costs money and the Trip card selected is placed next to the player’s L-shape border at the start of a line. Each line can have two Trip cards like this. When selected a Track card is placed into a player’s tableau, either next to a border or another Track card. If as a result of a Track card being placed, a railway line runs from the player’s ‘L-shape’ border to the edge of his tableau, it is considered completed and can be scored. Points are scored for the features on the line, for the bonus provided by the adjacent Trip card, and money if a Terminus card has been played. The Reference Cards help scoring easy for each player.
In Village Rails, each player is working to complete his own tableau and the game does not involve any direct interaction with each other. The interaction comes indirectly through the game’s two markets—the Track Market and the Trip Market. Here each player will be watching them for the best cards to become available, hopefully free in the case of the Track Market and cheap in the case of the Trip Market, and before another player takes them. Another reason to take a card is that it has money on it. Money will enable a player to purchase a better Track or Trip card than before another player can, or simply just buy a Trip card, and the right Trip card will score more points. What this means is that the players have to spend their money with care and take the opportunity of their Terminus cards to earn more. A player will always have three Terminus cards, so fortunately, there is always the opportunity for him to earn money when completing a line.
Placement of the Track cards also takes care and players tend to place their first Track cards at the outer corners of their L-shape and work inwards to fill in all twelve spaces in their tableaus. This is because those placed at the corners can often be completed first, scoring a player some points and potentially earning him money. It also initially gives a wider choice as to what cards a player can draw and play, but as more and more Track cards are placed, the choices begin to tighten as a player tries to balance trying to find the right Track card to add to a tableau and purchase the Trip card which will score him the most points. Throughout, a player will always be considering how he can maximise the number of points he can score and how much money he can earn. Play continues until every player has placed his twelfth Track card and the final scoring is done for the Sidings.
Physically, Village Railways is delightfully and sturdily presented. The first thing that you notice upon lifting up the rules booklet from the box is one single piece of design to the components—and not to the components of the game, but the packaging of the components that the players pull out to assemble the Scoring Dials and the Border Tiles. There is a notch in the corner where a finger can be inserted and the thick sheets of card pulled out. This only has to be done the once, but it just makes things that little bit easier. Otherwise, all of the game’s components are sturdy, appropriately cosy in theme, and easy to use, although the symbols on the Track Cards are not always easy to spot, especially on the Track Cards with a darker theme, such as the forests. The rule book itself is clearly presented and includes a good example of a single turn, and the artwork has a lovely period feel, especially the locomotive illustrations on the Trip cards.
If there is an issue with Village Railways, it is that it pitches itself as a railway game set in the English countryside where the locals are happy to allow tracks to be built by the players or railway companies, but make specific demands of them. Which sounds like the players are laying tracks, but where they go will often be dictated by intervening or vociferous busybodies or persons of note, but it is not that. It is instead, more of a puzzle game in which each player attempts to fill a grid with tracks and maximise their points. Essentially, Village Rails combines drafting from a marketplace, tile placement, and route planning and building with the almost puzzle-like element of placing Track cards and connecting railway lines in a way which every player hopes will optimise his railway network and his score. Not as light a game as it first seems, Village Rails: A Game of Locomotives and Local Motivess is simple to learn and quick to play, but it is more challenging and thoughtful than the average filler game.

I have stumbled on some new information so I have decided to combine an older feature, Sympathy for the Succubus, with a newer one, In Search of, for something new.  In particular, my search for the roots of the succubus in D&D. 

You can see my first three parts here:

• Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 1
• Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 2
• Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 3

Today I want to explore one of the "urban legends" of the early days of D&D. The David Sutherland III succubus art from the AD&D 1st Ed Monster Manual.

Let's start with what everyone knows or thinks they know. 

Two 1977 Publications. What do they have in common?

Oh, Sheila!

Shelia MullenSheila Mullen was the Playboy Playmate of the month for May 1977.  Certainly, the time period was right. The Monster Manual was published in December 1977. There are even a few pictures that *could be* right. The one to your right is a cropped version of the biggest contender. 

This notion has been taken up by many modern writers, bloggers, and chroniclers, myself included.  

• Halls of the Nephilim's Succubus Sunday (part of his Succubus Sunday series) 
• With the original from Stephen Poag
• Dragonsfoot, Succubus Pic in MM/Research can be fun, sort of
• Black Gate, Art of the Iconic Female #2; The Succubus
• Thomas Denmark's homage to the Sutherland Succubus, using the Sheila Mullen pose.
• A Sucubus que saiu da Playboy, this features the Sutherland art and the Sheila Mullen picture in question.
• And some from the Power Score blog, though not 100% directly related to this search:
• Dungeons & Dragons - A Guide to the Succubus
• A Tribute to The Succubus
• A Guide to Nocticula, Demon Lord of Assassins, Darkness, and Lust
• And my own additions to this urban legend.
• Eludecia, the Succubus Paladin for Basic-era games
• In Search of Nocticula

Likely the source of all of this is the Blog of Holding. Which only claims that the "body of one of these original succubi was copied from a Playboy centerfold."  Sheila Mullen was a centerfold for 1977, making her the likeliest of choices.

Except that is *mostly* wrong.

Sweet as Honey

The date of 1977 is right, but the month was October. And it wasn't a centerfold.

I apologize for not remembering who it was that first clued me in on this idea, but it sent me down a rabbit hole of searching. 

This issue is rather famous for having an interview with Barbara Streisand. I posted the cover above. The centerfold/Playmate is Kristine Winder, who sadly passed in 2011 at 55 from breast cancer. But neither she nor Sheila Mullen lived on in the pages of the Monster Manual. 

No, that honor belongs to Honey Wells.

Miss Wells was featured in the "Ladies of Joy" pictorial by John Bowers, with photography by Robert Scott Hooper. It featured women in "the world's oldest profession." 

As you can see here with the Sutherland Succubus, her photo is a good match.

Honey Wells and the Succubus. Covered for your protection as much as mine

We don't know much about Miss Wells here. Save for what she tells us.

So there is no real way to research Miss Wells here. I doubt that is even her real name. Not to mention that this is a 45-year-old article, so much could have happened since then. If alive, she would be in her mid to late 60s now.

Which is too bad. I wonder if she ever knew that her pictorial inspired this art and that art was held in such fond memories of an entire generation of gamers.

Now I will concede that the succubus pic is likely inspired by Honey Wells and Sheila Mullen. The hands and hair fit a similar pose on Miss Mullen (pictured above), and the overall pose is Miss Wells.

Sadly David Sutherland passed away in 2005, so I can't approach him and confirm. Indeed, it was also more than 45 years ago, and any memory is likely blurred. 

Though it is comforting that Sutherland, Wells, and yes, Mullen have a bit of D&D Immortality to call their own. 

 This cell looks like it is the same size as the others, but it begins to shift and change.

This effect is an illusion and a very powerful one. This illusion makes the room look larger on the inside than it is. Additionally, there is an effect that will confuse anyone inside.  The room's illusion is not related to the creature inside and a save vs. Magic will reveal the room for what it is. 

The inhabitant of this room takes advantage of this illusion.  Inside this room is a Will-o-the-wisp.

AC 3 [17], HD 5+1 (22 hp), Att 1, life drain, THAC0 15 [+4], MV 90’ (30’), SV D11 W11 P12 B13 S15, ML 12, AL Chaotic, XP 575, NA 1 (1d4), TT see below.

This is not the Will-o-the-Wisp normally encountered. This is an undead creature. While it has high HD it is a single creature and has low hp. It can be turned by a cleric as a 5HD creature.  The creature can only be hit by magic.  Its low AC is due to its size, its erratic movement, and its magical protection.

The wisp leads characters into this room and uses the illusion to keep victims confused and scared. It then feeds on the life energies of those trapped. It can't drain the victims directly and has to wait till they start to die of other causes.

The Wisp does not collect treasure, but there is a lot material left from former victims. The only way to find it though is make the save vs. spells to stop the illusions.

--

I am reworking Will-O-the-Wisps for my Basic Bestiary. This is a rough draft.

 This cell is locked and the door feels stuck.  A combined strength of 28 is needed to force it open.

This room has a large blue portal that leads to a different dungeon. Someone has been using this as a storage room. There is a treasure chest with 5,000 gp inside! There are two large Bags of Holding. Many mundane swords, daggers, longbows, arrows, and shields.  There is also food that seems to be fine (it is) but none of it is recognizable. It tastes weird but is perfectly healthy to eat.

If DMs wish they could have the inhabitants of this realm making a deposit. They are closely related to lizardmen.  They are not expecting to fight and have a morale of 6.

I was recently at my FLGS, and I decided to pick up some old friends.

Like many gamers my age, I started with a wide variety of D&D books. A Basic book here, an OD&D book here, and an AD&D book here. In my case, I started with a lot of D&D Basic (B/X) books. I picked up my AD&D books later on.  So my first AD&D books were Deities & Demigods and the Fiend Folio. I only later grabbed the PHB, DMG, and MM and when I did, they were "newer" Easley/Orange spine covers.  I wanted mine to be different from my then DMs. 

Also, like many gamers my age, I lost them in one of the many, many moves during my university days. This was sad, but I had my 2nd Ed books so I could still at least play.

When I got to a point where I could settle down and get them back, I bought back the original covers. But I always missed the "Trinity" of the orange spine ones.  Well, I decided it was well past time to fix that.

I now have the original covers, picked up around 2000 or so. The WotC reprints. And now the Orange Spine ones.

All are in really good condition. I have others, like my softcover Monster Manual and Players Handbook from England and my first-printing PHB and DMG. But those are all safely tucked away from light. 

And I had the mini versions of these covers, so that was one of the reasons I was not rushing to get new copies of these. But I figured I really should get them.

They were not cheap, much more expensive than when I re-bought the original covers in the early 2000s, but honestly, they are really worth it to me.

I have to say, it does put me in the mood for some AD&D 1st Ed! I think I even have some goldenrod character sheets around here as well.

This cell is just down the passageway from the last room.

This cell is empty.

With the OGL fiasco settled (for now), I have returned to work on Basic Bestiary. In truth, I have enough to publish right now; I just need some art for...well, most of them. 

I was recently (this last weekend) going through an old hard drive I rebuilt (ugh...never buying a Seagate drive again), and I found some files from 2013. One, in particular, was filled with monsters I had written for a Pathfinder project that was never picked up. It has about 170 monsters on it but the point of view is of a fantasy Earth.  Many of these creatures already have similar entries in BB. Other ideas went on to live in Monster Mash and Monstrous Maleficarum. But many of them are still good and worth giving new life to. 

This leaves me with two conundrums.  Both relate to a basic assumption I am making about Basic Bestiary.

When I was working on Basic Bestiary, I focused on the monsters of myth and legend, especially the cool, lesser-known monsters. Many, if not most, of these creatures are very much tied to a specific location and cultural set of myths. The assumption is then I would be crafting these using an Earth-based or Earth-like frame of reference. Something that many publishers try to avoid.

So Conundrum 1 is "How do I make Angels work?" D&D has angels. I have a lot more. They are very much tied with the myths, legends, and stories of various real-world religions.  They are the biggest section of BB I still need to finish.  My wife suggested I move them over to my demon book and make it "2024 problem." There is a certain amount of logic to that. Angels and Demons are more alike to each other than they are to say to dragons or goblins.  It might be a good idea to move them on over. It would reduce the total monster count right now, but this new batch I found would more than make up for it.

Conundrum 2 deals with my Earth-centric focus. One of the monsters I found was a very Norwegian-focused Troll. Another was a very Algonquin-focused.  Do I clean those up or lean into them? Classic wisdom suggests I make it all more generic, but other publishers have had some solid success keeping an Earth focus. I am thinking of leaning into them to be honest. So when I say a monster is from Norwegian mythology and tales readers can know where to put it in their own worlds. 

I know. I keep finding ways to over complicate this project, and I have been doing it for so long I nearly lost my window to publish.  So I think I am going to try to wrap this up soon. I'd like to be done with this one and maybe even BBII by this year.

One can hope.

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet since then, Wizards of the Coast has all but ignored B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the module that preceded it, B1 In Search of the Unknown, barring the publisher’s 2012 Dungeon Module B2 The Caves of Chaos: An Adventure for Character Levels 1-3. This was the playtest scenario for D&D Next, first seen in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, which was essentially previewing what would go on to become Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Instead, it would be other publishers who would revisit both scenarios in the twenty-first century. So Kenzer & Company first published B1 Quest for the Unknown, a version of B1 In Search of the Unknown for use with HackMaster, Fourth Edition, and would follow it up with not one, but two versions of B2 Keep on the Borderlands. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with JN1 The Chaotic Caves, a scenario written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. In addition, Faster Monkey Games published its own homage to B1 In Search for the Unknown with The Hidden Serpent, whilst Pacesetter Games & Simulations has published a number of extra encounters and sequels for both scenarios, most notably B1 Legacy of the Unknown and B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland.

Yet Wizards of the Coast did not ignore its extensive back catalogue. It would release numerous titles in PDF, and even allow Print on Demand reprints, including both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Further, in 2017, it published Tales from the Yawning Portal, a collection of scenarios that had originally been published for previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, and even D&D Next. These scenarios though, did not include either B1 In Search of the Unknown or B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Which upon first glance seemed a strange omission, but then came the announcement from Goodman Games about Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands. 
Arguably, Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands would prove to be the ultimate version of the classic module, but authors have continued to revisit the original even since such as with the fanzine version from Swordfish Islands LLC, which so far consists of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 and Beyond the Borderlands Issue #2. Yet there remain oft forgotten visits to the famous ‘Keep on the Borderlands’ and the equally infamous, ‘Caves of Chaos’, which are worth examining and shining light upon. So it is with ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’. Written by Jeff Grubb, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ was published in 1999 as an insert in InQuest Gamer #50 (June, 1999), the monthly magazine for game reviews and news from Wizard Entertainment, which ran between 1995 and 2007 and had a particular focus on collectable card games. Nominally known as ‘IQ3’ and just sixteen pages in length, it was written for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition and designed as a prequel to the soon to be released Return to the Keep of the Borderlands. It is for Player Characters of between First and Third Level and takes place before they arrive at the eponymous keep on the borderlands.

‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ opens with the Player Characters on the road to the frontier and the border castle there, aiming to use it as a base of operations as they explore and potentially clean out the Caves of Chaos that their parents told them about. Their path is blocked by a caravan where a cleric is vociferously complaining that the caravan’s guards failed to stop the theft of an important magical item, the Helm of Perception, he was taking to the keep. The cleric hires the Player Characters to go after the thief. When they accept, the thief’s tracks lead into the forest to the north and then to a clearing when his body, not far from a cave mouth in a low hill. Inside the cave is a classic kingdom of the mushroom men or Myconids, but it is a kingdom in disarray. Some time prior to the Player Characters’ arrival, another party of adventurers entered the cave in search of treasure. They were all killed in the attempt, but as both the last of the adventurers and the king of the Myconids lay dying, the king released the spores to create a new king, but the spores mingled with the dying human warrior and kept her alive—sort of. Now she is the ‘Gray Queen’, twisted by the fungus as much as her thoughts twist the shared thoughts of the Myconid collective mind and drive them all mad!
Although the final confrontation will involve combat, the Player Characters do not have to resort to combat in the earlier encounters in the caves. If they refrain, they will be able to learn what has happened in the caves since the invasion of the previous adventuring party. This is done in a pleasingly entertaining and alien fashion, which involves the Myconids still free of the Gray Queen’s disturbing influence blasting messages spores into the faces of the Player Characters! Although quite lengthy, the description of this is nicely done and the experience should be a weird one for player and characters alike—and actually one the Player Characters are likely to be wary off of if the Myconids have used spores on them earlier in the scenario. ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ should last no more than a single session.
Since the events of ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ do not take place at the Keep on the Borderlands, what does the scenario add to Return to the Keep on the Borderlands? Well, it sets things up for the Player Characters’ arrival. If they are able to recover the Helm of Perception, they will have made possible allies and contacts at the keep, ones who can supply ready healing. Very likely something they are going to need after a visit or two to the Caves of Chaos! One of the NPCs—the complaining cleric encountered at the caravan—is fully written and could become a recurring figure at the keep for the Player Characters, even though he is likely to be very annoying. The scenario includes some advice for the Dungeon Master which discusses most possible eventualities and outcomes of the scenario, including the Player Characters stealing the Helm of Perception or the annoying cleric getting killed.
Physically, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is done in full rich colour—something that not even featured in the official releases for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition at the time. Notably, it is illustrated with a range of fully painted pieces, all of them drawn from the covers of previous books for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, including pieces from the Dragonlance line. One issue perhaps with this is that nearly all of the illustrations showcase Dungeons & Dragons in general rather than the scenario itself. This is confirmed by the pieces of descriptive text accompanying the artwork which are generic in nature and verging on the trite. At least for Dungeons & Dragons, that is!
‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is a serviceable scenario which could be run as a prequel to Return to the Keep on the Borderlands. However, it is not vital to that scenario, even though it does help set up the Player Characters and their reputation for when they do arrive at the keep. Similarly, the scenario would be a reasonable side quest or side trek adventure for most campaigns for low Level Player Characters. Overall, ‘Warriors of the Gray Lady’ is an interesting, if minor side note to the history of B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: The Night Terrors of Joseph PidulskiPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Matt ‘Doc’ Tracey

Setting: Jazz Age Toledo
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Twenty page, 22.96 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Some secrets of the past are passed down to haunt you. Plot Hook: The investigators are asked to investigate the protruding dreams of a young artist.Plot Support: Two NPCs, two handouts, one map, one Mythos tome, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain.
Pros# Solid treatment of the ‘haunted by an ancestor’ plot# Short, straightforward investigation# Takes the Investigators to Toledo# Easy to adapt to other modern time periods and settings# Easy to adapt to elsewhere# Wiccaphobia# Oneirophobia# Dendrophobia# Artphobia
Cons# Needs a good edit# No map of Toledo# Plain handouts# Sanity reward a little high?# Mythos tome could have been better developed# Underwritten clues and investigation# Not pulling the Investigators into the dreams a missed opportunity?# Not enough Toledo
Conclusion# Short, straightforward investigation into a classic plot that does not involve the Investigators in the threat until the final confrontation.# Underdeveloped and underwritten in places, but a solid enough plot and investigation.

This door looks like it leads to another guard room (like 19 before it).

 The floor of this room is trapped. If a pressure plate is stepped on the floor gives way and all occupants slid down (away from the door) to the next level below.

A thief can find this trap, but not disable it. They can however avoid it.

It is the year 2007 and the Sinaloa Cartel, the largest drug trafficking organization in the world, operates a vast network of narcos, halcones, y sicarias whose sole purpose is to ensure the flow of drugs north across the border into Los Estados Unidos and the flow of dollars into the cartel’s coffers. Mexico is a narcostate in which the influence and corruption of the cartels has reached deep into every level of society, backed up by both bloody violence and corruption. One stop on that path is the Free and Sovereign State of Durango in northwest Mexico and it is here that the Sinaloa Cartel runs into primary enemy—Los Zetas. This rival cartel is renowned for its even greater, more obvious acts of cruelty than the Sinaloa Cartel to the point where both ordinary Mexicans and members of Sinaloa Cartel fear the Los Zetas, which mostly consists of ex-army special forces soldiers. The Sinaloa Cartel has few other enemies. Most of la Policía and los federales—the local police and the Mexican federal police—are in the pockets of one cartel or another, as are local businessmen and both local and national politicians. At the local level, that of a territory or plaza, the biggest dangers come from rival cartels, upstart gangs, and ambitious members of the cartel who more control of the drug trade in the area. Within the plaza, el narco wants everything to run smoothly and everyone to know he is in charge, el halcón wants to both protect the interests of his boss and have a greater involvement in it, el concinero wants to cook the drugs in safety, la esposa wants to protect her family even as it is in volved in the drug trade, la polizeta takes el narco’s money to protect his own life even as he giving information to los federales, la rata wants out of the cartel and has plenty of information to spill if she can last long enough, and la sicaria has been brought back to protect the interests of el narco and the plaza, but whose side is he on? All are desperate, all have made bad decisions and will likely suffer the consequences, and all will do their utmost to survive as their secrets and ambitions collide in Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse.
Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse is a decidedly mature and darkly themed roleplaying game published by Magpie Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Inspired by the television series Breaking Bad and The Wire and the films, El Mariachi and Siccario, this roleplaying game draws heavily on the stories about the manufacture and trafficking of narcotics—cocaine, crystal meth, and heroin—in Mexico and north across the border into the USA. The players take on the roles of archetypes or Playbooks, each of which is involved with the Sinaloa Cartel and has one or more connections with each other. A combination of these connections, the characters’ agendas, their obligations to the cartel, and the cartel’s agenda serves to drive the drama of the roleplaying game, establishing tensions and hooks that will drive the story in a playthrough of Cartel. Which with all of that criminality, money, power, and obligation on the line, means that Cartel has potential for some great roleplaying.
Cartel is ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’. What this means is that it uses the mechanics first seen in Apocalypse World, the 2010 roleplaying game which won the 2010 Indie RPG Award and 2011 Golden Geek RPG of the year and is from the designer of Dogs in the Vineyard. The core of these mechanics is a roll of two six-sided dice, with results of ten or more counting as a complete success or ‘strong hit’, results of between seven and nine as a partial success, a ‘weak hit’ or a success with consequences, and  and results of six or less counting as a failure with consequences—or ‘no, but’. The dice are rolled against actions or ‘Moves’. For example, ‘Get the Truth’. When ten or more is rolled for this Move, the player using the Move gains a ‘strong hit’ and picks two out of three option. The options are that the target of the Move cannot mislead with the truth, confuse with falsehoods, or stonewall with silence. If seven, eight, or nine are rolled, the player has achieved a ‘weak hit’ and can only select one of the three options. The character making this Move also loses a point of Stress, reflecting a lowering of tension as the target of the Move is forced to be honest. When the Move is rolled, the player adds the appropriate stat, which typically ranges in value between -2 and +2. The four stats in Cartel are Face (social influence), Grit (tenacity and good fortune), Hustle (fast talk and persuasion), and Savagery (violence and reading others).
For example, El Coninero, Yolanda, has problem—the shipments she is sending out are arriving short, so she wants to ask El Halcón, Pepe, if he knows anything about this. Having cornered Pepe, Yolanda says to him, “Hey, Pepe, my last shipment came up short. This isn’t the first time. What do know about it?” The Master of Ceremonies says that this is a ‘Get the Truth’ Move. Yolanda’s player has to roll the dice and add her Hustle, which is +1. Her player rolls six, but the +1 makes it a seven. This is not a complete success, but it is a hit and Yolanda does get to reduce her Stress (well, she is going to get some of the truth after all). The options are that Pepe cannot mislead Yolanda with the truth, confuse her with falsehoods, or stonewall her with silence. If Yolanda’s player had rolled ten or more, her player could have selected two of these options, but can only choose one because of the roll. Yolanda’s player opts for Pepe not confusing her with falsehoods, which means that Pepe cannot lie. He responds with, “Look Yolanda, it was me, okay? I’ve been selling it on the streets. I had too though… there’s some dumbass cop taking a bigger cut of my pandillo’s money. He’s not one of ours, so…”
Cartel has ten basic Moves, which every Player Character has access to. These include ‘Justify Your Behaviour’, ‘Propose a Deal’, ‘Push Your Luck’, ‘Turn to Violence’, and more. Two other types of Move are conditional. Stress Moves such as ‘Verbally Abuse or Shame Someone’, ‘Lose Yourself in a Substance’, or ‘Confess Your Sins to a Priest’ are triggered when a character is in danger of suffering too much Stress. Heat Moves are triggered when a Player Character wants to avoid the notice of, or entanglement with, la Policía or los federales. These are ‘Avoid Suspicion’, ‘Leave a Messy Crime Scene’, and ‘Flee from Los Federales’. The basic Moves are detailed in a two-page spread each, while the others are given just the one page each. Half of each description is given over to detailed and engaging examples of play.
Further, players have access to Moves known only to their characters. These Moves, what a character knows or can do, are defined by their archetype or Playbook. Cartel itself has seven Playbooks. These are ‘El Concinero’, who cooks or manufactures the drugs; ‘La Esposa’, the spouse entangled in the lies of their partner; ‘El Halcón’, the ambitious young gang member; ‘El Narco’, the local boss in charge of an area or la plaza; ‘La Polizeta’, the cop corrupted by the cartel as much as he is trying to bring it down; ‘La Rata’ is the compromised mole in the cartel who wants out, but the only way is through the cartel; and ‘La Sicaria’, the cartel veteran enforcer or killer who has managed to survive thus far. The Moves in each Playbook are unique and thematically appropriate to the archetype. For example, the ‘Amante’ Move for ‘La Rata’ is made when the Player Character shares an intimate night with a lover, the player rolls and adds the character’s Face stat. On a strong hit, the Player Character can ask two questions of her lover, but only one on a weak hit. A hit also clear the Player Character’s Stress. On a miss, the Player Character reveals something about themself and so places themselves in danger.
Besides Moves, each Playbook has Extras and Llaves—or Keys. Extras represent a Playbook’s connections or resources, essentially their support. So, El Concinero has a lab where the drugs are cooked, La Esposa a family and obligations, El Halcón his loyal Pandilla or gang, El Narco a Plaza through which drugs are moved and sold, La Polizeta connections to an anti-cartel taskforce, La Rata his wretchedness at his situation, and La Sicaria his weapons and gear, which represent how they conduct his tasks. Each Key or Llave represents a means of a character gaining Experience Points. Thus, El Concinero has Secrets, Debt, and Arrogance. The first grants him Experience Points when he lies to someone close to him about his illicit activities; the second when he takes on a new loan or has to ‘strain your finances’ to meet family needs; and the third, when he uses his superior knowledge or experience to verbally shame or abuse someone they care about. Earned Experience Points are spent on Advances which range from improved Stats and support options to new Moves and resolving support issues. All seven Playbooks are highly detailed, including a guide on playing each Playbook, notes on each of the Playbook’s Moves, as well as a list of inspirations for the Playbook.
Character creation in Cartel is in part a collaborative process. Each player selects a Playbook and together work through the options it gives, deciding on a name, look, and gear as well as adjusting a Stat and deciding on Moves, Llaves, and connections or resources. Each player also establishes ‘Los Enlaces’ or links with other characters, ideally other the player characters, but NPCs are acceptable too. Guiding the players through this process is the Master of Ceremonies—as the Game Master is known in ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ Games—who will be asking questions and helping to build the relationships and backgrounds to each of the Player Characters. 
In play, this is the primary role of the Master of Ceremonies, to ask questions, push and prompt the players, and build their characters’ involvement in the setting. For this she has the Moves of her own, such as ‘Inflict stress’, ‘Escalate a situation to violence’, and ‘Lean on a secret’, but the most important one is more of a directive—to be always asking the Player Characters, “What do you do?”. The Master of Ceremonies’ Moves are not as extensively described as the others in the game, but they are not as complex. The advice for the Master of Ceremonies is extensive though, beginning with how to set up and frame scenes, and to keep them meaningful to the fiction. It also covers how to use and pace her own Moves, examining each Playbook, managing the player versus player interaction and conflict at the heart of Cartel, using NPCs, and how to set up, run, and end the first session. It is supported by a lengthy, six-page example of play.
Damage in Cartel is managed as either Stress or Harm. The first represents mental damage, whilst the second is physical damage. Both are greatly deleterious to a character’s wellbeing. Interestingly, whilst the outcome of the ‘Turn to Violence’ Move will inflict Harm on the intended victim, it also inflicts Stress on the person doing it. Should a character suffer from too much Stress or Harm, then a player can clear by undertaking certain related Moves. For example, ‘Verbally Abuse or Shame’ or ‘Lose Yourself in a Substance’ as Stress Moves and ‘When You Get Fucking Shot’ as a Harm Move. Most damage-related Moves inflict Stress though and when a character suffers enough Stress, a Stress Move is obligatory. Stress Moves invariably have negative consequences as much as they relieve a character of Stress and further add to the drama of the game.
In terms of background, Cartel offers details of the city of Durango in Mexico, located between Mexico City and the US border, near the Pacific coast. This is part of the Sinaloa Cartel’s territory, although there are rival cartels working the area. It is here that the Player Characters are supplying, working, operating, and protecting a plaza, essentially a personal territory they are responsible for. Both the cartels and the law are covered as well as a broad history of both Mexico and the Drug War, the major players in the Drug War, and the culture which has developed as a result of the Drug War. The city of Durango is described, though in more of an overview than any great detail, and here the Master of Ceremonies may want to conduct some research or gather some photographs of the city to help her players visualise where their characters are living and working.
Physically, Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse is a very well-presented book. It is clean and tidy with a large typeface and excellent artwork throughout, often in the calavera or ‘Catrina’ style. One standout feature of the writing is the number of examples of play, typically two for many of the Moves. These clearly explain how each Move works and highlights not just how the game is played, but also how the Moves work the tensions in the game and thus its incredible storytelling potential.
However, as rich and as powerful as the storytelling possibilities are with Cartel, the roleplaying game has a number of problems. The most obvious of which is the subject matter, the players are creating and roleplaying characters involved in the drug trade and if not committing the acts of violence and savagery perpetrated by some members of the cartels, then very much connected to the cartels that do. This is different than merely reading about it in a work of fiction or watching it on television. The experience is not vicarious, but personal, often viscerally so. As much as Cartel does not glorify its subject matter or its protagonists, it demands a degree of involvement and complicity that some players will not want to engage in and that is understandable. Cartel is not a roleplaying game for them, but even those who are prepared to play a roleplaying game of this nature need to be aware of what they are playing and the maturity which that demands.
Another issue is that Cartel is specifically written with Mexico and the Latino experience in mind, and that may well be alien to some of the game’s audience. Especially outside of North America. Even the writing here is an issue given that although primarily written in English, there are a lot of Spanish phrases and Mexican colloquialisms used throughout (which in some cases turn out to be terms of abuse), and as much as this adds to the flavour and feel of the book, it can come across as slightly mystifying. A more expansive glossary might have helped, even if that meant publishing bad language in the book. Being able to portray the world of the cartels on the streets of Durango with any degree of verisimilitude, let alone accuracy—and to be fair Cartel is aiming to create the feel of the former rather than the latter—demands a lot of the player and his skill as a roleplayer. 
Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse is an incredible piece of design which brings to life the greed, desperation, and drives of men and women living and working in a narcostate that pushes them to make poor choices and suffer the consequences. It makes great demands of both players and the Master of Ceremonies, asking them to commit to telling tough stories, have their characters carry out terrible deeds, and pay for them. If not in their deaths, then emotionally. By any standards, Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse is about roleplaying in a horrible situation with no clear paths to absolution or redemption, but that situation and its Player Characters—through their Playbooks—encourage, even demand, great roleplaying and powerful storytelling.

Turning to your right the hallway continues on.  On the corner to your right there is, if the proper rolls are made, a secret door.  This is very similar to Room #7.

This room is found behind a secret door in the corner of the hallway, not on the flat walls. 

This room appears to have been a guar room. There are chairs for three with a small table and weapons on the walls.  There are slots in the wall where guards can watch both hallways.

This room has been untouched by the waves of denizens here. There is a axe +1, short sword +1, and 2 +1 crossbow arrows stored here for the guard's use in addition to some normal items. There had been food but it has since rotted away. 

Finding these treasures is worth 2,300xp.

It has been over thirty-five years since the publisher of Britain’s longest running Science Fiction comic, 2000 AD, dabbled in the field of roleplaying. Both times, it was with solo adventure books, first with the Diceman comic, and then with You are Maggie Thatcher: a dole-playing game, but that all changed in 2021 with the first release in the Adventure Presents series. Published by Rebellion, best known as the publisher of 2000 AD, this is essentially a complete roleplaying game and scenario in a magazine format. The first issue was Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror, from the designers of Spire: The City Must Fall, a full Blue Collar Science Fiction Horror roleplaying game. Each entry in the Adventure Presents series a simple roleplaying game and a full, three-session scenario designed for up to six players and the Game Master for which everyone will need three six-sided dice and some pencils. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the second entry in the Adventure Presents line is Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying.
Adventure Presents Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying is a fantasy roleplaying game and scenario all in one, in which a group of courageous adventurers is employed by Azra Zathra to investigate the disappearance of her wife, Zura. Zura Zathra is a wizard and has not returned from her tower for the last two days. Her wife is thus worried, but cannot investigate herself because the tower is full of volatile and dangerous magic. Fortunately, being braver and more capable, a stalwart band of adventurers can! Unfortunately, when the adventurers enter the tower, things go terribly wrong for them. They are shrunk down to a diminutive size, which gives the adventure a whole new dimension! The adventurers must negotiate their way through an environment in which almost everything to them is a threat where previously they were the threat or anything other than a threat! Can they find they find a way to complete their towering trip, avoid the hazards of a world made both big and small, avoid or least find a way to confound the curious cat, and lastly, discover the means to restore themselves to full size, let alone discover what happened to  Zura Zathra?
The format of the Adventure Presents series and thus Tiny in the Tower is important. The centre twenty-two pages are intended to be pulled out. These include six Character Sheets, the Allies booklet which details all of the adventure’s cooperative critters, all of its antagonists, two Map handouts, and both the How to Play booklet and the Special Rules booklet. Zura Zathra’s wizard’s tower is mapped out across seven floors in lovely detail with full illustrations of each.
A character or Protagonist in Tiny in the Tower is simply defined. He has four Abilities—Toughness, Agility, Smarts, and Wits—each ranging in value between one and four. He has a value for his Health and his Resolve—his willpower, the former as high as twenty, the latter as high as twelve. He also has three Drives, for example, Calm, Swift, and Heroic. Each character has a background and a given role, such as The Daredevil or The Knight, and an excellent illustration. It is left up to the player to name the character.

Mechanically, Tiny in the Tower is simple and straightforward, its key mechanic, known as the ‘Adventure system’, best described as ‘roll three and keep two’—mostly. For his Protagonist to undertake an action, a player rolls three six-sided dice and removes one die. Which die depends upon the rating of the Ability being tested. If the Ability has a value of one, the highest die value is removed; if two, the die with the middle value is removed; if three, the lowest die value is removed; and if four, no die is removed, and all are counted. Either way, the total value of the remaining dice needs to equal or exceed the value of a Target Number to succeed, the Target Numbers ranging from six or simple to twelve or extreme. The Game Master can adjust the difficulty of a task by temporarily increasing or lowering the Player Character’s Ability value. A supporting Protagonist can help another and so temporarily increase the supported Protagonist’s Ability, whilst the acting Protagonist can spend Resolve to also increase his Ability value. Resolve can be regained by a Protagonist pursuing one or more of his Drives and at the beginning of each chapter, as can Health.

Combat, or conflict, in Tiny in the Tower consists of opposed rolls. The lower roll is subtracted from the higher roll and the remaining value deducted from the losing combatant’s Toughness. Conflict resolution is designed—much like the rules in general—to be fast and in the case of combat, dangerous rather than necessarily deadly. The special rules for the adventure primarily cover movement up and down the tower since this will be a major challenge for the Protagonists because the tower being a wizard’s tower means that it is missing one important feature found in other towers—stairs! How exactly the missing wizard gets up and down the tower, and more importantly, how her cat gets up and down the tower given that the Protagonists are on the same scale as the cat, are an important aspect of the scenario. Consequently, the Protagonists will have to find their own way up and down the tower and the Special Rules provides rules for climbing and falling, and suggests routes the Protagonists can take between each floor.

Tiny in the Tower is essentially a chase and investigation story. The Protagonists are chasing the Wizard to determine where she has gone and consequently find themselves in the same predicament. Their journey is on a grand scale, almost like scaling a mountain, complete with rooms which represent the different stages and base camps, although far more detailed and interesting. Along the way, the Protagonists will have the opportunity to confront enemies and dangers, overcome obstacles, make allies, and ultimately thwart the ambitions of a would-be dictator who wants to take over in the absence of her wizard mistress.

Physically, Tiny in the Tower is very nicely presented. It is well written, but what really stands out is the artwork—which is as good as you would expect from a publisher which puts out 2000 AD each week. If the illustrations are good, then the maps are even better. Overall, the production values, for what is just a ‘magazine roleplaying game’ are stunning. The format does mean that the roleplaying game and scenario requires a little extra preparation, in particular physically as the Game Master pulls it apart, and she will also need to find a means of storing it all together afterwards.
In addition, Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying comes with an extra adventure, a prologue called ‘The Burglar of Brackwood’. This takes place in and around the village of Brackwood, which over the previous three nights has been beset by a series of burglaries and thefts. Careful questioning of the villagers and examination of each break-in will garner some clues, but ultimately the trail will lead into the nearby forest where the Protagonists will find and confront the culprit. The situation is stranger than the players and their Protagonists might imagine, gives them a big problem to solve (which could go very wrong), and in being linked to Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying, serves as a straightforward, but enjoyable introduction to the ‘Adventure system’ and prologue to the full scenario. Plus, Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying comes with its own set of ‘Mice Dice’, bright yellow, cheese-themed six-sided dice. These are very cute and whilst mice do appear in the scenario in this issue of Adventure Presents, Rebellion Games should definitely do a mouse-based scenario in a future issue specifically for these dice. Similarly, there is scope for further adventures in the fantasy world that Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying presents, a classic fantasy roleplaying world.
Scenarios involving Player Characters being shrunk down to the size of insects or mice and expected to explore what is now a gigantic world are nothing new. Mechanically, what changes in such scenarios is not the Player Characters, the creatures they will face, and the environment they must overcome, but the scale at which it takes place. Jim Bambra’s ‘Round the Bend’, an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition scenario published in Imagine No. 15 magazine (June, 1984) is a classic example, in which half-orc thieves are punished by the wizard they attempted to steal from by shrunk to two inches in height and then made to recover a magical item that the wizard accidentally dropped down a drain. Then again, there are roleplaying games such as Mouseguard and Mausritter which do a similar thing, but with the Player Characters cast as mice in a world which is much larger than them. Tiny in the Tower does a similar thing to ‘Round the Bend’, but here the Protagonists are definitely more heroic and the story approaches the ‘shrunken adventures’ theme from a different angle.
Adventure Presents Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying lives up to its description. It is cosy, but not without its dangers or its obstacles. It combines a simple, straightforward plot, set-up, and quick mechanics that are easy for the Game Master to run and easy for the players to roleplay and play. Adventure Presents Tiny in the Tower – Cosy Fantasy Roleplaying is an engaging and friendly all-in-one one-shot package which takes a classic fantasy situation and makes heroes of the Protagonists in letting them explore that situation and solve problems at a different scale.

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 Adventure of the Sword Tournament is the quick-start for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, designer Greg Stafford’s ultimate vision of his classic roleplaying game of Arthurian legend and adventure.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, rules for actions and combat, the adventure, ‘The Adventure of the Sword Tournament’, and five ready-to-play, Player Characters.

It is a twenty-eight-page, full colour, booklet.

The quick-start is laid out to look like an illuminated manuscript and done in full colour. The artwork is fully painted and the map of Londinium clear.

How long will it take to play?
The Adventure of the Sword Tournament can be played through in a single session. It should take no longer than three hours to play through.

Who do you play?
The five Player Characters are all landless knights. They include a wise-cracking Roman Cymric Christian knight, a chivalrous Cymric Christian knight, a female Saxon Wodinic knight wielding an axe, a romantic Cymric Pagan knight, and a female Pagan knight from Brittany favouring bow and the mystical.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Knight is defined by Homeland, Culture, and Father’s Name, then Father’s Class, Son Number, Liege Lord, Current Class, Current Home, Age, and Year Born. He has five Attributes—Size, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, and Appearance—which are rated between three and twenty-one. Skills are roughly divided into combat skills and ordinary skills. They range between one and twenty, but can go higher. Every Knight has Glory, a measure of his renown and his actions, the higher it is, the greater the chance of his being recognised.

A Knight is also defined by his Traits and Passions. Traits represent a Knight’s personality, consisting of thirteen opposite pairs. So Chaste and Lustful, Honest and Deceitful, Valorous and Cowardly, and so on. Each Trait in a pair is assigned a value, the two values together adding up to no more than twenty. So, a Trusting of ten and Suspicious of ten, an Energetic of fourteen and Lazy of six, and so on. During a game, a player can look to the values of his Knight’s Traits to determine how he might act, but if unsure or wanting guidance, the player can roll against one of them, and the Game Master can also direct a player to roll against one to see how his Knight will act in a particular situation.

A Knight’s Passions, like Loyalty (Lord), Love (Family), and Hate (Saxons) are strong emotional and psychological tendencies. When a player rolls against one of his Knight’s Passions, it can grant inspiration and a bonus for a task, but should it fail, it can leave the Knight disheartened and suffering a penalty to a task.

How do the mechanics work?
To have his player undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die. The aim is roll equal to or lower than the value of the attribute, skill, Trait, or Passion. A roll under is a success, a roll equal to the value is a critical, a roll over a fail, and a roll of twenty can be a critical failure. For opposed rolls, used for contests and combat, a roll must not only be equal to or under the value for the knight to succeed, but it must also be higher than the role made by the opponent.

A Trait is rolled against to determine whether a Knight will act in accordance with that Trait or act in accordance with its opposing Trait. A Passion is rolled against to gain a bonus on a skill roll, but failure can trigger a Passion Crisis, which can result in the Passion being partly lost, melancholia, or even madness.

How does combat work?
Combat is handled through opposed rolls. If a player rolls under his Knight’s skill and higher than his opponent, he succeeds in striking him with his weapon. If a player rolls under his Knight’s skill and lower than his opponent, it is a partial success and he does not succeed in striking him with his weapon. However, he gains the benefit of his shield, which together with the armour worn will reduce the damage taken. The rules in the quick-start cover charges, knockdown, broken or dropped weapons, the possibility of suffering major wounds and so on.

How does magic work?
Magic is not the purview of mortal men. Faeries, supernatural creatures, druids, and meddling Wizards such as Merlin know magic and to know this is enough for any man.

What do you play?
The eponymous adventure in The Adventure of the Sword Tournament is set in the Year 510, in Londinium, the greatest city in all of Britain. It has been decreed that a grand New Year’s Tournament, the first of its kind will be held to determine who will be the High King of Britain following the fifteen year interregnum without one. The Knights are in the city to participate, perform well in the tournament, and be a witness to the proclamation of the new High King.

There is not actual starting point for the scenario for the Game Master to read out, but it begins with the Knights exploring a city they have never been to before and eventually coming upon a sword, stuck into an anvil, atop a rock. This is an important moment in the history of Britain and the Knights have the opportunity to be witnesses. The scenario is linear, but presents early opportunities for the players to test out the rules, have their Knight engage in a mass combat, and go in search of a little Glory.

Is there anything missing?
There are some element of the pre-generated Knights that the players cannot follow up or explore fully in the ‘The Adventure of the Sword Tournament’. This is primarily because there will be opportunities for this in the adventures in the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Starter Set, of which ‘The Adventure of the Sword Tournament’ is the first part. There is not really very much for the Knights to do, the only opportunity for them to act outside of the events boiling down to a simple die roll.

Is it easy to prepare?
The content of The Adventure of the Sword Tournament is easy to prepare. The rules are clearly presented and the adventure is straightforward and uncomplicated.
Is it worth it?
Yes. The Adventure of the Sword Tournament presents a clear explanation of the rules in a few pages and provides points in the scenario where the players can put them to work and roleplay too. The scenario is written so as to engage in the first part of a longer scenario and is primarily designed to showcase the mechanics of Pendragon, Sixth Edition and get the Knights involved in a major event in Arthurian legend, and it does both handily enough. However, it does not provide players with enough agency and activities when there is scope for both in the scenario. Although that is not an issue as the first part of a longer scenario, in a quick-start it is a missed opportunity for the players to roleplay and their Knights to do more than be present at the legend.
The Adventure of the Sword Tournament is an enjoyably solid introduction to the rules and setting of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, but just comes up a little short in terms of length and content for a quick-start.
Where can you get it?
The Adventure of the Sword Tournament is available to download here.

The cell opens easier than the others on this level.  Thieves get a +5% bonus to any pick locks roll.

Opening this door will reveal that this cell is also very different on the inside.

Inside is a bas-relief of the Vampire Queen. It is newer than the surrounding rock.  

As the party approaches and gets within 5' of the 7' tall relief its mouth will open a spout of red acid will spill out. Everyone within 5' must make a save versus Breath Weapon or take 2d8 points of damage.  The acid used to be much stronger.

There is no treasure in this room.

The world is dying. It no more than a few scattered lands on the Endless Sea, the beleaguered inhabitants and other survivors scrabbling for one last scrum of comfort, even at the cost others, as the prophecies of the Two-Headed Basilisks are coming true. Seven Miseries as predicted in from The Calendar of Nechrubel – The Nameless Scriptures and the seventh Misery will herald the actual end of the world… In north-western Kergüs, Blood-Countess Anthelia cries out for colour and warmth from her white stone castle in the black glass city of Alliáns, yet in her ice-wracked lands, everything the fragile countess touches, looks upon, and breathes upon is drained of colour. Yet she remains on her throne, clinging to her throne, her youth, her power, and the traditions that ensure that all is right and proper. That includes the treatment of those at her court whom she would count as a rival. No ruler may sentence a member of their court to death. The death of a rival is the rise of the martyr. There are ways and means of treating and punishing a rival that leave him ruined, if not destroyed, rather than death. For the rivals of Lady Anthelia of Kergüs, the Blood Countess, there is Her Lady’s Schackel. This is a prison hulk, once a great ship of Kergüs’ navy, now adrift on the Endless Sea, scored by acid rain, haunted by ghosts and ghasts, and seemingly unwanted by the Endless Sea, but unable to come to shore. Worse, ‘the 7’, those who were once rivals or enemies of the queen and confined to Her Lady’s Schackel have mutinied and escaped their confines, if not the rotting hulk of their prison, their profanities constantly warping the cabins and hallways of the vessel so that no two decks are alike and every deck is different each time someone enters it… Everyone knows that there is an abomination aboard that will soon come ashore and when it does a Misery will fall on the world. Until then it waits aboard the prison barge floating on the Endless sea.
This is the set-up for 7 Aboard the Schackel, semi-randomly generated prison-crawl adventure published by Bite-Sized Gaming following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. It includes tables to create Player Character motivations, plots, room and location contents, random events and sounds, curses and trinkets, the state in which the surviving members of the former crew can be found, full details of the seven escaped inmates, and more.
Set-up for 7 Aboard the Schackel begins with the tables ‘2d4troubling Ties’ and ‘2d4 Conceived Plots’. For example, the ‘Lady’s Man/Woman’ entry in the former places the Player Character in fealty to Lady Anthelia who has tasked him with slaying the abomination aboard the barge, whilst the entry in the latter table places Förtära as the primary target abomination aboard, an obese woman who has entered into a bargain with a great beast from the depths of the Endless Sea and is ready to birth a cold foetus on the land which will inherit the remaining land… These two tables provide different motivations and primary enemy for any play-through of the prison-crawl, but in play, the Game Master rolls dice to populate and detail each deck of the Her Lady’s Schackel and does every time the Player Characters move from one deck to another. This includes returning to a deck that the Player Characters have already visited or explored. What the Game Master is rolling for is appearance and placement of a member of ‘the 7’, any ‘Servile Cretins’, ‘Covetous Souls’, ‘Crippled Captives’, and ‘Butchered Flesh’. Named creatures will not reappear if they are killed and the number of dice rolled each time a deck is re-entered if the Player Characters manage to clear a deck. There are five decks on the Her Lady’s Schackel.
The bulk of 7 Aboard the Schackel is dedicated to the denizens aboard the Her Lady’s Schackel. These start with ‘the 7’, monstrously fallen men and women sentenced to imprisonment aboard the prison barge. They include the ‘Falskhet, the False King’, able to command—temporarily—those he strikes with his sceptre, but also cause a target’s bones to snap and pop with his ‘Cruel Wrath’ and suffer any damage he would instead with ‘Egotistical Leech’. In his former life, he was a scapegoat for a failed uprising against Lady Anthelia and now unleashes his anger and resentment against her on anyone around him. All of ‘the 7’ are described in similar detail with clear stats and a background and an agenda. In addition, the denizens include ‘tenth-spirits’, the spectres of those given as a tithe to the Endless Sea and cursed to stay in its cold embrace rather than pass on. They include Thera, a young girl still clutching a seaweed doll and in a search of a parent and even Törgar, the dethroned and dishonoured captain of the Her Lady’s Schackel. The Servile Cretins are lingering, broken creatures which remain aboard the vessel, like the ‘Blick’, plucked eyes animated by profane magic which cast about their withering gaze.

One issue with 7 Aboard the Schackel is the focus upon its denizens, monsters, and creatures. It leaves relatively little room for the tools to help the Game Master detail the Her Lady’s Schackel. There are tables for rolling random room names and mostly useless trinkets for the Player Characters to find, but little else. This leaves the Game Master room of course to create her own descriptions, but more prompts and suggestions would have been useful. Another is that randomising each deck every time the Player Characters enter a deck is time consuming and potentially means more work for the Game Master. If that is the case, an option would be to create a deck’s layout and description just the once per playthrough. Lastly, one issue with 7 Aboard the Schackel is the use of the word ‘cretin’ to describe some of its denizens. It is derogatory and potentially offensive.
Physically, 7 Aboard the Schackel is presented in the artpunk style of Mörk Borg. It does mean that it places it is not easy to read and that may impede play. The artwork is decent, a dark, twisted swathe of the grim and the brutal.
7 Aboard the Schackel brings to life an almost living ship, its random elements giving it a flexibility that a standard would not necessarily possess. In fact, running it as a campaign scenario would mean not making the fullest use of this feature. It would work as a one-shot, with the Player Characters having different motivations for going aboard the Her Lady’s Schackel and possibly with a trimming of a deck or two, as a convention scenario also. In whatever way it is used, 7 Aboard the Schackel is a bloody and brutal grim dark prison crawl caught between the Endless Deep and the end of the world.

There are men and woman who study angels. There are men and women who study demons. What those angelogists and demonologists do not tell you is that they are not just the two sides of the same coin—they are the same coin. That is according to the Order of Mercyful Sepulcher. This sisterhood holds that angels and demons are members of the same race who come from a place called the Empyrean and that concepts such as heaven, hell, angels and demons are a flawed attempt to classify both Empyrean and the entities found there. Rather than fear or revere such angels and demons, the Order of Mercyful Sepulcher summons them, commands them, and uses their power. The nuns of the order, wrapped in their empowering Bad Habits and wreathed with a Halo, armed with Hallowed Hand Grenades and a M.A.C.E. (Masterful Armament for Crushing Enemies), and travelling in their T.O.M.B.S. (Tactical Ordinance Mobile Battle Shrine) travel the Ultracosm on the hunt for heresy, ready to burn it out. Or they too might be regarded as a heretical sect, harbouring blasphemous tomes and adhering to dissentive dictums, and practicing the activities of the apostate! It is all up to the Games Machinator as detailed in Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher.

Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher is a setting neutral supplement, a means to add battle nuns to her campaign, whether heretical or in search of heresy. Published by Mottokrosh Machinations, best known for Hypertellurians: Fantastic Thrills Through the Ultracosm, the Old School Renaissance adjacent roleplaying game of retro science fantasy, Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher could easily be used in that setting to play up the occult aspects of the Games Machinator’s campaign, whether that involves one Player Character or a group of Player Characters from the order. Alternatively, the content of the supplement can be added to a fantasy roleplaying game to add occult and ‘grimdark’ elements, whether that is a Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or a Zweihänder Grim & Perilous campaign. To that end, Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher includes stats and details for Hypertellurians: Fantastic Thrills Through the Ultracosm and a guide to adapt it to Dungeons & Dragons, which means that its content can be used with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher begins and ends as a toolkit for the Games Machinator and her players to create their own version of the order of battle nuns. The beginning consists of a list of tenets, goals, and enemies of the order, so that one iteration of the order is likely to be different from another. The end, the first of the supplement’s appendices, consists of descriptions of four members of an example order, the Gallas Coven. They include the Mother Superior, its veteran leader; a former ancient bronze war machine turned sister; a pilot from the future; and a loyal brute of a caretaker, the only male member of the quartet. These are written up with a concept, strengths and weaknesses, background, and secret to which the Games Machinator and her players need only develop stats and abilities. The other two of the three appendices in Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher consist of a decent bibliography and a good list of inspirational media, such as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Zardoz.

The bulk of Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher is dedicated to the tomes and rituals they contain, and the benefits that the sisterhood gain in performing them. For example, Merarrhythmisis Beatae, sometimes known as the ‘black scrolls’, contains the true names of angels and thus the means to tempt or coerce them into the mortal realm where the rituals can be performed in full. The description of the book includes an extract and several associated rumours, the latter useful should the Games Machinator want to work the book into her campaign. The major spell—being the equivalent of a Seventh, Eighth, or Ninth Level spell in Dungeons & Dragons—requires the participants, willing or unwilling, to be anointed with the true names of angels and can take several hours to cast. Once done, it grants an angelic power, such as ‘Perfect Pitch Singing’, ‘Feathered Wings’, or ‘Compel Good Deed’, as well as an angelic mutation, like ‘Cherubic’ (literally small, chubby, and naked), ‘Caustic’ saliva and sweat, or ‘Goat-Legged’. It can result in a complication such as permanent, uncontrolled, lasting, or traumatic. All of the ten tomes, including The Flaggellant’s Agrapha, Be thou alike Cadat, Ablations of the heavenly host, and Concerning the needle and other instruments are nicely detailed and full of flavour.

‘Reliquary—Tools of the Order’ details items mundane and marvelous both worn and used by the order. Bad Habits are the uniform of the order and grant abilities such as Corseted, which works as light armour or even Symbiotic, which is an entity in itself that provides the wearer strength and healing as long as the wearer follows the motivation of the symbiote. Weapons include ‘Hallowed Hand Grenade’, which has a variety of effect from drenching the target in a vile stench to imposing redemption on them and making them feel the weight of his sins and the aforementioned M.A.C.E., both blunt and flanged, and which requires a ceremony that marks the wielder out to any Empyrean being as being blessed with knowledge of them. The order’s most well-known device is the T.O.M.B.S., part war machine, part shrine, with no two exactly alike. It is accompanied by a full, two-page illustration.

Besides the trio of appendices, Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher is rounded with a pair of detailed adventure seeds. One involves the haunting of the Player Characters’ T.O.M.B.S., the other a nun whose aims verge on the heretical. Each comes with a list of possible scenes, treasures, and in the case of the first, opponents. Alongside these is a handful of shorter adventure seeds which will require more development.

Physically, Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher is decently presented and laid out. The artwork is cartoonish in style, matching the slightly tongue-in-cheek tone of the book.

Add battle nuns and their devout militancy to any campaign and it sends the campaign off into the realms of the camp as far as the border with the fetishist and the kinky. That much is at least acknowledged in the list of inspirational media for Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher and that means that its content is not going to be for everyone or every campaign. Yet there are elements in the supplement, the ten tomes in particular, which would be more than suitable for a grimdark campaign without necessarily dragging in the possibly prurient content elsewhere. This is not to say that the content is prurient, but by the time its reaches the table and players being players… A campaign or scenario involving Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher could become unnecessarily adult in tone for some players. Overall, there is a lot of roleplaying potential in playing battle nuns and using Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher, but it needs a group of players happy with its content and a Games Machinator ready for the jokes that are going to fly!

Continuing down this hallway is the next cell.

This room is filled with Green Slime.  There are two on the floor, and one dripping from the ceiling. They are packed in so tightly there is no chance of surprise. One on the floor gets an "attack" as it rolls out.

Destroying the slimes will reveal 2 Swords +1. These are all that are left from the last group of adventurers. 

This door is open and there is light coming from a portal inside the room.

This room also has a large number of goblins, 1d6+3. Again these goblins are different than all the previous ones (from yet another world, these goblins have monkey feet) these goblins are a bit tougher and all wield +1 maces or +1 spears. Their world is rather magic rich.  

They have XP as a 1+1 HD creature.

Each goblin has a bag of 6 GP and 1d6+5 SP.

The portal will close in 1d4 rounds and reopen again in 6+1d12 days.

 Monster Mash is now out in both PDF and Print on Demand, and I am very, very happy with it.

Work is going on for Monster Mash II: A Green and Pleasant Land now. Classes are built, just need some edits. I also bought a bunch of art from Dean Spencer so his art will fill the book for a single artistic vision.

But one thing people have asked me is, "Can I use Monster Mash" with the OSE-Advanced Rules?

While my intent was always to stick with OSE-Classic, there is nothing stopping you from using OSE-Advanced rules.  In fact, here are my guidelines.

For this, I am going to use the races and classes from OSE-Advanced. If there is another race or class (say from one of Carcass Crawlers or other sources) you can use the closest analog. 

Races

OSE, for the moment still uses the out-moded "Races." I fully expect that will change but until I am using it as a "rules term" only.  

Note: ANY Game Master can over-rule these level limits as they see fit.

In every case these different races retain any abilities from 1st level on. 

Awakened Golem 

Requirements: 13 or greater in STR and CON, 10 or greater in WIS
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR and CON, -2 to CHA

Acrobat: NA
Assassin: 10th (must have a DEX score greater than 13
Barbarian: 14th
Bard: NA
Cleric: NA
Druid: NA (and I would add they are so far removed to nature they can never be druids)
Fighter: 14th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA* (special cases could arise)
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 14th
Gothic Witch: NA
Profane Necromancer: 10th (similar special cases)

Catflok

Requirements: 12 or greater in DEX
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR and CON, -2 to CHA

Acrobat: 10th
Assassin: 10th
Barbarian: 9th
Bard: 7th
Cleric: 8th
Druid: 9th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: 7th
Knight: NA
Magic-User: 7th
Paladin: NA
Ranger: 8th
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 9th
Profane Necromancer: 7th

Ghost

Requirements: None
Ability Modifiers: STR, DEX, and CON are effectively 0

Ghosts can be anything but are limited to 10th level.

Hagling

Requirements: 12 or greater in WIS
Ability Modifiers: +1 to WIS

Acrobat: NA
Assassin: NA
Barbarian: 8th
Bard: NA
Cleric: 10th
Druid: 10th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: 10th
Knight: NA
Magic-User: 11th
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 13th
Profane Necromancer: 13th

Hobgoblin

Requirements: None
Ability Modifiers: +1 to CON

Acrobat: NA
Assassin: 8th
Barbarian: 10th
Bard: NA
Cleric: 5th
Druid: 6th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA
Paladin: NA
Ranger: 5th
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 4th
Profane Necromancer: 4th

Lycanthrope, Wererat

Requirements: 11 or greater on DEX and CON
Ability Modifiers: +1 to DEX

Acrobat: 8th
Assassin: 8th
Barbarian: 5th
Bard: 5th
Cleric: 4th
Druid: 4th
Fighter: 6th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 8th
Gothic Witch: NA
Profane Necromancer: NA

Lycanthrope, Werewolf

Requirements: 11 or greater on STR and CON
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR

Acrobat: NA
Assassin: 8th
Barbarian: 10th
Bard: 5th
Cleric: 4th
Druid: 4th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 8th
Gothic Witch: NA
Profane Necromancer: NA

Revenant

Requirements: None
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR, DEX, and CON

Revenants can be anything but are limited to 9th level.

Shade

Requirements: 12 or greater on CHA
Ability Modifiers: None

Shades can be anything but are limited to 10th level.

Shadow Elf

Requirements: 15 or greater on DEX
Ability Modifiers: +1 to DEX

Acrobat: 10th
Assassin: 10th
Barbarian: NA
Bard: 10th
Cleric: 5th
Druid: 5th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: 9th
Knight: 10th
Magic-User: 8th
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 10th
Profane Necromancer: 10th

Vampire

Requirements: 13 or greater on STR and CHA
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR

Vampires can be anything, but combined with a class they are limited to 12th level.

Classes

Monster Mash also includes two "human" Classes, the Gothic Witch and the Profane Necromancer.  The Gothic witch follows the same format of my other witch classes. The Profane Necromancer is essentially a Necromancer with various evil Cleric abilities added in.

Here are some suggestions.

Gothic Witch

Drow: 10th
Duergar: 7th
Dwarf: NA* (Dwarf witches are known as Xothia and use other witch rules.)
Elf: NA* (Elf witches are known as Kuruni and use other witch rules.)
Gnome: NA* (Gnome witches are known as Good Walkers and use other witch rules.)
Half-Elf: 14th (Half-elves can choose a variety of witches.)
Halfling: NA* (Halfling witches are known as Herb Women and use other witch rules.)
Half-Orc: 10th* (Half-orc witches are also known as Bogglebos.)
Human: 14th
Svirfneblin: NA (Svirfneblin would likely be a type of Xothia.)

Profane Necromancer

Drow: 9th
Duergar: 7th
Dwarf: NA
Elf: 8th
Gnome: NA
Half-Elf: 9th
Halfling: NA
Half-Orc: NA
Human: 13th
Svirfneblin: NA

A note about the Profane Necromancer. 

There are so many Necromancer classes for Basic-era rule and OSR rulesets. Even OSE has its own Necromancer. Mine is an homage to the Death Master of the late Len Lakofka. But use whichever one you like the best, and feel free to use some or all of my spells with it. 

Again, individual GMs can make adjustments as they see fit.