Going back to Room #10 and going straight. This hallway opens into a large open chamber with hallways leading away from the corridor. There are also several doors (8) in this room. 

There are skeletons of same snake-like creatures here.

The rooms are all nearly identical. These rooms appear to be living quarters of some sort.  Each one is about 20' by 20. In each one is a bed, a closest and table. Some still have their inhabitants, though long since dead.  Scouring the rooms will reveal about 1d8 x 10 gp worth of various bits of good metal.

--

These are the crew quarters for the junior officers. Not all of them made it out. 

Titan City reaches beyond the sky and deep into the planet. Its soaring Empyreal Spires are home to the Plutogia, the ruling families, who know only a life of glittering beauty and untold wealth. At its heart is the Great Cannon, the greatest machine on the planet, capable of launching starships laden with rare and valuable minerals mined by the innumerable tunnels which bore into the planet’s crust. The limits of Titan City are marked by the walls of the impossibly large crater and beyond lies radioactive deserts, inhabited only by mutated beasts and half-life bandits capable of surviving the death-grey sands and poisoned atmosphere, all under a sky marked with three moons. Ten billion humans live in Titan City, many in the Undercity, amidst industrial ruins which stretch for miles and miles up and down as well as in any other direction. Here such humanity and other such outcasts—mutants and psions, survive as best they can. Enforcers ruthlessly break up any dissent or uprising from here in the Guts of the Titan City, but that is only an intermittent threat to inhabitants’ lives, their purses bled dry by the hyper-corporations and the air they breath wrapped in smog poisoned by the waste output from barely regulated factories. Under such grinding conditions, some of these Guts-dwellers make what purpose and hope they can. They join gangs, cults, rebellions, churches, anything to give them both purpose and hope. The gangs are everywhere, staking their claims to territories, making money from crime, dealing with rivals through ‘honourable’ agreements and bloody violence, trying to get bigger, better, and richer, grab all the power they can to be crime lords, not just petty gangs.

The is the setting for Gangs of Titan City, a roleplaying game of crime and consequences in a far future underworld—literally and figuratively. Published by SoulMuppet Publishing, it can be best described as BBC’s Peaky Blinders meets Games Workshop’s Necromunda in a Judge Dredd-like Mega-City One, but vertical, in which the players take of the role of Gutters in a gang which wants to grow and be feared. As Gutters, the players will direct and roleplay the lives and development of their gang over three phases of play per session. In the ‘Escalation Phase’, the gang plans its next move. In the ‘Operation Phase’, the gang enacts its plan, and in the ‘Fallout Phase’, the gang suffers the consequences of their actions, for good or ill. Grabbing a Claim will often bring a gang into conflict with a potential rival and as the gang’s domain grows so will its rivalries and the consequences of its actions. How far will a gang go before the consequences threaten to overwhelm it, let alone individual gang members, will be revealed as a Gangs of Titan City campaign progresses. And it is important to note that Gangs of Titan City does require that progress to really work. The roleplaying game is better suited to campaign play than the one-shot because the consequences are not going to be fully explored in the short term, only the long term.

Gangs of Titan City is a storytelling roleplaying game in which the players are encouraged to be bold in their storytelling and their Gutters’ actions, as well as embrace and explore the consequences of those actions. It is player-driven in that there are no set plots and much of the setting can be created during play. However, it is a roleplaying game which deals with gangsters and that means that the players will be exploring the darker, criminal side of human nature. It is not surprise that Gangs of Titan City carries warnings about its violent, traumatic themes that include body horror, injury, and death. Similarly, the inclusion of addiction and drug abuse should be no surprise either. Harm to animals is definitely a surprise, whilst as a Science Fiction roleplaying game which includes psionics, especially one of this nature, the invasion of privacy and mind control are also included as a possible issue. To be clear, Gangs of Titan City does not dwell on these or condone, but instead indicates that they can be part of the game and its play given its dark nature. Thus, the use of Safety Tools is advised, but even so, Gangs of Titan City deals with some surprisingly direct and mature themes.

The players in Gangs of Titan not only create their Player Characters or Gutters, but also their Gang. A Gang has an Archetype, three XP Prompts, which suggest activities and behaviours the gang can engage in to generate Experience Points; various details which will vary between Archetypes and add flavour rather than mechanical benefits; two Aspects or quirks, which again flavour rather than mechanical benefits; a Contact and a Rival; an Advancement, a powerful ability which gives the gang an advantage; and lastly, a Hideout connected to the Gang’s Claim and three Hazards. One hazard comes from the Gang’s Rival, one from its Hideout, and one from its Archetype. There are six Archetypes. A Consortium will make and sell anything because money equals power; a Cult worships something dark and terrible and wants more converts; an Enclave is made up of outcasts and the dispossessed trying to survive, make a space for their own, and even hit back at their oppressors; Mercenaries are guns for hire, the bigger the paycheck, the bigger the boom; Operatives work in secret, stealing, destroying, and keeping secrets; and Overlords just want to rule. Each entry gives lots of options to choose from, including names, so that there is lots of variation and the players can really make their gang their own.

Name: The Party Syndicate
Archetype: Consortium
XP Prompts: Negotiate a favourable price, force a competitor out of business, secure a supply or source
Starting Claim: Stack-Market
Core Product: Vice Peddling
Aspects: Wide-Ranging Suppliers, Catchy Slogan (“Our price, your vice”)
Consortium Gear: Emergency Funds (enough for a small bribe or two), Very Fancy Outfit for each Gutter
Consortium Hazards: City-Wide Shortage
Contact: Hekeret Tine, Corporate Stooge
Rival: Promolium Vol, Spire House Representative
Hideout: Bodega Bill’s Corner Shop
Consortium Advancements: Smugglers
Hazards: Bodega Bill’s Corner Shop gets a lot of footfall (Hideout), got Promolium Vol, Spire House Representative very drunk and got him to invest (Rival), already sold a whole load of filth (City-Wide Shortage)

A Gutter has a Class, three XP Prompts, six Approaches (or methods of dealing with a situation), Aspects (visual descriptors and quirks), Personality Traits (roleplaying prompts), a Contact and a Rival, Specialisms (skills and areas of knowledge), an Advancement, and some Gear. A Gutter always has one piece of Gear with him, plus one item related to a Specialism and one given to the Gutter by his Contact or taken from his Rival. The six Approaches range in value between -3 and +3 and are Overwhelm, Exploit, Dominate, Resolve, Calculate, and Appeal. There are eight different Classes. These are the Aberration, more or less Human; the Broker, ready to make any deal; the Bruiser, who provides muscle and close-up intimidation; Marksman, stealthy gun for hire; Mastermind, gifted liar and clever thinker; Psionicist, whose gift both marks them and gives them power; Spectre, the sneak and knife in the back; and Technomancer, combing man and machine. Like the Gangs, each of the Classes is nicely detailed with lots of elements for a player to choose from and individualise his Gutter, to which the player also assigns an array of values to the Gutter’s Approaches.

Name: Wolter Dabrurgun
Class: Spectre
XP Prompts: Deception, Stealth, Disabling Security
Approaches:
Overwhelm 0 Exploit +2 Dominate -1
Resolve +1 Calculate +1 Appeal 0
Aspects: Pale Skin, Goggles
Personality Traits: Careful, Manipulative
Contact: The Bird’s Foot, Alleged Master Thief
Rival: Horvas, Data-Mind Scavenger
Specialisms: Security measures, Cyber Splicing
Advancements: Are you sure about that?
Gear: Cybernetic Interface, Lockbreakers, Climbing Kit

Mechanically, Gangs of Titan City is simple. If a Gutter wants to undertake an action, his player rolls two six-sided dice and applies the modifier from the appropriate Approach. A roll of ten or more indicates a Full Success, between seven and nine a Partial Success, and six or less, a Failure. Essentially, the equivalent of ‘Yes’, ‘Yes, but’, and ‘No’. Some abilities, including Specialisms, allow an additional die to be rolled, but only two are kept. Circumstances can add a single +1 bonus and rerolls of single dice are possible if the Gutter takes a point of Desperation.

Combat uses the same core mechanic. It tends to favour the Gutters initially; opponents tending only to act or have a Reaction when a Gutter’s player rolls a Partial Success or Failure on an attack. When this happens, the player makes a Resistance roll to avoid or withstand the effects of the attack. Essentially, Gangs of Titan City is player-facing. Once a Gutter starts suffering damage, combat can get nasty. A Gutter only has three Damage Boxes, which are filled in with Scratches and Wounds, and if all three are filled in, it becomes a Critical Wound. Further damage can inflict Desperation, Trauma, or kill the Gutter. If a Gutter has too much Desperation at end of the three phases of Gangs of Titan City’s play, there are multiple consequences that include burning a Contact, suffering a Trauma—which might be a Hatred, an Obsession, or a Weariness, and adding to the Gang’s Danger Table.

Gangs of Titan City’s rules also detail weapons, vehicles, and other gear in quite light detail. More detail is paid to Pharma-Serums, which are readily available across the city. These all have drawbacks, but provide an extra die for certain checks depending upon the Pharma-Serum. In terms of improvement, both Gang and Gutters can acquire further Advancements if they have sufficient Experience Points, which are gained from tagging their XP Prompts under dangerous circumstances. For the Gutter, a player can choose a new Advancement or Specialism from the Gutter’s Class, increase an Approach, or gain an Alteration. Alterations can be Cybernetic Augmentations, Gene-Mods, or Psionic Disciplines. Gaining Alterations can be easier for some Classes rather than others. For example, the Psion will only have access to Psionic Disciplines, but members of the other Classes can obtain the Cybernetic Augmentations and Gene-Mods—for a price and likely some roleplaying too. The players can spend their Gang’s Experience Points to take an Advancement for its Archetype or improve one of its Squads. In addition, a Gang’s Hideout can be improved with a new Feature or have an existing Feature upgraded.

Gangs of Titan City has a distinct Cycle of Play consisting of three phases. In the ‘Escalation Phase’, the gang plans its next move. In the ‘Operation Phase’, the gang enacts its plan, and in the ‘Fallout Phase’, the gang suffers the consequences of their actions, for good or ill. Each phase consists of several steps. For example, in the ‘Escalation Phase’ there are three steps. In the ‘Montage Phase’, the players explore what their Gutters are doing on a day-to-day basis, followed by a roll on ‘The Event Table’ which brings in a Rival or Faction into the story for that Cycle of Play, and then the Gang gets together to decide on its next ‘Gang Moves’. The ‘Operation Phase’ is when the Gutters go out and seize control of a Claim or Asset, launch a pre-emptive strike to remove a Hazard from the Gang’s Danger Table, or perform a job or contract for another Gang or faction, and this is when the Gutters will go out and actively, physically pursue the Gang’s aims. In the ‘Fallout Phase’, the Gutters and their players will resolve objectives, treat wounds, determine if the Gang’s actions has made sufficient ‘Noise’ to attract the authorities, check income, spend Experience Points, and more. All of this is intended to be played within a single session, although it need not be, and fundamentally player driven, with outside elements randomly generated by the Narrator. So, there are no set plots and the players need to be proactive more than reactive.

Gangs of Titan City is played on two levels. One is the tactical, often the individual level, when the Gutters are acting directly and the players are roleplaying them, often in the field. The other is strategic, when the Gutters plan their actions, direct their Squads, handle their Assets and Claims, and so on. Thus, there is a degree of resource management to the play, whether that is dealing with Assets and Claims, but also Debt. Debt represents how far a Gang’s resources are spread out or extended and works the same way as Desperation does for the individual Gutter. If a Gang has too much Debt at end of the three phases of Gangs of Titan City’s play, there are multiple consequences that include burning an Asset, suffering a Hardship—which might be being Watched, Spread thin, or suffering from Loose Lips, and adding to the Gang’s Danger Table. Whilst Desperation and Debt track the consequences of the Gutters’ actions on the personal and collective levels, they both come together in the Danger Table. Entries can be added to the Danger Table because of both, but also due to Noise generated during the ‘Operation Phase’, taking Claims and assets from rival Gangs and Factions or doing jobs for them, and so on. As the Danger Table is filled with Leads, Jobs, and Hazards, these become storytelling elements which randomly come back into play and the Gutters have to deal with immediately. The entries on the Danger Table are never hidden, so there is always a problem or difficulty looming over the Gutters and their Gang, waiting to escalate into something that they must deal with immediately.

However, Gangs of Titan City does require some set-up by the Narrator. Not necessarily a great deal, but it is not obvious from the outset. This includes creating a starting sector or two and then populating it with themes, factions, and a starting dynamic. Plus, an Asset web needs be drawn, connecting the players’ Gang and their Assets to the previous owners of those Assets, because every Asset has a previous owner! This of course, builds connections for the Gang, for both good and bad. As a campaign progresses, this Asset web will grow and grow. Fortunately, the Narrator’s role is strongly supported throughout with almost a third of the devoted to helping her run Gangs of Titan City. The advice is good, including letting the players be cool, be open about the risks that their Gutters and Gang face, and almost in adversarial terms, that the Narrator can always get the Gutters and their Gang later if they are successful in their plans now! This does not mean that the Narrator is expected to be adversarial, but rather the successes of the Gutters and their Gang will come back to proverbially bite them through the Hazards and other entries on the Danger Table. There are also examples of almost everything that the Narrator can bring into play or use as inspiration, including Leads and Jobs. Various sector types are discussed as are the Enforcers who will act when the Gang causes too much Noise, and there are numerous example Gangs and Factions given too, ready to populate the sector.

Rounding out Gangs of Titan City is an overview of the City of Plutogia, its major powers, and its technology. There is high degree of technology and gear being used over and over, and is not that far advanced from that of the twenty-first century. Advances (or not) include the Data-Brains, the brains of both animals and humans preserved and used as motherboards, wired into electronic devices, including computers, as well as A.I.s, laser and beam weaponry, and space travel, but it is unlikely that the Gutters will have access to that.

Physically, Gangs of Titan City is in general well written and presented. The artwork is scrappy, but works well enough. The writing does suffer from being a little too succinct in places, but the main problem is the lack of index. This might not be an issue in another roleplaying game, but Gangs of Titan City does have a lot of moving parts and interplay between the Gutters, their Gang, other Factions, and the consequences of the actions of both Gutters and Gang. What might have helped is a flowchart for the phases of the roleplaying game’s play that was readily accessible, perhaps placed inside the back cover of the book.

Gangs of Titan City is not a roleplaying game that everyone is going to want to play given its subject matter, dealing with crime and having the Player Characters—the Gutters—commit criminal and direct criminal acts. However, whilst Gangs of Titan City does do that, it never lets them avoid the consequences of committing or directing such actions, and the roleplaying game is about those consequences as much as it is the criminal acts themselves. This balance makes for great storytelling with both the players and the Narrator expected to engage with and encourage actions and consequences, whilst at the same time making the players care their Gutters’ decisions on a broader stage. For the mature gaming group willing to commit to the time it needs, Gangs of Titan City is a great toolkit for telling stories and drama in the dirty underbelly of the tallest city in the galaxy.
—oOo—

SoulMuppet Publishing will be at UK Games Expofrom Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.

 Going back to Room #10, going left takes them down a long, poorly lit hallway (lights are flickering) it turns to the left and continues into a long room.

This room looks like Room #13, but it is not damaged. The far wall glows and gives off a slight hum.

Touching anything in this room will give off a strange trilling sound. A light will come on, and then go right out.  

There is no treasure here.

--

This the Port (left) side engine and it is intact. The engine itself is in standby mode and will not reactivate. Thankfully. Reactivating the engine will likely blow up the entire island.

Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure introduced the Roomlands. A vast castle which covered the whole of the known world and more and whose individual rooms, corridors, stairs, and rafters contained whole environments of their own. Mountains, lakes, deserts, forests, caves, and ancient ruins. Oceans stretch across rooms as far as the eye can see and beyond. Desert sands whip and whirl down long corridors. Forests climb the stairs that seem to rise to nowhere. Whatever the environment, there is always a constant danger to be faced—Rooks. These are walking castles, stone giants that seem to have no purpose, other than to wander aimlessly until something captures their attention and then they erupt in incredible aggression. From Parapette, the greatest city in the Known Roomlands which is built into the body of a Colossal Rook, brave adventurers set out alone to explore the near limitless castle of Colostle. Perhaps fulfilling tasks and quests for the Hunter’s Guild, perhaps to explore on his own, hunt Rooks for the precious , often magical resources they contain, or simply to protect a village or settlement from a rampaging Rooks. Rooks are not the only dangers, there are often bandits and other threats as well, but Rooks remain the most feared.

Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure is a Journalling game in which a player will write and keep a journal telling of the exploits of an adventurer across the ecumenopolis-sized castle of Colostle. As is usual with this type of game, the player will need no more than an ordinary deck of playing cards, pen and pencil, and a notebook of some kind. The scope and size of Colostle’s setting meant it was ripe for expansion and the supplement, Colostle – The Roomlands is that expansion. In particular, it provides and explores new character options, locations, living in Colostle, rules, options, and more. And of course, it does so in a book that is beautifully illustrated, echoing the style and feel of the Zelda computer game series, and both the Ico and The Shadow of the Colossus, with just a touch of Studio Ghibli. Like any good roleplaying game, the artwork sells the setting, making you wonder and want to wander the vast setting of Colostle, let alone the fact that together Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure and its companion, Colostle – The Roomlands, provide a unique approach to the fairy tale idea of getting lost in a giant’s castle.

Colostle – The Roomlands begins with new Classes. In Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, an adventurer can set out with either with a piece of a Rook grafted on to him, accompanied by a Rookling companion, wearing a scrap helm taken a Rook that grants its wearer magic, or riding a mount devised from Rook scrap. The first of the new Classes is the Allied, in which a pair of adventurers team up and rely upon each other to survive the Roomlands. Together they have higher Exploration and Combat scores, rather than a special ability, and there is guidance too, if one of them is unfortunately killed. The second new Class is the Bastion, recently discovered person-sized stone or Rook constructs who have achieved independence from their former roles as the immune system for Colossal Rooks, the city-sized Rooks which are near legend in the Roomlands (although the City of Parapette built into a former Colossal Rook). Although able to speak and fight, Bastions are feared and distrusted because of their connection to Rooks. The Bastion gives the option for a player to explore the Roomlands through the embrasures of an outsider, whilst the Allied opens up interplay between two characters that the player can record and develop in her journal.

Colostle – The Roomlands adds and expands the rooms available to the player to explore. The Tundroom is an icy wasteland that Ice Rooks are at home in, but where the often-nomadic tribes have learned to defeat Rooks and command the resulting Rook husk as a Rooknaught! These require a crew to operate the various parts, commanded by a Helmed—one of the Class who wears a scrap helm taken from a Rook that grants its wearer magic, and Rooknaught often battle each other, besiege camps and villages, fight Ice Rooks, and so on. This adds an element of mecha combat to Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, and the Tundroom is supported with rules for its exploration and fighting Rooknaughts—both as an individual Adventurer (very challenging) or another Rooknaught, as well as tables for encounters, village events, and Tundroom characters. If an Adventurer can defeat a Rooknaught, there is the possibility of finding fantastic treasure, including the Carapace, a set of legendary ice armour! Accompanied by their own encounter tables, the Rafters are another environment, or rather environments, each different, high above in the skies over the Roomlands, the biggest threat being the Gargoyles which abduct lone travellers for reasons unknown…

More interesting are the Crackways. These are the cracks in the walls of Colostle, often carved out and expanded, some leading all the way through a wall to the room next door, others not. Some are safe, others not, and these are often marked as such. These add an element of dungeoneering and perhaps a more scaled-down exploration of the Roomlands.

Colostle – The Roomlands expands upon the information given in Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure on the city of Parapette. Although it provides an overview of the city—and notes that Parapette is the one constant between one player’s experience of journalling across Colostle and that of another, almost like Michael Moorcock’s Tanelorn—this focuses on the Rook’s Rest tavern and the Hunter’s Guild, the former sprawling, the latter palatial. Together the information builds on the idea of Parapette being a ‘Fixed Location’ between campaigns, suggesting ways in which a player can interact with other players and collaborate in shared storytelling, either face-to-face, on-line, or even via the post. There is even the option for doing via the publisher’s Discord channel, and is further supported with rules for two-player co-operative adventuring, including exploration, combat, and more, using a mix of prompts from complication and oracle tables. This brings a degree of interaction to the play of Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure as well as roleplaying because it is no longer a case of a player simply developing a story for himself from cards drawn and prompts generated, but instead having think about ways to present his character’s actions and decisions to the other player. In this way, Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure takes on the performance elements of roleplaying.

In addition there are rules for fighting in Rook. This is an option because it is possible for a character to internally defeat a Rook and turn it into a Rookhome. To do this a player needs to use an ‘Onboarding’ action in combat with a Rook and if successful, then fight from the inside. A character only has the one chance to do it per combat. Although a defeated Rook can be stripped of its treasures, turning it into a Rookhome gives the character an ambulatory home that will make travel that much more easy. He will be able to travel further and do so unmolested by other Rooks. However, Rookhomes are not combat machines, unlike the aforementioned Rooknaughts, and a character must leave a Rookhome to explore or fight on foot. They also require maintenance, so once a character has one, he will need to adventure further to pay for that.

Lastly, Colostle – The Roomlands includes something quite different in a Journalling game—a directed campaign. ‘Search for the Seastone – A Solo Colostle Campaign’ combines the standard exploratory play of Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure with sections where the decisions will be limited like a ‘choose your own adventure’ book, story sections which work like cut scenes for video games, and map areas which can be more freely explored and have keyed descriptions elsewhere. The campaign sees the character explore the legendary island known as Crown Isle and perhaps delve into the labyrinth below. The campaign is more linear than a ‘choose your own adventure’ book would be, primarily because of the limited space, but also because it is more of a scenario than a campaign. However, it does allow the exploration of a small part the Roomlands without the need to generate procedurally in every scene or location. Meaning that the player will recording details in response to given details rather than random ones. It would be interesting to see if this format could be repeated again, not just for single scenarios, but an actual campaign. Of course, one use of ‘Search for the Seastone – A Solo Colostle Campaign’ would be to run it as a traditional roleplaying scenario if the Game Master has adapted the setting to the mechanics of her choice.

Of course, Colostle – The Roomlands builds on Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, opening its scope with visits to new locations—the Tundrooms, Rafters, and Crackways, as well as new options in terms of storytelling, like the co-operative play. They are all great options, the new locations worthy of supplements of their own, as is the format of the directed journalling of ‘Search for the Seastone – A Solo Colostle Campaign’. Colostle – The Roomlands is an absolute must for Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, enabling a player to explore further and have more interesting adventures, and if a Game Master wants to take the information presented here and develop more of a setting for traditional roleplaying, then that would be fine too.
—oOo—

Colostle will be at UK Games Expofrom Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.

You didn't think I would go through all this effort and not at least see how my own Drosophila melanogaster would work. I least wanted to try out a witch. 

In truth, my little witch Larina has a lot to do with Doctor Who, especially the Doctor Who I was watching in the 80s.  My original version of her had bits of Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant, but not as "screamy" as they were. And more than a little of Romana II. And many of my favorite episodes had a more horror feel, especially "The Brain of Morbius" and The Sisterhood of Karn.

SO...how does a witch fit into Doctor Who? We have the Sisterhood of Karn in the classic episodes and even the Carrionites in the later "The Shakespeare Code" (2007).  The episode "The Daemons" gave us a White Witch, and "The Stones of Blood" gave us druids. So there is at least some fertile ground here. Humans in rare cases have been shown to develop mental powers like telepathy and tk ("Planet of the Spiders") 

Given my love for the occult 70s revival and British folk horror, I am tempted to set her as a companion to the Doctor (or one of the other PC Time Lords) in 1974 (Tom Baker era). Have her a "white witch" from Wales (because why not) who is trying to figure out what to do with her parents' old spice shop. That is when a Time Lord comes into her life.

Larina Nichols
aka, "Nix"

Human Female
Profession: Spice shop owner, neo-pagan
Approximate Space/Time Coordinates: TNP Earth, 1974

Apparent Age: 20s
Actual Age: 25
Regog. Handle: Bright red hair, blue eyes, thick Welsh accent
Height: 5'4"
Build: Slim/Average
Looks: Striking 

STR: III
END: IV
DEX: IV
CHA: V
MNT: VI
INT: V

Max Op END: 20    Wound Heal: 4
Curr Op END: 10    Fatigue Heal: 4
Inact Save Lvl III: 12
Unc Thresh Lvl II: 6

Special Abilities:  Telekinesis (11), Telepathy (11)

AP: 7

Skills:
Artistic Expression II
Gaming II
Life Sciences II
General Medicine II
General Medicine, Herbal Cures III
Physical Sciences II
Public Performance I
Social Sciences II
Streetwise I
Trivia, Occultism III
Unarmed Combat, Brawling II
Verbal Interaction III

I can see her traveling with her Time Lord roughly parallel to Sarah Jane Smith and the Fourth Doctor's adventures. Maybe in this alternate reality, she got her mental powers from one of the blue crystals from Metebelis 3, turning her eyes from brown to blue, somewhat like they did with Leela.

Travel with her Time Lord until she decides to stay on Karn and join the Sisterhood? No idea, really yet.

As it turns out, I did, in fact, have a character sheet for her. It wasn't complete, but enough to get me going. 

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 Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start is the quick-start for Cursed Captains of Cthulhu, the swashbuckling roleplaying game which pirate crews hunt down and confront the eldritch forces of Cthulhu in the Golden Age of Piracy.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, the various factions which make up the Brethren Court of pirates who guard the Caribbean against unspeakable horrors as well as fighting oppression and inequality, detailed descriptions of the various elements which make up a Pirate Character, rules for actions and combat, being terrified, magic, details of the arms and equipment fielded by the Pirate Characters, ship combat, the voyage, ‘Devil in the Details’, and nine ready-to-play, pre-generated Pirate Characters.

It is a forty-four page, 31.95 MB full colour PDF.

The quick-start is well illustrated and the artwork is uniformly decent, although there is none for the pre-generated Pirate Characters. The maps and handouts for the voyages are also good. Throughout there are sidebars with handy advice, summations of the rules, and examples for the benefit of the Game Master.

The Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start is published by Black Cats Gaming.

How long will it take to play?
The Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start and its voyage, ‘Devil in the Details’, is designed to be played through in one session.

What do you need to play?
The Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start requires six-sided dice, no more than four per player.

Who do you play?
The pre-generated Pirate Characters consist of a Captain, Windcaller, Seeker, Exorcist, Duellist, Bosun, Brawler, Musketeer, and Student. The Windcaller, Seeker, and Exorcist are capable of casting spells. All have eight characteristics and some skills. Some also have traits. None have any background, so the player will need to provide or develop that.

How is a Pirate Character defined?
A Pirate Character in Cursed Captains of Cthulhu has eight characteristics—Melee, Brawn, Seafaring, Abjure, Harness, Studies, Savvy, and Accuracy. All are rated between zero and five, and of the eight, Abjure is the ability to withstand the power and influence of all things eldritch, whilst Harness is the ability to use forbidden powers and knowledge. These values are laid out on a ship’s wheel on the character sheet.

In addition, a Pirate Character has Health Points, Courage Points, Evasion Score, and Initiative Score.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Cursed Captains of Cthulhu is driven by characteristic checks. Target Numbers range from eight and ‘Very Easy’ up to thirty and ‘Nearly Impossible’. To attempt an action, the Pirate Character’s player rolls four six-sided dice and add the characteristic value to the total. If the roll is equal to, or greater, than the Target Number, the Pirate Character succeeds. If all four dice are sixes, the result is a critical success, but a critical failure if the result is all ones. It is possible to reroll the dice or nudge their values up and down. If the dice are all sixes after nudges or rerolls, the action automictically succeeds, but is not a critical success. Rerolls come from skills.

How does combat work?
Combat in the Cursed Captains of Cthulhu is also driven by characteristic checks. In a turn, a Pirate Character can move, attack, cast a spell, reload, hold, or interact for one action. It is possible to attack twice, including firing two pistols, swinging a cutlass, fire a cannon, and so on. The Target Number is typically equal to the Evasion Score of the NPC or Pirate Character. In general, weapons inflict set damage values. Once a fight starts and multiple participants are involved, combat be deadly, especially when cannon are involved.

In addition to suffering physical damage and losing Health Points, a Pirate Character can lose Courage Points through spells, failing certain saves, and being confronted by certain situations and creatures. If reduced to zero, the Pirate Character can become Terrified and do little more than crawl away. A Terrified Pirate Character can be revived by consuming certain drinks, or certain traits or skills being used, or ultimately, if time passes. This replaces the equivalent of a Sanity system as seen in other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror, shifting to a loss of courage rather than sanity.
How does naval combat work?
Ships in Cursed Captains of Cthulhu have ratings for their type, size, health, and weapons. A ship’s crew is treated like a character of its own and has the equivalent of Health Points, Courage Points, Evasion Score, and Initiative Score, plus a general Characteristic value. The quality of the crew will also modify Characteristic rolls made by the players.

In general, naval chases and combat are kept abstract in Cursed Captains of Cthulhu in order to ease play and put the Pirate Characters at the heart of the action. The Pirate Characters’ typically has an edge over any NPC ship. The rules presented in the quick-start cover ship movement, actions, firing the guns, boarding actions, and forcing a crew’s surrender. It is noted that the latter does not always mean the fight is over!

How does magic work?
Casting spells requires the Otherworldly Insight skill. When casting a spell, a player can choose to roll one, two, or three dice rather than the standard four. The number of dice rolled determines the number of Courage Points lost when casting a spell.

What do you play?
The Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start includes the voyage, ‘Devil in the Details’. The Pirate Characters are engaged by Benjamin Hornigold, leader of one of the factions in the pirate republic of Nassau, New Providence, to spy on a meeting between some pirate dissenters and agents of an unknown power. They are ordered to kill or capture the dissenters, but also ensure that whatever the dissenters are selling does not fall into the wrong hands. The encounter quickly turns into a fight and the Pirate Characters will have to chase down the agents aboard their vessel and board it in a final eldritch confrontation.

The voyage is designed to showcase the mechanics, primarily naval chases and combat, and personal combat, whilst hinting at the eldritch horrors on the high seas. The voyage does feel like Pirates of the Caribbean, but with added Mythos.

Is there anything missing?
For the most part, the Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start is complete. Although there is background on Brethren Court of pirates who guard the Caribbean against unspeakable horrors, there are no details of what the entities and forces and their agents are doing in the region beyond that hinted at in the given voyage. More problematic is the lack of background for any of the pre-generated Pirate Characters. Some background would make them easier to play and not leave the players reliant upon whatever they can make up on the spot, especially if the quick-start is run as a convention game. The result is that the Pirate Characters are bland.
Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start are relatively easy to prepare. The Game Master will need to pay closer attention to how ships and ship-to-ship combat work in the game, as they are the most complex part of the rules. There is decent advice for the Game Master on how to run the scenario.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start includes everything necessary to play an action-packed voyage which reveals the eldritch nature of the real, if secret conflict in the Caribbean. The lack of background for the pre-generated Pirate Characters is disappointing as that would have helped players engage with the specific elements of the setting, but otherwise, the voyage, ‘Devil in the Details’ is simple and direct and has a pulp-action feel and will showcase both the core rules and elements of the setting, and will work as a convention scenario.

Where can you get it?
The Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Quick Start is available to download here.

—oOo—


Black Cats Gaming will be at UK Games Expofrom Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.

 The doorway from Room #10 opens to a hallway. PCs can go right, left or straight ahead.

Going right takes them down a long, poorly lit hallway (lights are flickering) it turns to the right and continues into a long room.

This room looks like it had been in an intense fire with melted metal bits everywhere.

Spending longer than 1 hour here will cause the PCs to feel sick unless a Saving Throw vs. Death is passed.  Affected PCs will then begin to die of a wasting disease. The healing tools from earlier will revive them as will a Cure Disease spell.

There are several decayed corpses here. They look like the humanoid from the previous rooms. All that remain are bones.

There is no treasure or creatures here.

--

This is the remains of the Starboard (right) Engine. The sickness is radiation sickness.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the Dungeons & Dragons-style retroclone inspired by ‘Appendix N’ of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. Published by Goodman Games, scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, gimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. One of the signature features of Dungeon Crawl Classics and its post-apocalyptic counterpart, Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, is the ‘Character Funnel’. This is a scenario specifically designed for Zero Level Player Characters in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom on the Blood Garden is such a Character Funnel, but is could be played with a party of six First Level Player Characters and still be a challenge. Either way, the scenario can be used as a one-shot or to start a campaign in a world of dark goddesses and demonic entities!
Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden is set on the grounds of Cob Hill Manor. The house and its grounds had been long abandoned and the inhabitants of the nearby village without a lord of the manor. More recently, Morto Blango, a wealthy merchant came into the property and moved in, deciding to become a rural landowner and restore the place to what it once was. He hired numerous villagers to work for him. Now several weeks have passed and nobody has heard anything from their friends and relatives employed at the manor, let alone seen any movement on the grounds. Worse there was a fire and everyone could see the manor house itself alight. Why did nobody cry out or run to the village for help. It is unsettling and a mystery that the villagers they want not so much solving as reassuring that their relatives are alive and well. Thus begins Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden.

The scenario opens with the Player Characters at the gates to the manor. Beyond lies an extensive and partially overgrown garden, strewn with strangeness and secrets. There is a pumpkin patch, a topiary garden, a well, and gardens devoted to fungi, lotus flowers, cacti, and even poison! Some of the flora is animated, even ambulatory, and much of its deadly. Working their way through the garden—necessary if they are to get to the ruins of the manor house—the Player Characters are likely to get at least scratched and more likely to have withstand the effects of various poisons. However, not all encounters are necessarily adversarial and the Player Characters are careful, they can sense a feeling of displacement which lingers over the garden and potentially pick up various items which will help them, as well as some clues and secrets which suggest that someone had strange plans for the manor and its grounds. Not necessarily Morto Blango, but someone...

Once the Player Characters reach the top of the garden they will discover the manor house partially burned to the ground. Here they will also discover some of the surviving villagers, possible friends and relatives, as well as strange monsters lurking in the house. The inclusion of the surviving villagers is a nice touch, given that they could all have been found dead, but alive they serve as a pool of ready replacement Zero Level Player Characters should one of the originals die. They also serve as a source of information as to what happened at the manor. They do not know much as they are very frightened, but helpful nevertheless. Investigating the remains of manor will lead to Morto Blango’s last refuge and a very nasty encounter with a thing from beyond time and space!

Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden has much to do with the doings of wizards, but the scenario being a Character Funnel means the Player Characters are totally incapable of dealing with him, instead merely dealing with the consequences of his insidious plans. The Player Characters never encounter him in the scenario, although they will possibly learn of his name and his plans. The scenario is nicely detailed and has a pleasing Lovecraftian feel to it rather than in terms of content, although there is a touch of the Edgar Allan Poe to the piece a la Roger Corman. Where there is an issue with the scenario is the number of ways through the garden to the house. There are three or four routes which the Player Characters could take through the garden, meaning that they might never get to the secrets hidden in the garden or the potential aid to be gained if they explore enough of the garden. So some playthroughs may miss some of the clues and some of the items that might mean the difference between life and death as the scenario comes to its climax. To be fair, this is understandable in terms of design, since the Player Characters are not always going to find everything and Character Funnels are meant to very dangerous. It is more a case of the players and their characters having to balance the need to search for more clues versus the deadliness of the encounters!

There can be no doubt that Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden is deadly. When compared to other scenarios it does feel as if there are more Fortitude and Will saving throws needed in order for the Player Characters to survive. This will make the scenario almost as deadly if played through with First Level Player Characters.
Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden is well presented. The artwork is excellent and the scenario is clearly written and easy to understand. The maps are as decent as you would expect, and there is the bonus of an interview with the author at the end of the book.
Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden combines two horror genres—the gothic and the Lovecraftian, in an unworldly garden and broken mansion. This is definitely a scenario where ultimately, being too timid will leave the Player Characters poorly equipped to deal with what they will face at the end, but pushing too far is potentially as deadly. Dungeon Crawl Classics #103: Bloom of the Blood Garden is a fine Character Funnel, which starts off quaint and deadly, before turning out downright dangerous.
—oOo—

Goodman Games will be at UK Games Expofrom Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.

Jenny Everywhere by Diana NockTo wrap up my exploration of the FASA Doctor Who RPG I wanted to create a character for it. I wanted a Time Lord or something like that. So I could really test the system out. But in truth, nothing was coming to mind. I wanted a fun character, not a Doctor clone, and someone that fit with the spirit of not just this game but my blog.

After a lot of going back and forth on various ideas and going back to an old idea. I felt it was time to revisit my old friend Jenny Everywhere!

We last saw Jenny on these pages back in Victorian England for the Ghosts of Albion RPG, where, among other things, she was lamenting that there would be no decent cell phone reception here for another 170 years.  But honestly, Jenny is a great character, and according to many of the articles I have read on her she owes at least a little bit of her existence to Doctor Who.  She is perfect for this since I can stat her up for all versions of the Doctor Who RPGs out there and compare them.  

A bit of background from my original post 13 years ago! (ACK!)

Jenny Everywhere is a shifter; that is she can shift between the realities and interact with who knows who.  Whether there is one Jenny Everywhere that is very mobile or multiple Jenny's that have a vague awareness of each other is left to the individual authors.  I personally am fond of the Multiple Jennys idea.

Jenny Everywhere is also a public domain character.  Meaning anyone can use her in whatever project they have. You just need to include her license as below:

"The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."It is such a cool concept, not just the open-source of it (that is cool also) but a character that exists in every single reality and can shift between them.

Regular readers should by now know of my love for the multi-verse.  It is a very cool concept I enjoy on principle and how it has been employed in various sci-fi and fantasy publications.  My favorite might be the great Micheal Moorcock stories of Elric, Corum, and the other Incarnations of the Eternal Champion.  Jenny would be different.  While the Eternal Champion feels the combined weight of all his incarnations as it were, Jenny is freed by hers.  Reality is hers to roam because that is what it is there for.  In one of the comics I saw, she fights against a force known as Chaos, but that doesn't make her an agent of Law as we would have seen in the Corum books. 

Of course, the openness of Jenny is very appealing.  Something everyone can use and share and just a promise not to break her.

In the various Doctor RPGs I am going to say she is Galifreyian, or half-Galifreyian, human on her mother's side.  This gives her some temporal sense and makes her long-lived. She also has the ability to shift in Time and Space. 

Jenny Everywhere
aka, The Shifter

STR: IV
END: V
DEX: V
CHA: VI
MNT: V
INT: IV

Max Op END: 30    Wound Heal: 5
Curr Op END: 15    Fatigue Heal: 5
Inact Save Lvl III: 12
Unc Thresh Lvl II: 6

Special Abilities: Luck, Shifting

AP: 7

Skills:
Armed Combat, Contact Weapons II
Armed Combat, Ranged Weapons II
Artistic Expression III
Carousing III
Engineering III
Engineering, Temporal IV
Gaming II
Leadership III
Life Sciences II
General Medicine III
Physical Sciences VI
Public Performance I
Social Sciences II
Space Sciences II
Streetwise IV
TARDIS Systems III
Trivia, Time Shifting V
Unarmed Combat, Brawling III
Unarmed Combat, Grappling III
Temporal Vehicle III
Verbal Interaction III
Verbal Interaction, Fast Talking IV

In my mind, Jenny Shifts about time and space more or less at will. She can also move between universes. A bit like Jobu Tupaki (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and America Chavez (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Likely she has met both of those 'verse jumpers as well.

She has run into the Doctor and even hung out with Clara and Ashildr on The American Roadside Diner in Space. 

I have to admit I also want to stat up her companion. Her older, but very normal if a lot sexier, half-sister Donna Everywhere. 

Links

• The Shifter Archive
• Jenny Everywhere Day
• Wikipedia
• Jenny's entry on her Fandom Wiki
• The Doctor on her Fandom Wiki

It is the year 2035. The digital age has been surpassed by the nanotechnology age and the USA is already colonising and terraforming Mars. On Earth, huge multinationals have extended their reach and power so it is also the Age of Corpocracy. Europe has regressed into totalitarianism and protectionism, Asia remains in lockdown after the Third Pandemic, South America dominates global banking via cryptocurrency investment, and there is war in Africa. As the power of the corporations has grown, the power of nation states has dwindled, leaving often unable to deal with emergent threats. This is where Icarus steps in. Sanctioned by numerous states and given freedom of movement and legal authority beyond local governments, Icarus fields highly effective agents from the diverse backgrounds. They have to be the best and they cannot fail, because some day they have to be ready to save humanity.

This is the set-up for Critical: Foundation – Season 1, a roleplaying game which looks like a board game, is designed to introduce roleplaying to the board game playing hobby, and plays like a ‘filler’ game, intended to be played in between or before longer games. It looks like a board game because it uses a lot of cards as reference, much like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition—but very much without any of the complexities. As an introductory roleplaying game, it uses simple mechanics, introduces the rules and concepts in a step-by-step fashion to make learning easy, and it uses a familiar set-up. This is near-future Spy-Fi action, with a team of specialists working together to investigate mysteries and deal with threats, but Spy-Fi action as a television series—and that leads into the ‘filler’ game format. Critical: Foundation is designed to be played in episodic fashion, the box including a total of nine episodes each with an estimated playing time of thirty minutes. Thus, a game of Critical: Foundation is designed to be played over several sessions rather than one, and with the physical nature of its components, around the table rather than online. From a roleplaying viewpoint, Critical: Foundation is like the equivalent of a starter set, complete with rules, four pre-generated Player Characters, dice, rules, and an adventure, all designed to introduce the setting and rules of a roleplaying game. Except that Critical: Foundation is a complete roleplaying game designed to showcase the roleplaying experience rather than a particular game or setting.

Published by Gigamic and available via Hachette Games, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is designed to be played by between two and five players, aged fourteen or more, one of whom is the Game Master. Although there are suggestions as to how to adjust if there are fewer players, the roleplaying game really works best with a Game Master and four players. Its board game like design means that it has plenty of components. For the Game Master, there is the Game Master’s Screen, the What is a Roleplaying Game? sheet, a Synopsis Booklet for Season 1, nine Episodes, thirty-four Episode cards, eight NPC cards, ten Clue cards, eight Wound card, fifteen Status cards, plus thirty-two 32 Narrative tokens, five Clue tokens, and two six-sided dice. For the players there are four Character cards, eight Background cards, 19 Equipment cards, four Hero tokens, one eight-sided and four twelve-sided dice, a dry-erase marker, and for Name cards. The What is a Roleplaying Game? Sheet provides a brief explanation of roleplaying, whilst the Synopsis Booklet for Season 1 gives an overview of all nine episodes of the first season, some background to the setting, and the epilogue to the season. The Episode cards are used to illustrate scenes and locations within each Episode; the NPC cards detail the other members of the season’s cats the Player Characters will encounter; and the Narrative Tokens to track everything from the passage of time and escape attempts to equipment use and NPC health points. Clue tokens and Clue cards are used to reveal further information during play.

For the Game Master, the highlight of all of these components is the Game Master’s Screen. Although quite low as Game Master’s Screens go, it is very sturdy affair, with all of the rules on the inside for easy reference. It also has handy little pockets to slide NPC cards into so that the Game Master can see the details for the NPC whilst her players can the picture of the NPC on the other side.

The dice consist of a mix of six-, eight, and twelve-sided dice. The six-sided dice are black and marked with various keyed to the NPCs, and are used by the Game Master. Both the white eight- and twelve-sided dice are white and numbered differently. Both are average dice rather than being marked with the full range of numbers as standard polyhedral dice. For the twelve-sided die, this also includes a zero and an ‘×’, the latter indicating a critical failure when rolled.

The four Character cards are double-sided, male on one side, female on the other. They consist of an Analyst, Coder, Scientist, and Military. Each has a quality and a flaw, four—Dexterity, Mental, Physical, and Social, a quick description, and a quote. Each is fully illustrated. One attribute is marked in red to indicate that is a Character’s specialisation. Unlike any other roleplaying game, the attributes do not have an associated value, although they do have linked skills. So the Physical attribute covers Athletics, Combat, and Stealth, whilst Mental covers Knowledge, Investigation, and Perception. The Background cards further define the Characters, there being two per Character. For the Analyst there is Profiler and Private Detective, for the Coder, Hacker and Programmer, for the Scientist, Researcher and Forensic Physician, and for the Military, Mercenary and Special Forces. The Equipment cards include a short range of arms and armour, plus various pieces of technical gear like a Medical Drone or Holo Tablet.

Character creation in Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is fast and easy. Each player selects a Character and chooses which side of the card he wants to use, then chooses one of the two Backgrounds for the Character, plus the associated equipment. He uses the dry-erase marker to write his Character’s name on a Name card, and that is it.

Mechanically, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is also fast and easy. To have his Character undertake an action, a player rolls the twelve-sided die to get a result equal to or more than a Difficulty Level. The Difficulty Level ranges from one for Easy to six or more for Impossible. The bonus from the die ranges from zero to three, and further bonuses can from a Character’s Specialism for an Attribute, if appropriate, his Background, and the Equipment he is using, for a maximum of three. A Critical Success is achieved if the roll is double the Difficulty Level, which doubles the outcome of the action, but if the ‘×’ is rolled, the attempt is a Critical Failure. This also applies if any player rolls an ‘×’ on a group check in which everyone rolls. When a Critical Failure is rolled, the group earns a Hero Token, up to a maximum of four. Hero Tokens are expended to add the eight-sided die to a roll. Some items of Equipment also allow a reroll of a check.

Combat is likewise kept simple. Initiative is handled through simple Perception checks and when a Character acts, he can do one action and use one piece of equipment. There are just four combat actions—Attack, Help, Take Cover, and Find a Weakness. NPC actions are determined by rolling the Game Master dice and referring to the card for each NPC. A Character can suffer a maximum of two wounds. Any damage after that and the Character suffers an ongoing penalty indicated by a Status Card, the most common of which is ‘Exhausted’, which leaves the Character unable to act until the next scene. Whilst Wounds can be healed, the effects of Status Cards typically need time to heal.

The Episodes are four-page leaflets and start with an episode zer0—the equivalent of a pre-credits scene—before running through to the finale in episode eight. Each includes a Set-up guide, an Episode Synopsis, and then an Introduction followed by two or three scenes and an epilogue. Throughout icons are used to indicate which sections are narrative, involve action, investigation, or roleplay, or require a dice roll by the players or the Game Master. There are also notes running alongside the scenes which give the Game Master pointers on how to portray various NPCs and describe various situations, the latter primarily drawing from action movies. Preparation requires the Game Master to study an episode and make sure that she has all of the cards and tokens ready. Some of the scenes are more complex than others, primarily the action or chase scenes, and these will require more preparation than others. So preparation can take anywhere between five minutes and twenty minutes depending upon the complexity of the scene. Set-up and take down is easy, the latter made easier because the game includes envelopes that each player can store his Character’s cards in.
As a roleplaying game, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is simple and straightforward and easy to grasp. For the experienced player and the experienced Game Master, it is really easy to pick up and play. The experienced player can start with the simplest of explanations and start play with almost no preparation, whilst the experienced Game Master really only needs to learn the rules, ready an episode, and then run the game directly from the really great Game Master’s Screen, it is that simple and straightforward. For the player and Game Master who have not played a roleplaying game before, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 does its very best to present a direct and accessible roleplaying game. This shows not only in the simplicity of the mechanics, but also the easy-to-grasp televisual, action-orientated style of its story and the fantastic presentation in terms of the NPCs and the Episode cards which help the players visualise the antagonists and other members of the cast, the various locations, and clues. (Further play aids, including music and maps, are available from the publisher’s website. More content has also been promised.)

One aspect missing from Critical: Foundation as a roleplaying game is the scope for the Player Characters to learn and grow from their experiences. In part, that is due to the simplicity of both the Player Character design and the mechanics, but if Critical: Foundation is viewed as something akin to the traditional starter set for a roleplaying game, this is not always an aspect covered anyway. More potentially problematic is the directed, quite tightly scripted nature of the episodes, which do not give the players and their characters a lot of freedom in what they are expected to do. For the experienced roleplayer, this can feel constraining, less so for anyone newer to the hobby, though they may find it so should they return to Critical: Foundation after trying other roleplaying games. That said, Critical: Foundation is designed to be the equivalent of a television action series so a certain degree of scripting is to be expected.

Critical: Foundation – Season 1 could be played as a traditional roleplaying game starter set and the episodes all in one go. However, that would be to miss the episodic nature of the design, which although runs counter to today’s prevailing practice of having all episodes of a television series released at once and everyone binging on them, leaves room for anticipation and a sense of mystery from one episode to the next. The episodic nature also means that each session is focused and never outstays its welcome. Beyond the limits of Critical: Foundation – Season 1 core box, there is advice on using the contents again to create other episodes, though again, the more experienced Game Master will find that easier than the one that Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is actually aimed at.

Physically, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is very well presented. The quality of the components are uniformly excellent, the artwork as good as any modern board game, and the writing decent too. Still, the standout piece is the Game Master’s Screen.

Although there is nothing to prevent either from enjoying playing through it, Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is possibly a bit too light a roleplaying game for the experienced player or Game Master. The campaign and design of the game does not quite support the introduction for the players as much as the Game Master and it is likely that players new to roleplaying may need more of a hand or preparation than is given here. However, once they get started there is plenty keep them involved, but not overwhelm in terms of rules or mechanics. A more experienced Game Master will have no issue with easing her players into the play and roleplay of Critical: Foundation – Season 1, and that is probably how starting to play will best work.

Critical: Foundation – Season 1 is clever idea, one executed to give what is actually an introductory roleplaying game not just much more of a visual appeal, but also a physical, tangible presence that the players can hold and inspect. Hopefully there will be expansions because there is plenty of story to be told and because roleplaying in the short sharp bursts of drama and action provided by Critical: Foundation – Season 1 deserves future seasons rather than cancellation.

—oOo—

Hachette Games will be at UK Games Expofrom Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.

This room is on the other side of Room #10, also behind a hidden door.  The room is the same shape and dimensions as Room #11.

This room has more of those animated statues, but many are in pieces. It almost looks like many have been opened and metal from the inside have been taken out. They look more like some sort of advanced clockwork creature.

There are some tools here and gold in the form of wire (78 gp total).

There is one tool that fits into a human's hand easily with a small depression near the middle. Pressing the depression causes a jet of flame 12" long to come out.

--

The tool is a plasma knife, and it is used to cut open damaged robots that can't be opened by regular means. It has 1d4+6 "charges" remaining.  It can be used as a dagger, but the damage is 1d6 burning only, not piercing or slashing. It can also be used to start fires. 

No RPG is complete without some adventures to have. Here are all the official FASA Doctor Who RPG adventures published. All are out of print and hard to find these days.

It has taken me a few years, but I have managed to get all the adventures.  Some of these are so musty I am going to need to double up on my antihistamines just to get through them all!

The Iytean Menace

48 pages. 1985. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

Now here is a fun one. The characters travel back to London in 1885 (I am already on board) to discover a retired Army Officer with a cache of futuristic weapons, a crashed spaceship, and a rogue body-snatching alien. It actually has quite a lot to offer. 

There are plenty of interesting NPCs and even a full set of PCs for the players to use. We are introduced to Time Lord Rollonovaradanavashir, or Rolo for short, and his collection of eight companions. We get coverage of the Type 51 TARDIS with its advanced computer systems and even some new skills.

Yes. That cover is Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte. Though the adventure takes place in London in 1885 not Paris in 1877. Minor detail I guess. 

This one might be fun to try out with the Paternoster Investigations gang with the Cubicle 7 system. 

The Lords of Destiny

48 pages. 1985. Design and writing by William H. Keith, Jr.

This one has a rather interesting premise. The characters materialize onto a 10,000km long starship built around a planet. As it has been traveling through space and gathering material, it has grown larger and larger. Now its computer is sentient and, of course, insane, so it is targeting mineral-rich planets to gobble up. To top it all off the characters are arrested right away and there is a rebellion happening on the ship of some 100 Billion people. 

This is another adventure, like most of the Doctor Who adventures and stories, that require more thought than beating people up. It is mentioned that while yes, blowing up the ship would solve the problem, it would also kill all 100 billion on board. 

This one introduces us to the Time Lord, "The Professor," which seems like an inventible name.  I would be lying if I didn't say I totally tried to square this guy with the Peter Cushing Dr. Who movies. His companions include Joan of Arc (yes. that one), a tabloid reporter from Peria, IL, and a test pilot from 9880 AD. 

Countdown

48 pages. 1985. Design and writing by Ray Winninger

The first adventures were published right on the heels of RPG Boxed set. This one came later. In this adventure the character's TARDIS gets caught in a gravity bubble and they land on the courier Leander in the 26th Century. The Leander is delivering medical supplies that only last for 48 hours and the flight in 30 hours long. There is some meddling with some Vegan pirates (not those Vegans, ones from Vega XII) and a Cyberman plot. 

This adventure is set up for first time Gamemasters with notes on how to run this adventure and adventures in general. Several options for resolving this adventure are given. And we even have a nice map of the starships.

For the Players, we have a new Time Lord, Kelaphaludner, aka Kelly, and some of his companions. Kelly will make more appearances.  Additionally, we also get the Fourth Doctor with Leela and Romana II as choices.  I think there must have been a push to include the Doctor and his companions. 

This one gives a special thanks to the Northwestern University Doctor Who club. This one is also slightly taller than the other books. 

The  Hartlewick Horror

40 pages. 1985. Design and writing by Ray Winninger

This one takes us back to some of the more horror-influenced stories of the Third and Fourth Doctor. The Fourth Doctor even appears on the cover. This one takes place on Earth 1923.  Here the CIA has detected energy waves on the same wavelength as the human brain. There are some disappearances, a strange seance, a trapped alien threat, and a group of angry villagers.

It feels very Hammer Horror to be honest and I think that was the point. There are supernatural overtones, but of course as typical with Doctor Who, it is an alien. It might a bit clichéd, but still, it is fun and there are some nice maps. 

For the characters, Kelly and his companions Phillip and Gwendolyn are back. They even show so updates from the last adventure. Also back as alternate player characters are the Fourth Doctor, Leela, Sarah Jane, and Harry Sullivan (not sure who the art for Harry is...).  There are even suggestions for a sequel the Game Master can do on their own.

The Legions of Death

52 pages. 1985. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

This one features the newer FASA logo on the cover and the Third Doctor. This one starts with a temporal anomaly in Britain in 43 AD. Apparently, something (or someone) is helping the local Britions win battles against the Romans they were never supposed to have won. That someone turns out to be the renegade Time Lord the War Chief. 

This one is certainly for the history buffs out there. 

For PCs we get the Time Lord "The Colonel" and Time Lady Leoradrusendalular, aka Leora.  For alternates, we have the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, and Sarah Jane Smith. Additionally we have the Bigadier, and some others. Including the first companion from Chicago! There are good collection of NPCs as well. 

There are player's handouts and lots of background information. We even get coverage of the War Chief's Type 43 TARDIS. 

The adventure reminds a bit of some of things we would also see in the Tweleth Doctor episode "The Eaters of Light."

The City of Gold

52 pages. 1986. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

While the TARDIS and her crew are supposed to be headed to Venezuela in the 21st Century to deal with some revolutionaries, they get sidetracked and land instead in 1543.  Instead of revolutionaries though they run into dinosaurs and rumors of El Dorado, the lost City of Gold.

There is a lot of background here, some player handouts, and some great maps. It also has the involvement of the Silurians, which is always a plus. This is also our first adventure with a 1986 date on it. 

For our PCs we get a Time Lord . "The Don" (ok...), the time Lady Maranodulandur, aka "Mara", a gunslinger named Jack Ransome, a human doctor Cassandra Maitland, and human cavalry officer Jacques D'Aubanville. For our alternate cast, we have the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Teagan, and Turlogh. And a lot of NPCs.

The Warriors Code

56 pages. 1986. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

It's 1986 and America is fascinated with all things Japanese. This adventure is larger and we get Jim Holloway doing the cover art. This adventure takes place in Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate (1600 AD), just before the Battle of Sekigahara. Here the TARDIS crashes into another Time Ship from 5184 AD.  While both crews rush to make repairs to their respective ships they have Fuedal Japan to deal with.

I won't lie, you REALLY have to like Japanese history to get into this one. I am not saying it is bad, but it is a set piece. The Time Ship is just a MacGuffin to get you here. 

This one also focuses on the Doctor and his companions in the forefront. The Second Doctor is joined by Jamie, Ben, Poly, Victoria, and Zoe. For the original characters, we get the Time Lord "Noman" and the Time Lady Marinarratalasanavor, aka Marina, and some companions. 

There are maps, hints for play, and even some flowcharts. All of which are nice touches.  This is also the only perfect bound adventure. 

--

I think all of these adventures could be played, with a little massaging, under the Cubicle 7 Doctor Who RPG rules. Many of the Doctors and the Companions have stats in their respective books as do counterparts for all the NPCs. 

The best thing about these adventures are the tidbits that add to or clarify the various rules. They are all geared toward a starting Game Master and naturally assume that anyone will grab any of these as their first adventure.  The only minor, tiny exception here is the Time Lord Kelly and his companions that do get better across their respective adventures, but that is it really. 

None of them will go down in history as classic adventures in the way that say some of the D&D ones have, but they are fun.

In room 10 to the right, is a secret door. It leads to a room filled (10) with more of the animated statues from Room 10. These, however all seem to be broken or not active.

This appears to be some sort of storage for these creatures (robots) and the is nothing else here.

If the characters choose to scavenge these robots they can find about 45 gp worth of gold wire on each one.

--

These robots will not attack, their powercells are completely drained, but the Players won't know that. 

Getting back into my exploration of the FASA Doctor Who RPG.  Each adds more detail to three of the Doctor's deadliest foes.  Each was also sold as a two-book set, a player's book and a GM's guide. As expected, it more difficult to find the Player's books in the 2nd hand market these days.

The Daleks

Naturally the first supplement covers the Doctor's and the Time Lords' greatest threat, the Daleks. Here we have a Game Master's guide (the full color cover) and the Player's in-universe guide. 

Game Master's Book

This 40 page book covers everything known about the Daleks up to 1985.  We are given some background on them for the show, how they were created by Terry Nation (who still owned the copyright then) for Doctor Who and so on. We then get right into the in-game background.  We are given a time line of the Daleks from the time when the first humanoids evolved on Skaro to the "modern" day.  There is a lot of background on Skaro, the Kaled/Thal wars, and Davros.

I should point out here that while there is a lot of cannon taken directly from the show, there is also a lot of added material. Designed mostly to feature the exploits of the fictional C.I.A. (Celestial Intervention Agency) and to help "smooth out" some of the time line inconsistencies from the show. One example is a picture of a pre-mutated version of Davros. Another are some of the planets that the Daleks have conquered. 

There are some sections on the various aliens that have the most contact with the Daleks such as the Movellans, the Ogrons, and the Thals.

Dalek psychology is discussed and since Daleks are think alike and rely on tried and true methods, there are some handy flowcharts of what any given Dalek will do in any situation.

The Player's Book: The Dalek Problem

Now this 24-page book covers the Dalek from the point of view of the characters in the game, or more to the point characters that will be working for the C.I.A.  So there are truths, half-truths, and outright lies here. For example, the same timeline is repeated here with many omissions.  I am okay with that. Players entering this game will already know a lot, so there should still be some mysteries.

Overall the two books could have been combined into one book with a Players and Game Masters sections, but I do like the presentation.

What strikes me most about this book is how in hindsight you can see how the Time War was built up. Yes neither the Doctor Who writers or FASA were thinking about these things then, but the seeds are all here.  Honestly I can see a rogue bunch of C.I.A. agents breaking the Time Lock and trying to go back and stop the Daleks as they are presented here in a sort of "Let's kill Hitler" scheme. 

The Master

The greatest foe the Doctor has ever faced is the renegade Time Lord known as the Master.  Like the Daleks he is responsible for countless deaths and like the Daleks product, comes in two books.

Game Master's Book

This 64-page book is packed full of information. Like all the FASA books though, there is information from the show and stuff created for the game. So fantastic for a game resource but less useful as a guide to the character on the TV show.

In a very nice touch, there is a dedication to Roger Delgado on the first page. But I understand they could not use many of the photos of either Delgado or Ainley in this book, so there is a lot of art here. Even the cover is a painting of the Delgado Master in Ainley's normal costume. 

We get a recounting of his adventures from the Meddling Monk (which I don't agree with) up to the run of the 6th Doctor. I mean, even the War Chief is presented as a different Time Lord here. 

Like the Dalek book, there is a long timeline presented, but as a time traveler, this can get messy. 

We get the motivations behind what the Master does, his goals, and a bit of psychology/history. We also get some of his equipment and listings of other Renegade Time Lords, some of who now work for the C.I.A. We end with a full character sheet for his latest incarnation. 

Player's Book: The Master CIA File Extracts

This 16 page book covers what CIA field agents will know about the Master. This covers similar material including the Prydonian Academy Rebellion mention in the previous book and the Core rules. I can't recall if that was ever mentioned in the classic series or not. I am leaning towards not. 

The Cybermen

While certainly a deadly enemy of the Doctor, and a reoccurring one, they never quite matched the evil of the Daleks or the Master. These two books also were published in 1986 and they do feel different in a way.   

Game Master's Book

Moreso than the Daleks the Cybermen have a very convoluted history. We start with Mondas, the "twin planet" of Earth aka the 10th Planet. The coverage of Mondas is way beyond anything given in the show. In fact I get a solid feel of "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" here, which , honestly, I am ok with.  There is also the ubiquitous timeline, with bits added in. 

The interesting parts come from how the Cybermen deal with others and other planets. Since they are cybernetic race controlled by a central "cyber mind" (this would later be called the Cyberiad in the time of the 11th Doctor) there is a hand flow chart for any Cyberman interaction.

There is coverage of the various Cyberman models over the years. And ideas on how to use them in adventures. We even get a nice map of the Tomb of the Cybermen, an episode I recently rewatched.

Player's Book: The Cyber Files CIA Special Report

This 16-page book is notable because it tries to explain Mondas. The book covers some more time line; fewer entries but in greater detail, and has a whole long section on the companions of the Doctor that have encountered the Cybermen. Ok that part is less useful. 

In reading both these books I fear there was a tendency to make Mondas and the Cybermen into pale imitations of the Skaro and the Daleks. Something that the 10th Doctor episode "Doomsday" proves to be pointless. 

--

All three of these supplements are very useful for the FASA Doctor Who RPG.  I wouldn't say you *need* them to play, but they are fun to have. There is even enough information here for use with the other Doctor Who RPGs as well, though as to be expected there will be contradictions.

Sadly they are long out of print and finding them is a bit of a struggle. I can't recommend them unless you are playing the FASA RPG and are a super-fan of the topics covered.

At the end of this hallway is a door that "whooses" part of the way open. To get through will require a combined strength of 25. This opens to a long, but slimmer hallway.

Inside this hallway are eight metal-looking statues that a vaguely humanoid in appearance. Four of them get up to attack.

The "statues" are security robots. Treat as Rock Statues for combat purposes. They do not shoot molten magma but rather a "plasma beam" that works much the same way.  Only four are active; the others are inactive. 

Destroying the statues will yield 50 gp worth of gold in each in wiring. 

Got some great news last night that my adventure for Fright Night Classics is now in print!

Print copies of The Nightmare are now available for pre-order for $20 via Paypal to cryptworldrpg@gmail.com. (Price includes shipping anywhere in the U.S.)

I would love to see this one do as well as the PDF sales.  

I have ordered from Yeti Spaghetti & Friends many times, and the orders are always secure and very, very fast. So they have my full endorsement here.

Let's make this one their best-selling adventure. I have more I want to write!

 Across from Room #8 is another wide-open room. This one has a large window that allows a view of the hall to the entry.

There are also several metal and glass-looking shelves, some with blinking lights. There is someone sitting in one of the chairs.

If these "shelves" (control panels) are touched, some will light up and noises can be heard. In one case an alien voice (a recording) can be heard. 

The someone sitting in the chair is long dead. The skeleton looks like a cross between a human and a snake. It is wearing one of the suits found in previous rooms.

The badge the skeleton has on its uniform appears to be gold.

[NOTE: if any character is a Dragonborn or the equivalent, then they are very, very uneasy around this skeleton but can't tell you why.]

--

The someone is a dead Ophidian officer. 

The voice is a recorded message from a shuttle crew trying to leave the ship before the crash. They, along with their shuttle, are buried a few hundred miles west of here and 300 ft. down.

Dragonborn and Ophidians are ancient enemies. Their hatred is buried deep in their collective unconsciousnesses. 

One area where classic Swords & Sorcery fantasy intersects with sci-fi and modern cryptid tales is that of  Snakefolk and Lizardfolk.  My desire to use these creatures as foes date back to Doctor Who's Silurians, Sea Devils, and Draconians, but also before that with the Sleestaks of Land of the Lost.  They are great foes and can be quite literally cold-blooded.  

Against threats like these, even an orc has more in common with humans.

In my games, both fantasy and sci-fi, the Snakefolk and the Lizardfolk have an alliance in their ultimate goal of killing most of the mammals except what they need for food and slave labor.  Of the two, the Snakefolk are more cunning and often (very often) more evil.

I have talked about both of these groups before, and I'll place the links below. Today I wanted to get some stats up for the Snakefolk.  

Snakefolk aka Ophidans

Snakefolk, snakemen, serpent people, or ophidians have a long-established history in fantasy, sci-fi and horror. They are a good fit for what I want to do. There are even a lot of snake cults if I wanted to tie in some witchcraft ideas.  Not to mention all the monsters associated with snakes like the gorgons, basilisk, hydra, and even the Great Serpent himself (I could go on here, but you get the point). 

Ophidians in D&D

Snake folk are such a huge feature in many of the works of the various "Appendix N" authors that one would expect to have seen more with them. Granted there are lots of adventures, especially later one, that feature the Yuan-ti.  Maybe it is because they are always featured as a species in decline. This also works for me. 

Trouble is Yuan-ti are set as Product Identity and therefore not part of the various OGL SRDs out there. But there are alternates.

Swords & Wizardry featured Ophidians in their Monstrosities book.  Pathfinder has their own Ophiduans as well. Both pull from similar sources, namely Lion's Den Press: The Iconic Bestiary -- Classics of Fantasy.   These are "updated" to 5e and are found in Frog God's Tome of Horrors for 5e. There is also the related Inphidians for Pathfinder. 

I do want to point out that both the Ophidian and the Yuan-ti both premiered in the AD&D 1st Ed Monster Manual II.  They don't even look that different from each other, and their descriptions are also very similar.

One became popular (Yuan-ti), and the other was forgotten (Ophidian) when the SRD was released. Did we merge these into one creature back then? I can't recall, but that sounds like something I would do.

Here is what I have in B/X format.

Ophidian

Ophidians are ancient people dating back to a time when humans were little more than savages living in caves. They claim descent from the time when giant reptiles roamed the land and only reptile life was to be seen. This is not entirely true since ophidians are, in truth, the descendants of an ancient group of human snake cultists. Through dark and twisted magics long forgotten, they have become more and more snake-like. The mage-priests of this cult were wiped out by the noble caste who knew of their history and now only the emissary caste remains and they are closely watched by the nobles. 

All ophidians appear as snake-like humanoids. The noble and lesser castes have human upper torsos and the lower bodies of giant snakes. The nobles have human-like heads, while the lesser have snake-like ones.  The Emissary caste (the descendants of the ancient mage-priests) look nearly human save for some snake-like features.  On the opposite ends of the spectrum are the monstrous abominations and the nearly human-looking progenitors. All ophidians are denizens of hot climates, deserts, and jungles, often found in forgotten cities or temples from when their race held greater sway in the world.  Ophidians can speak with snakes at will, as per the speak with animals spell.

All ophidians are immune to the bite of other ophidians and other snake-like creatures.   Ophidian emissaries also have a potent charm ability. Anytime they use charm magic, they confer a -1 penalty to whomever they are trying to charm. Conversely, all ophidians are subject to the same charm magic saving at -1 on any charm attempt by a foe.  This includes other ophidians (for a -2 total). 

Breeding and childbirth is tightly controlled by the nobles. All eggs produced and fertilized are kept in hatcheries controlled by the nobles and specially trained emissaries.  Criminals, human slaves, the old, and the infirm are tossed into these pits to become food for the next generation of ophidians. 

Regardless of how the ophidians see each other castes, they always view humanoid mammals, especially humans, as inferior. Squabbling noble houses will put aside all differences if they are attacked by humans or other humanoids.  For example, the Ophidian wars with the Derro are numerous and go back for a thousand years. 

Although largely humanoid in form, the ophidians still have the mentality of reptiles. Concepts such as mercy and compromise are unknown to them. They are utterly ruthless and have little concept of honor. Survival and victory are their only goals, though they can employ subtle or deceptive methods to obtain them. 

Ophidian, Lesser*

Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 3+1 (20)
Move: 120 (40)
  Swimming: 120 (40)
Attacks: 2 weapons or bite
Damage: By weapon (1d6) or 1d6 + poison
Special: Poison Bite
No. Appearing: 1d10 (2d100)
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: None
Alignment: Chaotic (Chaotic Evil) 
XP: 75

The Lesser Ophidian are the rank and file of Ophidian society. Lesser only reflects its status in the ophidian hierarchy and caste. They are the workers, warriors, and slaves of the Ohidian nobles. 

Lesser ophidians appear as large snakes with the muscular upper torso of a human. There are no human secondary sex characteristics among these creatures since they are reptiles. A male lesser ophidian typically has a thicker tail than a female. The males are sterile, and their only function in Ophidian society is to labor and fight. Of the females, at least 50% of these creatures are also born sterile. They are given the same roles as the males. The 50% capable of reproduction are often used as harem slaves or given tasks by the noble caste. Regardless of their caste or station, even the lowest ophidian considers themselves above all humanoids, especially humans, whom they despise. 

These ophians can attack with weapons in either or both of their human-like hands. They prefer long curved blades like scimitars and serrated or jagged edges that inflict vicious wounds. Unless directed otherwise, lesser ophidians fight to kill and then eat their prey.  They also have fangs in their snake-like heads that have a deadly poison. A bite will cause 1d6 points of damage, and the victim must save vs. poison or dies within 1d4+2 rounds. Neutralize poison magic (spell or potion) will prevent this if given right away. They are immune to the bite of other snakes and snake-like creatures.

Lesser ophidians do not collect treasure in the strictest sense, but they will keep a trophy from a fallen foe. All other spoils by ophidian law belong to the noble caste.

Ophidian, Noble***

Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 9+3 (68 hp)
Move: 120 (40)
  Swimming: 120 (40)
Attacks: 1 weapon or bite
Damage: By weapon (1d6) or 1d6 + poison
Special: Poison Bite
No. Appearing: 1d4 (2d20)
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: H
Alignment: Chaotic (Chaotic Evil) 
XP: 3,000

Ophidian nobles are the ruling caste of the Ophidians, and they do so with an iron fist. They appear as do the lesser ophidians, with humanoid upper bodies with the lower body of a large snake. Their heads, though are more humanoid in appearance. Though their heads are covered in fine scales, and their eyes are slitted like a snake, so they are never mistaken for humans. Similar to the lesser ophidians, only 10% of these creatures are fertile, either male or female, with the fertile ones standing above the infertile. Births among nobles then are rare.

These creatures can also fight with a weapon and prefer the same sorts as their lesser brethren. They typically only fight with one weapon when they have too, but mostly they have 2d8 bodyguards of lesser ophidians to do their fighting for them.

Like all ophidians, they are immune to the venom of other snakes and snake-like creatures. These nobles are also immune to the petrification attacks of medusae and basilisks. 

Ophidians delight in cruelty, and none more so than the nobles. The only art they create, if it can even be called that, are ways to torture and kill their enemies.

Ophidian, Emissary**

Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 6+2 (39 hp)
Move: 120 (40)
  Swimming: 120 (40)
Attacks: 1 weapon or spell
Damage: By weapon (1d6) or spell
Special: Spells (Illusionist magic)
No. Appearing: 1d6 (1d10)
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: O
Alignment: Chaotic (Chaotic Evil) 
XP: 950

Ophidian Emissaries are the most human-like of all the known ophidians but never say that to their faces. They appear as normal, if quite thin, humans with some snake-like features. Their tongues are slightly forked, their skin is covered in very fine scales, and their eyes are slits like a snake.  They even go as far as displaying secondary sex characteristics of humans, though they are not mammals and do not nurse or even care for their young.  Ophidian emissaries, as the name suggests, are often the means which ophidians interact with the world of mammals and humans.  They are, however, entirely subjugated by the noble class.

Ophidian emissaries can attack with weapons, but they rarely do. They all have a natural ability for illusion magic and can cast spells as a 5th-level illusionist (magic-user). Their charm ability is superior, and any Charm spell used by an emissary is at a -1 penalty for saving throws. 

Unlike their brethren the lesser ophidian class, emissaries chafe under their domination by the noble caste. However, the nobles control every aspect of their lives right down to their breeding. Nearly 90% of all emissaries are fertile, but they are only allowed to breed with nobles, never other emissaries. Emissaries discovered in unsanctioned breeding and reproduction will have their eggs or young destroyed (often eaten).  The worst offenders will even be subjected to the horrible eldritch right of Abomination, where they are transformed into a mindless ophidian abomination. 

Ophidian, Abomination**

Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 10+2 (65 hp)
Move: 120 (40)
Attacks: 2 slams, bite + poison
Damage: 1d6+3 x2, 1d6+3 + poison
Special: Poison Bite
No. Appearing: 1d4 (1d8)
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: None
Alignment: Chaotic (Chaotic Evil) 
XP: 2,300

The ophidian abomination is a monster in the truest sense of the word. Large muscular torso springs from a snake-like lower body that can be one, two, or more snake-like tails. some have arms ending in viscous claws, and others have long snakes for arms, complete with snake heads and mouths filled with fangs.  No two abominations are alike.  Abomination only knows anger and hate for all living things. Their fear and hatred of the noble caste is all that keeps them in check.

Amboniations attack with their claws or fists (slashing or slamming, respectively). Those with human hands can use weapons, but all prefer to attack bare-handed. Their bite is poisonous, save vs. poison or die in 1d4+1 rounds. Abominations with more than one tail, or snakes for arms can also constrict like a large python. These creatures attack without provocation and save their greatest hate for humans. Once engaged they will keep attacking until all foes are dead or they are.  For this reason, the nobles use them as front-line troops and shock troops. They are ill-suited for bodyguard work. 

Abominations come about in two distinct ways. The first, and the most common, is via birth. The offspring of a noble ophidian and a lesser ophidian has a 1 in 10 (10%) chance of being an abomination. The offspring of a noble with a noble has a 1 in 5 (20%) chance, and between a noble and an emissary a 1  in 20 (5%) chance.  The chances of an abomination being born between two emissaries are only 1 in 100 (1%).  This is one of the main reasons the nobles control the breed of their people so heavily.  The other means is via a dark ritual known to the emissaries from the mage-priests of old.  This ritual can change any type of ophidian into an abomination. They consider this to be worse than death. 

Ophidian, Progenitor***

Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 9 (50 hp)
Move: 90 (30)
Attacks: 1 weapon or spell
Damage: By weapon (1d6) or spell
Special: Cleric and wizard magic
No. Appearing: 1 (1)
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: Q, S
Alignment: Chaotic (Lawful Evil)
XP: 3,000

The ophidian progenitor is an extremely rare Ophidian outside the caste system.  They have no recognition within Ophidian society, but it is believed that they are the original Ophidian race and the one from which all the others come.  Unlike all the other ophidians, these creatures appear to be completely human.  The truth is, quite literally, only skin deep. They wear a skin they have created over a body covered in soft, snake-like scales.

The progenitor will rarely attack as they are far more concerned with extending their lives. It is believed that each progenitor is hundreds of years old, and some were even alive when the Ophidian nobles seized control from the mage-priests. The progenitors are all that is left of that caste.

Each Ophidian progenitor can cast spells as a 5th-level magic-user/wizard and as a 4th-level cleric.  They are even believed to know the secrets to turn a converted abomination back into their original caste.

Members of the noble caste will kill a progenitor on sight if they can or have them killed. They fear them too much. It is speculated that some emissaries know the locations of a few progenitors. But to conceal the location of a progenitor will also result in death. 

--

I'll likely have more of these guys. I have a lot of notes and other ideas.

Links

• #AtoZChallenge2023: Doctor Who Yeti (and other Cryptids)
• The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: 
• C is for Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis
• E is for Extraterrestrials on Earth
• Ophidians for Cinematic Unisystem
• Snake Folk in D&D
• Carnifex in BECMI

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: Bad TidingsPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Orlando Moreira

Setting: Portugal, 1937
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Thirty-page, 4.92 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Innsmouth in IberiaPlot Hook: A mentor’s revelation exposes murder and terrible Nazi experimentsPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, two handouts, three NPCs, five maps and floor plans, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Period one-shot under a different dictator# Pulp horror style scenario# Entertainingly staged finale# Pre-generated Investigators help enforce the background period# Excellent use of period photographs# Ichthyophobia# Thalassophobia# Batrachophobia# Iatrophobia# Naziphobia
Cons# Needs an edit# Cartoonish artwork# Mythos tome mentioned, but never found# Oddly undermanned Nazi base# Heavily plotted in places, but Keeper advice gives options
Conclusion# Strongly plotted scenario supported by decent Keeper suggestions# Pulp horror one-shot in pre-war Portugal opens up new location for period horror

A little further ahead on the right is large room with no door, just an open archway.

This room is filled with a lot of metal and glass materials.  The "glass" though is light and can't be broken. There is a small "ship" or "coach" inside. There is a door that allows access inside and there are six places to sit. It doesn't look like it work on the water and there are no wheels.

There is enough material here that looks like platinum, gold, and silver (500 gp, 120 gp, and 50 gp worth respectively). 

--

This room is a shuttle maintenance bay. Inside is a shuttle in a state of disrepair. There is nothing the Characters can do to get it working, even if they knew what they were doing (which they don't).  Most items of value were taken by the original crew when they abandoned ship and then later by the minions of the Vampire Queen. They feared the star ship which is why it is not more looted than it is.