One of my favorite adventures is X2 Castle Amber. It covers so much of what I love in an adventure. Plus it is full of great Clark Ashton Smith homages and nods.

Among these homages is the Neh-thalggu or the Brain Collector.  It is such a creepy ass monster and I really love them. 

If the amount of OGC on them is any indication, then others like them too. You can find them for d20 3.x style, Pathfinder, and 5e.  This is in addition to official D&D stats for Basic and AD&D 2nd Ed.

Neh-thalggu (Brain Collector)

NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1
SIZE: Large
HD: 14 (d10) (77 hp)
MOVE: 60 ft.
AC: 16 (natural armor)
ATTACKS: Bite (1d10) + Poison (Save vs. Con or Paralyze), Claws (1d6) 
SPECIAL: Brain collection, Incorporeal, Spell Casting
SAVES: M
INT: Genius to Supra-genius (20-22)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral
TYPE: Aberration
TREASURE: 8
XP: 6,000

The neh-thalggu, also known as the Brain Collector, is a creature from the Outer Darkness.

Neh-thalggus hail from distant worlds, traveling the gulfs of space on immense living ships that swiftly decay when they land upon a new world, leaving behind a deadly cargo of hungry monsters. Neh-thalggus are crablike nightmares with lamprey-like mouths, twitching eyes on their legs, and several blisters along their back that hold human brains. Some speculate that neh-thalggus encountered in this reality may merely be juveniles of their kind, perhaps exiled from their home worlds by greater kin until they can prove their worth on other worlds.

Combat: Neh-thalggu attack with their mouths they attempt to latch on with their mouths and claws to extract the brain from their victims.  They attack primarily with their mouths (bite) and then try to latch on with their claws.  On a successful bite and claw attack the victim must make a Constitution save or become paralyzed. Once paralyzed the creature will remove the victim's brain. 

Brain Collectors. Neh-thalggus are carnivores, but they do not digest humanoid brains they eat, rather, these brains lodge in one of several bulbous blisters on the creature's back and help to increase its intellect. Their brain collections may be a morbid form of currency in their home realm, or the thoughts in these brains may merely be fuel for a dark apotheosis into an even more sinister mature form.

Incorporeal: A neh-thalggu is not wholly in our reality but always remains partially extradimensional. Thus it can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, +1 or better weapons, magic, or psionics, with a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source. It can pass through solid objects at will, and its own attacks pass through armor (except for its bite attack, which is treated as if a corporeal attack). It always moves silently unless it chooses otherwise.

Mind Masters. Neh-thalggu masters lord it over their lesser kin by applying the drained brainpower of their victims toward mastering psychic magic and mesmerism. They may inhabit elaborate mindscapes as their lairs or may subtly influence the thoughts and senses of creatures they lure into their lair in furtherance of convoluted plots to manipulate the societies around them while they dwell in secret. Some dwell alone or with mind-controlled slaves, while others organize clusters of their own kind to spread their sinister schemes and feed their insatiable alien hunger.

Spell Casting. Neh-thalggu can cast spells as 1st level wizard. For every brain, they collect they add one more level of spell casting for a maximum of 12 brains to 13th level wizard.  For this reason Neh-thalggu will target wizards and other magic-using characters.

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Might need some tweaks, but yeah this is one nasty beastie. 

The plot hook is obvious. A bunch of never before seen monsters are attacking the countryside the day after a shooting star was seen. Worst of all are reports of a "ghost monster" that feeds on brains. 

Don't forget the Indiegogo campaign for Amazing Adventures going on right now!  Grab the books and you can use this guy.

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

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

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Name: The ChangePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Bobby Nelson

Setting: Jazz Age Lovecraft country
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Fourteen page, 51.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Nature never knew colors like this.”Plot Hook: ‘The Color Out of Space’ Redux
Plot Support: Four NPCs, one map, two floor plans/handouts, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain.
Pros# Tranquility turns into countdown horror# Eerie environmental horror# Lovecraft Country scenario# Easy to adapt to other periods and places# Chromophobia
Cons# No pre-generated Investigators# Region map would have been useful# Needs an edit# ‘The Color Out of Space’ Redux

Conclusion# The Change has an eerie sense of bucolic horror and environmental decay in what is a reactive, countdown horror. # Ultimately, ‘The Color Out of Space’ redux too far

As a darkness falls over a Europe under the heel of the Nazi jackboot, a secret war has begun against the invader, one which at the direction of Winston Churchill, Prime Minster of Great Britain, would “…[S]et Europe ablaze.” This would be led by the Special Operations Executive or SOE, whose operatives, often working with local resistance forces, would carry out acts of sabotage against the Axis war effort, as well as work to establish secret armies which ultimately act in conjunction with Allied invading forces. However, there is a darker, more secret war, this against those Nazi agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. Yet even this dark drive is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs… Standing against them, ready to thwart their malign efforts are the audacious Allied agents of Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance, willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour!

This is the set-up for Achtung! Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. Originally published using Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds in 2013, and later FATE Core, almost a decade on, it returns in brand new edition. Not though written for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, but rather for use with the publisher’s 2d20 System house mechanics, first seen in Mutant Chronicles and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. The result is a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative action in which the Player Characters can take the fight to the enemy, punch out the Nazis, and wield powerful sorcery or psychic powers against their agents and their Mythos allies, as well as even weirder weapons against the backdrop of World War II and the Nazi war machine.

The Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide—heralded as ‘Issue No. 2’ in a series on the cover—picks up where the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide left off. Written for the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Game Master’s eyes only, this is the supplement exposes and explores a whole lot more of the setting and its secrets, presents the six major factions involved in the new Secret War, their personnel minor, major, and notable, the equipment they field, and the magics they wield. Alongside this, there is extensive advice and suggestions for the Game Master on how to run Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 and keep it exciting. Fundamentally, the latter is what sets Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 apart from other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. It is meant to be fast and furious, exciting and unnerving, the tone and style hewing heavily into Pulp action. The Player Characters are not so much Investigators—although some investigation is likely to be required in game—but rather Pulp action, anti-Mythos special forces operatives or secret agents. This can be on an ad hoc basis, with the Player Characters coming from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, which is very likely to be the default set-up in a campaign, but it could also be run a military Pulp action horror game with the Player Characters all being part of the same unit. For example, Section fields The Grey Watch, a band of Scottish warriors specialising in hand-to-hand combat, always accompanied by a piper playing the Pipes of McMurden, the sound of which strikes fear into the forces of the Mythos, whilst Majestic sends out its Flaming Salamanders of the Majestic Corps, consisting of U.S. marines in flame retardant clothing wielding all manner of flame-based weapons to burn out the Mythos. The action-packed cover of the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide very much sets the tone for the roleplaying game, as does the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide.

The Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide begins by exploring the factions and history of Secret War, and this not merely divided between the Allies and the Nazis. There are instead six factions, and to extent, this does feel like a set of factions for both roleplaying and wargaming, something that the extensive set of stats for allies, enemies, and forces in the later ‘Heroes & Villains of the Secret War’ and ‘Bestiary’ does nothing to persuade otherwise. On the Allied side are the British Section M and the American Majestic. Both capture the flavour and feel of their respective mundane counterparts, playing to some stereotypes too in keeping with the roleplaying game’s Pulp leanings. Thus, Section M is reserved, but combines desperate ingenuity and improvisation with measured study and cups of tea, whilst Majestic is brasher, more muscular, and relies on psychic operations rather than the classical study of magic. On the Nazi side are two factions, The Cult of the Black Sun and Nachtwölfe, which have different approaches to the Mythos and despise each other. Black Sun uses Hyperborean magics and knowledge to work back and forth between the Dreamlands and the waking world in an effort to free Yog-Sothoth. Nachtwölfe employs Atlantean superscience to develop, arm, and field an array of fantastic new weapons, armoured fighting vehicles, and more. In addition, both the Mi-Go and the Deep Ones have been drawn into the war, sometimes allies of the Nazis, sometimes not, as both have their own agendas. The backgrounds, histories, military structures, bases, missions and goals are all given for the six factions in what is an excellent overview of the Secret War. There is a timeline too, running from 1939 to 1945, noting important events throughout the Secret War, and hinting at potential scenarios which the Game Master could purchase and run for her players, but notably still leaving plenty of room into which the Game Master can insert her own adventures.

The Game Master can arm and equip her Player Characters and NPCs with a vast array of strange and wonderful weapons and devices. For example, the elite snipers of the Bronze Berets use the Beowulf Monstr Slayer Kk. 1 Sniper Rifle, a magnetic propulsion weapon sometimes combined with Elder Sign-inscribed rounds, whilst the Blevins Steam-Assisted Enzymatic Weapons which fire gouts of superheated steam and high-temperature active enzymes which dissolve the physical make-up of some trans-dimensional creatures. There are more mundane—in comparison—items too—like the Sword-Cane or the Bolas (until that is, the weights are filled with explosives!), and in general, such devices and weapons are rare and the ammunition, where required, available in limited quantities. In comparison, the Nazis of both Black Sun and Nachtwölfe have much wider range of weapons and equipment, and it is more widely manufactured, especially the technologically-focused Nachtwölfe. For example, Wotan’s Staff-Spear or ‘Grungnir’, are tipped with black steel forged in the Dreamlands and aid in the casting of Mythos magic, whilst the Anddrsserher-Helm worn by some Nachtwölfe soldiers is bulky, but contains a set of lenses—based on the Cornwallis design stolen from New World Incorporated in a nice nod to the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, The Fungi from Yuggoth or The Day of the beast—that provides magnified vision, infrared vision, and the ability to see creatures and things that the human eye is normally incapable of seeing. Weapons and devices of both the Mi-Go and the Deep Ones are also given. 

Besides technology, all sides field magic during the Secret War, although reluctantly in the case of the Allies. In the main they restrict themselves to studying and using magics, spells, and rituals from the Celtic and Runic or Norse traditions, as well as Psychic powers, rather than the Mythos magic. Psychic powers are themselves treated as a sort of magic, but a very modern one, and all three traditions are more fully detailed in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide. The Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide instead focuses on Mythos magic, including both its battlefield and ritual applications. These are akin to the classic magics of traditional Lovecraftian investigative horror, but classified according to the deity they relate to—Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, and Yog-Sothoth. These are likely to be used by the Deep One and Mi-Go factions and to limited extent, if at all, by the other factions. They are accompanied by numerous rituals, some of which like the Dust of Ibn-Ghazi and the various versions of Evoke/Dismiss Deity will be familiar from other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror, whilst the Pulp nature of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is highlighted by the inclusion of healing magic—for both the body and the mind. Similarly, the list of Mythos tomes is a mix of the old and the new.

For the Game Master there is an extensive chapter of advice and suggestions as to how to run Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20. It covers her role and responsibilities, letting the players and their characters be awesome, how to handle both Threats and the action, and so on before delving in the mechanics of the 2D20 System explained in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide, but here from the Game Master’s perspective. It pays particular attention to handling Truths in play and the consequences of failure. The Momentum and Threat economy are also examined again, and there is advice on creating and handling memorable NPCs too.

This last piece of advice leads into the last two chapters of the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide, which together take some forty percent of the book. First, ‘Heroes & Villains of the Secret War’ looks first at the British and American forces, and covers both standard troops and special forces, the latter including those involved in the Secret War, like the Scared Blades: Gopal’s Ghurkhas from Nepal and the Pathfinder Demin Hunters from the First Nation Tlingit peoples. It does a similar thing for Black Sun and Nachtwölfe, as well as the Resistance operating in occupied Europe. Included too are all of the major figures in each of the different actions, whether that is Sally Armitage of majestic or Mina Wolff of Nachtwölfe. Each is rated as either Trooper, Lieutenant, or Nemesis level NPC, depending upon their individual degree of threat and involvement in Secret War. Second, the ‘Bestiary’ does a similar thing for the Mythos. It includes ordinary beasts too, plus the creations of abhorrent science, but in the main presents the various creatures, entities, and gods of the Mythos. Ranging from Colours Out of Space and Ghouls all the way up to Azathoth, Hastur, and Shub-Niaggurath, the things of the Mythos are classified along similar lines and detailed under the 2D20 System. There is a handful of the unfamiliar thrown into the mix to add some unfamiliarity too, but whilst a great many of the entries are familiar, at least conceptually, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 gives them, if not a greater degree of agency, then a greater degree of active and more immediate agency. There is very much a sense in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 of the Mythos factions not being prepared to play the long game as is traditional both in Mythos fiction and Lovecraftian investigative horror, but preferring to play a more active, if still secret, role in the affairs of men, whether that is as allies or as enemies, and so taking advantage of the chaos and acceleration of change that comes with the war between the Allies and the Nazis.

So the question is, what is missing from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide? Really, only the two aspects of the game. Vehicles, both Allied and Nazi, are not included despite all the various troops are, though they are instead given in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide. What is missing is a feature of almost every roleplaying game of Lovercraftian investigative horror and that is Sanity and insanity. Being a decidedly pulpier, more action-orientated, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 instead has a Player Character potentially suffer insanity once he has suffered enough mental damage to defeat him, whether from encountering a Mythos monster or reading a Mythos tome. and remove him from the combat and then taken more. This shifts the danger of losing Sanity and suffering from insanity as to more of an afterthought than perhaps a constant worry, but it could have been addressed more clearly. Especially for the Game Master or player adapting from another roleplaying game of Lovercraftian investigative horror.

Physically, the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Game Masters Guide is well presented. It does need an edit in places, but it is well written, and again, the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide before it, the book’s full colour artwork is fantastic. Much of it has been seen in the previous iteration of Achtung! Cthulhu, but the new artwork in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Game Master’s Guide is really good, capturing the action, excitement, and horror of the war against the darkest forces of the Axis powers.
In its treatment of magic, the monsters of the Mythos, and emphasis upon action, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is not a game for the player or Keeper who prefers the classic play style of a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. For the player and the Game Master who want to emphasis a Pulpier, more action-driven, and less horrific approach to Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is a great choice, and the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Game Masters Guide ably supports this style and tone with the engaging background of the Secret War, a wide array of foes to challenge the Player Characters, and the means for them to fight back and keep humanity safe.

Since 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, beginning with the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide has proved to be a popular choice when it comes to self-publishing. Numerous authors have written and published scenarios for the roleplaying game, many of them as part of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest, but the publisher of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, Tuesday Knight Games has also supported the roleplaying game with scenarios and support of its own. Dead Planet: A violent incursion into the land of the living for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game is one such scenario, but Tuesday Knight Games has also published a series of mini- or Pamphlet Modules. The first of these are The Haunting of Ypsilon 14, Hideo’s World, Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly, and Chromatic Transference. The fourth is The Hacker’s Handbook. Wher The Haunting of Ypsilon 14 was a traditional ‘haunted house in space monster hunt’, Hideo’s World presented a horrifyingly odd virtual world, Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly a locked room—or locked ship—McGuffin hunt, and Chromatic Transference did cosmic horror, The Hacker’s Handbook is not even a scenario, but a supplement!

The Hacker’s Handbook provides expanded rules for extra detail in for just the one skill in the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG—‘Hacking’. One of the issues in the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide is that none of the skill are actually defined and so the Warden has to adjudicate exactly how they in the dark future depicted in the roleplaying game. Most of the time this will be enough, and in play, the Warden can have a player simply roll of his character if he wants to unlock a door, take remote control of a gun turret, or extract information from a computer system. However, if the Warden wants to present a more detailed, even extended challenge for the player whose character has the Hacking skill, then the core rules are insufficient. This is where The Hacker’s Handbook is useful. It still suggests using simple rules under most circumstances, but otherwise suggests presenting the hacking Player Character with a ‘Network’. This is constructed of a linked series of nodes and each node can be individualised. Each is defined by its Function, Security, and Response. In other words, what it does, the degree of how difficult it is to gain unauthorised access to, and what happens if the Hacker’s attempt is noticed by a network admin, automated security feature, A.I., and so on.

The Hacker’s Handbook lists several options for each as well as giving a modifier between zero and five for the roll on the Response Table if the hacker’s intrusion is noticed. For example, an automated security turret might be listed as ‘Automated security turret,  Infrastructure/Hardpoint Control, Hardened, +2 Response’, whilst a medical database might be listed as ‘Medical Records Storage, Data Storage, Secured, +1 Response’. In play, each node can be drawn as a box and the boxes connected to form a diagram of linked nodes and thus you have the computer network for the starship or the facility, and so on.

The Hacker’s Handbook does not ignore the social aspect of hacking either. It suggests ways of gaining access via user accounts rather than direct hacking and the various types of user account which a hacker might gain access to. It also suggests that it is one way of getting Player Characters involved in a hacking attempt whether or not they have the actual skill. Whether or not a Player Character has the skill, it also lends itself to more roleplaying opportunities than might be available with a simple roll against the skill.

Lastly, The Hacker’s Handbook lists equipment that a hacker might want to carry as a loadout. This includes decks, wristcoms, and pieces of gear. Decks include gear slots and often have extra abilities, such as treating Hardened Nodes as Secure Nodes. For example, Maze ignores one response from network security whilst CoyBoy reduces the Response value of a node by a random value. Essentially, this provides some technical equipment and details which can flavour a hacker’s activities in game and bring a little more verisimilitude to play.

Physically, The Hacker’s Handbook is all text, barring the network diagram examples. This is not an issue because the supplement has a lot of information to impart, so none of feels wasted.

There is a lot to like about The Hacker’s Handbook. It provides an easy way to handle a particular aspect of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, and supports it with enough details to keep both interesting and challenging.

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An Unboxing in the Nook video of The Hacker’s Handbook can be found here.

Call of Cthulhu is a literary roleplaying game. Its play is predicated on the ability of the Player characters—or rather the Investigators—to be literate and so be able to read the array of clues to be found as part of the enquiries into the unknown. Newspaper reports, diary entries, letters, notes and marginalia, books and scrolls, and of course, the much-feared Mythos tomes such as the dread Necronomicon and Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Just as the Investigators—or at least some of them—are expected to be able to read them, then so are their players. Thus, we have clues and handouts, especially if the roleplaying game of our choice involves a mystery—mundane or Mythos related. There had been clues and handouts before, for example, U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the 1981 scenario for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition from TSR (UK), included a clue showing the pattern of signals needed to contact a smuggling ship, but Call of Cthulhu took the role of the clue and the handout to new heights as they became more and more integral to game play. And since newspaper reports, diary entries, letters, notes and marginalia, books and scrolls, and more are all modern, the Keeper can create her own—such as soaking paper in tea and then drying it to age it—and easily copy those provided in particular scenarios or campaigns. Which is what the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has done, and not just for its own campaigns, but your campaigns.
Of course, what the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society is best know for is the Masks of Nyarlathotep Gamer Prop Set, a big box of handouts and clues designed to be used with Masks of Nyarlathotep, the classic campaign for Call of Cthulhu, often regarded as one of the greatest ever produced by the hobby. This no mere set of tea-soaked, faux-aged handouts and whatnot, for just as Call of Cthulhu took the role of the clue and the handout to new heights, the Masks of Nyarlathotep Gamer Prop Set takes the clues and handouts for Call of Cthulhu to new heights. There are over one hundred props in the box—telegrams, letters, a match box—just like in the original boxed set for Masks of Nyarlathotep, maps, charts, diary and ledger entries, business cards, photographs, memos, and newspaper clippings, oh so many newspaper clippings. However, Masks of Nyarlathotep is not the only campaign to receive the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society treatment.
The Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set though is not a prop set for the one campaign, although it does include a campaign within its pages. Rather, the Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set literally provides physical support for two supplements, two anthologies of scenarios, and a campaign. All published as part of the Call of Cthulhu Classic boxed set, funded via Kickstarter as part of the venerable roleplaying game’s fortieth anniversary, and consisting of not only the Call of Cthulhu, Second Edition rules, but also the Cthulhu Companion, Shadows Of Yog Sothoth, The Asylum & Other Tales, Trail Of The Tsathogghua, and Fragments Of Fear. Thus the two companion supplements, the two anthologies, and the campaign. Open up the Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set and what you find is sixteen-page broadsheet newspaper, large format maps, a nautical chart, sheaves of handwritten letters, diaries, and notes, numerous brochures and photographs, police forms, legal forms, excepts ripped from terrible tomes, and more. These are all neatly organised into five folders. The first contains all of the handouts from the Call of Cthulhu, Second Edition rules—including the infamous ‘The Haunted House’, home of the late Walter Corbitt, the Cthulhu Companion, and Fragments Of Fear. Both Shadows Of Yog Sothoth and The Asylum & Other Tales have their own folder of handouts respectively, and lastly, the two scenarios in Trail Of The Tsathogghua have their own folders given the sheer weight of clues in both.
The Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set starts with the ‘USER GUIDE: Read Me First!’ which explains how the props are organised, notes that there are clues in code and other languages as per the relevant scenarios, and there are English versions of the clues in other languages in the box, but decoded versions of the encoded clues. The biggest bundle of clues in one prop can be found in the sixteen-page Clipmaster broadsheet newspaper and there are instructions on how to use that. Being broadsheet-sized, the Clipmaster broadsheet newspaper is huge and unwieldy, but can be quickly cut apart so the Keeper has the right newspaper articles in the right folder. Plus, there are numerous other articles in its pages, and very much part of the fun of reading is not finding the articles directly relevant to the scenarios or campaign, but reading the other articles surrounding and the other relevant ones. These add flavour and verisimilitude, as do the various advertisements alongside, to what are intended to be period pieces. Further, open up each folder and there is a Clipping Guide for each scenario which shows the Keeper where to find and then cut out the pertinent articles. This is a very handy piece of backwards design.
Folder Two is far more expansive. Dedicated to Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, the first campaign for Call of Cthulhu, here what were the blandest of handouts in the original campaign, have uplifted with detail and substance. Newspaper articles of course, but also letters and diary entries and book excerpts. There are a couple of points where the props suddenly astound you. The first is the ‘Computer Printout’ from ‘Look to the Future’, the second scenario in Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, which is done as a green bar printout on classic computer paper. It stands out from the other handouts because it is incongruously modern, as it should have done in the scenario itself, but here given brilliantly contradictory physicality. The other is from ‘The Worm that Walks’, the fifth chapter in the campaign. It is a simple letter from Christopher Edwin, inviting the Investigators to join him in Maine. Enclosed with the letter is a set of train tickets, and indeed, they are attached to the letter itself. They add nothing to the story or the plot, but they enforce the message of the letter brilliantly—Christopher Edwin is genuine enough to want to help!
Folder Three, dedicated to The Asylum & Other Tales contains some outstanding props, some of them actually better than the scenario they support really deserve. Starting with ‘The Auction’, set in Austria, at an auction for some quite outré items, there are not one, but two auction catalogues and they are honestly great. This scenario perhaps is the only one where the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society could have gone further, but would anyone have actually wanted a Riveted Brass Head? ‘Black Devil Mountain’ is a poorly regarded scenario, but surprisingly, it has a brilliant set of letters, a death certificate, a mortuary bill of holding, legal invoice, and a deed to a property. It could be argued that the scenario would be worth playing simply to get the props in play, but that is definitely not the case. In addition, the foldout ‘Cunard Line Brochure’ is the only prop for ‘The Mauretania’, but to be fair, it is all that it needs and quite perfect!
Folders Four and Five, rounds out with Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set handouts and props from the three scenarios in Trail Of Tsathogghua. Across the three scenarios, there are loads and loads of newspapers, plus handwritten letters and diary entries. Relatively few of the props here have physical impact found elsewhere in the other folders. They include Morris Handelman’s Notebook from ‘The Curse Of Tsathogghua’ and an actual 8-page legal contract and the awful verse from ‘The Poetical Works of Maurice Van Laaden’, both from ‘The Haunted House’, but in general, the props are not quite as interesting.
Physically, Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set is an excellent presentation of the clues and handouts to the many books supporting the Call of Cthulhu Classic boxed set. However, in comparison, the Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set is not as good as the Masks of Nyarlathotep Gamer Prop Set. This is not to say that the prop set is bad, but rather it does not quite have the heft or physical presence. This is primarily due to the nature of the clues in the individual scenarios and the often plain format of the original clues, although in some cases, the props here gild the lily in turning clues and handouts for poor scenarios into some things compelling.
The Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set is definitely not needed to run the many scenarios and campaigns to be found in the Call of Cthulhu Classic boxed set. It will, though, definitely help and add verisimilitude to any one of the scenarios or the campaign, developing a great many clues and handouts into impressive, in-game items, often from very plain origins. Although it lacks the physical impact of its predecessor, the Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set will still help bring the scenarios and campaigns it is based upon to life.

So that title. Is it racist? Is it not racist? In the homophonic sense, because after all, that it is what it sounds like, it is racist. As written and thus spelt, not it is not. That is because it is both an amusing Dungeons & Dragons pun and an amusing geographical pun. Clever puns, even. Puns that play upon Dungeons & Dragons because one of the main monsters in the scenario is a wight and geography because the scenario is set on the Isle of Wight, just off the coast of southern England. However much the scenario is not racist—and it is not, even down to the negative admonishment to adherents of extreme Right Wing politics that ends the book—and however much the title involves a pair of puns, there is no denying the fact that the title is provocative. And intentionally so, given the publisher’s reason for publishing a book with this title, essentially a ‘screw you’ and because he can. So bear that in mind, given the publisher, if that and the title is enough to put you off Wight Power, then this review is not for you—and that is fair enough.

Wight Power is a scenario for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Like other scenarios published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess it is set in the game’s default early Modern Period. Specifically, in 1632 England, so it would work well with several of the other publisher’s titles or equally easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice. Even more specifically, it is set on the Isle of Wight in, around, and below a ruined monastery, Quarr Abbey, abandoned following the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Here an archaeological dig is being conducted by Priest Joseph Duverney, a Catholic scholar and his order, and guarded by a band of Landsknechts mercenaries led by Alfonso Gutierrez. Tensions are running high between the Catholic scholar and his order and the Landsknechts mercenaries, as one of their number turned up dead and another is missing. The Player Characters might become involved in the location because extra muscle is required and neither faction can trust the other to conduct an investigation into the death; there are several workers from the surrounding area and beyond missing, and they are hired to find them; or because they might be locals who have become aware of strange goings on at the ruin and want to investigate. The scenario itself assumes that the first option is selected, perhaps backed up with a few entries from the rumours table.

So what is going in Wight Power is definitely weird, definitely apocalyptic, and definitely involves the Second Coming. Though not the Second Coming that you might imagine, involving as it does the cloning of the holy prepuce, a decidedly genuine and holy relic. Which of course, is not going to go to plan. So to be fair, if there is anything that is actually offensive in Wight Power, it might be that it is sacrilegious. Besides the Second Coming, the scenario involves the undead, an actual saint of necromancers, St. Cyprian of Antioch, and rising tensions between both groups that constantly threaten break out into actual violence. If the Player Characters are brought into investigate both the disappearance and the death, the scenario initially plays out as a murder mystery. However, it is not that, as there are very few clues to be found, little to be investigated, and there are areas where the Player Characters are forbidden from entering. This is intentional and designed to pique their curiosity. The likelihood is that the scenario will play out in one of two ways. Either the Player Characters will ignore their instructions, enter the areas they are barred from, and discover both what is going on and how weird it is, and probably trigger the Second Coming or get caught up in the tensions between the order and the mercenaries such that the Second Coming occurs anyway. The former is more interesting than the latter. Either way, the Player Characters have a big galumphingly disaster on their hands and unleashed on the Isle of Wight.

In terms of plot, Wight Power is underwritten. In terms of background and detail, the scenario contains an embarrassment of riches. A complete background to the whole affair, a timeline, three detailed NPCs—Priest Joseph Duverney and Alfonso Gutierrez, plus the captain of the Landsknechts, maps of Quarr Abbey, plus the catacombs below, full details of the means and result of the Second Coming, and both St. Cyprian of Antioch and the Clavis Inferni, the book he wrote. There is a lot here and whilst some of it is useful in providing background material, not all of it is necessarily relevant and the Player Characters are not necessarily going to find out what is really going on.

Physically, Wight Power is cleanly and tidily presented in full colour. For the most part, the artwork is presented in bright, colourful silhouettes, which are for the most part, neither interesting nor evocative of anything. The cartography is okay, but in places, the details on the maps could match what is described in the text—especially in the catacombs. It is well written and fairly easy to grasp what is going on despite the wealth of information provided.

Ultimately, despite the provocative nature of its title, Wight Power is another ‘hidden, apocalyptic monster waiting to be unleashed, whilst surrounded by monsters’ scenario. As presented, its background is more interesting than the underwritten plot, the overall impression is underwhelming, and beyond what the NPCs are trying to do in that plot, Wight Power is simply a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay scenario, but not a standout Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay scenario.

A couple of really fun ones on Indiegogo this week. Both of which you will see more of here.

Amazing Adventures Multi-Genre RPG

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/amazing-adventures-multi-genre-rpg#/

I have talked a lot about Amazing Adventures here and elsewhere. It is the Modern multi-genre RPG that uses the same Siege Engine as Castles & Crusades.  This is a new printing that reorganizes the material and has it cleave a bit closer to the Castles & Crusades printings. 

Pan, His Majesty in Yellow

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pan-his-majesty-in-yellow#/

Fairy Tales + Lovecraftian Horrors? Hell yeah!

I am going to have more to say about this one, but for now check out their fundraiser for the Old-School Essentials version. 

Lâminas & Feitiços or Blades & Spells is a minimalist fantasy roleplaying game from South America. In fact, Blades & Spells is another Bronze Age, Swords & Sorcery minimalist fantasy roleplaying game done in pamphlet form from Brazil. In actuality, Blades & Spells is a series of pamphlets, building from the core rules pamphlet to add optional rules, character archetypes, spells, a setting and its gods, and more, giving it the feel of a ‘plug and play’ toolkit. The Storyteller and her players can play using just the core rules, but beyond that, they are free to choose the pamphlets they want to use and just game with those, ignoring the others. So what is Blades & Spells? It describes itself as “…[A] simple, objective and dynamic minimalist RPG game where the Storyteller challenges the Player and not the character sheet.” It is written to pay homage to the classic Sword & Sorcery literature, uses the Basic Universal System—or ‘B.U.S.’—a simple set of mechanics using two six-sided dice, and in play is intended to challenge the player and his decisions rather than have the player rely upon what is written upon his character sheet. Which, being a minimalist roleplaying game, is not much. So although it eschews what the designer describes as the ‘classic restrictions’ of Class, Race, and Level, and it is very much not a Retroclone, there is no denying that Blades & Spells leans into the Old School Renaissance sensibilities.

Blades & Spells: An agile, objective and dynamic minimalist RPG provides the core rules to the roleplaying game. They are a simple, straightforward set of mechanics, emphasising a deadly world of adventure in which the heroes wield both weapons and magic. Beyond the core rules, Blades & Spells is fully supported with a series of optional pamphlets which expand upon its basics and turn it into a fully rounded roleplaying game. All together these might be seen as  the equivalent of a ‘Blades & Spells Companion’, although they just as easily could be combined into the one publication, including the setting supplements of Blades & Spells: The Land of Aaman and Blades & Spells: The Lands Beyond. To date, Blades & Spells has been mostly focused on the Player Character and the Game Master, but that changes with the Blades & Spells – Dark Pack.
The Blades & Spells – Dark Pack contains not one, but three pamphlets. All three focus on the villains, providing them in turn with archetypes, dark spells, and even grotesque spells. They provide the means for the Game Master to assign basic descriptors and abilities to the villains in her campaign, as well as their henchmen and their mostly loyal lieutenants. Not just that, they offer over fifty new spells, dark and shadowy, bloody and aberrant. Together, these enable the Game Master to quickly create the basics of any vile enemy or other NPC, and if a spellcaster, equip them with a raft of horrid spells that embody their malicious and cruel natures. Alternatively, and for a very alternative campaign, there is nothing to stop a playing group from creating and playing a band of villainous Player Characters with dark designs upon the setting that the Game Master has created.
In the core rules, the Blades & Spells: Characters Archetypes/Compendium of Magic does two things. First, it expands upon each Player Character’s Focus. This is his occupation or something that he is good at, either Fighter, Mystic, Intellectual, Support, or Specialist. The supplement divides some twenty-nine archetypes into these five categories with a simple thumbnail description. The second thing is provide spells for the roleplaying game. Blades & Spells – Dark Pack provides both of these, but more like an evil, villainous twin—or rather its set of evil, villainous triplets that Blades & Spells never knew it had.
Blades & Spells: Dark Archetypes gives twenty-five archetypes, five for each category. Some of these fall within typical roleplaying archetypes, like the Assassin or the Burglar for the Specialist, whilst Support Archetypes such as Armourer, a weapons and equipment engineer, and the Mender, are not necessarily dark in themselves, but rather that their clientele likely consists of characters who make use of the other archetypes in this supplement. Those other archetypes are definitely ‘dark’ though. For example, the Bloody Blade is a loyal servant to the gods, handing out their justice as instructed by the voices of the cursed weapon you wield on their behalf; the Parasite has taken possession of the character and grants extraordinary powers, but takes control of the character’s mind; the Fallen Noble has been reduced to near penury, but will do anything to restore his fortunes; the Thug is a bodyguard or muscle for a gang, ready to solve a problem using physical means; and a Shadow Sorcerer can shape darkness and command the things within it. Like all three supplements in Blades & Spells – Dark Pack, this does carry an advisory warning and archetypes like the Bloody Blade which suggests the player roll on the Insanity Table and the Drug Mage which manufactures and uses potions and drugs and uses the Optional Rules for ‘Poison, Drunkenness, or Insanity’ all support the necessity of those advisory. Tables for both can be found in Blades & Spells: Optional Rules.
Blades & Spells: Dark Spells details over thirty dark and nasty spells, with themes of necromancy, shadow manipulation, and more. In the case of necromancy and shadow manipulation, these neatly tie into the Necromancer and Shadow Sorcerer  Archetypes given in Blades & Spells: Dark Archetypes. For example, Rigor Mortis causes the touched victim to suffer convulsions and their nerves to become painfully paralysed, as well as taking on the appearance and feel of a dead body, whilst Bone Weapon summons a temporary weapon from the ground that inflicts poison damage and can harm both material and immaterial beings. Cloak of Shadows shrouds the caster in living darkness and makes him undetectable in shadow or at night, whilst Umbral Binding sends his shadow stretching unnaturally out to touch the shadows of others and in doing so, temporarily paralyses them. Not every spell follows either them, such as Cauterize, which makes the caster’s hands as hot as red-hot iron, or Parasite Weapon which summons a mutated parasitic worm from the underworld which mutates into a weapon and defends the caster, but demands to eat the flesh of the still living, but defeated opponents. This a great range of spells for darker games or darker characters or villains, including a few more inventive entries. These are nasty spells that the players are likely to hate the villain—if not the Game Master—when he casts them at their characters.
Both Blades & Spells: Dark Archetypes and Blades & Spells: Dark Spells carried content advisory warnings, but of the three pamphlets in Blades & Spells: Dark Pack, it is Blades & Spells: Grotesque Spells that deserves it the most. The thirty or so spells it describes are all vile, unpleasant concepts. So be warned. They involve a great of manipulation of the flesh. For example, Decomposition forces the flesh of the touched victim to rot at a rapid rate through gangrene and then death; Cursed Cure first heals wounds and then turns the flesh cancerous and tumorous; and Flesh Armour forces muscle to strengthen and thicken until it is cable of protecting against injury. One can actually be useful, the unfortunately named Relink Members enables large cuts to heal and lost limbs to be reattached. The rest though are all foul, disgusting affairs, likely to be highly memorable when cast by a villain the Game Master’s campaign.
Physically, the three pamphlets in Blades & Spells: Dark Pack are fine. Their layout is clean and tidy, and all three titles are easy to read, though a slight edit would not have gone amiss. The artwork on the front page of each is good too.

Blades & Spells: Dark Pack is optional. Some of the ideas and things—especially the spells—in its three pamphlets are not going to be suitable for every campaign or even what every player wants to include or encounter.  As a potential source of character ideas and spells—especially the spells—for the villain or henchman in the Game Master’s campaign, Blades & Spells: Dark Pack is good for most Swords & Sorcery settings.

I have some projects going on right now that I am trying to get organized for my big Christmas break this year.  I am planning on burying myself in writing. So I am finding bits of text here, and some ideas there, and I have not even gone through my bookmarks* yet.

(*I scribble ideas on bookmarks while I read. Habit from my undergrad days.)

A couple came to me more or less at the same time.  The first was more details on what I am doing with the various incarnations of my iconic witch Larina. The other was some notes about an Amazing Adventures street-level supers game I keep batting around in my notes.  Since the new printing of Amazing Adventures (well, new printing and reorganized material) is now up on Indiegogo I thought, let's clean up one stack of notes with a post. 

The Game: Amazing Adventures

I have always been rather fond of Amazing Adventures. It is a modern version of Castles & Crusades and with the 2nd printing, the rules cleave much closer to the C&C SIEGE Engine rules. My understanding is that this new printing (a bit like a 2.5) is even closer. So close that the three books of Castles & Crusades are called "The Three Sisters" and the new three books for Amazing Adventures are called "The Three Brothers." Three brothers and three sisters? That sounds like my family. 

If you like modern games then this is a great time to get into Amazing Adventures. Especially if you are a fan of Castles & Crusades.

The Character: Larina Nichols

One thing that I do with my Larina is to have different versions of her in different games. These are truly different versions of the same character in the multiverse but connected a bit like the Eternal Champion.  These are my worlds, I get to do these things. The GREAT thing about Amazing Adventures is that it IS so much like Castles & Crusades I can make moving between a modern world and a fantasy world much easier. If I can do that with her, you can do it with any character.

Also for me, there is this notion of adventures connected by places or people and displaced in time. This would be my trilogy of adventures "All Souls Night," "Blight," and "The Dark Druid" dealing with D&D-like fantasy, Victorian-age Gothic horror, and modern supernatural respectively. Larina, or someone like her, would be there in all three, reincarnated each time to deal with the threat of the Dark Druid.

But before I can do that right, I have to make sure I can move characters, or their other incarnations, to each time.  Here is my Drosophila melanogaster for these experiments.

Larina Nichols

19th Level Witch (Arcanist)
Race: Human

Strength: 10 (0)
Dexterity: 11 (0)
Constitution: 13 (+1) P
Intelligence: 17 (+2) 
Wisdom: 17 (+2) P
Charisma: 18 (+3) P

Hit Points: 79
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
AC: 10 
BtH: +4
MEP: 226Primary Spellcasting Attribute: Charisma
Sanity (SAN): 90 (Max), 75 (Current)
Fate Points: 6Fate Die: 1d12

Languages: English, Latin, Gaelic, Greek, Russian (native language is English)
Background: Scholar (Librarian)
Skills: Mythology (Celtic, Norse)Traits: Spellgifted (Enchantments/Charms)

Powers
Familiar: Cotton Ball
Spellcasting

Spells
Cantrips: (9) Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Light, Magical Aura, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Stun
First: (5+1) Color Spray, Command, Darkness, Identity, Shield, Sleep
Second: (5+1) Alter Self, Blur, Burning Hands, Hold Person, Pyrotechnics, Scare
Third: (4+1) Aid, Blink, Nondetection, Remove Curse, Tongues
Fourth: (4) Dispel Magic, Emotion, Phantasmal Killer, Seeming
Fifth: (4) Feeblemind, Mass Suggestion, Projection, True Seeing
Sixth: (3) Mislead, Veil, Wind Walk
Seventh: (3) Prismatic Spray, Teleport without Error, Word of Recall
Eighth: (3)  Antipathy, Prismatic Wall
Ninth: (2) Astral Projection

That went pretty fast really. Like creating an AD&D 1st Character.  In fact, that should really be the main reason to check this game out; how close it is to AD&D. 

In truth, that was a LOT of fun to do. Makes me realize how much I miss playing C&C and AD&D too.

So everyone get in on that Indiegogo campaign so others can see just how much fun this game really is. 

So back at the end of September, I guess we had, and missed, another end of the world. Yup. I was reading that September 25, 2022, was supposed to be the Rapture. There were a bunch of videos on TikTok and YouTube that frankly I can't be bothered to link to it. Suffice it to say nothing happened.

But it does give me the excuse to post this picture from Spire Christian Comics. 

I know. I am a juvenile. 

BUT. In the process of looking for that image, I found this one from the same comic.

Black magic? Witchcraft? Demon contact? Sorcery?

Someone has been reading my letters to Santa again! 

And she is such a groovy cool looking 70s witch too.  I learned that the artist, Al Hartley, had done "Betty and Veronica" comics and some softcore comics prior to being born again. 

This is supposed to be the Whore of Babylon, a character from Revelations. I get that she is supposed to be largely symbolic and not a real person, but sometimes it reads like she is. 

From Revelations Chapter 17.

4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

I don't pretend to know what all this is supposed to mean. But the imagery is fascinating like most of what is happening in Revelations. 

Of course, I am going to use her as a witch. Come on? 70s occult propaganda? That's my Appendix N!

Who is Babylon?

That art above is plenty to get me going. Given her role in Revelations, I am going to have to say she is a Witch Queen naturally.  But what kind? In my mind, each Witch Queen is head of a large coven and/or Tradition. She is not a Mara Witch, I have plenty of those. Nor is she a Pagan. And she is most certainly NOT a Pumpkin Spice Witch! No, she has a calling and it is not any of these. It could be close to the Classical Witch, but still not exactly right. No I think she is the Queen of a completely different tradition.

Daughters of Eros

Her tradition is something I have been mulling over for a couple of years now. In my recent reviews of the Love Witch, The Pantheon and Pagan Faiths, Sisters of Rapture, Jeremy Reaban's Beguiler and Enchanter, I have some more ideas of what a new tradition, The Daughters of Eros, could be.

Note I have nothing I am going to publish in a book yet OR even if there is any need/desire/want for such a book. 

Babylon
23rd Level Witch, Daughters of Eros Tradition 

Strength: 11 (0) Saving Throws (base) Dexterity: 16 (+2) Death Ray, Poison 5 Constitution: 13 (+1) Magic Wands 6 Intelligence: 14 (+1) Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone 5 Wisdom: 17 (+2) Dragon Breath 5 Charisma: 19 (+3) Rods, Staffs, Spells 7

Hit Points: 55 (10d4+13)+10
Alignment: Chaotic (evil)
AC: 1 (Ring of Protection, Garter of Defence)
THAC0: 12

Occult Powers (Daughter of Eros Tradition)
Familiar: Familiar spirit (comes in the shape of a cupid cherub or an incubus)
7th level: 
13th level: Devil's Tongue
19th level: Curse

Spells
Cantrips (6): Analyze Fertility, Clean, Daze, Message, Object Reading, Warm
First (7+3): Bewitch I, Block the Seed, Burning Hands, Charm Person, Command, Drowsy, Increase Sex Appeal, Sleep, Soothe, Twisting the Heartstrings I
Second (6+2): Alter Self,  Bewitch II, Ecstasy, Enthrall, Fever, Hold Person, Rose Garden, Twisting the Heartstrings II
Third (6+2): Astral Sense, Bestow Curse, Betwitch III, Continual Fire, Fly, Mind Rash, Tongues, Witch Wail
Fourth (5+2): Bewitch IV, Elemental Armor, Emotion, Moonlit Way, Neutralize Poison, Spiritual Dagger, Drawing Down the Moon (Ritual)
Fifth (5): Anti-Magic Candle, Bewitch V, Bull of Heaven, Dream, Song of Discord
Sixth (4): Bewitch VI, Heroes' Feast, Mass Suggestion, Wall of Roses
Seventh (4):  Bewitch VII, Breath of the Goddess, Peace Aura, Serpent Garden
Eighth (4): Astral Projection, Bewitch VIII, Greater Mislead, Mind Blank

--

Named for the city she was born in (Βαβυλών), Babylon is a near-immortal witch. Some say she is the daughter of Lilith, some say she is the bastard child conceived when the demon Astaroth forced himself onto his mother Astarte, but the majority claim she is the youngest child of Eros and Psyche.  She is beautiful like her mother, grandmother (Venus), and older sister, Hedone* (also known as Volupta) but was jealous of all three. 

(*Followers of Hedone are known as Hedonists and are also part of the Daughters of Eros Tradition. Though they tend to be more good and neutral in alignment.)

Whatever her origin she is the patroness of whores and debauched witchcraft. She has allied herself with the forces of evil and will stand as their herald of the end times.  She also represents the corrupting nature of civilization.

Babylon is the quintessential "lover, not a fighter" though she also has no problem charming, compelling, or wiping someone's mind to be her lover. She has an entire cadre of former adventurers that had been on a quest to kill her that are now her mindless slaves.

She shares many attributes with Nocticula and the two try to avoid each other when possible. There is an ongoing rivalry between the two. If Babylon hears that Nocticula is having a Midsummer's Eve party with 1,000 guests, then she will try to increase her own party to 1,100 or more.

She will act as a witch priestess, but to what Patron she will not divulge. All witches are welcome in her court.

Babylon in War of the Witch Queens

Babylon is not likely to change what she is doing during the War of the Witch Queens. Indeed she will remark on how neutral she is and will try to avoid the whole thing. In truth, she is trying to figure out who has done the deed and will figure out if she needs to ally with them or betray them. 

The 1979 Campaign

Come on! You know she needs to be in this! She is too groovy not to be.

Babylon in NIGHT SHIFT

As a nearly immortal witch, Babylon will still be active in the worlds of NIGHT SHIFT. Now she would be living in LA, New York, Paris, or some other large metropolitan city.  She will be involved in all sort of illicit dealings but most especially drugs and human trafficking. On the surface, she runs an "Adult Entertainment Empire" called simply enough, Babylon.

RPG Blog Carnival

This is my entry to this month's RPG Blog Carnival hosted by Campaign Mastery.

This month's theme is "Art-spiration." This is my entry for the Al Hartley art of Babylon above.  I am likely to have more since this is such a fun topic.

Been on an Old-School Essentials bender now for a while. It has pretty much taken over as my OSR game of choice. So I was quite pleased when my OSE boxed sets came in the mail this past week.

They are quite great.

Let's take a look at that Old-School Essentials Product Catalogue 2023. Cause I have to admit that hit me right in the nostalgia.

It reminds of the old "Gateway to Adventure" ones we got in the various Basic Sets and it is the size of the old Kenner Star Wars ones.

It is reasonable to ask why did I get this when a.) I have a bunch of OSE material already and b.) It is really the same game I bought 40 years ago?

Well, I am running my War of the Witch Queens game and my oldest is running his own OSE/BX game now in addition to his 5e games.

These will get a lot of use.

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: Back to NaturePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Bored Stiffs

Setting: 1970s California
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Forty page, 54.34 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Nature’s roar reaches out to those who hear it and make a wholesome offer!Plot Hook: Take a escapade and really get back to nature...
Plot Support: Staging advice, three NPCs, twelve handouts, two maps, one (Mythos) monster, and Pearl the pig.Production Values: Fabulously freaky.
Pros# Back to nature as nature reaches out# Entertainingly gonzo layout and art inspired by Gilbert Shelton# Investigator sheets done as comic book small adds# Period NPC portraits (including Pearl the pig)# Could lead into the Dreamlands# Easily pushed back to the sixties# Notes to run it in the Jazz Age or the Purple Decade# Interesting playnotes# Mycophobia/Mycophilia
# Dendrophobia
Cons# Period piece# May need careful timing to run as a convention one-shot# Bigfoot notes including, but no Bigfoot?
Conclusion# Thematically entertaining twist upon the Green Man# Drop out, get off the grid, in this psychedelic trip to the woods one-shot 

I am at a pivot point with my Monstrous Mondays.

I have a bunch of projects I am desperate to get out because I am tired of them languishing on my hard drives and instead need to be on my, and hopefully your, game shelves.

So much so that I am dubbing 2023 "The Year of the Monster." I just have so much I want to do.  I ma hoping to have the first thing in your hands by December 26, 2022, the last Monday of the year. But I really need to get my butt moving on that.

In other news, I have a new place to scream into the void. I set up an account on Mastodon. I don't have much there right at the moment.  Now I have no intention nor no desire to leave Twitter. So you can still find me there.

Ok, let's bring this all together for a post.

One of the coolest things about living in Illinois is the number of mastodon fossils that can be found here. My uncle dug some giant molars from my maternal grandparent's property 60 years ago and we still have them now. I also used to love going to the Illinois State Museum in Springfield to see the Mastodons and other Ice Age fauna on display.  So why not an ode to my new social media account, one of my oldest favorite ice age creatures, and all for the newest iteration of my oldest favorite game.

Mastodon, Undead

For Old-School Essentials

Undead remains of an ancient elephant species. Prized mounts of winter warlocks and sought-after guard animals of frost giants.

AC: 4 [15], HD 12 (45 hp), Att 2 x tusk (2d6) or 1 x trample (4d8), THAC0 10 [+9], MV 120' (60'), SV D8 S9 P10 B10 S12 (8), ML 10, AL Chaos XP 1,900, NA (0) (1d4), TT Tusks

• Charge: In the first round of combat. Requires a clear run of 60 feet. Tusks inflict double damage.
• Trample: 3-in-4 chance of trampling each round. +3 to hit medium (human-sized) or smaller creatures.
• Ivory: Each tusk is worth 2d6 x 100 gp.
• Undead: Makes no noise until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (poisons, gases). Immune to mind-affecting magics (charm, hold, sleep).  Turns as a 7-9 HD monster. 

Mastodons are larger than elephants but smaller than Mammoths.

Lisa Fernandes / November 7, 2022

1984’s This Is Spinal Tap is all about the pining—epic pining, as high and fulsome as the band’s hair and the wailing notes they (try to) hit. Every single member of the band and their entourage is longing after something they want, something they need, but the real world thwarts them with a passionate glee. They’re either too recalcitrant to claim what they need, assuming that if they keep plowing on as they have been, glory will return to them; or, when their heart’s desire finally falls into their lap like a willing groupie, they’re completely unprepared for the responsibility of the task at hand.

Nobody in the band is content with how things are going, except for perhaps bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), whose storyline—which originally contained divorce-based angst—was generally abandoned to the cutting room floor, and Viv Savage (David Kaff), who seems to require nothing more than a good time and a keyboard to be happy. Lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) longs for the respect the band once earned, and if he can’t be seen as a purveyor of popular music, he at least wants to be enrobed in the sort of dignity that most elder statesmen of rock are afforded. His wife on the astral plane, Jeanine Pettibone (June Chadwick), longs to prove that she has the skill and smarts to manage the band and isn’t just an astrologically-obsessed groupie who happened to get lucky with the lead singer. Manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) wants someone, anyone, to respect his authority and listen to what he has to say as chaos unspools around him. And newbie drummer Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell), one in a long line of ill-fated skin-pounders who have lived and died by Spinal Tap’s ethos, just wants to make it through the tour without spontaneously combusting.

At the center of the movie—occasionally apoplectic, mostly filled with a cool and detached sense of calm—stands lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest). His longing is the most ardent of them all: he’s nearly visibly boiling beneath his skin with an obvious and ardent desire for the rest of the world to disappear and leave him alone with David. 

This Is Spinal Tap has undergone multiple queer readings over the years, one of the very first suggested by Roger Ebert himself, who, in his Great Movies review of the film, declares that Nigel “longs for St. Hubbins with big wet spaniel eyes.” The movie’s cast is definitely aware of this interpretation of events. During a live-streamed 2020 reunion to benefit Pennsylvania’s Democratic party, McKean declared that someone once told him that This Is Spinal Tap is “the world’s greatest love story,” a statement McKean seemed to agree with and find flattering.

The film is also a story of watchful envy. It’s hard to ignore the look in Nigel’s eyes as he watches David, who is watching Jeanine, who is watching the stars. When Jeanine shows up in the middle of the tour and David races off to hug her, the camera lingers on Nigel’s downtrodden face as they hold each other. Later in the film, when Nigel enters the room with his Japanese tour trump card, the frame takes in Jeanine’s fury and disappointment. The tables turn in Nigel’s favor, firmly and utterly. The triangle cannot remain neatly balanced: Jeanine may have David’s body, but Nigel has captured his heart.

David’s physical affection for Nigel shows up in various moments in the film—most notably in the way he jollies Nigel into the room so he can hear a local radio station playing their early hit “Cups and Cakes.” There’s more proof in the pudding of the deleted scenes. Nigel teases David about “Nino Bidungo,” a sailor David had an affair with when the two shared an apartment; the two of them play “All the Way Home,” a skiffle-esque tune and their first composition, as a way to apologize to each other for the vicious fight they’ve just had. With David’s fingers dancing along the fretboard and Nigel plucking away at the strings, there’s a sense of harmony and affection, and the look on David’s face says it all. 

Jeanine’s story would be a pitiable one were she not her own worst enemy, so hungry for power that she forces Ian out of his managerial role so that she can run things. It’s possible that she’s looking for control here because she never sees David and—in excised scenes from the film—he is not faithful to her while he’s on the road. If she runs his career and holds his purse strings, then he’ll have to respect her and she’ll be able to keep an eye on him. And in the meantime she can get onstage and bang a tambourine for a few minutes—after all, Linda Eastman got started the same way. But in Jeanine’s case the situation is actually sort of tragic, and just as emotionally provoking as David and Nigel’s unspoken love. The trouble with Jeanine’s attempt at climbing the band’s social ladder is, naturally, that she’s even worse than Ian is at booking the band into suitable venues. Working via astrology and David’s star charts, shoving him out front and letting him indulge his worst tendencies, her machinations are ultimately so clumsy that they result in Spinal Tap playing an amusement park where they’re billed second to a puppet show. What Jeanine longs for—David’s respect—she will never get. She’s left on the sidelines with nothing to be proud of, her influence on the band completely wiped away, longing for somebody to give her attention. But David’s attention remains fixed on Nigel’s face—perhaps forever.

In the very center of this push-pull triangle stands Ian, who just wants the band to get through the tour intact without any further disasters blowing the entire enterprise apart. Once upon a time, one assumes, he sat in some towering office complex, managing the careers of hard-rocking bands that were successful if not famous: a B-grade Led Zeppelin, an off-market Journey. Whatever led him to the door of this down-at-heel rock band, Ian is determined to at least gain some respect from these kids. But the band could care less about respecting him, and he takes his frustration out on inanimate objects. It’s not that the members of Spinal Tap set out to embarrass their fearless managerial forces; it’s that inept staff members, out of pocket creative decisions, and poorly operating stage props embarrass him, staining and straining the tour. 

All of this tension is paid off by an orgasmic on-stage reunion and triumphant Japanese tour, which Jeanine can only watch from the sidelines as Ian smugly keeps an eye on her, tapping his cricket bat against his palm. The film chronicles a long, muddy battle for the band’s soul, and Nigel undeniably wins. Yet it’s not a sexist victory; while rock ‘n’ roll and brotherhood win the day, none of this is due to Ian developing a sudden ability to direct the band successfully. While Jeanine might be a bad manager and a worse girlfriend, the film’s other female characters—Bobbi Fleckman (Fran Drescher) and Polly Deutsch (Anjelica Huston)—are shown to be smart about their individual talents and the music business at large: they exist to point up the fact that Ian’s managerial skills are fairly terrible. What they want is for Ian to act like a sensible person. 

Spinal Tap goes through a long conga line of humiliations before receiving its Japanese rebirth. While most of the movie’s characters get exactly what they need out of the long, strange trip they take to overseas stardom, some are left with their noses pressed against the plate glass window. But as the Rolling Stones famously sang: “You can’t always get what you want/But if you try sometime you’ll find/You get what you need.”

Lisa Fernandes has been writing since she could talk. Her bylines include Newsweek; Women Write About Comics; Smart Bitches, Trashy Books; and All About Romance.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: The Flooding of Black TarnPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jonas Morian

Setting: Jazz Age SwedenProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-three page, 3.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Change must come, even if not all want it.Plot Hook: The secrets of the past stand in the way of modernisation.
Plot Support: Staging advice, ten NPCs, seven pre-generated Investigators, one handout, and one (Mythos) monsters.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Gold medalist for the 2022 national Swedish Call of Cthulhu scenario competition# Eerie Sweden-set investigation# Backwoods folkloric horror# Engaging portrayal of period Sweden# Good NPC portraits# Easy to adapt to other time periods# Gerontophobia# Hippophobia
Cons# Pre-generated Investigators need mechanical development# Map would have been useful

Conclusion# Gold medal winner in the 2022 national Swedish Call of Cthulhu scenario competition sees the modernity of the Investigators clash with the past in backwoods folkloric horror# Eerie, under-played one-shot drawn from Swedish history and Norse folklore.

The year is 10,181. The Imperium has stood for 10,000 years under the rule of House Corrino, currently headed by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Balanced against him are the Landsraad, the alliance of Houses Great and Minor, whose feudal seats are granted by the Imperial house, and a combination of the Spacing Guild and CHOAM. CHOAM—or Combine Honnette Ober Advancer Mercantiles—controls all trade and contracts across the Imperium, including that of Spice. The spice melange is harvested on only one world—the desert planet of Arrakis—and bestows longevity, enhanced awareness, and prescience. Although highly addictive, it has one other property. It enables the mutated Guild Navigators to safely navigate interstellar space and thus the Spacing Guild to maintain its monopoly on all space travel between systems, for the Imperium bans the construction of thinking machines and has done so for millennia, ever since the Butlerian Jihad. Yet beneath this façade of stability, the Houses Great and Minor jockey and feud for power, such as the centuries old rivalry between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, the Great Convention preventing such feuds from breaking out into open warfare, but allowing economic wars and wars of assassins. Emperor Shaddam IV sits over it all, ready to unleash his dreaded Imperial Sardaukar, shock troops raised and trained in the harshest of environments, should the conventions be broken, a House gain too much power, or too strong a voice in the Landsraad. Four Great Schools provide services to the Emperor and all of the Houses. The Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit provide wives, counsellors, and concubines; the Order of Mentats, strategists, spymasters, consellors, and advisors capable of computer like calculations; the Suk School incorruptible and unbreakable physicians; and the Swordmasters of Ginaz, commanders, generals, security officers, and bodyguards, trained in the use of swords and other weapons capable of piercing the personal energy shields worn as protection.

This is the setting for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game, published by Modiphius Entertainment and based on both the recent film and the fictional universe and novels originally created by Frank Herbert. Using the publisher’s house rules of the 2d20 System, it enables players to take the reins of a House in the Landsraad, and as its heirs and advisors, direct it fortunes in the quietly turbulent politics of the Imperium. Perhaps they will negotiate new contracts, gain the right to harvest spice from Arrakis, form an alliance with another house, or feud with a rival house. All of these are possible in a rules system which allows the players to play at two levels—‘Architect’ when they will direct the fortunes of their house and ‘Agent’, the personal level of the Player Character. Of course, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is not the first roleplaying game to be set within Frank Herbert’s creation, Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium having been designed by Last Unicorn Games and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000, but it does have the advantage of already being better supported. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune provided a campaign starter that offered a different beginning than might be expected in the setting, and it should be noted that by being set over a century before the start of the first novel, Dune, there is a greater flexibility in what is possible in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium begins with an introduction to the setting of the Known Universe that takes up a quarter of the book. Its primary focus is on the situation in the year 10,181, but also explains how that came about using the history and background drawn from the expanded series of novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Potentially, this history offers scope to play in different time periods, although that is not the focus of core rulebook, and in addition, the history does not push beyond the year 10,181 and the events portrayed in either Dune or its film adaptations. As well as a timeline, the background covers the major factions and balance of powers, the schools, and more. There is a degree of repetition here as the book looks at each in more depth, but this a very solid overview which will be appreciated by fans of both the novels and the films, as well as helping to cement the setting for anyone coming to Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game after watching just the films.

Playing and running Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Gamereally begins with the creation of a House, the noble family with feudal holdings around which much of the roleplaying game’s play will be directed. The choice of Nascent House, House Minor, House Major, or Great House will determine much of the framework. It will determine how many Domains, areas of interest the House will have, how many enemies, and mechanically, how much Threat (used to create problems and difficulties for the House and the Player Characters) the Game Master will have at the start of each session Apart from the enemies, who can be created on the given table, all of this is down to player choice.

House Hauteville is a renowned for its skilled military and its tacticians based on the world of Menerth III. It is also known for its diary products made on the vast upland pastures it owns, and had to protect in the past, hence its development of its military prowess. This includes its former vassal, House Indermauer, whose founders originally trained with House Hauteville, and has continued offer rival services to this day.

House Hauteville
House Minor
Primary Domain: Military
Secondary Domain: Farming
Banner: A red cow on a green background
House Trait: Stalwart (Military)
Enemy: House Indermauer (Rival)

When it comes to Player Character creation, a player decides the role that his character will take in the house. This can include the heirs, councillors and advisors, swordmasters, warmasters, and more. A player will have a main character and possibly supporting characters too. A Player Character in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is defined by Skills, Focuses, Drives, Traits, Complications, and Assets. The five Skills are Battle, Communicate, Discipline, Move, and Understand, whilst the five Drives are Duty, Faith, Justice, Power, and Truth—both of which are rated between four and eight. Focuses represent skill specialisations, such as Deductive Reasoning for Understand or Dirty Fighting for Battle. Traits can be Talents, which make a test possible or make it harder or easier depending upon its nature. So the Bene Gesserit Talent of Hyperawareness grants a Bene Gesserit Sister the ability to ask two questions rather than one when spending Momentum to Obtain Information, whereas the Bold Talent can be selected by anyone and when used with the Battle skill, the player can additional twenty-sided dice by generating Threat for the Game Master to use, the player can reroll one of the dice in the pool. Assets include equipment, contacts, and so on, for example, a personal shield or someone in a criminal gang on Arrakis.

Although character creation can be done in play, and that process is fully detailed too, the standard process involves selecting an Archetype, which sets the base skills, assigns four focuses to the skills, three Talents, assigns the values and statements to his character’s Drives, chooses three assets which the Player Character will always have access to, and then finally, a Trait, Ambition, and any personal details. Faction templates are also available if a player wants his character to be a Bene Gesserit Sister, Fremen, Mentat, Spacing Guild Agent, or a Suk Doctor, but these are optional and a player is free to pick and choose as he likes.

The sample character is a Mentat, sponsored by the Spacing Guild to work with House Hauteville in ensuring that the house’s goods and services find markets.

Name: Benedikt Winter
Faction Template: Spacing Guild Agent
Archetype: Analyst
Ambition: To ensure the economic prosperity of my house

Skills
Battle 4 Communicate 5 (Bartering) Discipline 8 (Composure) Move 4 Understand 7 (Attention to Detail, CHOAM Bureaucracy)

Drives
Duty 8 (I serve at the pleasure the House) Faith 4 Justice 5 Power 6 (Power must be used wisely and cleverly) Truth 7 (You will know me by my deeds)

Traits: Analyst, Guild Agent
Talents: Calculated Prediction, Guildsman, Intense Study
Assets: Sapho Juice, Ixian Dampner

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium employs the 2d20 System first used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and since developed into the publisher’s house system. To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of a Skill and a Drive. Each roll under this total counts as a Success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two Successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Skill also count as two Successes.

In the main, because a typical difficulty will only be a Target Number of one, players will find themselves rolling excess Successes which becomes Momentum. This is a resource shared between all of the players which can be spent to create an Opportunity and so add more dice to a roll—typically needed because more than two successes are required to succeed, to create an advantage in a situation or remove a complication, create a problem for the opposition, and to obtain information. It is a finite ever-decreasing resource, so the players need to roll well and keep generating it, especially if they want to save for the big scene or climatic battle in an adventure.

Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat—equal to the number of players if their characters’ House is a Minor one, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Game Master can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

Combat uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on. This includes creating a Trait or an Asset, or taking advantage of one in the situation, either of which can then be brought into the combat, and keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does. It takes in various forms, scaling up from duelling and skirmishes to espionage and warfare, taking in intrigue along the way. These are supported by descriptions of the various assets which the Player Characters can bring into any one of these conflict types. Where Dune – Adventures in the Imperium differs from other 2d20 System roleplaying games is the lack of Challenge dice, and instead of inflicting damage directly via the loss of Hit Points, combatants are trying to defeat each through the removal of Assets and attempting to create—cumulatively—Successes equal to or greater than the Quality of the task or the opponent. Minor NPCs or situations are easily overcome, but difficult situations and major NPCs will be more challenging to defeat and will require extended tests.

In addition, a Player Character has access to Determination, typically a point at the start of an adventure. Determination is used in conjunction with a Player Character’s Drives and their associated statements, and when spent, a point of Determination can be used to set a die automatically to one, to reroll dice, create a new trait, or take an extra action. However, if the action is at odds with the statement attached to a Drive, then the Game Master can force the Player Character to comply or challenge the Drive and its statement. Compliance means that the Player Character suffers a Complication, unable to overcome the Drive, but Challenge means the Player Character can act freely, but leads to the loss and use of the statement, at least temporarily. It can be recovered, but with some difficulty. Either way, the Player Character gains a point of Determination.

What Determination highlights here is the degree of nuance in the combination of Skills and Drives for each Player Character, a Skill often being used over and over again, but the how and the way being determined by the Drive. A Player Character will have a greater chance of success if his highest Skill is combined with his highest Drive, representing the best that the character can do and for what he believes to be the best of reasons. However, even shifting away to another Drive, because it is more appropriate, for example, Duty versus Faith, may well mean that the Player Character is still as skilled, but not as personally motivated.

Overall, the iteration of the 2d20 System in the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium lies at the simpler and easier end of its implementation. It is not as simple as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars: Adventures on the Dying World of Barsoom, but is roughly on a par with Star Trek Adventures.

For the Game Master, there is advice on setting up and running a game, the type of campaigns possible, managing the types of conflict in the game, as well as on running a gaming with safety and comfort in mind. It pays particular attention to bringing key aspects of Dune as a setting—faith, prophecy, prescience, and hyper-perception, all versus the freedom they can be often seen to impinge. It is solid advice throughout, and there is further support of stats for the major figures in Dune—Duke Leto Atreides, Lady Jessica, Paul Atreides, and more. They take in the Atreides household, plus notables of House Harkonnen and House Corrino, amongst the Fremen on Arrakis. Alongside the notables, there are sample NPCs and Houses that the Game Master can more easily be brought into her campaign, and advice on creating them too. Many of the NPCs come with story hooks too. Rounding out Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is the adventure, ‘Harvester of Dune’, in which the Player Characters are assigned to check on their House’s fiefdom on Arrakis. What they discover is trouble, deceit, and betrayal. It is a solid enough affair, and could be easily become the starting point for a campaign.

Physically, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is cleanly and tidily laid out. The book is well written and easy to read. The artwork throughout is excellent as well.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game is very much pitched at the fans of Herbert’s novels, but provides enough background and explanations that the more casual player, intrigued after the seeing the more recent film, could better understand the setting to play in it. And this is all done whilst focusing on one period within Dune’s millennia long future history and avoiding the more immediate future history of Frank Herbert’s novels. From there, it builds the means to create campaigns played at dual scales—the personal and the epic, and involve intrigue, espionage, warfare, and more, whether that is down some dirty alley or at a grand ball, at a reception for an Imperial envoy or across the sweeping deserts of Arrakis. Overall, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game takes an incredibly rich and detailed setting and makes it impressively accessible and playable.

“All right my Orcy Borgy boys and girls, dis great trash rocket, da Derelict, just smashed in a new ship. We gonna break it and smack it open, and hack the snot of any hoomies and gobbos and pointy ears, and make it good like any Orc home, like our dear old Derelict. Da goods have rumbled and yelled today and they say no DOOM today, but DOOM tomorrow. And we wantz that DOOM! We when have DOOM, we crash the Derelict into Heaven and scream every dead-hard big-toothed bastard in a glorious tide of violence. And when dat happens, ya wanna be at the front to be the first to kick Heaven right proper in its bollox. So ya gonna fight and yell and steal and kill to be at the front, but no DOOM today, but DOOM tomorrow!”

This is the set-up for ORC BORG, a fanzine-style roleplaying game of brutal action and violence, published by Rowan, Rook & Decard, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is modelled upon Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing, the result being a doom-laden, death metal driven, dark fantasy roleplaying game set in a grim-dark world of despair. ORC BORG also shares with Mörk Borg its same neon and yellow colour palette, but not its despair. Instead, ORC BORG is a more action-orientated roleplaying game, even a more optimistic one, though still not a positive one. Rather, its optimism is driven by Orcish anger and energy—every Orc absolutely positive that DOOM is going to happen and until it does, and afterwards too, hand out plenty of punches, headbutts, and stabbings! This includes the dread Orcborgs, machine-Orc, Orc-machines turned into even brutaler killin’ machines with scrap and junk, and even the Big Robots, clankin’, smoking’, metal-screechin’ machines of war piloted Orcs who wire themselves in.

An Orc in ORC BORG has four abilities—Presence, Strength, Agility, and Toughness. For a standard Orc, a player rolls four six-sided dice and discards the lowest result, the total used to determine the ability values, which range from -3 to +3. (If a player is rolling up an actual Orc Borg or Big Robot, the two Classes in ORC BORG, only three six-sided dice are rolled.) Then the player rolls for his Orc’s Origins, Physical Features, plus gear that includes Stuff, Armour, and Weapons. This can include powers such as Technowizard Runes or Prayers, the latter to the Orc Gods. For example, the ‘Metronomicon’ Technorune summons a monorail car to the Orc’s location, whilst the ‘Rip and Tear’ Prayer allows an Orc to ignore armour in attacks. Technowizardry comes installed on single-function computers, data slugs, or ancient punch cards, whilst prayers are inscribed on steel plates, printed on clothing, or tattooed on flesh. This can be determined randomly, or chosen at the cost of some armour and weapon selection. If an Orc does not have either, he can easily beat up an Orc who already has, or simply steal them from his corpse! In comparison, the standard Orc is more straightforward than the Orc Borg or the Big Robot.

Bumhug Gorzharz
Presence +0
Strength +3
Agility +2
Toughness +1
Hit Points: 9

Tek: 10

Origins: Hunted by wild humans in Spacer territories until he was strong enough to defend himself.
Physical Feature: Huge Fuckin’ Teeth
Stuff: Yelling Helm, Alien Dogbeast, 25 m reinforced extension cable
Armour: Junk and Scrap (-d2 damage taken)
Weapon: Club (d4)
Technowizardy: Rite of the Blue Key

Mechanically, ORC BORG is simple. When he wants his Orc to act, his player rolls a twenty-sided die, adds the appropriate ability, and succeeds if the result is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Rating, which range from ten for Simple Enough to eighteen for Barely Possible. Technowizardy and Prayers have a limited number of uses per day—determined randomly, and can go wrong if the test is a failure. Combat is more complex, allowing natural criticals and fumbles, as well as Dodgin’, morale, and more. An Orc reduced to zero Hit Points is not dead—this occurs at -6 Hit Points—but ‘Mangled’. This in general, has a negative effect upon the Orc, but bionic prosthetics can be purchased to offset them. A head Mangle though, can result in a quirk, like mistrusting anything in writing or the Orc alone becoming the voice of DOOM!

For the Game Master, there is a map of the Derelict, marked with all of the ships that have crashed into it over the years. There are stats too for Angels of the Dark Gods as well as threats such a Spacers (Hoomies) and Rival Orcs, and it is fairly easy to create more threats. One set of tables determines whether or not the Derelict is one step closer to DOOM that day and what that day’s prophecies might be, whilst another suggests ways of mapping the Derelict to create easy adventures and jobs for the Orcs to carry out. They are all quick and dirty, and will run out fairly quickly if ORC BORG is overplayed. That said, it should not be too difficult to create more.

Physically, ORC BORG is a neon assault on the senses and scrappy stab in the eyes. It is big, it is bold, and it intentionally based together. Thankfully, ORC BORG is simple enough. With this layout and this colour scheme, anything more complex would be a pain in the proverbial and rightly require you to go all Orcy on the publisher.

ORC BORG is a cathartic scream of a roleplaying game. It demands a single session of brutal violence and Hoomie stompin’ and no more, before the Game Master and her players switch back something more involved and more restful. Then come stompin’ back to more yellin’ and stabbin’ action when a break is needed again!

Since 2007, the 2004 Spiel des Jahres award-winning board game Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder, has been supported with new maps, beginning with Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. That new map would be collected in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 2 – India & Switzerland, the second entry in the Map Collection series begun in Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 1 – Team Asia & Legendary Asia. Both of these have proved to be worthy additions to the Ticket to Ride line, whereas Ticket to Ride Map Collection vol. 3: The Heart of Africa and Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 4 – Nederland have proved to add more challenging game play, but at a cost in terms of engaging game play. Further given that they included just the one map in the third and fourth volumes rather than the two in each of the first two, neither felt as if they provided as much value either. Fortunately, Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 5: United Kingdom + Pennsylvania came with two maps and explored elements more commonly found in traditional train games—stocks and shares in railroad companies and the advance of railway technology. This was followed by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6: France + Old West, which provided two maps exploring a common theme—telegraphing each player’s intended placement of their trains, then by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6½: Poland, which focused on borders and connecting them.

The next entry in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy. This introduces another pair of maps, two sets of different mechanics, two different ways to score points, and of course, two gorgeous maps. Both can be distinguished by their long sweeping routes and consequently they are played out on what is a very large board for Ticket to Ride. On the Japan map, the players will take advantage of the bullet train network, which everyone can use once built to connect their routes, whilst also building into, out of, and across subnetworks of routes that represent the city of Tokyo’s subway system and the island of Kyushu. On the Italy map, the players will not only connect cities up and down the peninsula, but also regions, whilst also making use of the new Ferry cards to travel by sea to Sicily and Sardinia, and up and down the coast. Like other entries in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection series, it only requires a set of Train cards, train pieces, and scoring markers from a base Ticket to Ride set to play.
The first of the new maps in Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is Japan. Its board is beautifully illustrated and introduces a new type of route—the ‘Bullet Train’. These represent Japan’s high-speed train network which run the length of the country. They are grey routes, but unlike on other maps for Ticket to Ride, when they are claimed using standard Train cards, they do not use a player’s train pieces. Instead, they use the Bullet Train pieces, of which there are sixteen. When a player builds the ‘Bullet Train’ route, he places a single Bullet Train piece on the route, and once the route is built, not only can that player use the route, but so can everyone else! This introduces an element of forced co-operation into Ticket to Ride, each player knowing that he will have to build ‘Bullet Train’ routes to connect his destinations and complete Destination Tickets at the same time as knowing he will probably share them.
A player is subtly encouraged to build ‘Bullet Train’ routes throughout the game. First, the more ‘Bullet Train’ routes a player builds, the more points he will score at the end of the game as a bonus. Second, he will receive a hefty penalty to his score at the end of the game if he does not build any ‘Bullet Train’ routes at all. Third, each player begins play with only twenty train pieces, which limits the number of coloured, non-‘Bullet Train’ routes he can claim. In effect, the ‘Bullet Train’ routes create a core network of routes that run the length of Japan, off of which the players will build.
The other feature of the Japan map is a pair of zoomed in submaps, one for Kyushu Island and one for Tokyo subway. These have Destination Tickets for destinations within their submaps, but there are also Destination Tickets which connect a destination on the submaps to a destination elsewhere in Japan. To complete one of these Destination Tickets, a player will have to build or use the various routes and ‘Bullet Train’ routes from the destination in Japan to the city of Tokyo or Kyushu Island on the main map and then into the submap itself.
The network of routes on the Japan map feels highly organised and ordered, and that is reflected in another, not so obvious feature, of this expansion. This is extra Destination Ticket-drawing, the aim being to draw Destination Tickets that a player has already completed as part of play, or nearly completed, as part of play. The shared network feature of the ‘Bullet Train’ routes encourages this, but the result is fairly underplayed in comparison to the Switzerland map of Ticket to Ride: Switzerland.
The Japan map for Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is engaging and fun. The Bullet Trains are a great feature that both encourage a different play style and enforce the Japanese feel of the map as well as pushing the players to work together—just a little bit.  
The Italy map takes in all of the Italian peninsula, as well as the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. It also connects to the neighbouring countries of Monaco, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. The various cities across Italy are divided up amongst its various regions and a player will score more points for connecting more regions. The busy feel of the Italian north with this its many, compact two-train routes gives way to long sweeping routes that lead south, which are often paralleled by the long ferry routes which run from the mainland to the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and across the Adriatic to Slovenia and Croatia. Several of these Ferry Routes are as many as seven spaces long, which even given the fact that each player begins with forty-five train pieces, means that a player will quickly be using up his train pieces.
The Ferry Routes on the Italy map do not work like the traditional Ferry Routes of Ticket to Ride. Since Ticket to Ride: Europe, a Ferry Route has required a single Locomotive or wild card as well as the indicated Train cards of the same colour to complete. On the Italy map, Ferry Routes make use of Ferry Cards. Both the Ferry Routes and the Ferry Cards are marked with ‘Wave Symbols’. The Ferry Cards have two Wave Symbols on them and instead of drawing Train Cards as normal or Destination Tickets, a player can instead draw a single Ferry Card, up to a maximum of two. The Ferry Routes have one, two, three, or four Wave Symbols on them. To claim a Ferry Route, a player must play Ferry Cards with same number of Wave Symbols on them combined, plus a number of Train cards of the same colour equal to the other spaces on the route. A Locomotive card can substitute instead of a single Wave Symbol. For example, if the player wants to claim the four-space Ferry Route between Roma and Olbia, he needs to play two cards of one colour and one Ferry Card as this will have the same number of Wave Symbols as marked on the Ferry Route. The maximum number of Ferry Cards a player can have is two. Where taking Train cards of a particular colour can indicate the routes that a player might be wanting to claim, here taking a Ferry Card definitely signals the intent to claim a Ferry Route. 
Although they feature in the Italy map, the Destination Tickets which connect to Italy neighbouring countries do not play as big a role as they do for Ticket to Ride: Switzerland or Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6½: Poland. Where they differ is that some connect from one of Italy’s regions to a country rather than from a city. The regions also figure in the scoring at the end of the game as players score more for connecting more regions together with their train networks.
The Italy map in Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is playable, entertaining, and challenging in its own right, but it is not feel as exciting as the Japan map. It is stately and much closer to the original Ticket to Ride than the Japan map, which has an energy and excitement of building new routes and in the main competing, but also working together just a tiny little bit in the construction of the ‘Bullet Train’ routes.

Physically, Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is as well produced as you would expect for a Ticket to Ride expansion. Everything is high quality and the rules are easy to understand. If there is an issue, it is that the otherwise beautiful maps, are big, and consequently, unwieldy to unfold for play and fold up to put away.

What Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy shows is that you can mix and match the old with the new in Ticket to Ride. The Japan map is modern, sweeping, with a sense of speed and energy, offering a different style of play. The Italy map provides a variation upon the standard game, but still feels very traditional. Together, Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy offers something old and new, and is a solid addition to the Ticket to Ride family.

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2021’, which took place on Saturday, July 26th, 2021, the publisher released two books. One was Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass, a classic Character Funnel, one of the features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—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. The other was an anthology, the DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack, which contains three adventures. One for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, one for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, and one a preview for the forthcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth.
The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack opens with ‘Temple Siege!’. This is designed for five to six First Level Player Characters and draws directly from ‘Appendix N’ by being inspired by the Cossacks stories of Harold Lamb, an influence on Robert E. Howard. The Player Characters will definitely encounter horse nomads—and they prove to be a rough, evil lot, ready to kill the Player Characters and take whatever they have. ‘Temple Siege!’ is a very different scenario. Rather than being an atypical dungeon, it takes place entirely in the confines of a single location. Such a constraint is a challenge to the author. Can he create an interesting location and an interesting plot built around the one place? Often, these are ‘locked room’ style adventures, but ‘Temple Siege!’ is not quite that. Rather, the Player Characters are trapped within the confines of the site, but the door is open and the enemy really wants to get in!
‘Temple Siege!’ takes place on the nomad steppes where the Player Characters have come to plunder an ancient temple, but not long after they enter its confines, they are besieged by a band of nomads. The Player Characters have a limited number of actions they can take between wave upon wave of nomad incursions inside the temple, but they also have a lot to examine in the temple. There are puzzles to be solved and traps to be discovered, some of which will lead to means and ways that the Player Characters can use to their advantage. To that end, the Judge is provided with a wealth of detail which she will need to understand and be able to impart to her players as their characters, as well as handle the three different waves of vile nomads, each of which is slightly different. The progress of the Player Characters will be greatly hampered if they do not have a Thief amongst their number. ‘Temple Siege!’ is a scenario which will keep a Thief really busy just as it will keep a Fighter—and other Classes—busy facing off against the nomads outside. ‘Temple Siege!’ might be slightly too long a scenario to run in a single session and its isolated, nomad steppe location make it a little too difficult to add to a campaign, although the prominent role of the Thief Class in the scenario means that it could work with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Overall though, this is a detailed and fun scenario which combines traps, puzzles, and combat in an entertainingly fought situation.
The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack is really notable for its inclusion of the first scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, the adaptation of the world of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is again a scenario for First Level Player Characters, but just three or four. However, it does not require the use of Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth and does not make use of the new Classes from Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, but can instead be run using the standard rules from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. (Doubtless, this will change once Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth is widely available.) The scenario opens with their travelling aboard the Calealen, a vessel pulled by giant sea worms that need careful handling throughout the journey. Due to circumstances beyond their control—and heedless of the Calealen’s somewhat scurvy crew—the Player Characters find themselves cast ashore on a decidedly strange island. One that has been turned upside down! To find out how this came about and perhaps make their escape back to sea, they must descend the upturned mountain and confront a mad hermit! 
‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is intentionally odd and weird, just as you would expect from something set in the world of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. For the Judge, the language itself is ostentatious and takes some getting used to, but the scenario works just as well under the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game as it will under Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth. However, it does not quite feel weird enough, primarily because the players cannot engage with it as Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth characters yet, and only as Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game characters. This is still a decent scenario and will be enjoyable which ever version of Dungeon Crawl Classics is used.
‘The Neverwhen Rock’ is a Character Funnel for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. It can be run on its own, or if the Judge has access, run together with ‘Ruins of Future Past’, the scenario from the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack. As part of their Rite of Passage, the Player Characters are instructed by the tribal shaman to examine a strange boulder not too far away and explore the cave inside of it, the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Although their characters will have no idea as to what is going on, the players will quickly realise that this is a time travel adventure. It is a very basic one though, with an obvious nod to Doctor Who, and the Player Characters never get the chance to explore the strange boulder, merely get thrust out of it in different locations. It definitely feels like it should be more and like some of the great ideas presented in other titles from Goodman Games, it leaves the Judge left wondering what to do next if she wants to do more with that idea.
Physically, DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack is decently done. The artwork is fun and the maps clear. The maps for both ‘Temple Siege!’ and ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ are both well done. All three scenarios are well written and easy to read.
The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack contains three scenarios which vary in their utility and their capacity to entertain. ‘Temple Siege!’ is the standout entry, a thrillingly constrained and nicely detailed encounter which will challenge the player and their characters and is suitable for almost any Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game setting. ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is a serviceable introduction to Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, but will really come into its own when the Judge and her players can experience the whole of what the setting has to offer, including characters Classes. In comparison, ‘The Neverwhen Rock’ feels too slight, as if it wants to be something more, but the page count is constraining it. There are more than enough Character Funnels for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic that the Judge not really need look at this unless she has access to ‘Ruins of Future Past’ from the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack.

There are plenty of good guides to the weird and wonderful past of Great Britain. The country is rich in folklore, the occult, magic and mysteries, horrors and hauntings, and much, much more, and so has been subject to numerous books and guides. The Readers Digest Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain and The Lore of The Land, backed up with Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, will give anyone with an interest in the myths and legends of the United Kingdom a good grounding in the subject, but both are hefty books. So they are not easily carried on the go, and in the case of both The Readers Digest Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain, several decades old. The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain does a similar job and covers much of the same material, but differs in two important ways. First, it is a more recent treatment of the subject and second, it is smaller and thus infinitely portable. In fact, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is actually designed to be portable for it actually includes the post codes for each of the numerous locations and sites described in its pages—though it is unlikely that all of these sites actually receive anything via Royal Mail (other delivery services may deliver). What this means is that the sites of the various standing stones, ghost sightings, occult personages, and more, are all easy to find. The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain may not be pocket-sized, but digest-sized, it is easy to carry around.

The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is published by Hellebore, which collates various essays and pieces devoted to British folk horror—including folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches, and the occult—into a series of fanzines. It covers the United Kingdom, region by region and country by country, so Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, as well as England—with London as a separate location. It starts in the southwest in Cornwall, and moves steadily east and north. The maps are marked with clear icons, including ‘Witches and Cunning Folk’, ‘The Old Gods’, ‘Magic, Rituals, and the Occult’, ‘Ancient Megaliths’, ‘Ports to the Otherworld’, and more. So in Dorset, Bradbury Rings and Cerne Abbas are the site of ‘The Old Gods’; Avebury and Stonehenge sites of ‘Ancient Megaliths’ in Wiltshire; ‘Witches and Cunning Folk’ of Pendle in Lancashire; and the ‘Curses and Portents’ of Cleopatra’s Needle and the ‘Magic, Rituals, and the Occult’ at both the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert, all in London. This barely touches upon the hundreds and hundreds of entries in The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain.

The various regions across The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain are colour coded, each region’s entries combining a mixture of short descriptions with slightly longer pieces. For example, Worcestershire has short entries on the Fleece Inn with its three white circles inn front of its fireplace to prevent the entry of witches via the chimney and Penda’s Fen, the children’s television series from the seventies, but longer entries on Bredon Hill and Wychbury Hill, the latter the site of an iron age hillfort, several follies, and the mystery of Bella in the Wych Elm. London is an exception to this with numerous entries under several different banners, such as Bloomsbury with the British Museum, Freemason’s Hall, and amusingly, both Treadwell’s Bookshop and The Atlantic Bookshop, and Hawksmoor’s London and Doctor John Dee’s London (Dee will also have entries for Manchester and Oxford).

Where The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain differs from other books of legend and folklore is its inclusion of sites particular to film, television, and literature. As with the other categories used in the book, these are clearly marked on the maps. For example, Aldeburgh in Suffolk is listed under ‘Film and Television Locations’ for the Martello Tower there, as it was the basis for M.R. James’ ‘A Warning to the Curious’, whilst several locations across southwest Scotland are listed as locations for the classic British folkloric horror film, The Wicker Man. There are not too many of the film, television, and literature locations throughout the volume, but in the case of the film and television entries, they add visual cues in particular for the imagination.

Physically, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is cleanly, if tightly laid out, primarily in black and white with the occasional use of spot colour. If there is an issue with the book it is that the liberal illustrations are not as crisply produced as they could be. The book does include an index and a list of references as well.

For roleplaying purposes, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is a useful book to have to hand. It is a veritable fount of ideas and hooks that the Game Master could turn into roleplaying encounters, scenarios, or mysteries for her gaming group. No more than that though, for the entries are thumbnail-sized and should be considered to be pointers or starters for the Game Master who will then need to conduct a little more research to flesh out the scenario or mystery. Nevertheless, much of the content would work in a wide range of horror roleplaying games, including They came from Beyond the Grave! from Onyx Path Publishing or Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition from Chaosium, Inc., as well as specifically United Kingdom-based roleplaying games, like Liminal from Wordplay Games, The Dee Sanction: Adventures in Covert Enochian Intelligence from Just Crunch Games, Vaesen – Mythic Britain & Ireland for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying from Free League Publishing, or Fearful Symmetries for Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press.

The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is an indispensable travel guide to the legends and folklore of Britain. It is not so much a definite reference guide, but more a reference starter, a point from where the reader (or gamer) can have her interest piqued and from there conduct her own further reading and investigations. Compact, but full of interesting content, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is an excellent little tome to take off the shelf and flip through or even have handy in the bag when you want to find something really interesting to visit nearby.